Posts Tagged ‘Music’

MIssing In Action

Monday, February 6th, 2012

The artist known as MIA is pretty contro­versial. The Londoner with a Sri Lankan heritage has always polarised opinion, mixing up musical and creative influ­ences from every­where, and messing generally with the field of expect­a­tions and images.

The video below for her new single ‘bad girls’ is another provoc­ative edit of seemingly divergent images. This time try bad girls, street racers, and Kalashnikov-​​weilding insurgent-​​types for size.

Apparently shot in Morocco (though obviously evoking the more troubled environs of North Africa and the middle east), there’s an inter­esting inclusion of beemers and Alfas making use of the loose render of the dusty roads.

Not sure how we’re supposed to read this mad mashup of cultural forms. We dig it anyhow.

Oh, and she ‘upstaged’ Madonna at the Superbowl. What’s not to like?

YouTube Preview Image

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Keef's Bentley

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

We’ve just finished listening to the audiobook of Keith Richards’ Life.

It’s a cracking listen — voiced in part by Johnny Depp and the man himself — and what emerges is a remarkably lucid, intel­ligent rocker who remembers most of the hard times, fast living and rockin’ lifestyle of Keef’s last fifty odd years.

What also emerges is the man’s love of driving — partic­u­larly on through the night roadtrip sessions in his Bentley S3 Continental — which he lovingly named Blue Lena.

One of the most spectacular roadtrips was the one where Keith and Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg did a moonlight flit to Morocco — and our hero ending up with the girl.

And its not a myth, appar­ently, that he had a ‘special compartment’ specially bespoke to his exacting require­ments. And no, this special compartment wasn’t for spare picks and guitar strings…

It reminds you of the true heritage of the classic marque — and that there’s something brilliantly appro­priate that an English anti-​​hero like Keith Richards should so identify with the dignified maker of fine vehicles that is Bentley.

And having got up close and personal with Bentley’s Mulsanne recently — we think it evokes the glories of the past admirably.

If we were a Bentley exec, we’d make sure their greatest ever ambas­sador was at the top of the delivery list…

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Autoerotica!

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Now we love our motors. And we love our HD video. And we love our soul music. But whoever is responsible for this webbified conjunction of three of our favourite things is either REALLY in love with these three things, or his tongue is placed firmly in his or her cheek.

Either way, we’ve just spent an enter­taining couple of minutes indulging ourselves in some old Beemer love. We suggest you do too!

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Road Trip Playlist

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

These are our top 20 tunes for a roadtrip. What tunes make your long distance drives go a little quicker? Leave a comment and let us know…

Tame Impala1. Half Full Glass of Wine: Tame Impalas
Driving Indie Blues Rock you’ll recognise from the TV. Directional and rocking.
 
 

Betty Harris
2. There’s a Break in the Road: Betty Harris
Down and dirty funk perfect for laying down rubber.
 
 

Free
3. Mr Big: Free
Elliptical shifting from the Spinal Tap tribute band from the early seventies.
 
 

stone-roses

4. Driving South: Stone Roses
Manc attitude par excel­lence with pounding riffs from the Monkey Men.
 
 

Kraftwerk

5. Autobahn: Kraftwerk
Glorious misan­thropy from the centre of Euro dystopia.
 
 
 

Bobby Fuller Four

6. I fought the Law: The Bobby Fuller Four
Original Rebel Music: let the desert winds blow!
 
 

Davie Allan and the Arrows

7. Left turn on arrow only: Davie Allan and the Arrows
Obscure and burning strings straight out of the Lost Highway.
 
 
 

Foo Fighters

8. Learn to Fly: Foo Fighters
Dave Grohl and co bring you a contem­porary classic that sounds better than sex on the car radio.
 
 
 

Chuck Berry

9. Johnny B Goode: Chuck Berry
Essential roots rock meant for swift cruisin’.
 
 
 

The Wipeouts

10. Dead Man’s Curve: The Wipeouts
A dispatch from the begin­nings of street racing culture.
 
 
 

Beach Boys

11. Shut Down: The Beach Boys
Leave the Noseriders alone chaps. Stick to the four to the floor.
 
 
 

Leftfield

12. Phat Planet: Leftfield
A tick and a tock. Put the pedal to the metal!
 
 
 

Upsetters

13. Live Injection: The Upsetters
A downshift and a change of pace that still goes with the flow.
 
 
 

AC/DC

14. Highway to Hell: AC/​DC
Nod your head and flash the steer’s horns on the highway, baby.
 
 
 

Muse

15. Plug In Baby: Muse
Contemporary roughness for the blacktop in our time.
 
 
 

Blur

16. Song 2: Blur
Whoo-​​Hoo indeed.
 
 
 

Tom Robinson

17. 2−4−6−8 Motorway: Tom Robinson
Perennial dad rock that evokes the British Leyland vehicle of your imagin­ation.
 
 
 

Johnny Jenkins

18. Down the road I go: Johnny Jenkins
Dirty harp-​​driven blues from the southland.
 
 
 

Eddie Cochran

19. Something Else: Eddie Cochran
He died in a Ford Consul in Chippenham. What a rocker!
 
 
 

Ricky Valance

20. Shaking All Over: Ricky Valance
We end with a slick rocking classic.
 
 
 

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Porsche Poster Art

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

porsche_3

Somewhere out there is a world where speed is just speed and cars are just cars. But I don’t live in a world where that is true.

Sometimes here at Influx towers we can twist ourselves into contor­tions trying to define what it is about the relationship between man machines and speed that turns us on so much.

But we stumbled upon a collection of motoring posters recently that defines in simple graphic imagery and type, what makes cars worth caring about.

porsche_5

The posters are classics of sixties and seventies graphic design from individual artists as well as a variety of graphic collectives. Each of the posters combined simple graphic imagery with a dynamic sense of colour and cool typography to encap­sulate Porsche’s sports car racing aesthetic.

porsche_2

Stay tuned for a forth­coming collection of themed features that will explore with more depth the Art of the Motor. This tongue-​​tip taster of killer graphic art is just the tip of a very large iceberg.

porsche_1

When good design, passion and the urge for movement comes together, great things happen.

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Cool Cars, Cool Music

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

newperspective

OK we’re on a mission. It’s a geeky, music and car obsessed mission. The mission is to find the coolest album cover ever that has a car on the cover. There are of course absolutely thousands of artists over the course of rock music history that have chosen to feature motors on the artwork of their albums. What that means about the relation­ships between cars and music is anyone’s guess. No matter. For the purposes of this mission we’re looking for a combin­ation of superb motors, superb artwork and superb music.
For hands-​​down non-​​negotiable cool, Donald Byrd and his famous Blue Note design has got to be one of the best examples ever. We know it’s the almost carnally-​​appealing Jaguar E-​​Type he’s leaning on, but can you tell the exact year and model? Answers from you experts on the comment boards please. The classic design is one of the most well known of the New York label’s ground­breaking art from the sixties and seventies, and set the standard for packaging design in the music  industry as well as unbeatably slick sounds in the studio.
In sharp contrast to Donald’s achingly cool stance, check punk indus­tri­alists Throbbing Gristle’s jarringly conser­vative repres­ent­ation of a Morris Oxford. The Gristle have been known variously for the unnerving nature of their trans­gender front person Genesis P-​​Orridge and their seamless three hour sets of indus­trial noise, which make them about as MTV-​​friendly as a kick in the arse. The Gristle rock, and so does this album art.

76157

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