Ahh, to wake up in Tokyo would be ideal. I have always been obsessed with Japan’s culture and FASHION. Their outrageously bold style makes me want to donate my clothes to Goodwill and catch the next flight out to Tokyo just to revamp my wardrobe. Not everyone is saving their bucks to visit (or in my case live) in Tokyo and would rather take a trip to known fashion meccas–Paris or Italy, but that’s seems so boring and expected. I live for going against the grain. So before the end of 2011 (yes it’s a wide time frame but I have to learn to speak Japanese fluently via Rosetta Stone) I plan to live in Tokyo for at least 3 months and fully immerse myself in the different fashion cultures-. But in the meantime, enjoy these photos from two of my favorite Japanese blogs Drop and Style Arena .

And of course it wouldn’t be complete without Lupe Fiasco “Paris, Tokyo”

Spikes, studs and chains OH MY! Fashion celebrity muses-Lady Gaga and Rhianna are leading and premiering the current trend of spiked and studded designs ranging from Christian Louboutin to up and coming label Stevie Boi. Though I live for crazy and futuristic styles, this doubles up as a fashion-trendy statement and as an alternative form of weaponry (so if you’re out wearing these ensembles ladies/men please be mindful of the people or objects around you). I can’t wait for the collaboration of Louise Goldin X Topshop S/S 2010 Collection .

Sorry for the lack of posts, but between grad school and work I barely have time to sleep-that noted, I digress. As fashion recycles trends from previous eras, the merge of the late 80’s/early 90’s is being revived-with a modernistic touch, of course. Exaggerated power shoulders, sheer lace and other signature craze of that decade are now in fashion, as designers rethink the future of design/fashion. Though I am not crazy for shoulder pads ( I use to rip them out of my clothing when I was younger), I am a slave for fashion, especially futuristic trends-Alexander McQueen’s S/S 10 collection, that are original and innovative. Designers like McQueen, Martin Margiela among others inspire my visions.

pictures by P.J.

Vintage white, lace blouse/black satin skirt/American Apparel tights/TopShop suede, strappy platform heels

Lady Gaga “Bad Romance”

]]> http://virgomusicmars.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/listen-this-mix-1/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:26:56 +0000 Virgo Music http://virgomusicmars.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/listen-this-mix-1/

Le très respecté label berlinois Innervisions (Ame, L.Garnier, I.Cube) se lance dans une série de dj mix. Présentée ici par Dixon ( l’un des boss du label avec le duo Ame), cette compilation allie finesse de la house et energie techno… Dixon, qui est un vrai perfectionniste, est allé jusqu’à ré-éditer certains morceaux de ce mix, tout en y incluant des versions inédites pour produire un résultant sobre et très classe… les fans sauront apprécier !
Disponible au  Oogie lifestore , 55Crs Julien 13006

En écoute ici:

Mr P*

On a recent trip to Fully Booked Serendra over at Bonifacio High Street, I managed to grab hold of the following:

click here to boy from amazon.com

Stevie Wonder, Innervisions

Highlights on this CD – emblematic of his five-album “classic period” during the early-to-mid-1970s – are the supremely orgasmic “Golden Lady”, along with “Higher Ground” and “Don’t You Worry About A Thing”.  The last track is notable for his open incorporation of Latin rhythmic influences.  That said arc of his career was notable not only for his brave foray into Latin and African rhythms but also for his growing political stance;  closing track “He Misstra Know-It-All”, along with “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” both echo his negative sentiments against the Nixon administration.

Now if I can only get my hands on the remaster of Songs in the Key of Life…undoubtedly for “Another Star” as well as “As” (remade by Mary J. Blige with George Michael…hmm, ever wonder what was on the latter’s mind when he chose to cover that track – an extra “s” on the title, perhaps)

click here to download from Amazon.com

David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

The definitive concept album from Bowie at his glam-rock phase, this details “…the story of “Ziggy Stardust,” the human manifestation of an alien being who is attempting to present humanity with a message of hope in the last five years of its existence. Ziggy Stardust is the definitive rock star: sexually promiscuous, wild in drug intake and with a message, ultimately, of peace and love; but he is destroyed both by his own excesses of drugs and sex, and by the fans he inspired.” (as per Wikipedia)

David states that part of his moniker was inspired by Norman Carl Odam aka The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, a Lubbock, TX-based rock ‘n’ roll performer cited as one of the founding fathers of the “psychobilly” country sub-genre.

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy with “Paralyzed”

In a Rolling Stone interview with writer William S. Burroughs (a meeting of like minds, natch), Bowie outlined the full plot of the Ziggy Stardust story:

“The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There’s no electricity to play it. Ziggy’s adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, ’cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. ‘All the young dudes’ is a song about this news. It’s no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite. [...]

The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I’ve made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole on stage. [...]

Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a Starman, so he writes ‘Starman’, which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch onto it immediately…The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don’t have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black hole jumping. Their whole life is travelling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a Black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie, the Infinite Fox…Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make them real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist in our world. And they tear him to pieces on stage during the song ‘Rock ‘n’ roll suicide’. As soon as Ziggy dies on stage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible.”

click to buy ECD from Amazon.com

David Bowie, Diamond Dogs

This concept album looks into George Orwell’s hymn to authoritarianism Nineteen Eighty-Four for inspiration…he even originally wanted to adapt the work as a stage musical but the estate of Orwell denied him the rights.

Musically, this follows the same glammy vein as Ziggy Stardust; however, his growing fascination with American funk rhythms (that would come in full flower by the time “Young Americans” would come out) is evident on tracks such as “1984″ with its Shaft-esque wah-wah guitar breakdowns.

Footage of “1984″ from the 1980 Floor Show outtakes

“Five Years” live on The Dinah Shore Show

Marching sledgehammer thuds and Autumn-frosted organs drenched in deeper than deep strings courtesy of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (probably).

Ame and Dixon dropped this last night in the closing stages of their final Thursday night session at Plastic People.  Exquisite.

Kerri Chandler – ‘Pong (Ben Klock’s Strings & Bones Rework)

]]> http://thefashionvisionaire.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/golden-autumn/ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:02:01 +0000 Liggy http://thefashionvisionaire.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/golden-autumn/

Usually I ignore any pair of heels under 4 inches–yes, I do have a slight napoleon complex, what do you expect I’m a mere 5′2. But these vintage gold heels caught my eye.

pictures by P.J.

Levi jeans/vintage gold heels : deliciously vintage/vintage pin : fat rabbit/mirror avaitor sunglasses : flyinganyc

A Tribe Called Quest “Bonita Applebum”

I just moved to Chicago, so I am retail and vintage shop hunting. I randomly, I stumbled upon an unique, vintage boutique called Deliciously Vintage while strolling the Chicago Arts District. This vintage store has a wide range from designer to off-label apparel, accessories and shoes and among their collection, I found these vintage biker boots.

pictures by P.J.

Nylon, black leggings:American Apparel /sheer black, wool turtle neck

Janet Jackson “Rhythm Nation”

Black has always been one of my favorite colors-it’s classic and transitional. With the launch of M.A.C.’s cosmetic’s fall collection, Style Black, I couldn’t resist to purchase their black lipstick. Though, I was eager to splurge on Chanel’s black collection, Noirs Obscurs, the line just used black as the base foundation of the lipstick. No black lipstick. Maybe, Chanel will include black lipstick in a limited edition collection.

pictures by PJ

Vintage, gold chain necklace/Black, suede ankle booties/black, rouged leather gloves

Amy Winehouse “Back To Black”

It is said, less is more.

pictures by P.J.

Sheer, black spiral tights, American Apparel/Gold, vintage purse from Brown Elephant.

Theophilus London “TNT” (if you don’t have “This Charming Mixtape,” you’re missing out on GOOD music.)

]]> http://urbansounds.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/dixon-temporary-secretary/ Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:04:30 +0000 vikipop http://urbansounds.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/dixon-temporary-secretary/

Dixon

Temporary Secretary

(Innervisions; 2009)

Értékelés: 5,9

A berlini Innervisions label a globális elektronikus zenei élet egyik legkülönlegesebb színfoltja. Jelentettek már meg ambient válogatást (Muting The Noise), novemberben piacra dobják a német technóbibliának számító Tobias Rapp könyv, a Lost & Sound – Berlin, Techno, Easyjetrave angol fordítását, és ha ez még nem lenne elég, Dixon, Ame és Henrik Schwarz aláfestőzenét ír a legendás német rendező Fritz Lang egyik filmjéhez, melyet majd a jövő évi Time Warpon mutatnak be élőben. A számtalan nagyszabású projekt mellett egy mixalbum kiadása szinte jelentéktelen dolognak tűnhetne, ha azt nem pont a labelfőnök,a világ egyik legjobb deep house lemezlovasának tartott Dixon jegyezné.

Steffen Berkhahn mindig is híres volt kitűnő ízléséről és szelekciós képességéről, ráadásul azon kevés dj közé tartozik, akinek még az élő szettjei is élményszámba mennek. Sőt: sajnos lassan kénytelenek vagyunk azt mondani, hogy kiadatlan (Innervisions 2005-2008, RA Podcast) és live mixei sokkal meggyőzőbbek, mint a hivatalos mixalbumai (Body Language, Temporary Secretary). Számomra már az első két felvétel közötti hangulati különbség ellenszenves. Fogalmam sincs, hogy egy szívet melengető baleári indítás után mi szükség van Karin Andersson rideg hangjára, ezen azonban még könnyedén túl lehet lépni, ugyanis a mix első felében Dixon a dallamosabbnál dallamosabb deep és epikus house nótákat pörget, melyek kellemesen ellazítanak minket. Az egyetlen probléma, hogy gyakorlatilag más sem történik. Kicsit olyan a mix, mintha soha nem akarna elkezdődni. Hiába Code 718 Equinoxának Henik Schwarz remixe és Ame Setsája, mire a mix elérné csúcspontját, gyakorlatilag vége is.

Mind a mai napig nem tudtam eldönteni, hogy mindössze tizenhat percnyi zene hiányzik a kiadványról (a mix ugyanis hatvannégy perces), vagy egy komplett második lemez, azonban egy biztos: a Temporary Secretary így egy teljesen aránytalan és céltalan tucatmix. Félreértés ne essék, a nóták minőségével semmi baj és még Thom Yorke sem nyávog bele a szett közepébe, mint tette azt a Body Language-en, ám az album többszöri hallgatás után is csak egy óriási üresjárat.

On 10 october 2009 a new club will be born: Libertine Supersport. It is the new club by Renaud Deru & Lorenzo Serra, the guys behind Dirty Dancing. They’re leaving Mirano to start a fresh new concept at K-Nal (the venue where they already held their Summer Club parties).

The spirit of the new Brussels club is a liberal one, hence the name, anything is possible and everyone is welcome. But the most important aspect of a nightclub (for us) is ofcourse the music! The resident team is divided into 2 categories Libertine & Supersport, the first one is more disco-orientated, the latter is more mainroom house & electro-orientated. The Libertine dj’s maison are: Andy Faisca, Mustang, Dirk (Smile), Guy-Ohm, L-fêtes, Rick Shiver and Rob & Zoopsie, the Supersport resident dj’s are: Compuphonic, Jean Montevideo, Cosy Mozzy, Cook-E & Matik, Kid Strike, Mickey, So’Lex and Wirspielen.

On October the 24th the new club will welcome the Italians Do It Better family: Glass Candy, Desire and Mike Simonetti, so that will be certainly something to look out for! And the week after DFA’s Shit Robot will perform at Libertine. Other names yet confirmed are: Tensnake & Einmusik (14/11), Still Going & Jacques Renault (21/11), Vincenzo & Renaissance Man (28/11).

The first details about the new club look extremely interesting. A good resident team in combination with a bunch of quality international guests, that’s what we can expect from Libertine Supersport! But Libertine is not the only club in Belgium with an excellent taste of music, the calendar of Spark, the saturday nights at Antwerps finest: Café Capital look absolutely fabulous as well, and certainly for us because we will be playing there 2 times this autumn.

This Saturday, the 19th, Spark welcomes Âme, the week after Michael Reinboth from Compost Records will perform at Capital. And in October they’ll have following guests: Blackjoy on the 3th of October, Mugwump a week after, the 17th of October Boy 8 Bit and last but certainly not least Motor City Drum Ensemble on the 24th!

We (King & Cousin) will do the warming up for Mugwump on the 10th of october and also on the 14th of november for no one less than Dixon, labelhead of  Innervisions!

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973)

On we go with the next Stevie Wonder vinyl Innervisions, released just one year after Talking Book. I bought this one when I was on holiday in Manchester. When I went there I reserved one day just for record shopping, as Manchesters Oldham Street (with surrounding streets) has the highest density of record shops in the UK. You walk down the street and it seems like every fifth store sells records. It is record collectors heaven, really. I bought this one in one of the second hand record shops in a side street just round the corner.

This story is also a good example of how well I was into serious record buying at that time already. I remember the store had two copies of Innervision – the first original Motown edition and a re-issue that had been released a couple of years later. Of course, I went for the (more expensive) original one.

Stevie Wonder               Innervisions, 1973               9 tracks, 43:59 in length

Genre: Pop

I was certainly no stranger to Stevie Wonder, but I had only had the pleasure of hearing what had been released over the radio waves. That being said, I was looking forward to hearing this album and it certainly did not disappoint. I loved it. Enough to repeat that, in fact: I LOVED this album.

I’ve already admitted to having a soft spot for the harmonica, and I found myself entranced as usual by beautiful piano playing. This album was inspiring and creative, and I found it gave me a new creative wind for projects I had been allowing to gather dust.

It is not the least bit surprising that this album has cemented Stevie Wonder into my go-to catalog of artists to be relied upon for inspiration, encouragement, and enjoyment.

Would I listen to this album again?

I already have!

Would I spend money on this album?

Yes, and would buy a copy for my friends, too.

Did I add any songs to my collection?

Yes, track 8 “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing”

O que mais atiça a minha curiosidade na música hoje é isso aqui:

Estou falando do A Critical Mass, que nada mais é do que o projeto ao vivo da galera do Innervisions, possivelmente o selo mais cool de house que existe.

São os quatro dons do selo no palco, juntos: Dixon, os dois do Âme e Henrik Schwarz. E, como todo mundo que sai à noite em Berlim, usam cachecol.

Andaram tocando em alguns poucos e selecionados eventos ano passado. E estreiam esse ano em solo americano no Movement.

Me remete ao Narod Niki, projeto ao vivo de Ricardo Villalobos, que vi no Sonar.

Tem um aperitivo da trupe no Amsterdam Dance Event do ano passado.

Part1

Mirror

Part2

Mirror

I’m excited to announce the latest installment of an annual DJ-mix project that I like to put together for the summertime. Summer Bumper 2009 features some of my favorite artists mixed in push-and-pull style where the bass rocks hard and the groove gets deep (and then back again.) Space-themed samples, classic warehouse sounds, sci-fi house, tech house, jackin grooves and soul. Hope you all enjoy Summer Bumper 2009 – I had a blast putting this one together! Download the mix HERE.

Download Summer Bumper 2009

Tracklist:
1. Oliver $ – Whatcha Gonna Do? (Made to Play)
2. Brett Johnson – Two Cents (Frankie)
3. Simioni and Flip – Exterminate (unreleased)
4. Ben Klock – Steady Plus (Klockworks 03)
5. AC Slater – Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats Remix) (Palms Out)
6. Justin Martin – Ghetto Train (Ghetto Monorail Mix) (Utensil)
7. DJ Mujava – Township Funk (Sheer Music)
8. Brett Johnson – Rubber Duck (Frankie)
9. Oscar G. – Chunky Buddha (Innervisions)
10. The Discowboys – To The Mountain Top (Two Armadillos Remix) (Dessous)
11.Mike Dunn Pres. The Md X Spres – Deep Down (The Underground) (Fluential)
12. Tony Lionni – Found a Place (Ostgut Tonträger)
13. Dj Deeon – Groove Mode (Dance Mania)
14. Dohr And Mangold – Sunrise 5:30 AM (Style Of Eye Remix) (Rise)
15. Kate Lawler – Screw You (Toolroom)
16. Martinez – Le Cirkus (Moon Harbour)
17. Gel Abril – Thicken (Be As One)
18. Remute – Condensated (Original Mix) (Remote)
19. Soul Clap – Bobby (unreleased)
20. Milton Jackson & Hiro – It’s a Garage Thing (Sole)
21. Slam – Positive Education (D’Julz Remix) (Soma)
22. Hoxton Whores – Devil Toy (Hoxton Whores)

Nuevo discos de los niños mimados de Innervisions , la verdad que llevaban un tiempo sin convencernos…y no es que del todo del todo nos convezcan.

Pero la verdad que los dos cortes tienen bastante personalidad.

A1 Setsa
B1 Ensor

ESCUCHAR

1- ILLMATIC (Nas)- Yes its a hip hop album, but I consider this album to be very very close to perfection. Close to perfection but is humanly flawed (represent lyrically is great but the beat is horrible). This piece of work shows why rap music is an art form and why SOME rap artists should be placed next to the music industries highest regarded artists.

2- INNERVISION (Stevie Wonder)- Again, very close to perfection, but unlike Illmatic it is not flawed and is too perfect. Its like when you have too much sweet food, you get a sugar rush and fall sick.

3- THRILLER (Michael Jackson)- This album was the reason why I feel in love with music. Hit after hit after hit. But underneath all of this great singing by Michael is great production work by Quincy Jones. You just cant stop dancing to songs on this album. Quick Note, Lady In My Life is one of the most underrated songs that I have ever come across.

4- VOODOO (D’angelo)- Great Great Album. D’angelo is Marvin Gaye, mixed with Smokey Robinson, Sly Stone and James Brown. The Guy is that good. This album is raw, stripped down, funky with great melody laced all around each track. Unfortunantly D’angelo hasn’t released an album since (cocaine is a hell of a drug). I hope he does release something soon because if it is anywhere near as good as this album, this guy will be in the legend column for me.

5- THERE’S A RIOT GOING ON (Sly and the Family Stone)- I discovered this album really late into my musical life. Boy, am I glad I found it. It is a Jewel. This band makes the Beatles look really really amature (and I am a fan of the Beatles by the way).  Family Affair is a particular favourite of mine.