Balance, Design, Products, Technology
September 1, 2010
By Amy Feezor
It’s the perfect post just before the holiday weekend: our latest Playlist, compliments of Gregory Han, managing editor of Apartment Therapy Unplggd, is jam-packed with goodies—podcasts, tech recommendations (naturally), cool music picks, and even some downloadable desktop images. Happy almost end of the summer!
What do you listen to while you work? What I’m working on usually determines what I’ll listen to. Since most of the time I’m either writing or editing, the majority of my daytime music is composed of instrumental tracks. Ambient, classical, shoegaze, chillwave, jazz, hip hop beats…anything that won’t interject unintended lyrical influence. If I’m in Photoshop, then the whole library of 20,000 tracks is usually on shuffle and can bring up anything from Iron Maiden to Charlie Parker.
How do you listen? Since both my girlfriend and I work at home, I’ll regularly don my noise-canceling Audio-Technica QuietPoint headphones if I want to listen to anything beyond the lower end of the volume dial. They do a great job of drowning out the sound of traffic in the background and the cries of our cats for snacks in the foreground. When I’m just listening while browsing online, then a pair of Bowers & Wilkins MM-1 speakers do a fantastic job of filling in the small closet-size home office space I work within. They’re superb desktop speakers, though the low end probably would do well with the addition of a separate sub.
And for just relaxing or while cleaning the house, then I’ll turn on the vintage Bang & Olufsen system and put on a record to listen to. Our collection is a mix of my girlfriend’s Northern Soul/girl bands and my 80′s-90’s hip-hop albums, so you never know when they’ll be an impromptu dance party in our living room.
Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? The Quiet Sounds. These podcast mixes are made for late nights with the lights out, except for the glow of the monitor illuminating your room. If you’re into Brian Eno and Angelo Badalamenti with a splash of Washed Out, I’d highly recommend a listen to a few of these hour long mixes. Gorilla vs. Bear is another favorite music blog alongside the Kitsune Noir Mixcasts, while Cocaine Blunts is where I check in for new and old hip-hop tracks, and The Funky 16 Corners for yesterday’s diddys.
Does music influence your work? I don’t know if music evidently influences my work for Apartment Therapy and Unplggd, but a recent extended headphone-listening session on a slow evening led to me creating a couple desktops or my personal blog.
Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? I usually discover music in the same way I research topics for work and leisure, meandering between Tumblrs, music blogs, friend’s tweets, Facebook mentions. I’m sort of all over the place when it comes to musical interests, but I would admit the cinema heavily influences what I’ll actively investigate. Lately I’ve been falling back in love with Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound production, thanks to a recent screening of the documentary “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector.” Last night I watched a surfing film, Sipping Jetstreams, and now I’ve got the combination of music and imagery floating in my head, egging me to call it a week and enjoy some summer sunshine. Surf and skate films are definitely a goldmine of good music.
GREGORY’S PLAYLIST
Mysterious Skin soundtrack, Robin Gurthrie & Harold Budd
Wouldn’t It Be Nice, The Beach Boys
Honey, You Know Where to Find Me, Morrissey
The Black House, The Blue Sky (Stars vs. Montag Mix), Stars
Wet Hair (Japandroids Cover), Teen Daze
He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), Grizzly Bear
Trap Door (Ft. MF DOOM), Jake One
As It Is When It Was, New Order
Michael, the Lone Archer of the North Shore, Deastro
Symphony No. 9 In D Minor (Ode To Joy), Ludwig van Beethoven
The Want And The Waiting, The Six Parts Seven
All of the Signature Sounds, Volume 1, DJ Premier
Images: Gregory Han
Balance, Design, Products
August 20, 2010
By Amy Feezor
Here’s a Friday bonus: an extra playlist this week from Grain Edit founder (and Lifework contributor) Dave Cuzner. Start your weekend with the Oakland-based designer’s favorite tunes—a smart mix of jazz, old swing-y country, chill, and R&B/Soul (great with a glass of wine and dinner outside with friends).
What do you listen to while you work? I usually start the day off with an up-tempo bossa or funk cut. I need something with a thick groove to wake me up and get my day going. As I begin to dip into the day’s workload, I slow down the tempo and lower the volume. I’ll usually throw on a jazz album or listen to talk radio. At night, I log into Netflix and stream a movie while I answer emails.
How do you listen? Since I work from home, I can listen to my music out loud. I have a chubby little sub woofer and a speaker set plugged into my Macbook Pro. In the past I listened to records while I worked, but recently I find it too distracting to get up and flip the record each time it reaches the end of a side.
Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? Sure do. Here’s a few of my faves: Props radio, Soul Sides, KALX, and Quimsy’s Mumbo Jumbo.
DAVE’S PLAYLIST
Camino del Sol, Antena
InnerSpeaker (The whole darn album), Tame Impala
New Life, Sounds of Liberation
Egypt Strut, Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band
To Brother John, DJ Food
Lost Week-end, Wanda Jackson
Cloudy Shoes, Damien Jurado
Nothing But A Heartache, The Flirtations
Pearlie’s Swine, Monica Zetterlund
Buddah, Jazz Quintet
A Go Go, Dara Puspita
Opiniao, Zelia Barbosa
Nava, Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics
Images: Dave Cuzner
Balance, Design, Products, Technology
July 7, 2010
By Amy Feezor
Kristina Klarin is a color fanatic—and it’s evident in the cheery work she churns out from her studio in Milan (see her current collection of chunky wooden necklaces here and her decorative mushroom collection here). She took some time just before vacation to tell us a little about music and how it inspires her.
Do you listen to music while you work? It varies with the task that I was working on. If I’m working on something new or doing research on trends or colors, I usually don’t listen to the music because I don’t want to be distracted. I prefer to switch on TV in the other room just to have some working companion, so usually while I was writing down my ideas, Mrs. Fletcher was successfully solving homicides in the other room of our apartment.
How do you listen? I use the headphones to listen to my iPod.
Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I use Deezer a lot and also Jamendo when I have more time. I like the site because it gives independent musicians the opportunity to publish, share, and promote their music as well as the opportunity for us to enjoy them.
Does music influence your work? I really like to match the music with what I’m working on. I put on the music once I get the initial ideas of color palettes and materials, etc. For example, there was Vivaldi for my spring necklace collection and Maria Pradera for the summer ones. In addition, I go on YouTube to listen and watch music videos that have similar themes with my collection. Music helps me to construct a better working environment, stay focused on my plans, and inspire me with new idea.
Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? Well, recommendations sometimes come from magazines, sometimes come from friends, and sometimes comes from my husband. Because I’m interested in traditional textiles and costumes from all over the world, I find very interesting music while doing research on these elements. That traditional music from different countries often has influence on my musical taste.
If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? I really like a large variety of music, and it would be very difficult to actually pick out one song or musician that represents everything!
KRIS’S PLAYLIST
Sebastian, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
The Ship Song, Nick Cave
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?, Moby
Hope There’s Someone, Antony & the Johnsons
La Chanson des Vieux Amants, Jacques Brel
Le Banquet, Yann Tiersen
Gnossienne No.1, Erik Satie
Postcards from Italy, Beirut
Blue Tears, Black Heart Procession
Space Oddity, David Bowie
Images: Kristina Klarin
Balance, Design, Products, Technology
June 16, 2010
By Amy Feezor
You will probably do one of three things after reading this interview with Lisa Jones from Portland, OR’s Pigeon Toe Ceramics:
1. Immediately download the eclectic picks from her playlist.
2. Wish the plant sitting in your office was potted in one of her handmade creations.
3. Finally get yourself tuned into Morning Becomes Eclectic (it’s our third mention in a row—get there already!)
Do you listen to music while you work? This is always changing depending on what the studio mood is, but I always tend to return to a few artists, they feel like old friends…The Magnetic Fields, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Band of Horses, Grizzly Bear. I’ve had Janelle Monae’s album on repeat a lot lately.
How do you listen? We have an iPod docking station in the studio along with a radio so we get our daily dose of NPR.
Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I have four assistants, and when we’re not making up playlists off each other’s iPods, we’ve got my iPhone plugged in and playing Pandora. It’s like having a built-in DJ in my studio, and I really like the surprise of not knowing what is coming next. It also introduces me to a lot of new music, since I don’t have a lot of free time to read music blogs or scour Pitchfork.
Does music influence your work? Very much so. I tend to gravitate toward music that has a low-fi, natural, spontaneous quality to it, and I think that directly correlates to my aesthetic, which has an understated, homegrown, rustic imperfection to it that provides a nice contrast to my modern design bents. New collections or designs often spring from a feeling I get from a color or a sound—it’s crucial to my whole sensibility. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you just have to blast Queen or Lady Gaga and bust out some work; but for the most part, I use music to create a more meditative work atmosphere.
Where do you find music recommendations? My employees are always great about bringing in new music to the studio; I also have a few friends whose taste I trust that will suggest artists. (Word of mouth is the best kind of advertising.) Morning Becomes Eclectic and our local public radio station’s weekend music program In House also introduces me to a lot of new bands.
LISA’S PLAYLIST:
All is Love, Karen O and the Kids
Tennessee, The Silver Jews
Home, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Still Crazy After All These Years , Paul Simon
The Greatest, Cat Power
Sunflower, Low
Shelter from the Storm, Bob Dylan
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
Jesus, etc., Wilco
I Feel It All, Feist
From, Dr. Dog
Sons & Daughters, The Decemberists
Parenthesis, The Blow
Images: Lisa Jones and Alicia Carrier
Balance, Products, Technology
June 3, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
“Last year, Joey Roth brought the world a set of speakers made of pure ceramic. It was a memorable, minimalistic set that everyone at Unplggd thoroughly enjoyed listening to and taking photos of. With its huge success, Joey decided to invite nine of his favorite artists to come over and modify his speakers as they see fit. The result? Some of the zaniest designs we’ve ever seen…You can check out the entire project over at Joey Roth’s site, Sounds Like, over here.
[Via MocoLoco]
By Anthony.”
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.
Balance, Design, Products, Technology
May 12, 2010
By Amy Feezor
Four years ago, the neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn, got a little more colorful with the opening of Saipua, a handcrafted soap and flower boutique run by Sarah Ryhanen and her partner Eric Famisan. Sarah took a (well deserved) breather just after last weekend’s Mother’s Day rush to tell us about the rain-inspired mixes on her laptop and how music can add to the emotion behind her dreamy creations.
What do you listen to while you work? Lately, I listen to a lot of Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, Phil Collins, The Knife, Simon and Garfunkel, Barbara Streisand, The Roches, Edith Piaf, Dead Can Dance, Arthur Russel, Arab Strap, Belle and Sebastian, Wild Beasts, Black Mountain, Echo and the Bunneymen, and Kid Creole and the Coconuts.
How do you listen? We plug our laptops into a sound system in the studio. Lots of times I’ll make a mix for the occasion, so I have a ton of mixes on my laptop with names like “Rainy Sunday in September” or “Rainy Monday Night with Martini” or “Mother’s Day.” (It’s funny—I have a lot of rainy-day mixes.)
Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I look at Pitchfork sometimes. But in general, I hear about new music from my partner Eric, who’s much more plugged in, or from friends.
Does music influence your work? It definitely does. It’s hard to give specific examples, but I sometimes get really emotional when I’m working with flowers. Music, especially when I work alone, tends to add to the experience of checking out of reality and tapping into the subconscious flow or process of creation. Not to sound out-of-control corny, but the bottom line is the pleasure principle—arranging flowers is really pleasurable (incidentally we listen to a lot of Janet Jackson, too). Music just adds to that intrinsically aesthetic process. Wine is nice, too.
Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? Eric keeps me up to date with new music, which I know very little about. He also listens to a lot of hip-hop and jazz—not always things I would turn on, but enjoy nonetheless. (I mean, I love some Naughty by Nature and Expose.) My friend Aaron is also a walking music-history library. My love of Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, Julie Cruise and all that weirder late 80′s/early ’90′s ethereal femme jazz comes from his immense record collection.
If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? Kate Bush. So feminine, creative, beautiful; ultimately, such an amazing storyteller. She has such an imagination! I aspire to that sort of creative synergy in my life.
Read on for Sarah’s playlist…
Read more
Design, Products, Technology
March 9, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
We have had a great response to our Wednesday Playlist music series. It seems a lot of us listen to music while we work so I thought for todays Unplggd post we’d take a look at stylish ceramic speakers.
“Nothing like sprucing up the sound bytes with a little ceramic creativity. We were once skeptical of the ceramic speaker idea, but after having brains melted with audio heaven at a local audiophile shop, we’re fairly convinced you can mix the two without much degradation to sound quality. Here are our picks to inspire some additional shiny to your music routine.
OUR PICKS:
Joey Roth Ceramic Speakers
Pig Speaker: Well, That’s One Way to Camouflage a Speaker
Philips Ceramic Speakers
Broberg Ridderstrale Ceramic Cone Speaker
John Caswell – The Wailers Ceramic Speakers
Zemi Ceramic Ball Speakers
Phonofonics II – Ceramic iPod Speaker
Our favorite from the bunch? The incredible looking Phonofonics II, of course! Even though it costs $835, it’s said to be able to get a 55 dB sound level out of your iPod without using any external power. Now that’s shiny and impressive! If we could only get our hands on one to check out the sound quality…”
By Anthony.
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.