Telepathic Fish resurfaces in 2027 with a chill out room at Bloc‘s 20 year reunion party. Get tickets here
Gigs
Warning – spoilers! I don’t generally do gig reviews but I’ve just witnessed one of the most incredible, life-affirming performances I think I’m ever likely to. The Royal Festival Hall are hosting a series of performances of Steve Reich’s work on the cusp of his 90th birthday this week. ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ has been on my bucket list to see for years and I’ve always just missed it or been away. When the Paraorchestra‘s performance was announced I jumped on it and I don’t think I could have experienced a better version.
Situated in the Clore Ballroom, a sunken, black-draped space inside the upper level looking out over the Thames on London’s Southbank, the players are not on stage but scattered around the room with a circular centre delineated by huge pillars. The audience are invited to roam about during the performance and we find ourselves, quite by chance, standing right next to the two marimba (or was it xylophone?) players who start the whole piece off. Immediately I feel a lump in my throat as the first notes project out into the room, the lights are low and there is a slight smoke haze in the air. All the instruments are acoustic, only the four vocalists have amplification, and moving around the room means you can use the space as your own mixing desk, drifting in and out of range of any instrument you please, shifting the balance of the sound. Despite it being a continuous piece there are obvious stages where the focus shifts and a new pattern forms whereby the audience begins to drift as it senses a new section ending, reorientating themselves to a new space for the next part.
The centre of the room becomes the sweet spot, a place where everything can be heard equally and a large gaggle of people cluster together there whilst others weave in and out or around the perimeter. Suddenly there’s a woman in orange throwing angular shapes which seem at odds with the music, she’s joined by more dotted all over the room and my first thought is, ‘oh god, contemporary dance.’ They weave their way around the audience, picking spots to perform, distracting from the players but breaking up the relentless shuffle of the crowd. It’s fine but feels a bit forced, the players deep in concentration as is the audience, some with eyes closed, some pacing, turning, filming or bobbing their heads. There are a few young children with parents, the dancers entice them to join in inside the central space, a couple of kids read books on the floor, unengaged with the spectacle unfolding around them.
Without wanting to spoil the proceedings further for those who haven’t seen it (yet), something happens in the middle of the piece, an obvious transition and suddenly the centre of the room erupts in collective dance, professional and punter alike. It hits you like a truck and the room becomes one, the centre emanating pure joy and the music shifts up a gear as inhibitions are loosened. We’re inside the music now, inhabiting a living, breathing, growing performance in a way that simply can’t be experienced watching a group on a stage. This is true surround sound but instead of a static listening point, we move to the instruments we want to hear foremost. It’s exhilarating being in control like this and the players move too; two players to one piano, one section sees three on one xylophone in unison, an incredible display of dexterity.
Now half the audience are sitting around the centre, swaths of wide beam lighting sweeping the audience and slowly people are drawn back up into circles in the middle, hands up in revelation, adoration, release to the pulse of the performance. It’s a joyous, life-affirming feeling, a collective connection bringing some to tears. At its end the applause is rapturous, lasting several minutes and we don’t want to leave this womb-like space and return to the outside world. I implore anyone to experience this piece in this way if they get the chance, it was simply mind-blowing and I don’t know how it can be topped. Gig of the year.
A whole raft of rarely seen posters from the Lindsay Brown collection coming up for sale at Omega Auctions on the 14th September. Most of these look screen printed using the split fountain technique where one colour will fade to another across the page. Brown was the Social Secretary at Ewell Technical College in Surrey in the 60s and 70s so was in charge of booking bands to appear at the site. Above is the star exhibit from the auction, designed by David Arnott (as are several of the others) and features Nick Drake. Another poster in the collection is from Drake’s last known gig where he left the stage mid-concert and both are expected to fetch a high price.
The month is upon us, three Extended Turntablism gigs with Graham Dunning, Furrowed, Duplokit, PuttyRubber and myself are happening this month in the UK with several more on the continent for Duplokit who arrive next week from New Zealand. Get a taste and buy tickets at the links below… Duplokit’s ‘Warpdrive’ album and mine and Graham’s ‘Extended Turntablism vol.1’ cassettes are nearly ready to go too, available at the shows.
Rose Hill Tavern Ticket link – July 11th
Church House Studios Ticket link – July 17th
FogFest Ticket link – August 1st
More dates are emerging for the Extended Turntablism dates I’ve set up for the summer. We head to Holotronica‘s Church House Studios just outside Bristol on July 17th for their second Synced night of audio visual goodness where we’re joined by PuttyRubber on projection duties. Tickets here.
A couple of weeks later and she joins us (minus Graham) in London for this year’s FogFest alongside Xylitol, Sarah Anglis & Karina Townsend and The Howling at Iklectik in its new home in Peckham.
Tickets on sale soon…
There will be cassettes on sale at both, the new Duplokit album plus a second batch of mine and Graham’s ‘Extended Turntablism vol.1’
A last minute announcement for next Thursday at Coventry Uni, School of Arts and Creative Industries – aka the Delia Derbyshire building. PuttyRubber will be providing visuals for a DJ set of mine after Andy Votel has cranked everything to eleven at the afterparty of Industry Night at the college. Admission is free if you register online
The first of several gigs this summer under the banner of ‘Extended Turntablism’.
Graham Dunning: Mechanical Techno pioneer, building turntable towers that trigger an array of rhythms with each layer. Modular synths, light-reflecting prisms and even ping pong balls come into play.
Furrowed: The Vinyl Tattooist, literally at the cutting edge via homemade record cutters creating loops in real time.
Duplokit: Lathe cutting journeymen on a quest to further the exploration of rhythm, sonic groove theory and the boundaries of turntablism. Their UK debut, all the way from Aotearoa, New Zealand!
…and myself (with my Quadraphon turntable) will be descending on The Rose Hill Tavern in Brighton for a night of experimental turntablism
Ticket link : Extended Turntablismtherosehill.co.uk
We’re working on Bristol and London dates too and if you’re interested in putting on this line up in July or early August then please get in touch.
Three very exciting events are happening next month in London as part of the Open City Documentary Festival. On April 16th the ICA will show a selection of light show-related films curated by Sophia Satchell-Baeza whose book, ‘Sensual Laboratories’ has been on Strange Attractor‘s release list seemingly forever and may at last see the light of day this year. The selection ‘focuses on British and North American work from the 1960s and 1970s, bringing together early films by Barbara Hammer, John Smith, Jud Yalkut, Jerry Abrams, Scott Bartlett, and Mark Boyle and Joan Hills’ and is followed by a Q&A with Jarvis Cocker and John Smith. Tickets here.
The following night is the offical festival party at Rich Mix where I’ll be playing alongside NTS’ Mark Leckey with light shows from Insight Lighting, Turbulent Light and Heavy Flow – I’ve also designed the flyer you see here and it’s a pay what you want fundraiser for Gaza Formula Fund – book tickets here.
On Sunday 19th there will be a workshop with Sophia and light artists Julian Hand and Heena Song on the history and making of light shows. So if you want to get your hands dirty with ink and slides then that’s the place to be. Tickets are only £5 – book here for limited places https://richmix.org.uk/events/making-liquid-light-shows/
Here are some shots and footage from last night’s Laserium show, presented by Funki Porcini at the Limehouse Town Hall in East London. It was a fantatic event, full of interesting people who connected socially between sets and showcased several homemade visual and audiovisual creators working in the field, old and new.
Henry Rolls‘ Lumatron was present as a ‘chandelier’ in the stairwell and was very difficult to capture in full, I’d love to see it up close and in a darker space sometime. Sadly I missed Henry’s talk as it was earlier in the day but urge you to check out his Instagram for a timeline of his machines which he started during lockdown made from Lego. SDNA‘s projection mapping in between sets and during mine captured a whole wall, filling it with William Latham-esque animation to brilliant effect. I also missed Dr Reekie‘s talk about his Exploding Cinema which I’d ove to know more about, another book on the reading list is the history of the movement, published last year.
First gig of the new year and it’s only 3 weeks away! I’ll be doing some sort of AV DJ set at this on the 24th, possibly the O Is For Orange set or variation of. Funki tells me it will be a loose multimedia kind of vibe with workshops, Q&A with artists and performance. Tickets here
As is the custom on this blog, Dec 31st heralds my personal favourites of the year in various categories, leaving it until the last moment to make sure as much gets caught in the net before we flip to 2026. Despite the horrors we experience through the media daily, 2025 was a bit of a vintage year for me personally with new work and family milestones reached despite the hardships all around us. This year has been hugely productive and I’ve released a few things, designed a lot and contributed to several big projects that I’m super proud of. The Autumn was dominated by the Telepathic Fish compilation, something that out-performed our expectations by some way and rumbled into the winter months, making several end of year lists to our delight.
This is not the last word on the Fish…
Music:
Snapped Ankles – Hard Times Furious Dancing LP (the Leaf Label)
clipping. – Dead Channel Sky LP (Sub Pop)
Paten Locke – Dance On My Grave LP (Full Plate)
Hieroglyphic Being – Dance Music 4 Bad People LP (Smalltown Supersound)
Hieroglyphic Being – RE-SELECTED PSYBIENT JAZZ SOUNDSCAPES VOL. 1+2 (Mathematics)
Move 78 – Game Four LP (self-released)
Marshall Jefferson – Yellow Meditation For The Dance Generation (Joakim’s Horizontal Remix Instrumental) (Utter)
Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film LP (Warp/Duophonic)
Telefax Productions – Break This House Down 12″ (Classic Music Company)
Coastal County – II LP (Lomas Productions)
Kif Productions – Still Out LP (Sound Records)
Move 78 – In The Age of Data (self-released)
Group Modular – The Tunnel / Lonely Pylon 7″ (Delights)
Jo Johnson – Alterations vol.1 LP (Silver Threads)
Podcasts:
What Went Wrong?
Some Assembly Required
Tales From A Disappearing City
The Bureau of Lost Culture
What Did You Do Yesterday?
Oh God What Now?
Rule of Three
The Adam Buxton Podcast
We Buy Records
The Fanzine Podcast
Gigs / Events / Exhibitions:
Eno and Anne B @ the British Library, London
Mick Jones’ RRPL @ The Farsight Gallery, London
Visiting Neil Rice’s home with friends for a personal light show display
Linder Sterling @ The Hayward, London
Leigh Bowery @ The Tate Modern, London
Strangely Familiar – Photographer’s Gallery, London
The Dream House, East Dulwich, London
Future Language of the Ikonoklast book launch @ Greyhound Pub, Peckham
My 2hr gig turning into 3 hours @ Cabron Bar, Folkestone
The Epic Story of Graffiti, Birmingham
Telepathic Fish launch party @ Arch555, London
The Jonny Halifax Invocation play Ravi Shankar, Mildmay Club, London
Beautify Junkyards @ Waiting Rooms, London
The closing of the Penge street art gallery, London
Barry Kamen @ Graces Mews, London
Obey/Hirst/Invader – Newport Street Gallery, London
Welcome To The Pleasuredome LP Atmos playback @ L-Acoustic studios, London then pub visit with the Universal team + Holly and Ped!
Furrowed residency @ Rose Hill Tavern, Brighton
Factory Floor and Sculpture @ Simple Things festival, Bristol
The Audiovisual Assembly, @ Bath House, Hackney Wick, London
Packaging / Design:
Got to say, I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by a lot of the design I’ve seen this year, not a lot stood out. The fashion seems to be either surrealist photography in an attempt to ape Hypngosis or terrible painting. Typography on front covers is the exception rather than the rule. I thought maybe I’d just not been paying attention but googling a bunch of ‘best covers of 2025’ lists only reinforced my opinion. It’s all subjective though isn’t it? I didn’t see much if any AI in the lists which is good.
Various Artists – Rave Wars: The Acid Awakens 7″ + Star Wars figure (Rave Wars)
Field Lines Cartographer – Apeiron Anxiety LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – DRB 001 4×5″ records in etched box
Kid Koala – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome reissue LP + flexi disc (Ninja Tune)
Krash Slaughta – B-Boy Mastamind 7″ (Krash Slaughta Records)
Sully – Model Collapse etched 12″ (Fabric Live)
Drumetrics – Drumetronome tablet
ES – Planet Beyond – Selected Cuts Vol.1 LP (Ruiger)
Artists:
Kurt Jackson (above)
Ray Tijssen aka 0010×0010
Odeith
Chris Bigg
Oritoor
Toor Pentel
Books / Magazines / Comics:
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist – Adrian Tomine (Faber)
UltraMega – James Harren (Image)
Bowling With Corpses – Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
Robot Tod – Farel Dal (Floating World Comics)
Absolute Martian Manhunter – Camp/Rodriguez (DC)
OK Okapi – Martin Andersen & Chris Bigg
Future Language of the Ikonoklast (Velocity Press)
The Editor’s Cut – David McDonald (Hibernia Books)
Absolute Batman – Snyder/Dragotta/Martin (DC)
Heatwave – John L. Williams (Monoray)
The Absence – Rian Hughes (Unpublished)
A Humument – Tom Phillips (Thames & Hudson) (A late but important discovery)
Granny Takes A Trip – Paul Gorman (White Rabbit)
Bedetruite – Samplerman (LDC)
The Absence – Budgie (White Rabbit)
Face The Music – Paul Stanley
Stephen Stapleton – The Formless Irregular (Timeless)
The Vaughan Oliver Archive (Unit Editions)
Instant Public Art – Ulrich Blanché (Arthistoricum.net) Read here:
Plunderphonics – Matthew Blackwell (Bloomsbury Academic)
Film / TV:
I just have to admit it, I really don’t watch much film or TV and what I see doesn’t do much for me evidently. I did see the Beautiful Losers documentary from 2008 and like it though.
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed the Cobalt 60 LP release for Ollie Teeba & Jonny Cuba
Played at the closing of When Spaceships Appear record shop
Co-compiled and designed the Telepathic Fish compilation, booklet, Float III mixtape and Mindfood 5 fanzine for Fundamental Frequencies
Released the 20th anniversary cassette Raiding the 20th Century Expanded version on Delic Records
Continued my Electrik Collage radio show until April then paused to rethink
Designed the Dan Curtin ‘The 4 Lights’ album for De:tuned
Released the Locked Loop Group 8″ lathe cut zoetrope with Acid Lathe
Designed The Herbaliser Band’s ‘Rehearsal Session’ album
Contributed heavily to the 40th anniversary boxset for Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’.
Collaborated with Al White on the Terrace ‘Branches’ LP design for De:tuned
Logo design and branding for OTA Recordings
Provided guest mixes for Oonops Drops on Brooklyn Radio and the 45 Live show on Dublab
Appeared on the Cheap Digs podcast with Moz, the Tales From A Disappearing City podcast with Controlled Weirdness, the Skinny E Media show with Mark, the Do!!You!!! Breakfast show with Charlie Bones and The Bureau of Lost Culture podcast.
Supported the Orb on a few dates of their UK tour
Held an exhibition of Openmind artwork at the Cabron Bar in Folkestone, then also Upside Down Records, Deptford
Contributed a track on the Rave Wars: The Acid Awakens 7″
Held a release party for the Telepathic Fish album at Arch555 in Brixton with Mixmaster Morris, Matt Black and KiF Productions
Taken charge of both the Orion and Pluto lighting archives Larry Wooden (RIP) and Micky Thompson (RIP) from respectively
Revived & updated my O Is For Orange video mix and provided a new version to Bleep for their September guest mix
Created two hour-long Float IV and V mixes for the guest spots on Dublab and Ransom Note respectively.
Finally finished and printed my collage comic, the All Colour, High Fidelity, Radio Cartoon, after 5 years
Designed two zoetropes for Disclosure’s ‘Caracal’ 10th anniversary reissue
Attended the Bound Art Book Fair in Manchester as a seller and speaker then DJed at YES in the evening
Played the Simple Things festival with Graham Dunning and Puttyrubber at the IMAX in Bristol at the behest of Steve Davis
Appeared at the first AudioVisual Assembly gig, performing O Is For Orange alongside The Light Surgeons, Bitvert, Pat Grimm and David Leister
Designed The Real Tuesday Weld’s Crow at Christmas 3″CD Xmas card
Designed Nate Krafft’s Crimson Arsenal/Man Machine reissue for Musique Pour La Danse
The Telepathic Fish LP earns Juno Daily’s and Rough Trade Compilation of the Year (with an exclusive blue vinyl edition for the latter) as well as mentions in the end of year polls by Bleep (with an exclusive T-shirt), Phonica, Resident, Brooklyn Vegan, HHV, Moonbuilding and the New York Times.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasuredome receives Reissue of the Year in Classic Pop magazine as well as compliments from the band.
Recorded an album’s worth of extended turntablism material with Furrowed for a future release
Designed the first cassette for my Infinite Illectrik label, Extended Turntablism vol.1 by Graham Dunning and myself. More to come in 2026…
RIP:
David Lynch, Micky Thompson (Pluto Electronics), Bill Ham (light show pioneer), Marianne Faithfull, Mike Ratledge, Rutherford Chang, Rick Buckler, Roberta Flack, Gwen McCrea, Gene Hackman, David Johansen, Mark Pawson (UK counterculture legend), Roy Ayers, Doug Lear, free speech in America and the UK, John Peck aka The Mad Peck, WH Smiths, Robert McGinnis, Alan Yentob, Sylvester ‘Sly Stone’ Stewart, Brian Wilson, Lalo Schifrin, Luis Jardim, Peter Shapiro, Ozzy Osbourne, Terence Stamp, JD Twitch (Optimo), Larry Wooden (Orion Lighting), Drew Struzan, Ace Frehley, Diane Keaton, Bunny Bread aka State of Art (Non Stop Artists), Dave Ball, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, Pam Hogg, Frank Gehry, Martin Parr, Rob Reiner, Ken Downie (The Black Dog), Brigitte Bardot, Martin Jones (UK Hip Hop historian and early champion).
Currently there are several projects lining up for 2026, I could do with some more DJ gigs and I want to find time to revive the Electrik Collage radio show and make it better than the version that was on ROVR radio. There will be more cassettes from Infinite Illectrik too including a long-projected compilation and an album from Duplokit. Thanks to everyone who read this old-fashioned blog over the year, it may finally get an upgrade in 2026, I hope you all had a great Xmas if you celebrated and wish you all a prosperous New Year. See you on the other side.
Looking forward to:
Foetus’ final LP, ‘Halt’
An Openmind exhibition in Krakow?
More Infinite Illectrik cassettes
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s The Sensual Laboratories book, finally?
Cineolascape…?
Andrew Humphreys’ ‘I’d Love To Turn You On’ book
The Rogue Trooper film
The Audiovisual Assembly is coming to Hackney Bath House on 21st November – The Light Surgeons are performing ‘The Consensual Hallucination’ which is one of the most incredible things I’ve seen them do in the 30 years I’ve known them. Bitvert is also performing with liquid visuals from Pat Grimm and I’ll be doing my Boards of Canada-centric ‘O Is For Orange’ audio visual set. Tickets: https://ra.co/events/2276158
I’m part of two amazing bills coming up in November – the Audiovisual Assembly that pits The Light Surgeons with Bitvert & Pat Grimm and myself. The Surgeons will be performing their incredible ‘The Consensual Hallucination’ which was one of the most psychedelic things I’ve ever seen and I’ll be doing a rare performance of my ‘O Is For Orange’ set.
It’s on Nov 21st at The Bath House, Hackney Wick, London and tickets are on sale now with limited early birds cheaper than the full price. https://ra.co/events/2276158
Earlier, on Nov 8th, I’ll be at the Simple Things festival in Bristol with Graham Dunning engaging in modified turntable madness with Puttyrubber on live visuals on the huge IMAX screen. Sculpture are also on the bill with Stunty & jb glazer. Tickets here:
Two weeks before that I’ll be in Manchester for the Bound Art Book Fair at The Whitworth where I’ll be selling things like the Mindfood fanzines (including original copies) and my new collage comic, ‘The All Colour, High Fidelity, Radio Cartoon’ which has been five years in the making.
And the Telepathic Fish album press rolls on, apologies for the info dump but I’m trying to keep track of it all.
Here Matt Black remembers the New Years Day party we co-hosted inside the derelict Roundhouse for Juno Daily by Ben Willmott.
Next there’s a Bandcamp piece I took part in where Andy Thomas neatly encapsulates our story, expanded in the booklet that comes with the LP.
Here’s Mario’s opening set from the Telepathic Fish launch party at BoSi on 31st August.
The Bleep Album of the month campaign is in its third week and here’s an exclusive Q&A I did for them if you scroll down.
I also did an interview with Mark from Skinny E Media about my O Is For Orange video mix, the image isn’t too clear but you get some insights into the intentions behind it and my thoughts of Boards on Canada.
Still to come; a piece for Record Collector and mixes for Dublab and Ransom Note. The repressing of the album is due back at the end of the month I’m told.
Markey Funk is in town, he plays Upside Down this Saturday with Doug Shipton and myself and Spiritland next Wednesday – it will be great to see him after all these years.
The Telepathic Fish party last Sunday was a proper fishing trip down memory lane. Not only for the tunes we played and the old decor we dug up but the people who came from far and wide, some of who we’d not seen in decades. The CDJs and Matt Black‘s AV set up may have been state of the art but the projectors were classic old school with liquid wheels, rotating prisms and op-art FX. The floor was covered with matting, rugs and cushions and our original inflatable ‘amoeba’ was revived, pulsating away in a high corner all night. There were reflective fish hanging from the tunnel walls, David‘s badge-making corner under UV lights that illuminated the flourescent paint of some of our original banners and a jar of free fish sweets to take.
Mario played his first public gig in years, Doug Shipton ably followed with a blend of deep digs into the German end of his collection and I spun multiple decks with a retro set drawing mainly from the early 90s. KiF Productions arrived as doors opened and performed a live soundtrack to their ‘Still Out’ ambient road trip film homage to the KLF and Mixmaster Morris closed with two hours of his usual eclectic brilliance. Below are just some of the highlights – thanks to photographers Mike Sumpter, Nancy Brown, Mario and Larissa Aguera, Chiara Acanfora and Simon Wright for pooling their photos. My short sweep of the room above gives you an example of the every-moving nature of the space.
I’m resurrrecting my Boards of Canada-centric Audio Visual mix this Saturday in Margate at Faith In Strangers – come down and relax as the sun goes down. Tickets here: DICE
It’s with great excitement that I can announce the launch party for the Telepathic Fish album in association with Fundamental Frequencies! It’s on August 31st, at a unique venue in Brixton, the home of some of the original parties and keeping a similar vibe.
Mixmaster Morris will of course be gracing the decks, as will Doug Shipton, and myself and original Openmind DJ partner Mario Aguera will also be doing sets. Special guests will be KiF Productions who will DJing the soundtrack to the film of their ‘Chill Out’ homage, ‘STiLL OUT’.
Matt Black will be back on visuals, digging out some period animations for the event and we’ll be dragging a few choice pieces of original Telepathic Fish decor out of storage to give it the feel of the old parties. You’ll have a chance to pick up the album five days early too along with other assorted merch.
Tickets available here:https://ra.co/events/2218194
It’s been a bit hectic recently, hence not many posts as I’ve been busy framing and preparing artwork for my latest exhibition. After 2 days of transporting, hanging, re-hanging and cleaning up artwork, my Openmind show of work is finally up at Cabron Groove Bar in Folkestone.
The bar will be open 6-10pm for viewings week days and 2-11pm weekends until the 14th June when I will be returning to play a set with support from Brassica and Bobby Dazzler (see posters at the end for full details)
There are nearly 50 pieces in the show from 1995 to the present day and I’m now working on a digital catalogue of pieces for sale (I totally ran out of time to do that for the show opening).
This has been a long time coming, I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a few years now and at last its time has come. I was approached by Doug Shipton of Finders Keepers / Fundamental Frequencies last year about doing a compilation based around the Telepathic Fish parties I co-founded in the early 90s with Chantal Passamonte (later Mira Calix), Mario Aguera and David Vallade. The four of us shared a house in East Dulwich between 1992-1995 when David and I were in our last year at Camberwell College of Art before leaving to make our way out into the world. What started as a house party grew into a series of ambient events called Telepathic Fish under the name Openmind, an alias I still use to this day for my design work.
Doug’s enthusiasm for the project got Mario, David and I back together (Chantal sadly passed away in 2022) to compile an album of tunes we’d all played and loved at the parties as well as digging in our respective archives for photos, artwork and memorabilia from the time. This was a pivotal era for all of us, a formative intersection before we split and went off in our various directions, and the people we met and partied with remain friends to this day. The double album – Telepathic Fish: Trawling the Early 90s Ambient Underground – includes music from the timeframe above by Caustic Window, Global Communication, Spacetime Continuum, No-Man, Tranquility Bass, Nightmares On Wax, Insides and remixes by The Irrestistible Force, The Orb and David Morley.
It comes in a gatefold sleeve with a 20 page booklet that tells the full Telepathic Fish story and features Mixmaster Morris, Coldcut’s Matt Black, Aphex Twin, Orbital, the Leaf Label’s Tony Morley, the Ambient Soho shop, Megatripolis, The Roundhouse and a disused gas tanker in Amsterdam. All lavishly illustrated with loads of unseen photos and art.
Also available exclusively through Fundamental Frequencies will be a limited bundle that includes a 44 page zine, Mindfood #5 (we also made an ambient fanzine back in the day) that features material from the first 4 issues plus additional unseen ephemera plus a 60 minute mystery mixtape – ‘Float III’ – and an enamel badge of the Telepathic Fish logo too if that kind of thing floats your boat. Pre-order is up now for a release date of September 5th and we’re looking at the prospect of re-enacting the old Fish parties with some of the original participants and decor around that time for a launch party.
It seems things are coming full circle at the moment, what with me supporting The Orb the other weekend. Ambient music is where I first cut my teeth in London as a DJ and these parties were greatly influenced by Mixmaster Morris aka The Irrestistible Force. They were the springboard between college and a career in music and design, where I met Coldcut and in turn ended up jumping on board the Ninja Tune ship for the next three decades. Coinciding with the launch announcement today, Mixmaster Morris, Doug Shipton and I are playing tonight at the Tate Modern Corner bar in London, giving you a flavour of what to expect from the compilation.
