Soundsystems on two wheels

Made in Queens is a documentary about these yong folks who build complete soundsystems on their bikes. When we were young we attached a washing peg with a playing card to our wheel so it made a sound like 'tttrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' when you drove your bmx. These youngsters do this. Creative, we say.

Rowley Birkin, Cairo

Ok people. We just decided to make a series of posts dedicated to the one and only Rowley Birkin. For the people who never have encountered this chap, he's a sketch character from the mother of all English sketchshows, The Fast Show (Monty Python is offcourse grand mother), created by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson.
Some explanation: Birkin always talks about his adventures in a half understandable way, and always finishes with the famous frase "i'm afwaid I was fewwy fewwy dwunk"

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Only one thing we want to say: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. That is for the patience that guy or girl or group shows. We would have given up at the 3d frame...

no wave / post punk / underground / new york / 1976-1980

Is the title of a new photo history book describing the collision of art and punk in that time, a rarely documented scene on which people like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jim Jarmusch evolved. The book was created by Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and indie rock journalist Byron Coley. See more here.

Kissing the ceiling

Nice series of photos of Canadian born photographer Fred Muram.

Here come the Germans!

This video of Jeux Sans Frontieres is just so good to watch. Not only because that laugh of the commentator kills you, but also because you can see how innocent everything was not that long ago. Who comes up with a TV show where people have to run around in penguin costumes carrying buckets of water on a huge turnig plate? Brilliant!

Hobnox Audiotool

If you are into playing with software like Propellorhead Reason or Ableton try this online thing called Hobnox. It isn't as sophisticated as te other two, but it's good fun. Just lay some cables between devices and see what kind of beats you can produce and maybe even record. Hobnox was awarded a flashforward nomination.

What the fuck happens when we die?

We think they are coming close to an answer! After the prospective scientific study of our own Dr. Pim van Lommel on near-death experiences and out-of-the-body experiences, which appeared in the world's leading medical journal 'The Lancet' in 2001, now the medical world seems to have woken up and are starting a a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. Since we all actually are secret science nerds @ AK, we will follow this closely and report here.

Bad tattooing

Nice collection of pictures with some really bad tattoos. But, are they really bad? Aren't they just advanced really? Because in 20 years from now they will probably end up in a book like this and then they will be looked upon as state of the art original pieces.
The one Archie has on his shoulder suits this collection pretty well actually! So that means we're pretty hip doesn't it? ;-)

Machines that almost fall over

Woulnd't you like to build just an extra room in your house for this? So you can sit and stare and do nothing more then that all day? We would. That's just perfect relaxation in our eyes.

Best track ever! Part IV: The Undertones-Teen age Kicks

I'm gonna call her on the telephone
Have her over cos i'm all alone
I need exitement oh i need it bad
And its the best, i've ever had

Just like famous BBC I dj John Peel (they played this song at his funeral) this is our ultimate favourite track. Frontman Feargal Sharkey tried do do it solo in the late 80's again (A good heart thes days is hard to find tralalalala) but never came close again to this one above.

Dance Floor Dale

If you are too sensitive for some explicit scenery, better not watch this video. It contains some heavy 'not suitable for work' material. The video is banned everywhere so it probaly will be banned from Vimeo also. If so, you always can watch it here. The track is called 'Parisian Goldfish' and was created by Flying Lotus on Warp Records. Video is directed by Eric Wareheim (Tim & Eric). We like!

Crime Scene Amsterdam

We recently bought this book called 'Crime Scene Amsterdam'. It's a book full with forensic photography from Amsterdam's Police Archive 1960-1986. The photographs are pretty disturbing and sinister, but have a mysterious beauty and are of extremely high quality. Bushes where stiffs were found, people on their knees with their head in the oven, floating bodies in the canals... It's just something you really (don't) want to see.

Daniel Eatock

Daniel Eatock does very nice projects. Alone, or together with the rest of the world. "I am interested in connections between image and language, titles, punch lines, miscommunication, subversions, open systems, contributions from others, seriality, collections, discovery and inventing". Please take some time to wander around on his webspace (click the tree)

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Hm, maybe one then...
Some research made it clear that this man is called Tommy Seebach and he's doing a cover of Apache (The Shadows). You can see it here, but we're not sure if this one is less breathtaking than the one above. You may decide.

A.D.E.

To get our old Japanese ass on the dancefloor again we went with a couple of friends to the Amsterdam Dance Event to attend the Innervisions night at the Melkweg. As you can see on the picture we had great fun finding spots on the ceiling to point at, what usually means the night was A.O.K. As you can see on this film more people where doing the same thing.

Menno van Gorp

Is the world champion breakdancing and he's from... Tilburg. That brings a small tear to our eyes. That's because our own Seacaptain Plonk E used to dance break in the streets of Tilburg the time Beat Street came out in the early eighties. Although he never even could fix the windmill, Da Plonk is ever so proud to see young Menno conquer that title.

Monome

Monome are a small company based in Philadelphia, who design and build a range of nicely designed controller/display boxes that can be interfaced to music software. Check for more info here.

Best track ever! Part III: Simple Minds - I Travel

We owe an apology. We owe an apology to Jim Kerr and his Simple Minds. That's because we hated them. We spat on them and called all Simple Minds fans stupid. Back in the days when we only had ears for The Cookie Crew and Fast Eddie. But now when we start realizing what great music they produced, I travel earns the title of Archibald Kobayashi's 'Best Track ever! Part III'!

Magnetic Movie

Fantastic movie from Semiconductor. If we understood it correctly this film is shot in NASA's Space Sciences Laboratory, where they somehow recorded inaudible electro magnetic waves to then translate them to graphical images. Reading comments below their posted video you feel people wondering: can this be true? In our opinion it doesn't really matter if its true, fake or a bit of both. Its just an amazing piece of work.

Russian criminal tattoo's

In search for a fresh new tattoo for Archibald we found this gallery with pictures from Russian Criminals with some proper old school shit on their bodies.

Go and see:

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. A documentary which follows a middle school science teacher as he battles a hot sauce mogul for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic Donkey Kong. Prepare for some fantastic footage and unforgetable one liners from arcade hall youth. (Thanks Pikkesnijder!)

Best track ever! Part II

Forget our previous post about Zappa's Peaches and Regalia being the best track ever. This here piece Terra Aria from Italian cellist Giovanni Sollima is our new best track ever... Seeing this man perform on Dutch TV show Vrije Geluiden last sunday morning made us gaze at the screen for 6 minutes like that one emoticon with his eyes open wide...

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Ah well just one then..
We see a strinking resemblance between the man on the right and the Yeti from Tin Tin in Tibet. So the message goes out to Spielberg en Jackson: stop casting for that role! We found your man!

Tip: put on the Daedelus track, 3 posts below and look at this image...

Richard Pryor loaded on cocaine

It must have been the ultimate wet dream or at the same time the worst nightmare for a journalist to interview Richard Pryor in the early 80's, just when he was at his top of his career and coke addiction. Wet dream, because you know you get crazy footage. Nightmare because there was no way to handle this man.

"I'm a rich black ignorant nigger. Fuck you all". May he rest in peace.

Asger Carlsen

Wrong is the title of a bizarre series of photo's taken by talented Danish photographer Asger Carlsen.

Fair weather friends

Brilliant track by Daedelus, California based producer on Ninja Tune who likes to dress himself up in Victorian style clothing. Download his new track Hrs:Mins:Secs here for free.

Oscar & Ewan

Sleeve desing for Roots Manuva's new album Slime and Reason done by London based conceptual graphic design studio Oscar & Ewan. Pretty neat work if you ask us.

Go and see:

Primer. an independent film made in 2004 with a budget almost equal to zero. It won the Grand Jury Prize of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The story is about two young friends who are engineers and accidently discover how to travel through time after creating a strange device. They experiment with it and at first it seems harmless but as the story continues they use it on more dangerous aspects of life. Eventually they create complex paradoxes which will put their friendship to the test.

We thought it was a pretty confusing film, especially in the end where we had a hard time to follow the plot. But the topic and the refreshing way of filmmaking make it worth watching this weird movie. Definately if you are a fan of that modern science fiction genre. 8 out of 10!

Rammellzee - Beat bop

Rammellzee (@ 1 minute 25) is probably one of the most original hip hop artists from the New York area who introduced specific vocal styles which date back to the early 1980s. Listening to Cypress Hill and The Beastie Boys, one still can hear his influence. Also known for his, so to speak, weird performace costumes covered with toys Rammellzee was and still is one of a kind. This track, of which we bought a copy back in 1984, is featuring in the one of the first ever Hip Hop film Style Wars.