Fascinating feature on New York Rap from an old issue of Sounds in 1982. Check the feeling towards the Sugarhill Gang and the sense that some feel that the movement was already on the wain.
Music
Go HERE to buy the album and download this and another Julian House-designed poster for free.
In case you missed it a new label has sprung up with three releases in swift succession in the last 5 months. Rotary Tower‘s first offerings are two EPs from the archives of Ron Graham aka Giallos Flame. Ron had various releases out a few years back, most notably of DC Recordings and then promptly disappeared.
Now he’s back with Archivio Giallo Vols 1 & 2 (plus a third is planned apparently for an August release). As you would expect if you knew his work of old they lean heavily towards the soundtrack and library medium, mostly on the horror, blackploitation and action genres. Heavy drums and analogue synths abound with plenty of homages to famous scores along the way.
The third release (actually no.002 here in the green cover) is by Ganzfeld – Temas Spatiale Vol.1 – which is the debut of a duo and leans more towards jazz than anything else but includes electronics and modern classical elements too. There are plenty of sound clips available to check out over on the new site, neatly divided by colour per artist. The label also acts as a licensing hub for the music, being that it’s so well suited to soundtracking other media.
I’ve been listening to The Dandelion Set‘s music for a while now and it slowly worms its way inside your head after repeated listens. It’s very much of that hauntology, library, Brit folk, children’s TV theme ilk but maybe without the horror / witchcraft elements.
The brainchild of Glyn Bush (aka Bigga Bush, Magic Drum Orchestra, Lightning Head) and PK Chown, they sent me a digital compilation of their work distilled into ‘3 Imaginary EPs’ showcasing the Set’s music so far. Although only one EP is available at the moment it looks like these will form the basis of an album later this year.
There’s also a free new EP, ‘Theme From Gameplan’ – their take on an imaginary 1970s spy thriller, complete with harpsichords, contrapuntal moogs, jazzy beats and timeless melodies. The EP then puts this version through the blender to come up with a variety of alternative versions.
Hear/download for free:
They also have a growing archive of Dandy Hour mixes on Mixcloud.
Absolutely love this track from tUnE-yArDs‘ new album (out Monday May 5th) – nuts video too.
Absolutely love this, both sound and vision. The Soundcarriers are a new signing to Ghost Box although they’ve released several albums before, some featuring the songs here but in different forms.
You can order the LP here and marvel at yet another Julian House created video for the track ‘Boiling Point’ above. More info here and more soundclips here too, sounds like they’re moving towards a pure 60’s/70’s West Coast Sunshine Pop mood, reminds me of The Free Design or The Hellers‘ records on Command with a bit more edge. Previous LPs ‘Harmonium’, ‘Celeste’ and ‘The Other World Of…’ are highly recommended. Check ‘This is Normal’ from their last LP, featuring the dulcet tones on none other than Elijah Wood!
I can’t say too much about these because they’re not legit, but they are very good and make for an indepth journey into the back catalogue of the evergreen JAMMs / KLF etc. Collections of remasters and remixes, obscurities and hits mix with reworkings so sensitive to the originals that it’s hard to tell what’s ‘real’ and what’s not.
This is particularly excellent, extending Jimmy Cauty‘s ‘Space’ to over 72 minutes. If you do some research and a bit of digging around you can find out about and hear some of this material but you won’t find it in any shops.
This compilation comes out at the end of April on the Throne of Blood label, a collection of ‘outer reaches of electronic ambiance, Kosmische vibrations, and crystalline acoustics’. If dark instrumental synth workouts and sci-fi ambiance with spooky vocals is your thing then check this out.
Featuring: Juju & Jordash, DAMH, Simian Mobile Disco, Jokers of the Scene, Naum Gabo, Professor Genius, Pittsburgh Track Authority, Auf Togo, Lexx, Steve Moore, RL/VL, and Evan Stalker on 2xLP and digital. Some roughly strung together soundclips are here.
I’m finally allowed to shout about this. A remastered, deluxe box set of The The‘s seminal debut LP, ‘Soul Mining’. A classic to many and one of my all time top 5 albums as well as the source of the track ‘GIANT’ that I covered with Matt Johnson on my LP, ‘The Search Engine’.
I posted a photo of myself with Matt back in January when we met up at Abbey Road studios to re-cut ‘GIANT’ for a double A sided 12″ due out on April 19th for Record Store Day. At the same time he was making the final tweaks to the bonus disc of remixes and B sides that accompanies the original album in this set.
Re-mastered by Matt from the original master tapes and packaged in a lavish 12” box, this vinyl only release includes an authentic reproduction of the 1983 release on 180g vinyl, plus an extra 12” gatefold vinyl of alternative versions and remixes.
The tracklist for the second disc is :
LP 2 – SOUL MINING RECOLLECTED
1. Uncertain Smile (New York 12” version)
2. Perfect (New York 12” version)
3. This Is The Day (12” version)
4. Fruit Of The Heart
5. Perfect (London 12” version)
6. I’ve Been Waitin’ For Tomorrow (All My Life) (12” mix)
For those who like their mp3’s the re-mastered audio has also then been dubbed from the new vinyl test pressings played on Matt’s original 1982 Thorens TD-147 gramophone for a new analogue to digital experience, obtainable via a download code contained within the box set. The set also includes a unique ‘news-poster’ containing extensive notes written by Matt detailing the making of the album including his decision not to include the cassette only tracks that were on the original release.
I’m very honored to have played a tiny part in this release by providing artwork from my archive of adverts from this period for the poster. But I’m even more honored to be part of the ‘GIANT2FACED12 INCH’ for Record Store Day next week, including providing the back cover art for my side of the single. This 12″ has been designed to fit inside the ‘Soul Mining’ box to add to the collection. Of course this won’t be available until April 19th (I haven’t even got a copy myself yet aside from a test pressing) but the box set is available to pre-order now and due on June 30th..
Love this record so much, one of the best of the year so far. Now there’s a video to go with it and you can get it on iTunes too.
Black Channels, a new project featuring The Simonsound with not too much info other than that. Intriguing tumblr here. Soundcloud here. Main site here.
Well this is extremely cool – Jonny Trunk has dipped his toe into the app world and come up with an official EMS VCS3 emulator for the iPad! And it looks fantastic, well it would because it has the interface of a VSC3 (or a bastardised multi-screen version). More info here or you can buy it here.
In Jonny’s own words: “A few years ago I thought the idea of a VCS3 app was a good one. So I got permission to get one made. It’s taken ages. Here it is. It’s awesome, extraordinarily deep too, and with features form the suitcase Synthi too. And hopefully updates will be available with Radiophonic patches etc created by original Radiophonic superstars. Dead exciting.”
Longer tour and review here
Arts London Music Magazine asked me to name 10 influential tracks to kick off their Rewind series. These are specifically songs that took me through my three year BA degree course at Camberwell College of Art in London during the years 1990-93. I wrote a little piece about each including design inspirations as well as a couple of old pieces of college work that I did in response to music-related briefs whilst on the course, unseen for 21 years pieces. To cap it all off I gave them a mix I made for a college reunion in 2012 that features many of the songs plus plenty more and runs for nearly 2 hours. Full track list and info in the link above.
ALM Mix 01: DJ FOOD – Citrus ’12 by Arts_London_Music_Magazine on Mixcloud
Below are some more detailed shots of the ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ piece I made. It takes the Ricki Lee Jones interview that’s heavily sampled on the track and twists it typographically using hot metal and wood block printing on tissue paper (in itself a very difficult thing to achieve without ripping the paper). That was then mounted on clear acetate and meant to be hung away from the wall so that light could pass through it to reflect the cloud-like nature of the piece (student thinking huh?).
There’s a whole host of new Finders Keepers material hitting their shop at the moment including this limited edition cassette mix from Andy Votel.
One of my favourite tracks from the album – a lot of rap videos bore the pants off me but this is great.
Great concept and surprisingly listenable too – I got this via the WFMU twitter, don’t know anything else about it.
UGeorge has a video for his track, ‘Blowing Up’ from the new Soundsci ‘Expo 2014’ sampler 10″ up now.
The EP is released and available now HERE and features other forthcoming joints from the crew as well as an Ollie Teeba solo cut and an exclusive group track unavailable elsewhere.
Check the sampler video I edited for them last month.
In last weeks ‘Found in Sounds’ the PIL riot in New York is covered first hand with a great cover quote and photo of Lydon. Irmin Schmidt is quizzed about working with Bruno Spoerri and witnessing Cage’s ‘4’33″‘ for the first time. There are vintage film listings from London’s Leicester Square cinemas, Garry Bushell declares his love of Adam Ant‘s music (finally) and The Sweet talk about touring with ‘monster dicks’.
Fantastic Mod cover design from a 1979 issue of Sounds. Below, Soft Cell reveal that they’re doing ‘a Northern Soul number’ in their live set, Savage Pencil then and now (check out the Battle of the Eyes exhibition at Orbital Comics at the moment), Tommy Vance on John Lydon, an advert for the Boy store, a Blondie gig has some very cool guests and reviews of Prince live in NYC and at his first gig in the UK at the Lyceum in 1981.
This is the best slice of acid-techno I’ve heard in a long while with beats bordering on the industrial. It’s by New Yorker-in-Berlin, Doug Lee under the alias An-i and is out now on Cititrax on luminous yellow vinyl, some with large newsprint poster. In a lot of ways it reminds me of things like Stakker ‘Humanoid’ but is way more relentless and noisy.
