roi - smears ['exclusive' download]

Last year Roi Cydulkin released his first EP, smears. Having been in correspondence for some months from our dual involvement (admittedly he more than I) in Dossier Journal's blog and our mutual interests in requisite art/fashion/music/photography-related things, Roi (pronounced 'ro-ey', like joey, if you will) asked me whether I would do the imagery for his new record. Of course I said yes.

Roi wanted something black & white and slightly abstracted so I sent a few different options from photos I'd already taken and took a few new rolls for good measure. Roi made the final choice and it was (comme toujours) those he'd picked out first that we stuck with.

These are both square crops from what were originally rectangular images. The front cover was photographed in Berlin and the back cover in Sydney. The Sydney image was originally in colour. The graphics were done by Roi.

Front:Back:
I'm really proud of the way these images turned out and very glad to have had the chance to collaborate with Roi, whose music I really love. I'm the worst at describing music genres, I'd probably just embarrass myself and coin 'neu-psychedelia-folk-tribal-pop-rock' or something, so I'm lucky Roi has described it so well on his MySpace page (link above): Minimalist/Surf.

I think that description is pretty spot on, but just to avoid any miscommunication, and in keeping with our digitally connected universe (totally apt!), Mr. Cydulkin has been kind enough to give Raddest Right Now readers an exclusive download (is that an oxymoron?) of smears. This is an RRN first so I am super excited!

To download, click: roi - smears

I'd love to know what you think. What is your favourite track?

Enjoy! Thank you, Roi!