I spent the best part of my Easter weekend hunched over a light box with paintbrush in hand, hand colouring over 350 images on lith film for slide projection at the Orb gig this Friday and Further two weeks after that. Now to mount the buggers…
Search Results for: further
Here’s a trailer for what to expect at Further on May 6th at the Portico Gallery
DJ Food & Pete Williams present a new, irregular evening by creating an audio visual space to enjoy. Films, slides, oil projections, food, drink and plenty of seating form the environment to soak up the sights and sounds.
Programme:
7.30 – 8.30: Doors, there will be a record stall with stock picked to compliment the evening by Micheal from the nearby Book & Record Bar and delicious food from local café Pinterdera served alongside the fully licensed Portico bar with beers & ales
8.30 – 10.00: Ghost Box Records in the form of Jim Jupp (Belbury Poly) and Julian House (The Focus Group) will be playing an audio visual DJ set.
10.00 – 10.3: Howlround will perform a live score to ‘A Creak in Time’, a film by Steve McInerney (Psyche´-Tropes), via tape loops and reel to reel machines.
10.30 – 12.00: DJ Food & Pete Williams will open and close the evening with their multi-projection Light & Sound Designs.
Location: Portico Gallery, 23B Knight’s Hill, London, SE27 0HS, UK
Tickets here: (limited cheaper early bird price nearly gone)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/further-at-the-portico-gallery-tickets-32880361045
Travel:
Train: West Norwood overground station (1 min walk)
Buses: 2, 68, 196, 315, 322, 432, 468, 690
Announcing a new venture put together by myself and old friend Pete Williams (Eikon / Out Of The Wood) – a collision of Light, Sound and Design… Further.
An irregular event held in different places, it’s not a club night, it’s not monthly, there’s no dance floor. It has got all the things we love in it though: experimental music and film, food and drink, socialising and a bit of record hunting.
The first event is on May 6th at The Portico Gallery, a hidden treasure in the heart of West Norwood and a venue very dear to us that offers an extremely adaptable space to project, perform and present our guests in.
We have Jim Jupp (Belbury Poly) and Julian House (The Focus Group) from Ghost Box Records playing an audio visual set and Howlround sound tracking Steven McInerney’s short film, ‘A Creak In Time’.
Pete and I will be pulling all manner of projections, films, slides and FX out to illuminate the gallery at the beginning and end of the evening to compliment our DJ sets.
There will be food on sale from local café Pintadera, a fully licensed bar and plenty of seating. Michael from the nearby Book & Record Bar will also have a stall selling hand-picked stock for the event.
Venue: The Portico Gallery, 23 Knights Hill, West Norwood, London, SE27 0HS
Doors: 7.30 and we’re all done by midnight. Let’s go Further…
V. limited early bird tickets are on sale now through Eventbrite
Facebook event page here
Yes, it’s that time again, more from Mr Prolific, Dan Lish, in his on-going quest to document the musical heroes and influences that orbit the Hip Hop world for his Egostrip project. (Above) Jazzy Jay, (below) AhmadJamal, Ultramagnetic MCs, Beastie Boys (colour and inks), Robert Glasper’s Dillalude, Gang Starr and a 4Hero / Reinforced label piece for a compilation. As ever, he has prints for sale here or you can see more from the project plus a whole lot more on his website.
We’re still in the early 00s here with a mid November 2002 set that includes a few boots/mash ups and a lot of great RnB / Hip Pop. A strong start to the show with the remix of DJ Shadow’s ’Six Days’ featuring Mos Def, this was undoubtedly the most hyped track of his second LP, The Private Press, and a no-brainer for a single makeover. Nice little cut up with the Solid Steel jingle and the ‘it’s only Monday’ lyric (our show used to got out on Monday nights on BBC London at this time). I don’t know which came first, this mix on the tour with Amon Tobin but I was dropping the Streets/Fine Young Cannibals/Gloria Jones combo in DJ sets around that time although it’s one of the only times I played anything by Mike Skinner as it wasn’t my bag at all, the baseline in the High Contrast remix was the catalyst. Adding Gloria Jones’ ’Tainted Love’ with the rhythm the FYC stole after was a no brainer.
I was deep into the mash up thing at this time and Dsico was an Australian producer whose productions I liked a lot, his extreme cut up/glitch styles going way further than most on the scene, riffing off that Kid 606 sound but with plenty of funk. He appears here twice, first dismembering Beyonce and later dicing with Puff Daddy, by this time, P Diddy. A sharp contrast is Joni Mitchell who I’d suddenly ‘got’ and hoovered up a load of albums on tour in the US, weird how tastes change and then one day an artist just makes sense, I’d had the same thing with the Beach Boys a couple of years before. ‘Dry Cleaner from Des Moines’ is from her Mingus album but I’m not sure what I was thinking adding it in here with way too much ‘jazz scratching’ to boot.
RJD2’s excellent ‘Final Frontier’ from his debut, Deadringer begins a trio of rap tracks followed by the ‘Halfway Home’ interlude from Blacklicious’ Blazing Arrow album. This was produced by DJ Shadow and is hard as nails, search for an amazing remix of this by UK producer Awkward which really bangs. N.O.R.E.’s ‘Nothin’ is such a simple tune, a straight loop of basic drum, bumping bass and that haunting flute top line, loose as anything and reliant on the vocals to provide a chorus. The genius of the Neptunes right there although having Noreaga on the mic helps too and I think his ‘SuperThug’ track from four years before was the first time I ever heard a Neptunes production. They had virtually taken over at this point, issuing track after track with different vocalists that were classics as soon as they hit the dance floor. I let the instrumental run out of Blacklicious, add the Discover Hip Hop advert that gives the mix its name and then off into the radio edit of the vocal.
Randy Maverick’s ‘Pure Love’ is funk 45 heaven and still gets spun – I just looked him up and this is his sole release on Discogs, I’d presumed it was some sort of reissue/re-edit at the time but it seems it was a remix of Al Reed’s ’99 444/100 Pure Love’ by the Nextmen and the Maverick name was a cover. I’ve just heard the original for the first time and they did a great job, the definition of a remix breathing new life into an old song. You can find the Randy Maverick for £6 on Discogs which is a lot cheaper than the Al Reed. DJ First Rate (or just First Rate later on) put out a 3 track sampler in 2002 with a demo mix of ‘One Day’ on it which would later surface on his first album proper in 2005 and it’s doing my head in as to where that bass comes from. Reminds me a bit of Air with those little synths flourishes.
Into some crazy versions next with the second Dsico cut up of P Diddy’s ‘Diddy’ then a mash of Tweet’s ‘Oops (Oh My)’, The Gap Band’s ‘Oops Upside Your Head (see what they did there?) and Bob Marley(!). It sort of works in places but is mercifully short. Lightning Head is Glyn ‘Bigga’ Bush with his dub hat on, here versioning Jean Jacques-Perry’s ‘E.V.A.’ which, of course, then leads onto Gang Starr who chopped up the original many years before. Skanking along in the mix for a good while is The Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘Horizon’, a stand alone single that followed the ‘Every Day’ album and should have been a huge hit in a just world. This whole section really rocks along nicely and I’m layering up extra FX over the top, I might try and re-work this into the DJ set. Next we head to Brighton for a Limp Twins cut and DJ Format remixed by Pablo of the Psychonauts who whips ‘B-Boy Code’ up into a chugging break-fest that was a set staple for a good while. I can’t remember where the ‘Discover Hip Hop’ spoken word came from but it’s not on the original record. There’s some genius sampling on this, pairing old school rap bars from different records to make a new verse.
John Kennedy’s ‘Chocolate & Cheese’ has something I can’t put my finger on but I like it. Tony Touch’s ‘The Diaz Brothers’ I can only take in instrumental form though as it samples David Shire’s ‘Salsation’ from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the same tune that Lightning Head covers on ‘Mudman Skank’ so it was a no-brainer to put them together. I have to apologise for what comes next but you can always switch off as it’s the last track, a mash up of Eminem and Phil Collins that I thought was a good idea at the time. By matching the former’s ‘Cleanin’ Out My Closet’ and the latter’s ‘Mama’ I thought there was some fun to be had. To be fair, it does work in the verses with a nice tension building but the choruses are a painful mess – sorry about that, bit of a duff ending to the hour.
Track list:
DJ SHADOW – SIX DAYS (REMIX feat. MOS DEF)
THE STREETS – HAS IT COME TO THIS (HIGH CONTRAST REMIX)
FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS – GOOD THING
GLORIA JONES – TAINTED LOVE
BEYONCE – WORK IT OUT (DSICO 160 MIX)
JONI MITCHELL – DRY CLEANER FROM DES MOINES
RJD2 – FINAL FRONTIER feat BLUEPRINT
BLACKALICOUS – HALFWAY HOME (INTERLUDE)
N.O.R.E. – NOTHIN’
RANDY MAVERICK – PURE LOVE
DJ FIRST RATE – ONE DAY (Demo Mix) feat. JOHN MACALLUM
P DIDDY – DIDDY (DSICO CUT UP)
MIXED BIZNESS – OOPS TO BE LOVED
LIGHTNING HEAD – E.V.A.
GANG STARR – JUST TO GET A REP
CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA – HORIZON
THE LIMP TWINS – MOVIN’ CLOSER TO THE SOFA
DJ FORMAT – B- BOY CODE (PSYCHOPAB REMIX)
JOHN KENNEDY – CHOCOLATE & CHEESE
TONY TOUCH – THE DIAZ BROS (INSTRUMENTAL)
LIGHTNING HEAD – MUDMAN SKANK
FLEXUS – I’M SORRY MAMA
Summer 2003 and I’ve no idea what the opening use of Pinocchio’s clock sequence was intended to convey but lots of the food-related spoken word overlaid came from Megatrip’s excellent sample collection that he’d send to us via CDr. John Book’s ‘eBay Trauma Centre’ comes from the first Tru Thoughts compilation ‘Shapes One’ and is – I think – the only track released under his own name so far, his band Crut however, have released plenty. I’d just discovered Mr. Bungle’s amazing ‘California’ album via old school friend Steven Baker (RIP) and still hold it in high regard as their masterwork to this day – I seriously recommend it as an example of incredible song writing collage and masterful playing, I mean come on, Dave Lombardo plays drums and a song called ‘None of them knew they were robots’ has to be good, right?. Not being a Streets fan I used the instrumental, non-Mike Skinner vocal version of Grafiti vs The Bug’s only single and filled in some of the vocals with spoken word snippets from Megatrip’s aforementioned Soundbank collection. I’d only just discovered Akufen’s My Way LP from the previous year and absolutely caned it around this time, still a peerless release that will forever be associated with painting a picture for my Dad’s 60th birthday where I listened to it on repeat.
Amalgamation of Sounds, always good value, LFO’s ‘Freak’ absolutely killer tune, RIP Mark Bell, caned that Five Deez ‘Funky’ a cappella for years over all sorts of tracks in clubs with DK. Hey, this mix is pretty slamming now, oh here comes DJ Zinc with Dynamite MC to tear the roof off with ‘People 4’, one of his most creative tunes of the era, a beats/rap match made in heaven. Big tempo switch up and then Reprazent homies Krust and Die cut in with a further switch up from 33 to 45rpm – this section is reminiscent of my club sets at the time, fast-moving shifts through different styles and we’re into the Nextmen and Cyantific’s computer game-flavoured ‘High Scores’ before sliding into another DnB cut that Spotify tells me is ‘Future Sonic’ by Tele Music but I have no memory of. Dipping out of the club and back into radio land with another Mr Bungle cut, ‘The Air Conditioned Nightmare’. This is another example of the band’s seamless collage style, mixing examples of different artists and musical styles into one song and making it work. I swear I once heard a live set from them where they sounded like they were tuning through a radio dial and switching music styles every few bars.
The mix into Jackson’s ‘Utopia’ isn’t too smooth but this track is similar to Akufen’s in that it takes tiny snatches of voice and re-edits them into a patchwork melody, the female vocal was a recording of his mother apparently and this was played from the original French release before he got picked up by Warp. I really should have taken it out of the mix faster rather than leave it under the Matthew Herbert Big Band, it’s painful. I loved this record (Goodbye Swingtime) and Matt’s move away from his earlier experiments for a full live band experience. Seeing them at The Big Chill one year blew me away – always inspirational. Four Tet needs no introduction of course but back in 2003 he was still building his rep with this single from his third album, Rounds. Next up, the Returner is a lesser-used alias of Mark Pritchard, creating a fine DJ tool in his ‘Throwdown No.1’ of which I proceed to cut up two copies before editing into Loon’s Schoolly D-quoting, Kelis-featuring ‘How Do You Want That’. This was a Neptunes-esque production despite not being by them and shows how much they’d influenced contemporary hip hop by this point. We finish up with Schoolly’s classic ‘Saturday Night’ because, why not? Live two copy cut ups from DJ Code Money, you can even hear the records jump and wobble in places, pure hip hop and swearing on record way before NWA made it hip. I think the final spoken word coda may have been from John Cage although it sounds like someone impersonating him rather than his actual voice.
Track list:
Pinnochio – Clock Sequence
John Book – eBay Trauma Centre
Mr Bungle – None of Them Knew They Were Robots
Grafiti vs The Bug – What IS The Problem?
Akufen – Late Night Munchies
Amalgamation of Sounds – Sharm
LFO – Freak
Five Deez – Funky (a cappella)
DJ Zinc feat. Dynamite MC – People 4
Krust & Die – Movin’ Fast
The Nextmen feat. Cyantific – High Score
Tele Music – Future Sonic
Mr Bungle – The Air Conditioned Nightmare
Jackson – Utopia
The Matthew Herbert Big Band – Misprints
Four Tet – As Serious As Your Life
The Returner – Throwdown No.1
Loon feat. Kelis – How Do You Want That
Schoolly D – Saturday Night
I want to start a post to document photos of the Jezz Woodroffe covers I see that have been decorated with the sticker sheet provided inside. This fantastic electronic synth soundtrack is available now on Trunk Reords and only the first pressing will have the stickers so if you want a copy get it here before they’re gone.
The above cover is by Johnny Cuba (he promises to do the back soon) and the couple below are by Jason Applin.
SusansLegPolicy goes for the minimal details below and we finish off with animated Jonny Trunk‘s film…
Jonny sent me this stunner from Darren Hall that has a little story to go with it;
“I fought my record nerd urge to keep my copy pristine, and i won, so i gave it to my 11 year old to apply the stickers. He tells me there is a story. The two lower divers are being menaced by pointy toothed sharks so a third diver is coming to their rescue. Meanwhile two other divers, evidently not arsed at all about the perilous situation of their colleagues, are filming some cool fish”.
This just in from Davidboyt84… nice use of fish wrapping round to the back cover there
Simon Bowker Heighes has gone a step further and saved sharks for the labels as well as having divers explore the Jezz Woodroffe logo and some nice fish pairing up on the back cover.
This just in from Jolyon Green
I was struck by the cover art to Floating Points‘ new single, ‘Birth4000’ the other week as it resembles the liquid light shows I so love. On further investigation, it seems that’s not far off as the artist, Akiko Nakayama, projects her ‘Alive Painting’ onto huge canvases from microscopic sizes. Her website is well worth some investigation and she made a video for the single which you can see below as well as a billboard that Ninja Tune showed off somewhere in London recently.
Summer 1995 was a busy time, Ninja Tune had released their first compilation, Ninja Cuts: Funkjazztical Tricknology in March which had bought in the first big flush of attention for the label and we were working on the Coldcut Journeys By DJ mix and the next DJ Food album, A Recipe For Disaster. We were still a few months away from the LP launch party at the Blue Note that would give birth to the infamous Stealth night but things were flowering for the label and its slowly expanding roster of artists like The Herbaliser, 9 Lazy 9, The London Funk Allstars, Up, Bustle & Out and Funki Porcini. Another label that was hitting a purple patch was Rising High who were diversifying out of the hardcore that had made their name with artists like Wagon Christ, Bedouin Ascent, Plug and Witchman. The opening track here is by Luke Vibert and comes from the label’s Further Self Evident Truths 2 compilation, a beautiful example of his Throbbing Pouch era trip hop and newly discovery love of drum n bass under his Plug alias.
Joe Nation released a sole 12” on the Chill Out Label and the group consisted of a certain Jonathan Moore – note the spelling of the surname – not the Jonathan More of Coldcut but someone who would go on to play a crucial role in the Ninja Tune label for some years to come. I think I’ve written about Jonathan before, largely under his Voda alias, he occupied a small studio in the same building as Ninja Tune in the 90s and later moved up to occupy the whole of the top floor of the building. He mastered recordings for a living as well as occasionally making music and he was in high demand as both the label and others around the area grew. You can see his Voda label and credit on many Ninja and Ntone releases of the time. He worked as an engineer on Mixmaster Morris’ third album, Coldcut’s records and also engineered the collaboration Coldcut and I did with Grandmaster Flash. I really liked him and, as his empire grew, he eventually moved out and had a large studio up in Soho, mastering, editing and duplicating for all and sundry. The last job I remember doing with him was the remastering for the Cookie Monster/Pinball Number Count 12” that the label released as well as cutting a video for it at his place which would place it around 2003 I think. I looked him up and and he now lives in Bristol and runs a TV subtitling service, I hope he’s well.
More DnB with Danny Breaks from an early Droppin’ Science release, remixed by Origin Unknown, I was still working part time in Ambient Soho around this time and would grab these releases when they came in. Others I would grab were anything on the Pharma label out of Germany, usually on coloured vinyl and a mixture of downtempo acid and electro from the Air Liquide/Jammin’ Unit/Cem Oral/Khan collective with a million aliases. The two tracks here from Kerosene and Zulutronic were from the label’s first two releases and the label would be active for the next five years releasing a mixture of dubbed out acid beats and bleeps. Now, a slight diversion but bear with me, it is relevant to what comes next.
A funny thing happened to me the other day as I was walking down the back streets of Peckham, looking at stickers on lamp posts and eyeing up a particularly decorated one that D’Face had stuck about ten different designs on. A man walking his dog passed by and suddenly asked if I was Kev? Yes, I replied, not sure if someone had played a trick on me and stuck a label on my back. Turns out he follows me on Instagram and had seen I lived locally, posted a lot of street art bits and also had a connection to Leicester. We got chatting and he revealed that not only did he come from there but also made music and that I had once reviewed one of his releases favourably for Muzik magazine in the 90’s. After more chat it transpired that he was one half of the Headphonauts – a group who released two singles in the mid 90s and then disappeared (as far as I knew) and that no one else I’ve ever talked to even remembers – how random is that!? Anyway, this opened the floodgates and it turns out Ali Gibbs (for it was he) moved to London and started making music solo under the name Nebraska, recording for various labels and running his own, Friends & Relations. We met up again a week or so later and he furnished me with a lovely pile of his back catalogue which included a release by Rex Mitsui, ‘Heddohõn Shõ Ryokõ’ which is the missing link between the Headphonauts’ work and his solo Nebraska releases. Thank you Ali, I now have closure not only on the NT album (read last week’s entry) but also of what happened to the Headphonauts, plus I made a new friend. Isn’t life weird sometimes?
Back to the tunes, some upfront pressure from an unknown called DJ Food – taken from a 12” promo for a Ninja label showcase in Koln I think – mixes out of the aforementioned Headphonauts’ track ‘Adverse Pt.3’. We get a snatch of the Wagon Christ remix of Witchman’s ‘Red Demon Loco’ (not ‘Watchman’ as Matt Black reads later) and what I love about this is that Luke time-stretches the already slow beat to half time and then stretches it again to half of that, complete with all the sonic aberrations that the technology of the day gave the sound. This just leaves the gate open for a good run of Gescom’s electro-fied ‘Pulz’ from their 12” release on Clear, another sleeve that I helped assemble from a mass of tags Rob and Sean provided of local Manchester writers, like I said, it was a busy year.
PS: For those wondering about the 4/11/95 date on the tape, it was about 10 minutes of As One, B12, Black Dog-esque tracks from another mix, nothing to write home about mix-wise so I’ve not included it. Back with more 1995 beats next week…
Track list:
Wagon Christ – Wet Leg
Joe Nation – Zvona (45-8 Mix)
Danny Breaks – Firin’ Line (Origin Unknown remix)
Kerosene – Nurse City
Zulutronic – Sodotronic
Headphonauts – Adverse Pt.3
DJ Food – Spiral
Witchman – Red Demon Loco (Wagon Christ remix)
Gescom – Pulz
When I set up my digital label, Infinite Illectrik, in 2020 it was with the intent that I would just use it as a platform for my own modified turntable recordings and other experiments (but that’s for later). I had no intention of it becoming a label to put out other people’s work but primarily as a personal playground both sonically and graphically, but as they say, ‘the best laid plans…’. With this month’s release I’m pleased to present the first experimental turntable work from James Meharry aka James In Real Life aka Duplokit.
James contacted me earlier this year from his home town in Christchurch, New Zealand after seeing my Quadraphon online as he was working along similar lines, albeit with a different, custom-built set up. Whereas my Quadraophon has one turntable with four tone arms, he is working with two decks, each with an extra tone arm – which solves the problem of changing records that I have at least. We’re both using rotary mixers with outboard FX, using locked groove records as our palette and have been building / refining our set ups in virtual tandem for several years with the end goal of a performance-based turntablism/DJ set based on experimental rhythm or soundscape building.
What James also has under his belt is a lathe to cut his own records and the technical knowledge to design his own parts, modifying his turntables to do some outrageous things. He sent a photo of his creation (now christened Duplokit) and I asked if I could hear some of what he’s been doing. What he sent immediately impressed as it’s similar to what I’m attempting yet different and we started a dialogue, exchanging info and I asked if he would be up for me releasing it on my label.
What has transpired since is that James has gone into new realms with the machine, adding ‘warp drives’ to each deck and is currently building further innovations for later that will mean he can do more than any regular turntable can with his set up. With this release, he’s starting a Patreon and will be doing regular YouTube episodes for members, taking you through each step of his build process, building to his own James In Real Life releases as the Duplokit develops. I’m pleased to showcase a couple of his earliest experiments on Infinite Illectrik today, give him a listen, a follow, even sign up to his Patreon if you’re curious as to what it’s all about and want to drill down into how he’s made the monster used to create these tracks. I think what he’s doing is something quite unique in the field of both custom-built equipment and also the advancement of turntablism into new areas.
Subscribe to follow and support James on his journey.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JamesInRealLife
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBxkXMFwtF_wfmLRsQXugiQ
Bandcamp: https://jamesinreallife.bandcamp.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesinreallifeofficial
These track lists get harder and harder the further we go back, Discogs and Shazam are called on more and more as the memory gives up and the gaps in the record collection once filled with these tunes appear empty. Back in mid-’96 PC did a show he christened Solid Wood (available on the 20 years of Solid Steel DVD I believe) and a week later we christened this one ‘Solid Sloth’ – not sure exactly why. After a custom Solid Steel intro I’d forgotten that appears to be made from our Journeys By DJ scratches and a DJ Food off-cut we jump into an amazing sound collage of which I have no recall at all. The original DAT this was taken from was seriously messed up and I had to cut all manner of glitches out, not that it’s that apparent in the tornado of sound we’re dropped into. The old Decca LP with the ‘This Is A Journey Into Sound’ sample appears over the top before we’re into Spacer’s ‘Contrazoom’. This was the first time I remember hearing Alison Goldfrapp’s amazing vocals, coming on like Shirley Bassey over a Bond theme mixed with drum n bass, incredible. This mix is littered with a league of producers putting their take on DnB which had, by mid ’96, well and truly made its mark on the electronic music landscape outside of its origins.
Luke Vibert, an early adopter with several Plug EPs under his belt, takes the easy vocals and horns of the Mike Flowers Pops and blends them into a smooth cheese before Amon Tobin carves up the terrain with the frantic ‘Cruzer’ in his original Cujo guise shortly before signing to Ninja Tune under his own name. DJ Shadow’s hard to find Legitimate Mix of Zimbabwe Legit’s ‘Doin’ Damage’ was finally widely available via the Mo Wax Headz compilation so this got an airing along with a suitably downtempo War cut, ‘Four Cornered Room’ which I later found out used to get airplay from Alex Paterson at Land of Oz. Mo Wax was truly in its golden age at this point, every release a winner with multiple remixes across singles from some of the best names covering all genres. DJ Krush’s collaboration with CL Smooth gets a going over by Attica Blues and then I mix in something sampling his and Shadow’s beat from their ‘Duality’ collab, except it features a beautiful synth line over the top. The identity of this escapes me but it smacks of someone like Stasis or As One although I don’t think they’d be that blatant with the beat-swiping. If anyone recognises it then please leave a comment.
A brief hip hop interlude in the form of Erule’s ’Synopsis’ reminds me that I’ve literally just trading this single with a bunch of others for a stack load of comics via a US connection so it’s going back overseas to where I first picked it up. Aphex gives his own unique take on DnB with a mix of his ‘Girl Boy’ single and then we run into a couple of unknowns. I’ve racked my brains (and other’s) to identify this next track, scoured the shelves and Discogs but to no avail, at first it sounds like Squarepusher but it’s a bit too straight for him. Then I thought Danny Breaks/Droppin’ Science but no, too heavy/tricksy in the drum programming – I’m now convinced it’s T-Power in some form or other but I’m damned if I can pin it – please put me out of my misery. The next track is the same, I thought maybe early Hospital Records but no, drawing a blank here too as is Shazam. Mo’ Mo Wax business with the DJ Crystl remix of Dr Octagon’s ‘Blue Flowers’ before the madness of Squarepusher’s complete write-off of Funki Porcini’s ‘Carwreck’ rounds the hour out as PC scratches in his first record for the next set.
Track list:
DJ Food – Solid Steel intro
Unknown – Journey Into Sound
Spacer – Contrazoom feat. Alison Goldfrapp
Luke Vibert & The Mike Flowers Pops – Mfp Chunks
Cujo – Cruzer
Zimbabwe Legit – Doin’ Damage (Shadow’s Legitimate Mix)
War – Four Cornered Room
DJ Krush – Only The Strong Survive feat. CL Smooth (7th Samurai mix by Attica Blues)
Unknown – (Stasis? AsOne?)
Erule – Synopsis
Aphex Twin – Girl Boy (£18 Snarerush Mix)
Unknown – Unknown (T-Power ?)
Unknown – Unknown
Dr Octagon – Blue Flowers (The Flower Bed Mix 2 by DJ Crystl)
Funki Porcini – Carwreck (Squarepusher Mix)
Rock Posters.com has opened up their archives and is selling some of the original art to some classic posters by Wes Wilson and Lee Conklin.
I love seeing original art of any kind, it gives a further look behind the curtain at the process and prowess of the creators. None of this is cheap, mind, but given these are one of a kinds it’s no surprise. I’ve included the originals alongside the posters here.
The printing plate (or one of them) was sold some years ago at auction for this too, seen here in red on metal, the poster was in purple and green inks.
On May 1st 2020, in the midst of the first lockdown, I quietly started my online label, Infinite Iklectik. Like most people at the time, I was housebound and in the midst of a mass of creative activity now that all the hours of the day were mine. I was also about to turn 50 and thought it would be good to have my own label online by the time I turned half a century. The reason for creating a label of my own? I’d built the first version of the four-armed Quadraphon turntable the summer before and been recording all sorts of material on it to test it out.
Created through simultaneously playing vinyl records with multiple locked grooves (infinitely looping single grooves) with four needles and then patching the individual channels through an FX pedal to build and alter rhythmic tracks, there was hours of audio to go through. Having time on my hands I’d slowly been editing down the jams to their highlights, careful to keep track of which records I’d used for each one. Now was the time to give them a home and Bandcamp was the most obvious place to easily host files that I had no intention of releasing in a physical format but wanted to see the light. Being that this material is very different to the music I release as DJ Food – and also the fact that I’m signed to Ninja Tune under that name – I elected to create a series of pseudonyms with a nod to the turntable more than anything to play the part of the various groups that would be signed to my label. It’s fun to play label manager, artist, designer, A&R and PR agent all on your own, I could do anything I liked without having to refer to others to sign anything off, guess I am a control freak sometimes.
I uploaded seven releases on May 1st and a further Four Tet remix a month later and then nothing… Other work got in the way (not least three albums under the DJ Food, Celestial Mechanic and The New Obsolecents monikers) plus artwork duties and further improvements to the Quadraphon which would take another two years to complete. With a gig earlier this year at the Ramsgate Music Hall I started rehearsing and recording in earnest, again amassing a huge array of material, you can record albums worth in a matter of days with this thing. Anyway, to cut a long story short, three years on from the initial label debut I’ve readied a batch of releases which will be released monthly, the first being this Friday, May 5th, which is coincidentally my birthday.
Forthcoming releases:
The keen-eyed will notice a new name on the list; jamesinreallife is from New Zealand and has unknowingly been working along the same lines as me with his own device for years too. I hadn’t intended to release anything but my own music on II but when he sent me some of his first recordings it was too good to ignore. More about him in time, his release is a way off yet and there’s much to discuss there. Anyway, here’s a short clip of the Ramsgate gig where I’m remixing the locked groove side of Four Tet’s ‘Sixteen Oceans’ LP live. I’ve been posting more clips on my Instagram and YouTube channels too.
Back To The Old School! Possibly the first person to want to get back to the old school – at that point only a few years ago in hip hop history – Just Ice aka Sir Vicious teamed up with Mantronik on production for this incredible album cut. Sounding anything but old school at the time, revisiting this for this upload it strikes me that it sounds like a dub version of a vocal tune, the way the vocal drops in and out with the delays. Hard to write a track like that with snatches of lyrics punching through, I wonder if any other versions exist? Certainly still sounds fresh though. A bit of ‘Mella’ from Jazz Brakes vol.2 with a snatch of the exorcism from the I Am Lucifer LP I finally located last year on vinyl.
The thunderous ‘Break Dancer’ by The Boogie Boys is now a forgotten classic in the mould of Art of Noise’s ‘Beatbox’ and only a year behind it, release-wise, love those huge beats. Bedouin Ascent’s ‘Internal Bleeding’ from his Pavillion of the New Spirit EP is just an incredible piece of techno jazz, the whole 12” is utter electronica gold and criminally un-heralded, one of the true unsung heroes of 90s electronic music. I think I mixed the Autechre track in on the wrong beat from here, in time but off beat. We take a pause for the cause and I thought I’d leave the ads in for curiositie’s sake – the East Coast Dr Dre and Ed Lover advertising Lugs footwear and a plug for a weekend of rare groove on KISS.
Then we’re back for some 9 Lazy 9, ‘Checkin’ On You’ on Ninja Tune, James and Kier’s funky jazz project before James went off solo as Funki Porcini. Still going strong, his latest project is his Laserium, multiple lasers reflected through prisms synched to his music, forming a new kind of Lumia projection show. I’m seeing him this weekend in Bristol at the IMAX along with old heads The Light Surgeons and ex-Hexstatic Stuart Warren-Hill’s Holotronica project. Jon mentions assembling at the South bank that weekend for a march and you can hear a shout of ‘Injustice!’ from Matt in the background and I think this refers to the Criminal Justice Bill protests happening around this time. The track underneath the chat I cannot remember and Shazam has nothing either, but coming in again on time but off beat is ‘Triangle’ from Sounds From The Ground from their debut EP.
Mix URL:
Track list:
Just Ice – Back To The Old School
DJ Food – Mella
The Boogle Boys – Break Dancer
Bedouin Ascent – Internal Bleeding
Autechre – Further
Ad break
9 Lazy 9 – Checkin’ On You
Unknown – Unknown
Sounds From The Ground – Triangle
Autumn 1994 and trip hop is steadily creeping into the playlist on Solid Steel with pioneering labels like Mo Wax and Ninja Tune heading the pack. The reality was that there were few tracks that fell into that category a year before with a crossover from the latter days of Acid Jazz providing the odd nugget, weird hardcore B sides, instrumental hip hop album tracks or the very first compilations like Give Em Enough Dope which kicked it off for Wall of Sound. Andy Pemberton’s Mixmag article christening this ‘new kind of hip hop’ had been published only two months before and there was definitely something in the air even though Mo Wax was only just breaking free of the jazz stylings that had birthed it, swapping hip obi strip designs by Swifty for graffiti street styles by Futura and 3D. Ninja had another year to go before it found its groove and around this time I started designing for them, re-moulding the Ninja logo into something sleeker and adding an eastern feel to early graphics.
But enough history, The Jackson 5, sampled most noticeably by The Original Concept back in the 80s, lead off with ‘It’s Great To Be Here’ for no other reason than it’s a fab opener. New Ninja signing Up, Bustle and Out lope in with the beat-heavy ‘Lazy Days’, a record box staple at this time before a Big Daddy Kane B side, ‘Show n Prove’ gets a full airing. This incredible posse cut includes a young Jay Z and suitably insane ODB amongst its cast and everyone is on fire throughout. DJ Toolz aka Jazzy Jason (Blapps Posse, London Funk Allstars, Mad Doctor X) could always be relied upon for a dose of banging beats and the La Funk Mob double 10” remix pack was one of the hottest releases of the moment. I’d actually forgotten this version of ‘Ravers Suck Our Sound’ but it actually improves on the original even though it was overshadowed by the Ritchie Hawtin mix.
After this there’s a Hendrix-sampling downtempo track which I can’t identify at all and isn’t included on the read out at the end of the mix, as ever, if anyone knows, it please leave a comment. Suddenly we’re back in ambient territory again with a huge dose of Frippertronics from Sylvian & Fripp (or Tripp as Jon later calls him) before a Further track (Rocket from Ambient Soho with Richard Norris) and a snatch of Journeyman’s ‘3001’ on Ninja electronic sub label Ntone. A second track involving Richard – the Grid’s ‘Rollercoaster’ – is sublimely remixed by Global Communication who could do no wrong at this stage, each release an epic production that just made everyone sound better. More Mo Wax with UNKLE and Major Force’s Timothy Leary-sampling ‘The Time Has Come’ and it certainly felt like it for James and co. who were entering into a purple patch that would last several years. Autechre’s ‘Foil’ from their second LP, Amber, plays out – another label who were well into a golden era which would last at least until the end of the decade.
Track list:
Coldcut Solid Steel Intro
The Jackson 5 – It’s Great To Be Here
Up, Bustle & Out – Lazy Days
Big Daddy Kane – Show ’n’ Prove
DJ Toolz – Rusty Goes GaGa
La Funk Mob – Ravers Suck Our Sound (Mystik Mix)
Unknown – Unknown
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp – Bringing Down The Light
Further – Angel’s Little House
Journeyman – 3001
The Grid – Rollercoaster (Global Communications remix)
UNKLE vs Major Force – The Time Has Come
Autechre – Foil
A mixed bag of then current music and what an embarrassment of riches! From contemporary psyche rock instrumental beats to post electroclash tracks and downtempo sample-fests.
The Giallos Flame first came to my attention via the DC Recordings 12” that the opening track was taken from, of which the mix title is a play on as this set was recorded when I was living in Dulwich. I know the Cdr says ‘Dunwich’ but that’s wrong and so is the date, being when it was recorded, not broadcast. Following swiftly is an early Heliocentrics track from a Jazzman 45 followed my another track from the aforementioned Live From Dunwich 12”. DC Recordings were on a ridiculously good run at this point with releases from The Emperor Machine, Padded Cell, Tom Tyler, The Oscillation and White Line Circus, all wrapped in gorgeous La Boca artwork and the Padded Cell remix of Future Loop Foundation’s ‘The Sea & The Sky’ is still a banger to this day and cheap as chips.
Keeping the tempo high there’s the Ted Nugget-sampling ‘Shake A Fist’ from Hot Chip, an amazing Optimo remix of Prinzhorn Dance School’s ‘Space Invader’ (check the 303 breakdown) and LCD’s ’Sound of Silver’ which I seemed to think sounded like Frankie’s ‘Relax’ in the middle, hence the acappella overdub. Racing through ‘other mystery beats’ as Matt Black always used to call the ones he couldn’t recall – Mr 76ix was a Skam records artist who sounds like he’s sampling a snatch of the Ronnie Corbett ’Sorry’ theme tune in there. The Shocking Pinks remixed by the Glimmers I barely recall but would have been sent on promo, mining that Liquid Liquid percussion sound repopularised by the DFA crew. More spy jazz Giallos Flame with a mystery preacher sermon too low in the mix and then Indoor Life’s ‘Archeology’ which must have been on a compilation as it’s an old 80s track on Celluloid. A quick look on Discogs confirms that it was on a B-Music comp titled after the track itself, dig and dig and dig indeed.
The excellent but sadly none too prolific Mr Chop (these days simply known as Chop) is up next from his Jazz & Milk release, ‘Sounds From The Cave’, he’s go on to get picked up by Now Again Records for a few releases and has also since had a 10” out on the coveted Drumetrics series. I don’t recall the Kid Acne ‘Sliding Beats’ either but what a banging beat, seems it was the instrumental of his ‘Sliding Doors’ release on Lex, co-written with Req One, mixed by Ross Orton and mastered by Rob Gordon no less! Next is a brace of Bullion’s breakthrough mash up of Jay D/Dilla beats and Beach Boys samples. So good I included four in a row, mainly because they were quite short too, he turns an unlikely alliance into something quite magic and forms a third ‘artist’ in the process which is what the best mash ups are all about. I’d been contemplating a Beach Boys sample-fest of my own for some years but he took it further than I ever could, I must revisit that record soon, it still sounds fresh.
For the last section we go deeper into sample territory, starting with what, for my money, is one of the first sample records in pop – Eno and Byrne’s My Life In The Bush of Ghosts and the spooky ‘Come With Us’. I could rhapsodise about this album until the cows come home as it’s one of my favourite records ever but Gescom throw any reverence away, shoving the whole thing into some sample chopping and rearranging programme that expertly reconfigures it from a meandering ramble into an uptempo electro stomp. Add in Murcof’s darkly creeping ambience over the end and you have something quite special as the track contorts and breaks down under its own complexity. ‘Cosmos 1’ is from the fourth of his five album debut run with the Leaf label and what a fine group of albums. This melts into the final track from the sole release by The Dead Soul Brothers, a record I don’t recall ever having but which may have come to me digitally by this point as it’s 2007 and methods of distribution were changing fast every year in the music business and they got hold of the digital realm.
Track list:
The Giallos Flame – Live From Dunwich
Heliocentrics – Dance of the Dogon
The Giallos Flame – Crime Squad
Future Loop Foundation – The Sea & The Sky (Padded Cell remix)
Hot Chip – Shake A Fist
Prinzhorn Dance School – You Are The Space Invader (Optimo remix)
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Mr 76ix – Romanticism
Shocking Pinks – Smoke Screen (12″s & A Bit More by The Glimmers)
The Giallos Flame – Live From Dunwich
Indoor Life – Archeology
Mr Chop – Snob
Kid Acne – Sliding Beats (instrumental)
Bullion – Let’s Be Friends
Bullion – Pet Sounds
Bullion – Sloop Jay D
Bullion – Don’t Talk (Close Your Eyes)
Brian Eno & David Byrne – Come With Us
Gescom – B1
Murcof – Cosmos 1
Dead Soul Brothers – Overtime
An odd assortment from mid 2002 here with a bit of party-style mash up, a bit of funk, some Four Tet and some cut ups thrown in, sounds a bit like I was tidying up some loose ends. The inclusion of ‘Milk’ by The Basic dates it instantly to around the time of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist’s ‘Product Placement’ mix, of which this was a staple, both musically and visually. It’s also the first time Luke Vibert’s ‘Homewerk’ gets an airing, a track that would be in the record box from most of the decade and still comes out for the Kraftwerk Klassics, Kovers and Kurios set.
‘Yoda’s One Man Band’ sounds more like Kid Koala than he did back then and I’m not entirely sure it was serious. I never knew who the Freelance Hairdresser was, obviously a play on the Freelance Hellraiser and in early on with the mash up craze. Here he/she mixes the BBC Pot Black theme (Winifred Atwell – Black & White Rag) with Eminem to ‘hilarious’ effect, hasn’t dated a bit – but seriously, this is half of what I enjoyed about the bastard pop craze, it was ridiculous and unpretentious fun, mostly made by people who had nothing to lose.
‘Funk’ is, of course, the less famous B side to Meco’s huge disco-fied hit, ’Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band’ although something tells me they needed a filler track quickly for the flip and didn’t stop to think too hard about the title. Here comes Luke with his obvious steal homage to the Dusseldorf Quartet and I have to say, that tempo switch down mix out of it into Paul Kass is inspired. There’s also a link between the two as ‘Underground Agent’ is featured on the Further Nuggets compilation of library music that Luke made for Lo Recordings around this time.
And here’s The Basic with their advertisement for the dairy industry, not 100% sure where the spoken word about cows comes from that I’ve slung over it but it’s probably a Sesame Street sketch. I remember seeing the Product Placement show at, I think, the Scala of all places, in London. Shadow and Cut confounded a few people after the party-tastic ‘Brainfreeze’ set by digging pretty deep to the point where the tracks were cool but more of a head-nod than a get down. Z-Trip ripped it up on that show, pure showmanship with Nirvana cut ups and plenty of mic action.
A couple of Four Tet pieces follow, first, a remix for James Yorkson, and second, something he did for the Domino label which takes a big slabs of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’ and weaves it into something beautiful. It comes as a 7”, split over two sides and features a photo of a young Kieran with his sister on the cover. We play out and turn off the light with Al Dente and Ill Chemist – friends of Steinski’s – and a little track from a CDr I was given I think as I can’t find it anywhere on the web. Nighty Night!
Track list:
DJ Yoda – Yoda’s One Man Band
Freelance Hairdresser – Marshall’s Been Snookered
Meco – Funk
Luke Vibert – Homewerk
Paul Kass – Underground Agent
The Basic – Milk
James Yorkson & the Athletes – The Lang Toun (Four Tet remix)
Four Tet – I’m On Fire (Part 2)
Al Dente and Ill Chemist – Nighty Night
Happy New Year for 2023! I hope it was fun for you all, sorry this is late today, I’ve been deep in design and gig mode, opening for The Art of Noise two nights in a row at the Jazz Cafe. On with the show I promised in the last entry.
Matt Black rang up one day in the summer of 1994, there was a problem. KISS FM had been booked out, both studios, for the Friday pre-record so he needed somewhere else to record the show that week. I’m not sure if Jon More was around, maybe away DJing with PC? I’m also not sure the exact turn of events aside from KISS wasn’t available but could he come over and do the show at mine? Wow, this was a turn up for the books, I’d only been a guest on the show for just over a year, had a handful or more under my belt and was becoming part of the crew due to now providing artwork for the label as well as the odd gig away with Coldcut. OK, come over to East Dulwich and set up in my bedroom and record Solid Steel, why don’t you? Holy shit!
At the time I shared a house with Chantal Passamonte (Mira Calix further down the line), David Vallade and Mario Aguera and we had hosted the original Telepathic Fish party in the three story house above a chemists on Goose Green which we’d dubbed 102 Central. Mario had by now started working with Hex as a computer programmer and David and Chantal were working in Ambient Soho, the record shop in Berwick St, Soho, while I was up the road at Books Etc. on Oxford Street. At the time I had three decks set up in my room, a couple of Technics and something else I forget, not sure what the mixer was but it was the same one on the cover of the Funkjazztical Tricknology compilation. I also had a keyboard, a drum machine, CD player and an odd flanger guitar pedal hooked up – see the blurry photo for reference. Matt came down and we took turns playing into a portable DAT player he’d bought along I think. Can’t remember what we used for a mic but it was probably a pair of headphones plugged into the mic. input hence the terrible sound quality. I think the Coldcut jingles were flown in off cassette and this recording was probably taken from the radio broadcast as it has the KISS news jingle added onto the end, probably live by the sound engineer.
Starting off with a then holy trinity of electronica pioneers Autechre, MuZiq and Caustic Windown (Aphex Twin) tells you we’re in the golden age of Artificial Intelligence era electronica. AI only took another 30 years to become part of everyday life. None of the tracks here have aged badly either, I still play the Aphex track out sometimes too. Following ‘On The Romance Tip’ (where did that title originate? It’s not on the record anywhere) there’s an elongated trance-ish acid thing that makes me think it might be European. Shazam gives me nothing and the ears don’t recognise it at all – anyone? Starts about 11 mins in and bubbles away for another four minutes until Global Communication’s ‘Sublime Creation’ races in on 45 instead of 33, sounding not far off Acen’s ‘Trip To The Moon’ in places.
Cut for an ad break and more Glob Comm with the opening track to their classic 76’14 album, ‘4’02’ with the opening of The Orb’s remix of Material’s ‘Praying Mantra’ slurped over, a common DJ tool of mine. Another was the phasing, filtered and panning intro to Mergener / Weisser’s ‘Sunbeam’ from a New Age Music comp on Klaus Schulze’s Innovative Communication label that Mixmaster Morris had hipped me to, I think I found this in Beanos or somewhere along Berwick St. on my lunch break one day in Soho. This can be heard bridging ‘4’02’ and Kraftwerk’s ‘The Man Machine’ classic, which needs no introduction. Out of the other Fab Four into Coldcut’s own ‘Eine Kleine Hed Musik’ – fresh on vinyl from the extra disc that accompanied the Ninja Tune vinyl version of the album and first heard opening the original Coldcut meets The Orb radio show on New Year’s Eve 1991/92. Which brings us full circle, 31 years later… exit Matt Black stating, ‘Openmind in the house, or rather I’m in Openmind’s house!’
Track list:
Autechre – Lost
MuZiq – Nettles & Pralines
Caustic Window – On The Romance Tip
Unknown – unknown
Global Communication – Sublime Creation (on 45)
Global Communication – 4’02
Kraftwerk – The Man Machine
Coldcut – Eine Kleine Hed Musik
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.
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:
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.)
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 / 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)
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)
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
Furthermore to the fantasy film collaborations in the Tron / Jodorowsky post, here’s some more. “On the set of 1984 secret collaboration movie between Jim Henson Studios and HR Giger“ by Bruno Samper – many more on his Facebook. It’s funny to see some people getting really het up about the fact that people aren’t stating that this isn’t real and even more people are falling for it and thinking it is.
Douggy Pledger has been doing incredible work for the last year now and has really turned out some hilariously disturbing work including a book called ‘To Hell With AI‘. Here’s his take on a 1920’s version of the Star Wars saga, ‘Start War’ and it’s lashed together sequel, ‘Stop Wars’.
