Har Mar Superstar: How Did I Get Through The Day?

You might have spotted Har Mar Superstar in the season three premiere of Broad City as the “Oy Bomb” dude in the art gallery, but he isn’t abandoning his career as a chest-baring rockstar just quite yet. His upcoming album Best Summer Ever, out from longtime friend Julian Casablancas’ label Cult Records, has been summed up as “Greatest Hits of Har Mar Superstar from 1950-1985.” …

Premiere: “Shikoku” by Kate Simko + London Electronic Orchestra

Fusing violins, harp and more with analog synths and drum machines

Producers love a good, lush swell of strings—but in electronic and even pop music, they’re for the most part software simulations. Chicago-raised, now London-based composer Kate Simko has a miniature orchestra available at hand (two violinists, a harpist, a bassist and two cellists) to fuse with analog synths and drum machines, like the classic Roland Jupiter-8 and TR-909. Together, the all-female collective performs this hybrid …

The Laslett, London

An apartment-like boutique hotel experience in Notting Hill

On the hushed street of Pembridge Gardens, lined with pristine Victorian townhouses, one would hardly have any idea that five of these Notting Hill residences—which date from the mid 1800s and Grade 2 listed—actually conceal a hotel. The exterior of newcomer The Laslett has been preserved so carefully, with no marked signage, in fact, that we had to double back and retrace our path a …