THESCRAPBOOK

Breaksblog looks like an awesome resource for free Drum’n'Bass, but most particularly it’s an opportunity for me to relive my youth.

The first club I ever went to was Blue Note for the Sunday night MetalHeadz sessions. I used to rock a suit and glasses to make myself look older than the 16 years that I was - anything to get in at the end of the day, but I fully looked ridiculous.

I do however remember the visuals above, and was delighted to access the Doc Scott mix from 1997 that Breaksblog have for us (and maybe more to come from MetalHeadz themselves!)

Download the set via the link below.

Doc Scott feat. MC Justyce @ Blue Note - 20/01/1997

What went wrong with Drum’n'Bass though? “Too much focus on getting the loudest pressing, most tearing midrange and a mis-educated crowd that will only respond to obvious rave signals are the main issues in my opinion” say Breaksblog.

More classic mixes linked below:

Fabio feat. Mc Bassman & Mc Conrad @ Amazon vs. Kool FM 1995

LTJ Bukem feat. MC Conrad @ Crime Club 1995 - Side A
LTJ Bukem feat. MC Conrad @ Crime Club 1995 - Side B

Kemistry & Storm feat. MC Flux @ One In The Jungle 1996

Grooverider alongside Cleveland Watkiss @ HR3 Clubnight 22/08/1997

I’ve just discovered the Black Cab Sessions, by Hidden Fruit. Lovely idea of musicians, stripped down to just them in the back of a random cab, providing their own original and intimate soundtrack to the bustle of London life. Above is Phosphorescent, but check the Black Cab Sessions site for more sessions, including Lightspeed Champion, My Morning Jacket, Seasick Steve, The Kooks, Vincent Vincent, Noah and the Whale, and many more.

Fitzrovia, where else, is the site of Monocle’s first newsagent sponsorship deal. The new-look Charlotte Street News bears the magazine’s livery inside and out: a signature awning protects browsers from the vagaries of the UK weather, and slick Monocle-black strips divide the shelves of titles within - making for a smarter way to consume printed matter. (their words, not mine. Can you tell?)

Been looking around the net and found James Dawe’s portfolio site through The Serif - a daily dose of design inspiration.

Kim Jones is currently contributing over at NYT to their ‘The Moment’ blog, a sub section of their T magazine. Worth checking out…

Kim Jones on his involvement and inspirations for his recent work with Dunhill.

Jake and Dinos Chapman’s White Cube exhibition of the re-made “Hell” (as “Fucking Hell) now has a film, for those that can’t make it. Click here to view. It puts Halo 3’s “Believe” to shame

Luxist reports on a row at Savile Row over the UK Advertising Standards Authority’s brand new ruling that suits which are not entirely handmade may now be sold as “bespoke.” It has horrified some Savile Row stalwarts who’ve long fought to protect their trade from such encroachments; late last year tailor’s guild the Savile Row Bespoke Association (SRBA) trademarked the term “Savile Row Bespoke” to prevent parvenus from taking unfair advantage. According to the SRBA’s guidelines, to qualify as bespoke a suit must be crafted from a choice of at least 2,000 fabrics and its construction requires at least 50 hours of hand-stitching.

SRBA board member Anda Rowland, owner of storied 100-year-old Row house Anderson & Sheppard, is rather stoical though: anyone who would be content with a faux-Row suit merely made-to-measure was “never a true bespoke customer in the first place” and that any connoisseur “will ultimately be able to spot the difference between true bespoke tailoring and incorrectly labelled imitations.”

Read what the Luxist has to say here or alternatively, The FT

Brilliant blog in the vein of Gaping Void comes Business Guys on Business Trips.

Dan Mumford is a freelance illustrator/designer/screenprinter working out of his studio in central London, Goodge street, and screenprint studio in Dalston. He might also have some serious issues, but he’s got a distinctively dark style as a result!

Nice article and photo selection of Norman Foster and Partners’ Elephant Enclosure at Copenhagen Zoo from The Guardian. The photos compare some other Zoo architecture, but specifically the consideration for building this £25m Elephant House and the learnings that were undertaken.

“The Elephant House represents the latest thinking in elephant welfare. Those two glass-domed enclosures - one measuring 45 by 23 metres, for six cows and calves; the other 30 by 15 metres, for two bulls kept in separate pens during the mating season for fear of fights - open out through mighty rusted steel doors into a landscaped paddock where the animals can roll and play, meet their public and take a dip in a pool three metres deep that extends 60 metres along one side…The Elephant House covers approximately 10% of the entire zoo site: elephants need to roam.”

There are some great Zoo facts too. Did you know the giraffe house at London Zoo was built in 1836-7?