First gig of the new year and it’s only 3 weeks away! I’ll be doing some sort of AV DJ set at this on the 24th, possibly the O Is For Orange set or variation of. Funki tells me it will be a loose multimedia kind of vibe with workshops, Q&A with artists and performance. Tickets here
Happy New Year everyone, the search for new music never stops so here’s some bits I’ve been collecting over the last month of 2025 to see you into the next month and beyond. DrumTalk is the alias of my old acquaintance Nathanial Pearn formerly Natural Self and I recently made an effort to catch up with his output from the past few years – ‘The Science of Love’ being a favourite. Healing Force Project recently put out a new 4-tracker ‘D-IW: Prologue’ which bubbles with acid – maybe a prologue to something bigger? RVZN is a new alias of Markey Funk, exhuming old, unfinished drum n bass productions and releasing them anew into the world. Memorials have a new 2-track single out, always worth hearing what they’re up to. JG Thirlwell brings his 40 year+ Foetus project over the finish line with ‘Halt’, 12 years in the making, I can’t wait to hear it but am waiting for the physical objects to arrive as it will be a special listen as I’ve loved his work since I was a teen and he has been such a huge inspiration in my life since.
Fracture & Neptune are back! The dynamic duo who helped freshen DnB back in the 00s have a new single out on Astrophonica and The Gentle People‘s debut album gets an expanded reissue, worth buying for Aphex Twin‘s remix of their ‘Journey’ single alone, one of his best. Barry Adamson is also back, this time with the ‘Scala!!!’ documentary score he did a few years back, preview tracks sound like everything you’d want from this project. ES is an artist and label out of the Netherlands on Ruiger Records which is worth keeping an eye on, favourite track is ‘Food For Funk’ ironically and you’ll know why when you hear it. Misha Panfilov is so hard to keep up with, some artists seem to breath music and his ‘From Blue To Grey in May’ (not pictured above but featured below) is a kind of Terry Riley meets The Irresistible Force collection of ambient minimalism with his usual analogue edge.
As is the custom on this blog, Dec 31st heralds my personal favourites of the year in various categories, leaving it until the last moment to make sure as much gets caught in the net before we flip to 2026. Despite the horrors we experience through the media daily, 2025 was a bit of a vintage year for me personally with new work and family milestones reached despite the hardships all around us. This year has been hugely productive and I’ve released a few things, designed a lot and contributed to several big projects that I’m super proud of. The Autumn was dominated by the Telepathic Fish compilation, something that out-performed our expectations by some way and rumbled into the winter months, making several end of year lists to our delight.
This is not the last word on the Fish…
Music:
Snapped Ankles – Hard Times Furious Dancing LP (the Leaf Label)
clipping. – Dead Channel Sky LP (Sub Pop)
Paten Locke – Dance On My Grave LP (Full Plate)
Hieroglyphic Being – Dance Music 4 Bad People LP (Smalltown Supersound)
Hieroglyphic Being – RE-SELECTED PSYBIENT JAZZ SOUNDSCAPES VOL. 1+2 (Mathematics)
Move 78 – Game Four LP (self-released)
Marshall Jefferson – Yellow Meditation For The Dance Generation (Joakim’s Horizontal Remix Instrumental) (Utter)
Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film LP (Warp/Duophonic)
Telefax Productions – Break This House Down 12″ (Classic Music Company)
Coastal County – II LP (Lomas Productions)
Kif Productions – Still Out LP (Sound Records)
Move 78 – In The Age of Data (self-released)
Group Modular – The Tunnel / Lonely Pylon 7″ (Delights)
Jo Johnson – Alterations vol.1 LP (Silver Threads)
Podcasts:
What Went Wrong?
Some Assembly Required
Tales From A Disappearing City
The Bureau of Lost Culture
What Did You Do Yesterday?
Oh God What Now?
Rule of Three
The Adam Buxton Podcast
We Buy Records
The Fanzine Podcast
Gigs / Events / Exhibitions:
Eno and Anne B @ the British Library, London
Mick Jones’ RRPL @ The Farsight Gallery, London
Visiting Neil Rice’s home with friends for a personal light show display
Linder Sterling @ The Hayward, London
Leigh Bowery @ The Tate Modern, London
Strangely Familiar – Photographer’s Gallery, London
The Dream House, East Dulwich, London
Future Language of the Ikonoklast book launch @ Greyhound Pub, Peckham
My 2hr gig turning into 3 hours @ Cabron Bar, Folkestone
The Epic Story of Graffiti, Birmingham
Telepathic Fish launch party @ Arch555, London
The Jonny Halifax Invocation play Ravi Shankar, Mildmay Club, London
Beautify Junkyards @ Waiting Rooms, London
The closing of the Penge street art gallery, London
Barry Kamen @ Graces Mews, London
Obey/Hirst/Invader – Newport Street Gallery, London
Welcome To The Pleasuredome LP Atmos playback @ L-Acoustic studios, London then pub visit with the Universal team + Holly and Ped!
Furrowed residency @ Rose Hill Tavern, Brighton
Factory Floor and Sculpture @ Simple Things festival, Bristol
The Audiovisual Assembly, @ Bath House, Hackney Wick, London
Packaging / Design:
Got to say, I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by a lot of the design I’ve seen this year, not a lot stood out. The fashion seems to be either surrealist photography in an attempt to ape Hypngosis or terrible painting. Typography on front covers is the exception rather than the rule. I thought maybe I’d just not been paying attention but googling a bunch of ‘best covers of 2025’ lists only reinforced my opinion. It’s all subjective though isn’t it? I didn’t see much if any AI in the lists which is good.
Various Artists – Rave Wars: The Acid Awakens 7″ + Star Wars figure (Rave Wars)
Field Lines Cartographer – Apeiron Anxiety LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – DRB 001 4×5″ records in etched box
Kid Koala – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome reissue LP + flexi disc (Ninja Tune)
Krash Slaughta – B-Boy Mastamind 7″ (Krash Slaughta Records)
Sully – Model Collapse etched 12″ (Fabric Live)
Drumetrics – Drumetronome tablet
ES – Planet Beyond – Selected Cuts Vol.1 LP (Ruiger)
Artists:
Kurt Jackson (above)
Ray Tijssen aka 0010×0010
Odeith
Chris Bigg
Oritoor
Toor Pentel
Books / Magazines / Comics:
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist – Adrian Tomine (Faber)
UltraMega – James Harren (Image)
Bowling With Corpses – Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
Robot Tod – Farel Dal (Floating World Comics)
Absolute Martian Manhunter – Camp/Rodriguez (DC)
OK Okapi – Martin Andersen & Chris Bigg
Future Language of the Ikonoklast (Velocity Press)
The Editor’s Cut – David McDonald (Hibernia Books)
Absolute Batman – Snyder/Dragotta/Martin (DC)
Heatwave – John L. Williams (Monoray)
The Absence – Rian Hughes (Unpublished)
A Humument – Tom Phillips (Thames & Hudson) (A late but important discovery)
Granny Takes A Trip – Paul Gorman (White Rabbit)
Bedetruite – Samplerman (LDC)
The Absence – Budgie (White Rabbit)
Face The Music – Paul Stanley
Stephen Stapleton – The Formless Irregular (Timeless)
The Vaughan Oliver Archive (Unit Editions)
Instant Public Art – Ulrich Blanché (Arthistoricum.net) Read here:
Plunderphonics – Matthew Blackwell (Bloomsbury Academic)
Film / TV:
I just have to admit it, I really don’t watch much film or TV and what I see doesn’t do much for me evidently. I did see the Beautiful Losers documentary from 2008 and like it though.
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed the Cobalt 60 LP release for Ollie Teeba & Jonny Cuba
Played at the closing of When Spaceships Appear record shop
Co-compiled and designed the Telepathic Fish compilation, booklet, Float III mixtape and Mindfood 5 fanzine for Fundamental Frequencies
Released the 20th anniversary cassette Raiding the 20th Century Expanded version on Delic Records
Continued my Electrik Collage radio show until April then paused to rethink
Designed the Dan Curtin ‘The 4 Lights’ album for De:tuned
Released the Locked Loop Group 8″ lathe cut zoetrope with Acid Lathe
Designed The Herbaliser Band’s ‘Rehearsal Session’ album
Contributed heavily to the 40th anniversary boxset for Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’.
Collaborated with Al White on the Terrace ‘Branches’ LP design for De:tuned
Logo design and branding for OTA Recordings
Provided guest mixes for Oonops Drops on Brooklyn Radio and the 45 Live show on Dublab
Appeared on the Cheap Digs podcast with Moz, the Tales From A Disappearing City podcast with Controlled Weirdness, the Skinny E Media show with Mark, the Do!!You!!! Breakfast show with Charlie Bones and The Bureau of Lost Culture podcast.
Supported the Orb on a few dates of their UK tour
Held an exhibition of Openmind artwork at the Cabron Bar in Folkestone, then also Upside Down Records, Deptford
Contributed a track on the Rave Wars: The Acid Awakens 7″
Held a release party for the Telepathic Fish album at Arch555 in Brixton with Mixmaster Morris, Matt Black and KiF Productions
Taken charge of both the Orion and Pluto lighting archives Larry Wooden (RIP) and Micky Thompson (RIP) from respectively
Revived & updated my O Is For Orange video mix and provided a new version to Bleep for their September guest mix
Created two hour-long Float IV and V mixes for the guest spots on Dublab and Ransom Note respectively.
Finally finished and printed my collage comic, the All Colour, High Fidelity, Radio Cartoon, after 5 years
Designed two zoetropes for Disclosure’s ‘Caracal’ 10th anniversary reissue
Attended the Bound Art Book Fair in Manchester as a seller and speaker then DJed at YES in the evening
Played the Simple Things festival with Graham Dunning and Puttyrubber at the IMAX in Bristol at the behest of Steve Davis
Appeared at the first AudioVisual Assembly gig, performing O Is For Orange alongside The Light Surgeons, Bitvert, Pat Grimm and David Leister
Designed The Real Tuesday Weld’s Crow at Christmas 3″CD Xmas card
Designed Nate Krafft’s Crimson Arsenal/Man Machine reissue for Musique Pour La Danse
The Telepathic Fish LP earns Juno Daily’s and Rough Trade Compilation of the Year (with an exclusive blue vinyl edition for the latter) as well as mentions in the end of year polls by Bleep (with an exclusive T-shirt), Phonica, Resident, Brooklyn Vegan, HHV, Moonbuilding and the New York Times.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasuredome receives Reissue of the Year in Classic Pop magazine as well as compliments from the band.
Recorded an album’s worth of extended turntablism material with Furrowed for a future release
Designed the first cassette for my Infinite Illectrik label, Extended Turntablism vol.1 by Graham Dunning and myself. More to come in 2026…
RIP:
David Lynch, Micky Thompson (Pluto Electronics), Bill Ham (light show pioneer), Marianne Faithfull, Mike Ratledge, Rutherford Chang, Rick Buckler, Roberta Flack, Gwen McCrea, Gene Hackman, David Johansen, Mark Pawson (UK counterculture legend), Roy Ayers, Doug Lear, free speech in America and the UK, John Peck aka The Mad Peck, WH Smiths, Robert McGinnis, Alan Yentob, Sylvester ‘Sly Stone’ Stewart, Brian Wilson, Lalo Schifrin, Luis Jardim, Peter Shapiro, Ozzy Osbourne, Terence Stamp, JD Twitch (Optimo), Larry Wooden (Orion Lighting), Drew Struzan, Ace Frehley, Diane Keaton, Bunny Bread aka State of Art (Non Stop Artists), Dave Ball, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, Pam Hogg, Frank Gehry, Martin Parr, Rob Reiner, Ken Downie (The Black Dog), Brigitte Bardot, Martin Jones (UK Hip Hop historian and early champion).
Currently there are several projects lining up for 2026, I could do with some more DJ gigs and I want to find time to revive the Electrik Collage radio show and make it better than the version that was on ROVR radio. There will be more cassettes from Infinite Illectrik too including a long-projected compilation and an album from Duplokit. Thanks to everyone who read this old-fashioned blog over the year, it may finally get an upgrade in 2026, I hope you all had a great Xmas if you celebrated and wish you all a prosperous New Year. See you on the other side.
Looking forward to:
Foetus’ final LP, ‘Halt’
An Openmind exhibition in Krakow?
More Infinite Illectrik cassettes
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s The Sensual Laboratories book, finally?
Cineolascape…?
Andrew Humphreys’ ‘I’d Love To Turn You On’ book
The Rogue Trooper film
Last major interview for the moment on the Telepathic Fish album and surrounding events – this time with Stephen Coates on the ever-excellent Bureau of Lost Culture.
One more month and then we’re done for the year and it’ll be time for best of’s and round ups. But what’s been tickling my fancy this month? Space Drum Meditation have a new 4 track single up for pre-order with a release at the end of Jan. Cate Francesca Brooks releases more gorgeous ambience under the banner of ‘The Blanket Tapes’ and Jem Stone is back with a remix of ‘Neon Tuxedo Hotel’ from his ‘The Legend of Kaptain Carnival’ album. ‘Depoimentos Do Futuro’ (Testimonials From the Future) us a new compilation of Portugese Hauntology from the Russian Library label and finally Janine A’Bear‘s album is out on Castles In Space, I think I did the cover art well over a year ago. Paranoid London have a new 2-tracker out and Jimi Cauty under his TowerBlock 1 alias mines the KLF‘s sonic legacy for elements of ‘Music For Funerals and Bricklaying Ceremonies’, the soundtrack to the recent Birkenhead People’s Pyramid festivities in Liverpool. Move 78 release the second album of 2025 and it’s another contender for album of the year, they really can do no wrong at the moment, with this and the ‘Game Four’ long player I think they’ve found their voice as a group. Field Lines Cartographer found his a long time ago and here’s another slice of quality in the shape of ‘Aperion Anxiety’. Honorable mention for Hieroglyphic Being who’s released five EPs of varying quality this month alone.
Various covers from the end run of promotional RCA (Radio Corporation of America) magazine that existed from 1941 to 1971. You can view a selection of them here.
Hawkfrendz covers from the Hawkwind fanzine plus one for the Crazy World of Arthur Brown by Trevor Hughes.
To round out the post here’s some Op-Art that’s been collecting in a folder – first up, an Olivetti ad by Juan Carlos Distéfano, Ruben Fontana and Juan Andralis for Insituto di Tella.
Next, the front and back cover of a French library music remix compilation, ‘Tele Music Reinterpretations’ from 2017.
Lastly, a page from a fashion book that highlights the resurgence of sixties fashions in London in 1979.
Various bits of comic-related ephemera kicking around the desktop: above, the original art to the Fantastic Four cover below, classic Jack Kirby but they just don’t seem to be able to translate this property into a decent film do they?
Above, an early Brian Bolland ad for the shop, Dark They Were And Golden Eyed, sent to me by the writer David Hine from a magazine in his collection, possibly posted before but not in this quality. Below, a couple of super rare badges for the same shop that came up for auction. By Bryan Talbot maybe? Would love to have won these.
Above, another rare piece; this time by Hunt Emerson, a poster for a Right To Read Benefit in 1988. Below, original art by Dan Clowes for a 1986 comic front and back cover that I spotted on Heritage Auctions.
It’s not all vintage on here, James Harren‘s Ultra Mega comic was one of my favourites of 2025 and here he does a Transformers variant cover in the same style. Below are two variant covers for different comics relating to Ian Bertram. Top is Bertram’s cover for Spectregraph #4 and below that is Tradd Moore‘s variant for Ian’s Precious Materials, one of this year’s best books. Both artists vie for the title of ‘best psychedelic visualisations in comics’ in this house.
Lastly, this image really confounds in this day and age, the first appearance of Catwoman in a Batman comic back in 1940. In the strip she poses as an old lady in makeup to draw attention away from the fact she’s a jewel thief but Batman sees through it and delivers this line as he wipes away her disguise. Back to the present day, who else is reading Absolute Batman and loving this fresh take on the Dark Knight’s world?
Posted earlier this year on his Instagram which, I believe, is maintained by his daughter, Stella Keen, you can see the full magnificence of Keen’s collage work for his Amazing Rayday Secret Comics. These date from between 1962-1967, measure 42 x 32 cm and were a definite influence on my own recent collage comic.
Also seen here are two precursors to the above, ‘Atomic Rayday’ and ‘Amazing Rayday’ that date from 1962.
Various psychedelic covers for Time magazine from the 60s. Above, The Beatles by Gerald Scarfe and below, the intro to the same issue detailing his process.
Above, the ubiquitous Peter Max tackles UK royalty and below a photo composite by Robert S. Crandall.
Milton Glaser above, Geoffrey Dickinson‘s famous Swinging London cover below.
The Flower Scene and the Love Generation Issue No. 1, October 1967. Super rare, four issues are known to exist, cashing in on the 60s pop counter culture. Printed and published by R. Milward & Sons in Nottingham and edited by Martin Graham. Here is an early ‘The Pink Floyd’ article and a very odd cover of Ringo and baby. Elsewhere in the mag; The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Mothers of Invention, Scott McKenzie, John Peel, Pink Floyd, Janis Ian, The Move, and Hippie Of The Month: Eric Burdon.
Seeing as this is an online scrapbook, here are some bits and pieces that have been clogging up the desktop for some time. Yardbirds poster directed to me by Neil Rice who spotted the Holy See Lights credited.
Can’t remember where I saw the above and below but I love them. Above is actually a Rolling Stones 1972, music concert programme.
A Peter Max poster from 1967 and detail, maybe for a show at The Contemporaries gallery in New York?
Membership card for the Guildford Arts Lab, date unknown and two sides of an invite to appear in the audience for Jukebox Jury at the BBC.
and finally a very groovy ad for an Irish cassette, tape and 8-track shop, Pat Egan‘s.
The regular Omega Auctions in Manchester continue to expose all manner of amazing counter cultural artefacts and the up and coming ones are no exception. Their Music Memorabilia and Vinyl Showcase on Dec 2nd contains all the lots in this post and many more. Above is a lovely Hendrix poster on silver foil I’d never seen before, circa 1968 and designed by Photosida.
This poster for issue 5.5 of I.T. (International Times) by Michael English is super rare. Entitled ‘The Invisible Generation & The Invisible Generator’ and using text by William Burroughs, it was printed in an edition of 200 in silver ink before Xmas, 1966, then in a larger run in gold sometime later after Burroughs complained that he couldn’t read the silver. Most of them went to subscribers before they went on sale to the public, hence the scarcity.
An original flyer featuring a collage by Linder Sterling for a Buzzcocks gig in 1977.
Another one I’d never seen before, a poster for Futurama, billing itself as ‘The World’s First Science-Fiction Music Festival’ in Leeds, 1979. Look at that line up! There’s also a badge to go with it.
One of the most amazing lots (actually several different lots) is the original artwork, paste ups, proofs and other materials for the infamous Tudor Lodge album cover on Vertigo. This lavish, die-cut, fold out sleeved folk rock album goes for £500 in poor condition and up over £1000 for a decent copy, I wonder what the art will go for? The lots are originally from the collection of artist and designer Philip Duffy of PD Graphics.
The Telepathic Fish compilation features in the Bleep round up of 2025 and to celebrate they’re making an exclusive glow-in-the-dark edition of the original T-shirt we made in 1994. As worn by Sean from Autechre and members of The Grid on Top of the Pops including Richard Norris back in the day. Pre-order here now.
Well, this just happened!! The Telepathic Fish album is No.1 in Rough Trade‘s compilations and reissues of the year 2025. To mark the occasion they’ve made an exclusive blue vinyl edition !! A huge thank you to everyone who helped this comp come into being, all the artists and labels who licensed their tracks, friends and collaborators who shared memories and photos. Special mentions to Mixmaster Morris and Matt Black for the inspiration and collaboration and thinking of Chantal who sadly isn’t here to be a part of this, hoping she would be proud of what we did.
Last but not least to fellow fish Mario Aguera, David Vallade and Doug Shipton @Fundamental Frequencies who put so much work in to make it happen.
Ran across these yesterday in Instagram, hip hop artists rendered in comic cover form by Torre Pentel aka Alejandro Torrecilla. Although his work mostly covers the current generation of MCs, stretching back over the last couple of decades (names I know more from my kids’ liking them than their music) he does also dip back pre-2000 and occasionally outside the rap genre for artists like Herbie Hancock and Sun Ra. Comics aficionados will spot take offs of certain comic covers or logos of yesteryear, he’s pulling not just from the superhero genre but from the undergrounds too. See his work here and buy prints here.
He’s certainly got that Jack Kirby style down pat, even his pencils on the Miles Davis cover look like The King’s.
Each year, Olympia plays host to the PLASA (Professional Lighting & Sound Association) event to showcase the latest innovations in the entertainment industry with brands exhibiting their wares across the great hall for three days. For the last few years Rob Halliday has organised a Classic Gear section, showcasing historic sound and light equipment from yesteryear to great effect, rapidly becoming a big draw for the old heads to gather and reminisce about how things used to be done.
This year was the first time a darkened area had been set up to demonstrate projection, hosting Optikinetics co-founder Neil Rice and friends Nigel Bailey, Gareth Dean and Jennie Caldwell to recreate analogue light show practices. Neil showed off his 4x Tutor II x Opti Solar System and colour wheel set up, complete with a mini liquid squash plate he’d devised. Shown above, in this Jon Primrose-edited short, is a similar version to the set up we had a preview of in his home earlier this year.
You can now listen back to the 2hr Telepathic Fish ‘Float IV’ guest mix from last week on dublab with Doug Shipton and I. My set is largely new tracks with a couple of classics and Doug dives back to the 90s and beyond for his hour.
Tracklist:
STRICTLY KEV MIX
Patrick Carpenter – Santosha (Bandcamp) Space Drum Meditation – Yarra (Space Drum Meditation)
Lo Five – Unbecoming You (Castles In Space)
Paul Cousins – Blueprint (Castles In Space)
Advisory Circle – Gog (Cafe Kaput)
Listening Centre – The Death of Group D Meter (Castles In Space)
Loula Yorke – I Felt A Melting In Me (Castles In Space Subscription Library)
Dub Squad – Blown Fruit (Music From Memory)
Multicast Dynamics & Sid Hille – Metamorphosis – Part 1.1 (Astral Engineering)
Eurythmics – This City Never Sleeps (acappella) (RCA)
John Lennon – Space (Mind Games Meditation Mix Binaural ∿Theta Waves∿ 8Hz) (Universal)
Klaus Back & Tini Beier – Interferences (Buried Treasure)
Kosmologic Research Society – Rift (Confused Machines) Multicast Dynamics & Sid Hille – Metamorphosis – Part 1.2 (Astral Engineering) Spooky – Orange Coloured Liquid (Test Pressing)
Dream 2 Science – My Love Turns 2 Liquid (acappella) (Confusion Records) Multicast Dynamics & Sid Hille – Metamorphosis – Part 1.3 (Astral Engineering)
LF58 – Radials Part 1 (Astral Engineering)
DOUG SHIPTON MIX
Reload – The Enlightenment (Infonet) Christ. – Arctica (Benbecula) Biosphere – Decryption (Apollo) William Orbit – Silent Signals (I.R.S.) Kat Epple & Bob Stohl – Spiritus Sanctus (Dead Cert) Global Communication – 14.31 (Dedicated) Some Other People – Relativity (Infinite Mass) Black Dog – Raxmus (Warp) Ami Shavit – Alpha 3 (Amis) Gescom – Cicaca (Skam) Emerald Web – Ice Caves (Stargate) Bola – Aguilla (Skam) Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Providence (Constellation) Essential Chrome – Mika (Wide Area Network) Deuter – Ecstasy (Kuckuck)
Another month of great music greets us as we power into Autumn – Jo Johnson‘s ‘Alterations Vol.1’ is another contender for the album of the year list, made up of tracks and remanants that she released as they were finished over the course of the year, collected now into an album with the follow up already begun – check her Bandcamp page for more. I recently discovered the band SML on International Anthem which is why this list includes two of their releases and the ever-prolific Future Sound of London also feature twice with an expanded version of ‘A Controlled Vista’ and a new release, ‘Unrealities’ which sees the release of longform pieces made for the Touched Music online listening parties.
Analog Mutants‘ brilliantly-named ‘Brothers of Invention’ is some contemporary hip hop that throws back to the 00’s in style and Ac1D Vicious is manic drum ‘n’ bass on the Beat Machine label’s Swinging Flavors series of dance 45s. Although we have to wait until January for the album, Barry Adamson graces us with one track from his ‘Scala!!!’ film soundtrack and, because it’s Halloween, it’s time for the latest Delights release, this time from Voxatone, returning for a second outing with some fuzz drums that compliment Adamson’s spy jazz perfectly. Last but not least, James Adrian Brown releases the first single from his forthcoming debut album proper – ‘Generator’ – with a host of remixes from the likes of Warrington Runcorn and Field Lines Cartographer.
This weekend (25/26th Oct) I’ll be at the Bound Art Book Fair at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester with a table selling my latest collage comic, the All Colour High Fidelity Radio Cartoon. This was started in lockdown in 2020 and worked on intermittently for five years until recently when I exhibited some pieces in Folkestone and decided I had enough to assemble a comic/zine/whatever at last.
That had always been the goal but there was no deadline so I just continued to work on pieces for years, slowly building each page to a point where they were ‘finished’. With the Bound Art Book Fair invitation for Saturday, I decided that would make a suitable deadline to compile a first version of these works.
Unless I’ve got a deadline I can tinker with things forever (hence no new DJ Food music in years) and this has been on the Infinite Illecktrik release list since 2020 (ii03 – to be accompanied by an album of the same name but that will come later now). Talking of which, I am also readying some new releases for the label which will take physical form soon…
But I digress, the comic – I’m calling it a comic because a large proportion of it is taken from comics and you can ‘read’ some pages, but really I have no idea what it is – is 32 pages, full colour and includes a free pair of 3D specs to view the centre spread. The first 50 come with a random sticker applied inside and I will have a random selection of badges free for buyers at the fair this weekend.
I’ll also have the new Mindfood zine (issue 5) and very limited original copies of #1,3 & 4 for sale as well as copies of the Float III mixtape and a handful of the Telepathic Fish LPs. Also there will be copies of my Wheels of Light book, the comic book version of my Search Engine album and whatever else I can find.
In addition to that I’ll be giving a talk at 1pm on the Mezzanine about the Telepathic Fish parties and the zines we made at some point on Saturday and in the evening I’ll be playing at YES alongside my good friend Moz. That’s quite an itinerary for Saturday. The comic will go on sale online next week via Bandcamp for those who can’t make the fair.
There’s a new interview and exclusive Openmind ‘Seeds’ ambient mix (based around my set at the recent Telepathic Fish launch party) over on The Ransom Note website. The fifth in their mixtape series, this actually started out as a ‘Float’ mix but was reconfigured and retitled as, ‘Openmind’s leave your phone at home & discover Paradise after a forage in the forest’ for this piece. Doesn’t quite trip off the tongue I know but you’ll see why when you listen, I’m very pleased with this set indeed. Buyers of the deluxe album set will have the ‘Float III’ mixtape and a two hour special ‘Float IV’ mix arrives next week on Dublab via Doug Shipton and I, more details soon…
I was interviewed by Lloyd Briggs for his Deeep Space show on PBS 106.7FM in Australia recently, here’s a link to the show.
I also spoke to Ben Cardew at Radio Primavera Sound for his Line Noise podcast
Reviews have been popping up in Record Collector, Mojo, Uncut, The Wire and more and the second pressing of the album is now in hand and pre-orders being fulfilled.