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

New 45 Live mix tonight on Dublab and more

DJ Food 45 Live Mix 10th 2023 v2 web
My now annual 45 Live mix has come around again, a set made entirely of 7″ records of any persuasion. The crew has been running for nearly a decade now, originated by Boca 45 and Pete Isaac to celebrate the 45 format. As usual I’ve been stockpiling dance singles from the late 80s and early 90s and this year’s offering is heavy with Hip House, a genre that shone brightly for around a year in 1989 having notable releases in both the UK and US with us Brits arguably being the first to get a track out with The Beatmasters featuring the Cookie Crew in 1987.

That doesn’t feature here but there’s plenty of UK action to balance things out including a bit of Skacid (Ska + Acid) and even a bit of Bleep. As usual Greg Belson will be holding things down Stateside as the host of the show (which hits episode 200 next year) and my mix will feature at some point in the middle of the show. You can tune in live at 4am GMT (Aug 5th UK time) as the show goes out 8pm-10pm PST on the west coast tonight. https://www.dublab.com/shows/45-live-radio-show
UPDATE: Here’s the show

PS: No Mixcloud Select upload this week because of this mix, back on it with more 90s tapes next week.

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Of course Aug 5th is a big one as it’s the first iteration of a new book and zine fair, initiated by Velocity Press in the same spirit as the indie label market. I’ll be popping my head in as Four Corners Books have a stall and it will be good to support. Then I’ll be heading straight to Iklectik to set up for the second annual Fog Fest party, hosted by Robin The Fog (shhhhh… it’s his birthday, bring cake). I’ll be taking part in a modified turntable soundclash with Graham Dunning alongside visuals from PuttyRubber and Leon Trimble and from the rehearsals we had the other week it should be a lot of fun (see below). Also on the bill are Robin in his Howlround guise, Steve Davis DJing and live sets from Lauren Sarah Hayes, Nad Spiro and tpwiikatj. Here’s a snippet from our rehearsal the other week

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I almost forgot, today is the return of Bandcamp Friday and the monthly Infinite Illectrik release is out – for ii012 it’s the (re)turn of the Electrostatic Headshell Assembly with a 3 track techno/electro set recorded earlier this year. There’s more to come before the year is out including some new names to the label and possibly even a physical release to round the year out.


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Also – more Food-related collaborations if you want to support digitally today or any other day:
https://djfood.bandcamp.com/
https://celestialmechanic.bandcamp.com/
https://thenewobsolecents-cis.bandcamp.com/album/the-superceded-sounds-of

Tripping The Light Fantastic on the Bureau of Lost Culture

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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.

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Stuart Warren-Hill (Hexstatic / Holotronica) and Neil Rice (Optikinetics)

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Brendan and Emma from Insight Lighting with Geoff Blindt (Mystic Lights) who contributed some photos to the book.

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Neil Rice and I, he really should have a co-author credit, he helped me so much during the research.

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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.

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(left in hat) Chris Thomsett (Innerstrings), (middle) David Fowler (Optifanatics) and (right with beard) Nigel Bailey (The Odd Light Show)

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Mixcloud Select 113: The Monkees’ Head – DJ Food Rescore, 2001-2005

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This post is dedicated to Bob Rafelson, the director of Head, who passed away this week, RIP.
Back in 2001 I was asked to compose a turntable rescore for a film of my choice for a club night in Budapest, Hungary called Cinetrip. At the time I was really starting to explore psychedelia through digging trips in the US and Canada and thought this would an ideal way to soundtrack something weird and wild that would hold the attention without too much dialogue.

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Sometime around the late 80’s I’d taped The Monkees’ freak film flop from TV as it intrigued me when reading the blurb. I was pretty confounded by it, this wasn’t the squeaky clean boy band with the ‘here we come…’ hi-jinx of their Saturday morning TV series. This contained cut up sequences, solarized freak outs, Vietnam war commentary and more fourth wall-breaking than you could shake the dandruff out of your hair to. It made no sense, consisted of an ever-changing series of completely different scenes designed to link songs and concepts together before looping back on itself and returning to the start. There was little plot to follow, just The Monkees as they jumped from genre to genre, location to location, costume change to character evolution.

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Music choice ranged from present day right back to the 60s, a psychedelic flavour of course but elements of library, soundtracks, jazz, electronics, trip hop and spoken word to fill the few talking moments all fitted over an over-evolving selection that was refined each time I played it. After the initial performance I severely reworked the parts for The Big Chill Festival where it had evolved into a three turntable and FX performance that was so complex and stressful to perform that my legs weirdly seized up the minute I’d finished the set! I did another nine performances – mostly in the UK and Ireland but also playing at the Portuguese short film festival to a bemused audience – until it was retired in 2005.

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After this I decided to preserve the set by making a DVD with both the original and my alternate soundtrack selectable via the audio menu, adding in some of the original film dialogue in the edit to mesh the sound and vision together a little more. The disc came wrapped in mirror board card to mimic the original soundtrack LP packaging and included a random flyer from one of the nine different cigarette card-sized ones made for the Dublin performance. These were sold online via the Ninja Tune forum and later on I uploaded the whole thing to the Internet Archive for posterity. This mix has never been put up solo on the web and I’ve never done a track listing for it, preferring for people to have to work it out. Sometimes it’s good to have a mystery to dig into, although a lot of tracks are fairly obvious to anyone with a decent musical knowledge. Also I sampled a few bits later on…

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So here it is, sans the film of course, but that’s out there if you dig a little

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The Exploding Galaxy at the Bureau of Lost Culture

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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 CoatesBureau 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.

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I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee podcast interview


I did an interview with Giles Sibbald for his I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee podcast (now on season 5!). I’ve known Giles for a while through MU magazine where he designs and I do the singles reviews and he put me in touch with drummer, Dave Barbarossa who I’ve been working with recently.
We had a long chat about all sorts including creativity, inspiration and technology if I remember correctly (it was a while back) :) Check his podcast out, he’s had many interesting people on already and not your usual run of the mill guests either.
Full links: https://apple.co/3s8rqqJ     https://spoti.fi/3rgEBGR     https://youtu.be/-yODjgBrvFE

Pirate TV Blooper reel 2021

For the last 6 months I’ve been editing the weekly 2 hr Pirate TV audio visual shows that Coldcut‘s Matt Black has been doing with his wife, Dinaz and assorted guests like Mixmaster Morris on Twitch.

Along the way I’ve been setting aside little moments from the sublime to the ridiculous, all in good spirit, mainly because they made me laugh or were special.

Here’s a compilation of those moments while Pirate TV takes a break for a bit, many of the show highlight edits I’ve been making are available to view on Coldcut’s YouTube channel too.

Mixcloud Select 87: Xmas collection 22/12/2003

MS87 CDr Better late than never, Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all my subscribers for tuning in each week for your vintage slice of archive Solid Steel! Here’s a short but sweet swinging selection from 2003 leaning heavily on the hip jazz end of things and includes my favourite festive song of all time, The Soulful Strings’ version of ‘Little Drummer Boy’.

As I recall, this set takes liberally from an excellent compilation put together by Martin Green called ‘Cool Yule, The Swinging Sounds of Christmas’. Stick it on whilst preparing the dinner and raise a glass to having made it through another year. Have a great one, see you on the other side…

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Track list:
Tony Rodelle Larson – Cool Yule
Herbie Hancock – Deck The Halls
Bill Darnell & The Smith Bros – We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo
Bill Cosby – Merry Xmas Mama
John Rydgren – A Christmas Reflection
Lalo Schrifrin – Joy To The World
Billy Taylor & David frost – Bright Star In The East
Soulful Strings – Little Drummer Boy
Dickie Goodman – Santa & The Satelitte Pt 1&2 (edit)
Phil Spector – Silent Night
Ed ‘Kookie’ Burns – Yulesville

Project OO by Touched Music

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I’m incredibly proud to have been asked to contribute a promo mix of a selection of tracks from the next Touched Music charity compilation, ‘Project OO’. This compilation of 58 ambient and electronic tracks is in aid of a disabled seven year old named Oona with an undiagnosed condition similar to cerebral palsy. In her short life she has had emergency operations and requires specialist physio which costs thousands of pounds a year. Although she can barely walk she has learned to swim and this has been an epiphany.

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Martin Boulton at Touched Music has pulled together 58 electronic artists to form ‘Project OO’, a compilation to raise funds for Oona’s treatments. The quality here is off the scale with some of the most beautiful tracks I’ve heard in ages, many interspersing samples of Oona and friends at play which tugs at the heartstrings even more. The compilation features many familiar names including 808 State, The Future Sound of London, Scanner, Plaid, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Mouse On Mars, John Beltran, Mark Van Hoen, Paul Blackford and many more.

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The release comes as a 5 CD set with slipcase and download. I’ve selected 20 of my favourites for this preview mix which will also be getting a super limited release on CD too. The set is released on Dec 10th at 9pm via the Touched Music Bandcamp. Please give it a listen, the music is beautiful and by buying a set you could help make a difference to Oona’s life.

There will be a free virtual listening party tonight at 7.30pm UK time too
https://www.facebook.com/events/482528636516824

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New 45 Live DJ Food mix

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Does what it says on the tin, all vinyl 45s, a mix of Freestyle, Hip House, Acid & Bleep circa 1989-91 – a very fertile time for the dance music scene with the initial euphoria of acid house giving way to the first generation of bedroom producers with affordable samplers. Debuts Friday night/Saturday morning US/UK time August 20th on the 45 Live show with Greg Belson via Dublab.

New ‘Above The Clouds’ guest Mix for Jonny Cuba radio show

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Long time friend and music ally, Jonny Cuba – of Dynamic Syncopation / Soundsci / Other Mirror and more – invited me to make a mix for his new radio show / podcast via the Jason Charles podcast network. Each show is themed with a different guest choosing the theme and providing a 30 minute – this episode’s is ‘Above The Clouds’.

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The Bureau of Lost Culture: The Comix Underground with Tony Bennett

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I had the absolute pleasure to spend an afternoon recently at Soho Radio with Stephen Coates and special guest Tony Bennett, the founder of Knockabout Comics  – underground and alternative publisher since 1975. We chat to Tony about his history in the counter culture, publishing some of the greats of the genre from Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Alan Moore, Hunt Emerson and more including his run-ins with the law, customs officers and trials for obscenity.

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It’s hard to think of another publisher who has done more in the underground comics medium in the UK and Tony was a delight to chat to. He bought along a whole pile of books for Stephen and I including a copy of his very first self-published and very hard to find comic, Trip Strip from the early 70s. Pictured above are just a handful of the comics Knockabout have printed and distributed over the years – for more check their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/knockaboutcomics/

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Big Mouth podcast – 10th April

I was asked back as a guest reviewer on Andrew Harrison and Sian Pattenden‘s excellent Big Mouth podcast this week. If you want to hear me getting tongue-tied and being largely less eloquent then Andrew, Sian and other guest Michael Hann, then hit the link. The film, Nomadland, TV series, Wellington Paranormal and new albums from Raf Rundell and Matthew E. White all get reviewed.

DJ Food ‘Songs of Praise’ mix

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In recent years I’ve become increasingly interested in religious records, specifically rock operas from the late 60’s, early to mid 70’s era. Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar are the most obvious ins to this genre and there are many, many versions of those but they’re the tip of the iceberg once you get into pressings from independent labels run by the church. The astounding thing with this genre – and possibly because of the success of Hair and JCS – is the budgets and records that come out of the woodwork. Box sets with foil printing, 12″x12″ booklets, double albums, full chorus, strings, horn sections, top notch session musicians right down to hand drawn covers and small ensembles recorded in halls with bad sound. Generally though, there was a lot of money about to do this stuff and it shines through in the passion and creativity poured into the songs and performances on these records.

A recent trade with fellow collector, Shane Quentin, (co-contributor to the Wobbly Sounds flexi disc book last year with Jonny Trunk and myself) resulted in me offering an exclusive mix for his long-running The Garden of Earthly Delights radio show. Having chanced upon an incredible religious album recently, full of great tracks, I was looking for a reason to put a load of them together and offered a mix of religious rock and such as I knew he’d get a kick out of it. The results can be heard in my new mix, ‘Songs Of Praise’, tonight on his show between 10pm and midnight – point your browser at http://www.crmk.co.uk/listen. It’ll also be available via Shane’s Mixcloud UPDATE: Full show below, my mix starts at the 33 minute mark.

I love every one of these records and have been playing the mix daily since I made it earlier this month which is unlike me, there’s something both weird and wonderful about them. I had to cut 20 minutes of material to get it in at an hour and already have enough for half of part 2 so this may become an annual, pre-Xmas affair on Shane’s show. A lot of these records are available for very little (one of them I bought for £1) but there’s a lot to plough through in the genre to find the gems.

The Life of Barney Bubbles podcast

IMG_6460 I’ve highlighted The Bureau of Lost Culture podcasts before and in the latest instalment Stephen Coates interviews writer and biographer Paul Gorman about the life of designer Barney Bubbles. Paul wrote the definitive (and only) book about Barney’s work, Reasons To Be Cheerful and recounts his fascinating but ultimately tragic story.

Paul has also recently set up a Barney Bubbles Estate Instagram account where he’s posting examples and rarities from his collection. Even if you’re not familiar with his name, you may well be familiar with his work.
There have recently been a slew of great interviews from The Bureau, focussing on Hawkwind, the history of Goth, Biba, groupies, The UFO club and more. The easiest way to listen to them is via their Soundcloud page

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Ambient mix for the Soundwave podcast

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Joseph Aleo runs a music podcast called Soundwave and recently asked me to contribute a mix – I turned in an hour’s worth of new ambient music that’s been floating my boat recently including an exclusive track from the forthcoming New Obsolescents LP I made with Howlround. The mix also includes Robert Fripp, Jon Brooks, Steve Hauschildt, Celestial Mechanic, Clocolan, Deepchord, LF58, Squarepusher and BUNKR.
Listen here Soundwave : 22

Mixcloud Select 19: Strictly’s Dark Star set Pt.1 – 14/09/1997

20 DAT tapeThis is part 1 of two mixes, The Sphere and The Bomb – both share excerpts of spoken word from Dark Star and John Williams’ ‘The Conversation’ from Close Encounters of the Third Kind joins them. The original name on the box was ‘Strictly’s Dark Star sci-fi sex-up‘ – not sure what that was about. The Bomb follows next week…

I think my obsession with 70s sci-fi started around this time, we’d caned the Dark Star original soundtrack on the Blech cassette mix for Warp and there was so much mileage still left in it. Jack Dangers had, of course, got there first and peppered parts of it throughout the excellent Meat Beat Manifesto album, Satyricon as well as sampling a small flute and and strings loop from somewhere on the track ‘Placebo’.20 DAT box

This is where I first heard the riff from Dudley Moore’s ‘The Millionaire’ from the soundtrack to the film, Bedazzled. Ollie Teeba was a huge fan and identified it from the short skit and then the hunt was on for a decent copy of the LP, rare by any standard in the 90s. I eventually found one a year later in the Cinema branch of the Music & Video Exchange in Notting Hill and paid a lot of money for it (some of it was in vouchers actually). Anyway, it was one of the few records I’ve shelled out big money for but I then sampled it on ‘Nocturne’ on the Kaleidoscope album and it’s proved quite popular over the years.

There’s some distortion on this recording, mainly on the Si Begg and 2 Player tracks which were overloaded on the recording. I’ve tried to smooth this over as best I can with the tools now available, this would have been one of the first shows I recorded at home with a portable DAT player. Before this we would record at KISSFM or at Ahead of our Time studios in Clink Street, the home of Ninja Tune up until 2000.

It looks like I used the end of the tape to record a soundcheck of myself, Kid Koala and Ollie Teeba jamming on 4 decks in Vancouver on tour which was later used in part on my remix of Coldcut‘s ‘More Beats & Pieces’. 1997 was super busy with recording and touring and I was asked by Jon & Matt to remix the track just before I went off on tour. Knowing I’d be sharing stages with other great scratch DJs I bought along copies of the DJ record of parts that had been made to give to remixers and we recorded various soundchecks and also did a session at Kid Koala’s flat at the end of the tour as well.

Track list:
Neil Norman – Dark Star
Kirsty Hawkshaw – Sci-Clone (Raw Dog mix)
Spiritualized – C Phase
George Harrison – No Time Or Space
Si Begg – Sing Circle System
Turn On – Electrocation of Fire Ants
excerpt from Dark Star – Listening Pleasure
Meat Beat Manifesto – Placebo
Beck – Strange Invitation
2 Player & DJ Vadim – White Painted Roads
John Williams – The Conversation (from Close Encounters of the Third Kind)

New 45 Live mix – Aug 6th PST on Dublab

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It’s that time again, my now annual guest mix for the 45 Live radio show hosted by DJ Greg Belson on Dublab premieres on Aug 6th PST which will be early in the morning of Aug 7th in the UK. This mix is a trip through the incredibly fertile years during and after the second summer of love and the fallout from acid house. The fast-moving dance scene is splintering with influences cross-pollinating into indie, hip hop and techno. Early signposts to rave and hardcore can be heard and Mr Fingers‘ evergreen ‘Can You Feel It’ seems like it comes from a different time.

It comes with a touch of sadness too, just as I’d finished the mix and after I’d taken this shot of the records used, I heard the sad news that Denise Johnson had died. A vocalist for A Certain Ratio, New Order and Primal Scream at various points among many more, this was the era where she came to public prominence for perhaps her most well known feature on ‘Don’t Fight It (Feel It)’ from the latter’s ‘Screamadelica‘. I quickly reworked the intro of the mix to include this classic which sits perfectly in the set as it was a staple of the turn of the decade club scene. RIP Denise.

PS Spot the one track from 2020…