If you like mixtapes and if you get yourself over to ‘Noncollective‘ I’m sure you will find something that will interest. Noncollective is a site that lists a number of mixed up mp3’s that will give you that needed distraction to get through those working hours. The website also includes a couple of ‘Guest’ mixtapes from certain individuals.

I’m not sure how often new mixtapes are added but there is still plenty to sink your teeth into and you join the mailing list for updates.

I believe it has been a long time waiting for someone to speak out about this… and thank goodness for Mark over at the CR blog and his post ‘Change the record’. If you have no idea what I’m talking about then just turn on your TV and watch a few adverts. Over the past number of years you would’ve come across a lot of quaint folky songs being played along a commercial for numerous global products, the most recent culprit being Audi.

This fad has been running for some time and has been getting away with it. I would be very surprised if people hadn’t even noticed and were just sucked into it, but over at CR they have raised the question – ‘When will it end?’. Invited to the discussion are Dan Stevens, a director at music PR and management company, Darling Department; Parv Thind, sound designer at Wave; and Peter Raeburn, founder and creative director of music production company, Soundtree. Being someone working as a graphic designer for a music production and sound design company myself I found this article most appropriate for this blog. Now I ask you, where do you think it should be going? where are the risk takers? or is it the way clients are looking at this current trend with a ‘I it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ attitude?

I have been meaning to post this one for quite a while now and finally after all the updates I needed to do for wordpress and sorting out the theme here we are. A short time back I created a post about the Oncovered competition, one where the designer and/or illustrator would create the look and feel for a CD/LP cover to contemplate the musical outcome.

To cut to the chase, I am very happy to say that my own design was picked out for the next stage and was displayed up with the other shortlisted designs at Papier Hier in Amsterdam.

Message from the Oncovered team;
‘Due to the darkness of the room and poor camera handling (sorry) the pictures are not completely perfect.’

UPDATE: You can check out my visuals for the ONcovered opportunity – here

Great chance for all creatives out there! Thanks to the people at Productiehuis ON and design agency Ontwerpatelier you are free of all restrictions to create your own design for a record sleeve. Your design would determine the musical outcome in a radical new direction to the creative process. You can find out more and submit your designs over at Oncovered.

Ive been delving in the old record collection over the past weekend and found the sound track to the original Transformers movie. Felt the need to share this as there are some gems on it. It is a great 80s power rock record! Try and get hold of a copy if you can!