Candlemas 2024

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Next gig – we’re reprising our Candlemas performance of last year on January 28th with a variety of liquid lights and slides plus music and food at the Royal Foundation of St. Katherine in east London. Curated by Heena Song, she’ll be joined by Julian Hand, Paul Naudin, Joe and Janie of Whyte Light Visuals and myself for an evening of psychedelic projection in and outside around the grounds of the Foundation. Nearest train station is Limehouse and then it’s just round the corner, you should be able to see the lights from the train. Tickets are available here or on the gate and the event runs from 6pm to 9pm.

Candlemas

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Mixcloud Select 172: Strictly Kev Solid Steel 27/04/1997

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The missing #172 upload (no, I didn’t notice either until a couple of weeks later). This is one of the tapes my ex-wife had squirrelled away that she wanted digitised and it’s one I didn’t have a copy of, a short set drifting from jazz to hip hop to funk and pop. The set starts with a classic Solid Steel jingle, ‘The Ninth World’ read, I think, by Matt Black’s dad.

Around the mid-late 90s the Ninja crew were regularly DJing across Europe and thus had access to piles of ECM jazz at cheap prices and bassist Barre Philips was a particular favourite of mine along with Jon Abercrombie and Eberhard Weber. Stanley Clarke’s ‘Concerto for Jazz / Rock Orchestra’ was on my radar as I was so into the sample at the end of DJ Shadow’s In/Flux on the Headz 2 compilation that I had to track it down. I ran upon a copy of his Journey To Love LP in the now closed Discovel (sp?) record shop in Montreal – you’ll know the part when you hear it. Echoes was an alias of my old friend Bundy K. Brown, ex of Tortoise and a future collaborator at this point in time, ‘Continental Drift’ was new back when this was recorded and was apparently very influential on a young Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet. Bundy worked in the Chicago record store Dusty Groove and was a little more keyed into what was happening on the electronic music scene than the other members of the band and made several sample-heavy beats and jazz-infused tracks and remixes around this time which caught my ear.

There’s an identified track at the end of the Echoes single, a distorted drum thing for a minute or so but I can’t identify it. KRS-One’s ‘Step Into A World’ was also new around 1997, transposing ‘The Champ’ into a new form alongside Blondie’s ‘Rapture’ which is why the Mohawks original comes next. Part 2’s ‘Automatic’ and ‘Prelude To Cycle 6’ were both taken from his sole EP for Jazz Fudge which was also current and one of the series of sleeves I put together for the label. The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ slots between them and needs no introduction, not sure why I felt the need to feature it here though. Water Melon’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’ is something you wouldn’t immediately equate with the Japanese group but it totally works and is just one of the treasures to be found of the Pussyfoot label’s ‘Fish Smell Like Cat’ compilation album.

Track list:
Barre Phillips – Mountain Scape
Stanley Clarke – Concerto For Jazz / Rock Orchestra
Echoes – Continental Drift
KRS One – Step Into A World (Rapture’s Delight)
The Mohawks – Champ
Part 2 – Automatic
The Human League – Being Boiled
Part 2 – Prelude To Cycle 6
Water Melon – Albatross

Forty Releases for 40 Years of ZTT

ZTT 40 Periodic Table3Unknown to all but the most observant fans, Ian Peel – keyholder to the ZTT vaults and curator of the label’s reissue series for the last 30 years or more – has been celebrating their four decade anniversary in 2023 by compiling 40 digital releases from the deepest depths of the tape cupboard. Working as The Dream Department alongside Philip Marshall – who has been adding appropriate period visuals to each release – they’ve been giving the complete or expanded treatment to the label’s 80s and 90s output for everyone except Frankie, Seal and 808 State (who they extensively covered a couple of years back). Having visited the ZTT archives with Ian over a decade ago I can attest to the sheer volume of music that is on tape but it’s still a surprise to see what’s coming to light over three decades after it was recorded.

ZTT debuted in 1983 with two different series’ – Action (for pop) and Incidental (for more experimental fair), a concept dreamt up by publicist Paul Morley to separate different strands of their output. A Certain series was added for the surreal cabaret of Anne Pigalle in 1985 and a Fatal series was mooted but never materialised. When the label moved from Island to Warners in the late 80s these disappeared, as did the playfulness that Morley bought to the sleeve and promo art – something Ian resurrected when he started working on the back catalogue in the 90s, at first with ZTTTen, then creating the Artefact Series for the physical reissues from 2005-2011, followed by the Element Series from 2008-2019. Once the label passed to Universal in 2019 he started the Definition Series, releasing expanded digital singles for the likes of 808 State, Propaganda and MC Tunes among others. There was even a briefly resurrected Fatal(e) Series for the ex-ZTT Propaganda releases and an Adventure Series for The Art of Noise but I digress…

The digital releases have gone into overdrive in 2023 but sadly Universal seem uninterested in promoting anyone but the big guns so, unless you follow Ian’s Twitter feed, you probably wouldn’t be aware of much of this. Ian knows the catalogue and the archive inside out, having spent years cataloguing it from the master tapes, along the way discovering all manner of hidden, lost or unreleased treasures. Using this knowledge he’s enhanced the Definition Series – think also ‘Definitive’ – under the ZTT40 banner to celebrate four decades of the label’s esoteric output. 40 digital singles or albums with mulitple single mixes, demos, live takes and more – shining a light into the darkest corners of the vault, exhuming and digitizing songs for the first time, long left to fester on maganetic tape.

Streaming services notoriously don’t like record label data, preferring to catalogue releases by artist, title or album, so looking for ZTT records on Spotify is not going to net you much. Similarly they’re not big on details so, once you’ve found a release, the most you’ll get is a tracklist, running time and year of release. Frustratingly limiting in the case of a project like this where some songs were released, some weren’t, some appeared later in different forms, thus rendering the historical details of such an endeavour invisible. And collectors and fans are nothing if not concerned with the details, it’s the small print that interests us, context is everything, when a song dates from being one of the foremost.

I asked Ian about this process, keen to learn more details about his history as the label’s curator, his treatment of the archive and what may be on the horizon. What follows, I can safely say, is the most indepth article ever about ZTT’s back catalogue reissue programme and even this only feels like it’s scratching the surface. Many thanks to Ian for going above and beyond and even supplying photos to illustrate, strap in as this is a long one.

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The Art of Noise/Revision at a festival date this summer, L-R: Ian Peel, Gary Langan, JJ Jeczalik, (note the Nasty Rox Inc. promo T-shirt)

What was the plan and thinking behind this series of 40 weekly digital releases?

Ian: I wanted to do something suitably ambitious and memorable to mark 40 years of ZTT. One release a week for 40 weeks. I also wanted to use it as a chance to bring slightly disparate chapters of the story together and present a cohesive vision of an auteur label that rivalled and, in many ways, outstripped Mute, Factory and 4AD. I realised that I’ve been working in, on or for ZTT for 35 years, which must be some sort of record, but this has been one of the most enjoyable projects to put together.

I approached it in the same way as all the other ZTT releases, box sets and compilations I’ve put together which now go back more than 30 years: as a chance to continually reinvigorate the myth of the label. And a chance to work so hard on it that 00s Leilani could sit naturally alongside 80s Propaganda and 90s Shades of Rhythm. The best way to do this is with a series, with consistent curation and an overarching plan (even if the plan took a few twists and turns along the way).

It was also a chance to release a huge amount of material that had never been heard before. And to explore some of the artists that recorded and worked hard for the label but who were never properly ‘taped and brochured’. It would be unthinkable to not go back and complete the digital catalogues of the likes of Anne Pigalle, Act, S/O/R and All Saints once this anniversary has passed but, for a lot of artists and projects, it felt very much like a case of ‘if not now, then when?’.

It’s been like writing an audio history of the label–especially as there are chapters in the story that I know took place behind the scenes, but which never actually resulted in records being released. I’ve tried to fill in the blanks, like pointing to ZTT’s momentary dive into acid house with singles like ‘Spectrum is Green’ by Acid Rox Init. Or one of the foundations of the label’s almost-comeback in the early 00s, with ‘Craving’ by Aurora and the Davids Daughters album. None of these were ever released, to say nothing of the 12” and remix 12” of the great lost early ZTT single, Instinct’s ‘Sleepwalking’.

The other exciting thing about the unreleased material is it needed artwork, so I have to say Philip Marshall, who I have been working with on ZTT projects since the start of the Element Series, has created some brilliant work. You can totally imagine the ‘Spectrum is Green’ sleeve racked in Our Price alongside something like Sputnik’s ‘S.U.C.C.E.S.S’. The Time Unlimited cover is a work of art. Likewise, the Leilani cover – the photo that was originally earmarked for her LP looked, in hindsight, like a throwaway pin-up poster, so instead we went with something much more mature and intriguing.

And if I’d found records like ‘Das Psych-oh! Rangers in The Blue Building’ and Nasty Rox’s ‘Ninth Wonder’ in a high street record store back in the day I would have bought them in a heartbeat on looks alone.

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Did you have a free hand as to who and what to include?

Yes, absolutely. And that hasn’t always been the case, by any means. But with this project I can say that this is the ZTT music that I love, that I think changed the course of history and that I could happily listen to all day.

It’s only slightly skewed in that I’d already put together the entire 808 State, Propaganda, 90s-era Art of Noise, Kirsty MacColl and MC Tunes catalogues for digital already. It’s my version of ZTT and my vision of ZTT but excluding those artists and also some that could not be included due to rights.

Certain artists that released music on ZTT – but which I felt were never part of the original (or any true) ZTT ethos – were not included: The Frames, The Marbles, Shane MacGowan, Sinead O’Connor, Raging Speedhorn and Lisa Stansfield. All great artists in their own respect, but I don’t think anyone ever became a ZTT fan after buying one of their records.

Conversely, I was excited that the series could include so many artists that were in the label’s original spirit but came after the Island Records era, like Mantra, Shades of Rhythm, General Max, Solid State Logic, Glam Metal Detectives, Lee Griffiths, and so on. They’re all now properly glued into that spirit I hope, and I’ve tried to show how that initial spirit extended way beyond 1988.

You mentioned some artists couldn’t be included due to rights. Which were they?

Hoodlum Priest was deemed off limits on account of samples. Which is a shame, as they were Trevor’s dream ZTT group at one point. And as the project was lead from the UK, releases that are controlled out of the US end of Universal could not be included. So that put a line through Grace Jones’‘Slave To The Rhythm’, Tom Jones’‘The Lead and How To Swing It’, Wendy & Lisa and the ‘Toys’ soundtrack, and also Roy Orbison’s ‘Wild Hearts’.

The Tom Jones material was always a bit of a curveball but it would have made sense if the 40 had included the two six-minute Youth remixes of his cover of Yazoo’s ‘Situation’. There’s also Frankie Goes To Hollywood but I think it’s clear from the two Frankie releases over the last couple of years (2022’s budget-price ‘The Essential’compilation and the digital single of ‘Sped Up’ and slowed down TikTok remixes of ‘The Power of Love’), neither of which have been on ZTT, that Universal sees them in their own particular way.

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Late 00s and the very start of the Sarm/ZTT tape archive – “note the Frankie film tins, and initial complete lack of order (and even shelving)” (photo: Aaron Horn)

Was everything planned completely in advance or were there changes along the way?

The beauty of a digital series is that nothing goes off to be physically manufactured, so there’s always scope to make a few changes. Initially I had the idea that every fifth release would be from Act, because I’d already got that catalogue completely researched and restored for a digital roll-out early on in 2023.

But the more I got into it, the more I really didn’t want to dwell on any one group more than another, so I parked that idea after the second Act single went live in May. The only exception was –as there was a lot more to do with the 80s-era Art of Noise catalogue, and September was the 40th anniversary of ‘Into Battle’ – the series went on a bit of a detour into AoN-land for a few weeks.

The other swerve came as, in the summer, I finally tracked down recordings of Anne Pigalle, Propaganda and others at 1985’s ‘The Value of Entertainment’ concert. I’d been looking for those tapes for more than 20 years. It turns out they were in the Island Records archive within the Universal vault. That was a perfect ZTT40 release, so I managed to get the multitrack to Gary Langan and get some space in his diary so he could mix and produce them into a final release. (There’s lots more on that particular release on the Art of Noise Facebook page here.)

How does this series differ from what you put together for the thirtieth anniversary?

At that point it was still very much the CD age, so you were limited by what you could include: it had to fit to 70 mins (though I tried to stretch every single one to 73 mins), it needed to get retailer interest so certain tracks and mixes had to be included no matter what.

At that point Sarm Studios still existed and I was working there as label manager of ZTT and marketing manager of all the businesses in the group. I’d renewed the Union Square license and set up new partnerships for North America and Japan. So rather than one 30th anniversary CD, at least I could come up with three 2-CDsets – the London, New York and Tokyo Editions – and include tracks that might not work in one territory in another.

Other differences are where the artists in question are at, and where the tapes are at. For example, I approached Leilani about her unreleased album in 2012 and – perfectly understandably – she wasn’t quite in the headspace for it. Ten years later she really embraced the idea of it being released. In fact, this was one of the factors that spurred her on to apply for ‘Survivor’ on BBC One, where she was the winning woman. And those two factors combined inspired her new music with Philip Jap which has come out in the last few weeks.

Likewise, I’ve never seen members of Instinct talk about their time on ZTT. But Angela Jaeger has been sharing news of the Definition Series editions on socials. In terms of the tapes, in a much more practical sense, things like the DAT archives – of Time Unlimited, Sun Electric, Tara, All Saints and Shades of Rhythm – they just hadn’t been properly transferred and archived at that stage.

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Ian inside his infamous ZTT tape library in 2014

OUTSIDE WORLD AND INSIDE ZANG TUMB TUUM

Can you give us an encapsulation of your interest in ZTT, l first became aware of you from the ‘Record Collector’ overview of the label in the 80s…

To begin with, when ZTT was at its initial peak, I was a bit of a ‘Smash Hits’ addict and saw it through their eyes in a way. I used to write letters to Silvia Patterson which she edited quite heavily but I didn’t mind as they would end up in print. ‘Smash Hits’ coverage of ZTT was really interesting and quite daring for a mainstream pop magazine. Like doing two pages on Anne Pigalle and two on ‘The Value of Entertainment’. They once wrote about an unsigned group called Das Euphony Kiks, which lead them to being signed to the label, as Das Psych-Oh! Rangers.

When the Art of Noise left the label, I thought it was all over. But then I entered a ‘Smash Hits’ competition to win their first post-ZTT single, ‘Legs’ (on 12”, promo T-shirt and 12”‘Inside Leg Mix’ promo VHS video) and won, so that hooked me back in and lead to me following the group on China Records a/k/a The Adventure Series.

In 1987, ‘Record Collector’ magazine trailed a ‘coming soon’ piece about the label that never appeared, so I wrote to them to ask when it was coming out. They wrote back to say the journalist had given up, so could I please write it?

It became a three-part special that was published in October, November and December of 1988, and I carried on writing for ‘Collector’, on and off, from then on. It led to me joining DJ magazine and writing a full-page column for them for 11 years. DJ was fortnightly then, so that was about 300 issues of the magazine.

That was across the whole of the 90s and into the early 00s, so I used the DJ mag column at times to catch up with ZTT artists, like Art of Silence, Debussy-era Art of Noise, 808 State, and to interview artists who had been inspired by the label like The Orb, The Black Dog and Scanner.

There was also your ‘Outside World’ zine in the early 90s…

After the ‘Record Collector’ articles, I wanted to carry on writing about the ZTT world and was inspired by a couple of other fanzines at the time — ‘Telegraph’ about OMD and ‘Conductor of the Masses’ about Jean Michel Jarre. So I decided to put together a ZTT fanzine.

The first one was full cut-and-paste style with scissors, Letraset and gluestick. For content, I had my ‘Smash Hits’ collection and all the ‘Collector’ research to draw on. My brother Ken Peel who is an electronic musician, had a great collection of magazines from his world like ‘Music Technology’, ‘Electronics & Music Maker’ and ‘Making Music’ that I could draw on.

By the second issue in 1991, I’d discovered Macs and laser printing. By the third issue in 1992 I’d discovered email and connected with contributors around the world. Not least Philip Marshall who wrote about Sense (of Island) and Teutonic Beats for the zine. It was the start of a great friendship and working relationship.

The zines were labours of love in that Issue 1 came out in the summer of 1990 and it took me a year to get Issue 2 out and another year for Issue 3. It also took an incredible amount of work placing ads and taking and dispatching orders. But people seemed to like it. It got a great review in i-D magazine. Teletext had a music reviews section and the guy that reviewed it there is now one of the most prolific writers for Classic Pop (Ian founded Classic Pop magazine in 2012).

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How did you get the prime job of chief archivist for the label?

It was as a result of producing ‘Outside World’. I thought Issue 1 was OK, but I was pleased with Issue 2 and sent a copy to the ZTT office at Sarm Studios along with the ‘i-D’ review. They loved it and invited me in for a chat where they asked me to work as an A&R and marketing consultant. It must have been December 1991. In that meeting I was one of the first people to find out that Seal had shaved his head as they showed me the first cut of Wendy & Lisa ft. Seal’s ‘The Closing of The Year’ video.

They were trying to figure out what to do for the tenth anniversary campaign, so I put together lots of material and ideas that went into Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Bang!’ and ‘Reload!’ compilations, the ‘Zance’ comp as well as the CD reissues of the early albums.

That was the extent of the back catalogue marketing for the tenth anniversary. It was the early 90s so everyone was focused on the future so the majority of my work was on D2C (direct to consumer) campaigns for new artists like All Saints and Tara. The only territory that was interested in rare bonus material was Japan, so I put together extra tracks for the 10th anniversary CD reissues that were released there, which was simply called the ZTTTen Series.

The Grace Jones and Frankie remixes from that time (around 1992) did really well but there were also lots of other remixes of all the other early artists that never came out. There was a funny highlight from the ZTTTen Series when I worked with a TV show called ‘Naked City’ for which Caitlin Moran interviewed Paul Morley and Paul Rutherford.

I was also pitching to work with another label called Solid Pleasure. Formed by Yello, and alerted to me by Philip Marshall originally, some of their brilliant releases included a collaboration with Ralf Dörper (under his Technocrats alias) called ‘Qtopia’ by ST Melody.

Naked City needed some Frankie merchandise to shoot for the segment, so I sent them ‘Frankie Say ARM The Unemployed’, ‘Frankie Say WAR! Hide Yourself’, and ‘Frankie Say BOMB Is A Four Letter Word’. But to help prove a point to the other label I wanted to work with, I printed up one saying ‘Frankie Say SOLID Pleasure’ and sure enough they shot it on a rostrum camera and it appeared on Channel Four.

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Another Art of Noise festival date in summer 2023 (with a ‘Value of Entertainment’ T-shirt this time). (photo: Marc Pinder)

Can you give us an overview of how and when you started a new strand of releases for the label with the Artefact Series in the mid-00s?

In the mid-00s, back catalogue marketing was becoming properly established, as was interest in ZTT’s history. At first, Jill Sinclair had random members of the in-house staff of the time put together some back catalogue releases: someone who loved Propaganda rustled up a p:compilation, the most important person in the hierarchy got Frankie, and so on.

What resulted was a disparate bunch of products from a disparate bunch of people. No cohesion at all as they had very little understanding of the ZTT world, no energy for a label identity, and were far more excited by the ‘pub rock’ music of the Stiff Records catalogue that the label also owned.

As a result, there were things like FGTH’s ‘Twelve Inches’ and Propaganda’s ‘Outside World’. Products that sound easy to execute in theory but, as the finished releases prove, much harder in practice. There were also digital releases like ‘The ZTT Singles’ (random CD singles from different artists squeezed together onto digital albums with Ariel-font artwork) and it still pains me that some of those are still online. Though to be fair, when they were put together, no one knew if iTunes would ever take off and Spotify hadn’t even been launched, so you can perhaps understand them being thrown together (artwork and all) in about five minutes.

I was called back in when that team, who left soon after, hit a roadblock when Jill and Trevor Horn began to talk about more expansive and detailed deluxe reissues for the likes of Andrew Poppy, Art of Noise, Anne Pigalle and 808 State. I dived headlong into all of them and started the Artefact Series.

It was an exciting time to be involved again because I could see the past was merging with the future. Trevor, Paul, Anne Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan were all happy to talk about the Art of Noise for the first time since their split in the mid-80s, which lead to the ‘And What Have You Done with My Body, God?’ box set. Many of the tracks didn’t have titles, so Paul gave me a list of new Art of Noise song titles and said – including for the name of the actual box set – just use the titles that the music pulls you towards.

Jill had got the rights to The Buggles’ second album back from Carrere Records, so that was put in the mix too, and Trevor was really excited to go back to those recordings and find unreleased tracks for the second disc. He continued the flow and built on some of them for Yes’s ‘Fly From Here’ album.

My series highlights are maybe Artefact 12: the London and Tokyo ‘Art of ZTT’ exhibitions, Artefact 13: the FGTH ‘Return To The Pleasuredome’ box set (the title of which was an intentional precursor to ‘Inside The Peasuredome’) and also (again intentionally) Artefact 08: the four deluxe expansions of the 808 State albums. The plan was to release those on 8.08.08 but there were a few delays. I did manage to issue the press release announcing them on 8.08.08, though.

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Ian and some of his vinyl archive at ‘The Art of ZTT’ exhibition in London, 02 Oct, 2008 before it moved for a second installation in Tokyo (photo: Mark Nicholson)

As this is Trevor and Jill we are talking about, at the helm of both the label and studio at that time, any type of catalogue marketing was based around making something new as well. And at that time, it was live events. So I wrote the souvenir programme for the ‘Produced By Trevor Horn’ concert at Wembley. This was a major deal for the family and everyone at Sarm. Prince Charles visited the studio the week before the concert; I was writing the programme and interviewing Trevor as he was trying to learn the bassline for Close (To The Edit) and listening back and loving the early Dollar singles in his suite above Studio One.

The live event to follow Wembley was to be an open air ZTT takeover of Trafalgar Square. Just as the Pet Shop Boys did the same year with Battleship Potemkin. The head of the ICA at the time was a big ZTT fan and approached the label about a joint project where the ICA took over the space and Trevor/ZTT curated it (as The Art of Noise). It had the working title of ‘ElectronICA’. I wanted to call it ‘Artefact’ to properly launch the series (and a new start for the label) and put together plans for guests and setlists.

The day before what was scheduled to be the first meeting for Trevor and Jill to visit the ICA to properly start planning the event was the day of Jill Sinclair’s accident. Of course, that meant Artefact was over and the trajectory of label changed forever.

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With the SPZ (SarmStudios/Perfect Songs/ZTTRecords) team in 2012 in The Blue Building; Ian at the back and, coincidentally, on the left is Perfect’s Melanie Redmond who was the backing singer in The The’s ‘Versus the World’ touring line-up.

ACTIONS/INCIDENT AND ELEMENT/DEFINITION

How did you come to resurrect Paul Morley’s Action and Incidental series?

In the mid-00s, I was also running media relations and the website for ZTT (and also for sister companies Sarm Studios, Perfect Songs, Stiff Records, Horn Brothers Pictures and Music Bank). I was pretty proud of the press we were getting, not least a half-page piece in ‘The Guardian’ on the Andrew Poppy box set. People were really starting to reassess ZTT and also 80s music in general around that time. I showed the press book to Jill Sinclair and I remember she dispensed a typically dry but inspiring pearl of wisdom. “When it comes to press coverage, don’t read it, weigh it.”

It was that same meeting that I was given a bunch of old folders to work through in the hope that some of it would be useful for reissues. Most of it was archive press coverage but it also contained dot matrix-printed and hand-typed lists of the early releases and series: Action, Incidental, Fatal, Perfect, Certain, and IQ. They had exact release dates, for example, for each of the different editions of ‘Relax’, all of the singlettes and so on, as well as catalogue and series numbers. The brief was simple: “if you think any of it’s of use, just take it and run with it.”

When some of the catalogue releases began to feel like ‘frontline’ records, that was when I knew the Action Series was back. Like when I worked with Claudia Brücken to get a new single and video recorded and released as part of her ‘ComBined’ compilation, or came up with a Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Maximum Joy’ 7” picture disc for Record Store Day.

I signed Aaron Horn and Alex Preager’s A Theory project to ZTT and they seemed like the perfect group to bring the Incidental Series back to life. And there were countless smaller incidents that have been catalogued along the way: one of my favourites – the perfect modern-day entry into the Incidental Series – is ZTIS 304: a sample of Propaganda’s ‘Dr Mabuse’ when we licensed it to appear in the opening track of Foxes’ 2014 debut album, ‘Glorious’.

The longest strand of ZTT releases in its history must be the Element Series, surely? There must be roughly 50 physical editions across a ten-year period?

In 2008, ZTT signed a licensing deal for Europe with Union Square Music. They specialised in back catalogue and it was an era where there was still a market for classic albums being celebrated as 2-CD sets. I was working for ZTT and Sarm Studios and USM hired me to put together these releases. It started off with 2-CD sets but grew and grew to take in vinyl and eventually the ‘ultra-deluxe’ Frankie Goes To Hollywood box set, which I called ‘Inside The Pleasuredome’. When Union Square was bought by BMG in 2016, they gave a copy of it as a gift to each member of the BMG board at the signing meeting.

When the license started, around 2009, the very first release was what they called a ‘vanilla repress’ of ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’. All old copies had to be removed from sale and replaced with their identical (save for the barcode) repress. Rather than just add the barcode, I realised this was a chance to start a new series. The Warners era had the ZANG catalogue numbers, so I added ‘TUMB 1’ as a catalogue number to on-body artwork. But after that I came up with a better title – relating to each release being like elements or parts of the periodic table of ZTT. So the TUMB series stopped there and the Element Series began.

What made the Element Series exciting for me was that, over at ZTT, I was given the job of archiving their complete tape library as well as all tapes of Stiff Records and Perfect Songs (ZTT’s publishing company). Actually, I made it a library after about a year because, to begin with, it was just a big pile of tapes in a completely random order. Anything they had kept anywhere, all delivered to a storage unit in Slough, and the keys delivered to me. My best guess was that there were 100,000 tapes: 2” reels, ¼” reels, DATs, F1s, videos, CDRs and cassettes. This meant that, for the first time, archive reissues could contain music that no one had ever heard before.

There was also, upstairs, a complete paperwork archive to deal with, which is a separate story in itself. But I can say that having found the original contract between Trevor and Jill and Island Records, ZTT was not originally going to be called ZTT…

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“I spent a lot of the 00s ferrying tapes from Sarm Studios to Avance Music Research in Manchester to be baked and transferred. Occasionally I used FX Copyroom in London if things were urgent and hand-carried them there. I’m on a very late-night mission here with the master tape for one of the 12″ mixes of ‘Cry’ by Godley & Creme.” — IP

ZTT seemed to have somewhat of a reboot around the time of the Element Series, and I guess you must have been working at Sarm Studios in its final days?

I was there literally in the last weeks of Sarm Studios cataloguing everything on the walls, the gold discs and awards and illuminating framed letters… Then, when the demolition started, we were back in there filming an April Fool’s video for YouTube with Trevor and Lol Creme about vacuuming the vibes out of the concrete.

That was around 2017 but, five years before, everything was on a roll and it was a bit of a rebirth. Stiff Records signed Sam And The Womp and had a No. 1 with ‘Bom Bom’. (Although I always thought they were way more of a ZTT act, especially with the more KLF-like early single mixes.) Perfect Songs placed ‘The Power of Love’ in the Christmas John Lewis ad, which lead to another No. 1 with Gabrielle Aplin. Another Perfect project reached No. 3 (Sonnentanz by Klangkarussell ft. Will Heard). It was a small team of no more than a dozen of us across ZTT, Stiff, Perfect and Sarm Studios so there was quite a buzz again, thanks in part also to Ken Horn, Trevor’s brother (and television producer), who was a very stabilising factor following various haphazard appointments after Jill’s accident.

The studios were doing well at that time, too. I remember hearing Justin Parker writing Rihanna’s ‘Stay’ in the room above the ZTT office. I held the fort on reception once and had Jessie J, Jon Bon Jovi and a reformed Take That to deal with in the space of an hour. But I was most excited about the Element Series: the 2-CD edition of Propaganda’s ‘A Secret Wish’ equalled the original’s chart placing (a fact I proudly told Steve Lipson). And the 2-CD of Frankie’s ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ eventually earned a gold disc.

I wrote up a complete list of all the Elements of Zang Tuum Tumb for the inner sleeve of 2021’s Record Store Day edition of ‘Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?’. One of my personal favourites from the Element Series is ‘Frankie Said’ as it gelled everything together in one release: the title was a new one courtesy of Paul Morley, Philip did a great job blending ‘Liverpool’-era photography with ‘Pleasuredome’-era graphics. And I was determined that, even though the brief from Union Square was a ‘Best Of’, the dedicated people who buy every ‘Best Of’ should get to hear surprising, unreleased versions of all the tracks.

It timed with ‘The Power of Love’ going to No. 1 again, and I discovered the incredible, unreleased orchestral session from the Frankie original. Like so many unreleased mixes, it was untitled so for this one I took a line from one of the single sleeves for it: ‘Best Listened to By Lovers’. It was also one of the releases, alongside ‘Zambient One’, that I put together with Ian Usher (who signed Sam And The Womp). The great thing about working with Ian was that he would rein me in when I went too far with certain ideas but, at the same time, he would go way too far with something else and I’d be there to rein him in.

5.AON Tokyo 2017
Arriving in Tokyo in 2017 for live Art of Noise dates with Anne Dudley (centre) and team (photo: Martha Langan)

More recently you’ve put together the Definition Series of more than 100 digital releases. How did these come about?

By the time Union Square/BMG’s license expired, ZTT had been acquired by Universal Music. So that seemed like the moment to stop the Element Series. Not least because anything placed on streaming or download platforms by BMG was taken down. It felt like the right moment to ask, what is the definition of Zang Tuum Tumb? And I realised that you could answer that with any one of a vast number of records. So that’s how the Definition Series started.

It began with a massive dive into 808 State and it was a joy to be able to finally get records like ‘The Extended Pleasure of Dance’ and all ‘The Tommy Boy Mixes’ released. It’s also been a chance to make sense of the Propaganda digital catalogue and include the lost, final single ‘Sorry For Laughing’.

Can you give us some clues to some of the missing pieces, like Element 18, the Adventure and the Fatal(e) series’?

Yes and there’s so much more to say – we’ve not even touched on the Certain, Perfect, Zambient and ZACID Series. To say nothing of NRO, ZANG, XZIP and ZTE…

The Fatal Series was Paul Morley’s moniker for releases that perhaps signalled the end of something rather than the beginning. Esquire’s 1987 album (which was originally set to be released on ZTT) would have been ZTFS 1, and I placed the prospectus document that led to the sale to Universal as ZTFS 2.

Two singles, when they appeared on recent Record Store Day box sets that should have been massive but weren’t even released were ZTFS 4 (Propaganda’s ‘Frozen Faces’) and ZTFS 5 (Art & ACT’s ‘Life’s A Barrel of Laughs’). When I put together Propaganda’s post-ZTT work on Virgin records for deluxe digital editions about three years ago, it seemed logical to mark them up as the Fatal(e) Series.

As for Element 18, that was a deluxe 2-CD Propaganda compilation, covering all eras of the group, pre-and post-ZTT. It was to start with the original ‘3D’ trilogy from before they even arrived at Sarm: ‘Duel’, ‘Doppelganger’and ‘Disziplin’. And, to cover the later years, Michael Mertens supplied some great material including ‘Who’s The Fool?’ from the 2000 reunion, a new track called ‘I Am A Cathedral’, and a previously-unreleased collaboration with Karl Hyde of Underworld. But it was parked – and eventually replaced with the ‘Noise and Girls Come Out To Play’ compilation – as the group could not reach an agreement with Union Square.

As for the Adventure Series, that’s Art of Noise post-ZTT. The original edition of ‘In Visible Silence’ mentioned it, and I’ve carried it on with all of the releases I’ve been working on for Warners. It’s lead to the Art of Noise/Revision live project I’m part of with JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan, that we performed to more than 30,000 people at festivals last summer.

Some of our Art of Noise/Revision guests recently have included Afrodeutsche, Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s Neal X, the actor David Tennant, Chilean genius Raimundo Ladrón de Guevara, Paul Morley, Tom Jones and Donal Hodgson (who was also the MD for the Frankie Goes To Hollywood reunion show at Eurovision last May).

Although it possibly works best indoors, recent full-length shows – like the residency we did at The Jazz Café last January (which had a wonderful opening set from someone called DJ Food…) – start off with Adventure 09: ‘Canticles of The Moon’, a piece I worked on with Anne Dudley that blended her ‘Ancient and Modern’ album with Apollo moon landing footage.

Now that the ZTT 40 series is complete, I can happily get back into the headspace of Adventure 04: the ‘Producer’s Cut’ of ‘Below The Waste’ and its accompanying single, the ‘Outer Heat EP’.


Adventure 09: Canticles of The Moon Landing, Art of Noise live at The Jazz Café

40 DEFINITIONS OF ZANG TUUM TUMB

The complete Definition Series for 2023’s 40 fortieth-anniversary weekly releases:

1.Act–‘Snobbery & Decay (Showtime)’: single, 31.03.23.
8 tracks, 3 of which new to digital (download/streaming) platforms and previously cassette-only

2.Leilani–‘Precious Treasure’: album, 07.04.23.
12 tracks, 11 of which previously unreleased. Also catalogued at IQ 11

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3.Nasty Rox Inc.–‘Ca$h (Deluxe Edition)’: album, 14.04.23.
20 tracks, 6 of which previously unreleased and 14 returning to digital

4.All Saints 1.9.7.5.–‘Silver Shadow’: single, 21.04.23.
7 tracks, 1 of which previously unreleased and 6 new to digital

5.Glenn Gregory & Claudia Brücken–‘When Your Heart Runs Out of Time’: single, 28.04.23.
5 tracks, 4 of which new to digital and previously vinyl-only and 1 returning to digital but this time from original master tapes (previously was a vinyl rip)

6.Act–‘Absolutely Immune (I)’: single, 05.05.23.
6 tracks, 1 of which previously unreleased

7.Mantra–‘Rise’: single, 12.05.23.
4 tracks, all previously unreleased. Also catalogued at ZANG 37

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8.Instinct–‘Sleepwalking (A Waking 12”)’: single, 19.05.23.
3 tracks, 2 of which previously unreleased and 1 returning to digital. Also catalogued at ZTAS 11

9.All Saints 1.9.7.5.–‘If You Wanna Party (I Found Lovin’)’: single, 26.05.23.
4 tracks, all new to digital

10.Das Psych-Oh! Rangers–‘The Essential Art of Communication’: single, 02.06.23.
4 tracks, all new to digital and previously vinyl-only

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11.Anne Pigalle–‘Souvenir d’un Paris’: single, 09.06.23.
4 tracks, all returning to digital. Also catalogued at CERT 3

12.Lee Griffiths–‘First Things First’: single, 16.06.23.
4 tracks, all new to digital

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13.Instinct–‘Sleepwalking (A Sleeping 12”)’: single, 23.06.23.
4 tracks, 3 of which new to digital and 1 returning. Also catalogued at 12 XZTAS 11

14.Glam Metal Detectives–‘Glam Metal Detectives (Expanded Edition)’: album, 30.06.23.
15 tracks, 14 of which new to digital and 1 returning

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15.Andrew Poppy–‘32 Frames for Orchestra’: single, 07.07.23.
5 tracks, 1 of which returning to digital (and previously only available in Europe) and 2 of which returning to digital (and previously only available in North America)

16.Nasty Rox Inc.–‘Escape From New York’: single, 14.07.23.
6 tracks, 5 of which new to digital.

17.Davids Daughters–‘Chemistry’: album, 21.07.23.
10 tracks, 8 of which previously unreleased and 1 new to digital. Also catalogued at IQ 21

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18.Art & Act–‘Life’s A Barrel of Laughs’: single, 28.07.23.
5 tracks, 4 of which new to digital and 1 returning. Also catalogued at ZTFS 02 and ZTPS 05

19.Tara–‘Save ME from mySelf’: single, 04.08.23.
9 tracks, 3 of which previously unreleased and 6 new to digital

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20.Propaganda–‘p:Machinery (via T-Empo/Nicolosi)’: single, 11.08.23.
4 tracks, 2 of which previously unreleasedand 2 new to digital. Also catalogued at ZTFS 11

21.Shades of Rhythm–‘The Sound of Eden (Every Time I See Her)’: single, 18.08.23.
6 tracks, 1 of which previously unreleased, 1 new to digital and 4 returning

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22.Nasty Rox Inc.–‘Ninth Wonder’: single, 25.08.23.
5 tracks, 3 of which previously unreleased, 1 new to digital and 1 returning. Also catalogued at NROX 3

23.The Art of Noise–‘(Share) Moments in Love’: single, 01.09.23.
8 tracks all of which new to digital and previously vinyl-only. Also catalogued at XTPS02 and WEEPS 2

24.The Art of Noise–‘Close (To the Edit)’: single, 08.09.23.
6 tracks, 2 of which new to digital and previously vinyl-only and 3 returning

25.The Art of Noise–‘Closer (To The Edit)’: single, 15.09.23.
7 tracks, 5 of which new to digital and previously vinyl-only. Also catalogued at XTPS01

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26.‘Worship with The Art Of Noise’: album, 22.09.23.
18 tracks, 8 of which new to digital

27.The Art of Noise–‘Beat Box (Diversions Zero to Seven)’: single, 29.09.23.
8 tracks, 2 of which new to digital and previously vinyl-only, 2 new to digital and previously vinyl-/cassette-only, 1 new to digital, 3 returning. Also catalogued at XTIS 108

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28.Shades of Rhythm–‘Fear of The Future EP’: single, 06.10.23.
8 tracks, 7 of which previously unreleased and 1 returning. Also catalogued at ZANG 28 and ZACID 05

29.Public Demand–‘Invisible’: single, 13.10.23.
6 tracks, all new to digital

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30.Acid Rox Init–‘Spectrum Is Green’: single, 20.10.23.
5 tracks, all previously unreleased. Also catalogued at NROX 4 and ZACID 02

31.Aurora–‘Craving’: single, 27.10.23.
7 tracks, 6 of which previously unreleased and 1 new to digital. Also catalogued at ZANG 99

Tara - experience
32.Tara–‘Experience EP’: single, 03.11.23.
5 tracks, all previously unreleased. Also catalogued at ZANG 61

33.Solid State Logic–‘Rise’: single, 10.11.23.
6 tracks, 3 of which new to digital and previously vinyl-only

34.General Max–‘We Can Do It’: single, 17.11.23.
4 tracks, 3 of which new to digital and previously vinyl-only and 1 new to digital

35.Sexus–‘The Official End of It All’: single, 24.11.23.
10 tracks, 3 of which previously unreleased and 3 new to digital and previously vinyl-only

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36.‘Homage to The Blessed–Das Psych-Oh! Rangers in The Blue Building’: compilation, 01.12.23.
8 tracks, all previously unreleased. Also catalogued at IQ 19

37.‘Poetry in Motion–Time Unlimited on Zang Tuum Tumb’: compilation, 08.12.23.
16 tracks, all previously unreleased. Also catalogued at IQ 12

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38.‘The Value of Entertainment–Time Capsule Highlights’: compilation, 15.12.23.
5 tracks, 4 of which previously unreleased and 1 returning to digital. Also catalogued at IQ 13

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39.‘Repetition Plus Variation–Propaganda Live at The Value of Entertainment’: album, 22.12.23.
6 tracks, all previously unreleased. Also catalogued at IQ 18

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40.‘Will the World Remember?–Sun Electric on Zang Tuum Tumb’: compilation, 29.12.23.
12 tracks, 11 of which previously unreleased and 1 new to digital. Also catalogued at IQ 20

Currently Ian has compiled a playlist of a track from each release on Spotify which will in turn lead you to each entry, this is the only way to find all 40 in one place if you want to listen to the set.

For those wanting to avoid Spotify/amazon/itunes due to their lack of high quality options, quite a few of the releases are available in proper 320/FLAC form here : https://uk.7digital.com/
Derek and Stefan also pointed to the catalogue being available on qobuz

There’s also an incomplete fan-maintained list on Discogs that sets out each of the 40 entries (plus a few pre-40 releases) with track titles, times and some notes where known. There are many treasures to be discovered along the way and I’m looking forward to seeing what 2024 brings as we enter the 40th anniversaries of ‘Two Tribes’, ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ and the whole summer of Frankie of 1984.

2023

Best LPs 2023Music:
Kosmischer Laufer – Volume 5 LP (UCR)
Soia, Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau – In C for 11 Oscillators and 53 Forms LP (unjenesaisquoi)
Cate Brooks – Tapeworks DL (Cafe Kaput)
Memorials – Music For Film: Tramps! LP (State 51 Conspiracy)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse… LP (Album of the year)
Field Lines Cartographer – Moonbuilding Sessions LP (CiS Subscription Library)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse radio station (Sonos) (most listened to)
Niholoxica – Source of Denial LP (Crammed Discs)
SareemOne – Olivine Window
Coast Contra – Breathe & Stop Freestyle/Never Freestyle/Scenario Freestyle
Move78 – Grains LP
Heiroglyphic Being – The Moon Dance LP (Apnea)
Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP 12″ (To Pikap Records)
Gordon Chapman-Fox – The Nine Travellers LP (Castles In Space Subscription Library)

Podcasts:
Oh God What Now?
Cartoonist Kayfabe
Jonny Trunk’s Patreon Show
What Goes Around
The Bunker
The Bureau of Lost Culture
Not A Diving Podcast with Scuba

Best of Live events 2023-2
Gigs / Events:
Art of Noise @Jazz Café, London
The Light Surgeons – SuperEverything launch @iklectik, London
Quadraphon debut @Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
Beyond The Streets exhibition @Saatchi gallery, London
Pop Up Subculture festival, Stroud
Holotronica, @IMAX Bristol
Sunroof / Finlay Shakespeare @iklectik, London
0282 Club, the library, Burnley
Paul Cousins @iklectik, London
The Light Surgeons – The Consensual Hallucination @iklectik, London
Memorials at the State 51 Summer Psych party @State 51, London
Queens of the Stone Age @Glastonbury
FogFest2 @iklectik, London
JG Thirlwell & Emsemble @Bush Hall, London
The Book & Record Bar 10th anniversary party, London
Machina Bristronica, Bristol
Visiting Peel Acres with Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves
Nihiloxia @the Jazz Cafe, London
NEXT Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia

Best design 2023
Design / Packaging:
Yves Malone – A Hello To A Goodbye LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – Phuzzle (Drumetrics)
Waclaw Zimpel – Train Spotter LP (State 51)
David Boulter – Factory 3″ CD (Clay Pipe Music)
Fluctuosa – Wetware EP 12″ (Analogical Force)
Fluxus – Orbit & Shine LP (Castles In Space)
Floating Points – Birth4000 12″ (Ninja Tune)
Cate Brooks – Easel Studies LP + badge (Clay Pipe Music)
Brian Eno – Top Boy OST CD (Beatink)

Artists:
Kallamity
Soda
Nick Taylor (Spectral Studio)
Louise Mason
Francis Castle (Clay Pipe)
Tradd Moore
KO_Computer
Kishi Omori
Autone1
Mike Mignola
Geometric Love
Anna Readman
Zoe Thorogood
Colin & Maria @ Time Released Sound

Best books 2023
Books / Magazines / Comics:
Medical Grade Music – Steve Davis & Kavis Torabi (White Rabbit)
Doctor Strange – Fall Sunrise – Tradd & Heather Moore (Marvel)
Tales To Enlighten – The New Testament – Matt King and James Edward Clark
Beyond The Streets exhibition book
Pop – Milton Glaser (Phaidon)
Kevin O’Neill Apex Edition (2000AD)
Mark Stafford – Salmonella Smorgasbord (Soaring Penguin Press)
Savage Impressions – Bruce Lichen (Independent Project Records)
Hexagon Bridge – Richard Blake (Image)
Monica – Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
Acid Valley – Luke Insect
Petrol Head – Rob Williams & Pye Parr (Image)
Lawless – Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade (Rebellion)
Giant Robot Hellboy – Mignola/Fegredo (Dark Horse)
Facelss & The Family – Matt Lesniewski (Oni Press)

Film:
Barbie
Squaring The Circle : The Story of Hipgnosis

What Have I done 2023
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed a retro jungle cover for District 1727 release Rinse Out The Raw Steel
Opened for The Art of Noise two nights running at the Jazz Cafe
Designed The Home Current & Peter Wix and UNE CDs for Spun Out Of Control
Performed at Candlemas with Julian Hand, Heena Song, Paul Naudin and Whyte Light Visuals
Started working with visual artist PuttyRubber with my Quadraphon turntable at live gigs
Designed the Stasis 12″‘Quondam Sequences’ for De:tuned
Edited a short video for Holotronica after their Bristol event (not sure this ever got broadcast/finished actually)
Restarted my Infinite Illectrik label with 7 monthly releases from May
Mixed two new volumes of The Funky Eno with selections provided by Nohbodhi
Gave talks about Wheels of Light in Stroud and Brighton
Collaborated with Graham Dunning live with visuals by PuttyRubber and Chromatech for FogFest2
Appeared on the 45 Live and What Goes Around podcasts
Wrote the theme for the new Why? podcast
Remade and remixed Amon Tobin’s Permutation LP artwork for the 25th reissue
Continued the weekly Mixcloud Select series of archive mix uploads
Designed and illustrated Wonders of the Undersea World LP for Trunk Records including a sheet of stickers to make your own cover design.
Designed zoetropes for T Rex, Donna Summer, Dr Who, Lily Allen and Steps(!)
Designed the Pulse Five EP, poster and postcards for FSOL, working with Jonas Ranson again on the screenprint
Designed the De:tuned 15 logo and T-shirt for the label’s fifteenth year in 2024
Designed the Clerkenwell Kid Junkyard Melodies album + ephemera and 3″ Xmas Winter Warmers companion CD for Stephen Coates/The Real Tuesday Weld
Designed the A’bear album sleeve for Castles In Space
Contributed vintage graffiti photos to the second Old So Kool book about the UK graf scene in the 80s
Ongoing research into at least three other book projects…

RIP:
Alan Rankin, Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Burt Bacharach, Raquel Welch, Alain Goraguer, Lee Purkis aka In Sync, Paul O’Grady, Al Jaffee, Jah Shaka, Mary Quant, Mark Stewart, Frank Kozik, Andy Rourke, Peter Jones (Colourscape designer), Martin Amis, Kenneth Anger, Tina Turner, Astrud Gilberto, John Romita Snr, Glenda Jackson, Jane Birkin, Paul Rubens, Jamie Reid, Michael Parkinson, David McCallum, Mark the 45 King, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ian Gibson,

Looking forward 2024
Looking forward to:
Candlemas II
Gary Hustwit’s Eno film
The Time Released Sound Book – A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging
Furiosa – A Mad Max Saga
The Hoppy documentary
Richard Norris’ autobiography, Strange Things Are Happening
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s ‘Sensuous Laboratories’ book
The The’s new tour
Doug Shipton’s new Fundamental Frequencies label
More collaborations

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 
#23: Special Request – What Time Is Love Sessions 2×12”

SR black
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support. 



#23. Special Request – What Time Is Love Sessions 2×12”
In at no. 23 – of course it would be – Special Request‘s loving tribute to the KLF’s finest single with nods to their classic ‘Chill Out’ album too – a superb homage. The physical release isn’t due to land until Feb 2024 but you can listen and pre-order now.
https://specialrequest187.bandcamp.com/album/what-time-is-love-sessions

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Mixcloud Select 177: Xmas Knees Up 23/12/2002

MS177 CDr
A mix of two halves, broadcast 21 years ago with a rap-heavy first half and a Xmas-themed second. LCD’s second single was a short, sharp shock of a 7” after the extended epics of their debut 12” and proved they weren’t a one-hit wonder. I saw them play it that year at the Supersonic festival in Birmingham and met James and Nancy backstage, before they went stratospheric. I remember dropping Un-cut’s ‘Midnight’ at the appropriate hour on New Year’s Eve in Newcastle that year, paired with the Gift of Gab monologue during his mix of DJ Shadow’s ‘Midnight In A Perfect World’ and the place going off. The Christina Aguilera Drum n Bass mix was so rough and ready it would pummel any naysayers into submission (same with Beyoncé and Britney mixes of the same era). Any decent pop song of the age would get a white label DnB makeover by someone for a few years in the early 00’s, it may well be the same now but I don’t check for them. Most were sold in specialist shops around London with no info other than a title and I’ve still no idea who made this one. Into the hip hop now with Notts’ finest The P Brothers from their Heavy Bronx Experience series #4 featuring Eddie Cheeba and Sadat X from over the pond – hard as nails golden era styles made in the UK.

Perverted Monks were a collective associated with Afu-Ra and Jeru The Damaga but never quite hit their heights. The imaginatively-titled ‘Freestyle’, from their third single uses the backing tracks from Nas’ ’Nothin’ and another I forget as a bed, one of a number of those Bollywood-sampling hip hop tracks from around this time, kicked off by Missy’s ‘Get UR Freak On’. Soulwax makeover DJ Shadow’s ‘6 Days’ with a blatant re-edit of the B-52’s ’52 Girls’ and it just works. This was during the height of the mash up craze and they were riding high on the success of their ‘As Heard on Radio Soulwax 2’ compilation. It only appeared on a promo 12” and I’d bet it was a European A&R decision to get them to remix Shadow as it doesn’t fit into anything he was doing at that stage. Punjabi MC’s tune was huge in the UK with it’s jingling hook and Knight Rider bass line, as ubiquitous as Missy’s the year before, getting reworks all over the place in a multitude of styles. The Old School mix was by a duo billed as Banks and Sullivan who seem to have a number of aliases with one release to their name on Discogs. A mystery white label using the a cappella from ‘OK’ by RnB pop band Big Brovaz over ‘Mundian To Bach Ke’ was something I used to play a lot in sets and may or may not have been legal. Dan The Automator revisits his own production again for a third rework of ‘Bear Witness’ from the Dr Octagon album with Q Bert back on cuts before Edan smokes the party with his own ‘MC’s Smoke Crack’ remix. Pitman lightens the mood with his Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock pastiche and the Polyphonic Spree arrive to prepare us for the Christmas section of the mix.
MS177 PRS

It’s fair to say that my Xmas mixes maybe aren’t the kind of thing you’d want to put on in the background as you unwrap your presents or tuck into dinner, they swerve all over the place like a Santa who’s had too many brandy’s. Or indeed the manic Ella Fitzgerald version of ‘Jingle Bells’ I try to valiantly keep in time over Tino’s ‘Christmas Is Here’. I wanted to include ‘Coldcut’s Christmas Break’ but it’s generally so terrible I could only manage a few minutes (sorry Matt and Jon but we’ve had this conversation). But how easy is it to make a credible Xmas record? I’d say very difficult and the ones I can happily hear on any given day of the year let alone during the Yuletide period would fit in a very small stocking. The Treacherous 3’s effort occupies a special place because of its inclusion in the Beat Street film and their beat box gag with a young Doug E. Fresh at the end. Milly & Silly’s 1973 ‘Getting Down For Xmas’ is from the Christmas Groove compilation and the mix of Bubba Sparxx’s ‘Ugly’ and Wings’ ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ weirdly works somehow. This was no doubt downloaded from the web amid the whole mash up craze of the time, hence no credit and the inclusion of snippets of early Cassetteboy from their Festive Christmas CD around the mix. The mood takes a darker turn with Hell Interface (aka Boards of Canada) and their ‘Soylent Night’ from the V/Vm Whine & Missing Toe CD until Tino rides back in to save the day with an ethereal jingle groove. Sirconical is usually known for huge, crashing beats but his take on ‘Silent Night’ is genuinely beautiful and comes from the Twisted Nerve Christmas Stocking Filler 7”.

OK, that’s it for this year, have a good one, see you on the other side as I take a break for a week and come back with more 90’s cassette encodings in 2024. Thanks to all subscribers new and old, especially those who have hung in there for the whole hog, I think I can see the end in sight finally as the CDr folder is nearly done, the DAT box is dry and the cassette drawers are nearing completion – I reckon the mix archive could be completed next year. Although there is that USB from Paul Johnson still to go through…

Track list:
LCD Soundsystem – Give It Up
Un-cut – Midnight (MIST 2003 mix)
Christina Aguilera – Dirrty (D&B mix)
The P Brothers – Come On Down
Perverted Monks – Freestyle
DJ Shadow – 6 Days (Soulwax mix)
Punjabi MC – Mundian To Bach Ke (Oldskool mix)
Big Brovaz – OK (Punjabi Rmx)
Dan the Automator – Bear Witness III (Once Again)
Edan – MCs Smoke Crack (remix)
Pitman – It Takes Tea
The Polyphonic Spree – Soldier Girl (Orchestral)
Tino – Christmas Is Here
Ella Fitzgerald – Jingle Bells
Coldcut – Coldcuts’ Christmas Break (edit)
Treacherous 3 feat. Doug E. Fresh – Santas’ Rap
Milly & Silly – Getting Down For X-mas
Unknown – Ugly Xmas
Hell Interface – Soylent Night
Tino – Green Christmas
Sirconical – Silent Night

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #22: Old So Kool book 2 – The Lost Years

OSK book
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support. 


#22. Old So Kool book 2 – The Lost Years

A huge second volume of 80s UK graffiti photos and interviews compiled by Paul Pilgrim and Steven O’Hara. 400+ pages sourced from photo albums and black books from back in the day and a follow up to the first volume from last year – an incredible feat in such a short space of time. I was supposed to have photos in the original but didn’t get my shit together so made up for it this time round.

OSK 1
The Lost Years expands upon the first volume, covering the same time frame (the 80s) with a couple of differences. There are a few standalone sections aside from the geographical locations most of the book is grouped into, namely a look at the legendary Bridlington Jam, a tribute to departed writers and a ‘where are they now’type round up of key contributors. These slightly sparser chapters work well and serve to break up the visual overload of the other sections in which as many images as possible have been fitted on every page.

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That such a sprawling urban artform grew out of a few books, films, record sleeves and magazine articles is fascinating, us 80s kids were certainly inspired – Subway Art being ‘the original handbook’ for most. You can see styles evolving all over the country but with a uniformity from writers who would never even see each other’s work – let alone meet – as everyone was cribbing from the same limited sources for a while. Of course the Americans were the first inspiration – you can see the character styles of Doze Green or Gnome copied here and there but unique styles and voices were held in highest regard. Cribbing off of other UK writers was inevitable though, The Chrome Angels being the most obvious as they were the most visible initially unless you were lucky enough to be able to travel abroad. You can also see British comic characters from 2000AD and computer games cropping up to replace the Marvel superheros and Vaughn Bodé lizards and wizards, a more angular computer style here, an abstract piece there.

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I remember many trying to find their own identity rather than fit in with existing styles but for the most part though it’s a name and a character, with complimentary backgrounds and tags – in every conceivable permutation. There are few huge productions as you see regularly these days, a ladder was as far as you got, no cherry-pickers here and the paint quality was sometimes dubious at best with photographic skills even more sketchy. This is my only bugbear with the book, in trying to document so much it sacrifices quality for quantity and there are pieces that I personally would have disqualified on grounds of picture quality or artistic merit.

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But then the graffiti world has always had its own set of politics and guidelines and maybe it’s a good thing that Paul and Steven haven’t played gatekeepers to what was a budding sub culture, learning from itself with sometimes the most meagre of resources. They’ve compiled a vast and unique snapshot in time of an urban artform’s formative years from all over the UK, something no one’s attempted before on this scale. Coupled with the first book, The Lost Years offers a time capsule of thousands of artworks, 99% of which I’d wager no longer exist, and a peek into the imaginations of a generation of kids who decided to make the streets their own galleries. And that’s to be applauded.
https://oldsokool.co.uk/store/

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The piece middle right above was the first piece of graffiti in my home town of Reigate, it appeared in two halves initially (hence the ‘Rusty again’ tag) and word spread around the town like wildfire. This was painted by Russel Mears aka Rusty Spray who is now sadly no longer with us – more about him here.
OSK inside

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Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #21: The Clerkenwelll Kid – Junkshop Melodies CD

JM lot2 A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

#21. The Clerkenwell Kid – Junkshop Melodies CD
A solo album from The Clerkenwell finally, another Stephen Coates alias and a final design credit for 2023 for me. Housed in a printed tin, with CD, colour insert, TRTW badge, Clerkenwell Kid card and what is that array of mini cards fanned out at the bottom? Not actually out until January but keep an eye on The Real Tuesday Weld Bandcamp page in the new year.

https://therealtuesdayweld.bandcamp.com/

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #20: Upside Down Records


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A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

#20. Upside Down Records

South East London’s newest used record shop, located at 203 Deptford High Street, SE8 3NT and run by ex-Rat Records manager Philippe Giron – pay them a visit as they settle in with daily new-in vinyl top ups and hi-fi.
https://upsidedownrecords.co.uk/ (SE London)
https://www.instagram.com/upsidedownrecords/

Other great used record shops in the UK:
https://www.instagram.com/thebookandrecordbar/ (SW London)
https://www.instagram.com/wowandflutterhastings/ (Hastings)
https://www.instagram.com/pressingmattersrecordshop/ (Hastings)
https://www.instagram.com/musicandvideoexchange/ (SE London)
https://www.instagram.com/the_diskery/ (Birmingham)
https://www.instagram.com/lorosspiralscratch/ (Leicester)
https://www.instagram.com/mixeduprecords/ (Glasgow)
https://www.instagram.com/kingbeerecords/ (Manchester)
https://www.instagram.com/digvinyl/ (Liverpool)
https://www.instagram.com/rarekindrecords/ (Brighton)
https://www.instagram.com/wantedrecordsbristol/ (Bristol)
https://www.instagram.com/atlantis_records_hackney/ (E London)
https://www.instagram.com/yoyorecordslondon/ (E London)
https://www.instagram.com/wsa.london/ (N London)
Also (not on Instagram):
Prime Cuts (Bristol)
Alan’s Records (N London)

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Rarekind
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Christmas Collector Countdown #19: West Norwood Cassette Library

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A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

#18. West Norwood Cassette Library label 12”/10”/DL
Excellent South East London label of hard as nails bass and bleeps run by Bob Bhamra. Check out Jane In Palma’s banging version of ‘The Horn Track’ to start.
https://wnclrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/wncl042
https://wnclrecordings.bandcamp.com/

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Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #18: Obscure Records Collection

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A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

#18. Obscure Records Collection 10xLP/CD box set 
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The Brian Eno-curated mid-70s label gets the reissue treatment and it’s beautifully done but not cheap! 10xCD set with book around £130, 10xLP set with book around £300-£430!
Downloads of six of the albums are available on the label’s Bandcamp for €12 per LP – minus the classics by Eno, Penguin Cafe, Michael Nyman, Harold Budd (which you can find easily elsewhere).

https://spaceechorecords.bandcamp.com/
See more details in my earlier post

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Graham Dunning & DJ Food at Fog Fest, Iklectik, 2023

Here’s the performance Graham Dunning and I gave at Robin The Fog’s Fog Fest II this summer at Iklectik.
Totally improvised, we’d had a couple of rehearsals, and with visuals from PuttyRubber and Leon Trimble, it was exhilarating and felt like spinning plates rather than discs. Probably my favourite gig of the year along with the 10th anniversary of The Book & Record bar lock in.

Species Piracy

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I absolutely love this photo of Robin The Fog (centre) and Amy Cutler (right) from their brand new Species Piracy audio visual show that premiered last Thursday at Iklectik. I couldn’t go but this photo and the footage captured by Jamesalechardy looks great and more info on the project which centres around ‘an ongoing ensemble live cinema project inspired by the dark arts of de-extinction’ is available here amycutler.net. They’re looking for more gigs of this nature so contact Amy via the website.

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #17: Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP

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A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

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#17. Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP 12”
My old friend Raj Pannu finally releases a new 12” with his own compositions on this excellent electronic 5 track EP. On the To Pikap label out of Thessaloniki, Greece.
https://topikaprecords.bandcamp.com/album/past-crimes
https://topikaprecords.bandcamp.com/music

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Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #16: Various Artists – Tape Excavation LP

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A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

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#16. Various Artists – Tape Excavation LP
Literally what it says on the tin; obscurities from the tape drawer compiled by Bruce Licher and beautifully printed on a custom card sleeve with inserts, all lovingly detailed in the Savage Impressions book that this originally accompanied which showcases 30 years of the Independent Print Project label’s release history.

https://brucelicher.bandcamp.com/album/tape-excavation

https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/savage-impressions-an-aesthetic-expedition-through-the-archives-of-independent-project-records-press-book
https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/music

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Mixcloud Select 176: Tour Mix 08/06/2007

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Sorry this is a bit late, Mixcloud seemingly deleted the original upload that I made last week. I also just noticed that I missed MS172 – which is all ready to go but will have to wait until next year as I have a Xmas mix for next week.

I’m not sure why this is called a ‘Tour Mix’, it’s not a live set for sure but I could have conceivably made it on the laptop on tour – maybe I was out with DK promoting our ’Now, Listen Again’ mix CD, I’d have to check dates. Anyway – Zero db tackle Sun Ra for the opening and I think this only came out on their own Reconstruction compilation of remixes rather than on any official Sun Ra release. John Cale then trades places with James Murphy for his LCD Soundsystem cover, which sounds a bit strained and painful in hindsight now. Next up is the first of three Mr76ix tracks from his 3 (Minority of 1) album on Skam with a magnificent tempo switch down into Def Tex’s ‘Bomber’ – what a bassline! Def Tex were great, always inventive hip hop and this was from their second album on Son Records.

Battles seemed to explode out of nowhere but they’d already made three singles before signing to the label and ‘Race:In’ came from their debut LP, Mirrored. Kidkanevil’s ‘5th Gear’ features Latyrx’s Lateef The Truthspeaker in a horny flute ode to getting down to it with a subtlety rarely present in rap. But here’s another with Pharaoh Monch expertly remixed by Optima Espacio into some sort of slow build electro gospel banger. There’s a guitar solo over a breakdown FFS! Keeping on the love-tip; an overlooked DJ Shadow B side from his Outsider album era sees him mining a psych funk angle on ‘Love, Love’. This was only on the CD single and later download of the ‘This Time’ single, no idea why it didn’t make the album and the non-LP cuts and remixes were frequently better than some of the material on that record IMO.
MS176 PRS

Oh Pepe Deluxe, how I loved (and still do love) their Spare Time Machine album, two tracks here sum it up – tightly constructed, immaculately produced sunshine psychedelia. They really string out the intro to ‘Apple Thief’ but when it kicks in it’s well worth the wait. ‘Go For Blue’ also inspired a colour-based mix of songs shortly after this including ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Mellow Yellow’ and ‘Mr Blue Sky’ but that’s already on the web. I’m wondering where I heard Candie Payne’s track from as I don’t remember buying it, maybe a promo or a compilation – whatever, she’s got that 60s doom pop sound nailed. Mr76ix sounds like he’s been listening to the last track on Selected Ambient Works II and put some rave beats to it and Battles are back again with the epic ‘Atlas’ – remember that great video of them in the mirrored box? Mr76ix plays out over the breakdown of this with a beautiful beat-less piece called ‘Romanticism’ before we’re back into that drawn out guitar trade off that builds into the final section.

Track list:
Sun Ra – Satellites Are Spinning (Zero db remix)
LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends (John Cale version)
Mr76ix – H.A.A.R.P.
Def Tex – Bomber
Battles – Race:In
Kidkanevil – 5th Gear feat. Lateef The Truthspeaker
Pharoah Monch – Body Baby (Optimo Espacio mix)
DJ Shadow – Love, Love
Pepe Deluxe – Apple Thief
Pepe Deluxe – Go For Blue
Candie Payne – I Wish I Could Have Loved You More
Mr76ix – Spirit of Man
Battles – Atlas
Mr76ix – Romanticism

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #15: Stereolab – The In Sound stamp sheets

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A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

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#15. Stereolab – The In Sound stamp sheets
Commemorative stamps that went with the long sold out 7” release Independent Project Records made with Stereolab.

https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/stereolab-the-in-sound-stamp-sheets-set-of-4-different-colors

https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/music



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Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #14: Source: The Independent Project Records Collection CD

Source front
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

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#14. Various Artists – Source: The Independent Project Records Collection CD
A starting point for newcomers to the label, largely run, designed and printed by Bruce Licher, featuring a number of his own aliases alongside post-punk bands of the 80s and 90s.

https://sourcevariousartistscompilation.bandcamp.com/album/source-the-independent-project-records-collection

https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/music

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Source CD
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Obscure Records box set

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Obscure RecordsBrian Eno and Gavin Bryars‘ short-lived record label from the mid 70s – is getting a lavish reissue this month via the Italian label, dialogo. The ten albums released in three batches between 1976 and 1978 are getting the box set treatment on vinyl and CD with accompanying books detailing their checkered histories with new sleevenotes and essays by key contributors. The label very kindly sent me the full digital release and I’ve been revisiting – and in some cases hearing for the first time – all the volumes in pristine, digitally-remastered quality seeing as the handful of originals I have on vinyl have been around the block a bit now.
Co-curated at the time by Eno, Bryars and Micheal Nyman and resurrected by Bryars with full co-operation of all featured artists for this release, the ten albums form a snapshot of a young, experimental set of avant garde composers, mainly from the UK, setting out in careers that would take them in different directions with varying levels of succes, fame and notoriety. The most famous of the set are by the key curators – Bryars’ ‘The Sinking of the Titanic / Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet’, Eno’s ‘Discreet Music’ and Micheal Nyman’s debut,’Decay Music’, but you’ll recognise others among them too; The Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s first LP is here alongside works by John Cage, David Toop and Harold Budd’s introductory outing.

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Several things strike me about these albums; the amount of samples – or ‘found sound’ as they’re called in the sleeve notes – some of them use. At least half the catalogue use or manipulate voice or field recordings, in Discreet Music’s case, affecting or looping sections of another composer’s work as just another instrument. It’s also interesting to note how many of the participants were also working part time in the education system, no doubt influencing future generations in other ways beyond these albums. There’s probably a book to be written about the hidden history of art and music taught through the universities of the UK by some of its most unique practitioners.

The label have done a beautiful job representing these albums as one body of work with the CD version looking like a perfect companion to the Oblique Strategies box on the shelf. The sleeves are facsimiles of the originals, reproducing sleeve notes inside the book along with reflections from Bryars, Toop and more as well as insights into their legacy, the cover reconstructions and even the myriad of different pressings of the originals out there. According to the sleeve notes there was to be an Obscure 11, Eno’s Music For Airports, but at the last minute he changed his mind and started the Ambient Series; four albums that bear similarities to the Obscure releases, not least in their cover designs as well as his hand in their production. Times and the composer had moved on and a new movement was afoot, leaving the Obscure catalogue at a perfect ten, a time capsule of a collective that would splinter in different directions and prove influential in ways none could predict.

An aside concerning the cost of these box sets, they’re not cheap but look worth every penny. Downloads of six of the albums are also available on the label’s Bandcamp for €12 per LP – minus the classics by Eno, Penguin Cafe, Michael Nyman, Harold Budd (which you can find easily elsewhere).

Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #13: Bruce Licher – Exploratorium 3” CD / Expanded CD

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A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

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#13. Bruce Licher – Exploratorium 3” CD / Expanded CD
The first of several releases I’m going to feature from Independent Project Records. The exquisitely designed and letterpress-printed releases on this label have to be seen and held in the flesh to be fully appreciated.
This is label owner Bruce Licher’s solo ambient explorations, firstly as a 3″ CD held onto 12″ square piece of card and later in a custom-printed foldout card sleeve with booklet on regular-sized CD.

https://brucelicher.bandcamp.com/album/exploratorium-expanded

https://brucelicher.bandcamp.com/album/exploratorium

https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/music



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