I recently had the opportunity to redesign Potholes In My Blog, a hip-hop / music blog I've been following for a while after creating an album cover for them. Along with some input from David Reyneke and the rest of the staff, I built a Wordpress theme from the ground up that I'm really happy with. You can see it in action here. My original comp and the previous blog design are below. There are still a few tweaks to be made, like adding in an animated header...
The Emay, Karen & The Kids EP is a set of beats created by producer Emay, made from samples from the Where The Wild Things Are movie soundtrack. Of course, I jumped on the chance to do the cover art. Beats, Karen O, Maurice Sendak... You can't go wrong. Link to the download and a sample track below.
Download: ♪ Emay - Emay, Karen O & The Kids
I've secretly been redesigning my portfolio site. It's more of a refinement of what is here now, except I'm building it entirely with Wordpress 3.0. No more flat html and no more Blogger. Basically it will look like the design I created for my Tumblr page. Whenever Wordpress 3.0 is released, my new site will not be far behind...
The newly relaunched J Dilla Foundation, a non-profit group formed to help fund inner-city programs and provide scholarships to students attending progressive music schools in memory of the late hip-hop producer J Dilla, held a logo contest. My friend Mykola Dosenko convinced me to enter. He sent me a concept that he came up with which I finalized. (top right). I also created a concept of my own. (top left). Below are some variations which I held back due to contest restrictions. But I'm happy with all of them.
This is artwork I created for Cold Legistics' beat album Northern Star. I struggled a bit finishing this, not being happy with the results until I made a lot of adjustments. In the end I'm pretty happy with it. You can download a track from the album over at Potholes In My Blog.
I've built quite a few versions of this site other the years. Over the past few days I decided to make a major overhaul of the site from the ground up, making use of Gallerific while still building off of my previous design. I've tested the site and it should work in most browsers. The only one I've had trouble with is an old version of Safari on my laptop. Advantages to this design are the ability to link to individual images, better loading times and keyboard navigation, among other things.
I thought this would be a good time to take a look at the ridiculous number of designs I've done for my online portfolio. Unfortunately I didn't take screenshots of some older versions, including from high school and middle school. Yes, I've had this space for a long, long time...
UPDATE
I found an image of my website from 2003. It's very blue!
Download: ♪ CoverCast #5: WAVE
It's been a while since my last CoverCast, but I finally put something together this week. Partly inspired by the new Shafiq Husayn album, this is a selection of future soul/funk tracks. I hope you enjoy! Click the cover or link to download.
1. Sonar Kollektiv Orchester - Ain't No Dream
2. Electric Wire Hustle - Perception
3. Ta'Raach - Catch My Breath (World) (Featuring J Mitchell)
4. Shafiq Husayn - Dust & Kisses (Featuring Noni Limar)
5. Eric Lau - I Don't Do It To (Featuring Tawiah)
6. Dwele - Workin' On It
7. Platinum Pied Pipers - Pigeon Hole
8. The Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Can I Get You Hi
9. Dam-Funk - (My Funk Goes) On & On
10. Muhsinah - NetKnot
11. The Foreign Exchange - Take Off The Blues (Featuring Darien Brockington)
12. Robert Glasper - Butterfly
For some reason I decided to redesign my music-focused website. I'm glad I did because it's a vast improvement over the original, I think. I better-organized the music pages, improved the video page and reorganized the blog. I've also been trying to record more stuff lately, so hopefully I'll have some new beats up at some point.
Also, another video I hadn't posted yet...
Download: ♪ CoverCast #4: 9/6
As I mentioned on The Cover Up, my job's been a little stressful recently. So this week I put together a mix of tracks that are good for keeping me sane during my daily 9 to 6. The impressive Astrud Gilberto edit by Shigeto comes from a free EP download available at the ISO50 blog. I've also used a track from Nicolay's fantastic new album, Shibuya: City Lights Vol. 2, released this week. Now get back to work.
1. Herb Pihofer - Hail Ceasar
2. Jeff Parker - Beanstalk
3. Koushik - Coolin’ (Instrumental)
4. Jackson Conti - São Paulo Nights
5. Astrud Gilberto - Berimbau (Shigeto Edit)
6. Triorganico - Correndo
7. Nicolay - Omotesando
8. 9dw - Thinking Makes A Mistake
9. Savath & Savalas - Pavo Real
10. Quantic & His Combo Barbaro - Undelivered Letter
11. Quarteto Novo - Síntese
12. Cut Chemist - Spoon
13. Samon Kawamura - Out-Take 0810-012
14. Bibio - All The Flowers
15. Tortoise - Charteroak Foundation
16. Toumani Diabaté - Elyne Road
I created a new blog specifically for showcasing my photography. It's not something I really need but I thought it would be fun to make. It is here.
Download: ♪ CoverCast #3: Three
Unfortunately, I didn't make many Cover Up posts this week. But I did put together a new CoverCast. This week I wanted to share some great electronic music and a touch of instrumental hip-hop. Some old, some new, some sort of new. Thanks to Ed for sharing the Joy Orbison track. It's crazy. Everyone loves dubstep these days, right?
1. Phaseone - Marty & Sonietta
2. MONO/POLY - The George Machine
3. The Clonious - Emora
4. Daedelus - Get Off Your HiHats
5. Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo
6. Clark - Mercy Sines
7. Zomby - One Foot Ahead Of The Other
8. Dr. Who Dat? - Laws of Clover
9. Squarepusher - Greenways Trajectory
10. Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technopolis
11. Bumps - Tryplmeade Gorsmatch
12. Teebs - Untitled
13. Thavius Beck - Under Pressure
14. Ceephax - Hull Pressure
15. Plug - Brave Lick
16. Hudson Mohawke - Rising 5
17. Gonja Sufi - Ancestors
18. Ras G - Incoming
19. Stevo - Milky Way Driver
20. 00Genesis - Geomancer
Download: ♪ CoverCast #2: Jazz Epic
Very soon after I put together the first CoverCast, I decided to pull out some of my favorite records and stay up until 5 AM to create an epic 45 minute mix of loud, soul-churning jazz-fusion. This is the end product. The plan was to make a non-stop blend of heavy jazz-rock, like tracks two through five. But I decided to spread it out a bit, eventually splitting the mix into movements (ala the epic fusion suites of yore) with appropriately epic titles (I've never heard the word "PEREGRINATION" before). Fusion was a staple of my music diet in high school and on, so I hope you enjoy it. I know I did... Click the link or covers to downloat the zip file, which includes the tracklist.
Intro
1. Laurence Welk & Orchestra - Moon River / Soundcraftsman - Instructional Test Record
Movement I : The Vivication
2. Tony Williams - Some Hip Drum Sh!t
3. The Mahavishnu Orchestra - Vital Transformation
4. Jean-Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean, Pt. 2
5. Al Di Meola - Morning Fire
Movement II : The Peregrination
6. Weather Report - Scarlet Woman / Trazana Beverley - No Assistance
7. Airto Moreira - Wake Up Song
8. Larry Corryell & The Eleventh House - Yin
9. The Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Worlds / Arthur Ashe - Learn Tennis
10. Tony Williams - This Night This Song
Movement III : The Ascension
11. McCoy Tyner - Fly With The Wind
12. Flora Purim - Open Your Eyes (You Can Fly)
13. Ashok Ingle - Raga Darbari / Devadip Carlos Santana & Turiya Alice Coltrane - Guru Sri Chinmoy Aphorism
Movement IV : The Resurrection
14. Stanley Clarke - Life Is Just A Game
Download: ♪ CoverCast #1: G4G4
Today I'm posting G4G4, the first ever mixtape (I don't want to call it a podcast) for my Cover Up blog. I've wanted to create a mix for a while, so I pulled together some of my favorite tracks and artists from this year to see what I could come up with. It's mostly a selection of hip-hop and electronic music. The track list is below and you can click the covers to download. I plan on doing some more mixes later. For the front and back cover I used photos I took at the Freer & Sackler Galleries in D.C. (I put a slideshow below for fun). I hope you guys listen and enjoy.
1. Triorganico - Balloons
2. Blu - Amnesia
3. Prefuse 73 - Regalo
4. Mabanua - Liquid
5. Misel Quitno - Pull It Down Somewhen
6. ZKPRZ - Phantasmagoria
7. Flying Lotus - Parisian Goldfish (Take Remix)
8. Harmonic 313 - Dirtbox
9. Willie Isz - Shine
10. Samon Kawamura - cp2sk (Featuring Christian Prommer)
11. J Dilla - Spacecowboy vs. Bobble Head
12. CO$$ - Be Like You (Featuring Terem)
13. Exile - Stay Tuned (Here)
14. Dak - fortheSUN
15. The Gaslamp Killer - Baiafro
16. Luke Vibert - Computer Complex
17. Squarepusher - Seb-1.02
18. 9DW - Begin To Sing For Appetite
Today Potholes in My Blog released a mixtape of exclusive and unreleased hip-hop tracks mixed by DJ Traumatix. I was asked to do the cover art, which I think turned out pretty well. The first cover I did is at the bottom, but we decided to go with something simpler and more readable, which is the cover at the top. You can download the mix here or below.
Trasmitting Live Volume One
Yesterday my music/art blog became two years old. I celebrated by redesigning the layout and finally purchasing a domain name, www.the-cover-up.com. I'll continue to update it as often as I can, hopefully more consistently and frequently than before. That includes The Cover Down as well!
This is a cover redesign for an album my father's band recorded in 2000. They were a jazz group known as The Reflections and played around Roanoke, Virginia as well as other spots in the state and elsewhere. I have fond memories of seeing my dad play guitar, sitting around at rehearsals and at one point practicing with them on drums. I owe much of my love for music, especially jazz, to my father and the culture he exposed me to. Sadly, he passed away in 2001, so I thought this would be a way to celebrate Father's Day in his memory.
Above is the original cover. I think my interpretation might be a little too dark and modern for some of the music, but I'm happy with it. I'm offering up the album for download if anyone's interested in hearing it. The link is at the bottom of this post. You can also hear my favorite track, "Da Ja Vu", in the player below. I had planned to include a recording of a live show they did at the Snowshoe Ski Resort in West Virginia, but I haven't had the chance to transfer it over from cassette. I may post it later.
Personell on the album include my father, Ted Taylor, on lead guitar, Dan Pratcher on bass, Elmer Coles on trumpet and keyboards, Gary Bannister on vocals, and Austin Marshall and Clint Randolph on drums.
These are collaborative pieces between me and my talented friend Mykola Dosenko, remixes of some of my work. I've posted some before but I thought it'd be nice to put them in one post. Hopefully I'll be altering some of his work soon!
SUBSCRIBE