BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB - FLAWS

A year on from their critically acclaimed album ‘I Had the Blues but I Shook them Loose’, Bombay Bicycle Club have announced their forthcoming acoustic album ‘Flaws’ to be released on 12th July.

The album will feature new tracks along with an acoustic version of a song from the band’s debut album ‘Dust On The Ground’ and a cover of Joanna Newsom’s ‘Swansea’. For all of the eleven songs on the album, the band are filming a video at sentimental locations. Click through to see the title track "Flaws"... Enjoy!

Exhibition - Architects Build Small Spaces – V&A, London

Beetle's House by Terunobu Fujimori: an elevated teahouse accessed by a ladder, it will be built in the Medieval & Renaissance galleries at the V&A.

Architecture exhibitions have a tendency to emphasise drawings, models and photographs which can leave all but the most enthusiastic of audiences feeling a little disengaged. In recognition of this, London’s V&A museum invited nineteen architects to submit proposals for structures that examine notions of “refuge and retreat”, selecting seven of these submissions for construction at full scale in the museum.

“Small spaces such as these can push the boundaries and possibilities of creative practice. A shift in scale towards smaller, bespoke structures encourages a heightened sensitivity to materials, texture and proportion.”

For more information and to view a series of short films about the seven concepts click through to the V&A website here http://cli.gs/Y5dh3Q

The exhibition runs until 30th August 2010.

Washed Out - Life of Leisure

Washed Out is the solo project of multi instrumentalist Ernest Greene.

This lo-fi, surf-pop EP is reminiscent of a hazy summers night by the beach, mixing 80s style synths with blurred, almost illegible, vocals. Taking influences from the likes of The Beach Boys and Gary Low all the way up to Daft Punk, Life of Leisure is a record looking to the future but taking from the past. Stand out tracks include Feel It All Around, which sounds like a slowed down disco and Lately, a more upbeat but still laidback track.

Out now on CD and digital download.

Design Hotels - Kick Off The World Cup

To celebrate the 2010 World Cup, Design Hotels are offering a special ‘World Cup Rate’.

If you book a hotel at any of the destinations provided during the tournament you can receive a discount which grows depending on how well your destination country does in the competition. Rates start at 10% for the first round, rising to 50% if your country gets to the final. The World Cup Rates only need to be booked during the World Cup, but can be used for travel throughout the rest of the year. 

Don’t wait too long though, because once a country is knocked out of the competition, their discount ends as well!

Antony Gormley - Test Sites

Test Sites is about how time and objects act on us. 

The ground-floor features cast iron blockwork sculptures while Breathing Room III encourages the viewer to enter and interact with the 15 interconnecting photo-luminescent ‘space frames’ which turn on interrupting the complete darkness. 

Test Sites is running until the 10th July at White Cube Mason’s Yard in London.

Get Cutie - Flamboyant Fabrics & Feminine Fits

Founded in 1998, Brighton based Get Cutie is a small clothing company building a big name for its feminine fits and flamboyant fabrics.

Sourced from around the world, fabrics are often exclusive to Get Cutie, with retro inspired styles taking in everything from prim and pretty kittens and kitsch Russian dolls to totally out there glitter skulls.

Garments are made locally in the Get Cutie studio, where retro shapes are constructed for a fit that flatters all shapes and sizes, making Get Cutie pieces wearable and eye catching for all the right reasons.

Get Cutie is available now at Coggles.com

ALILA VILLAS ULUWATU - BALI

Bali isn’t short of luxury hotels but the bar has just been raised again. 

Located on a cliff top plateau along the southern coastline of Bali, Allia Villas was designed by award winning Singapore architectural firm WOHA and is the first hotel in Bali to be awarded the highest level of certification for environmentally sustainable design. Each of the 84 villas has a private pool and cabana overlooking the Indian Ocean, while lava rock roofs and bamboo ceilings allow the gentle sea breeze to circulate throughout. 

With a personal butler to take care of your every whim, a wellness  sanctuary, and fine dining in traditional warung-style restaurants, this is a place to rediscover the joy of pure relaxation in one of the most spectacular settings on earth.

HARINEZUMI 2 DIGITAL CAMERA

The Harinezumi 2 allows you to shoot super-8 style film and also colour and black & white photos with the imperfections of old style film which previously you could only get from analogue toy cameras. The camera also only lets you see the image after it’s been taken, letting you keep the best bit about film photography - the element of surprise.  

Click through to the Harinezumi site for more info - http://www.superheadz.com/digi2/index.php?lang

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

This is the third album from South Carolina’s Band of Horses. 

The previous offerings were released on independent labels, but Infinite Arms is the first after a shift to a major label. The ethos of the band seems to have remained, Ben Bridwell’s soaring, pining vocals accompanying classic Americana guitar riffs and descending chords. The sound has just got bigger and more spacious, possibly with a view to the commerciality of the album and subsequent stadium tours. Having said that it does nothing to hamper the sometimes sublime melodies and anthemic pop songs which captured our attention in the first place.

My Generation: The Glory Years of British Rock

On New Year's Day in 1964 the BBC launched Top of the Pops, a show that went on to become the longest-running TV show in British history. The Rolling Stones were the first band to take to the stage and Harry Goodwin was the photographer. This exhibition is a collection of Harry Goodwin's most iconic photographs, from a shocked Bob Dylan to a dramatic shot of Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar with his teeth. These images capture the essence of the 60’s and 70’s and the excitement of what was to be the beginning of British pop culture as we know it today.  

The exhibition is at the V&A museum in London and runs until 30 August.