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As mentioned before on this blog, Pepe Deluxé‘s next album – ‘Queen of the Wave’ – is an incredible journey in both audio and fantasy. Details of exactly how much of a journey it has been (and why the record hasn’t appeared yet) are just beginning to emerge with the release date scheduled for early 2012. There’s digging and then there is journeying underground to find sample sources for your record, Pepe went the latter route for one track, ‘In The Cave’.
The main reason for the delay of the record was the duo’s desire to record on the largest instrument in the world, the Great Stalacpipe Organ in the underground caverns of Luray, Virginia, USA. The organ is situated underground in a 14,000 square meter cave where the stalactites have been tuned to concert pitch by oscillators and are then struck by rubber mallets in a complicated set up connected to the organ by over 5 miles of wiring. I’m not making this up, it was conceived in the mid 50’s by mathematician Leland W. Sprinkle after his son banged his head on a stalactite and it rung with a pleasant sound. When Pepe first discovered its existence in 2005 (via the 365 Days project) they found that it had fallen into disrepair and had to be renovated completely, this ended up taking several years but they got the green light in late 2010.
Paul Malmström from PD wrote an original composition for the the organ – the first ever written and recorded for it – and traveled from his home in New York to record it earlier this year. In front of a crowd on onlookers (it was a public holiday so the cavern was open) he managed to record several takes and complete the final piece in the jigsaw for the record, forthcoming on Catskills in January 2012. A single – ‘The Storm’ – is released on October 10th and many things are afoot on the Pepe website and new Facebook page. 2012 is going to be a mighty fine year for music…
(Paul and his giant organ – insert suitable double entendre in the comments please)
[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvB0glRsolw&feature=share[/youtube]
Whilst doing Pet Sounds post I found this – sold.
Anyone else up for this? See you there
Andy Votel and Doug Shipton’s Finders Keepers label was also affected in the PIAS fire earlier this week, they have responded by putting together a 10 CD series of compilation, curated by various friends like David Holmes, Jarvis Cocker, Gruff Rhys and Demdike Stare.
You can buy individual CDs or downloads or subscribe to the entire series upfront by visiting their website. Please support this excellent label and all its offshoots as they consistently amaze with their releases.
Very strange video to accompany Kid Acne‘s first solo show at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield, now open until Oct 23rd
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Yv_gzrgDk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
So excited to finally be able to see this, I’ve been privy to some of the workings of this for the past year now (my wife works for them) and it opens this week in London at the National Maritime Museum. Part of a major new exhibition, although this will be a permanent installation, content-heavy video mapping based around the moon’s relationship to the sea, this is just a tiny part of it.
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”360″]http://vimeo.com/26328656[/vimeo]
I’m currently enjoying People Like Us’ (aka Vicki Bennett) new album ‘Welcome Abroad’, it’s a frequently hilarious mixture of cut and pastry based around her time stuck abroad due to the recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland. You can listen to the whole album on her Soundcloud page or buy it here. She also has her first solo exhibition, ‘The Doors of Perspection’, opening at the end of July in London at the Vitrine Gallery, previewing new films she has made by extending panning shots from existing films into widescreen format (if i’ve understood the press release correctly).
Also a few months back I received a lovely box set from the Edinburgh Printmakers‘ ‘Prints of Darkness’ exhibition, which includes a gatefold sleeve housing a poster and 12″ picture disc by Vicki entitled ‘This Is Light Music’. This 10 track mini album heavily cross references some of the music on ‘Welcome Abroad’ too and can still be bought here although it is limited to 250 copies.
PS: I actually think this is even more wonderful than ‘Welcome Abroad’, I’ll never be able to hear certain well known classics the same way again.
I was very excited to learn that Remi and Augustine were going to be painting a wall together in London whilst Kofie was in the UK taking part in a couple of exhibitions. Little did I realise that they would be painting a local pub on the high street of the neighborhood where I (and Remi) live. Said pub is the Bishop on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich, South East London and they spent two days in very changeable weather transforming the side of the building much to the surprise of the locals who don’t have anything like this round here. The first three images are by Timid, via Remi’s blog.
Here’s a selection of pictures I took this afternoon and there should be a timelapse film at some point in the future. Kofie is off back to the US tomorrow and Remi has a new mini book out of Selected Paintings as well as an EP of new tracks, available here.
Finally Augustine Kofie will be making it to the UK and showing work in two shows, one in Glasgow, one in London. First off he is part of ‘Rudimentary Perfection’ with work by: SheOne / Duncan Jago / Jaybo Monk / Matt W. Moore / Poesia / Nawer / Derm / Morten Andersen / Mark Lyken. It’s at the Recoat Gallery 323 North Woodside Road, G20 6ND, Glasgow and opens July 1st.
The second is Scream presents West End Rebellion, a group show featuring urban and contemporary artists including;
Faile, Retna, Banksy, Futura, Swoon, KAWS, Giles Walker, Aroe, Antony Micallef, Adam Neate, Os Gemeos, Herakut, Chaz Bojorquez and Shepard Fairey. At the Scream Gallery, 34 Bruton Street, London WIJ 6QX, UK and it also opens July 1st and runs for a month.
More info on both HERE
Looks amazing, more info here
So wish I could go and see this, looks incredible. I was lucky enough to shake the man’s hand one time at Ninja Tune HQ when he was in town with New Flesh.
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”370″]http://vimeo.com/24481589[/vimeo]
[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0GRxu0oIEA&feature=player_embedded#at=22[/youtube]
I went to the opening of Amon Tobin and Tessa Farma‘s exhibition last night, showing original sculptures from the ‘ISAM’ album artwork at the Crypt Gallery in St. Pancras, London. It’s on between the 26th May and the 5th June 2011 and is free, before being taken to Paris (Galery Art Roch) between the 13th and 23rd June. Dates are also being confirmed for Brussels, Berlin, and North America later in the year.
Also very much looking forward to seeing Amon’s live set when it comes to town, it debuts at Mutek next week.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umf0C0WCsr8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
My good friend Riz Maslen aka Neotropic has a new sound piece installed at Kew Gardens in London called ‘The Alpine Path’. It’s on from May 14th to Sept 25th at The Davies Alpine House, more info here
Check the ball section near the end – amazing
[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fjUgopSdw&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Lots of my friends seem to be turning 40 this year, this is for them, illustrated by Richard Williams from ‘The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin‘.
My good friend David Vallade did this for our very own local record store – Rat Records in Camberwell. Even though they are a used store they’re celebrating too and I’ll be playing up at the Lock Lounge in Camden Saturday night too.
In June I’ll be mixing the next installment of the 64 Bar Music challenge, first instigated by members of the Ninja Tune forum. A quick crash course in 64 Bar Music: the concept is simple, a tempo is decided upon for each new challenge and you write a piece of music, in any style, no longer than 64 bars. The poll to decide the bpm for 64:6 (there have been five so far) has just been set at 110 bpm.
Anyone can join in and the best of the entries will be turned into a mix by yours truly, debuting in July. If you fancy a bit of that then hop along to 64BarMusic and check out the details, deadline is June 1st. It’s an excellent way to get your production heard in amongst producers both released and unreleased. People like Dr. Rubberfunk, Proof of Concept, Remdog, Tom Central, dtnl, AGT Rave Cru and DJ Moneyshot have already contributed and there are many excellent unknowns who have taken part in the past.