2023

Best LPs 2023Music:
Kosmischer Laufer – Volume 5 LP (UCR)
Soia, Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau – In C for 11 Oscillators and 53 Forms LP (unjenesaisquoi)
Cate Brooks – Tapeworks DL (Cafe Kaput)
Memorials – Music For Film: Tramps! LP (State 51 Conspiracy)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse… LP (Album of the year)
Field Lines Cartographer – Moonbuilding Sessions LP (CiS Subscription Library)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse radio station (Sonos) (most listened to)
Niholoxica – Source of Denial LP (Crammed Discs)
SareemOne – Olivine Window
Coast Contra – Breathe & Stop Freestyle/Never Freestyle/Scenario Freestyle
Move78 – Grains LP
Heiroglyphic Being – The Moon Dance LP (Apnea)
Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP 12″ (To Pikap Records)
Gordon Chapman-Fox – The Nine Travellers LP (Castles In Space Subscription Library)

Podcasts:
Oh God What Now?
Cartoonist Kayfabe
Jonny Trunk’s Patreon Show
What Goes Around
The Bunker
The Bureau of Lost Culture
Not A Diving Podcast with Scuba

Best of Live events 2023-2
Gigs / Events:
Art of Noise @Jazz Café, London
The Light Surgeons – SuperEverything launch @iklectik, London
Quadraphon debut @Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
Beyond The Streets exhibition @Saatchi gallery, London
Pop Up Subculture festival, Stroud
Holotronica, @IMAX Bristol
Sunroof / Finlay Shakespeare @iklectik, London
0282 Club, the library, Burnley
Paul Cousins @iklectik, London
The Light Surgeons – The Consensual Hallucination @iklectik, London
Memorials at the State 51 Summer Psych party @State 51, London
Queens of the Stone Age @Glastonbury
FogFest2 @iklectik, London
JG Thirlwell & Emsemble @Bush Hall, London
The Book & Record Bar 10th anniversary party, London
Machina Bristronica, Bristol
Visiting Peel Acres with Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves
Nihiloxia @the Jazz Cafe, London
NEXT Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia

Best design 2023
Design / Packaging:
Yves Malone – A Hello To A Goodbye LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – Phuzzle (Drumetrics)
Waclaw Zimpel – Train Spotter LP (State 51)
David Boulter – Factory 3″ CD (Clay Pipe Music)
Fluctuosa – Wetware EP 12″ (Analogical Force)
Fluxus – Orbit & Shine LP (Castles In Space)
Floating Points – Birth4000 12″ (Ninja Tune)
Cate Brooks – Easel Studies LP + badge (Clay Pipe Music)
Brian Eno – Top Boy OST CD (Beatink)

Artists:
Kallamity
Soda
Nick Taylor (Spectral Studio)
Louise Mason
Francis Castle (Clay Pipe)
Tradd Moore
KO_Computer
Kishi Omori
Autone1
Mike Mignola
Geometric Love
Anna Readman
Zoe Thorogood
Colin & Maria @ Time Released Sound

Best books 2023
Books / Magazines / Comics:
Medical Grade Music – Steve Davis & Kavis Torabi (White Rabbit)
Doctor Strange – Fall Sunrise – Tradd & Heather Moore (Marvel)
Tales To Enlighten – The New Testament – Matt King and James Edward Clark
Beyond The Streets exhibition book
Pop – Milton Glaser (Phaidon)
Kevin O’Neill Apex Edition (2000AD)
Mark Stafford – Salmonella Smorgasbord (Soaring Penguin Press)
Savage Impressions – Bruce Lichen (Independent Project Records)
Hexagon Bridge – Richard Blake (Image)
Monica – Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
Acid Valley – Luke Insect
Petrol Head – Rob Williams & Pye Parr (Image)
Lawless – Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade (Rebellion)
Giant Robot Hellboy – Mignola/Fegredo (Dark Horse)
Facelss & The Family – Matt Lesniewski (Oni Press)

Film:
Barbie
Squaring The Circle : The Story of Hipgnosis

What Have I done 2023
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed a retro jungle cover for District 1727 release Rinse Out The Raw Steel
Opened for The Art of Noise two nights running at the Jazz Cafe
Designed The Home Current & Peter Wix and UNE CDs for Spun Out Of Control
Performed at Candlemas with Julian Hand, Heena Song, Paul Naudin and Whyte Light Visuals
Started working with visual artist PuttyRubber with my Quadraphon turntable at live gigs
Designed the Stasis 12″‘Quondam Sequences’ for De:tuned
Edited a short video for Holotronica after their Bristol event (not sure this ever got broadcast/finished actually)
Restarted my Infinite Illectrik label with 7 monthly releases from May
Mixed two new volumes of The Funky Eno with selections provided by Nohbodhi
Gave talks about Wheels of Light in Stroud and Brighton
Collaborated with Graham Dunning live with visuals by PuttyRubber and Chromatech for FogFest2
Appeared on the 45 Live and What Goes Around podcasts
Wrote the theme for the new Why? podcast
Remade and remixed Amon Tobin’s Permutation LP artwork for the 25th reissue
Continued the weekly Mixcloud Select series of archive mix uploads
Designed and illustrated Wonders of the Undersea World LP for Trunk Records including a sheet of stickers to make your own cover design.
Designed zoetropes for T Rex, Donna Summer, Dr Who, Lily Allen and Steps(!)
Designed the Pulse Five EP, poster and postcards for FSOL, working with Jonas Ranson again on the screenprint
Designed the De:tuned 15 logo and T-shirt for the label’s fifteenth year in 2024
Designed the Clerkenwell Kid Junkyard Melodies album + ephemera and 3″ Xmas Winter Warmers companion CD for Stephen Coates/The Real Tuesday Weld
Designed the A’bear album sleeve for Castles In Space
Contributed vintage graffiti photos to the second Old So Kool book about the UK graf scene in the 80s
Ongoing research into at least three other book projects…

RIP:
Alan Rankin, Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Burt Bacharach, Raquel Welch, Alain Goraguer, Lee Purkis aka In Sync, Paul O’Grady, Al Jaffee, Jah Shaka, Mary Quant, Mark Stewart, Frank Kozik, Andy Rourke, Peter Jones (Colourscape designer), Martin Amis, Kenneth Anger, Tina Turner, Astrud Gilberto, John Romita Snr, Glenda Jackson, Jane Birkin, Paul Rubens, Jamie Reid, Michael Parkinson, David McCallum, Mark the 45 King, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ian Gibson,

Looking forward 2024
Looking forward to:
Candlemas II
Gary Hustwit’s Eno film
The Time Released Sound Book – A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging
Furiosa – A Mad Max Saga
The Hoppy documentary
Richard Norris’ autobiography, Strange Things Are Happening
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s ‘Sensuous Laboratories’ book
The The’s new tour
Doug Shipton’s new Fundamental Frequencies label
More collaborations

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #22: Old So Kool book 2 – The Lost Years

OSK book
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support. 


#22. Old So Kool book 2 – The Lost Years

A huge second volume of 80s UK graffiti photos and interviews compiled by Paul Pilgrim and Steven O’Hara. 400+ pages sourced from photo albums and black books from back in the day and a follow up to the first volume from last year – an incredible feat in such a short space of time. I was supposed to have photos in the original but didn’t get my shit together so made up for it this time round.

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The Lost Years expands upon the first volume, covering the same time frame (the 80s) with a couple of differences. There are a few standalone sections aside from the geographical locations most of the book is grouped into, namely a look at the legendary Bridlington Jam, a tribute to departed writers and a ‘where are they now’type round up of key contributors. These slightly sparser chapters work well and serve to break up the visual overload of the other sections in which as many images as possible have been fitted on every page.

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That such a sprawling urban artform grew out of a few books, films, record sleeves and magazine articles is fascinating, us 80s kids were certainly inspired – Subway Art being ‘the original handbook’ for most. You can see styles evolving all over the country but with a uniformity from writers who would never even see each other’s work – let alone meet – as everyone was cribbing from the same limited sources for a while. Of course the Americans were the first inspiration – you can see the character styles of Doze Green or Gnome copied here and there but unique styles and voices were held in highest regard. Cribbing off of other UK writers was inevitable though, The Chrome Angels being the most obvious as they were the most visible initially unless you were lucky enough to be able to travel abroad. You can also see British comic characters from 2000AD and computer games cropping up to replace the Marvel superheros and Vaughn Bodé lizards and wizards, a more angular computer style here, an abstract piece there.

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I remember many trying to find their own identity rather than fit in with existing styles but for the most part though it’s a name and a character, with complimentary backgrounds and tags – in every conceivable permutation. There are few huge productions as you see regularly these days, a ladder was as far as you got, no cherry-pickers here and the paint quality was sometimes dubious at best with photographic skills even more sketchy. This is my only bugbear with the book, in trying to document so much it sacrifices quality for quantity and there are pieces that I personally would have disqualified on grounds of picture quality or artistic merit.

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But then the graffiti world has always had its own set of politics and guidelines and maybe it’s a good thing that Paul and Steven haven’t played gatekeepers to what was a budding sub culture, learning from itself with sometimes the most meagre of resources. They’ve compiled a vast and unique snapshot in time of an urban artform’s formative years from all over the UK, something no one’s attempted before on this scale. Coupled with the first book, The Lost Years offers a time capsule of thousands of artworks, 99% of which I’d wager no longer exist, and a peek into the imaginations of a generation of kids who decided to make the streets their own galleries. And that’s to be applauded.
https://oldsokool.co.uk/store/

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The piece middle right above was the first piece of graffiti in my home town of Reigate, it appeared in two halves initially (hence the ‘Rusty again’ tag) and word spread around the town like wildfire. This was painted by Russel Mears aka Rusty Spray who is now sadly no longer with us – more about him here.
OSK inside

Posted in Art, Books, Event. | No Comments | Tags: ,

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #16: Various Artists – Tape Excavation LP

Tape Excavation front
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

Tape Excavation back
#16. Various Artists – Tape Excavation LP
Literally what it says on the tin; obscurities from the tape drawer compiled by Bruce Licher and beautifully printed on a custom card sleeve with inserts, all lovingly detailed in the Savage Impressions book that this originally accompanied which showcases 30 years of the Independent Print Project label’s release history.

https://brucelicher.bandcamp.com/album/tape-excavation

https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/savage-impressions-an-aesthetic-expedition-through-the-archives-of-independent-project-records-press-book
https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/music

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Tape Excavation detail
Tape Excavation inside
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SAVIMP 2
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SAVIMP pages

Obscure Records box set

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Obscure RecordsBrian Eno and Gavin Bryars‘ short-lived record label from the mid 70s – is getting a lavish reissue this month via the Italian label, dialogo. The ten albums released in three batches between 1976 and 1978 are getting the box set treatment on vinyl and CD with accompanying books detailing their checkered histories with new sleevenotes and essays by key contributors. The label very kindly sent me the full digital release and I’ve been revisiting – and in some cases hearing for the first time – all the volumes in pristine, digitally-remastered quality seeing as the handful of originals I have on vinyl have been around the block a bit now.
Co-curated at the time by Eno, Bryars and Micheal Nyman and resurrected by Bryars with full co-operation of all featured artists for this release, the ten albums form a snapshot of a young, experimental set of avant garde composers, mainly from the UK, setting out in careers that would take them in different directions with varying levels of succes, fame and notoriety. The most famous of the set are by the key curators – Bryars’ ‘The Sinking of the Titanic / Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet’, Eno’s ‘Discreet Music’ and Micheal Nyman’s debut,’Decay Music’, but you’ll recognise others among them too; The Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s first LP is here alongside works by John Cage, David Toop and Harold Budd’s introductory outing.

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Several things strike me about these albums; the amount of samples – or ‘found sound’ as they’re called in the sleeve notes – some of them use. At least half the catalogue use or manipulate voice or field recordings, in Discreet Music’s case, affecting or looping sections of another composer’s work as just another instrument. It’s also interesting to note how many of the participants were also working part time in the education system, no doubt influencing future generations in other ways beyond these albums. There’s probably a book to be written about the hidden history of art and music taught through the universities of the UK by some of its most unique practitioners.

The label have done a beautiful job representing these albums as one body of work with the CD version looking like a perfect companion to the Oblique Strategies box on the shelf. The sleeves are facsimiles of the originals, reproducing sleeve notes inside the book along with reflections from Bryars, Toop and more as well as insights into their legacy, the cover reconstructions and even the myriad of different pressings of the originals out there. According to the sleeve notes there was to be an Obscure 11, Eno’s Music For Airports, but at the last minute he changed his mind and started the Ambient Series; four albums that bear similarities to the Obscure releases, not least in their cover designs as well as his hand in their production. Times and the composer had moved on and a new movement was afoot, leaving the Obscure catalogue at a perfect ten, a time capsule of a collective that would splinter in different directions and prove influential in ways none could predict.

An aside concerning the cost of these box sets, they’re not cheap but look worth every penny. Downloads of six of the albums are also available on the label’s Bandcamp for €12 per LP – minus the classics by Eno, Penguin Cafe, Michael Nyman, Harold Budd (which you can find easily elsewhere).

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #11: Kevin Foakes – Wheels of Light book

WheelsofLight_cover edit
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

#11. Kevin Foakes – Wheels of Light + Four Corners Books
Got to plug something of my own – my book on projection wheel designs for British light shows has been out for just over a year now and the lovely people at Four Corners Books have a wealth of obscure publications to complement it.

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There’s still time to buy from Four Corners before Xmas and, if you spend over £30 on their site, they’ll send you a limited edition enamel pin designed by John Morgan, plus a Bearandas postcard as an extra stocking filler. Offer ends 18 Dec, while stocks last

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https://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/books/wheels-of-light/

https://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/



Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #9: Official Report On The Intransitionalist Chronotopologies Of Kenji Siratori: Appendix 8.2.3

TRS book CD
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

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TRS book inside 2
TRS book inside 3
TRS book inside 4
TRS book back

#9. Official Report On The Intransitionalist Chronotopologies Of Kenji Siratori: Appendix 8.2.3 Book / CD
 / DL
Avant garde cut and paste collage with the longest title I own plus mind-boggling paperback book from the wonderful Time Released Sound label. They are about to publish a book of 10 years of the label’s releases and packaging too – one to look out for.
https://timereleasedsound.bandcamp.com/album/official-report-on-the-intransitionalist-chronotopologies-of-kenji-siratori-appendix-823
https://timereleasedsound.bandcamp.com/

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #6: Luke Insect – Acid Valley book + posters


AVbook
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

#9. Luke Insect – Acid Valley book + posters

A3 sized catalogue for the recent Acid Valley exhibition documenting all the posters Luke has designed for Trades in Hebden Bridge and the Golden Lion in Todmorden. He also has limited copies of the posters for sale too if you contact him.
https://lukeinsect.bigcartel.com/product/acid-valley-a3-poster-book
https://cargocollective.com/lukeinsect
https://www.instagram.com/lukeinsect/

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Wheels of Light now back in stock at Liquid Light Shop


My book, Wheels of Light, published by Four Corners Books, is now back in stock at Steve Pavolvsky‘s Liquid Light Shop online for US customers who want a copy. Steve is the main man behind Liquid Light Lab and a major player in the light show world in NYC. His website is a treasure trove of info, both technical and historical, a great place to start if you’re interested in getting into the medium. His shop is stocked with various paraphenalia that you’ll need if you want to project your own liquid light show including inks, petri dish glass, moiré sheets and more. I’m so pleased he’s into the book, it’s a real seal approval from such a major figure in that world.

In other news, Optikinetics – a major part of my book – have reached their Kickstarter goal for their new home projector, the Kino. There’s still time to order one though and get a variety of additional wheel add ons. The projector can be held in one hand, is very quite and can be controlled via a app on your phone. You have just 4 days left to back the campaign – check it out here

Kino projector

Posted in Books, Light Shows. | No Comments |

Wheels of Light now out in the US

WOL cover
Not only was my book ‘Wheels of Light’ published a year ago by Four Corners Books but it’s now available in the US with free UPS ground shipping from D.A.P. – they are also supplying bookstores too if you want copies for your store. Order here
Wheels of Light Oil Wheel Optikinetics
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In other related light show news, Optikinetics are close to fulfilling the Kickstarter for their new Kino projector, a mini home projector that takes 6″ wheels and includes several options to back including one with my book and vintage Pluto wheels.
You can back the campaign and get your own home projector here

Kino projector
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Pop Up Subculture Festival, Stroud Mar 23rd-26th

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Very pleased to be part of this festival with my book Wheels of Light, published by Four Corners Books. That’s some company to be in for the POP/UP Subculture festival, Stroud, Mar 23-26.
Join us on March 24th Klang Tone Records for a double-header when I’ll be in conversation with Sean Roe about light show projection art after his chat with Matthew Ingram about his book ‘The S Word’.

#popupsubculturestroud

Random images from the desktop

Michael David Brown
I’ve had these images cluttering up the desktop for too long, seen whilst browsing the web, downloaded and researched later, let’s have a tidy up. Above is something I saw just the other day, an amazing illustrator, Michael David Brown, an American artist who I wasn’t familiar with at all. There’s not too much of his stuff on the web but it’s all good.

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Above is a sleeve from the Italo group Easy Going from the late 70s, I love it with the Shatter typeface and the star in the middle placed just so. The track ‘Fear’ is excellent too if you like a bit of electronics with your disco. The original cover is embossed too apparently.

Franz Altschuler CoverSpread

Monster Tales CoverSpread
The two covers above were by Franz Altschuler, a German artist who emigrated to America, these seem to be the only examples of this kind of style within his work, very 70s Heinz Edelmann.

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The only info I can find on the above is that it appears in an exhibition catalogue, ‘Revolution et Cinema’ and is by the Cuban artist Antonio Fernandez Reboiro, seen in the 70s Sci-Fi Art group on Tumblr. ‘Siempre es 26’ translates as ‘It’s always 26’.

The six images below were created by an artist using AI and I stupidly didn’t retain who it was so if anyone recognises them then please leave a comment. They’ve nailed the collage aspect of the medium which is difficult from experience.
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Wheels of Light cover recreated by Neil Rice!

I know I keep banging on about it but when something like this happens it’s too good not to shout about. In what might be the first piece of ‘fan art’* for Wheels Of Light, I present to you – the cover recreated using a slide, a distortion wheel and Optikinetics FX Cassette!
Made by Neil Rice – co-founder of Optikinetics, inventor of the FX Cassette and silent partner in the book (when I could get a word in) – and shot in his kitchen. See how he did it right at the end.

*Disclaimer – I helped out with the slide, it’s not really fan art if we made it, is it?

Posted in Books. | No Comments |

Liquid Light Lab is now stocking Wheels Of Light in N. America

I was very pleased to learn yesterday that Steve Pavlovsky from Liquid Light Lab< in New York has started stocking my Wheels Of Light book in his online store. If you’re interested in light shows and don’t know where to start then here’s as good as any as Steve stocks inks, light tables, moiré sheets, curved glass bowls for mixing liquids and more. He’s now one of the main stockists of the book in North America, check out his amazing work, watch his podcasts for a history of light shows all over the world or projection tutorials and dive in.

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2022

The main thing I’ve been doing this year is learning new software, lots involving AI algorithms that still seem like some kind of strange magic.


It started last year with the Moises software that can split stereo sound files into individual stems which opens up all sorts of possibilities and continued with NightCafe Creator where you can create incredible images from inputting a line of descriptive text. This has yielded a huge bank of images to draw from, some that have already become record sleeve illustrations (I just didn’t tell anyone). It’s all old hat now because AI art is everywhere on the web with thousands of images flooding our feeds on a daily basis but when I first wrote these words in early 2022 it was extremely addictive, if at an infant stage in its development. Just in the last six months alone AI has taken huge leaps in definition and feels like a giant shift in the art of image-making even if still has trouble with hands, it’s certainly divided people’s opinions.
Another AI app is the Topaz suite of image enhancers, the foremost being Gigapixel AI, the best image enhancer / upscaler I’ve ever seen, this has become part of my daily usage now alongside Photoshop and Indesign as a necessary tool to clean up images along with its Denoiser and Sharpener sister apps.
I (finally) got myself an iPad so that I could learn Procreate and again, a whole new world opens up with the possibilities this incredible app gives you. I never could justify getting a tablet, but seeing one of my sons drawing on his, wanting to go digital with some of my comic-buying and having a decent surface to learn Ninja Jamm on made it a necessary piece of kit. Learning to paint on it with one of my sons was among one of my favourite moments this year.
In the analogue world another revelation was a record cutting process pioneered by Ben Soundhog at Plastidisc where software that can convert an image into a waveform then cuts that image as a playable disc. The possibilities are endless and you can make a record without even playing one note.

QMk3 set up
My own experiments with the refining of my Quadraphon turntable have made for a sleeker, more portable and adaptable design along with the fantastic 4 channel Omnitronic TRM-402 mixer and the Ninja Tune/Erica Synths Zen Delay FX unit. I can make analogue tracks via one deck on the fly and jamming with this set up can yield hours of material, a refreshing new way to make music. Also becoming an author on good old fashioned paper felt pretty good too, I think I might have the book bug now. I hope you all have a Happy New Year and a riproaring 2023…

Music 2022v2

Music:
Clocolan – Empathy Alpha LP (Redpan)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse (Sonos HD)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Omnium Gatherum LP (Flightless)
Twilight Sequence – Trees in General: and the Larch 12″ (Castles In Space)
WTCHCRFT – Drugs Here 12″ (Balkan Vinyl)
Ghost Power – Ghost Power LP (Duophonic Super 45s)
Dexorcist – Night Watch 12″ (Yellow Machines)
Project Gemini – The Children Of Scorpio LP (Mr Bongo/Garden’s End)
Regal Worm – Worm! LP (Quatermass)
The Advisory Circle – Full Circle LP (Ghost Box)
Fenella – The Metallic Index (Fire Records)
S’Express & Daddy Squad – Music 4 The Mind DL

Podcasts:
The Bureau of Lost Culture (Soho Radio)
Cartoonist Kayfabe (YouTube)
We Buy Records (We Made This)
The Jonny Trunk Podcast (Patreon)
Oh God, What Now? (Podmasters Prod.)
The Tone Generation – Ian Helliwell
Peel Acres – Tom Ravenscroft (BBC Sounds)
The Bunker (Podmasters Prod.)

Events 2022

Gigs / Events:
Lux @ 180 Strand, London
Victor Vasarely – Universe exhibition @ Selfridges, London
Premier of Who Killed The KLF? @ Leake St, London
The Orb play U.F.Orb @ The Fox & Firkin, London
Bring The Paint festival, Leicester
Staying in a restored Futuro House, Somerset
Fogfest @ Iklectik, London
Glissando Guitar Orchestra @ Club-85, Hitchin
Funki Porcini’s Lasarium @ Iklectik, London
Wheels of Light launch event @ Raven Row, London
The Trunk Groovy Record Fayre @ Mildmay Club, London
At Home With The Boyle Family film launch @ Iklectik, London
Magnetic Flow exhibition, @ LaVallée, Brussels

Design 2022

Design / Packaging:
Night Cafe / Midjourney – the most fun/frustrating web AI creation tools
Jed St. Christopher – The Further Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 10″ lathe cut (Buried Treasure) by Nick Taylor
Twilight Sequence – Trees in General: and the Larch 12″ (Castles In Space) by Zeke Clough
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Ominium Gatherum LP by Jason Galea
Sculpture – Malculus / Photo Synth 7″ + zoetrope pack by Rueben Sutherland
The Advisory Circle – Full Circle LP (Ghost Box) by Julian House
Clay Pipe Mini Pipe 3″ CD series by Francis Castle
Monochrome Echo – The City & The Stars LP (Castles In Space) by Nick Taylor
Drumetrics – Phuzzle 10″

Artists incorporating AI into their work:
Ko_Computer
Douggy Pledger
Alex Klim
Will Toulan
Scott Wetterschneider
Stuart Smith
Steve Scott (image below by Steve Scott)

Steve Scott

Books comics 2022

Books / Magazines / Comics:
Grrrl Scouts – Jim Mahfood (Image)
99 Balls Pond Road – Jill Drower (Scrudge Books) – now reprinted in text-only paperback and retitled ‘The Exploding Galaxy: Performance Art, LSD and Bent Coppers in the Sixties Counterculture’ – an absolute must for 60s counter culture historians
Radio Spaceman – Mike Mignola & Greg Hinkle (Dark Horse)
Mental Hygiene – Kate Gibb
A-Z of Record Shop Bags – Jonny Trunk (Fuel)
Mud Sharks – Dave Barbarossa
Good Pop, Bad Pop – Jarvis Cocker (Vintage)
House Music – Andy Votel (The Modernist)
Judge Dredd – Brian Bolland (Apex Edition)
Contemporary Collage magazine (digital)
Defying Gravity – Jordan Mooney w. Cathi Unsworth
The Delaware Road deluxe edition – Alan Gubby, Dolly Dolly (Buried Treasure)
69 Exhibition Road – Dorothy Max Prior (Strange Attractor)
Judge Dredd – Mike McMahon (Apex Edition)
It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Universe – Zoe Thorogood (Image Comics)
The Black Locomotive – Rian Hughes (Picador)

Film /TV:
The Book of Boba Fett (Disney+)
Get Back (Disney+)
Who Killed The KLF?
Pistol (Disney+)
The Boys (Amazon Prime)
In The Court of the Crimson King (Toby Aimes)

2022 Efforts2

Another year over and what have I done?
Finished The Real Tuesday Weld’s ‘Dreams’ LP/CD and ‘Late Night Reveries’ cassette artwork
Appeared on the Bureau of Lost Culture podcast, 45 Live show, mixed an episode of new online show, Genius & Soul (still not broadcast)
Re-designed an old classic logo for The Herbsmen
Adapted The Designers Republic’s Humanoid artwork for a FSOLDigital CD release
Designed Hawksmoor’s ‘Head Coach’ CD for Spun Out Of Control
Recorded with Dave Barbarossa for a future music project
Finished and published the Wheels of Light book for Four Corners Books with press coverage from The Quietus, Shindig!, The Observer, Velocity Books, Moonbuilding, Electronic Sound, Creative Review and more.
Had a track featured on the Diary of a Madman compilation on Bibliotapes in aid of Ukrainian Red Cross
Refined my Quadraphon turntable into a Mk.3 version
Got featured in the 2000AD Summer Special, music edition, talking about my love of the comic
Made a record by etching a playable image into a disc
Compiled, remixed and edited 30 years worth of games footage for DICE’s anniversary, making an 11 minute version then condensing it into 90 seconds.
Redesigned The Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘Every Day’ LP for the 20th anniversary edition from original design concepts
Designed Stasis, AsOne, Paul ‘Damage’ Bailey and Humanoid 12″s and reinterpreted Mike Dred’s ‘OverMind’ LP art for De:tuned
Also designed the AsOne2 LP for De:tuned
Had a collage featured in Contemporary Collage magazine
Mixed a new religious-themed set for the Tales To Enlighten 2 Kickstarter
Reformatted Dave Barbarossa’s Mud Sharks book for publication.
Interviewed Zoe Lucky Cat Baxter, Andy Votel, Alex Paterson and DJ Format for Dust & Grooves book 2.
Designed The Real Tuesday Weld’s 3″ CD Xmas card.

RIP:
Sidney Poitier, James Mtume, Meatloaf, Barry Cryer, Ian Kennedy, Douglas Trumbull, Bamber Gascoigne, Betty Davis, Jan Pieńkowski, Philip Jeck, Chantal Passamonte, Garry Leach, June Brown, Jordan, David McKee, Klaus Schulze, Neal Adams, George Perez, Vangelis, Rat Records, Alan Grant, Bob Rafelson, Bernard Cribbens, Olivia Newton-John, Lamont Dozier, Raymond Briggs, Queen Elizabeth II, William Klein, Jean-Luc Godard, Ramsey Lewis, Pharoah Sanders, Kim Jung Gi, Robbie Coltrane, Joyce Sims, Keith Levene, Nik Turner, Wilco Johnson, Tom Philips, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Manuel Gottsching, Terry Hall, Martin Duffy, Mike Hodges, Pelé, Vivienne Westwood, Anita Pointer.

Looking forward to:
The Out in 2000AD
Supporting the Art of Noise at the Jazz Cafe on Jan 4th/5th
Conform to Deform – The Weird & Wonderful World of Some Bizarre – Wesley Doyle (Jawbone Press)
The The – 1$ One Vote 7″ (Lazarus)
The conclusion of The Real Tuesday Weld’s Swan Songs trilogy?…
Tales To Enlighten: The New Testament
The Kevin O’Neill Apex Edition (Rebellion)
The return of Rave Wars
Spider-Man – Across The Spider-Verse

The Out 2023

Wheels of Light interview with the Quietus

SW wheel filmJohn Doran from The Quietus about my book, Wheels of Light and we dug into what light shows are all about and how I came to make the book in the first place. I sent them a few images not in the book including the rare Orion Star Wars wheel above, shot at Larry Wooden‘s place from an original film from his archive. Remastered versions of all his FX wheels are available from Larry via www.orioneffects.co.uk and he has some originals for sale in the heritage section as well as new designs.
Read the interview here
Buy the book here

WOL in RT East

Turn On, Tune In, Drift Off book

TOTIDO cover
A few years ago I spoke to Victor Szabo, the Assistant Professor of Music at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, for his book about ambient music, Turn On, Tune In, Drift Off. We covered the Telepathic Fish and Megatripolis parties in London in the early to mid 90s and the re-emergence of ambient music in a new form for a new generation. The finished book just arrived and you can find a copy here, published by Oxford University Press.

TOTIDO inside
I’ve also just found out that the photo above was taken by my old art college friend and former flat mate, Andy Eccleston, he saw the photo on Facebook and recognised that he’d taken it that day, mystery solved. We both went to Camberwell College in the early nineties and shared a flat for a couple of years after I moved out of the East Dulwich house in the photo. He assisted photographer Simon Larbelestier for a number of years and currently has a penchant for modular synths.

TOTIDO back

Feedback for Wheels of Light

WOL Light show quotes web
We’ve been getting some great feedback from some very big hitters in the light show world for my book. If you don’t recognise some of the names above, that’s OK, this is a light show community-heavy list. Bill Ham practically invented the psychedelic light show in SF in 1965, Joshua White wasn’t far behind and lit the Filmore East in NYC. Ben Marks runs the Rock Poster Society and his review of the book was the most in-depth yet. Steve Pavlovsky of Liquid Light Lab is one of the new generation of light show practitioners who are keeping the old school flame alive in NYC with an excellent YouTube channel. The others are noted light show pioneers or light jockeys, aside from of course, Paul Gorman, who has written many books on different aspects of pop culture including The Wild World of Barney Bubbles which has just been republished.

If you want to grab a copy for a friend or family member over Xmas you can either get it direct from Four Corners Books or check out these stores who should have it.
London
Book Art Bookshop / Cafe Oto / Donlon Books / ICA Bookshop / Iklectic / Koenig Books Serpentine / Koenig Books Whitechapel Gallery / Rough Trade / South London Gallery / Tate Modern TERRACE SHOP / Tender Books

UK/ROI:
Bookbag / Magalleria, Bath / Rova Editions, Bristol / Colours May Vary, Leeds / UNITOM, Manchester / Left for Dead, Shrewsbury / Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin

Online:
Am*z*n (although please support indie book shops first) / Book Depository / Counter Print / Guardian Bookshop

There have also been features in Shindig!, The Observer, Moonbuilding, reviews in Creative Review and Electronic Sound with a few more yet to come.

WOL Observer
WOL Shindig

The Delaware Road omnibus edition


The Delaware Road deluxe edition unwrapping, the omnibus edition is out today via Buried Treasure and neatly brings together years worth of work and research by Alan Gubby, aided by poet Dolly Dolly, designer Nick Taylor and illustrator Jarrod Gosling. Originally conceived as a documentary film by Alan 15 years ago then rewritten as a fictional account of the Radiophonic Workshop’s perhaps two most famous practitioners, Delia Derbyshire and John Baker, the Delaware project then expanded into a compilation album and live performance.

DR packageDR cover
I went to the first incarnation in Reading back in 2015, you can read about that here. For the second, more ambitious outing at the disused Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon Hatch in Essex, I was on the bill – more about that here. The third incarnation then morphed into a mini festival in a Salisbury Plain army base which nearly didn’t happen but was an incredible collection of performers and people the likes of which haven’t been seen since, see photos from that here.

DR seal
DR postcards
A six part comic series that followed – illustrating the whole story as originally envisaged – and now the whole project has been collected into a smart omnibus edition with notes, photos, preliminary designs and more, all wrapped in a beautiful cover that brings to mind the Festival of Britain. Out today, I think the limited deluxe edition with 4″ lathe cut disc has now sold out but this book tells the whole story, both fictional and then from the inside, of this most amazing series of events.
Order it here, right now, plus it’s Bandcamp Friday so more of it goes to the artist and label.

DR contents
DR insides

Bassbin Book Club interview

Opti visit 06:2019I spoke to Velocity Press about books that have influenced me off the back of my Wheels of Light release from Four Corners Books – the lead photo above was taken the same day, mid 2019, that I first visited the Optikinetics HQ in Luton to view their archive of picture wheel art which then led to the book.
Read the full interview here https://velocitypress.uk/bassbin-book-club-dj-food/

Opti stickers 06:2019