we are the night

I've had this album for a week now and I've got to say I am loving every minute of it. It is electronic heaven for me having always really liked the Chemical Brothers. They do not disappoint with this their latest album. Do it again is a floor filling, thumping and really catchy number that's already doing well in the charts. But the whole album is like an ecclectic look through someone's musical tastes. For example "The Salmon Dance" which is just bizarre in that it talks about the life of a salmon?!? and yet the song is really lively and catchy. This album works on first listen and just keeps getting better. Check it out on iTunes here

a rhythm of lines

It's out! The rhythm of lines microsite is finally live thanks to a LOT of hard work by the boys. This is what I was telling you to look out for after the TV ad I blogged about before. This is really cutting edge Flash work here utilizing some nifty papervision-esque 3D techniques and the speed of the Flash 9 player. Vorsprung Durch Technik this really is. You create your own rhythm of lines with this flash app to create a sculpture of ribbons that exists in a 3D space. Don't forget to enter your creation into the competition because Audi will choose the best designs to be printed out and sent to you. The way I understand this working is that you essentially have a 3 dimensional sky box which is fairly vast. The centre of the box draws you into it so you can never actually reach the edge. The ribbons are drawn dynamically based on the x,y,z co-ordinates generated by the mouse movement. The car models are created by using the co-ordinates generated in a 3D package such as Maya and then having that model outputed via an app called Collada to create an XML file that contains the co-ordinate information needed to draw that shape. Enjoy!

there's something in the water

Thanks to Jo at work for sending this cool animation round for V Water. I guess this product is new to the UK but I'm definitely used to it from my travels to the US. It is a nice product in itself but the way this is being marketed in the UK is quite interesting. They are going for that low-res hand drawn approach that is so popular these days. The cartoon style is playful, almost child-like. The story is fun. It is a good way to present V water as the product itself is basically water with a few extras thrown in. Tapping into the energy drink market would have been the easiest option but they are aiming towards a market who wants to try something new and different.

the dark is rising

Oh my god I could vomit with excitement. Forget The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Earthsea, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe and forget Harry Potter. This series of books is superb. Written in the 60s by Susan Cooper it is an amazing fantasy coming of age story that blew me away as a kid. It was aimed at the older more discerning teen and had me totally captivated. I don't want to give away any plot points as there is one in particular that is best left for the movie but is sure to delight. I hope they aim this above kids as in my memory it was fairly adult in theme. Definitely one of your darker fantasy novels. What is also great is that it is totally British in plot featuring and melding English folk lore into present day. I hope the inclusion of an American (surely only to appeal to the US market) will not detract. Can't wait...

beyond the banner

Thanks to Marc at work for this heads up. It is a good example of thinking beyond normal constraints (phew I didn't say 'outside the box'). And although this isn't technically brilliant it is a good idea and loads of fun. I won't spoil the surprise just promise you'll keep watching until the end :) It is worth it. Check it out here.

fire & water

Don't you just love it when a piece of work just jumps out and says something to you...like wow. Superb photoshop skills are in evidence here as a blend of water drops forms to take the shape of fire. It really works because you do get blue flames some times (the gas hob works especially well). It reminds me of a British print campaign out now for Bacardi where the bottle's side is exploding into water. I can't for the life of me find it on the net though. Here is the original files on the web. No mention of the artist's name. Would love to find out who is responsible and perhaps see some more of their work. Oh and if anyone can point me to the Bacardi work I would be grateful.