I think every Jamaica-phile would agree that almost as important as its sound, is the aesthetics of a soundsystem. Klara Geist, a two-people operation in Berlin, masters both disciplines. They build beautiful sondsystems for mobile and stationary use.
My personal favourite – even if I don’t own a Bullit bike for which it was designed to be used with – is »The Transfomer« (see image above).
The combination of balanced design and new technology makes this portable PA one of the most powerful systems on the world market.
Looking at the portfolio of one the SEEN team’s favourite designers and typographers, Kevin Lyons, you will find many references to the world of reggae and dancehall.
Currently he shows a selection of drawings and installations at Colette, Paris: The »Red, Gold, and Green« exhibition opened on January 31st and will run until February 26th.
Eddie Stats sat down with Lyons to talk with him about his favourite reggae albums, the influence of people like Wilfred Limonious and Tony McDermott on his work, and the influence of the Caribbean on gobal pop culture in general:
I am a designer by trade, so I am obsessed with words and meaning, pronunciations and interpretations. That is why I loved punk as a kid, and then hiphop, and then reggae and dancehall. The language is fantastic and so fun to illustrate and draw; words like »BOOMBASTIC« or »COLLIE WEED«. The letters are fat and juicy. (via Large Up)
If the king of reggae music would have been alive he would have turned 66 today. We honor him on his birthday by putting together this tribute mix. A mix of our favorite Bob Marley songs through out times.
Over on the Distant Relatives website, they just released the first two of three videos documenting Nas’ and Damian Marley’s journey of shooting the »Land of Promise« video in Jamaica. Real history right here! (via Trrbo)
Hope Road is the first film and is the story of that first night. I remember before I even had a chance to set the camera up right Nas was like “Yo, yo film this… “ and launched into the whole speech he gives here about “Smokin’ Cubans on the steps of Bob Marley…” from there on I knew I had to keep the camera up and ready to go. Please wait for the little surprise after the credits… Dawn on Hope Road
Dubplates at Tuff Gong, is Part Two. On the third night Damian and Stephen Marley went to work over a new Stephen song called ‘Jah Army.’ The song is pure heat. Dubplates are the stock and trade of the Jamaican musician. Tuff Gong itself is a place filled with so much history as Stephen explains to Nas at the beginning – even Bunny Wailer made an surprise appearance.
