print/music
urban nostalgia A pAeAn to A city thAt no longer exists “In the ’80s there was crack everywhere. It was just blocks of zombies. Even downtown, which is now like fashion city, there would be piles and piles of vials.” Photographer Sue Kwon is reminiscing about her New York. In her striking collection Street Level, Kwon lovingly documents energy and life amid the decay, finding beauty, pathos, and pride in the people she shoots. The biggest character of all, though, is the city itself. Decrepit, stately, and loaded with backstory, New York looms large as the center of the universe. The book is broken down into sections: Times Square, Coney Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Little Italy, the Bronx, and Chinatown. The photos, which Kwon began taking as a teenager, weren’t shot to be compiled but they form a seamless narrative nonetheless. “I would pack gum, eyeliner, a camera, and a light meter in my bag when I would leave every day,” she says. Today’s financial climate lends Street Level added currency. In disinfected landscapes of luxury towers, many condos are now empty, the buildings unfinished. This could only mean richer subjects for Kwon to photograph. “Yesterday, I saw this woman with a shower cap on her head instead of an umbrella because it was raining,” Kwon says excitedly. “There are pockets of intrinsic beauty, but it’s not as readily available—it doesn’t permeate you in the same way. It’s sad to say, but when it was run-down, it was rich visually. It was like candy!” William van meter photography sue KWon
the gift that Keeps giving hAppy electronic birthdAy, WArp records!
The seminal techno label Warp celebrates its twentieth year of mind-fuck dance-floor
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ImAgE COURTESy WARp RECORDS
fodder with a deluxe box set. Warp20 is comprised of a double CD overview compiled by fans and label cofounder Steve Beckett. The “best-of” features tracks by benchmark members of the Warp stable including Boards of Canada and LFO. It’s the rest of the package that makes Warp20 a must-have, however, for any dance music aficionado. Two discs are devoted to artists covering Warp tracks from the English label’s history—an interesting avenue for techno to say the least. The covers are split into two discs featuring atmospheric reinterpretations and aural attacks. Standouts include Born Ruffians’s hypnotic/scary Aphex Twin medley. But that ain’t all. A triple 10” vinyl features unheard tracks from Warp’s vaults, including Broadcast’s stellar cover of former Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico’s “Sixty/Forty.” Rounding out the impressive package is a full-color catalogue showing off the trippy album art to every single release the label has put out in its two-decade history. Warp20 is a completist’s Rosetta Stone of the story of modern dance music. Wvm