Calendar for 1970/71 and personal 2012 highlights

Fabulous Hallmark calendar from 1970-71, designed by Push Pin Studios and containing 16 months. Seen via the ever-excellent Voices of East Anglia website who, themselves cribbed it from the Flickr of Mewdeep who has the full thing.

2012 was a busy year for me, probably one of the best yet in terms of new things achieved and unique experiences. I’m always striving to do something different and at the end of each year I remember the line from The The‘s ‘I’ve Been Waiting For Tomrrow (All of My Life)’, “another year over and what have I done?”.

Thankfully 2012 has been a golden year in terms of ‘getting things done’:

Finally getting ‘The Search Engine’ out there was a good start as were the Greenwich Planetarium launch shows and exhibition with Henry Flint at the Pure Evil Gallery, all in January.

Featuring on a Cineola podcast, being interviewed by Matt Johnson alongside an exclusive remix of ‘GIANT’.

The Kraftwerk month and mixes I did on my blog going a bit viral in March.

Having The Amorphous Androgynous remix one of my tracks for a release on Record Store Day was a massive thrill. Hearing it played on 6 Music was great too.

Going to Montreal to learn about and present The Search Engine show in their SATosphere was one of the proudest points of my gigging career to date.

Having J.G. Thirlwell pop round for tea and a chat one afternoon.

The Food & Flint exhibition, hosted at the Factory Road Gallery in Hinckley by Sarah & Leigh was amazing fun.

The Sacrum Profanum concert in Krakow I took part in after an invitation from Skalpel was one of the most fantastic concerts I’ve ever seen and gig of the year for 2012.

The Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ mix I did with Cheeba and Moneyshot making waves on the web.

Playing a small part in some of ZTT‘s Element reissue series and getting to edit one particular master recording for a future issue.

Providing images, sleeve notes and audio for a reissue compilation of John Rydgren‘s work on the Australian Omni Recording Corporation label.

Instigating and then editing the results of a new meeting of Coldcut and The Orb for the 25 years of Solid Steel mixes in 2013.

With so much out there it was inevitable that some got missed.

Things that came out in 2012 that I still didn’t get to see or hear:

Berberian Sound Studio

Cabin In The Woods

Lone’s – Galaxy Garden album

The Amazing Spiderman

The B.P.R.D. hardback editions

Butcher Baker comic

Can : The Lost Tapes compilation

The last few issues of Godland comic

GOAT’s ‘World Music’ album

Posted in Art, Design. | No 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 » |

Love, love, love!

It’s been a bit quiet on the blog these last two weeks because I’ve been busy finishing the fulldome show for this weekend’s FulldomeUK2012 (tickets still available) and gigging in Tel Aviv, Berlin and Bucharest. There’s loads of stuff to come when I can find time to photograph and upload it all though. The studio is a mess, I can’t find anything without moving piles of crap, I need a day to sort stuff out but today won’t be it unfortunately.

Also this Sunday sees an appearance at The Regeneration Festival at the Tabernacle in London that runs for Saturday and Sunday and features Time & Space Machine, Wolf People, Bardo Light Show, talks and films on the psychedelic experience.
Besides that there’s all sorts of things going on behind the scenes as we prepare for 2013 and Solid Steel being 25 years old, starting with a new residency in Brighton at the Blind Tiger, starting this Friday with DK with support from 2econd Class Citizen and Banks.

Coming up: The 4xLP repress of ‘The Search Engine’ – yep, still not done, we went back and changed the cover from a heavy card gatefold to a quad foldout gatefold (remember the limited edition Paul’s Boutique LP? yes, like that), so I have to reconfigure the artwork this week.

Currently finishing a mix for Solid Steel that has a high proportion of music I was given in Israel, both old and new that is up there with the best of anything currently released on labels like Finders Keepers or Now Again (see the post of Markey Funk‘s The Mystery of Mordy Laye & The Group Modular‘).
On Saturday I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the ‘Man Machine’ performance by Kraftwerk in Dusseldorf next January (thanks Tony Morley!) so I will be doing Kraftwerk Kover Kollection vol.8 to coincide with that early next year (the group are doing their 8 albums over 8 nights thing in their home town in case you didn’t hear, tickets sold out in less than 2 hours).

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Music. | 1 Comment » |

Obey Sound & Vision at Stolen Space Gallery, London

Looking forward to this record sleeve-themed exhibition by Shepard Fairey in October at the Stolen Space Gallery.

“The Sound and Vision art show includes mixed media works on canvas weaving my social commentary with inspiration from a range of musicians, including the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Gang of Four, the Clash, the Circle Jerks, Kraftwerk, Public Enemy, Neil Young, and Metallica. Sound and Vision will also include an installation of a record store environment, with customized vintage turntables and a portion of my own record collection for public listening. The record store space will also showcase over 80 12″x12″ images I’ve created as tributes to the 12″ LP sleeve. A comprehensive variety of other works will be featured, including screen prints on wood, metal, and paper; rubylith cuts; and retired stencils.”Shepard

More info here – exhibition runs from 19th Oct – 4th Nov, 2012.

Solid Steel – Yppah 1981 & DJ Food KKK7 preview

Mine and Yppah‘s mix from last night’s Solid Steel – without chat, you can listen to me and Jon fluff our lines over on StrongroomAlive if you want. Yppah’s mix contains tracks all released in 1981, and, coincidentally, ends with Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer World’ before we get a taste of half of the Kraftwerk Kover Kollection vol.7 which debuts here tomorrow in full.

30 minute Solid Steel mix from last week

I forgot to post this last week as lots was happening, the first half is from DJ Shepdog but I take over at the 30 minute mark for some dark electronica. This is also sans the chat that’s on the Strongroom Alive broadcast version that’s also kicking around the web but which also features a live mix from PC, my old DJ Food sparring partner.

There’s some as yet unreleased The The, a nice little mash up of Boards of Canada and Kraftwerk and some of the new Trunk Records release ‘The Seasons’.

Solid Steel Radio Show 17/2/2012 Part 3 + 4 – Shepdog + DJ Food by Ninja Tune

Tracklist:

Ronald Duncan & David Cain – August (from The Seasons) (Trunk)
Paul Giovanni – The Anointing (from The Wicker Man) (Trunk)
Jon Brooks – Zukunft Als Konzept (Reconstruction) (Cafe Kaput)
Bonobo – Black Sands (Duke Dumont’s ‘Grains Of Sand’ Reconstruction) (Ninja Tune)
Boards of Canada – Olsen (Midland re-edit) (mp3)
Kraftwerk – Neon Lights (EMI)
Jon Brooks – Zukunft Als Konzept (Reconstruction) (Cafe Kaput)
Bonobo – Black Sands (Duke Dumont’s ‘Grains Of Sand’ Reconstruction) (Ninja Tune)
Ronald Duncan & David Cain – February (Trunk)
The The – Electric Moonlight (Cinéola)
Arnaud Rebotini – The Choir of Dead Lovers (Black Strobe/K7!)
Demdike Stare – Regolith (Modern Love)

In the last few days I’ve been asked to do a promo mix for one of my heroes, curate a compilation of someone else who I’ve helped bring to the public conscious in the last few years, designed a pitch brochure for a prominent TV production company and started on ideas for the artwork for The Herbaliser‘s seventh album. I’m also in the middle of two video edits and artwork for my record store day release, I haven’t slept much…

Originals #4 • Roger Mainwood – Autobahn animation cels

Autobahn 1Roger Mainwood‘Autobahn’ animation cels, Halas & Batchelor, 1979
(330 x 270 mm, pen and paint on acetate).

In 1979 animation studio Halas & Batchelor were commisioned by EMI to make a video to accompany Kraftwerk’s song ‘Autobahn’ for a possible laser disc compilation of the label’s back catalogue. These are two original cels from the film, the background and goggle reflections are lost, the laser disc was never released.

You can watch the film in two parts on YouTube, this frame appears at approx 4.22 in Part 2.

Part 1 Part 2

 

OTOBahn this Friday

otobahn

Love this Kraftwerk parody for a FREE gig this Friday in Dalston, London.

FRIDAY 15th October 2010
Times : 8pm

FREE ENTRY

“An adventurous collage of raw and intoxicating sounds from the last century and beyond…” A free evening of music with DJs Mandrew B, Mapsadaisical, Mike Modular & Radioolio, playing ambient, kosmiche, jazz, dub, radiophonics and more…

Life begins…

I hit the big 4-0 today so I thought I’d reminisce…

I remember when (in reverse order):

young Strictly

The Blue Note was the place to be every night of the week

Coldcut couldn’t get a gig in the main room of any club because they were too ‘chilled’

The KLF were the greatest pop band in the world

Cynthia Rose’s ‘Design After Dark’ was the bible for dance music related artwork.

The smiley face badge from Alan Moore’s ‘Watchmen’ was copied by Bomb The Bass and kicked off the whole Acid fashion for smileys.

Big Black called it a day

The DMC finals were held in the Albert Hall

Mike Allen ruled the airwaves for Hip Hop in the South East via Capital Radio

12″ singles were £1.99

Kraftwerk were number 1 in the charts

Thatcher got in (please not again)

2000ad was 8p

Star Wars was everything

‘The King’ left the building

Epiphanies in sound:

These are songs or albums that I remember vividly having a profound effect on me when I heard them first, the ‘Shock of the New’ if you will. Most of these I remember having a hold over me whereby I had to play them again and again because I couldn’t get enough of the sounds each contained. They gave a rush of excitement that I’d been looking for that cannot be described, a feeling so alien from everything else I’d heard before that it was all I could do to keep pressing the rewind button. These are kind of in the order I heard them rather than the order they were originally released. Some of them occupy the same place because a friend made me a tape with both on or something.

chart-singles 82&83Kraftwerk – Autobahn – this has been documented before in my Kraftwerk Kover Kollection piece but to paraphrase – one of the first songs I remember, even though I didn’t know what it was until later.

The Police – Message in a Bottle – I loved the drums and the whole energy of it, one of the first pop songs I consciously remember liking.

Adam & The Ants – Dog Eat Dog – My dad liked the drums so taped it off the radio, little knowing that my 10 year old ears would want to listen to little else for the next 3 years

Kraftwerk – Computer World – perfect in every way, an alien world and forerunner to electro.

The Human League – Being Boiled – pretty creepy pop to an 11 year old

Malcolm McLaren – Duck Rock – After hearing ‘Buffalo Gals’ and not knowing what was going on I was seduced by the ghetto blaster on the cover and Worlds Famous Supreme Team patter.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax (Maida Vale mix) For some reason, when I came to tape ‘Relax’ off the radio the version I got was a special remix made by Dave Cash (a Capital Radio DJ) and this was on repeat play every day after school for the first few months of ’84.

Art of Noise – Beatbox – The DMX is still my favourite drum machine.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes (Annihilation) After what seemed like an eternal wait for the follow up to ‘Relax’ (all of 6 months) this 12″ mix blew away everything in the charts and was a landmark in reconstructing a pop single until Coldcut made over Eric B & Rakim’s ‘Paid In Full’ 4 years later.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome (LP version) 16 minutes of Prog Pop perfection.

Double Dee & Steinski – Lesson 2 – A milestone (with the other Lessons) in cut and paste excellence, still stands up today where others sound dated.

Arthur Baker – Breaker’s Revenge – Something about this grabbed me and it was probably the Latin Rascals’ edits as much as the melody, when I discovered the remixed 12″ after hearing the Beat St. soundtrack version I flipped.

Grandmaster Flash – Adventures on the Wheels of Steel – Much like the Lessons, this was an even earlier example of how to mix and match (literally with the Queen and Chic basslines)

Word of Mouth & DJ Cheese – King Kut – The first time I tuned into Mike Allen’s hip hop show this was amongst the selection he played and still remains one of my top 10 favourite beats ever.

DJ Cheese – Capital Radio live session for Mike Allen ’86 – a scratch showcase as part of the set by Cheese (at the same time as he won the DMC championship) made me want to learn how to scratch.

Public Enemy – Son of Public Enemy – The sound of the JBs’ ‘Blow Your Head’ sampled over this made it as strange then as when I first heard ‘Buffalo Girls’. Plus I heard this version before the rap, making it seem even more odd.

Public Enemy – Rebel Without A Pause – When Terminator X scratched in the ‘rock n roll’ line I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up it was so cool, still one of the funkiest, but simplest scratch patterns ever.

De La Soul – 3 Feet High & Rising – A blast of fresh air that seemed like it was beamed down whole from another planet.

You’ve Got Foetus On Your Breath – Hole   / Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel – Nail – Classics – early sampling, great wordplay and catchy songs too.

The The – Soul Mining / Infected – Two of my favourite records ever

Coldcut – Beats n’ Pieces – Heavy beats and breaks, spoken word and scratching – the blueprint for so much and by two British guys to boot – unheard of quality at the time.

Big Black – Atomizer / Songs About Fucking – Power and precision with a drum machine instead of a drummer – awesome.

Slayer – Reign In Blood / South of Heaven – I was never really into thrash metal but spent several weeks one summer at a mate’s house painting a Megadeth banner for him to take to the Donnington festival. During this time I was played everything from Metallica to Slayer, Anthrax to G.W.A.R. Some grew on me more than others but these two particularly stood out.

Stakker – Humanoid – I was never much into house music but I ‘got’ acid when I heard this and it still stands up as one of the greats.

Fishbone – Truth & Soul – Ska, funk and thrash metal, what a combo, Fishbone were one great live band but never got their dues. A friend taped me this in college and it was stuck in my walkman for months.

Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique – Unjustly rubbished on release, I never understood why, I suppose everyone wanted ‘Licensed to Ill’ part 2 but couldn’t they see that this was a much more complex beast?. Rightly acclaimed as an ahead-of-it’s-time classic years later.

Jungle Brothers – Done By The Forces of Nature – One of the funkiest hip hop records ever, supreme layers of samples and totally on point raps. I never tire of hearing it.

Depth Charge – Depth Charge – Sonar ping industrial ‘trip hop’ before the phrase was even invented.

808 State – Cubik – Heavy metal techno, the bassline is so simple and stupid it’s brilliant.

Coldcut vs The Orb – KISS FM ’91/92 – actually my introduction to the Orb and hugely influential as a signpost for where I was heading in the 90’s.

The KLF – Chill Out – a real soundtrack without a film kind of record, made just before they went stratospheric

Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in The Bush of Ghosts – no.1 in a field of 1

Future Sound of London – KISS FM radio mixes ’92/3 some of the best crafted ‘mixes’ ever, more like virtual worlds inside the radio, also opening up a whole heap of new music to my ears.

This Mortal Coil – Filigree & Shadow / Blood – I got played this after a friend heard me playing a FSOL record that had sampled it and I loved the concept, breadth and execution of them.

David Sylvian & Holger Czukay – Plight & Premonition – possibly my favourite ambient album ever.

Cocteau Twins – Victorialand / Treasure – Their pinnacle (along with their collaboration with Harold Budd, ‘The Moon and the Melodies’)

Aphex Twin – Didgeridoo – Changed the face of techno at the time, it was a good 10+ bpm faster than anything else at the time and sounded like it came from an alien planet.

Ken Nordine – Word Jazz vol.1 – Mixmaster Morris played me this in ’93 during one of my epiphanic visits to his house, little did I know I would end up actually working with Ken later.

Zimbabwe Legit – Doing Damage (Shadow’s Legitimate mix) Alongside ‘Entropy’ and ‘In/flux’ this pointed to a new way of presenting hip hop.

David Shire – The Taking of Pelham 123 – just an amazing suite of music based on a few simple themes, unavailable for years but now deservedly given it’s place amongst classic soundtracks.

DJ Zinc – Super Sharp Shooters – Stealth anthem and one of the best fusions of hip hop and drum ‘n’ bass ever

DJ Shadow – Changeling – if any track of Shadow’s is worthy of the label ‘prog hop’ then this one is it, Sublime, switching time signatures, mood building, he’s never bettered this.

Dick Hyman & Mary Mayo – Moon Gas – I searched high and low for this after reading Mike D rhapsodise over it in Grand Royal, it didn’t disappoint, a very unique record.

Boards of Canada – Skam EP – Beautiful and otherworldly, another record beamed in fully formed from somewhere else yet seemingly familiar.

Cut Chemist – Lesson 6 – the only other Lesson that measures up to the original three

Evolution Control Committee – The Whipped Cream Mixes – the origins of what we now know as the mash up, a complete comedy record from start to finish as all the best ones are.

Mr Bungle – California – stunning

Britney Spears – Toxic – a perfect pop song with a great video too

If you made it to the bottom of that I applaud you for indulging me, thanks to Steve Baker for the scan of the tape cover, possibly the first Strictly Kev mix tape? And congratulations to DK and family who had a new addition on Monday.

Posted in Event, Oddities. | 11 Comments » |

The Simonsound – LP and Solid Steel mixes on the way…

I’ve been raving about this LP from the Simonsound – aka Matt Ford (DJ Format) and Simon James – for a while now, and a test pressing dropped through the door last week. It’s a fantastic mix of moog funk, radiophonic workshop atmospherics and downtempo soundtrack beats with a smattering of vocals. First Word have picked it up for release after two 7″ singles appeared on the duo’s Project Bluebook label covering Kraftwerk’s ‘Tour De France‘ and Jimmy Casto Bunch’s ‘It’s Just Begun’ to brilliant effect, backed by their own compositions.

The good news is that the LP will be out on May 10th and the even better news is that we will have an exclusive hour long mix from them on Solid Steel on the 14th. Even better news is that they have not only done a mix but have put together an hour long video podcast as well!!! We’ll be hosting both and word is that DJ Spinna and Gilles Peterson have been digging it too…

SS LP TP

Something In The Water

These two CDs landed on the doormat within a week of each other, both originating from Brighton and both featuring the sea as cover star. The contents aren’t a millions miles away from each other either, beautiful ambience and laid back electronica being the order of the day, a perfect soundtrack to the current weather and late night work sessions.

Lost Idol‘s second album – ‘Brave The Elements’, out soon on Cookshop – is perhaps the most varied of the two, featuring vocals on some tracks, a distinct nod to Boards of Canada here and there and a full tip of the hat to Kraftwerk on the excellent opener ‘Lightwerk’.

Lost Idol / Nest

Nest’s ‘Retold‘ – on the Serein label – is partly made up of the duo’s self-titled EP from 3 years ago but bolstered up into an album by five new tracks. All mine a similar vein to the Eno and Cluster school of ambience. Mostly beatless it takes in drones, piano, strings and odd percussion to create spaces filled with calm and beauty without ever resorting to the tweeness that some ambient music seems to come ingrained with. The new tracks are even stronger than the EP in my opinion, looking forward to more from these guys.

Thanks to James at Cookshop and Rob at Multilink for the CDs.

Posted in Music. | No Comments » |

Downloads

Alphabet Mix Series:

O Is For Orange – Music by and inspired by Boards of Canada, for the ‘A Few Old Tunes’ night.

T Is For Trapped – The second in an irregular series, building on the BoC / Hauntology theme.

E Is For Eighties – The third in an irregular series, 80’s electronic pop remixed or re-edited by fans.

DJ Food Search Engine EP Readers

A selection of songs, samples, influences & inspirations centered around the ‘One Man’s Weird Is Another Man’s World’ EP’, ‘The Shape Of Things That Hum’ & ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ EPs.

Themed mixes

Caught In The Middle of a 3-Way Mix – The Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ LP reconstructed from all the original samples by DJ Moneyshot, DJ Cheeba and myself.

The Funky Eno – The Bean, The Bass, The Beats, self-explanatory.

The Sound of Mu(sic) – a fake KLF soundtrack created by Mr Trick and myself. See below for more.

The Death of Output – 3 hours of the Output label’s finest moments made shortly after it ceased.

A megamix of 2econd Class Citizen’s ‘The Small Minority’ LP made at the time of release in 2012.

DJ Shadow mixes


Remember The Future? – Songs from the golden age of Robotics.

’88 Was Great But ’89 Is Mine – Hip Hop. From 1989. Played from original vinyl for Classic Material.

Go For Blue Suite – partly centred around the Pepe Deluxe track and songs about colours.

Kraftwerk Kover Kollections

Kraftwerk by everyone except themselves, covered, sampled, mashed or just influenced by, the weirder the better. 8 volumes and counting

Warp Records Blech and Boards of Canada mixes



Sunday at Bundy’s – Sides A & B of a late 90’s mixtape made from live and radio recordings from all over the world. Sold only at gigs.


Ninja Tune XX mix – personal highlights from the label’s 20 year anniversary box set

Artwork

LTNR - 1024 x 768Dylan ‘King Cannibal’ Richards and I were pretty gutted when Ninja said they weren’t going to do a last 12″ single from his album (not a physical one anyway) as we wouldn’t see the cover image any bigger than CD sized. All that effort and work, lost on a format little bigger than a coaster! I’ve taken the step to have them available as a series of desktops (including the iPhone) and a high quality jpeg of the cover, twice the size of an LP sleeve, at a resolution that you could make a poster from.

Enjoy.

DJ Food • The Search Engine pdf booklet

The KLF • The Sound of Mu(sic) pdf booklet

SOM pg 1

 

Posted in . | 10 Comments » |

Synth Porn

I’ve been having a reacquainted love affair this year with all things analogue, seventies and sci-fi. It seems to happen every few years and all I want to look at are curved edges, computer fonts, muted tones and airbrushed images from the days before computers made everything virtual. I’ve been doing a T- shirt design based on the Moog and whilst doing some research I stumbled upon this site.

Someone has scanned several issues of a synth mag from the mid seventies called Synapse. It contains interviews with people like Eno, Zappa, Kraftwerk, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Bob Moog, Pat Gleeson and a whole lot more. In amongst all this are reviews, how-to’s and loads of ads for what are now vintage synths.

synapse0

The Kraftwerk interview is great, at one point they talk about a comic they’ve made where small plug-in systems try try to make contact with all these inputs and outputs, coming together to make a group. They talk about doing a book where they present more of their work to people in ways it can’t be shown on record. Shame it didn’t materialise.

What has materialised at long last though is the fabled reissues of their albums from 1974 -2003 – known to fans as ‘the catalogue’ – and originally meant for release in 2004. Some promo copies even slipped out but then nothing, now they are finally available via Mute in the UK. Now that’s one set of remasters I’ve been looking forward to whilst everyone else bangs on about the other Fab Four.

Posted in Books, Kraftwerk, Music. | No Comments » |