See the Seals through binoculars

Johnny Jewel & Mike Simonetti : Hollywood Seven

2012-02-14T20:55:00.002+01:00

Field Music : Plumb

2012-02-14T20:38:00.002+01:00

Kindness : World, You Need A Change Of Mind

2012-02-14T20:36:00.001+01:00

Strange Weekend : Porcelain Raft

2012-02-14T20:24:00.001+01:00

Here We Go Magic : A Different Ship

2012-02-14T20:21:00.001+01:00

Nite Jewel : One Second Of Love

2012-01-08T06:36:00.000+01:00

School Of Seven Bells : Ghostory

2012-01-08T06:30:00.000+01:00

Tennis : Young & Old

2012-01-08T06:26:00.000+01:00

Matthew Dear : Headcage

2012-01-08T06:23:00.002+01:00

Todd Terje : It's The Arps

2012-01-08T06:20:00.000+01:00

Symmetry : Themes For an Imaginary Film

2012-01-08T06:15:00.003+01:00

Lambchop : Mr. M

2011-11-26T11:13:00.001+01:00

Maria Minerva : Sacred & Profane Love

2011-11-26T11:11:00.001+01:00

Glass Candy : Warm In The Winter

2011-11-08T21:31:00.001+01:00

Lindstrøm : Six Cups Of Rebel

2011-11-08T15:34:00.001+01:00

The Black Keys : El Camino

2011-11-02T16:22:00.001+01:00

The Beach Boys : Smile

2011-11-02T16:09:00.001+01:00

Chromatics : Kill For Love

2011-10-26T19:18:00.001+02:00

Memory Tapes : Piano Player

2011-10-26T19:06:00.001+02:00

The Juan MacLean : Everybody Get Close

2011-10-19T16:49:00.001+02:00

Miracle Fortress : Was I The Wave?

2011-10-19T11:09:00.001+02:00

Kuedo : Severant

2011-10-18T17:38:00.002+02:00

Maaemo, Oslo

2011-10-17T18:11:00.003+02:00

Arthur Russell : Let's Go Swimming

2011-10-12T11:33:00.000+02:00

Sandro Perri : Impossible Spaces

2011-10-11T21:54:00.001+02:00

Future Islands : On The Water

2011-10-07T10:32:00.001+02:00

Real Estate : Days

2011-10-03T11:17:00.001+02:00

Acrylics : Lives & Treasure

2011-10-03T10:52:00.001+02:00

YACHT : Shangri-La

2011-10-01T18:26:00.001+02:00

Twin Sister : In Heaven

2011-09-28T20:50:00.001+02:00

The Besnard Lakes : You Lived In The City

2011-09-23T00:19:00.001+02:00

Youth Lagoon : The Year Of Hibernation

2011-09-22T23:52:00.002+02:00

The Duke Spirit : Bruiser

2011-09-21T21:03:00.001+02:00

Lana Del Rey : Video Games/Blue Jeans

2011-09-14T19:07:00.001+02:00

The Field : Looping State Of Mind

2011-09-09T21:41:00.002+02:00

Azari & III - Azari & III

2011-09-07T22:36:00.003+02:00

Luke Temple : Don't Act Like You Don't Care

2011-09-07T08:57:00.001+02:00

Blood Orange : Coastal Grooves

2011-09-02T17:20:00.002+02:00

Gotye : Making Mirrors

2011-08-23T22:12:00.002+02:00

Rumble in Rhodos : Signs of Fervent Devotion

2011-08-15T23:59:00.002+02:00

Mike Simonetti : Capricorn Rising

2011-08-15T23:23:00.000+02:00

Diskjokke : Sagara

2011-07-11T10:39:00.000+02:00

Blue Hill at Stone Barns, NYC

2011-06-22T22:04:00.002+02:00

It's All True : Junior Boys

2011-06-18T16:16:00.000+02:00

11 Madison Park, NYC

2011-06-18T16:10:00.001+02:00

Happy Mothers Day, Mum

2011-05-08T11:10:00.002+02:00

Gang Gang Dance : Eye Contact

2011-05-06T15:51:00.000+02:00

Calendar Cheese, Will Studd

2011-05-03T16:06:00.002+02:00

Duchess of Spotswood, Melbourne

2011-05-03T15:57:00.004+02:00

Seven Seeds, Melbourne

2011-05-03T15:53:00.002+02:00

The Antlers : Burst Apart

2011-05-03T15:51:00.000+02:00

Battles : Gloss Drop

2011-05-03T15:49:00.000+02:00

Panda Bear : Tomboy

2011-03-24T07:59:00.002+01:00

Bill Callahan : Apocalypse

2011-03-24T07:52:00.000+01:00

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart : Belong

2011-03-18T17:16:00.000+01:00

Fat Duck, Bray

2011-03-17T18:18:00.001+01:00

Here We Go Magic : The January EP

2011-03-10T08:10:00.001+01:00

Arthur's Landing : Arthur's Landing

2011-02-22T19:20:00.000+01:00

Pummelvision'd

2011-02-20T18:25:00.000+01:00

Hercules & Love Affair : Blue Songs

2011-02-14T17:23:00.000+01:00

Nordic Barista Cup, Oslo

2011-02-04T10:04:00.000+01:00

Maaemo, Oslo

2011-02-04T09:46:00.001+01:00

All organic, all delicious... Maaemo

Toro y Moi : Underneath the Pine

2011-02-04T09:36:00.003+01:00

Akron/Family : S/T II - The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT

2011-01-13T18:16:00.000+01:00

A Crafty Christmas

2010-12-22T19:53:00.000+01:00

Noma, Copenhagen

2010-12-06T21:20:00.000+01:00

Norwegian brown cheese, little dried blackcurrant and beetroot ice.

Cut Copy : Zonoscope

2010-11-30T19:34:00.001+01:00

'stralyan farkin' pop music ya cunts.

Eternal Weekend : Abigail Varney

2010-11-30T19:23:00.000+01:00

The talented member of the family...

Karagoto, Kenya

2010-11-24T16:00:00.002+01:00

More photos here... and words here...

Iron & Wine : Kiss Each Other Clean

2010-11-13T20:39:00.003+01:00

Can't wait for this... and for this...

Tuscany : Italy

2010-11-05T20:08:00.003+01:00

Wow. Missing these people... cracking week with Team Toscana.

James Blake : Klavierwerke

2010-11-05T09:51:00.000+01:00

Not really a dubstep kinda guy, but this is pretty moody amazing stuff...

Foxes In Fiction : Swung From The Branches

2010-11-01T22:01:00.001+01:00

Dreamy, fluffy goodness with splashes of Twin Peakiness. Gotta be in the mood for it though.

Sufjan Stevens : The Age of Adz

2010-10-26T20:31:00.000+02:00

Classic Sufjan, but with space dust added...

Avey Tare : Down There

2010-10-11T21:01:00.003+02:00

Murkiness from that guy from Animal Collective...

Glasser : Ring

2010-10-08T20:57:00.000+02:00

Twin Shadow : Forget

2010-09-23T18:16:00.001+02:00

The Craft : Becoming World Champion

2010-09-20T16:06:00.006+02:00

The Craft written & directed by Tim Varney & Chris Kolbu, filmed & edited by Brendan Inkognito on Vimeo.

Mum

2010-08-05T19:39:00.001+02:00

Wavves : King of the Beach

2010-08-01T13:19:00.000+02:00

Delicatessen, Oslo

2010-08-01T13:13:00.000+02:00

Happy 3rd Birthday, Tim Wendelboe

2010-08-01T13:03:00.000+02:00

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

2010-07-19T14:52:00.003+02:00

Cool unofficial video of 'Round & Round'...

Here comes the aeroplane...

2010-07-19T14:46:00.004+02:00

Harper and Glyn... Glyn can also be seen here.

Happy Birthday Mum...

2010-07-08T13:41:00.000+02:00

Dirty Projectors & Björk : Mount Wittenberg Orca

2010-07-05T15:46:00.004+02:00

http://www.mountwittenbergorca.com/

World Barista Championships, London

2010-07-05T10:17:00.002+02:00

The wonderful Mike Phillips took it home... so well deserved.

El Bulli, Costa Brava

2010-07-05T10:04:00.004+02:00

35 courses, no cutlery until the 6th course and no knives throughout. Met my expectations. Beautiful.

Abigail Loves, Bin Diving

2010-06-17T09:03:00.006+02:00

Stolen from my sister.

Here We Go Magic : Pigeons

2010-06-11T22:18:00.001+02:00

Kjerringvik, Norway

2010-06-11T14:24:00.000+02:00

Spent Norway's national day down at this little seaside town. Good food & wine too.

Kødbyens Fiskebar, Copenhagen

2010-06-07T14:06:00.004+02:00

Beautiful seafood & especially good desserts.

Mikkeler, Copenhagen

2010-06-06T12:08:00.004+02:00

Best Pilsner i have ever had. Aromas of passionfruit and skunky weed. Super fresh.

Mikkeler

Distortion, Copenhagen

2010-06-06T11:56:00.001+02:00

A fun street festival with the Europa crew.

Primavera Sound, Barcelona

2010-06-04T00:17:00.003+02:00

Grizzly Bear played. Twice as good as when i heard them play in Oslo.

Tokyo, Japan

2010-06-04T00:05:00.002+02:00

I've become blog lazy. I only post photos with short descriptions now.

Stumptown, Amsterdam

2010-06-04T00:04:00.003+02:00

Went on a road trip with Team Square Mile. Flew from Oslo to London, then drove to and from Amsterdam.

Eliza on the left and Annabelle on the right...

2010-01-24T12:02:00.002+01:00

Massive congrats to Chris and Alice. Two little parcels of joy have arrived. This is what we predicted back in summer 2009 in Oslo, and we were right!

Tasmania

2010-01-18T10:34:00.004+01:00

Some snaps from our amazing NYE in Dover, the far south of Tasmania.

The Alternative Melbourne Coffee Review

2010-01-14T05:56:00.023+01:00

Jetlag has beaten me this time. It is 5am, my head is churning with coffee related thoughts, and sleeping isn't going to happen. Apart from seeing friends and family on my trip back to Melbourne, checking out the healthy coffee scene was high on my list. My last visit was in February, and since then a bucket load of new roasters and cafes have sprung up.

My first port of call was Market Lane Coffee, this fitted in nicely with the Christmas food shopping required from the Prahran Market. It felt like it had all peaked to early for me - Market Lane was an absolute highlight. It was warm outside, but Jason and Fleur's reception was even warmer. The place is beautiful, and even though it was one of the busiest days at the Market, Jason had time for a cupping with me. La Candelilla, a Geisha from Costa Rica caught my attention on the cupping table. A beautiful Yirgy pour over into a cup of ice helped refresh me too. And their espresso, was close to the best of the trip. Attentive, hospitable and uber friendly were the guys at Market Lane. Without a doubt, somebody to keep an eye on this year.

St. Ali was next. Salvatore and Toshi visited us at Tim Wendelboe earlier this year, and i was keen to spend plenty of time with them. Most places between Christmas and New Year were closed, expecting to be quiet. St. Ali was pumping. Such a great vibe at this place, if you ever needed to explain the Melbourne cafe scene in one neat little package, a visit to this place will make it perfectly clear for you. Toshi showered me with siphons. The Costa Rican Herbazu hit the spot. He nailed a brew of our Cielito Lindo. Food here is gorgeous too, a million miles beyond what is offered in cafes in Oslo - so much more adventurous than brown cheese on bread! This place will continue to grow, and evolve - some incredible things happening in Yarra Place this year. Again, another lane to keep an eye on...

The exuberant Salvatore was my driver for a day, returning the favour from his visit to Oslo, but this time in a more luxurious nature. Outpost, a cute little space that looks like you are in someone's kitchen had plenty of charm. Then to the almost impossible space of The Sensory Lab. The charming Kris Wood was there to lead me through the offerings. It is a gutsy concept, bringing specialty coffee to the masses, especially hard in the thoroughfare of a busy department store. Again, the space looks great, and with tweaking will be an important part of coffee eduction for the Melbournians who want to explore coffee beyond espresso. Salvatore and the St. Ali crew will bring more excitement to Melbourne this year, the sky is the limit for these guys, investing a great deal in improving coffee.

Then to Proud Mary. Never have I met a more excitable and inquisitive person than in Nolan. We'd never met, but before i knew it we were deep into coffee musings and geekery. Humble, knowledgeable and passionate - a difficult 3 qualities to have at once. Every brewing option was available here, and all done with undivided attention and care. Nolan will dive into roasting soon on a 5kg Gieson, and if the same amount of consideration given to brewing goes into his roasting, i'm sure the lovely people of Collingwood will have something to cheer about. Hopefully, we will see him in Oslo sometime this year too...

Brother Baba Budan took me down memory lane with a really well Clovered Shakiso, and although it was fading a bit, it still gave me that wonderful upfront fruit parcel of joy. The charming Marina of Seven Seeds was there to give me the low down. This place is as good as ever, and had some lovely single origins on offer. Without a doubt the best place in the CBD to get your fix. It seems to attract a gaggle of fashionable fixie folks who have good taste when it comes to coffee too.

From car garage in February to coffee haven now, Seven Seeds has relatively quietly become the trailblazer for coffee in Melbourne. Real passion is oozing from Mark, Bridget and Justin. They were ever generous and relaxing to be around. Everywhere i looked, there were either little experiments and evidence of their input into the product. The greenhouse, the humidity controlled green storage and handmade wall paper all point to the hands on approach of Mark and Bridget. Lunch was unpretentious and delicious, perfect for the daily flock of students from the university nearby. It was 43 degrees outside, so the lime granita was perfect.

Deaton kinda beat me to it in a post about the future for coffee in Australia, and he hits the nail on the head with many points. Most importantly being seasonal coffee. I think the better roasters in Melbourne at the very least care about seasonality, but due to the excruciating amount of time it takes to get coffee to Australia, it becomes a battle against the clock to get the coffee there before they fade. It is also good to see other brewing styles slowly creeping up on the espresso centric market, and hopefully the roasting will develop to suit these brewing styles. Seeing more retail space in cafes and roasters with pre packaged beans would be good to see - surely sales will go up if the beans are readily available to the customer. The book and website of the Melbourne Coffee Review are also excellent resources for spreading the goodness...

I love Melbourne.