Afterhours Vol. 9

The 9th installment of this series, time really flies.

It hasn’t been that long isn’t it? After a year long hiatus, this comes as a right on time to usher in the New Year. No excuses at all but it all seemed to fit in very nicely: a 9th volume in 2009. Featured here are various under-appreciated, forgotten, essential, the classic and cutting-edge tracks, spreading across 2 discs. Simmer to Quantec’s deep & warm dub infused-tinted beats or stomp to Audion’s primal scream and groove to DJ Koze's slinky house take on Heiko Voss. Visit forward-thinking dubstep/2-step tune from Joy Orbison to Luisine’s seductive arrangements at the finale. So here you go, a brutally simple no-frills mix. ⌘ QUIT 2009, Hello 2010...

Enjoy.

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Mag+

I still adore my magazines on print and this presentation takes the format to a whole new level. One thought has come to mind, the basic fundamentals of design will always apply and remain relevant.

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The Handburger identity - Couple

Immaculately executed identity for the The Handburger restaurant from Kelvin & Zann over at Couple, Singapore. As described on the rationale: "Produced entirely out of paper, The Handburger's identity forms a visual commentary on the food's transformative process, highlighting the artistry of making a good burger." How befitting.

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UUONN: Edwin Tan

Solid award-winning work from Singapore designer and art director Edwin Tan.

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Teenage Engineering

Adolescent as it may sound, Teenage Engineering in Sweden strives to create products with superior quality, functional design and top-class engineering. Shown above is the Styrofoam Turntable DIY Kit. The basic idea behind this was to design and engineer a low-cost do-it-yourself Turntable kit made out of high density styrofoam. Well thought-out and executed, hopefully this gets picked by an audio manufacturer to be produced.

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Zune & Peter Saville Collab

The new Zune 80 GB Video + MP3 Player, Joy Division Limited Edition (Black).
Mr. Steve Jobs & Jonathan Ive, you should have released this while you had the chance...

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UNDERSCORE N°1: THE ___ ISSUE

Conceptualized by Hjgher, Underscore is an independent magazine with a thematic content attuned to a simple rhythm: quality of life. The empty theme of the first issue is represented by the following values: Honesty. Integrity. Quality. Authenticity.

Join the Facebook group here.

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PLAY Interview: John Warwicker

Interview with John Warwicker of Tomato.

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Google Chrome

I'm using it, are you? More details over at the Google Chrome Channel.

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Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM

Her new album, co-produced by Beck. A shift in style & sound but nevertheless she still holds her ground really well in terms of this album production. Keith Schofield directs this music promo for "Heaven Can Wait". It's contradicting, bizarre and yet comforting at the same time.

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Dieter Rams at the Design Museum

Yes, another follow-up post to Dieter Rams, this time at the Design Museum. Here's a gallery feature over at Wallpaper*. Art directed and designed by Shoreditch, London-based Bibliothèque. I reckon Singapore is not on the list of this roving exhibit? DesignSingapore should really consider bringing this in.

(An update: Creative Review just posted an article on this with Bibliothèque. Read it here.)

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Wallpaper* 2010 Design Awards

Hot off the press is the HTC Readers' Choice Award from Wallpaper*. One of my fav (shown above) piece is Up Street furniture by Ewo and Norway Says. The judges from the various multi-disciplinary fields this year are fashion designer John Galliano, interior designer Kelly Wearstler, media executive James Murdoch, Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar and many more.

Gallery slideshow for the nominees.

(Thanks Kay@Wallpaper*)

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TimeTuner

TimeTuner is the sharp and savvy alarm clock radio iPhone app by Ammunition Group and DreamSurface. Wake up to classy alarm tones, iPod tracks, or one of 14,000 international streaming radio stations; all within an elegant Dieter Ramsesque interface. Brilliant!

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Dieter Rams in conversation with Deyan Sudjic

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Serge Gainbourg

Definitely a must-see, and one of the best crooners of all time.

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US Esquire ‘Augmented Reality’ Issue

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Fabric Club 10th Anniversary Tees

Fabric has decided to bend the rules for the first time. After all, you only turn 10 once. This month, in true birthday spirit, they will be unleashing a special batch of limited edition t-shirts. Showcasing the vibrant club/label artwork of their designers Village Green, and a few throwbacks of the aforementioned bar-staff gear, the tees will be a retrospective of the last decade.

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Love for all or breakup?

Bjorn Borg strongly suggests you evaluate that relationship of ours if we're not up to it. Simple, clever and very relevant. FWA Certified.

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Image of the Day, Month, Year whatever...

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PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage

Is this too good to be true, which truly means putting designers / photographers out of their respective jobs? We shall see how this application squares off with Adobe PhotoShop. More details here of the original source.

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Hexstatic

2 brilliant videos from the Ninja Tune stable, Hexstatic.

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Embrace

Designed by John Green, Embrace is an award winning piece of furniture, designed to store modern media such as DVD's, CD’s and Magazines. This smart piece of furniture naturally forms two low modern tables that are then 'embraced' together in order to form a storage unit / magazine rack / occasional table.

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D&AD Annual 2009

The new D&AD Annual with the members' edition, art directed by Peter Saville and designed by recent graduate Luke Sanders. More details via CR.

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Hooked Clothings

Alex's label has a batch of new arrivals dropping this week. Support local.

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Nice one Kanye

He's hacked into this blog. By the way, shut that fucking mouth of yours.

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Cheap Monday Suits

At this price, how can you resist? For around US$300, you can pick up a ready to go suit from Cheap Monday.

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Unknown Pleasures

"I first set my eyes on it one Saturday morning in Rough Trade in late June 1979. The record had just come into the shop… I bought it immediately.” - Jon Wozencroft. This is 100 consecutive pulses from the pulsar CP 1919.

Now look at it go.

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Posture Foundation

Retail therapy, this time from revered sneaker label Posture Foundation and they have finally arrived at our shores over at KIN. And please no, these are NOT Converse 'Chuck Taylor' replicas.

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Daft Punk in DJ Hero

Now this I wanna play. Daft Punk will be making an appearance in the upcoming scratch-happy video game DJ Hero.

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PornoGraphics

The best part of this vid is when they bastardise Paramount & Warner Bros Pictures.

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CDJ

If only this piece of hardware was as nifty as the CDJ.

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Crowbar Awards 2009 Results

A follow-up to the previous post, the results are out and congrats to all the winners. Also a big thank to you to all the judges whom they spent their valuable time & insights with me. See you next year.

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UNIT MusicBooth Vol.10

A new late-night selection, unmixed:

01. Najaf Library Card - Porn Sword Tobacco
02. Chicken-Bone Circuit - RJD2
03. Take You Higher - Zoot Woman
04. The Inner Jukebox - DJ T
05. Tokyo Disko (Part Two) - Reverso 68
06. Cosmoport - SCSI-9
07. Call of the Dub - Silicone Soul
08. Hateful - GusGus
09. The Shore (Paul Woolford's Bridge End Dub) - Morgan Geist
10. Total 9 - Thomas&Mayer
11. No Turning Back (Wighnomy's Likkalize Love Rekksmi) - Gui Boratto
12. Twenty Nine (Broom's 09 Mix) - Mark Broom
13. Breakfast At Nina's (Onur Ozer Remix) - Loco Dice
14. Paper Moon - 51 Days
15. Fortune - Little Dragon

Launch to listen to MusicBooth.

(Disable the 'Block Pop-up Window' function on your browser)

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Scribe Mundo De Papel

Never underestimate the power of paper.

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Museum Neu

Museum Neu, Japan has an eclectic selection of music-related fashion products ranging from t-shirts, bags to kidswear featuring the artwork of Peter Saville (for New Order) to Tomato (for Underworld). A few interesting articles in there with one piece on the Manchester (Madchester) music scene, the downside that it's in Japanese. Anyway, get ready to part your hard-earned cash, I just did.

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Sprint

Keep forgetting to post this up. Yes, it's the NOW network.

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Italian Spiderman

Ha! Italian Spiderman is a film parody of Italian action–adventure films of the 60s and 70s currently being developed by Alrugo Entertainment, an Australian film-making collective formed by Dario Russo, Tait Wilson, David Ashby, Will Spartalis and Boris Repasky. The film is a reference to foreign movies that misappropriate popular American superheroes. As of 23 July 2008, ten mini-episodes of Italian Spiderman have been released.

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World AIDS Day

I'm not sure about the execution of this public service campaign, but honestly I love the model more than anything else. Most importantly, Durex does a much better job in promoting safe sex.

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Say No to Dirt

Brilliant concept using a certain substance as an analogy, hopefully this is not a scam ad.

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3 Frames

I love every single frame, all of them.

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Dieter Rams on Facebook

Following up on my previous post, Dieter Rams is possibly the greatest designer (in my opinion) on this earth. Join him on Facebook to find out more about him.

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Common Projects - Autumn Winter collection

Common Projects have become a staple item in the wardrobes of minimalistic trainer lovers worldwide. Seasons after season, their quiet and minimal sneakers have conquered the high-fashion world. With their high quality of materials and handmade techniques, Common Projects have released their Autumn Winter collection, including a very personal take on the dress shoe. Following their success in the sneaker’s world, Peter and Flavio are now spreading their wings into dress shoes, boots and accessories.

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Void Watches

VOID Watches is a new, independent boutique watch brand launched in 2008 as the single vision of Swedish designer David Ericsson. The inverted LCD-display set in its stainless steel frame in combination with the traditional leather strap creates an elegant contrast between old and new, giving a hint of the past and at the same time being very contemporary. This piece adds to my collection.

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Introducing Ris Loh

"I'm majoring in... Diploma of 'hospritarity'.. Of coz I'm a fashionista! My style is my 'personaritry' When i want to stand out, i wear RED, and BOLD and somethingzz BoOMZZ..."

I'm fully aware that this post is irrelevant but somehow I feel 'beloved' Miss Ris Loh has received all the attention she needs.

(An update: She won. Judges, you got to be kidding me.)

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Kompakt

Kompakt is a Cologne-based electronic music record label and vinyl/CD distributor, owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known for their Total compilation series, now in its 10th installment. Notable producers of the label include Superpitcher, Michael Mayer, Justus Köhncke and Jürgen Paape.

"Kompakt’s chief aesthetic objective has always been the perfect marriage of ambient texture and linear 4x4 structure—blending deep, granular sound design with the 4-bar rhythmic intensity and patterning that makes house and techno so club-effective". - Grooves magazine. Kompakt has recently revamped their site, with an extensive catalog to date.

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Megan Fox’s Peer Pressure

Yeah right... Megan Fox has recorded this hilarious uncensored public service announcement to promote her upcoming horror film, no prizes for guessing the movie.

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8-bit Trip

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Small but Tough

Brilliant concept, but as remarked on the post: "Anybody offended by this should only be a terrorist". How true.

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Neill Blomkamp

If you've watched District 9, then this is the man to watch.

'Alive in Joburg' was released in 2005 by Spy Films. The film explores themes of apartheid, and is noted for its visual effects as well as its documentary-style imagery. This film was considered as one of the reasons that Blomkamp was offered the director's job for the upcoming Halo film. However, that film has since been put on hiatus and the feature film 'District 9' expands themes and elements from this short film. Check out the viral blog from the beloved alien.

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Clash Of The Titans

Yup, they're remaking Clash Of The Titans, with Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation) as Perseus alongside Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson. I hope Louis Leterrier doesn't screw this up after what he did to Incredible Hulk.

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Business Guys on Business Trips

I love the irony, the hypocrisy and of course the bastards who conceived this.

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