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Sam Knee

Music nerd.

Vintage design and postwar fashion aficionado

Youth culture connoisseur.

Photographer.

Author.

Sam Knee.

Grown up in the rural South of England, Knee grew up on a diet of punk – his sisters introduced bands like The Fall and Swell Maps to him, and the Mod movement based around The Jam before he embarked on a discovery journey through the wider independent music scene.

Given his background, he was inspired by the time nestled between the post-movement, i.e. post-pink/mod et cetera, and pre-rave culture, which fostered a subculture within the indie scene and spawned a resurgence of the fashion, music and style of the 1960s. It was that pocket of time that inspired him to release his first book A Scene In Between.

His second book The Bag I'm In: Underground Music and Fashion in Britain was the extension of his first endeavour: This time Knee focuses on the rise and fall of scenes, how they merge, burn out, serve as fertile ground for other scenes and so forth. A comprehensive tome on music sub-cultures in the United Kingdom from the 1960s through to the 1990s, emphasizing nuances between each sub-genre from punk via mod to psychobilly and what have you.

Accompanied by an illustrated guide by Florence Bamberger, highlighting the more subtle details in the looks and outfits, and an introduction by Bobby Gillespie, it is more than a mere reference guide that should be found in the library of any alternative music and fashion aficionado.

Untypical Girls: Styles and sounds of the transatlantic indie revolution is the telling name of Sam Knee tracing attitude, the musical emissions and again, the looks of female protagonists who shaped sub-cultures, as we know it and refused to stand behind their male counterparts.

Starting with the punk roots in the old world, Knee transitions to more recent developments in the US, which culminates in elaborations on the riot gRRRl movement and grunge.

A celebration of female energy, beautifully illustrated with early photos of ladies that would take on a dominant position in shaping the scenes they were in, e.g. Courtney Love, Kim Gordon and Bratmobile.
 
Memory of a Free Festival: Counterculture Festivals in Britain 1966-1986, has Knee’s focus firmly set on free music festivals that formed the backbone of subculture in the United Kingdom from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Not limited to labels and categories, Knee starts off with jazz festivals, transitions via the anti-war movement and Rock against Racism and Jobs for a Change to punk and indie music in the 1980s, which serves as the canvas on which he describes the political developments that gave birth to those festivals as well as societal changes.

Again, the myriad opulent illustrations make this a must-have book for anyone interest in the power and history of sub- and countercultures.

All of the aforementioned books were published and are available from http://www.cicadabooks.co.uk along with other highly illustrated books for adults as well as children.

Gin – the Show

Stamford Plaza Hotel

Sydney, Australia

April 7, 2018

Apparently the only time Phyllis Diller enjoyed ironing, was the day she accidentally put gin in her iron.

She would have had a ball at Gin – The Show: Sydney’s brand-new inaugural specialty gin extravaganza, orchestrated and curated by the heads behind Alchemist Events, an entity whose founder David Ligoff has been organizing events in the realm of quality libations for the last three decades.

Incarnating for the first time at the Stamford Plaza Hotel, distillers, bartenders, and sales reps were on site to proffer the alcoholic liquor, which is obtained by distilling grain mash with juniper berries and infused with botanicals and other additions.

Equipped with a tasting glass, H2O and a bottle of complimentary of FeverTree Mediterranean tonic, attendants were able to sample from an array of over one hundred variations of the clear spirit ranging from local boutique craft distilleries to internationally renowned heavy hitters and learn a thing or two about the alchemy the is channeled to create the spirit as well as its historic roots as a medicine of the herbal kind.

Apart from individual brands offering their emissions mixologist extraordinaire Ben Davidson crafted four customized gin cocktails, including a Tom Collins, New Orleans Fizz, Dry Martini and the classic Negroni at a designated bar area.

Exiting through the gift shop, gin was sold in all shapes and sizes for one-off show prices. 

Our favourite juniper spirits of the forty-five brands that participated in each of the two three-hour sessions included:

Tasmania’s Lawrenny’s naturally fresh Diemen’s Gin with its refined herbal and citrus notes that are accentuated and by the pure waters of the River Derwent.

Another highlight from Tasmania came courtesy of the boutique distillery Killara, one of the few distilleries worldwide to be owned and operated by a female. Kristy Booth is overlooking operations and ensures that all products are being made and bottled by hand. Killara’s Apothecary gin is a small batch, hand crafted gin made by individually distilling a range of botanicals then marrying them together to produce the tipple. With a percentage of the proceeds of each sold bottle being donated to a charity, drinking becomes purposeful.

We already covered Archie Rose as part of the recent Time Out Bar Awards, where one of their staff was awarded the “Best New Talent” Award. Utilizing copper shipped in from Scandinavia and fabricated to their specifications and other self-made equipment, their signature Dry Gin is a thing of beauty: Enriched by fourteen native botanicals, Archie Rose’s emission is well calibrated and complex with hints of pepper, lime, myrtle and mint.

The surprise of the day came from Africa:

Musgrave 11 Gin is no ordinary spirit – it is one hell of an artisan gin that is not for nothing celebrated for its top notes of Cardamom, African Ginger and Grains of Paradise, which makes it reminiscent of the perfume of spice markets.   The aroma is woody and forest-like and the flavour is inviting, peppery warmth without the harshness of black pepper.  The woody character gives way to cloves, cinnamon and a faint hint of cardamom and leaves you with a gentle flame. 

While Musgrave 11 scored high, Musgrave’s Pink Gin is the more subtle, refined little brother: Toned down to be gentler and less spicy and to bring out the floral of the rosehips and the infused rosewater.

A well organized and curated event that had something to offer for both newcomers as well as gin aficionados.

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Photos by @ka.vv

Ten Principles for Good Design: Dieter Rams

Cees W. de Jong (Editor)

Prestel Publishing / Random House

Familiar with the German brand Braun?

Ever wondered what made it the successful brand it came to be?

Braun’s designs are renowned the world over and Dieter Rams has been the driver and architect behind it all, as well as the designs behind the brand Vitsoe. In this book he boils down his approach to design and distils it down to ten principles. What is great about the principles is that they can be applied to creative process in general and are not merely limited to product design.

However, the illustrations accompanying his guidelines mainly depict products he has designed, with emphasis put on the merits that made them usable independently from cultural and other demarcation lines.

Apart from Rams own elaborations on design, his speeches and other publications, he is placed in the bigger context in the world of design and light is shed not only on his personal philosophy but also on the immense influence he has exerted ever since with the breadth of his oeuvre beautifully illustrated via the accompaniment of photo galleries depicting Rams’ and his design team’s emissions.

Good design matters and this tome is a vital source of inspiration and ode to one of the great designers of our day and age, whose influence reverberates through ubiquitous products through all facets of our daily routine – be it coffee grinders, shelving systems or cigarette lighters.

Anselm Kiefer

Notebooks, Volume 1, 1998-99

Seagull Books

Now truth be told – I am in awe of Anselm Kiefer. I have traveled far and wide to see his artworks in person and his emissions have yet to disappoint. While art critics have their way of putting into words what Kiefer accomplishes, I prefer to no reduce it to labels as it has a profound effect on me that transcends stylistic categories. Kiefer works with a myriad of materials and media and often incorporates texts and words into his artworks. While this is common practice, him writing per se is not a common occurrence as he focuses more on literally carving out poetry in physical manifestations.

The nearly 400 pages of his Notebooks (Volume 1: 1998-1999), offer unique, personal insights on Anselm’s thoughts, reflections, work processes but also mundane day-today occurrences in an open form stream-of-consciousness manner, peppered with digressive interludes galore and coloured by Kiefer’s faible for contradictions and alienation as he prefers to write in the second person to create distance for himself and the reader.

Kiefer’s notes are pervaded by honesty and openness, which creates a sense of intimacy and serves as an antipode to the Unnahbarkeit of his art.

While translating personal notes into a foreign language always bears the risk of meaning getting lost in the transition, the translator Tess Davies aligns with Kiefer’s style and the result is masterfully annotated which culminates in a cohesive whole rather than fractioned entries.

I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in Anselm Kiefer as it is a meaningful extension and addition that adds a new dimension to his oeuvre and creative process and the way Kiefer values and uses language as a medium.

Lodestars Anthology

Issue 9 – France

Traveling is never without an appeal. For the downtime between my excursions when time allows, I indulge in paper and ink. While literature on travel is not necessarily high on the agenda, Lodestars Anthology travel magazine is a welcome exception. Beautifully illustrated and crafted, with a myriad of subtle details, the magazine, named after a direction giving star for travelers, Lodestars Anthology sets its focus on countries and fills its pages with observations, stories, interviews, photos, essays and recommendations.

What Lodestars Anthology does is bringing more than the mere listings of sights and places to be – it endeavours to give the reader a feel of the place and conveys its charms and splendors well, putting oil onto the embers of your wanderlust.

Established in 2014, the current issue features France, a country I have recently spent some time in. The fact that after perusing this issue of Lodestars Anthology, I feel like turning on the heel and returning is testament to its quality – it not only covers the stereotypical French selling points but zeros in on places off the beaten track, finding often overlooked relicts of the past as well as contemporary marvels, while accommodating a wide range of readers not limited to the well heeled ones.

A creative and information publication of beauty that is worth getting swept up in.

Print is not dead long live Lodestars Anthology!