genius of fashion…

it takes wits, guts, arrogance, lack of management and a good dose of stupidity to pull this off. but don’t worry, we have the talent, and the means. few things come to mind here, i recall when hedi slimane took out the yves from saint laurent. ego? perhaps? after all balenciaga did not have its founders first name in the brand, so why should saint laurent? not like fashion has to follow any precedents now… but to change that beautiful and iconic logo to such a lame, ubiquitous, poorly spaced, infantile typography was surely hard to digest. not that the rest of the fashion crowd just followed hedi right? fashion never repeats, “we don’t look back darling, we don’t follow… we lead the world into the future”. well here they are, following hedi right off the edge of the cliff into the grand stupid canyon.    by cl

and now for some Ndagga Rhythm Force

the story of basic channel reads like a tall tale of underground dance music. they invented dub techno. through hard wax, cofounder mark ernestus brought detroit and chicago records to berlin. their near-flawless body of work, encompassing a universe of labels including chain reaction, m-series, burial mix, main street records and rhythm & sound, speaks for itself. and yet, ernestus and moritz von oswald don’t talk much about the label they founded 25 years ago, so their legacy remains tantalizingly obscure. ernestus’ recent mania is Mbalax music. as usual, he’s gone deeper than most, following a youtube trail to senegal, forming the ndagga rhythm force, reducing the music to its polyrhythmic essence, and overseeing the mixing desk for live shows. ernestus also drives the band around on tours of europe, a role he took on for underground resistance on their first tour… here’s a clip of theirs from earlier in the year. were obsessed.   by moody