The Search Engine launch party at The Planetarium

This has been under wraps for a while but I can finally reveal…

Three 45 minute sets (due to limited spaces in the Planetarium) of a specially reconstructed version of the album including exclusive material. I’m currently working with the astronomers at the Observatory, building a bespoke show for their 360 degree hemispherical screen. Tickets are very limited, only 82 for each show, so be quick if you want to see this http://ninjatune.net/shop/tickets

Heads up

I never saw this before but was made aware of it by Nabil over at 3 Nipples Music (yes you read that right). It’s the Criterion issue of the Monkees‘ classic ‘Head’, unfortunately it only seems to be available as part of the America: Lost and Found box set and not as a standalone disc. My own ‘Head’ rescore is still online over at Internet Archive but who knows how long that will stay up.

Posted in Comics, Design, DJ Food, Film. | 2 Comments |

DJ Food feat. JG Thirlwell preview

Full preview of ‘Prey’, the track I did with JG Thirlwell aka Foetus / Steroid Maximus / Manorexia / Clint Ruin / Wiseblood etc. etc. on my new EP. To say I’m happy with this is an understatement, it was a huge honour to get JG’s contribution after being a fan of his for over two decades.

DJ Food – ‘Prey’ feat. J.G. Thirlwell by Ninja Tune

In 2002 I remixed his track ‘Suspect’ from the album ‘Flow’ (still one of his best) for the compilation ‘Blow’. Instead of payment I asked for either a remix or a guest vocal on a future project and it took nine years to call in the favour. JG came to the UK in March this year and we agreed to meet up at Matt Johnson‘s place as I had tracks for both of them. I spent a hugely enjoyable morning chatting with them over tea, talking about everything from the state of the music business to The Monkees.

This was one of those tracks that came together incredibly fast and, upon delivery of the vocal, I had to make very few changes to anything, just a slight rearrangement of a vocal here and there. An instrumental, retitled ‘Beast of Prey’, will be available as a bonus on the Japanese CD of ‘The Search Engine’ in December.

Magpie Music mp3 treasure hunt

Last week we hid 5 different parts of ‘Magpie Music’, the track I did with 2econd Class Citizen, around the web on different sites and encouraged people to find them with their search engines.

Thanks to all the sites who took part – Clash music, Seeks music, ireallylovemusic and Future sequence and please have a look round them as they are all worthwhile places for new music. Here are those segments now, a few had trouble with Friday’s download but they got there in the end.

Part 1 “Finders Keepers”

Part 2 “They Turned Their Faces Down”

Part 3 “A Positive No”

Part 4 “Eye of the Needle”

Part 5 “No More Stars”

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Ninja Tune. | 2 Comments |

‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ poster cover

The third 12″ EP and download, are out today at the Ninja shop and all other good retailers. You get a 5 track EP, full colour inner sleeve and wrapround A2 sized poster with it (see above).

The album, ‘The Search Engine’ – as I’ve already posted, is also up for pre-order now at the Ninja shop in a multitude of formats, not least the limited version with art book and flexi disc for a cheap early price.

Lots of exciting news to announce soon too…

‘The Search Engine’ pre-order available now

Finally, the DJ Food album – ‘The Search Engine’ – is available to pre-order in the Ninja Tune shop. It comes in many forms so pay attention:

Regular 12 track album CD – gatefold card cover and 20 pg booklet

Ltd 48 pg comic-sized booklet full of artwork, photos, lyrics and more + 12 track album CD in card wallet + 7″ flexi disc of a bonus track not on the album

The limited package with the flexi disc is at an early bird price of just £12 at the Ninjashop at the moment but you’ll have to be quick.

Regular 12 track album – mp3 download + pdf booklet

Regular 12 track album – WAV download + pdf booklet

Expanded & Extended 17 track album – 24 bit WAV download + pdf booklet

This version adds 5 tracks that were on the previous 3 vinyl EPs but didn’t make the cut for the CD album ‘proper’ + has full versions of tracks that were edited down for the regular version, up to 4 minutes more on one track. Some versions are only available on this edition as I remixed several older tracks for the album but edited them down for the final selection – this is your chance to be a completist.

For all those wondering where the vinyl is? Well, the three EPs released so far make up a version of the album (albeit an alternate universe one) and all come with nice poster covers and inner sleeves so, if you bought these then, you already have the album of sorts. That being said, there are different mixes, edits and the vocal version of GIANT on the CD and digital versions which aren’t yet on wax. We have ideas about that but I don’t want to jump the gun without things being set in stone. Ninja should be repressing some quantities of the earlier EPs so we’ll see what happens, don’t write a new vinyl version off just yet.

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Ninja Tune. | 3 Comments |

‘Magpies…’ inner sleeve close up


The incredible line work of Henry Flint from the inner sleeve of the ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ vinyl.

The 12″ EP and download, out Nov 7th, is available to preview and pre-order at the Ninja shop.

Henry’s book of ‘doodles’, ‘Broadcast’ is supposed to be released today but is still on pre-order at Amazon.

The Magpie Music mp3 treasure hunt continues today with the second mp3 available on a certain site, use your search engine to find it.

The first segment, ‘Finders Keepers’ was here, pretty close to home, the second won’t be so easy.

 

Magpie Music mp3 treasure hunt

With one week away until the release of my ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons EP Ninja are giving you the chance to download 5 different segments of the track ‘Magpie Music’ that I did with 2econd Class Citizen. This is a suite of tracks we made and then stitched together to form an 11 minute piece on the new EP and album, various tracks have been extracted from it and cleaned up to form little standalone DJ tracks for you to enjoy.

The only catch is, you have to find them, Magpie-like, and steal them from wherever they are hiding on the web using your computer’s search engine (incidentally, the new album’s title). The first one is up now, four more go online each day this week and the EP is released on Monday 7th November. Lots of exciting things happening on the lead up to this release at the moment, I’ll give all the info as each thing is confirmed but January is going to be packed at this rate.

DJ Food – A Magpies, Maps & Moons Reader mix

As the release of my new EP is imminent (Nov 7th) I’ve put together a special mix entitled ‘A Magpies, Maps & Moons Reader’, available on Solid Steel this Friday, to showcase it and the tracks that influenced me whilst I was making it.

I’m very pleased with this one (there are mix companions to the previous EPs in the Downloads section of this site) as I spent a long time doing special re-edits and remixes on some tracks. It also contains a couple the premiers of tracks by Pepe Deluxé and 2econd Class Citizen from their respective albums, both due next year.

If you like what you hear you can pre-order the EP here.

Solid Steel Radio Show 28/10/2011 Part 1 + 2 – DJ Food by Ninja Tune

My eyes!

Something I just knocked up, probably further ruining my eyesight in the process. Probably the only time I’m going to be able to use the Victor Moscoso font and get away with it. Possible CD design for limited edition of my ‘Solid Psyche’ mix of tracks from Ninja, Big Dada, Counter and Brainfeeder for Japan.

Henry Flint x Strictly Kev limited print #2

[singlepic id=3268 w=480 h=340 float=left]

It’s time to unveil the second print in the series of my collaboration with Henry Flint‘Mad Man’, from the ‘One Man’s Weird Is Another Man’s World’ cover. As with the first print, it is printed to the very high standards of the Fine Art Trade Guild on 300gsm Somerset Photo Satin which is a 100% cotton paper. It measures 64.5cm x 47.1cm, in an edition of 33, all signed by myself and Henry and is available from Scraffer.com as a pre-order, to be shipped on Nov 12th.

The difference with this print (and the cause of a slight price hike) is that each one will come with an individual doodle drawn into the blank speech bubble in the centre by Henry himself, making each print unique. The quality is hard to convey without having them in hand but these really are the most gorgeously printed items I’ve seen in a long while, of course I’m biased but I can’t think of a better way to see these images. Really excited to see all the different things Henry draws for this one :)

New Ninja Tune release pre-orders

Two new Ninja releases with tracks by myself and 2econd Class Citizen. Loka‘s ‘Temporary External’ EP has remixes from us both of tracks from the forthcoming album ‘Passing Place’.

My EP – ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ – is the last in the trilogy before they get compiled into a new form on the album due in January 2012. Both are available to pre-order from the Ninjashop as digital downloads with mine also coming in 12″ form too. Click the covers for previews and direct order links.

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Ninja Tune. | No Comments |

Magma DJ bags

I can’t say enough good things about the bags and DJ equipment that German company Magma makes. DK and I have been using them for a while now and they have the suss to tailor some of their kit to exactly fit the airline baggage size restrictions which mean we can take these onboard when we fly because they fit in overhead lockers. Check out their new catalogue, they pretty much have a bag for every need and they are all customisable with pull out compartments. They also make laptop stands, covers and sleeves, headphone and needle bags and more.