Landa Conservatory
Balenciaga Beats
I interviewed the Flatbush Zombies in their tour bus in Austin once for a fashion and culture blog that I freelance for, and that’s as close to the Madbury Club as I ever got.
The Madbury Club was a lot of things. It wasa multi-hyphenate but not in the annoying way that people who self-identify vaguely as “creatives” do. They were good. It was a digital style magazine, as well as a creative agency, clothing brand, some kind of label/artist management company, and some other things I never figured out.
They went to Rutgers and worked in New York City, and would do cool things like bail on class for a week to camp in Big Sur, and then do sick magazine spreads on it for their site. They would do spreads on their collection of vintage fleeces, which I realize sounds dumb as hell, but was actually so sick.
They were constantly pushing and driving forward this aesthetic that combined what was then contemporary streetwear, with washed out VHS visuals and old school typefaces. I think they were ahead of their time on camcorder recording which got more popular over the last couple of years.
The Flatbush Zombies were one of (maybe the only?) the artists that they managed. The interview went well. A lot of artists are burnt out with press and blogs asking the same dumb questions over and over, and I tried to not do that which I think they were receptive to.
We talked about how racism gave them few career choices and that rap was one of the only ways for them to make it out. Meech had this line that I think he planned, but that sounded good: “To make it out of the hood you either sling crack rock or you’ve got a wicked jump shot.”
This aphorism didn’t account for his own career and hustling has moved beyond strictly trapping, but otherwise it makes the point well.
Towards the end of Madbury’s existence that went from 2010 to 2018, they started incorporating crunchier, Whole Earth catalog and Online Ceramics styled typefaces and designs in their work.
Phillip T. Annand the founder and main guy behind Madbury, now runs this little serious of “visual meditations” that he puts out on YouTube which are plant heavy videos shot around his house, which looks like it’s in California, accompanied by nice ambient music, called Landa Conservatory
It’s maybe one of the most consistent things I’ve been returning to during the quarantine. He puts out a new one each week or so. I think they’re done in collaboration with his partner Jessica Lehrman, who is a photographer.
Made a YouTube playlist of all of them plus links to some work by artists who have been scoring them.
All the Landa Conservatory videos - 70 minutes, YouTube
Sojourn by Guelo - 40 minutes, Bandcamp
Live At The Bodega - Episode 001 by Jacob Rochester - 35 minutes, Mixcloud