I feel that I owe anyone who reads our blog an apology. I’ve been wanting to post this track for quite some time, and I’ve totally spaced it until now. Well, better late than never. Anyway, this track is, by definition, phenomenal, and is probably one of my all time favorite songs; definitely falls into the top ten of my list. This track was originally produced by the Smiths, and was titled: “There is a light that never goes out.” If you’re a fan of the smiths, (and even if you’re not) if you’ve heard this song, I don’t think I need to tell you that it’s amazing. Well, Schneider TM decided to get a hold of this song and do a cover of it, giving it the appropriate title: “the Light 3000.” I hope what I’m about to say doesn’t hurt the feelings of any die-hard Smiths fans out there, but Schneider TM took the Smiths to the cleaners on this cover, and I’m standing by that statement.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this cover as much as I have (and always will).

Peace,

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

With the constant influx of projects, having a resource of listening pleasures is absolutely conducive to creativity for us. With that said, we’ve recently been listening to a lot of Apparat, and I must say, on a personal level, this has helped me concentrate soooooo much. Especially this EP titled: “Silizium.”

One particular track that really stood out to us was the BUS remix of Apparat’s title track “Silizium.” This track really puts things into perspective as far as listening pleasures evoking nostalgic, dream like design pieces. This track starts off with a very minimal, but almost melancholy melody that is pretty consistent throughout the track; followed by a beat that sounds like it was supposed to be an homage to classic dub cuts. I’m sure you’ll have a better idea of what I’m talking about if you just listen.

Enjoy

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

I apologize for not posting anything recently. We’ve been busy wrapping several projects that keeping up on our posts just didn’t quite fall into the “high priority” category. That being said, we have had the pleasure of working diligently whilst our ears have been massaged by the Velcro Fastener “deep : inside” compilation. It’s amazing how hard it is to find a decent compilation that is conducive to creativity, especially nowadays, where everyone is so ADD. It seems that people are more interested in releasing a lot of mediocre records, instead of releasing a few REALLY GOOD ones. Anyway, it’s hard to pinpoint one particular artist from this compilation that really stands out. I mean, just look at what you have to choose from:

• Authecre

• Fujiya & Miyagi

• Mr. Velcro Fastener

• Mouse On Mars

and many others. This whole compilation is brilliant from start to finish. Fortunately, Mouse On Mars (above all else) really seems to stick with me personally when I’m plugging away. Their music just seems so appropriate that I had to post their track, “Pinwheel Herman.” It’s so quirky, and yet I can relate so easily. Well, I hope you enjoy these listening pleasures. In the interim, we’ll be sure to prep our finished works and post them here for preview if anyone is interested.

Happy listening

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

The works of Madeleine Peyroux have really stuck out to us recently. One piece in particular is a cover she did of Elliott Smith’s song “Between the Bars.” The original is a very beautiful piece, but this cover takes the original to the cleaners, and then some. If you can appreciate good, classical jazz, with an emotional mix of melancholy, we think you’ll appreciate this cover as much as we do, especially the breakdown with the piano, nylon guitar, upright bass, and beautiful sounding brushes over the snare drum. PARFAIT!!!!

Enjoy

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Yet again, another track that we featured on our “Colorcubic Helios Office Mix.” This track was produced by Thomas Fehlmann, titled: “Du Fehlst Mir.” Not exactly sure what that means, but it’s a beautiful track, and an even more beautiful album which it’s featured on, titled: “Visions of Blah.” I’m also pretty fond of the packaging as well. The type looks like Futura [medium], but the A, V, M, and N throw me off a bit. Usually the A, V, M, and N are sharp at the cross section in Futura [medium], but here on the cover they’re flat at the cross section. Oh well, maybe it’s some extended family. Anyway, beautiful album, beautiful song, and worth picking up.

Enjoy

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Here is another one of our “Colorcubic Helios Office Mix” tracks. This one in particular is very much at the top of our list as far as emotional sound content is concerned. This track is a remix by Planet Boelex titled: I Met A Girl With Butterfly Wings. The image featured above isn’t necessarily associated with the release of this track, but I believe it was designed by Planet Boelex himself, although I apologize in advance if that assumption is wrong. Whatever the case, I’m personally impressed with the simplicity, and use of colors. Planet Boelex was originally introduced to us by our good friend, and occasional model Drew Wiltsey a.k.a. White Car. Anyway, we hope you enjoy these listening pleasures.

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Okay, so was I asleep the day Quality Control left the fucking building or something? I am just recovering from food poisoning for the 2nd time this month (that’s an entirely different post of complaints and explanations I’ll save for another day), but this is inexcusable, and certainly not helpful to my recovery. Before anyone asks, no, this is not the work of Colorcubic, thank God. So now you might be saying to yourself “then who cares?” Well, I do. Unfortunately I can’t tell you who kicked these… designs out (if I can call them designs at all), because I just don’t know. What I can tell you though is that these are for the ELECTRONIC MUSIC SENSATION OF THE CENTURY… YACHT! Yes, that’s right, YACHT. You know, the guy who wears a handkerchief over his face, carries a sword, and looks all hipster while ready to pounce. No? You don’t know him? Oooh baby! Rolling On The Floor, Laughing!!!!!!!! Laugh Out Loud, blah blah blah!!!!!!

Let me quickly move to explain our (being Colorcubic’s) position on this matter. We, (Christy and I) aren’t just passionate about the work we do, but the concept of design in all facets, by all people. Call it Aesthetic Blissâ„¢ if you will, but whatever you call it, we’re defending it, and it’s a shame that the people who would call themselves the designers of this MARVELOUS work would allow something like this to hit any printer. I apologize if what I say next comes off as being somewhat “fascist?”, or tyranical, (yeah right, far from it), but one has got to take a stand somewhere.

For example, I like taking a fishing pole out to a lake on a yacht (no pun intended) and attempting to fish occasionally when the weather is good. I’m absolutely horrible at it. The worst ever, and because of that I’m not about to call myself a fisherman. Just because I have a fishing pole DON’T MAKE IT RIGH’!.

Real fisherman go out to sea on rickety ass cold boats for months on end, catch large amounts of beautiful, mouth watering fish (you know, the same fish that we all love for sushi), bring it back to port, and sell it off at great rates after they have risked their lives, and that winds up on someones table as food. Now, wouldn’t it be a real slap in the face if someone just came along and said, “hey… hey, I’m a fisherman. Yeah, yeah buddy. I’m a fisherman, I fish all the time. Wanna buy some fish?”, and they then proceed to open some gnarled burlap bag full of some of the worst specimen that couldn’t possibly be mistaken for fish, but before the atrocity could be prevented, some poor, uneducated fool buys into it, and then proceeds to convince all of his other cronies / lackeys / friends to buy this shit peddling rank sea bass. I don’t know about you, but I would feel obligated to step in and say, “take your 2 bit scam and beat it!” At that very moment, Michael Jackson would magically appear, and moonwalk all over that hustl’n ass. Hustle n flow baby, hustle n flow!

This scenario is exactly that, RANK SEA BASS trying to be passed off as my next roll of hamachi nagiri sushi. Sorry mutha fucka, but I ain’t buyin’ it, much less swallowin’ it. And Sorry to all you “die hard YACHT fans” out there, but this (in an ideal world… or my world of QA and perfectionism) wouldn’t peddle peanuts for poop, let alone exchange hands with an overzealous buyer. Unfortunately, nowadays, people have forgotten the measure of quality to shit (apparently). People are actually buying these five second run off to the screen printer, got no raisins in my brain-case, looks just like crappy, wannabe, rip you off and skimp yo momma Urban bullshit Outfitters t-shirts. Am I mistaken, and is shit suddenly the new gold? I’m sorry people, but this is wrong, stealing is wrong, and if you’re buying this, you’ve been robbed and left with what’s left at the bottom of some nasty barrel.

On a side note I must say, I’m especially moved by the “fucking positive” shirt. Great man, thanks, brilliant, a completely original slice of freshly baked pound cake. Seriously? Do FAUX witty catch phrases actually do anything for anyone anymore except make people angry? Maybe just me?

Here Yacht, how about printing this on a t-shirt instead, “With music to match, Yacht to trot. Just say no to faux!”

This is, of course, just my subjective opinion.

Enjoy

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

We decided that our office needed a mix to hail the coming of this beautiful Portland summer weather. Aphex Twin’s “Xtal” wound up on our mix. Originally featured on Aphex Twin’s “Selected Ambient Works 85-92“, this is an amazing song, and an even more amazing album. We highly recommend buying this. If you can find it on vinyl, even better. Be sure to give this a listen, and we’ll be sure to post more of what we have officially dubbed “the Colorcubic Helios mix.”

Enjoy

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

We thought we should take this time to give a shout out to the individual entities who have deemed us worthy of featuring us on their sites. Thanks a lot everyone. We really appreciate all of the buzz.

Peace,

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Salt by: Funkstörung. What can I say about this track that hasn’t already been said? It’s a dope beat, and a collaborative effort by Michael Fakesch and Chris De Luca who made up Funkstörung. I love the haunting melody on the guitar, and that eerie minimal brass section that drops in every now and then. Almost sounds like the ghosts of a jazz quartet haunted the production while this track was being produced. Perfect song to listen to while nursing a hangover, or while working on a typical Portland rainy day.

The packaging is pretty fantastic as well. Definitely unconventional, but it screams Funkstörung.

Happy listening

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Okay, so normally I try to refrain from really venting on here, although I’m sure if you’ve kept up on our blog, you’ve noticed that sometimes I can get a little irritated (that being an understatement). I don’t know why, but I always have high expectations when it comes to products being designed well, that I just assume the people responsible wouldn’t release such a beautiful product if it didn’t function as well as it looked. That being said, I thought it would be appropriate to beat the shit out of our office phone, revealing to you that this phone, in fact, functions as poorly as it looks in the picture above.

Vtech really pulled one over on us, so I thought I would help them out by taking a photograph of their supposedly “amazing” brushed aluminum, wireless, expandable, phone in it’s true form, and not the shit they peddle for truth on their website as a beautiful, functioning phone.

To put it simply, this phone is everything I hate about misleading aesthetics. I’m a firm believer in the perfect harmony of aesthetics & functionality. If it looks great, but it functions poorly, then you need to start over, and rethink your approach. If it functions well, but it’s designed poorly, then you need to start over, and rethink your approach. It’s quite simple actually, rather rudimentary in fact. If 1 + 1 = 2 (and any elementary student can produce such results with such a simple equation), then I think it’s safe to assume this simple logic is floating around the heads of the people responsible for producing garbage such as this, and passing it off to sell people, leading me to only one conclusion… they deliberately released this piece of crap to the public just for $$$.¢¢

You think a company like Vtech would allow their products ample testing time before releasing to the market, but apparently they don’t.

So to sum this up, DON’T BUY VTECH… at all. If you already have, then my heart goes out to you.

Oh, and if you’re sitting there, scratching your head, asking yourself “so what is soooo terrible about this phone?” It always, ALWAYS!!!! loses connection to the “base.” What does that mean exactly? I have no f&*!ing (why do I that? People know what I’m really trying to say) idea at all, but what I do know is that when it loses connection to the “base” it stops functioning completely, leaving us to have to speak with our clients over speaker phone, all while it’s feeding back. What does Vtech do to resolve this problem? Nothing whatsoever. Oh, I’m sorry, that’s not true, they actually go a step further and add to the waste that’s already piling up on our planet by sending us a replacement of the exact same model, with all the bugs included, knowing very well it still won’t work, but that’s their extended warranty. Thanks Vtech, you make our jobs that much more difficult. Oh, and by the way, Vtech, your site sucks híppos potámios (also known as the hippopotamus) nuts. So do yourself a favor and go away, because if you can’t do a simple thing like commissioning an agency (or better yet, a professional, and not some friend of the family) to design and develop your website, than you’re not ever going to meet my expectations ever again when it comes to your crap peddling products.

Enjoy

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

There is nothing better than designing on a Sunday evening in Portland, Oregon with the sun setting, all while listening to a down-tempo compilation that helps ease my day towards its expiration. This is one compilation I never grow tired of listening to. I can actually listen to this comp from start to finish, (and it’s a double disc, which is even more amazing to me). The compilation is titled: “Putting the Morr back in Morrissey“, and is released on the Morr Music label. Each track on this compilation was influenced in one way or another by an existing Morrissey song. One track that really stands out to me over all others on this compilation is a track titled: “Delc:R” by Arovane. I’ve always been a really big fan of Arovane, and how he manages to make any time of day beautiful when you listen to his work. I would highly suggest picking this up if you can find it. The design and layout are pretty dope as well. I really love how simple it is, and how it’s so complimentary to the music. The credit for the design direction goes to: Jan Kruse from o8 Design.

Anyway, be sure to give it a listen.

Peace

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢