ListenUp

The historic Nelson Mandela anthem, Kirsten Dunst in anime costume, a lot of NTS radio and more in our look at music this week

It’s Nice That + NTS Radio’s Black Impulse Playlist Our creativity-championing friends over at It’s Nice That have let the folks from Black Impulse on NTS Radio hijack their weekly mixtape—resulting in two hours of music, most of which you’ve probably never heard before. Heather Weil focuses on prog, heavy psych, 1970s and ’80s punk and hardcore. She explains, “These are three really difficult genres …

The Special AKA: Nelson Mandela

The historic Nelson Mandela anthem, Kirsten Dunst in anime costume, a lot of NTS radio and more in our look at music this week

As the world mourns the passing of Nelson Mandela this week, we remember his profound spirit through the UK band The Special AKA’s 1984 catchy anthem, “Nelson Mandela“—released as “(Free) Nelson Mandela” stateside. Produced by Elvis Costello, the song fuses the band’s characteristic ska beats and brass with African harmonies, propelled by Stan Campbell’s persuasive voice. Differing from most political protest songs, it is upbeat, …

Motion Box-Set

The London-based artist Von develops his "Animal Series" in a new hands-on collage process

We first wrote about London-based artist Von‘s “Animal Series” when he exhibited at Brooklyn’s Espeis Gallery back in 2007. Since then, his delicately rendered and abstracted monochrome images of various animals from the series have appeared on the catwalks of Milan, the pages of Creative Review’s monthly publication Monograph and even on billboards in both London and New York. Now, the artist has released “Motion,” …