… the last printed issue of Level was on the shelves in finer newsagents and the WH Smiths that we’d bribed.
Here’s a slideshow of that issue. Some of the ads are rough scans out of the mag, and some body text might be flowed slightly differently thanks to the Xpress-to-InDesign conversion, but it’s pretty well all there as was a decade ago.
Man, we had shitty scanners. (And even worse ad sales.)
—Chris Noble, 22 October 2010
From the Department of Least Likely to Surprise You comes, well, a huge surprise. What would happen if Limp Bizkit collaborated with U2? Who woulda thought that Linkin Park would be the ones to bring together Erving Goffman and Public Enemy? The track “Wretches and Kings” starts with the line, “To save face, how low can you go?” I’m afraid that I have more questions than answers. A Thousand Suns is big and soaring and weird, like some strange bird that you’re surprised can even fly. Some are calling it Linkin Park’s OK Computer. I don’t know about that. Hell, it might not even be their White Pony, but it’s more often than not a far cry from the rap-rock they’re known for, and well worth a spin or five.
—Roy Christopher, 14 October 2010
Austin, Texas might not be a hotbed of heavy metal, but The Sword could make you think otherwise. Mixing monolithic-but-driving doom like Pentagram and Saint Vitus with old-timey core metal like Black Sabbath and Budgie with a dash of new-school technical-but-melodic hard rock like Baroness or ASG, The Sword is all push and power. Warp Riders finds them by turns heavier and catchier than ever. “Night City” is 21st Century AOR like Deep Purple would’ve done it. “Tres Brujas” and “Arrows in the Dark” are warlock rock like Dio dreamed of, and “Lawless Lands” could be a classic Trouble song. The grooves here are deeper and the riffs bigger than the ones on your stoner friend’s records of any of the aforementioned bands. Warp Riders proves that The Sword is not only the best metal band in Austin, they’re one of the Top 5 metal bands on the planet.
—Roy Christopher, 12 October 2010
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designtransport
Wheelie Good*
Emer is a BMX clothing brand that I remember from the 90s. I would occasionally see an Emer-clad Phil Dolan in his world-beating days or maybe spot the infamous Igo brothers sporting Emer during their reign of carnage. Turns out Level contributor—and man behind Emer—Johann Chan is firing up some new Emer products again.
There are a couple of nice t-shirts and, more interestingly, a prototype for a new bike, the very agile and tight-looking Emer Swift: “The Swift is designed with modern BMX geometry so it retains the same riding position as a modern BMX, but runs high-set gearing and big skinny wheels for greater speed,” says Johann. “It’s still nimble enough to ride as a
—Nick Murphy, 28 July 2010
The full spec is on the EMER website
*No, really
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Stunning.
—Chris Noble, 23 July 2010
Excuse my nostalgia, but if there’s one thing I miss about art directing the ol’ timey print versions of Level magazine, it’s designing the travel and style pages. They were the least document-style pages, the ones that I could really bear my white (space) teeth and do whatever the hell blew my skirt up. (You’ll understand that’s a metaphor.) It helped that I had amazing photographs to work with.
When Italian photographer Erica Fava submitted her shots last week, I wished I could lay them out for stochastically-screened, 420×265mm print. Instead, I get to present them to you as a simple online slideshow. Thanks, Erica.
—Chris Noble, 15 July 2010
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artbook
MIND OF MORCKY
I was at Morcky’s flat in Amsterdam a few months ago when I first had a chance to check out some the images that would come to be included in his recent book release, Day and Night. The finished work, realized with support from No New Enemies and Buzzworks, is a cohesive, thought-provoking collection of black-and-white illustrations that touch on a number introspective and collective experiences. Morcky was kind enough to answer a few questions and give some insight into the creation of the project.
How did you decide to create Day and Night? Is it something you were thinking about for a long time before you started?
Day and Night has been the answer to the need of giving a
—Omar Almufti, 13 July 2010
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If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area right about now you’d be amiss to miss the month-long ‘Totally Spoked’ bicycle-related-art show at Portland’s Upper Playground / Fifty 24 PDX Gallery.
Curated by Jeremy Kove of Munson Industries, the show includes works by Mike Giant, Marco Zamora, Will Barras (who I’m sure was in the print Level at some point), Tommii Lim and various others who will break my word-count limit including late-show Evan Hecox and our very own Andy Jenkins.
—Chris Noble, 06 June 2010
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artfilm
LIFE DRAWING
Celestial Navigations, the first full-length film release from Chicago-based archival record label Numero Group, showcases the short films and animations created in the late 1970s and early 1980s by illustrator Al Jarnow. True to form, Numero Group presents viewers with a carefully researched and compiled catalogue of Jarnow’s stunning body of work, from an animated take on Edward Lear’s poem The Owl and the Pussycat to Jarnow’s first venture into animation and a time-lapse piece compacting one year at his studio into a fifteen minute film, from which Numero Group took the title of their project. Experimental flip book animations detail the journey of a Volkswagon Beetle in several perspectives across highways, country sides and three-dimensional corridors in Autosong. Two
—Omar Almufti, 11 May 2010
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Dance music used to be considered sort of anti-rock and roll. Somewhere along the way though—perhaps in the throes of the postmodern turn—someone started explicitly mixing the two. I distinctly remember the Utah Saints picking up that torch at some point. The Chemical Brothers certainly dirtied it up with their knob-turning fingers. Well, 65daysofstatic have grabbed a hold of it like grim death. Where previous outings may have owed more to Mogwai or Tortoise, this one owes more to Aphex Twin or Autechre. Don’t get it bent though, it still rocks the block like they always have.
—Roy Christopher, 05 May 2010
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