I was surprised that not more people I knew had heard of Phillipe Ramette and his photography. What initially looks like another well executed Photoshop job is actually carefully created surreal photographs of balance, poise and patience.

I think, perhaps in the past 10 years or so, our minds have became accustomed to seeing things and automatically interpreting them as CGI/special effects/photo manipulation due to the prevailing abundance of the use of such tools in everyday media, advertisement and entertainment. Ramette believes nothing should be faked and it’s only upon closer inspection do we see strains in his muscles, his trademark black tux out of place or the white of his knuckles through tightened grip whilst he’s sat at 90°. His work is created so cleanly and only after reminding ourselves it’s real do we question what else can be done when our hearts and mind commits.

See more of his work at xippas.com

Charles Negre is a photographer and art director currently based in Switzerland. The ghost like quality he captures in his photos, reflect the notion they were captured in an uninhabited land – pure, empty, desolute and seperate. You can see more at charlesnegre.com

Wu Lyf. Who are they? A band from Manchester. What else do you know about them? Very little. Does that matter? It shouldn’t.

In these coochie coo days of digital information coziness, it only takes a matter of minutes to learn shed loads about a band, 30 seconds into hearing one of their tracks. Unfortunately due to this, there is very rarely the feeling of elusion and mystique which once came hand in hand with discovering something new.
Wu Lyf (World Unite – Lucifer Youth Foundation) deserve a firm pat on the back for managing to retain that tattered and trampled shroud of secrecy.

They tend to play all in white, their gigs cost a £1, sometimes there’s 5 in the band, sometimes 20 and I do hope they can retain this evasive approach when, or rather, if they choose to get signed.

Wu Lyf – Concrete Gold
Wu Lyf – Calm Down
Wu Lyf – Such A Sad Puppy Dog
Wu Lyf – Lung Songs
Wu Lyf – Heavy Pop

Try and find something out about Vondelpark – it’s not going to happen. A very elusive band that don’t have a Myspace let alone a website, but surely, that makes it all the more treasured? I’m loving that woozy, two-step, downtempo melody paired with his strained and somewhat sinister sounding vocals – especially in the track, Start Life.

The debut EP ‘Sauna’ comes out this October.

Vondelpark – Jetlag

Vondelpark – Start Life (Be Side version)

Vondelpark – California Analog Dream

Photo

I’ve been a fan of Erik Hamline’s work for quite some time now. This talented 23 year old from Minnesota, has an imprssive folio over at woodsandweather.com and also runs his own screen printing and design studiio at steadyprintshop.com. I’m a sucker for this style and would really love to see more work like this, coming out the UK.

Planet Mu, once again, realise one of their canny A&R maneouvres with this debut long-player from prodigious youngster, Oriol. Taking things a step further, ‘Night and Day’ takes the futuristic technosoul of musical contemporary, Floating Points, and cross-breeds with the analogue-alchemy of pioneers such as Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and Weather Report. Stunning. You gotta love that art work too.

Oriol – Coconut Coast
Oriol – Memories
Oriol – Night and Day
Oriol – 5 Bars

Ian Mcarthur is an illustrator from Swindon. I love the combination of surreal patterns and fine detail in the portraits. It’s like breaking apart the shell of the physical presence, to reveal an insight into the subjects wild imagination.

See more of his folio at iainmacarthur.carbonmade.com

“As early as I can remember I was always fascinated by any record that had a synthesizer on it. The sound itself seemed to have such a strong, purposeful, and intellectual quality about it that tended to cut through everything else. When I was young my Dad bought The Music of Cosmos which was the soundtrack to the groundbreaking Carl Sagan television series. It introduced me to the music of Vangelis as well as classical composers like Toru Takemitsu. The music was just so evocative of the vastness of space and scientific discovery that I just used to sit by the speakers and listen intently to every sound. Later when I heard Kraftwerk and Detroit Techno for the first time those electronic sounds resonated with me. From my home in Australia, Detroit seemed like a vision of an exotic Bladerunner – like future – the crumbling auto industry had left in its wake a decaying urban centre, deserted and boarded up, but out of this environment came a group of pioneers who were making this wild new music with archaic synthesizers and drum machines. For me it just seemed to click. The re-appropriation of urban space was always a strong element in the early Techno movement. Utilizing car parks and abandoned warehouses for all night-parties of machine music just seemed very sci-fi to me at the time, almost post-apocalyptic.”

He also makes lovely models of retro synths

Check out more at his folio – danmcpharlin.com

Joe Skilton grew up in the walled city of York, and left home in 2008 to study visual communication at the Edinburgh College of Art.Having recently jumped ship to the United States, Joe has been based in Baltimore, MD for the past 6 months.

Inspired by loving friends and bad tattoos, Joe captures certain moments with whatever camera he decides is todays special. At a rate of 3 broken cameras a month, Joe hasn’t spent more than $5 on a camera since 2009.

Moved by the talent and enthusiasm of his friends and contemporaries, Joe’s photographs attempt to seize what he is most fascinated by, the highs and the lows of the people around him.

Recently, Photographs have been part of a group exhibition in Baltimore City, and are to be included in the first fourteen-nineteen exhibition in London. Printed material and collaborative works are all soon coming.

Collections are online through his Cargo Collective and other updates through flickr.com/becausehannahsaidso

This shot was taken from a photojournalism piece, covering poverty within white South Africa. Set in Coronation Park, many of the 400 squatters see themselves, victims of ‘reverse apartheid’. Race tends to play a large part in poverty in Africa, but this also shows that it’s a human issue.

You can see more of the collection in the Boston News