Top Songs of 2017

Haha, I guess it's been a while but I am still alive. 

Top Songs 

"Thinking of a Place" by The War on Drugs 
"New York" by St. Vincent 
"Quarrel" by Moses Sumney 
"Deathless feat. Kamasi Washington" by Ibeyi
"Deadly Valentine" by Charlotte Gainsbourg 

+ Top Music Videos (because they absolutely deserve a mention)

 Humble by Kendrick Lamar 
The Story of OJ by Jay-Z 

Honorable Mentions 

The Bus Song by Jay Som (= perfect sugary summer road trip song) 
Truth by Kamasi Washington 
Nyakinyua Rise by Jlin 

Top songs of 2015

Wow, is it that time of year again? As always, I feel like there is so much good music and so little time to listen to it all. It's especially difficult when I keep digging back through old releases ;p 

It was an abundant year for songs from all over the map. I loved the fact The Weeknd made uber mainstream Billboard's Top 100. In reality, The Weeknd's lo-fi style is the opposite of the boilerplate, commercially viable R&B. I hope his success is indicative of a shift in 'mainstream' taste. 

My electronic music tastes continued to trend toward minimal, techno and underground. I fell in love with the Romanian label a:Rpia:r which led me down a deep, dark, beautiful rabbit hole. 

My top 10 songs of the year (in no particular order): 

What Kind of Man (Nicolas Jaar remix) - Florence & the Machine
L$D (LOVE x $EX x DREAMS) - A$AP Rocky
The Hills - The Weeknd
Gosh - Jamie xx
King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar
Talk - Bob Moses
Hotline Bling - Drake
Tom's Diner (Audio) ft. Britney Spears - Giorgio Moroder
Flesh Without Blood - Grimes
Let It Happen - Tame Impala

Honorable mentions:

Trap Queen - Fetty Wap
WTF - Missy Elliott
Bitch Better Have My Money - Rihana

My top shows of the year (again, in no particular order):

The Black Madonna @ Kremwerk
Laurent Garnier @ Sonar
Dubfire:live Hybrid @ Sonar
Tycho @ Burning Man
Wildkats @ Burning Man

Top songs of 2014

In no particular order... 

David August — Set Me On (remix) 
FKA Twigs — Two Weeks 
Cathedrals — Harlem 
The Juan Maclean — The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love 
Drake — 0 to 100 
Alt-J — Hunger of the Pine 
Jon Hopkins — We Disappear feat. Lulu James 
Zhu — Faded 
Odesza — Sun Models feat. Madelyn Grant 
Kygo — Sexual Healing

9 Kisses

It has been a long time since I've seen something so creative and delightful. Eighteen actors and actresses ranging from Benedict Cumberbatch to Patricia Arquette act out nine charming scenes. Directed by fashion photographer Elaine Constantine. Cinematography by Steven Fierberg. I can't think of a better duo, or better actors, to bring us such heightened realism.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/10/magazine/this-years-best-actors-in-9-kisses.html?smid=tw-share#seeall

Beautiful ads

I can't get enough of these two beautifully filmed and directed advertisements for Prada and Louis Vuitton.

Actor Jason Schwartzman, a favourite of director Wes Anderson, starred in Castello Cavalcanti, a short film that takes place somewhere undisclosed in Italy. Schwartzman crashes a race car in a small village and realizes he may have driven not only straight into his own ancestral village, but into the company of his ancestors themselves.



In the ad for LV, singer David Bowie serenades model Arizona Muse at a lavish Venetian masked ball, directed by Romain Gavras. It is absolutely stunning.