John Rydgren on the Omni Recording Corporation

Earlier this year I was contacted by David Thrussel who runs the Omni Recording Corporation label in Australia. He was interested in reissuing John Rydgren recordings and – knowing that I had a pretty decent collection – needed someone who knew the material. He also needed imagery and good quality scans of cover art, which I provided from the LPs I had and the super-rare book Rydgren published, ‘Tomorrow Is A Handful of Together Yesterdays’ .

Finally after months of additional research, liner note editing and remastering in NYC being halted by Hurricane Sandy – the 2CD 64 track reissue of the bulk of John’s best work is here.

For anyone familiar with Rydgren’s work, ‘Silhouette Segments’ is the album to get, originally a double LP sent only to radio stations but later edited down and bootlegged as a single record, it is restored and remastered in full here on the first CD. The two other LPs on many collector’s wants lists are ‘World of Youth’ and ‘Cantata For New Life’ – both feature here in their entirety too and, whilst not as ‘hip’ as ‘Silhouette…’, they are full of great material.

Even rarer, so much so that it’s virtually unknown, is an album titled, ‘They Say’, full of 20 Silhouette Segments for radio broadcast and, along with the two former albums, never reissued or bootlegged before. The release comes with a booklet packed with photos, cover scans and liner notes from collectors and those who worked with ‘Brother John’ before he passed away.

I’m very pleased to be rounding out the year having had a hand in this release. Check out some of the other reissues via Omni or the vinyl counterpart, Roundtable.

Posted in Music. | 4 Comments |

McBess ‘Malevolent Melody’ book and 7″ record


I can’t resist a comic or book with a record on the inside cover and the 7″ size of McBess‘ ‘Malevolent Melody’ made me grab it off the shelf in the NoBrow shop in Great Eastern St. earlier in the year.

The name McBess was unfamiliar but his images floored me and I immediately bought this as well as another oversize book by him called ‘Big Mother’. Seldom do I come across someone who has such a strong, fully developed visual style that stands out so immediately.

Shades of Kid Acne and Pete Fowler‘s style permeate throughout but not a hint of colour and some of the smoothest draughtsmanship I’ve seen in a while.

I was in love with his style from the minute I saw it, my favourite artistic discovery of 2012. Check out his site here.

Posted in Art, Books, Records. | 1 Comment |

Unused ‘negative’ designs for the Search Engine


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.

Posted in DJ Food, Openmind designs. | 1 Comment |

iPhone image dump – 2012 end of year version

I neglected the iPhone image dump this year so here’s a little selection I always intended to post but never got round to. Top to Bottom, L-R: Cabaret Freaks backdrop and Eyeball prop, France, Occupy stencil, Paris, Matt&Jon&Kevin&Darren T-shirt by Megatrip, Zaku toy by Ashley Wood, Kissbot toy, Jamie Hewlett Absolute vodka for the Olympics – bottle and tube poster, London, Swiss architecture, UK Hip Hop legends poster, Switzerland, Science Museum sculpture, London, inflatable alien heads, France, Space Invader, France, Lego DJ minifigure.

Posted in Photography. | 2 Comments |

2012 Food Favourite lists*

*In no particular order at all

Albums:

Pepe Deluxé – ‘Queen of the Wave’ (Deluxe Edition) (Catskills)

2econd Class Citizen – ‘The Small Minority’ (Equinox)

Tame Impala – ‘Lonerism’ (Modular Recordings)

The The – ‘Moonbug’ (Lazarus)

Gaz Coombes – ‘Here Come The Bombs’ (Hot Fruit)

Paul Weller – ‘Sonik Kicks’ (Universal/Island)

Robert Duncan & David Cain – ‘The Seasons’ (Trunk)

Frankensteez – ‘Son of Frankensteez’ (Fort Point Recordings)

Various (selected by Andy Votel) – ‘Music Minus Music’ (Fat City)

Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune (Virgin)

Reso – ‘Tangram’ (Civil Music)

Kid Koala – ’12-Bit Blues’ (Ninja Tune)

Cults Percussion Ensemble – ‘Cults Percussion Ensemble’ (Trunk)

Belbury Poly – ‘The Belbury Tales’ (Ghost Box)

Mordy Laye & The Group Modular – ‘The Mystery of Mordy Laye’ (Audio Montage)

Gaslamp Killer – ‘Breakthrough’ (Brainfeeder)

Singles:

DJ Format – ‘Spaceship Earth/Terror’ (Slice of Spice)

Soundsci – ‘In A Flash’ (Crate Escape)

Cut Chemist – ‘Outro (Revisited)’ feat. Blackbird (A Stable Sound)

Noel Gallagher – ‘AKA…What A Life’ (Amorphous Androgynous remix) (Big Brother)

Lone – ‘Crystal Caverns 1991’ (R&S)

Tame Impala – Elephant (Modular Recordings)

Tomorrow’s World – ‘So Long My Love’ (Protoyp Recordings)

Comics:

Prophet – Brandon Graham and others (Image)

B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth / Hellboy – Mignola, Allie, Cudi and others (Dark Horse)

2000ad – a cast of thousands (Rebellion)

The Bulletproof Coffin Disinterred – David Hine & Shaky Kane (Image)

Multiple Warheads – Brandon Graham (Image)

Godland – Joe Casey and Tom Scioli (Image)

Films:

The Avengers

Beyond The Black Rainbow

Tron:Uprising

Dredd 3D

Sleeve design / packaging: (designer in brackets)

Tame Impala – ‘Elephant’ (Leif Podhajsky)

DJ Format – ‘Terror/Spaceship Earth’ (Mr Krum)

Fulgeance – Step-thru (Ease/madeofwood)

Demdike Stare – ‘Elemental’ (Andy Votel)

The Herbaliser – ‘There Were Seven’ (Snub 23 stencil edition) (Openmind / Snub 23)

Machine, Dear – ‘Killing Something That’s Already Dead’ (Klaus Matthiesen)

Various – ‘The Minimal Wave Tapes vol.2’ (unknown)

Bruce Haack – ‘Remixes’ (Alexandre Korobov)

Clark – ‘Iradelphic’ (Julian House)

Young Magic – ‘Melt’ (Leif Podhajsky)

Ital – ‘Hive Mind’ (Sam Chirnside)

Carter/Tutti/Void – Transverse (Chris & Cosey)

R.I.P.

Ewan Robertson

Moebius

MCA/Adam Yauch

Ralph McQuarrie

Pete Namlook

Maurice Sendak

Davy Jones

Looking forward to:

Pacific Rim

Kraftwerk live in Dusseldorf and London

Hellboy In Hell / Sledgehammer

Mike McMahon Dredd/Cursed Earth commission piece

Iron Man 3

Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree Book

Posted in Event. | 8 Comments |

A message from NYC

Appalled, saddened and depressed by the events in Connecticut yesterday I tweeted that if my performance in Brussels last night was lacking it was because it was the last place I wanted to be after hearing about such atrocities. Finding the enthusiasm to go and rock a club for 2 hours after hearing such news was hard but pales into insignificance next to what the friends and families of those caught up in the tragedy must be going through.

I went to sleep thinking about it and woke up with it immediately in mind. I was sent this message by Christoper Whipple early this morning and it helped to brighten up the day a little:

“i wasn’t in brussels, but i saw your tweet about it and felt inspired to share this:

i remember back in 2001, the shock of 9/11 was still pretty fresh for us in nyc, but late that november there was an amazing (dare i say, purifying?) show of tremendous energy and resolve. i remember waiting to get in, a bunch of us were mulling over what would take the place of vadim’s terrorist track – or if you’d keep it in the set. the get ur freak on mix was perfect – i remember it with such clarity. that was the first time i really felt alive again after that whole tragedy.

thanks for that.”

Posted in Event. | No Comments |

Skeewiff – Pinball Number Count (Combo Breaker remix)

I only just heard this, a great remix of Walt Kramer‘s ‘Pinball Number Count’ by Skeewiff. With all the 12/12/12 malarky yesterday someone posted it on my Facebook page and it’s excellent. Hop over to Skeewiff’s YouTube Channel and check it out along with many of their other releases. They do a great line in cover versions as well as their own tracks, I’ve ended many a night with their version of ‘Soul Bossanova’.

Several others have also done 3D animated versions and put them on YouTube



This one has ADD with the pitch control


and of course, there’s the Family Guy version. If you still need more after this there are some hilarious versions from foreign Sesame Street episodes with dubbed counting in different languages on YouTube.

Posted in Music. | No Comments |

Impressive, most impressive


Bidding ended today on a collection of Star Wars figures on eBay, rather a LARGE collection by anyone’s standards, in fact this is supposed to be over 85% of all Star Wars figures of this scale ever produced since 1978. The collection of nearly 2,000 figures was sold for $11,500 and were donated by one-time ILM model maker Fon Davis to benefit the Rancho Obi-Wan charity.


I’ve taken these images from the eBay listing, each shelf is a large jpeg which you can zoom into by clicking. SW figures aren’t personally my thing save for a few of the older ones from my childhood but that is a collection and a half.

Posted in Star Wars, Toys. | No Comments |

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Did you know that almost the entire Folkways label is available online to order and nearly every one of over 2,000 releases isn’t ever supposed to be out of print?

When the label was acquired by the Smithsonian Institute one of the wishes of founder, Moses Asch, was that virtually all of the catalogue was to be kept in print.

You can currently order any release on their site as a custom CD, a download or even a cassette! No vinyl as that just wouldn’t be practical but there’s eBay, Discogs and used stores for that. This is just a handful of my favourite sleeves from nearly 100 pages of releases.

There’s also a nice little feature on Ronald Clyne who designed over 500 of the sleeves and is widely recognised as the originator of the Folkways house style. Unit Editions did a beautiful newspaper-style release about his work a few years back which is now sadly sold out.

Posted in Music. | 1 Comment |

Flint & Food prints available at Orbital Comics, London

All four giclee prints I did with Henry Flint are now available in Orbital comics, 8 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JA just off Charing Cross Rd. in London. They also have copies of the comic book / flexi disc / CD edition of ‘The Search Engine’ and Henry’s ‘Broadcast’ book along with a fine selection of comics, books, vintage toys and a small gallery space which is always interesting. Highly recommended.

It looks like there will be a fifth print soon too by way of a revitalised Scraffer.com, a smaller A3 size of ‘Planets’, an illustration that appeared on the ‘One Man’s Weird Is Another Man’s World’ EP. Talking of which, the 4 x 12″ repress package (the three EPs plus the Amorphous Androgynous remix 12″) is at the printers but it might be held over until Record Store Day in April now, I’m not sure. More info when I have it.

Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food, Poster / flyer. | No Comments |

Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree comics

This is so well done, the unfolding history of Hip Hop, drawn by Ed Piskor in the style of old 70’s underground comics by Crumb or Pekar. Starting in 1975 and continuing on into the 80’s Ed has been putting chapters on Boing Boing and they will be collected next year in print form. Love the yellowed paper, faded ink and retro vibe of it all, I wonder if he’ll change style as he moves along to mirror the historical changes in art?

Posted in Comics, Music. | 2 Comments |

Falling

I found this amazing image on a tumblr the other day, as usual the person who had posted it hadn’t bothered to credit it. Anyone know who it’s by? It reminds me of (and is probably an homage to) this image by Moebius. It has ‘Jodorowsky – something’ in the bottom corner so I’m wondering if it’s actually a later version of this scene by Moebius for a graphic novel cover or something?

*UPDATE – and it’s David Rees for the win, in record time he responds: “A little light Googling suggests it’s from the ‘Final Incal’, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and José Omar Ladrönn“. Notice the similarity to the Zaucer of Zilk page I posted earlier (which, incidentally David helped me acquire)? I wonder if this was McCarthy’s homage to Moebius too?

Posted in Art, Comics. | 1 Comment |

The The – ‘Infected’ LP test pressing and proof cover

Digging in the MVE in Berwick St. yesterday I came across this in the mid-price section. It appears to be a test pressing of The The‘s classic ‘Infected’ LP with uncut / glued cover and inner sleeve plus Epic credit sheet. This album (by Matt Johnson – who I worked with on ‘The Search Engine’ – and collaborators) is one of my all time favourite records EVER. Serious Desert Island Disc stuff which will stay with me until I die.

I already own the original vinyl, CD, remastered CD and limited ‘Torture’ cover with poster versions. I even had a signed proof cover of another, largely unknown sleeve design with a cow skull on it that I bought from Andy Dog (the cover artist and Matt’s brother) years ago but it was mistakenly thrown out in a house move as it was stored inside a 12″ mailer! Gutted…

Posted in Records. | 7 Comments |

R.I.P. Ewan Robertson 1985-2012

I was shocked to hear of the death of Ewan Robertson yesterday, one half of design duo Oscar & Ewan who created many iconic covers for Ninja Tune and Big Dada g others. Ewan also recorded as Offshore for Big Dada and had just released his first album only a month ago –‘Bake Haus’.  Alongside Oscar Bauer, Ewan created some iconic sleeves for the labels including Roots Manuva, Wiley, Bonobo and the recent Amon Tobin set housed inside a ‘flower press’.

I only met him once or twice – first at the exhibition for the release of the Ninja Tune ’20 years of Beats & Pieces’ book – and he was friendly, humble and easy to talk to. We’d corresponded over email many times in order to get his and Oscar’s work well represented in the book and he graciously agreed to show the plaster cast of Roots Manuva’s head they’d made for the ‘Slime & Reason’ LP campaign at the opening.

He was always super helpful and supplied many exclusive images from behind the scenes which showed the processes they went through when designing. My thoughts go out to his family and friends, he left a small but striking caché of music and visuals behind that will ensure he isn’t forgotten.

Posted in Design, Event. | 1 Comment |