You keep asking yourself, "What am I to do in this post-Electroclash world?" It's okay. We understand. Really. Please allow us to light the way...



This Saturday in a yet-to-be-fully-gentrified corner of Williamsburg, the Twisted Ones [note: not these Twsited Ones], the Mighty Robot AV Squad and the Happy Birthday Hideout crew provide not only ridiculous names, but what is sure to be a legendary show. Things kick off with a live performance by Ian MacKaye's favorite analogue synth band and Ersatz recording artists Tamion 12 Inch at the still blurry-eyed hour of 8pm. Where the hell can it go from there? Also on the bill are The Black Eyes, Crimson Sweet, The Lost Sounds, and Measles Mumps & Rubella. Plus, walking electro encyclopedia Dan Selzer teams up with Mike Simonetti on the turntables. Write to johnfitz100@yahoo.com or just send me an e-mail for details.

Mr. Selzer will also regress into "Decadanse" (*cough*... what's with the corny names, New York?) at Ivy South tonight, playing "New Wave, sleazy euro-trash, italo-disco, electro-funk, early house and techno and all types of old dance records with drum machines and robots singing about getting down and getting it on."

For those heading down to the Miami Winter Music Conference, our good friend Nix from Memory Systems / Form Records informs me that MemSys will be playing with Adult. Thursday, March 20th at the Polish American Club, produced by Poplife. Repeat: Adult. + Memory Systems in Miami. Definitely two bands that can peel away the skin and stick a fork in the hype, with intelligence and good old art school punk attitude. Forget everything you know about both groups to date: this is not your father's electro-pop. Watch for a brand new MemSys 7" on the way very soon.

By the way, tickets aren't on sale yet, but you can view Adult.'s Anxiety Always tour schedule here. Mark April 26th at the Bowery Ballroom. (I repeat: "Yay!") For our west coast friends, that 5/6 and 5/7 in LA and SF, respectably. It's a big, big year for Ersatz Audio, with a flurry of new releases over the next few weeks. Be sure to pick up the superb debut EP from Goudron, a.k.a. Ron Zakrin. The ride only gets darker from here on out, but that's the way we like it.

Not exactly late breaking news, but have you seen the beautiful site for Dadaphonic? This is a lovely piece of design for [mainly] the lovely music of The Cranes, designed by the lovely lads at the Cuban Council. [I'm cranking Forever in the lab right now, which is why it came to mind...]

a little late for xmas, i know, but.....bugpops: the perfect gift for...valentine�s day? by the way- nice one mike and engram. how about a cricket pop to celebrate?

Filed under "stuff that can only happen in Detroit": This past Sunday night was the Rock 'N' Bowl Showdown at the legendary Garden Bowl, the oldest active bowling alley in the United States. Sixteen Detroit area bands competed for bowling supremacy. Despite my contributions as cheerleader and a valiant effort on the lanes by Liz Copeland, Team Adult. was eliminated in the first round. Hopefully Adam and Nicola will stop weeping and be able to move on any day now. On a brighter note, Adult.'s much anticipated first proper album is completed and set for an April release, followed immediately by a four week North American tour. (Yay!)

I guess it's official now, as Brian Kritzman and I spent all day Saturday doing "pre-demolition" work on the site: Engram [Burnlab's commercial design division] has been engaged to design the management offices for the 2003 Detroit Electronic Music Festival. The project is being led by Dave Pinter, and is located in the former studio of Kevin Saunderson and later Dan Bell. Countless techno classics were recorded on this very site, including the pivotal 1989 release Big Fun.

Gnod is an interesting website. It presents a visual way of organizing relationships between music artists and their listeners. For example, this search shows what bands listeners of Fischerspooner are likely to listen to, and clicking on any one of the other artists (say, Depeche Mode) will re-arrange the links and cause new band names to 'emerge' (I couldn't help myself). Sort of reminds me of the early experiments done by Plumb Design with their visual thesaurus.

Jam Master Jay, who was tragically shot in October 2002, is being remembered by Adidas. On 1/21 (Jay�s birthday) Adidas released their Jam Master Jay Ultra Star tribute sneaker which are being sold at Adidas stores in New York, California, Tokyo and online. The shoe is based on the Originals Superstar model that Run-DMC made famous in the '80s. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Jay's Scratch DJ Academy. Only 5,000 pairs were made, therefore purchases are being limited to one per person.

Thanks for the party list - it brings back alternating vivid and blurry memories. Anyone remember a '93 warehouse party in Oak Park?
Fantastic performace and CD release Friday night by Windsor music collective Thinkbox at the Detroit Contemporary. The highlights were Chris Mcnamara's multimedia work followed by Steve Roy's mix. They'll be playing next at Milk Cafe in Windsor on Feb 1st.

Just confirmed early this morning, I'll be in flying into Detroit Saturday for a marathon meeting about a certain music festival, and will definitely be at Untitled that evening. See all you Motown kids there.

On a related note: [pulled from the Detroit Luv discussion boards] our man Mike Servito has somehow managed to recall just about every great techno party to happen in Detroit from '92 on. I vaguely remember being at most of the early ones, but couldn't recite details like Mike does to save my life. This is a document of historical significance for certain. Apologies for the nostalgia to our non-Detroit readership. You may want to memorize this info and use it to impress people at parties in Berlin or somewhere...

92 boo! at the bankle
92 cindy's cat at the bankle
93 project x weekend (industry/1217 griswold/1515 broadway)
93 amphoteric in hamtramck (jeff mills bangin!!!/1st bust in detroit)
93 oksid (new center area)
93 skylab parties at the bankle
93 ruba at the bankle (complete with skate videos and ramps in the basement)
93 hard +8 party at the bankle (boomer/ jetstream/ mr. hawtin)
93 bent fabric parties (eastern market)
93 hardest +8 party at roma hall detroit (rich/ john/ boomer)
93 juice at 1315 broadway� (the best party ever!)
94 fresh at hastings (carl craig/poorboy party!)
94 heaven & hell at 1315 broadway
94 spastik at the packard
94 lost at 1217 griswold
95 berlin -� i� was somewhere in the warehouse district? rockin my wjlb wizard tee!!!!� (mills/hood/huck/jeffrey o/bmg)
95 solo at hastings (todd sines live!/claude/dwynn)
95 switch at hastings ( a place called bliss/himadre/khan/acid pimp/bmg)
95 safari at hastings (jajo /eric haupt)
95 jak is bak ("the bomb!"� we froze our asses off!)
96 minimal (dan bell/robert hood)
97 syst3m anniversary at st. andrews� (everyone!!!!)
98 syst3m electro party at st. andrews� (i-f /soul oddity/ectomorph)
98 weird science (fuckin locals! gabe john plaslaiko kemp geiger servito saco ken hinchman guerin gonzales!!!!!)
98 aqua (again...too fucked up to remember where i was and what i was on.) geiger bumpin some hip hop!!!!
99 can you dance to my beat w/ farina/carter/plaslaiko� ( way too fucked up to remember where this was.� thanks to deans trees!!!!)

Liz has been busy busy this week. Her year-end lists are up at Audio Interference.
...and coming up this weekend:

Signal > the next phase
DJ fun with Liz Copeland and Clark Warner
Friday, January 24th at Buddha Lounge, 21633 Eight Mile Rd., Detroit
Doors at 9pm / $5 / 21+

Weekly Album Spotlight
Sunday nights/Monday mornings at 1 a.m.
January 27th: Richie Hawtin & Sven V�th: The Sound of the Third Season
Listen to arguably the nation's best public radio station at WDET Online.

(b.t.w., thanks for the flury of great posts Chad! You rock.)

speaking of rocket-like skyscrapers,gaudi, and barcelona, check out in-progress photos of jean nouvel�s torre agbar...the reknowned french architect has gotten some (well deserved?) flack about it�s shape (one spanish article was titled "nouvel y su pene gigante":"nouvel and his gigantic penis"). nouvel claims it was inspired by the as-of-yet unbuilt nave of gaudi�s sagrada familia church in barcelona, and by the shapes of monserrat, chain of serrated rock formations near the catalunian capital. one may like or dislike it�s connotations, but the building further states nouvel�s vision of progressive,bold,varied architecture, exemplified in his institute du monde arabe in paris, his music and conference center in luzern, and le monolithe in morat

Dead Spaniard to build on WTC site?

From the NY Times:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Decades before the World Trade Center was conceived, a revolutionary architect drew plans for a rocket-like skyscraper to be built on that very site. Now, a movement is growing to include his ideas in the redevelopment. Antoni Gaudi, whose architecture changed the face of Barcelona, Spain, in the early 1900s, sketched a design in 1908 for a New York hotel that was never built. It is not known why Gaudi's plans were never realized. The drawing called for a cluster of steel and concrete parabolic towers at varying heights surrounding a central tower that would stand 1,048 feet tall, according to Paul Laffoley, the Boston architect leading the effort to give the concept a second chance.

``It's like resurrecting something that should have existed in the past,'' Laffoley said.

He intends to enter the design in the international memorial competition that begins this spring. The agency in charge of rebuilding the site says a plan for the memorial will be chosen by Sept. 11 of this year, the second anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 2,800 people. Inside the tip of the main tower would be a sphere of empty space and then a 412-foot cavern where each victim would be commemorated. Gaudi had wanted to fill that space with slots for each U.S. president, leaving enough room to last until the year 3000.

Art historians, architects and Gaudi enthusiasts are behind the effort to push the plans for inclusion in the master redevelopment scheme. Barcelona artist Marc Mascort i Boix will discuss the idea of reviving the sketches during a panel Thursday in New York. Laffoley insists that Gaudi's design would cut through the political and territorial wrangling involved in rebuilding the site by drawing on its storied past.

``It's 77 years since Gaudi died -- a lot of the other proposals are literal ego trips, but here is a way that everyone can be involved in a historical project from around the world,'' Laffoley said.

Found in the ARCHINECT discussion forums:
Fabulous furniture and industrial design portfolio of Olivier Blaser. Great navigation and great work.

Our friend Ian Szydlowski has launched the prototype version of Kidnapped Society, a superb new underground culture e-zine rich with editorial and media content, covering politics to music. This is an immediate Burnlab bookmark. Of particular note is an exclusive archived DJ set from Gigolo Records artist Traxx. (Ian is also the designer and webmaster of Dinkyland.)

in a weird follow-up to supposedly unrelated lab_reports from december 11(one mentioning new hip hop and one the death of stereolab�s mary hansen) check out what may be the last recording of mary (along with bandmate laetitia sadier) on the new album from hip hop artist common: electric circus, including allstar production and guests (q-tip,jay dee, ?uestlove,erykah badu, prince,etc)..........while researching the above info i came across the latest in the red hot series: red hot + riot:the music of fela kuti which pays tribute to the originator of afrobeat (a combination of funk and traditional african music) and political visionary in nigeria in the 70�s and 80�s, who died in �97 of aids.

Much thanks, Dave. It's going to be an intense four months for all involved, but people can look forward to what will surely be a world class festival - far beyond previous years in terms of both scope and quality, if all goes as planned. Plus, I think we're all excited to have Carl back.

Here's your official word here and here, Mr. Doyle.

[UPDATE]: Okay, no official word in the media yet, but I'll just say we are very happy and that booking tickets to Detroit for memorial weekend is not at all a bad idea.

DEMF::. . :: ... .
Watch the local Detroit news this morning for details.
Update right here this afternoon.
transmission out:::..:.:: ::. . .

Thanks for the good cheer gents. Yes, now 31 and I missed my personal deadline for getting a tattoo. Not sure if I'm off the hook or not...

For those following our design geek version of reality TV, the ComputerLove.net Survivor contest is down to five participants, with another to drop soon. No roses here, but all in good fun.

NYC fans of funked-up dark electro and minimal techno have two must stops this Saturday: Memory Systems' Nix Perry is mixing video live at Red and Black in Williamsburg and Magda battles Todd Sines on the turntables at Chinatown afterhours institution 59 Canal.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag herr Doyle. Now that the whirlwind has died down, I�ll be sure to start working on tattoo ideas. I�m pretty confident I can come up with something just slightly more fabulous than this:



On to other fashion business: For San Francisco denizens, be sure to check out the reception for CCAC�s new show �Dress As" this Saturday evening from 5-7. �Dress As� is a highly interpretive fashion exhibit made up of original pieces of conceptually based clothing, accessories, and objects that relate to the body and getting dressed created by the students of "Conceptual Design," a class at California College of Arts and Crafts.

just returning from an amazing three weeks of beaches,volcanoes,jungle,monkeys,more beaches, and more monkeys in costa rica, where i had a chance to clear up the doubt mike had as to the "chicas" behind binah (november 27th post), which turned out to be chiefly one chico, marco kelso (kl3r), who showed me the beaches of the pacific coast while staying in a house straight out of miami vice....check out his work at his day job doing promotional postcards with mae, or his work included in "latino", a recently released compilation of latin american graphic design, edited by the excellent die gestalten, and put costa rica in the travel plans

Textfield Magazine 1.01 is now available. Texfield is an art/design/culture journal in greyscale, and supported in part by Burnlab.net and Engram Design.

ARCHINECT informs us that the official opening of Private Tundra at 2832 Waverly Drive, LA is January 18th. Private Tunda is an exhibition curated by Evan Geisler and features work which addresses a perceived paradigm shift away from the traditional roles of architects, artists and designers. Not sure if it's that new of an idea, but we are all for people seeking to destroy the boundaries between creative disciplines and the preciousness of titles. Featured work from Burnlab favorites Mike Young, Casey Reas, and our own conspirator Israel Kandarian.

Dave Runk sent some pics from press week at the North American International Auto Show [which I failed to get up here in a timely manner - sorry.] Above are some highlights of the not-so-green theme this year: Cadillac's V-16 show car and Dodge's V-10 motorcycle concept joined Ford's 10 cylinder 427 and sledgehammer styled Mustang concepts in a show of brute force. I can't help but to think perhaps this is a reflection of America's military might and a strange way for US manufacturers to react to the current state of the world. Hmm. Great coverage and photos at Car Design News. The show opens to the public Saturday.



Paxahau has some great photos from the Necto's New Years Eve party archived here. More pictures from Olex's DMH02 can be found here.

And a reminder from our friends at Ghostly that Saturday night is the official kick-off of Untitled at The Shelter in Detroit. Get there early this time!

To show we're not strictly into synth music, a plug here for Univac, my favorite LA indie-rock band. The boys recently released their 2nd e.p. and you should go buy it. To do so, you have to go to a show, which is not a bad thing at all. Univacmusic.com is not quite fully functional, but do go check out the superb audio player which appears to be the FormZ handiwork of one David Lentz.

Apple may have the largest screen of any notebook on the planet, but their advancements can't touch Google's PigeonRank technology.

Big welcome to our newest conspirator and Lab Report editor Mike Servito. Mike is a key personality in the new generation of Detroit DJs and producers in the post-techno/post-electroclash world of 21st century party people, and a true craftsman of sound. He is a rotating resident at Untitled.

Check out Mike's tag-team set with Tadd Mullinix at Paxahau. While you're there, enjoy Kill Memory Crash's amazing performance form Ghostly International's Victoria Dark event. The future is here.

Amoeba drops Nuke Flash on us.
Where the heck is Marius anyway?

One more Apple post then I'm done...

Apparently the new 17" PowerBook is only the largest single screen notebook on the market. This beast from Xentex features two side by side 13" LCDs which can be rotated for presentations, or used as a single 20" work area.

Check out the new PowerBook TV spot, featuring Verne Troyer, a.k.a. Mini Me.

While we're on an Apple kick, our friend Josh Ashcroft at SCI-Arc sends this news item: PhotoShop 8 to come sooner than later? I'm just getting used to 7.0...

Also of note, Josh has done a sharp re-design of his personal site. Check it out.

"No way Apple would introduce all new PowerBooks at Macworld in January, so soon after a major update [November]." That was my thinking about a month ago, when I bought the titanium laptop which this post is being typed on. Also words I ate today as Apple Computer introduced two brand new models: a 12" G4 PowerBook and a 17" G4 PowerBook, the smallest and largest full feature laptops on the market. "Full feature" goes beyond the usual fare [such as DVD-R/W these days] to include built-in Bluetooth, all new AirPort wireless, Firewire 800, DDR memory and a light sensitive back-lit keyboard, all wrapped in a brand new aluminum skin which is Jonathan Ive's most elegant and minimal work yet as Apple's VP of design.

Who wants to buy a very slightly used 15" Ti?

Apple also unveiled a handful of new software today, including Safari, their first web browser. Not a company to settle for anything other than best-in-class, Safari is supposedly the most responsive web browser available, dowloading HTML files more than three times faster than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Dave Pinter collected some photographic evidence at the DMH 02 party on New Years Eve. View here.

As if the recreated streetscape of old Detroit in the basement isn�t a quirky enough draw, The Detroit Historical Museum opens Techno: Detroit�s Gift to the World on Jan. 18. The exhibit, which likely will stick around for a few months, should be well worth visiting. And if you�re in town, those scheduled to appear at the Jan. 17 kick-off party, Ignition 2003, could cure most anyone�s winter blues.

Computerlove.net has launched the 'Survivor' contest... sort of reality TV for web geeks. Twenty contestants attempt to outdo each other with quality news posts in hopes of joining the regular editorial team. Computerlove has become possibly Europe's very best online design news resource in just over a year of existence. [How I got to be an editor is anybody's guess...] Anyways, the contestants have put up some pretty cool links. I've swiped a few here for your enjoyment:

From Jim Coudal, scans of the printed program from the original London premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nice.

From Tim Parsons, the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Okay, kind of an old site but always worth some time.

From Loana, just what you wanted: high-res photos of usability guru Jakob Nielsen. Isn't it amazing that if you call yourself 'guru' often enough, others will start to as well?

Form Records is now online with two brilliant products to spend your Christmas money on: Memory Systems' debut LP CD, and the RELINE DVD. RELINE features a collection of leading video artists misusing and abusing everything from PowerBooks to broken and customized mixers and cameras. Also be sure to play with Synthbot [brought to life by C-TRL] found in the 'listen' section.