Monday, May 26, 2008

Are Mokkelbost




above is an image by multi talented norse artist Are Mokkelbost. aside from making multimedia visual works, Are is also a participant in a host of musical groups and projects, all interesting and largely unknown outside of his rather small neck of the woods - quite a shame in my estimation. for those who are so inclined, i suggest taking a look at his site . it's filled to the brim with samples of his aural and visual work - just looking at the vast output he's generated and the almost exclusively high quality of it all is both inspiring and daunting. thanks for making the rest of us feel inadequate Are....

there was talk at one time of releasing a record for his project Single Unit via Hydra Head, but apparently Are hasn't gotten around to finishing that just yet - seems he's been busy with about 8 billion other things. hopefully one day - in the meantime i can certainly recommend checking out the debut full length from Single Unit " Family of Forces"....

Saturday, May 24, 2008

envy/jesu split pt 1





initial attempt on the envy/jesu split EP sleeve art....

line drawings and text from my sketchbook. text will likely face some alterations.
photo courtesy of faith coloccia.
to be released via daymare in japan and licensed by hydra head in the US.

more coming soon....

....traveling.

supplements: prurient "and still, wanting", late night/early morning electric piano, ultimate iron man, circle "katapult", enchiladas, deathspell omega "fas - ite, maledicti, in ignem aeternvm"...

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Friday, May 9, 2008

ZOZOBRA art pt 1



one of 5 drawings for the zozobra "bird of prey" album. perhaps one of the more over the top metal illustrations i've done, which is not all together inappropriate for this project, and in fact rather fitting. the color scheme i have in mind will alter the tone of this piece significantly as well, but more on that later. back to the drawing table....

todays hymns: zozobra "bird of prey", velvet cacoon "genevieve", portishead "3".

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

ISIS artifacts







hello. back from tour and getting settled in. i wanted to post some pictures from the tour, but haven't gotten to that quite yet, so here are some random isis artifacts in the mean time.

from top to bottom:

1 & 2: the newly completed ISIS toy courtesy of UNKL toys. this is a different figure from the one that was part of the Ipecac toy series which was also generated by UNKL. it was designed by the folks at UNKL with graphics and minimal input which i provided - have to say i'm pretty excited about the results. we sold a few of these on the european tour and they'll also be available through the isis webstore in the near future. they were made in an edition of 1000 and will not be made again after they're gone. we may continue to make toys in the future, but if we do they will be completely different designs. this particular edition was based off the art for the last isis album "in the absence of truth".

3. an old flyer i dug up when doing some house cleaning. from one of our earliest shows, march 1998. we were really excited about this show, about playing with buzzov*en, about doing an out of state show. we thought we were going to be good, we thought we'd really show the crowd what we were made of, ha ha ... and our hubris brought us down. we were far less than good, played poorly, were received poorly, and broke a kick drum pedal in the process. thanks to whoever lent us the replacement. at least we got to see buzzov*en....

4. another item dug up during a house cleaning rampage - my "transcription" of the godflesh track "streetcleaner". isis originally covered this track for a split 7" with pig destroyer that subsequently came out on relapse in 98 or 99. the cover was later released on the japanese 2xCD version of "mosquito control/red sea" (ritual records) and the "sawblade" limited 12" (tortuga records), and most recently on the repressed version of the "sawblade" 12", which was included in the "shades of the swarm" vinyl box set. it was recorded at in the same session as the material for the "red sea" ep and to our surprise came out fairly well. we were hesitant to record our take of such a monumental track, but our fears were somewhat allayed when we found out that justin broadrick, the creator of the original track, approved of our efforts, or so he said anyway. ha.

i'm working on drawings for the zozobra (formerly heatseeker) "bird of prey" album and will post a preview of those when i've made some headway, and will also post some of the isis tour photos when i have the opportunity. currently/recently enjoying and/or absorbing the following supplements/events: the continued health of precious creatures, most notably the one named orange, top pot hand forged donuts (particularly the cherry blossom variety), immortal technique "vol 2", homemade breakfast burritos, cursed "III", new xasthur, guilty simpson "ode to the ghetto", blanket beds on the floor, wu-tang "8 diagrams", fuck buttons "street horrrsing" (terrible band name, tremendous record), thomas e. ricks "fiasco: the american military adventure in iraq", spiderman: brand new day, tiny vipers through the wall, pulling off surprises, cool weather in los angeles.....