blog (v)

as many folk out there already know, 65daysofstatic are on their way to releasing their 4th studio album, we were exploding anyway. what they don’t know however is how incredibly exciting it is to have designed the artwork for the first single. released exclusively in japan on march 10th, the new cut is titled weak4 and is accompanied by a japan-only exclusive track, pacify.

you can purchase the release through their japanese label, here.

on march 16th the man in the ski mask otherwise known as makeup and vanity set (MAVS) will be releasing his new, self-titled album. a few months back he allowed us the great honour of designing the sleeve for the record, and you can see the fruit of our labours above. MAVS is often more widely known as the touring DJ for the protomen and was responsible for their uncanny 8bit remix album, makeup and vanity set presents… the protomen.

the new album will be available on CD and mp3 at the time of release along with a supporting range of awesome t-shirts. in the meantime you can listen to some of the music from the new LP here:

myspace.com/matthewpustimakesmusic

if you’re getting really impatient, you can also download a copy of MAVS’s excellent experimental music side-project DAAS, here:

daas.bandcamp.com

we’ve been featured on the digieffects website as part of a ‘user profile’ series they’re doing. we’ve been included because of our use of their awesome damage plugin in the documentary we made for 65daysofstatic last year. there’s a brief interview and a chance to watch the promo video we made for radio protector again.

we were recently hired on a weekly basis to photograph those attending a club night in new york’s lower east side. the party goes by the name of just the tip and is in a club called happy ending (a disused erotic massage parlour). taking appropriate cues from wong kar wai’s film in the mood for love and the exploitation flicks projected onto the club’s walls each night, we wanted to give the photos a warm, grainy, ambient, cinematic feel. thus we chose to use our new canon 5D mark II, a canon 580 EX flash (purely for it’s laser focussing facility) and a 50mm lens to take flashless RAW photographs and rely on the club’s own light sources to set the scene. we then post-process the shots back here in the studio both in terms of exposure, temperature and imitation chemical cross-processing. the results are pretty far from your last night’s party vibe of club photography and justly so given the more refined and elegant nature of this particular club night.

you can view the complete sets from each night here.

our hi-octane teaser site for NX energy drink just went live. alongside it we were asked to design the above poster for promotional purposes. needless to say, but this is a new aesthetic for us and one we’re having a great time experimenting with. expect more from this fiery little inferno of a project in the near future.

feed the walrus went live today. a bold new gesture in the world new media production companies. the walrus himself and his strange little world were created by us. turn up your speakers, open your mouth, look at your friend in the next cubicle and then roll over one of his flippers … nice one.

director paul biedrzycki’s powerful new political documentary the ballot or the bullet just made the cut for this year’s CMJ music festival. it’s a film detailing the political climate surrounding the creation of the new album by long-standing brooklyn rappers, a-alikes and explains the band’s radical stance on america’s recent government overhaul. the film stars such hip-hop luminaries as chuck d of public enemy and dead prez. included in the film are a series of music videos, one of which we were asked to ‘destroy’ both video + audio for. the end result is what it would be like if you were trying to watch the video using a broken tv and rabbit ear antennae in some forgotten about part of brooklyn.

you can watch the video in quicktime here -

kill a revolutionary

the above, giant, 3′ x 4′ poster was available exclusively at the protomen’s act II release show last weekend in nashville, TN. we created it with the band as a thank you to fans for making the long trek, as they all did, to see the band perform both their albums back to back in thunderous, conceptual glory. version industries representatives, myself included, attended and helped make sure the performance was recorded both in HD video and with digital still photography. below is a taste of the material we gathered -

you can view the rest of the photographs we took here. you can also expect video footage of the show from us in the coming months. in the meantime check out this incredibly flattering review of the new album by nashville resident yewknee. a perfect come down to an incredible weekend with our friends in the south.

here’s our poster for the protomen’s act II release show. with two stages, a choir and an orchestra playing both album’s back to back, it’s safe to say you’re missing out if you ain’t going. see you all there. we’ll probably be the ones workin’ whilst you dudes are playin’, though don’t doubt our desire to meet you all and share a few stories. it’ll be our first time in nashville and we’re determined to make it count.

straight out of the murderland here is our tough little cover for the first single off officer kicks‘ forthcoming album, citywide curfew. give a clip of the song a listen here to complete the picture:

myspace.com/officerkicks

album artwork is very much in the works as we write this. stay tuned.