I spoke to Velocity Press about books that have influenced me off the back of my Wheels of Light release from Four Corners Books – the lead photo above was taken the same day, mid 2019, that I first visited the Optikinetics HQ in Luton to view their archive of picture wheel art which then led to the book.
Read the full interview here https://velocitypress.uk/bassbin-book-club-dj-food/
Books
I joined Stephen Coates again on his excellent Bureau of Lost Culture podcast the other week alongside Optikinetics co-founder Neil Rice and FX wheel artist and light show operator Jennie Caldwell to talk psychedelic light shows in support of my book, Wheels of Light.
Neil recounts his first light show experiences, starting one of the main companies making equipment for light show in the ’70s and the rise and fall of the industry. Jennie was part of the second generation of artists who saw it rise from the ashes in the second summer of love, when acid house and dance music arrived and revived the artform for a while. They both have tales to tell and I learned plenty from listening to them.
She also took some excellent shots a few weeks back when Optikinetics lit the Raven Row gallery for the publisher Four Corners Books at the book launch.
Stuart Warren-Hill (Hexstatic / Holotronica) and Neil Rice (Optikinetics)
Brendan and Emma from Insight Lighting with Geoff Blindt (Mystic Lights) who contributed some photos to the book.
Neil Rice and I, he really should have a co-author credit, he helped me so much during the research.
One of my Solar 250 projectors with a custom-made Wheels of Light FX wheel for the night, made by Larry Wooden of Orion Lighting, also present showing original art and wheels from the 70s and profiled in the book.
(left in hat) Chris Thomsett (Innerstrings), (middle) David Fowler (Optifanatics) and (right with beard) Nigel Bailey (The Odd Light Show)
The second Groovy Record Fayre, hosted by Jonny Trunk and Ian Shirley, took place on Saturday at the Mildmay Club on Newington Green, N16 and again, it was a blast. Pete Williams and I had a stall again and many friends and faces passed by. It was celeb central at points, from superstar DJs to stand up comedians and supermodel it girls. I missed a chance to chat to Stewart Lee who was looking through the Krautrock box because I was explaining what Go-Go and cut up mixes were to a younger buyer but Lee wasn’t buying anyway.
Pete with our stall, notice my Wheels of Light book placed in prime position bottom left.
Pete sleevefaces with Buried Treasure’s Alan Gubby
Marc Mr Thing journeyed up from Hastings for the day
Paul Putner bought my book shock!
A right pair of tits, and Martin & James of The Karminsky Experience Inc.
Richard Norris also picked up my book and Children of the Stones (like everyone else)
Rat Records mini reunion with Ronan and Philippe
Comix legend Edwin Savage Pencil Pouncey bought six of my underground comix, a true seal of approval.
Pop quiz winner (later on) Simon Gitter with smooth dancer and pop quiz secret weapon 2 Tone Tony.
Everyone was packed up and out of the hall by 6pm and people disappeared for dinner. Around 7.30 the pop quiz kicked off and 90 minutes later the team Jonny Trunk happened to be on claimed victory to cries of ‘fix!, fix!’. The fact that there was a 10 point Trunk section might have helped. Martin Green and Jarvis took to the stage as tables and chairs were cleared in record time, the glitter ball ignited and the bar besieged. Much drink was drunk and dancing had until 1am with a packed dancefloor and singalongs to Plastic Bertrand, Bowie, The Beatles, Adam & The Ants, The Sweet, Prince, Double Dee & Steinski, Beastie Boys, Sparks, B-52s and so many more.
Meanwhile in the toilets, Alex Chung had other things on her mind…
It’s publication day for my book ‘Wheels of Light’ from Four Corners books – here’s some pictures from the launch night on Wednesday by Pat Grimm and myself. The Optikinetics crew Rob, Tony and original co-founder Neil Rice were in attendance as was wheel artist Jennie Caldwell (see her amazing designs in the book).
Larry Wooden was also holding court with his box of original Orion wheels and a portfolio of original wheel art dating back to the 70s.
Here is is holding the War of the Worlds painting by artist David Hardy. He’d also made me a one-off Wheels of Light promo wheel and gifted a remastered Star Wars test wheel. He’s busy remastering all the old Orion wheels from the original art, the colours of which are sometimes quite a bit different.
Stuart Warren-Hill (Hexstatic/Holotronica) is pictured showing Neil Rice one of his homemade picture wheels, and Pat and Mariko are bathing in the liquid light.
Rotating prism attachment for Solar 250 lens.
You can order the book here for a history of the British companies like Optikinetics, Orion and Pluto who made these gorgeous objects. Lots of the original art for the picture wheels is featured as well as promotional material and interviews with some of the people behind the scenes. I hope you all find something to enjoy in here and maybe a few things never seen before.
My book, Wheels of Light – Designs for British Light Shows 1970-1990, arrived!
Here’s a quick preview of what’s inside; learn about liquid wheels, cassettes and effects wheels, find out who Optikinetics, Pluto and Orion are and who and how they made these beautiful wheels.
Published by Four Corners Books – thank you! In shops Friday 21st October
Pre-order here
It’s all books on here lately, I’ve been helping Dave Barbarossa realise a third, print-on-demand edition of his first novel, Mud Sharks, recently – a semi biographical, semi-fictional retelling of his upbringing and road to stardom in various bands. Fans of a certain age will know him from the first iteration of Adam & The Ants, then Bow Wow Wow, he later went on to drum with Beats International, Republica and Roland Gift among others.
The book is a rapid-paced ascent through a troubled childhood, dirt poor upbringing in 70s London into a world of punk and out the other side, a proper rags to riches story, told intelligently with a keen turn of phrase.
You can order copies from here or message Dave directly through his Facebook and he will sign and dedicate a copy to you.
As a thankyou I got to look through untold Ant/Bow Wow Wow treasures at his place including acetates, diaries, scrapbooks and more. He also gifted this original proof copy of the Young Parisians single cover and promo photo to me as a thank you. The dedication is a reference to something Adam wrote in a log book Dave owns of the making of the Dirk Wears White Sox album where each track is broken down into instruments, sections, notes and recording info.
Inadvertently, I’ve written a book! I say written but it’s really more picture-heavy with a contextual history provided, but my name is on the cover so what the hell. I’ve been working away on a book of light show projection wheel art for a good few years now in conjunction with the lovely people at Four Corners Books.
It started when a friend called me in mid 2019 having discovered a load of original projection wheel art at a lighting company called Optikinetics – one of the original and only surviving companies who made projectors and their accessories from the 70s. After viewing drawers full of art, slides and transparencies I took the idea to Four Corners who I’d previously worked with on Jonny Trunk’s ‘Wobbly Sounds’ book about flexi discs. They were up for it and so we were off, my main job being contextualising the art and interviewing the main players and artists from the UK scene, which led to more art turning up along the way.
We were nearing the final stages of the edit and the book was sent to the designer when a vital missing piece of the jigsaw turned up. A certain Larry Wooden – proprietor of Orion Lighting and originator of the panoramic picture wheel – had been missing in action since I started to track down the original people involved in the business of making wheels. I’d resigned myself to having a passage written by Larry back in 2009 in the book as his only contribution – taken (with permission) from the Funky Parrot website – but suddenly he appeared online in a group devoted to projection. A quick email and not so quick phone call and the next week I jumped on a train to Colchester and met Larry outside the station in his motorhome where we chatted for hours and he filled me in on where he’d been, what he’d done and what he was going to do.
Some of that is a story for another time but I now had access to the last major player – alongside Optikinetics and Pluto – of the British FX wheel scene of the 70’s and early 80’s. Their story, the equipment they created as well as original art and quotes from the artists and designers of the wheels will be told for the first time in Wheels of Light, available from Four Corners Books on October 21st. Larry has set up a new Orion Effects site and is selling various bits and pieces of his archive so if you’re into that incredibly niche area then this is possibly the last time such a collection of original pieces will come up for sale, certainly from one of the originators of the UK scene. Go to orioneffects.co.uk and click on the heritage pages.
Below: Mis-registered image of the Optikinetics ‘Robot’ wheel taken from a catalogue (not in the book). I’ll be posting more ephemera over the coming weeks as much didn’t make the book… You can pre-order it here, nearly 180 pages, full colour throughout. There will be a launch party on the 19th and I should have copies for sale at my stall at Jonny Trunk’s second Record Fayre on the 29th.
You may remember the original Tales To Enlighten comic my friend King Megatrip made with James Edward Clark last year? Well, the sequel Tales To Enlighten: (The New Testament) is launching on Kickstarter today.
Everybody’s favourite serial killing Satanists are back! A 550-page Occult Anthology featuring 30 amazing indie artists. HELL YEAH! Pledge here
Kickstarter projects are generally quite expensive for what you’re getting, right? Wrong on this count, this book is $52, about £45 but less than 10c a page, sure there’s shipping on top but you’re not going to find many deals like that. The talent on show is international in scope with a few Brits including Shaky Kane and Jason Atomic. There are a load of tiers with extra zines, T-shirt and bookmarks and even original art. I’ve done a little promo mix to try and help Matt (I’m sure he won’t need it) – Tales of Revelation – Further Religious Rock Opera & Spiritual Spoken Word which goes online soon.
There’s a great interview with Matt over on Daniel Moler’s Psychonaut Sessions podcast, talking about the books and showing off a ton or art from the new one
Andy Votel has an exhibition of record sleeves containing architecture at The Modernist in Manchester. Taking inspiration from his sleeve for Jane Weaver‘s ‘The Architect’ he has created a poster and book to accompany the show. The book features records from his own collection including plenty of his own designs with intimate details that will have most running to Discogs or Google to find out more. Both the book and poster are available from The Modernist and the exhibition runs until September.
Below is my copy of a super rare hand made copy of Jane’s ‘The Architect’ which features an alternate version of the original cover.
At Xmas I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Jill Drower‘s ’99 Balls Pond Road’ book which is a weighty tome that had been expensive and hard to come by for some time. I devoured it over the holiday and into the new year before deciding that I had to contact Jill and invite her to Stephen Coates‘ Bureau of Lost Culture podcast. Her story of the performance art collective who were part of the first wave of kinetic art and the psychedelic underground in the 60s whilst squatting at the Dalston address of the title is an eye opener.
Finally tracking her down, she kindly agreed to come in and tell her story, a rare female voice in a sea of men who have so far largely written the history of the movement. She doesn’t pull her punches on the inequality of women, the class structure of the underground and the collusion between police and gutter press in suppressing their happenings and invasion of the home.
There are two versions of the book; the original, large format, picture-heavy coffee table book entitled ’99 Balls Pond Road’ which will cost a bit more but is worth every penny. Or the new paperback-sized, picture-light, more affordable version entitled ‘The Exploding Galaxy – Performance Art, LSD and Bent Copper in the Sixties Counterculture’, which is a mouthful but sums up the contents far better than the original title.
I’ve been doing some research for a current project and found the excellent website The Art of Diving along the way which provided all sorts of treats. I pulled a few choice examples of 70’s book art while I was there but give the site a visit as there is years worth to navigate.
Monday: Photographed The Real Tuesday Weld‘s annual 3″ CD Xmas card I’d designed which then went on sale online. Buy here
Tuesday: 1 of 100 shirts / DJ Food/Openmind collab went on sale, 100 shirts with the Stealth club logo. 26 years to the day of the first Ninja Tune club night called Stealth, mini commemorative flyer swing ticket to round it off.
Recorded a ton of jams on my Quadrophon turntable and found the recording of PC and my set at The Blue Note from the same night all those years ago…
Wednesday: Fine tuning a 7,500 word intro to a book about light show picture wheels I’m doing with Four Corners Books, for publication next year, months of research and interviews distilled into a huge piece.
DJed at the Let’s Stick Together night with Mira Calix at The Gun pub in Hackney, people came and made collages all evening while we played, the best will go into Mira’s next collage zine, out next year.
Got home at 11pm, started editing turntable jams for Saturday…
Thursday: Working in Studio Cineola with Matt Johnson of The The, finishing off my CineolaScape mix for release on his label next year. This is a distillation of my opening sets for their live comeback tour, playing Matt’s music from across his 40 year career. We’re doing final mixdowns and edits. Also finally got a copy of the Comeback Special deluxe set with my exclusive remix on the bonus 10″ vinyl.
Friday: More of the same and then off home to see the Touched Music‘s Project OO go live with a virtual release party online at 7.30pm and the release of a 58 track, 5xCD compilation in aid of 7 yr old Oona Dooks who needs special treatments to walk. Also available is a 74 min mix CD I made to promote the project featuring many tracks from it. Amazing response as both sold out in hours.
News that Electronic Sound magazine had both the DJ Food Kaleidoscope/Companion reissue and The New Obsolescents‘ album in their end of year list and a two page photo of us performing at the Levitation festival. Delightfully modelled here by fellow Obsolescent Robin The Fog at the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood.
Saturday: Jamming with original Antz/Bow Wow Wow drummer Dave Barbarossa in a West London studio with tracks made on my four-armed Quadraphon turntable, making exploratory music for a possible collaboration.
Old but new to me, these made me laugh, many more here at https://vintage-covers.com/
I was thrilled to be asked to remix ‘Global Eyes’ on the exclusive 10″ with the deluxe box set of
The The‘s Comeback Special live set. See and hear the full show plus loads of extras.
Due out this October – pre-order now live plus there’s a special screening at The Troxy, the venue for the third London night back 3 years ago.
Finally released on vinyl this Friday on Utter – Celestial Mechanic – ‘Citizen Void’ LP – a soundtrack to the
Rian Hughes novel, ‘XX’ published by Picador Books (paperback released Aug 9th)
Music by Celestial Mechanic – a collaboration between DJ Food, Saron Hughes, Robin The Fog (Howlround) & Peter Harris
Yellow vinyl LP + 7″ + print + info sheet – designed by Rian Hughes with silver spot print and inner sleeve – this is limited so don’t sleep as it will be out in shops too.
Pre-order https://bit.ly/3y5C7eK
Animation generated at ASCII Playground
*un-mute for sound!
Highlights from unique, hand-stencilled, spray painted book by Savant, 2020 – 1 of 1
Ringbound, 19x19cm, 80 pages.
For more of his art visit https://savantstreetart.bigcartel.com/
Follow him on Instagram
Noah Uman‘s Music Archives Ltd Instagram is a treasure trove of hip hop memorabilia and he’s expanded into the real world with a small A5 sized booklet, written by Bill Adler, about the making of Kurtis Blow‘s rap classic, ‘Christmas Rappin’. The story of what was essentially seen as a novelty record is fascinating and you realise what a groundbreaking record it was. The booklet is full of flyers, live photos and more and breaks down the circumstances behind how it was recorded, signed and promoted. You can find copies here and it comes with two badges.
Those lovely guys from Buro Destruct in Bern, Switzerland have just launched a kickstarter for their 4th collection of design work (see excerpts above and below). I first became aware of them in the mid 90’s when we started touring Europe and when we played at the Reitschule in Bern the flyers and posters plastered over the walls were of a higher standard than normal. This was in large due to Buro Destruct who provided a lot of the work and it didn’t take longer for their work to feature in magazines and books of the time as well as their own publications collecting the work.
They’re now onto the 4th volume, featuring 12 years of work (volume 3 was back in 2009) including unused work, intermediate steps and experiments along the way. The softcover book will be 256 pages long and you can support the kickstarter here although only 5 of the early bird discounted price copies are left as I write this.
Nick Taylor at Spectral Studio has recently put up a load of new items for sale in his shop including the long-time-coming Brief But Electrifying History of the Synthesizer zine and a new tribute zine to various sonic pioneers entitled ‘Space Is The Place’. The former is a gorgeous green and red screen printed landscape booklet covering key sound synthesizing inventions from the last 100 or so years including QR codes that link to YouTube or Spotify to listen to the instruments.
The latter is a black and silver square, concertina folded look at six different sonic pioneers from Sun Ra to Moondog, each with a small piece on the reverse and sealed with a tracing paper strip. Nick has published several things like this before, namely the ‘Sisters in Sound’ zine from 5 years ago – all of which (and more) can be found in his Etsy shop here.
The US release of Rian Hughes’ debut novel, ‘XX’ happened yesterday, the book, as mentioned before, is a sci-fi epic coupled with graphic design elements throughout. To mark the occasion we have a new 30 minute Celestial Mechanic EP out via Bandcamp with a 17 minute remix of ‘The Signal’ and several piano pieces created for the album but unused in the final mix.
Check it out here https://celestialmechanic.bandcamp.com/album/the-signal-retransmission and if you like it there’s a whole album too, made by myself and Saron Hughes with contributions from Robin The Fog on tapes and Saron’s husband, Peter Harris on guitar.
Rian’s book is out on Overlook Press with a different cover, if you’re in the US you can order it here.
Also, Thursday night, Nov 12th, Rian is doing another web chat with writer Grant Morrison online and it’s free! Log on at 7pm Eastern Time, more details here