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Times Neue Roman
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Since the theme for Nintendo’s Platoon video game was sampled for the now canonized “Diplo Rhythm,” ...Since the theme for Nintendo’s Platoon video game was sampled for the now canonized “Diplo Rhythm,” it seems that the threads already binding electronic music and video games have grown even tighter. Bouncy, MIDI-infused tracks are becoming more and more common at clubs, and Toronto’s Times Neue Roman are definitely helping to speed up this process. But what sets them apart, you ask?
Well for one, vocalist Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe can rap. Avant-garde projects such as these often fall victim to cringe-worthy staccatos and non-sequiturs, but Arowbe, AKA Robert Bolton, steps forward with locomotive cadence and clever rhyme patterns, while producer Alexander The, AKA Alexander Punzalan (of Styrofoam Ones fame) lays down blip-heavy, slightly-alienating nostalgia, reminiscent of the first time you got to Ganon in The Legend of Zelda. Psyche; no-one ever made it that far.
“Music’s kind of like a big buffet, in the sense that you try to load up your plate with as much shit as possible. We try to keep our music lean, like throwing some vegetables in there.”
Format: Tell us a little about your conception.
Arowbe: I came in, and I took my mink off. Everyone was doing drugs in a movie theatre, and Gavin Sheppard, a mutual friend of Alex’s and mine, introduced us. I thought to myself, “who is this unknown renegade?”
Alexander The: I had to stop my Christian auditions- y’know- dancing. I met this guy, and knew he was no trouble, so I started to make beats, and he began speaking his word of gospel.
Format: The To Die EP dropped at the start of September. For those who aren’t yet informed, why should they be running out to pick it up?
Alexander The: If you go up to Pacific Mall [editors note: a notorious bootleg outlet in Northern Toronto], you can actually get it on a USB drive. You can also get it from us in Kensington Market, at 167 Augusta Avenue.
Arowbe: We’ve also got a deal [with some vendors] in Chinatown – with their DVD sales, you receive a bootleg copy. Other than that, get at us on our Myspace, and it’s on iTunes, too.
Format: Who or what are your stylistic influences? What is in your headphones right now?
Alexander The: Everyone is about plaid and leopard print. No-one is recognizing the polka-dot.
Arowbe: [Musically speaking], we’re heavily influenced by Hippie 92, 93-‘Til, and MC 1994; they were part of the “screwed and chopped” movement. Their style was pretty avant-garde at the time. Their big hit was “I’ma Mutha Focker (Fuck Art).”
Format: There are a whole lot of people making music for the club right now. How are you guys doing it differently?
Arowbe: You’d have to ask Adam; he’s the sound guy at The Drake [Hotel].
Alexander The: It’s fucked up man, it’s all fucked up.
Arowbe: We’ve modeled our style after ultimate Frisbee, because it’s a distraction from things that matter, and that’s what we’re about.
Alexander The: The problem is that no-one likes to play ultimate Frisbee anymore; we’d probably be a lot more successful if they did.
Format: What do you think has broken down the walls between club music and traditional rap, in recent years?
Alexander The: It’s funny, when you say that, I think of that Run DMC video [“Walk This Way”] which was like the ultimate metaphor for mash-ups and stuff like that. They literally smash down a wall in it. I think it’s an amalgamation of things – a lot of media perspective. There’s culture and anonymity, podcast celebrity, Myspace friends, Google memory…
Format: What do you look for in production? That “Record Store” remix is crazy.
Arowbe: It’s gotta have a Big Muff [points to Electro-Harmonix “Muff” distortion pedal on the ground].
Alexander The: It’s gotta be like mixing cement and soap, it’s hard but clean.
Arowbe: Better than being soft and dirty, right? That’s just nasty.
Alexander The: Music’s kind of like a big buffet, in the sense that you try to load up your plate with as much shit as possible. We try to keep our music lean, like throwing some vegetables in there.
Format: There is a distinct MIDI influence in your music. What video games did you play growing up?
Alexander The: “1949”- definitely “1949” . You know, that top-down airplane game, where you could blow up aircraft carriers? I really liked using Game Genie, too.
Arowbe: “Chuck E. Cheese”- it was actually started by the founder of Atari- Nolan Bushnell. I was really into Ski Ball. When you think of the sonic environment of [Chuck E. Cheese], it’s actually very similar.
Format: What are you playing now?
Arowbe: You know what I wanna play with right now? Is an oscilloscope- it measures voltage. They actually created a tennis game you can play on them. You press a button, and it creates a certain amount of voltage; like swinging a racquet. This was pre-Pong.
Alexander The: I want that marble game with the straws that you pull out- what’s that called? Oh right, “Kerplunk.”
Arowbe: We might actually have a videogame with our friend Eepmon- he does live visuals for us sometimes. His style is more anime-influenced than video game, but I’d say there’s a degree of 8-bit influence in there, too.
Format: Street Fighter, or Mortal Kombat?
Alexander The: Mortal Kombat, man. Scorpion’s my favorite character.
Arowbe: I like Street Fighter; Ryu. You like Ryu or Ken?
Format: Ryu, definitely
Arowbe: I gotta question anyone that picks Ken. Ryu was the honorable one; Ken was just a pretty boy living the fast life.
Alexander The: In terms of Street Fighter, my favorite character was always Blanka. I used to play [at] arcades where you’d have to pay the next guy a quarter because of his [electricity move], otherwise they’d ban you from that arcade, or you’d get beaten down. It was at Yonge and Gerrard.
Format: You guys recently performed out of the back of a U-Haul at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche festival. How was that?
Alexander The: It was fuckin’ ill, man. I’d had that idea for about two years, and Nuit Blanche came along, so I thought to myself, “This shit has got to happen.”
Format: Was this an official attraction?
Arowbe: It wasn’t official, no [laughs].
Alexander The: We had cops stopping us the first time, so we moved to Trinity Bellwoods Park at the U-Haul parking lot. We were going to perform at Rolly’s Garage, but they got shut down.
Arowbe: There were at least 15 cop cars, and six on bikes.
Alexander The: It would have been sick too, because we were just going to open up the [garage] doors and back right in, performing.
Format: Have any other- I’m hesitant to say- stunts planned?
Arowbe: It’s funny that you mention that. Our manager sent an e-mail to somebody today, and used the same word. He had it in quotation marks, though.
Alexander The: If something comes to our brain, it’ll be done next week. You never really know.
Arowbe: More bands need to be looking into alternative venues, like playing under bridges or [hopping out of U-Hauls].
Format: This is your chance to address those who might be looking to collaborate. What are you looking for in a team-up?
Arowbe: You’d have to be high to ask us a question like that.
Alexander The: Everything we do is a collaboration, we’re down to fuck around with people. Pink Dead Whale just did a remix of “To Die,” DJ Barletta just did a remix of that too, and Bombaman actually did a dubstep remix, which is crazy.
Format: Thanks so much for your time. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Arowbe: Nope. Not for love or for money would I ever take part in something like that, and I don’t want you to take part in that either.
Alexander The: This man don’t trouble no man. We would like to shout out Mr. Hands, DJ Mensa, Eepmon, and the KPC (Kapi Sanan Philipino Centre) though. Welcome to the end.
More Info: http://myspace.com/timesneueroman
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Smart enough to make you think, and stupid enough to make you dance
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Fans of Thunderheist’s club-heavy indie rap should check out this tight, eclectic EP from up-and-com...Fans of Thunderheist’s club-heavy indie rap should check out this tight, eclectic EP from up-and-coming local duo Times Neue Roman. It’s got gritty, intelligent lyrics by award-winning poet/vocalist Robert Bolton (aka Arowbe) and dark, aggressive tracks by producer (and Styrofoam Ones synth player) Alexander The.
Opener Roq Roq pairs a gloomy but catchy 8-bit synth line with booty-shaking after-party beats, while hyperactive Music And Math spins off an energetic early 90s dance vibe. Versatile on the mic, Bolton spits cerebral, rapid-fire rhymes on Best Est. 2019 but takes a conversational approach that’s closer to Cadence Weapon on Dear Lucile, Talk Soon Aiden.
Smart enough to make you think, and stupid enough to make you dance.
Top track: Music And Math
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Times Neue Roman - Sneaky Dee’s
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"Hustling their way through sci-fi electronica and frenetic rhyming, these guys move forward with hy..."Hustling their way through sci-fi electronica and frenetic rhyming, these guys move forward with hypnotic splashes of big beats, soul-funk samples, and turntablist scratching. This is a wicked romp that’s enough to fire-up the most complacent of musical souls. Fun, energetic, inventive stuff that gets ya’ movin."
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Winnie Cooper
http://winniecooper.net/2009/11/update-times-neue-roman/
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BLOGS
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http://thehastingsset.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/times-neue-roman-release-debut-ep/
http://shedoest...http://thehastingsset.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/times-neue-roman-release-debut-ep/
http://shedoesthecity.com/events/eli_escobar_times_neue_roman_and_more
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-326251826357547750
http://theunionfactory.blogspot.com/2008/10/times-neue-roman-to-die-barletta-remix.html
http://www.dmoneytoronto.com/
http://livityandlove.blogspot.com/2008/10/nuit-blanche-bust.html
http://alexfelipe.com/2008/10/07/beginning-journey-to-the-end/
http://www.pinglewood.com/2008/September/Font_Family.html
http://hypem.com/artist/times+neue+roman
http://offshootcommunications.com/blog/index.php/2008/09/05/extended_times
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/24hrstoronto/20080905/2008090501/38.html
http://thehastingsset.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/times-neue-roman-release-debut-ep/
http://shedoesthecity.com/events/eli_escobar_times_neue_roman_and_more
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-326251826357547750
http://theunionfactory.blogspot.com/2008/10/times-neue-roman-to-die-barletta-remix.html
http://www.dmoneytoronto.com/
http://livityandlove.blogspot.com/2008/10/nuit-blanche-bust.html
Saturday Night at Nuit Blanche - the city wide Toronto all night arts thing, TIMES NEUE ROMAN and STYROFOAM ONES packed up in the UHAUL TRUCK with drums, mics, keys, bass, girls, amps, a generator and some cameras. And played some renegade shows - over the course of the night we got shut down by cops, jumped on by partyers and moshed around by manifesters. I got home at 7am, took a shower and went to work. The End. -arowbe
This is what it looked like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf73L0X8-kg
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6575873966339535977&hl=en-CA
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Putting New Spins on Old Tactics
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Putting new spins on old tactics
Times Neue Roman innovates text-infused dance music.
By Clara Wi...Putting new spins on old tactics
Times Neue Roman innovates text-infused dance music.
By Clara Wille, printed in ProTem February 5, 2008, in Metropolis
Rob Bolton is a fine arts student at York University. By day, he is a stylish, soft spoken guy with a lot to say about music, Toronto, and art. By night, he is Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe, an award winning poet and lyricist who has played shows in Japan, Cuba, and across Canada creating what can only be labeled as aural art and a new genre of dance music in Toronto’s scene.
Times Neue Roman is Arowbe’s new project, created with Alexander Punzalan Junior as producer. Their music is a refreshing spin on elements taken from rap, techno, punk, and pop. While Punzalan and Arowbe are involved in the hip-hop and rap scene and incorporate it into their music, they also reach outside of it. “I wouldn’t call our music hip hop, although it’s definitely coming out of a rap tradition.” When asked how he would define his music, he said, “it’s difficult to define your own music. We really aren’t following a lot of the cultural conventions you find in hip-hop… We’re making dance music but it’s also heavily textual.”
In his lyrics for Times Neue Roman, Arowbe tries to break the convention of self-proclamation and identification in hip-hop and rap music. Instead, he says, he wants to “move away from having the speaker actually be Robert Bolton or Arowbe, and instead let the speaker be a character, a separate being from the writer or lyricist, which I think is unique for rap. Even more so then in other popular genres, hip-hop has an obsession with authenticity or ‘realness.’ I think that’s fine but I also think it can hamper creativity. I’m having fun with different voices, different tones, unique stories throughout the album.”
Arowbe has been writing poetry for years. His poem “2006” was published in York paper, MacMedia, which, he says, is a part of a personal series of poems he will write for each year. He has recently been booked to be a part of Vancouver Art Gallery’s ‘Fuse’ exhibition, described as “a 12 hour night club for people who hate night clubs,” where he will exhibit a verse-form graphic novel and perform Times Neue Roman’s material. Arowbe can be found every Thursday night at Chinadoll’s Peachfuzz hip-hop night on College with DJs Mensa and Rod Skimmins. Alexander Punzalan Junior has worked with several Toronto artists and plays in the electro-grunge band Styrofoam-Ones.
The guys are currently finishing up their self-titled album, which they describe on their website as “an album about music and math, glamour and glitch, girls and money, sound and silence.”
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MV Expose: Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe
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http://www.mvexpose.com/arowbe_arowbe_arowbe.shtml
February 6th, 2007
Normally, one would say ...http://www.mvexpose.com/arowbe_arowbe_arowbe.shtml
February 6th, 2007
Normally, one would say that it is not everyday you find someone with a passion for so many talents; however MVexpos� profiles a second diverse individual, an emcee, a poet, and a radio show host in Toronto, Ontario: Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe "in recognition of his many selves..."
Known best as an emcee, Arowbe has released four albums and three mixed tapes with close affiliates like Rhythm of the Soul (ROTS) and DJ Mensa. It all started growing up in Vancouver, BC where Arowbe �woke up one night at the age of eight and was possessed to rap.� In 2006, he toured Japan and Cuba promoting his new single "Once Upon a Time with Toronto songstress, Zaki Ibrahim and the remix featuring the Harlem lyricist Tom Gist of Dip Set.
Outside of the hip hop community he is known as Robert Bolton and hosts a York University radio talk show, Kaleidoscope, focusing on international issues such as a recent discussion on global human trafficking. He is currently working on his bachelors� degree at York University majoring in Fine Arts Cultural Studies and minoring in Creative Writing.
Arowbe hosts a weekly night, Peachfuzz at Chinadoll on Thursdays along with cohorts DJ Mensa and Rod Skimmins at 587 College Street in Toronto.
You can also catch Arowbe at his best this Thursday, February 8th at the Republik for the Hip Hop for Africa show hosted by Choclair. All proceeds go to the Nelson Mandela Children�s Fund (Canada).
For more information on Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe hit up his website at http://www.myspace.com/arowbe.
Next up, MV will be profiling Stylewalker, a bboy from Winnipeg, MB. Feast your eyes this coming Friday.
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Best Seat In The House
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Song Room opened in February 2005, after Cone and Matthews noticed that concert halls in New Yor...
Song Room opened in February 2005, after Cone and Matthews noticed that concert halls in New York, London and Amsterdam were luring audiences back to the often-challenging genre of new music by featuring the human voice. They and their friend Pay decided to bolster Vancouver’s new-music scene by bringing top writers together with illustrious composers to create new songs.
The organizers make no money from the venture, but they do collect a suggested $10 donation at the door to offset performance costs. (Audience members bring wine and food to share.)
So far, they’ve had renowned performers – including singer Viviane Houle, flute player Lorna McGhee and trumpeter John Korsrud – premiere more than 30 songs created by such heavyweights as author Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo), poet Robin Blaser (The Holy Forest), composer David MacIntyre (The Architect) and filmmaker Mina Shum (Double Happiness).
The Song Room audience is equally impressive, including poet George Bowering, breast-cancer researcher Karen Gelman, architect Peter Busby and all manner of visual artists, actors and academics. “They really shut up; they really listen,” says Cone. Even if the performer happens to be Arowbe, a Toronto hip-hop artist who sells out GM Place. “He was really invigorating,” Cone recalls of that house concert, which took place in June 2006. “He was just yelling into the mic that there should be a Song Room on every block.”
The hip-hop artist may have a point, judging by the demand: Song Room now draws up to 150 people a night. “It’s gotten sardine-like in here,” Cone admits. “A while ago, one of the composers fainted.”
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Interview With Arowbe
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Vancouver, B.C. - HipHopCanada connected with Vancity's Arowbe of the upcoming Rhythm of the Soul (R...Vancouver, B.C. - HipHopCanada connected with Vancity's Arowbe of the upcoming Rhythm of the Soul (ROTS) crew to discuss his consistent development in hip-hop, upcoming projects and movements in general. Don't sleep on the audio at the bottom of the interview. On top of the "Background Musik" record, which was featured on HipHopCanada as a Canadian Choice Cut, we have "Round and Round" and an "All Falls Down" dubplate.
Arowbe of ROTS
HHC: You've been penning rhymes since they age of 8. What influenced you to start writing at such an early age and at what point did you know you wanted to be a part of this thing we call hip-hop?
I wrote my first rap at age 8, but I couldn't say I started rapping then. I wrote from time to time throughout elementary school. It's a progression. It wasn't until high school that I was focused on hip-hop and it became my life. As far as influences at age 8, it was like Skee-Lo, Kris Kros, MC Hammer.
HHC: Where did the name Arowbe come from?
It spells my name Rob. R-O-B. AR-OW-BE. It was my tag before it was my emcee alias.
HHC: How would you describe your style of rap and can you give us an idea of how it progressed over the years?
For the most part, my content is introspective and reflective on society and culture. I like to switch up the flow a bit. I do some fast double time but I like to slow it down a lot too sometimes. My style has progressed over the years just in that I've gotten more confident with it and better at communicating.
HHC: How did you eventually link up with your Rhythm of the Soul (ROTS) crew?
ROTS started in 2001. We had all been friends for a while and we were all doing our thing whether it be rhyming, producing, graffiti, b-boying, whatever. So it just made sense to start ROTS.
HHC: People in Vancouver have definitely being hearing about Arowbe and the ROTS crew for a minute now but Canada as a whole has yet to experience what you guys are bringing to the table in real force. How do you feel the mass public will perceive you?
ROTS is a collective. There are a lot of different styles and different arts within ROTS. It demonstrates unity in hip hop how we can have a crew with one rapper on just on some real some grimy shit and another one talking about changing the world. We also got visual artists and whatnot. We're pushing culture. I think ROTS will be perceived as a movement.
HHC: Is ROTS ready for the transition between building a following in Vancouver and concentrating on the whole country? What kind of strategy do you think will be needed to affectively do this?
The time is coming. I'm moving to Toronto in September to attend York University. So we are gonna have a base in Van and T.O. and we got Black Blaze repping in Edmonton. We're gonna continue making moves. Doing mixtape shit and dropping albums, performing. We'll keep being creative with our strategies. I'm planning to do a poetry book. We wanna do art shows. And we're gonna start a clothing line called Rhythm.
Arowbe of ROTSHHC: We've seen Canadian artist get signed to major labels but when it comes down to sales the majority, unfortunately, seem to brick. Does this discourage you when you set your sights on building a paying career off of rap music?
Not really.
HHC: How would you describe the Canadian hip-hop scene or more specifically, the scene in Vancouver? Has the overall progression been positive?
There's a lot of talent out here right now. Unfortunately, aside from Battle Axe, the Rascalz and a few others, no one really has their business right. The business side needs to be a focus of Vancouver artists right now. There's definitely some real dope battle emcees in Vancouver but we all know each other well and it ends up being the same group of people battling it out every time. Emotionz and Freshcoast have definitely been holding it down here for a while. There's a mix-tape scene that's just starting to emerge with cats like Usual Suspecs, Brougham Camp and myself. I think B-boying has always been a big part of the scene in Vancouver too. Body Language crew is killing it. People love watching breaking out here but there has been a real shortage of big jams lately.
HHC: In 2003, you teamed up with A-Roc to release a local debut titled "Passion and Moderation" that had heads turning and ROTS followed that up with the "The Righteous Tape" mixtape release. Please tell us about these projects.
"Passion and Moderation" was just raw. It was a real lyrical album. I said everything that I wanted to say on that album. Its 17 tracks and I rap through most of the whole thing. The only guest appearances were by J-Deuce and Sincere of ROTS. We printed and sold 500 copies of that. "The Righteous Tape" was a ROTS mixtape but it featured people from across Canada. We had Rikoshay, Rochester, Emotionz, Edge 1, Kardi and Brougham Camp on that. We printed 500 of those as well. You can order it at http://www.rotscrew.com.
HHC: What kind of experience did you take in from their release?
Other than just writing and recording and improving with that, I got the experience of making an actual product. I compiled all the songs on "The Righteous Tape" and coordinated getting the art and design done and getting it printed.
HHC: On the track we have featured with this interview, "Round & Round" you cleverly describe the ups and downs, "roundabouts", and ironies in the life of Arowbe. Tell us a bit more about this record and what you want someone to know while they're listening to it.
"Round and Round" is about how life can be cyclical. I see life as being revolutionary as opposed to evolutionary. For every ending, there's a beginning. Our feelings and opinions are always changing and there are certain things we always return to.
Arowbe's College ApplicantHHC: We're half-way into 2004 and you are now getting ready to release a mixtape titled "College Applicant" which will feature you rhyming over the dope production of Kanye West. Tell us some more about this project and when people can expect to see it released.
I just finished recording it and its being mixed right now. Its 10 tracks; I used some beats off Kanye West's album, also Twista's "Overnight Celebrity" and Jay-Z's "Girls, Girls, Girls" beat. It's an entertaining little mixtape and covers a lot of different topics. The whole thing will be up at http://www.rotscrew.com in a couple weeks.
HHC: Other then this mixtape, what else do you have planned for the near future? Will you be concentrating on a single anytime soon?
I'm currently working on an EP with a band from Vancouver called Lotus Child. It's gonna really transcend genres. Expect some alternative/hip-hop/jazz/emo. It'll be different. We've worked together before and we came up with a pretty hot song, so I'm looking forward to doing some more music with them. That should drop in the fall. As far as a single, I will probably start pushing a solo joint for radio before the EP with Lotus Child drops. I'm working on some possible singles with a producer from Victoria, Anon. He makes beats for a lot of good emcees in the North-West. He recently sold some to Maestro too and is doing something with Bishop I think.
HHC: Other then your own camp, which emcees and producers are you planning or hoping to work with in the near future?
I'm going to record with Emotionz later today. He's one of my favourite emcees in Vancouver. Also, my man Alonso is a real talented producer/singer. He's working on deal with BMG right now. I don't know the details with that but him and me have been doing some work. And I got some dub joints that are about to drop on Edge-1's new mixtape. Can't say who I'll be working with when I move to Toronto in September but hopefully some of the artists that were featured on our mixtape.
Arowbe of ROTSHHC: While reading through your biography I was very impressed to see the amount of benefit concerts you've done. It's good to see the amount of work you have put into great causes such as the fight to find a cure for cancer, UNICEF and teen suicide prevention and awareness. Do you feel artists have a responsibility to give back to the community in such a manner?
No, I don't think artists have a responsibility to give back to the community through benefit concerts at all. It's a personal thing. It's something that's important to me though. Also, if you are a new artist you are probably going to do some shows for no pay. Might as well make some money for a charity instead of some promoter right?
HHC: True. I also noticed that you aren't shying away from expanding your musical horizons by collaborating with artists in different genres and musical groups such as renowned composer, Rupert Lang and the Vancouver Children's Choir. How did this collaboration come about and are you planning on developing this further?
Rupert heard my music through a friend of mine who's in his choir. He contacted me about the collaboration and I was all about it. So we did a song called "We Are Peace" and I performed it at a UNICEF benefit at UBC's Chan Centre with a live orchestra and the Vancouver Children's Choir singing the chorus. We're planning to record it this week and it'll be on the choir's CD. It's been a cool experience working with Rupert and the Vancouver Children's Choir and I hope to collaborate again.
HHC: Thank you very much for rolling through. Was there anything you wanted to add that we hadn't already discussed? Do you have any Any shout-outs?
Some shout outs. Shout out to Brent Fairbairn who records and mixes all my music and produced our Canadian Choice Cut, "Background Musik". ANON who produced "Round and Round". All of ROTS, Body Language, Fresh Coast, Usual Suspecs, Brougham Camp, Lotus Child, Won-By-One, Foundation Creative Group, RIP and CRD crews. Check out http://www.rotscrew.com.
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TEDxToronto is proud to announce our official “artist-in-residence”, Robert Bolton.
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Robert Bolton is an award-winning poet and recording artist + one-half of the band, Times Neue Roman...Robert Bolton is an award-winning poet and recording artist + one-half of the band, Times Neue Roman and a contributing member of the recording artist collective Broadway Sleep. He has performed his work across Canada, the US, Japan, and Cuba. Robert recently completed a Masters of Arts in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. He currently lives in Toronto where he works as a creative communications consultant.
Aside from the official lines, Robert is a brilliant guy who crafts interesting, insightful and timely pieces which he then couches in different forms of creative delivery. His medium is most often the spoken word but its his mercurial styles of delivery that makes him so engaging. Whether it is spoken-word poetry coupled with the incredible visuals of Eric “eepmon” Chan in his dystopian “Orpheus” project or tongue twisting/breath defying rap verses over synthy nintendo inspired beats with band “Times Neue Roman” or else the measured tones of an vulnerable but self-confident conspirator floating over the dreamy instrumentals of “Broadway sleep”, Robert Bolton’s brand of cultural critiques and live reporting from the frontlines of today’s frenetic youth culture is something to be enjoyed, and taken heed.
Robert, along with his partners, confidants and group of scoundrels has been creating and tweaking pieces to speak to this year’s theme, “A Call To Action”.
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Interview with Times Neue Roman
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Cough. Yep, I’m getting a cold. Double-cough—oh shit, my apartment is full of smoke! I had just put ...Cough. Yep, I’m getting a cold. Double-cough—oh shit, my apartment is full of smoke! I had just put on some water to boil before sitting down at my computer to start writing—or so I thought. Turns out I lit the wrong burner and basically incinerated my big cast iron fry pan. Oh you would have laughed to see me fumbling to prop my kitchen window open with a woodblock, squinting through the thick smoke and cursing, while the fire alarm stabbed at my eardrums, then knocking over a glass of water, cursing ever-more loudly, and finally, gingerly and with towel-wrapped hand, hefting the red-hot skillet out onto the window ledge to cool off. I swear I’m not always this stupid. Sometimes my plans actually pan out (ugh, pun I didn’t see coming, so it has to stay). Sometimes I get it right. Like when I decided to see Times Neue Roman (TNR) at Rifflandia, for example.
The moment I first heard TNR’s song “Roq Roq”, I knew these guys were up to something special. The more I dug into their story, the more intrigued I became. And so I made sure to meet up with Arowbe and Alexander The before their set last night at the Upstairs Cabaret. The following interview took place outside the club, on a bench in Bastion Square:
Interview with Times Neue Roman
Alexander The: What made you want to interview us?
Jay Morritt: I was just sifting through all the artists involved in the festival who I didn’t know about, going through MySpace pages and YouTube, trying to figure out who I wanted to check out, and I found your video for Roq Roq. It was just so fresh. My ears perked right up and I thought “I gotta look into these guys.”
Arowbe: Cool.
JM: And then I dug around some more, and I found out that you guys did your first performance at the Vancouver Art Gallery, in 2008. I was hooked at that point. I wanted to know more. How did the gig at the gallery materialize?
Arowbe: They had an exhibit there called The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art, and a friend of mine, Tom Cone, a playwright in Vancouver, recommended me to be involved in some way—he knew me as a poet and performer. The timing was crazy, because we’d just finished recording twenty tracks for TNR, all this Nintendo-themed stuff, and so I got in touch with the gallery and they were really enthusiastic about what we were doing. We did a few performances for that show—we worked with Candelario Adrade, who was doing live visuals and animation, and I also did a piece, a narrative poem with live animation called Orpheus, with Alexander The on keyboard. Orpheus is about to be re-mounted, on Friday, at the TEDx conference in Toronto.
JM: Awesome. Not a lot of hip-hop artists start off in an art gallery, I don’t think. Then again, do you guys even consider yourselves hip-hop?—I’m kinda guessing no.
Arowbe: Rap-Deco is what we’ve been saying lately (laughs), because it’s pretty decadent, a lot of art for art’s sake, but we’ve just finished recording our new album, and we don’t even know what it is. It’s not Nintendo-Punk-Rap, which we’ve been called before. It’s not necesarlily Rap-Deco—
AT: We just sat down for Sushi and talked about this, and we’re a little confused about what to call our new sound. But that’s the best thing, I think, to just accomplish something and then move forward.
Arowbe: The new record has a lot of horns, and a lot more live instruments. A lot less synths, but they’re still in there.
JM: Something else I’m interested to know about is the U-Haul performances. Tell me about that.
AT: That was a renegade idea I had for the Nuit Blanche festival in Toronto. I had a hundred dollars, and I got together some musicians and rented a U-haul truck. We drove around to different locations at the festival performing in the U-Haul. It was amazing. We did it again here, two weeks ago, in Vancouver. We performed at six different locations—we had Candelario doing projections—we did Granville St—-
Arowbe: Outside of Celebrities night club it turned into this crazy dance party inside the truck, and in Gastown we had girls like go-go dancing on top of dumpsters. It was real wild.
AT: Three times we had to pull getaways from the cops, which went really clean, so we have to thank all the kids who were partying with us for getting in the cops’ faces—
Arowbe: The kids stood in front of the doors to the U-Haul so that they couldn’t get to us, and we could just kinda sneak away to the next spot.
JM: Wow. That sounds like a super-big blast. You guys are doing pretty well for yourselves—you’ve got a song on EA Sports’ video game Fight Night Round 4, videos on Much Music and MTV, and lots of critical acclaim—what do you think it is about what you’re doing that is so compelling to people?
AT: When TNR started, we took ideas of hip-hop, ideas of rock, ideas of punk, ideas of electronic, and we just went with it. Sometimes we get critics who come down on us for that, like “it’s not punk, and it’s not hip-hop” but that’s the kind of feedback we appreciate the most, because you can’t pigeon-hole what we’re doing, but anyone can dance to it. As long as you walk away all sweaty, we’ve done our job.
JM: What’s next—what’s on the horizon?
Arowbe: Final touches on the album, and we’re finishing this tour—next stop is Toronto, and then Montreal—we’ll be playing some huge venues opening for Radio Radio, we have an Iphone app coming out next week, Alexander The will be recording with his other band Styrofoam Ones, lots of stuff.
AT: Overall, we’re just really pushing the future, man. We’re not staying stagnant!
—Jay Morritt
Times Neue Roman took the stage shortly after our interview, and I must say that they did their job. They started off with “Roq Roq”, loping nintendo-synth sounds over minimal house beats. On the Mic, Arowbe moved expertly from smooth flowing rhythm and rhyme to more staccato chanting-style passages “What would we be good for if not giving you what you came for?” he asked the increasingly lively dance floor, jumping up and down and in general getting himself, and the crowd, worked up. Arowbe dropped a mean free-style after that—the man has liquid lips. On the reggae-mash-up cycling anthem “Hands No Hands” TNR encouraged the audience to follow along to some simple hand gestures, and before long people were happy to let go of their handlebars together. After they left the stage, I went to reclaim the shirt I had tossed away at some point during the show. I had a good a sheen of sweat on. I got what I came for.
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Times Neue Roman ALERT!
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The TNR guys are in our fair city right now, working on their next record. They will also be doing a...The TNR guys are in our fair city right now, working on their next record. They will also be doing a show at the Cobalt this Friday as part of the magical Olio Festival. A great chance to catch one of Canada’s undiscovered hip hop upstarts.
Early on, TNR got the tag “Nintendo rap,” but **please** do not use that term. These guys don’t like it. They even came up with their own name for what they do, “deco rap.”
Any way,these guys can rawk a party. See you there!
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Olio | Times Neue Roman
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Picture this: you go to an art gallery in hopes of having works by Lichtenstein and Christian Marcla...Picture this: you go to an art gallery in hopes of having works by Lichtenstein and Christian Marclay wash over your artistic subconscious when, out of nowhere, you hear something. If it was the summer of 2008 you might have been lucky enough to experience the talents of Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe (Robert Bolton) and Alexander The, the dynamic “Rap Deco” duo known as Times Neue Roman, debuting at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Since their inception, their single “Best Est. 2019‚” has been featured on Much Music, MTV and an episode of CSI. But these down to earth hipsters claim that international fame isn’t high on their list of priorities. When asked which one person they would meet, if given the chance, and what TNR song this person would like, Robert declared that he wanted to “a mixtape of all the songs about adultery and have [Michael Douglas] host it. We’ll call it ‘Hi-Infidelity,’” Alexander added that he would “play Fight Night Round 4 and listen to Roq Roq with [Manny Pacquiao],” Filipino boxer and politician.
They’ve rocked out on rooftops, under bridges and everywhere in between, including a U-haul truck, but you don’t want to miss them at this year’s Olio Festival. Come down to The Colbalt Vancouver this Friday, September 24 for a night of sick beats, clever rhymes and two guys that know how to make you get up and dance.
Times Neu Roman play the Cobalt September 24.
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Five Olio shows that are teleporter-worthy
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Picking the best of any fest is always tough because A) there are so many acts, B) we're super nice ...Picking the best of any fest is always tough because A) there are so many acts, B) we're super nice here at E-Today and never want to hurt feelings, and C) sometimes two picks might be on at the same time in different venues and last we checked, teleporters have not yet been invented. All this aside, here we go (in no particular):
Chad VanGaalen, Friday at 11 p.m., The Rickshaw
Not only does this rising singer-songwriter from Calgary make pretty music, he's also an accomplished artist whose show will be accompanied by a multimedia installation.
Graham Clark, Friday at 7 p.m., The Rickshaw
A coup for Olio, Clark has written for This Hour has 22 Minutes, filmed his own hour-long Comedy Now! special, and has performed at Just for Laughs and Bumbershoot.
Times Neue Roman, Friday at midnight, The Cobalt
First off, it's a homecoming of sorts for MC Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe, a.k.a. Robert Bolton, who fronts this "nintendo-punk-rap" outfit that also includes Alexander The. (That's not a typo, it's just "The.") Second, they have a track on one of our favourite video games, Fight Night Round 4.
Needles//Pins, Saturday at 11 p.m., The Media Club
A super personal choice, we love this local band's fun take on the sounds laid down by pioneers like the Pixies and Ramones.
Bob Masse, Sunday at 6:30 p.m., W2 Storyeum
With their psychedelic patterns and distinct lettering and featuring artists such as the legendary Led Zeppelin, the concert posters of Bob Masse are not to be missed.
© Copyright (c) The Province
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/Five+Olio+shows+that+teleporter+worthy/3560742/story.html#ixzz13DxGTVZn
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New Forms Festival showcases Vancouver's vibrant media-art scene
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VANCOUVER -- After a decade of promoting technology-inspired sights and sounds, Vancouver’s New Form...VANCOUVER -- After a decade of promoting technology-inspired sights and sounds, Vancouver’s New Forms Festival plans to celebrate its 10th anniversary by highlighting some of the city’s pioneering media artists.
The theme for this year’s eight-day event is Traversing Electronic Narratives. According to exhibition curator Malcolm Levy, the heading is all about telling stories through multi-discipline art forms while illustrating how the media-arts community has become so closely connected.
“There is an incredible media-art scene in Vancouver,” Levy says via Skype, an applicable interview medium considering the nature of the festival.
“Vancouver artists have really embraced media arts over the years, and it’s one of the strongest scenes in North America. After 10 years, it’s not only a time to celebrate but also focus on what artists have done in Vancouver.
“One thing we wanted to be really clear about was creating a festival that really showed all the different types of media art, or a good amount of it. With New Forms, we’re looking at new technology, but also looking at really interesting, new ways of looking at art in general.”
Levy says the New Forms Festival has grown steadily in size and popularity since its inception. He also says this year’s event will be the largest festival of its kind in Vancouver, with more than 15 art installations ready to plug in.
The exhibition, being held at W2’s Storyeum, features everything from “digital graffiti” to popular electronic music by local bands such as Love and Electrik to interactive installations such as the Gramorail.
The Gramorail, with its concept and creation by the Vancouver Design Nerds, consists of a pedal-powered locomotive that tows a passenger car with a larger-than-life gramophone as its centrepiece.
“Energy awareness is a big part of the project,” says project member Chris Goodchild. “Throughout the process there has been an emphasis on using found and recycled objects as much as possible and pedal power is one of the most ingenious applications of human power in history. The project also acknowledges the rich rail history of Vancouver.
“As for the gramophone, we chose it as our sculptural piece/symbol because it’s an image that people can easily relate to the rail era and it adds to the whimsical nature of the project.”
For musical duo Times Neue Roman, movement and accessibility are key themes when it comes to their installation. The band will travel the streets during the opening night of the festival, playing their brand of Nintendo-punk-rap out of a U-Haul truck equipped with projections and a sound system.
“[Our project] is about taking an active role in the soundscape and cityscape, rather than simply letting it happen around you,” says Robert Bolton, who also goes by his band moniker Arowbe.
“We felt people should be playing in alternative spaces, and decided to keep it mobile.”
“Last time, [our project] had kind of a renegade status,” says bandmate Alexander The. “This time we are officially artists in the New Forms Festival. Either way, though, there’s no law against projecting photons on walls.”
New Forms first started as forum for artists who dabbled in the digital world, according to Levy. Blending traditional art and technology has become a somewhat expected practice.
The Internet has invaded our daily lives, and as a result, Levy says the New Forms Festival is more relevant than ever. He says the festival not only speaks to the Internet and social media culture that is thriving, but also exposes the art world that surrounds it.
“The digital world is all-encompassing. Technology doesn’t necessarily drive our lives, but it is certainly a conduit within it. Technology has become ubiquitous in society: social media, the Internet, being connected all the time. They’re norms now, and because of that the festival has grown and grown.
“We don’t need to explain [the festival] as much today as we did five or 10 years ago. When we first started trying to describe what we’re doing, it was difficult. Now it’s quite easy.”
Special to The Sun
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/westcoast-life/Forms+Festival+showcases+Vancouver+vibrant+media+scene/3496656/story.html#ixzz13Dz5GQvZ
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Times Neue Roman - Talking Sporty
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The thing with digitized electro rap ? a trend that's still too shiny and new to be over already ? i...The thing with digitized electro rap ? a trend that's still too shiny and new to be over already ? is its beat-focused, low synergy approach. That is: it begs a flow and savvy that many rap-reared rappers don't possess. This is not the case for Times Neue Roman, a bicoastal Canadian duo made up of poet Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe (Robert Bolton) and beatsmith Alexander The, who wield their Kensington Market-honed synth-hop on six-track LP Talking Sporty. Influences range from funk ("Roq Roq") to reggae ("Hands No Hands") to samba ("Music and Math"), and The skilfully melds these classic rhythms and patterns with grating, semi-dub-y bass and shimmering effects to sublime effect; it's a perfect backdrop for Arowbe's husky-voiced, poet-status city stories. To say this is "hipster hip-hop" would be dismissing Times Neue Roman's ability to transcend a trend. Instead, Talking Sporty is what new rap can do when it tries.
(YYZ)
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Christine Mangosing Interview
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Raised in Los Angeles, Manila and Vancouver, Christine Mangosing moved to Toronto at age 22 and foun...Raised in Los Angeles, Manila and Vancouver, Christine Mangosing moved to Toronto at age 22 and founded the boutique firm, CMANGO DESIGN. Since then she’s amassed an international client roster and taken on the role of art director at Exclaim!, Canada’s most widely distributed print publication. In her limited downtime, Mangosing makes a point of working across disciplines, applying her creative expertise to collaborations with musicians, writers, techies and theatre artists. Her sense of space and masterly ability to mediate the finicky relationship between image and text are her strongest assets. And while most contemporary artists strive for novelty— the old object of obliterating tradition— Mangosing’s work instead feels well researched, purposeful and enlightened.
Over the past year and a half, CMANGO has worked closely with post-rap band, Times Neue Roman, developing a catalogue of visual interpretations of their music including the art-deco inspired cover for “Talking Sporty (YYZ Records 2010),” and the artwork for TNR’s 7 inch vinyl single “Dear Lucille, Talksoon Aiden (Art Metropole 2010).” On July 24th 2010 at the Kultura Arts Festival in Toronto, Christine Mangosing and Times Neue Roman lyricist Robert Bolton will unveil their latest piece, “Of Silence” a visual score for the TNR song of the same title, as an exclusive edition of 5 books with audio CDs. FORMAT brings you an exclusive interview with the artist and a sneak peak at the never before published imagery.
You work for yourself at CMANGO DESIGN, What are the drawbacks and benefits of running your own business verses joining a big firm?
A huge benefit is the flexibility that being on my own offers. Since I have control over what design projects I take on and when, I can refrain, for the most part, from working on projects that don’t mean anything to me. It’s important for me to genuinely believe in the client and the project that I’ve been hired to do, otherwise it becomes just another job and I’m definitely not in this industry just because it’s a way to make money. Having a flexible schedule also means I have room to dabble in other mediums and work on multi-disciplinary collaborations with other artists. I’m also not much of a morning person and am most productive during the later hours of the day so making my own schedule is a huge plus. On the downside, being everything all at once can be a drag. Sometimes my entire day is taken up with the admin side of things as opposed to actually designing. I’m only now starting to feel comfortable outsourcing the more tedious stuff— which explains why I have a friend sitting in my kitchen right now that I’ve hired to deal with a giant folder of invoices and receipts. Not having the security offered by a paycheck every two weeks keeps me on my toes in both a good and bad way. It’s hard to plan ahead but I’ve been learning.
How did you initially connect with Times Neue Roman?
About 3 years ago, I met Alexander The through the Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts + Culture in Kensington Market, where I’m a founding member and Art Director. Soon after, Times Neue Roman started renting the studio space and since I was running CMANGO DESIGN out of the Centre’s office at the time, it was inevitable that conversation would occur as they came in and out of the studio and walked by my desk. I exhibited some work at one of Kapisanan’s art shows, which prompted Rob (Times Neue Roman’s Robert Bolton aka Arowbe) to ask if I would be down to collaborate. I’ve been working with them ever since.
Aside from your collaborations with Times Neue Roman, you’re also Art Director for national music publication, Exclaim!, How important is music to your artistic process?
On my home computer, where I work the majority of the time, there is an enormous library of music spanning a really wide spectrum of genres. This is a result of my own and my roommate’s divergent tastes, as well as an audiophile houseguest’s substantial contributions. The fact that I am always exposed to new music whenever I work at the Exclaim! office doesn’t hurt either. There’s always something to choose from to match my mood or the project that I’m working on. Music is most essential for late night work sessions, which, being a freelancer, are plentiful.
What do you listen to when you work?
It depends on the time of the day and the type of project. Earlier in the day I listen to more upbeat music and late night work sessions call for more ambient stuff. I find that the more tedious the work, the more I lean towards familiar music like 90’s R&B and hip-hop or soul from the 60’s and 70’s. Something about knowing all the lyrics helps me get through mind-numbing, repetitive tasks. Lately, daytime music has consisted of The Roots’ How I Got Over, the Major Lazer & La Roux mixtape, Prince’s 20Ten, Maylee Todd, anything and everything by Erykah Badu, and Janelle Monae. Late night sounds include Toro y Moi, The XX, Sade, Bibio, Quadron and Four Tet.
How has the relationship between the two fields (visual arts and music) shaped your development? What was your introduction to each?
I have two older sisters who were both attending art school by the time I was in elementary school. I grew up surrounded by their art and being the grateful recipient of their hand-me-down art supplies. My sister Catherine, a graphic designer, gave me a box full of paper stock and a paper cutter, and my sister Caroline, a photographer, gave me discarded prints of her photography projects and old magazines, which got me started collaging, and led the way to graphic design. Music — hip-hop in particular, came my way via Power 106, which I heard on car radios and boomboxes in the playground of my elementary school in Los Angeles, where I lived in the mid-80’s. Later, when I moved to Vancouver, my godsister who still lived in LA, sent me mixtapes of songs she recorded off the radio.
The golden-era hip-hop seems pretty apparent in your design aesthetic. Agree?
Sure. I often draw from historical references and since I grew up on late 80s and early-mid 90s hip-hop and have loved it from a young age, it would make sense that it would influence my work.
By the age of 22, you’d lived in Los Angeles, Manila, Vancouver and Toronto, how does (re)location play into your work?
Each city I’ve lived in has been drastically different from the next— culturally, visually, sonically, etc. I feel that fragments of each of the worlds I’ve inhabited are evident in my work and my interests. Moving to the Philippines had the most significant effect on me both personally and creatively. I was born there and left as a toddler so I had no memory of it by the time I moved back as a teenager. By the time I went back to Canada to study fine arts and design, the colours, patterns, lines and shapes of pre-colonial and post-colonial art + design had made an impact and found their way into my work. I’ve been particularly fascinated with Philippine Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which adapted the styles carried over from Europe at the turn-of-the-century and incorporated imagery of flora and fauna native to the Philippines and geometric patterns found in traditional indigenous textiles and tattoos.
As well as serving as an Art Director at Kapisanan, you also mentor and facilitate workshops. How important is it for you to share your expertise with aspiring artists and designers?
I was fortunate to grow up with sisters who influenced me and mentored me every step of the way but I know that not everyone has that kind of access. A lot of the young artists I’ve met face a lack of support from their families in choosing to pursue the arts, much less choosing to pursue a career in the arts independently. It’s extremely important to me to pass on what I’ve learned along the way and be able to nudge someone in the direction of building a career out of something they love to do and not just something they’ve been told or think is the practical choice.
The Art Deco look of Times Neue Roman’s new EP Talking Sporty was decidedly different from their previous punk DIY looks. What was the process behind that?
Rob from TNR came to me with the idea of working with an Art Deco aesthetic for the Talking Sporty EP album art. I started working on concepts based on photos he scanned in from an Art Deco book he found and images I collected of Harper’s Bazaar magazine covers from the 20’s and 30’s. Rob wanted an interpretation of a slick gent taking his lady out for a night on the town, one of the more prevalent scenarios found in Art Deco illustration. I brought on Ilona Fiddy, a frequent CMANGO DESIGN-collaborator to work on the illustration of the couple. I worked in the acidic colours and pixelated background to bring the piece into the present and kept the linework and typography loyal to the Art Deco style. The cardboard texture is a nod to the hand-painted cigarette box labels from the era. Simple as it is, the expression on the man’s face was one of the things that took the longest. After Ilona passed the hand-drawn illustration over to me and I started working on it digitally, there was a lot of back and forth between us to make the man’s expression look like he was talking sporty. It took a few tries but ultimately I think the art resulted in something we’re all happy with.
Talk about the process of translating music and lyrics into visuals for your new book, “Of Silence.”
I loved the song from the start and was really excited when Times Neue Roman approached me about working on a visual component. I listened to the song over and over again with the lyrics in front of me, marking the beat and the way the lyrics were broken up, and the pitch and volume at which certain lines or words were said in contrast to others. I wanted to use typography to illustrate the aural and visual cacophony of city intersections as well as to recreate the rhythm of the song itself. Lines and dots, in reference to Morse Code, interact with the words, alternately creating sound and silence. Russian Constructivism, Bauhaus, Futurism, maps, and percussion notation were all sources of inspiration. It was a long process over the course of a year and a half with a lot of stops and starts. I put a lot of pressure on myself and couldn’t settle on something I was happy with, but once I was able to get something on paper that resembled what I saw in my head, the project grew on its own.
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Oh Em Gee, It’s Time for Riff 3!
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Your wristbands are strapped on, you’ve scoured the schedule grid to plan your attack, you’ve comple...Your wristbands are strapped on, you’ve scoured the schedule grid to plan your attack, you’ve completed your budgeting to see how much Rifflandibrau you can quaff—Rifflandia is here. Just like last year, we’ll be sending out photographer Casey Bennett as well as bloggers Jay Morritt (who you may remember from our Fringe Fest coverage) and arts editor Amanda Farrell-Low (that’s me!). Expect awesome photos (check out Casey’s work from last year) plus some exclusive interviews and show reviews from myself and Jay, all right here—and we’ll be sure to keep our followers on Twitter and Facebook posted. With a lineup that includes folks like Times Neue Roman, Chali 2na, Aesop Rock, Melissa Auf de Mar, K’Naan and many, many others (157 artists in 10 venues over 4 days, to be exact) it’s sure to be one hell of a weekend.
In the meantime, why not whet your appetite with the Rifflandia coverage in this week’s issue? We’ve got our How-To Guide and interviews with Chali 2na and Kathryn Calder.
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Talking Sporty : Times Neue Roman
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“Look at the way, look at the way, look at the way that I rock, rock…” About a week and a half ago I...“Look at the way, look at the way, look at the way that I rock, rock…” About a week and a half ago I got invited to the brand new EP release party for Toronto’s very own Times Neue Roman. A zany fusion of sounds that can only be best described as nintendo-hiphop-punk-rap, Talkin’ Sporty makes me feel like I was playing Super Mario on 3D with some insane light show… on SHROOMS. Lol. Even better than listening to the album on my Panasonic RP HTX7's? Times Neue Roman LIVE. Consisting of producer extraordinaire, Alexander The, and Vancouver native award winning poet Arowbe — these two make a bad ass duo.
Alexander The, or JR, as I’ve known him, I’ve written about sometime ago, when I attended an MTV debut of his other musical group, Styrofoam Ones. I was so confused between the two bands before because I had no idea JR was rollin’ with two, but after having heard the both of them, it’s evident that JR has a lotta fun being able to play with different sounds between the separate vibes of his two groups. The man is pure and utter brilliance.
Arowbe I came across a minute and a half ago, at the Kapisanan Centre one random day. We chopped it up over Vancouverite mutual understandings while playing Super Nintendo. He’s a solid dude with good vibes all around, and makes a killing on the mic. He was hoppin’ all OVER the place during the concert which made the show non-stop hype. I look forward to hearing more of his work in the coming future of their inevitable rise and success.
You can check out Talkin’ Sporty and find out more about Times Neue Roman HERE. Keep your ears perked for word on future shows because if you’re not convinced by this EP, then surely you will be charmed by their live shows… and get reeaaallly sweaty. Lol.
[the infamous Beetle Jenn]
[Spotted: Miss Caroline and Tito Kevin of Kapisanan Centre]
[oh clair bear, how I've missed you on the dance floor]
[Arowbe, Arowbe, Arowbe]
[Quite possibly the only time I saw him take a breather during the show.]
[DJ Warm It Up Chris from Vancity, brrrap!]
[Alexander The]
[Rod Skimmins and K-fed]
[Bboy Tin-Tin]
[Miss C*Mango]
[Miss Anda Untilla]
For more pictures, scope em’ out on my flickr HERE.
I’ve spoken my piece.
Peace!
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Times Neue Roman
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I’ve been chatting with some friends about this band, Times Neue Roman, for the past two weeks, tryi...I’ve been chatting with some friends about this band, Times Neue Roman, for the past two weeks, trying to figure out exactly what to expect from them next month when their new single and video drops. I’ve given their latest EP Zombies: The To Die Remixes a few listens now, an INTELLIGENIX/ELECTROBOUNCE release, and the tracks are a fun mix; PS BEUYS’ minimal remix sounds like something Burial might do, Peter Project’s has a Breakbeat remix that is my pick off the album, there are a couple of good synth pop tracks, and hometown hero Barletta comes through in true fashion with a great electro remix a la Steve Aoki on Gifted. I’ve presented a couple here for your listening pleasure, and will have my ear to the ground for the next few weeks waiting for ‘Best Est. 2019' to drop.
Enjoy!
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Times Neue Roman video for Best est. 2019
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Toronto’s Times Neue Roman would have been a way better representation of Canada than Nickleback las...Toronto’s Times Neue Roman would have been a way better representation of Canada than Nickleback last night.
Here’s the video for their new single, “Best est. 2019?, which comes out March 2nd.
http://vimeo.com/7945049
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Introducing Times Neue Roman
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Live From “The End”, the band’s Kensington Market studio in Toronto – Times Neue Roman brings rock w...Live From “The End”, the band’s Kensington Market studio in Toronto – Times Neue Roman brings rock with a general tone and attitude of teenage immortality. Comprised of an award winning poet, Arowbe Arowbe Arowbe (Robert Bolton) and composer, Alexander The, TNR’s peerless sound has been turning heads and snapping necks.
Since debuting in 2008, Times Neue Roman have been rousing crowds at basement jams, rooftops, auto-garages, house parties, pubs, glitzy clubs, NXNE, Juno Fest and the back of a U-Haul truck. They flaunt a live show complete with wild theatrics, reckless moshing, tribal percussion and live visuals.
Even while breaking every rule of song writing and conventional structure, TNR’s popular potential is confirmed by recent placements of their single “Roq Roq” on the EA Sports video game, Fight Night: Round 4 and other songs on TV series like CSI: Las Vegas, A&E’s The Cleaner, MTV Presents: Summer Sessions and 11th Hour.
Times Neue Roman are no strangers to the dance floor either, as confirmed by the recent January 16th release of Zombies; a remix package including heavy-hitters like Barletta’s refix of “To Die” and DJ Jedi’s anthemic remix of “Hi, This Is My New Song”.
It is thus, with great anticipation, we announce their newest single “Best Est. 2019? on February 23rd, which is sure to place TNR among the exciting wave of Canadian artists emerging in this new decade.
CHECK OUT THEIR VIDEO BELOW: Times Neue Roman :: Best Est. 2019
http://vimeo.com/7945049
2010 is slated to be a big year so keep your eyes and ears peeled for Times Neue Roman, March 11th at the Musebox showcase for Canadian Music Week and March 26th at Ronny’s in Chicago.
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Times Neue Roman "Best Est. 2019"
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Times Neue Roman have released a video for their new single "Best Est. 2019."
Watch the video for...Times Neue Roman have released a video for their new single "Best Est. 2019."
Watch the video for "Best Est. 2019" by Times Neue Roman below.
http://vimeo.com/7945049
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Breaking Neue's
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We at nxew.ca are happy to be the first to announce that Toronto band Times Neue Roman have signed t...We at nxew.ca are happy to be the first to announce that Toronto band Times Neue Roman have signed to YYZ Records fresh off their smash set at Sneaky Dee's on March 11th as part of Canadian Music Fest. Members of the band and management were at the YYZ Records showcase last night at Wrongbar.
http://www.myspace.com/timesneueroman
http://yyzrecords.com/
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MySpacedOut
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Being the Block Clocker is a completely new and unparalleled experience for this one. The amount of ...Being the Block Clocker is a completely new and unparalleled experience for this one. The amount of e-mail I got in my first week shows that cats are hungry and trying to get up. I have a smile on my face right now, thinking of how damn near everyone that’s reached out so far is so talented. How do I know? Because despite myself, I love you all so much I now officially have to fuck with MySpace. I was never a hater, to be fair—just wasn’t inclined to visit.
If I didn’t, though, I couldn’t tell you what I think about the rapid-fire electro rap of Toronto’s Times Neue Roman, who drop by Jupiter Room tonight, Thursday, March 25, alongside Lioness. If not for the mystery of MySpace, I could not have concluded that if you go to this show, you will get sweaty and ridiculous and miss class on Friday morning, if you really know what you’re doing.
The line-up for Sunday night at Café Chaos made me come to terms with the fact that MySpace is simply a good thing. Locals Jus Frais (host), Underground Realroad, Miss Tee, Clarity and SRH and Ottawa’s Philly Moves were all just nice ideas to me until I sniffed around and caught the whiff of skill and potential. The best thing about being able to recommend this show is that I might never have known about it if not for one of the artists’ dear old auntie, who e-mailed me on the sneak. I won’t name names, but sometimes all it takes is that little extra push, so never forget that if you don’t ask, you won’t get.
These next folks already know that, so a formal introductory call to Vox Sambou confirmed that on Wednesday, March 31, Café Campus sees him, Dramatik of Muzion, Nomadic Massive, Moe Clark, Meryem Saci and DJ Andy Williams all working together for Solid’Ayiti II, a fundraising initiative for the Lycée Jean-Baptiste Cinéas school in Sambou’s hometown of Limbé in northern Haiti. Get ’em up in the air for a beautiful cause.
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The Split Magazine
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Time Neue Roman won over the crowd early on with their unique blend of electro, hip hop and some roc...Time Neue Roman won over the crowd early on with their unique blend of electro, hip hop and some rock elements. Alexander The, lyricist of the band, started the show off with a very clever rhyme about having “Shannon for dinner and eating Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” which, cheesy innuendo aside, got a lot of people going right off the bat. Their first song was very synth heavy, which had people dancing along and clapping. The time conflict with Kids on TV’s set made Times Neue Roman’s show quite short but some strong points in their set were their ability to engage the audience with their word play and awesome use of drums, synth, and laptop beats.
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WallFarmers
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March 2010‹ Arowbe of Times Neue Roman returned home to Toronto during his reading week break from t...March 2010‹ Arowbe of Times Neue Roman returned home to Toronto during his reading week break from the University of Chicago. After a 6-month hiatus, Times Neue Roman played 7 shows in Ontario and Quebec in this short span of time. Four of those shows took place in assorted Toronto basements, attics, afterhours parties and dive bars, where their collaboration with Tonka Puma, ³Toronto² was championed as an anthem. Here¹s the footage. Do you think it captures the TSOT? (The Sound/Spirit/Sweat of Toronto?)
-Thanks to Eli Wener for the info!!)
