Ever wonder what your favorite album might look like as a physical object (and no, I’m not talking about moving back to CDs, tapes or vinyl)? The Microsonic Landscapes project from Mexico City has done exactly this by printing the sonic landscape of five artists as 3D plastic artifacts. Gorgeous, no?
I have always loved listening to music while I read. Every once in awhile I find an album that perfectly matches up with a book when I do this, like Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson and El Oso by Soul Coughing (especially “St. Louise is Listening“). And sometimes a novel is designed to be a complement to a record from the very start (much to my delight). Poe’s Haunted and her brother, Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves is the most notable and creepiest of these matches. So I’m always listening with a keen ear for synchronicities between the words I’m reading and the sounds with which I’m filling in the background.
While reading Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, I kept longing for a soundtrack to accompany the weirdly stilted world of Aomame, Tengo, Ushikawa, the Dowager, Fuka-Eri and Tamaru. As it would happen, Purity Ring’s “Fineshrine” popped onto my iTunes and perfectly captured the mood – and exploding ribs – of Murakami’s crazy book. “I bet I could dig up enough ethereal, oddball music to do a soundtrack justice,” I thought – and then quickly forgot. It’s Tumblr that should be credited with making the idea re-emerge and stick, though. The image above made its way into my infinite scroll and reminded me so much of Eriko Fukado that I recalled my playlist plan as I recognized how perfect it would be as artwork.
So here we are, 1Q84‘s musical accompaniment:
Download the entire playlist for your very own listen right now.
This band. Loving this band so much right now.
Is anyone else seeing shades of the Zambian space program in the costuming and locations of this video from Niki & The Dove?
I thought instead of making a music mix, I might instead make a playlist of like videos that all feature what I’ve started calling new tribalism. It’s vaguely post-apocalyptic. Sort of like a Hunger Games dance party. Anyway, these span at least the last four years of things that have caught my eye. Enjoy!
I cannot stop listening to this – whether in my head or otherwise.
You know, I don’t like putting albums in any particular order since each one is listened to at different times for different reasons and can be, depending on the moment, the exact right choice for me then. So instead of my tried and true list of top albums for 2011, I thought I’d make the task more interesting – and less daunting – than the last three years by going with a different approach. You can view videos of my favorite tracks from the 11 albums I enjoyed most in 2011 by using the YouTube playlist above. Or, learn more about each album by clicking its cover art below! (Choices are in for 2012, you see.)
Fashion! Models! The apocalypse?
Featuring a crystal skull. One hopes that it was the vodka-filled kind.