I did an interview with french magazine, Tsugi, about my favourite cover versions of Kraftwerk songs for their Nov/Dec special on the group. It’s out now, all the text is in French though (“Un top 10 des reprises de Kraftwerk”) but I will post up the English version at some point next year. By the looks of things they have some very good archive photos too.
By day Dan Lish works as a concept artist for the video games industry but in his spare time he creates images of Hip Hop’s pioneers in a trippy style that brings to mind Moebius at his best. Check out just a few here and head over to Dan’s site to find out more about the Ego Strip project and maybe buy some prints.
I’m not so up on Andy Partridges‘ solo work (I mainly know him from his XTC days) but this album swam into my field of vision the other day after a search for the book of collected Richard M. Powers‘ artwork. Apparently Partridge was fascinated by Powers’ book covers as a kid and later made a whole album of ambient / electro-acoustic sound pieces to soundtrack the fantastic worlds he saw on his library loans. The 500 copy CD is long sold out but you can still buy the 12 tracks as downloads from his Ape House imprint. Think Raymond Scott, Louis & Bebe Barron or Tod Dockstader and you’re in the right area.
Christ this is good! If you love real Hip Hop then this is as real as it gets. Cold Rock Stuff with Audessey and Oxygen from Soundsci, mixes by Daily Diggers and The Process, sleeve by Mr Krum. Get it here.
Thought I’d mentioned this before but I don’t think I have. Jane Weaver‘s latest album,‘The Silver Globe’ is still on my turntable after a month of first receiving it. A rarity in this day and age, I would recommend this album to almost anyone as it’s all killer and no filler, each track merging into the next to form a complete work. Definitely going to be on the ‘best of 2014’ list in a month’s time. Buy it direct from Finders Keepers here.
Out today on vinyl, FLAC and MP3 – the AA remix Syd Arthur into 7 psychedelic sine waves.
“Following their remix/production work with Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, DJ Food, Pop Levi and their award winning compilation series “A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind”, The Amorphous Androgynous now turn their attention to Canterbury psych-rock quartet Syd Arthur, who were recently named Breakthrough Artist of 2014 in the Prog Awards.
Choosing five tracks from Syd Arthur’s back catalogue to re-work, The Amorphous Androgynous have fed these tracks through the AA sonic blender, turning up the saturation of the psychedelic dimensions within the Syd Arthur universe.”
Also up for pre-order on FSOLDigital are vinyl LP versions of ‘Environments 2 & 4’. Highly recommended for those of you who love the Lifeforms era of the band’s output.
The crowdfunded play ‘Cosmic Trigger’ opens in Liverpool and London this weekend and next week, based on Robert Anton Wilson‘s follow up to the Illuminatus trilogy but also taking in his life story. It’s being staged by Daisy Eris Campbell, the daughter of Ken Campbell who staged a version of Illuminatus in Liverpool back in 1976 that was pivotal for many people involved.
Being that I already mentioned Liverpool and the Illuminati then it follows that The KLF can’t be too far behind and Bill Drummond built the scenery for the original play. Jimmy Cauty is also somehow involved in the new version. There are a little too many intersecting factors in all of this so here’s some further reading if you’re interested:
The Cosmic Trigger Play – sets out what’s about to happen, it’s complicated.
Bill Drummond – 5 Things I learned from Ken Campbell – essential read, very funny.
Greg Wilson – The Gateway Drug – extensive, make some tea and settle in for the long haul
John Higgs‘ – Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds – absolutely fascinating book chronicling the KLF‘s history from before and after they formed/disbanded, taking in the Illuminati, Dr Who, the number 23, JFK, Alistair Crowley, the banking crisis and much more. Buy it, even if you’ve no interest in the KLF, they’re just the springboard for a romp through the latter half of the 20th Century.
A unique opportunity to buy items from the Mo Wax Urban Archaeology exhibition opens next week at the Saatchi Gallery.
Following on from the brief exhibition at the Southbank (featured here) ‘Build & Destroy’ is an exhibition of rare art works, proofs and merchandise from the Mo Wax archive. It will also feature new works and limited editions by various artists like Swifty, (who has been posting things on his Instagram recently) Futura and 3D who have worked with Mo Wax over the past 21 years. Build & Destroy also coincides with the major survey exhibition Post Pop: East Meets West at the Saatchi Gallery.
All of the works are available to buy and the exhibition is a rare opportunity for people to obtain original works and limited editions produced throughout the history of the label to date alongside newly commissioned pieces. More details here
This Friday at the Watershed, Bristol – DJ Cheeba re-scores Plan 9 From Outer Space, the Ed Wood ‘classic’. It’s going to be nuts and may never get another outing, sadly I’m in Russia so can’t go along.
Red Snapper have made a video, directed by Danielle Callesen, to the radio edit of my remix of ‘Mambety’. Check it out above and buy the EP here.
Here’s a short film of what went on at the Sarm Studios playback event of ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’.
For people who didn’t get a copy of the box set or were restricted by territory (N. America and Japan were excluded because of licensing laws) you can now order it through Am*z*n and elsewhere (although beware, some places are taking the p*ss with prices).
You can now pre-order the new album from The Advisory Circle over on the Ghost Box shop and download 2 posters designed by Julian House on the label’s Belbury Parish Magazine blog. Also, just to be advised, the CD has 3 extra tracks.
I did a remix for Red Snapper earlier this year which is just seeing the light of day now. Following on from their ‘Hyena’ album it’s the title track of their ‘Mambety EP’ and sits alongside a remix by Moist and album track ‘Dock Running’.
Out today on LO RECORDINGS you can get it here. Whilst you’re there check out the new Grasscut single too, a precursor to their next album that Lo are releasing next year. I saw them live a few weeks back and they were excellent.
Brian Eno‘s 90’s solo albums tend to get overlooked in the light of his 70’s and 80’s output even though his star was truly back on the map by the early 90’s due to the resurgence in Ambient music he helped pioneer. Typically whilst everyone else was looking back Eno had moved on and was looking forward, releasing (or not) a mixed bag alongside producing the likes of U2, James, curating interactive apps and installations and remixing Massive Attack.
He reissues ‘Nerve Net’, ‘The Shutov Assembly’, ‘Neroli‘ and ‘The Drop’ on December 1st – all expanded into 2 disc editions. Each comes in deluxe casebound packaging and contains the original album on the first disc alongside a second disc of unheard or rare music from his archives.
Arguably the strongest release is ‘Nerve Net’, a mixed bag that anticipated Trip Hop on certain tracks and contains some of his finest rhythmic works since ‘My Life In The Bush of Ghosts’. Most interesting of all though is that the 2nd CD contains the first release of the ‘lost’ album, ‘My Squelchy Life’, an earlier version that was aborted at the time.
‘The Shutov Assembly’ features a whole album of unreleased recordings from the same period and ‘Neroli’ – a concept album based around perfume – includes an entire unreleased hour-long ambient work, ‘New Space Music’.
Perhaps the weakest of the bunch is 1997’s ‘The Drop’ which is an odd release with a terrible cover that’s saved by the final track, ‘Iced World’ which is a beautiful 30 minute ambient piece worth the price of admission alone. This is expanded to include 9 tracks previously only available as a limited edition of 1,000 sold at an exhibition of Eno’s ’77 Million Paintings’ at La Floret in Japan.
Each album contains a 16 page booklet compiling photos, images and writing by Eno relevant to each release. Three of the albums are also being made available as gatefold double vinyl releases containing the original audio only, but accompanied by a download card and printed inner sleeves with the content from the CD booklets.
Pre-order each of the albums over at Enoshop.co.uk where you can also buy all sorts of editons of his work, oblique strategies sets, T-shirts and other obscurities like the ‘Curiosities’ compilations which are well recommended.
I was Virgil Howe‘s guest on his Hidden Level radio show on Soho Radio last Saturday – we chatted and played music for 2 hours and swapped stories and tunes in the tiny studio in the heart of Soho. I’d not met Virgil face to face before but we’d been in contact and remixed each others material via The Amorphous Androgynous who he drums for. Virgil’s had his hands in loads of bands from the Killer Meters to Little Barrie to his own work on the Breaking Bread and Scenario labels. He’s the son of Steve Howe, guitarist for Yes and Asia and his brother Dylan also plays drums and has just released an album of jazz versions of Bowies‘s ‘Berlin’. He’s also DJed since the mid 90’s and can eat 12 cream crackers in 1 minute (I may have made this one up).
Virgil Howe’s Hidden Level Radio Show (11/10/2014) by Soho Radio on Mixcloud
Anyway, top bloke with skills and great taste in music and we chatted and played two hours away in no time, taking in recording stories, mutual friends, even comics and at one point Virgil told a tasty little anecdote about a recording session that his dad disrupted whilst Trevor Horn and co. were constructing Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s ‘Relax’. Yes, the world is that small. Anyway, here’s the podcast and look out for Virgil’s name, he’s everywhere and has a new solo album called ‘Hidden Level’ on the way soon which is excellent. Also check out his three Drum Series 7″s on Breaking Bread where he teams up with Malcolm Catto, Shawn Lee and Mark Claydon.
This is out now and exceeding all my expectations – fantastic collection of tripped out space jazz and astral poetry. Truly a lysergic set out cosmic jams, every track is killer – buy it in regular forms or with extra instrumental discs here.
You can now buy an actual vinyl copy of the Cut Chemist ‘Mix By Jimmy’ selection of acetates from Afrika Bamabaataa‘s collection. I posted about this the other week and it’s littered with amazing tracks or versions of old school wonders including Soul Sonic Force demos.
There’s also an 80 pg book / tour program featuring shots of some of the collection, slipmats, poster, facsimile photo and flyer, a tote bag and more. Go to Boo-Hooray to grab them but be prepared, they aren’t cheap!
Can’t say enough good things about Shindig! magazine, a decent blend of well-written articles and reviews on as much new as old music in the psyche, prog, rock and experimental vein.
Not as dry and repetitive as Record Collector and digging a bit further underground than Mojo. This month’s issue contains a Rocket Recordings mix CD by Cherrystones too.
A very odd combo arrived in the form of a Teeny Tiny Trunk 7″ the other day. An as yet unreleased duo of tracks by Anthony Newley with musical accompaniment from none other than Delia Derbyshire. The pair are an oddity and so are the recordings with Newley coming across as a bit of a perv as he comments on the passing of young girls in short skirts. The combination of clear vinyl and a Julian House sleeve design completes the package although these appear to be sold out now in the clear variant. Go to Trunk Records for black vinyl copies
