More posters from Scraffer

Yet another batch of posters arrived from Scraffer (via Henry Flint) to be signed and then sent out to buyers. Above is a small selection of doodles by Henry for the ‘Madman’ print, of which every one has its own bespoke illustration by Henry inside the thought bubble. I think these are close to selling out now whilst the ‘Life Cycle of a Machine’ print is definitely sold out – don’t worry if you ordered and didn’t receive one yet, I just signed the last batch. The ‘Cosmonaut’ print below is also still available as we made that in a higher run.

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

This weeks’ finds and acquisitions

This week has been fruitful in terms of new vinyl finding its way into my hands. A package from a friend, several online purchases, a spot of digging and a random find of a comic with a free record in the Nobrow shop in Shoreditch. Here’s a small selection including private press releases, airline records, postcard records, a Russian pressing of two Led Zeppelin albums and a hand painted cover.

Posted in Records. | 1 Comment |

Kraftwerk month #11 Mash Ups & Bootlegs

Girls On Top ‘I Wanna Dance With Numbers’ 7″, Frenchbloke & Son ‘Sexy Model’ 7″, Late Night Radio 12″, ‘Dark Side Of The Autobahn‘ Mordant Music 7″ picture disc.

These are among the best reworkings I own on vinyl because the artwork perfectly mirrors the contents. I can credit the Girls On Top record for igniting my love of mash ups, I picked it up because of the cover and took a listen in Rough Trade over in Ladbroke Grove the week it came out. It was so insane I had to have it and I remember being slightly worried it would clear the floor the first time I played it out. The crowd went mad for it. ‘Sexy Model’ is a genius pairing of Right Said Fred‘s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ with Kraftwerk’s most known hit; “I’m a model, you know what I mean”. It’s also backed by a latin take on ‘Neon Lights’ and comes on transparent vinyl with a free badge. Graeme Ross, aka ‘Son’ in the duo, helped me greatly when I was first compiling the Kover Kollections too.

Late Night Radio is a mind boggling medley in the same vein as the Stars on 45 records but pitting Kraftwerk with Vangelis, has to be heard to be believed. ‘Dark Side of the Autobahn’ is an excellent coupling of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ with ‘Autobahn’ (as you can probably guess from the title), as well as snatches of Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Cook. The B side plays the same track backwards and all of these can be heard scattered around the various Kraftwerk Kover Kollection mix series. Below is a strange artifact from Russian that I picked up, a 5″ red flexi disc of ‘Boing Boom Tschak’, these things pop up all the time for bigger name groups but this is the first Kraftwerk one I’ve seen.

Posted in Kraftwerk. | 3 Comments |

Machine, Dear lenticular 12″ cover

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I received this beautiful item the other day after seeing it on both the RokRiot and Hardformat sites. Upon watching the short film of the record being opened (see below) I knew I had to have a copy. The group is Machine, Dear and the album is called ‘Killing Something That’s Already Dead’. Designed by Klaus Matthiesen of OddFischlein, there are only 150 copies and you can grab one here.

Posted in Design, Packaging, Records. | No Comments |

Demdike Stare – Elemental 4 x vinyl package

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I highlighted this before when it first appeared but I only had two of the four discs then and the photos didn’t really do it justice. I now have the complete set so I thought I’d revisit the package and try to get some better images of all the parts (very difficult). For those who missed these there is now a 2 CD version with all this and more out on Modern Love.

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DELIAPHONICLOGO_220107_BLCKMS193 Acapellas Anonymous 24:11:2003 PRSMS193 Acapellas Anonymous 24:11:2003 CDrElectrik Collage logo webMS192 Coldcut Alien Sphinx on Solid Steel 16:09:1994 tape
Posted in Design, Packaging, Records. | No Comments |

RIP Jean Giraud aka Moebius

Jean Giraud aka Moebius has died, he was a massive inspiration, especially on the recent artwork for my album with Henry Flint.

Moebius contributed to the European anthology ‘Métal Hurlant’ in the 70’s, a lot of which was reprinted in the American version, ‘Heavy Metal’, which helped to bring him to worldwide attention. He also drew the cowboy books ‘Blueberry’, collaborated on comics with Alejandro Jodorowsky and contributed designs to many classic films such as Alien, Tron and The 5th Element.

What with Ralph McQuarrie dying last week, it’s the end of an era for some of the most original designers of the sci-fi I grew up with.

Posted in Art, Comics, Design. | 2 Comments |

DJ Format vs DJ Food – Solid Steel mix


Last nights’ Solid Steel mix from Strongroom Alive, sans speech, DJ Format provides an exclusive 30 minute mix and I finish the hour with the same. Tracklist:
– DJ Format

Natural Yogurt Band _ Pot Head _ Now Again
Beta Hector feat. Shane Hunter _ Oracle Bones _ Tru Thoughts
Edan _ Rap Beautician _ Humble Mag
SPOX-PHD _ Brilliance _ Correct Technique
Hero No.7 _ Roots Of A Hero _ Hero Records
DJ Soul Shock _ Wild Beats(edit) _ Solid
Nino Nardini _ Malaysia _ Crea Sound LTD
Mr Chop _ Monolith Voodoo Vibes _ Jazz & Milk
The Jon Bartel Thing _ Freak Show _ Capitol
Them _ I Keep Singing _ Happy Tiger

– DJ Food

The Stepkids _ Suburban Dream _ Stones Throw
Steinski _ Some Dreams Are Meant To Happen _ mp3
DJ Shadow _ Border Crossing _ Island
Pepe Deluxé _ The Storm _ Catskills
Eagles Of Death Metal _ I Only Want You _ Ant Acid Audio
C-Mon & Kypski – More Is Less (DJ Food re-edit) (unknown)
Tom & Jules – Version Galore Solid Steel jingle (mp3)
A-Ko _ dfuuu _ mp3
Jacky Chalard _ Superman, Supercool _ Cache Cache
David Vangel _ Sandpaper Script _ Equinox
The Creatures _ Mad-Eyed Screamer _ Polydor
A-Ko _ brake _ mp3
DJ Format _ Spaceship Earth feat. Edan _ Project Blue Book

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes/Solid Steel, Radio, Solid Steel. | 2 Comments |

Kraftwerk month #7 Kover Kollection 4


This one veers heavily into hip hop territory at the beginning but then into more rock and, inevitably, techno areas. I was using voice synthesizers to generate ‘lyrics’ over some tracks and it contains one of my favourite mixes: two versions of ‘Autobahn’ running concurrently in the left and right speakers.

Gorefest and The Balanescu Quartet had both done versions that I noticed were very similar in arrangement and tempo and, being that the track is so long, rather than play them separately I panned each one left and right and played them together, I like the fact that they’re just so opposite in terms of style. This one originally debuted on Solid Steel on 04/08/06


(and no, you didn’t miss pts. 2 & 3 yet, I’m just not putting them up in logical order)

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Kraftwerk month #6 Ralf & Florian – the sitcom & UK LP

I’ve posted this video before but I never tire of it.


Also on the subject of ‘Ralf & Florian’, the UK pressing on Vertigo had a different sleeve to the regular release (see below), much the same as ‘Autobahn’. Both are believed to be the work of designer Barney Bubbles, although this has never been confirmed.

Emil Schult designed a sticker for the German issue of ‘Autobahn’ (right) that used the blue and white road sign and this was adapted and added to for the UK sleeve. Hardformat ran a great piece on it, arguing for Bubbles as the layout designer and there is a discussion on the subject here but the jury is still out. Also, the ‘Ralf & Florian’ UK cover below had embossing around the title and circuit pattern as well as florescent inks on the back cover.

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