When I do a design project there’s usually a fair few versions of things that don’t make the cut, variations on ideas to see if something will work etc. For ‘The Search Engine’ I made a series of ‘film poster’ designs, some of which cropped up in other things like a short reel telling people the timetable at the Planetarium gig or animations for a video that didn’t happen. These are ‘negative’ versions of some of those designs where I particularly like the colours.
Openmind designs
Items created by by design alter-ego, Openmind
Incredible stencil work done by Snub23 for the ultra limited edition (and sadly sold out) deluxe LP bundle for The Herbaliser‘s new album, ‘There Were Seven’. You can however buy the regular vinyl (but not for long as that’s a limited run too), designed by yours truly, from the Herb’s online shop, (click the red ‘store’ button top right for a pop up). Each one comes with two printed heavy card inners inside a screen printed PVC sleeve with a downlode code too.
Shots of the forthcoming album by The Herbaliser, ‘There Were Seven’, which I designed. This is the regular vinyl version which comes in a screen printed PVC sleeve and has a download code for the whole album too. You can pre-order if here (Click the red ‘shop’ tab for options).
The launch party in London is at the HMV Forum on October 27th where I’ll also be supporting along with Belleruche and DJ Cam. Tickets with a special ‘Friends of Food’ discount can be found here. Or, if they’re all gone – here.
Be very quick if you want one of these, The Herbaliser have their new LP (designed by yours truly) up for pre-order. If you want CD or download, you’ll be fine, but…
If you want vinyl you have two options: regular double LP with full printed inner sleeves in a screen printed sleeve – only 450 copies though.
Or there’s the super limited (50 copies) deluxe version which comes with hand stenciled covers by Snub23, a signed A2 poster, a T-shirt and a download card. More photos when I actually have a physical copy! Order here (red ‘shop’ tab on the top right) – actually I think you can only order the regular vinyl right now…
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUkSN6X3AHY&feature=plcp[/youtube]
Nice use of some of my graphic elements for their forthcoming album in this very clever video for ‘The Lost Boy’ single from The Herbaliser.
The Herbaliser return on October 8th with their 7th album proper, (not including Session 1&2, Herbal Blend, Herbal Tonic etc.), ‘There Were Seven’. There’s a loose concept at work within the album, which I don’t want to give away too much of but there are a myriad of clues in the titles, lyrics and graphics to a narrative that runs through much of the album.
I’ve kindly been asked back to design the record, which will be available on vinyl, CD and download plus a very limited special vinyl package from their own Dept. H label. Full details of the ltd. vinyl are yet to be finalised but even the standard vinyl will be a special package and I’m looking forward to getting that one back from the printers.
The album features vocals from MCs Ghettosocks, Muneshine, Timbuktu, George The Poet and vocals from Hannah Clive. A promo single, ‘The Lost Boy‘ will be doing the rounds soon with remixes forthcoming from The Colman Brothers, 2econd Class Citizen and more…
Can’t resist posting this, photo of a test sample I got sent today for part of the packaging for the vinyl of the forthcoming album by The Herbaliser.
…coming this Autumn
So much to say about the last few days and the opening of the DJ Food & Henry Flint exhibition at the Factory Road Gallery in Hinckley, Leicester with my friends Sarah (aka Inkymole) and Leigh. I’ve known them for around 15 years now and always enjoy their company so it was a no-brainer when they asked if they could host the work I’d got together for the Pure Evil Gallery earlier this year. What’s unique about this is that the gallery is in their own home, on the corner of a quiet suburban street, not in the middle of a hip part of a big city. A few years ago they did some major architectural restructuring and turned the downstairs of their home into a workspace cum gallery, dependent on what was on at the time. This is the third or fourth exhibition to be held there and, with the help of their intern, Brook, and amazing chef Jed Smith, they managed to make it a very unique event.
The difference between this and the Pure Evil show is that they were keen to feature a sort of retrospective element of my design work with Ninja Tune over the years alongside work that Henry and I had generated for ‘The Search Engine’ album, his book ‘Broadcast’ and past comic work. This took the form of a whole wall running the length of the downstairs plus a tabletop collage under glass of all manner of flyers, sleeves, proofs and other ephemera. Two sides of the central supporting wall were taken up with Henry’s past comic work with prints and original art from the album near the entrance. Near the rear of the gallery we set up a turntable and zoetrope disc to project animations that were also meant for London but didn’t happen as well as a 55 minute mix with visuals based on my planetarium show of the same time.
To add to this Sarah and Leigh always do special merchandise to go with each show, a regular item being a tea towel – or rather a visor / helmet polishing cloth (ooer) – printed locally and hemmed by Sarah’s mum. Also for sale was a limited edition ‘Skullstronaut’ giclee print and locally sourced chocolate bars, cleverly playing on the outer space theme and packaged like freeze-dried astronaut food.
Speaking of food, the killer addition of the night was Jed Smith in the kitchen, whipping up amazing bite-sized, space-themed eats for everyone. The cubed chips, baked pea shells and sauce were the hit of the night, a bowl of ‘space dust’ (homemade sherbert) looked like a moon surface and the dried rice and beetroot dip was literally out of this world (sorry). Everyone who came looked uncertainly at it all, took the plunge and were instantly in for seconds.
It’s rare to attend an opening and to ask the guests if they’ve been to the toilet yet (unless it’s for some sort of nose up) but the bathroom had it’s own charm in the form of Will Cooper-Mitchell’s press shots of me in an astronaut suit, alongside a hand-painted shuttle (by Sarah’s sister, close family ties going on here) and a short musical loop of space-themed sounds.
This, alongside a big barrel of local ale for refreshments, rounded the whole event off beautifully and added to the homely vibe of the exhibition. A steady stream of visitors arrived, both local and from further afield from 6pm until midnight and I talked to everyone from fans to friends, university professors to the local record store owner. Having been there since Thursday afternoon setting up and rearranging things I was beat by then and we had an early start the next morning but that’s another story.
Thank you so much to everyone who came but especially Sarah, Leigh, Jed, Brook and everyone who helped to make it such a success, some of the photos here are by their friend, Nigel, who was also the architect who helped them build the gallery. We realised, once it was all hung and arranged, that we’d fitted in twice the content than in London, in a smaller space too so there’s twice the reason to go and have a look. The show is at 71 Factory Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire, it’s free and on until June 15th, all merchandise is on sale on the Factory Road Shop now.
Here’s the ‘Skullstronaut’ print, specially made for Friday’s exhibition opening at the Factory Road Gallery, Hinckley, Leicestershire. Taken from the cover of the recent DJ Food vs The Amorphous Androgynous 12″ single and measuring a hefty 55cm x 55cm this giclée print on Somerset Rag paper will set you back just £25 at the show. It’s an edition of 25 and will be signed by myself, any unsold stock will be on the Factory Road shop once the exhibition has finished.
On June 1st I’ll be traveling up to my friends’ Sarah and Leigh‘s place in Hinckley, Leicestershire for the opening of a rejigged version of the DJ Food & Henry Flint exhibition that we held at the Pure Evil Gallery in January.
Their Factory Road Gallery will host a lot of the posters and original art and there will be local ale, special food and prints, CDs and books for sale. More details here.
There will be special limited editions available at the show, a 20 copy giclée print of the recent 12″ cover, printed tea towels (!) and chocolate bars in silver space-type wrapping. There will also be food on the opening night, local ale and I’ll be around to answer any questions.
Well, it’s out, as of Saturday, the new single is available in the shops, online and no doubt on eBay at an inflated price. Record Store Day was very exciting for me this year as I was lucky enough to be participating with Ninja Tune releasing this remix by The Amorphous Androgynous on multi-coloured vinyl. It’s not just for RSD though, you can buy it from the Ninjashop or FSOLDigital and all good record stores that reorder stock, Ninja will be repressing it too in the next week or so although that may be on a different colour vinyl. Please don’t pay crazy prices on eBay or Discogs like some of these flippers are asking, this is not a one time only limited edition, it should be available as long as there is demand. Remember also that there is a download available too with extra radio edits and an exclusive 2econd Class Citizen remix not on the 12″.
First thing on Saturday I asked people to tweet pictures of their purchases and I’ve featured the best here. That’s Frederic Toye below, waving a copy outside Music Mania in Ghent, Belgium and I had photos from all over Europe as well as one from the US as well.
Thanks to Alex Koenig, Cheetahbreaks, Dan Doughty, DJ Hombre, Dobshizzle and his united colours of RSD, Frederic, Hang The DJ, Kidavenger, Lemonmeringuesy, Lukestereo, Phil Clarkson, pipeandslippers and Toby Whitebread for posting these and making my day. This is my absolute favourite of the bunch though, sent by David Gorrod, with a little help from Arthur.
Here’s the link to the release page for the DJ Food vs The Amorphous Androgynous 12″ remix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ for Record Store Day 2012. There won’t be any ‘buy’ links until Monday because it’s against RSD rules to advertise a release with a pre-order option before the day. The ‘Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble’ mix is 17 minutes long and comprises 3 ‘tracks’:
DJ Food – ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ feat. Natural Self (The Amorphous Androgynous Remix)
DJ Food & The Amorphous Androgynous – ‘Don’t Pray, Don’t Bother (We’re Evil)’
DJ Food & The Amorphous Androgynous – ‘The Electric Images (In My Mind Never Die)’
Phew – pretty complicated huh? I’m going to be making tracks with one word titles from now on… There are now 1500 copies on multi-coloured, marbled vinyl, pressed at MPO in France, and the three tracks are split across two sides, cut at 45rpm.
There’s also a 4-track download too with the full 17 minute Amorphous Androgynous mix plus radio edits of ‘The Electric Images (In My Mind Never Die)’ featuring Natural Self and ‘GIANT’ featuring Matt Johnson. Exclusive to the download is the remix by 2econd Class Citizen of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ as premiered at the Planetarium shows in January.
To say I’m pleased with this release is an understatement, everything about it, from the remixes to the artwork to the actual vinyl discs, I’m 100% happy with. For it to be part of Record Store Day too makes it even better. Don’t worry if you can’t/don’t get one on RSD, Ninja will have 70 copies in the Ninja shop for sale on Monday 23rd and they plan to keep it in print as long as there is demand.
In the in-box today: a 30 minute ‘Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble’ mix for Solid Steel by The Amorphous Androgynous including a reworking of a Gil Scott Heron track. This will be broadcast live on Solid Steel on April 19th via Strongroom Alive and then out on the web the day after via the usual Solid Steel channels. On the 19th there will be a chance to win a copy of one of these beauties too so tune in: 7-9pm. Also in the mail was an unreleased ‘basement jam’ version of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’, an abandoned version of the remix before they went in the direction you’ll hear on this disc. 
I’ve been told that Ninja have pressed another 500 copies of this 12″ because demand has been high already. That makes 1500 copies for Record Store Day on multi-coloured vinyl and they have reserved 200 copies for the Ninjashop. I’ll post the link to buy or pre-order when it’s up.
Finished copy of the 12″ – hot off the press, more photos when I have one in hand
Pretty excited about this release and it’s been a long time coming. This is the CD Promo version of the forthcoming DJ Food & The Amorphous Androgynous remix 12″ due out on Record Store Day (April 21st). The 12″ contains the 17 minute long Amorphous (hereafter referred to as AA) remix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ featuring Natural Self, from my album ‘The Search Engine’. This will be split over two sides of the 12″, on multi-coloured vinyl and cut at 45 rpm for extra loudness.
The CD (which isn’t available in stores I’m afraid, although a download will cover most of it) contains radio edits of one section of the remix plus a shorter version of ‘GIANT’ featuring Matt Johnson from the aforementioned album. Exclusive to the CD and download is a beautiful ambient/acoustic remix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ by 2econd Class Citizen which fitted perfectly into my ambient interpretation of the record at the London Planetarium launch party, he really took it to another place.
AA on the other hand do everything you expect and more, 17 minutes split into three distinct tracks: ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ (AA remix) is a madcap jam session, trampling the original track in the dust, ‘Don’t Pray, Don’t Bother (We’re Evil)’ takes the tempo to half time and grinds without mercy until ‘The Electric Images In My Mind (Never Die)’ ups the ante for full all out sonic battery. Natural Self‘s vocal is rephrased and twisted into a repeat refrain that keeps coming back for more over the last eight and a half minutes.
Taken all together they form yet another of the AA’s ‘Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble’ remixes, the likes of which have graced Oasis, Paul Weller and Pop Levi in the past. I’m very pleased to be added to that list and I’ll post pictures of the vinyl version and details of where you can order it as soon as I have them. The artwork is by yours truly with a little help from elements Henry Flint created for the album cover.