experiment: (ex·per·i·ment): function: transative verb: to play
Kid Carpet is a musician from the UK who I love to bits. His music would be categorized as “experimental,” but what does that really mean to anyone? To me they’re flat out good songs. His choice of instruments, however, is really unusual. Remember those battery-powered toy guitars made for little kids? Know those cheap Casio keyboards that you still see being unloaded at garage sales? And Furbies? This is his medium. It’s awesome.
For me, those mysteriously lonesome shoes you see lying abandoned roadside are regrettable litter. But to Kid Carpet, that’s a song. An old ad for a carpet store becomes symphonic in his toy filled orchestra.
Clip from “There’s a Shoe” -
“Bristol Carpet Factory” in entirety, because it’s too short to reasonably be able to make a clip -
Sometimes I think “experimental” is really verbal shorthand for “playful.” When children and adults play, they try new things out - they experiment. Who doesn’t like to play?
From a discussion on another blog, I had to point out one of the weirdest fragrances I’ve smelled. Comme des Garçons’ Odeur 71 is, in all honesty, a terrible perfume. By that I don’t mean it’s a bad fragrance, it’s just not “perfumey” in the manner you usually think of fragrances being.
The typewriter ribbons I smelled in Man 2 are there right on the top. Then I get a little whiff of a weirdo on a bus drinking mystery booze in a paper sack. Then a car interior that’s been freshly cleaned with Armor All and had the felt-covered bucket seats vacuumed. Tree bark. Computers. Metal knives chopping bell peppers. Wilting and limpid flowers. Finally, there is laundromat, which seems fitting given the laundry list of weirdness here. Yet the scent is not industrial or overwhelming. It’s… light but strange. I find new irregular angles in it every time I smell it. There’s some great reviews of it at Basenotes, too.
I am too young to know how Coppertone suntan lotion used to smell in its 1960s incarnation, so I can’t comment on the veracity of the fragrance Christopher Brosius is trying to recreate with CB I Hate Perfume’s Beach 1966. However, it seemed a fun arcane idea to me. Sure enough, I get a strong sensation of suntan lotion, a little sea spray, and a neat touch of the way your skin smells when brushing off that sand crust that forms on your legs after splashing in the water and then sitting back down on the sand. It’s a little goofy, and a lot perfect. (I am a big fan of goofiness in general, so that’s also a compliment, heh.)
Kid Carpet’s CD “Ideas & Oh Dears” can be ordered via either Amazon UK or as an import via Amazon US. You can also purchase the album wherever you are from iTunes. I also DEEPLY recommend you watch his video for the song “Carrier Bag.” I’ve decided it’s the best music video I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a ton from me, because I actually OWN the Duran Duran video collection, and as we all know, Rio rules. What’s that? Oh shush up, Rio does SO rule. I refuse to acknowledge otherwise.
On a whole ‘nother note, Scentzilla was recently feature along with several other sites in Cosmetic World’s latest issue. Which? Feels awfully nifty:
Other featured sites include: