Music

Trevor Jackson presents Metal Dance on Strut

Strut release a 2xCD and 2xLP compilation of 80’s electronic oddities and rarities curated by Trevor Jackson. As ever, he doesn’t go straight for the obvious but we get a unique compilation with a lot of less familiar names or lesser known tracks from the bands you have heard of. The CDs boast 25 tracks with the double vinyl showcasing half of these. The album launch party includes a live performance by 23 Skidoo and a DJ set from Trevor at Electrowerks on March 24th. Check out a little sampling of tracks on his Soundcloud and an interview about the compilation below.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcEMyNeKpQg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Posted in Gigs, Music. | No Comments |

Sigue Sigue Sputnik – ‘History Will Prove Us Right’

[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-emKstoheQ0[/youtube]

In a weird bout of synchronicity, King Cannibal posted, “Dear music industry. I bet It’s kinda embarrassing that Sigue Sigue Sputnik guessed it right.” on Twitter, late on Friday night. Being a SSS fan, I replied, asking him to elaborate, “the whole bit about the music not being important. Global branding, advert space on albums. Looking like Gaga”, he said. Mark Emsley from ireallylovemusic chimed in with a timely reminder of their, “history will prove us right”, catchphrase which sometimes adorned their adverts.

I have to admit, he’s got a point, and then tonight, Thrift Shopxl posts an obscure B-side of theirs on Facebook and this: “Check out what Degville says in this Japanese interview from 1986 about the brand and how it’s about the stuff around the music – it’s like a blueprint for today’s label deals:” and the video above. Like everyone else at the time, I thought they were just having a laugh, and they probably were, just playing the pop game and seeing what would happen. But what Degville’s saying, (and he was only towing Tony James‘ line), is eerily prescient and looking at the fashion sense of a lot of K Pop bands you wonder if they were influenced by Sputnik along the way, although this is probably more to do with SSS’s wholesale theft of many Japanese manga elements for their look in the first place.

Posted in Film, Music. | No Comments |

Mixmaster Morris needs your help

It’s arguable whether I would be where I am today without the help of Mixmaster Morris. You can have all the talent in the world but if you don’t have the connections to give you that foot in the door then you can fall through the cracks. Morris gave me that connection back in the early 90’s by putting me in touch with Matt Black, and as a result, Ninja Tune. He came and played at parties I held for free, gave advice, information and mixtapes of new music that I couldn’t afford to buy as a student. I have treasured memories of sessions round his flat in Camberwell, where he still lives today, listening to track after track of new and old electronic music which Morris would seamlessly mix together in his living room as he chatted (and those who know him know he likes to talk). I was a complete novice in a lot of this at the time, still finding my feet after exposure to The Orb, The Shamen, KLF, early Solid Steel shows and Colin’s Dale and Favor on KISS FM. At the end of the mix, Morris would take a cassette from his machine – he’d been recording all along – and give it to me to take home. This was the real underground stuff, the music that didn’t get written about or get near the charts but is now acknowledged as seminal.

He didn’t have to do any of this, he was busy with his own career, but he did and now he needs help as he’s faced with bailiffs and a £2,500 tax bill that needs to be paid now. Please see if you can spare anything if this man’s music and DJ sets have ever blessed you ears, you can send donations via paypal to [email protected]. The world of electronic music would be a worse off place without his relentless championing of new artists, many a time I saw him relentlessly feed information to journalists who would then go and write about said artists and make the rest of the world aware of them. His knowledge of Krautrock, Prog Rock and New Wave electronica was also extensive and he was the first person to rave about Can, Harmonia, Neu, Faust and Gong to me, long before they became fashionable names to drop and the subject of whole magazine articles. Sun Ra was also another name he dropped and Morris was the first person to play me Ken Nordine as he had a Best of Word Jazz CD, and we know where that led… This was all pre-internet when word of mouth was important, people like Aphex Twin, B12, Carl Craig, The Black Dog, Psychik Warriors of Gaia, Pete Namlook and his Fax label, Luke Vibert, As One, Reload/Global Communication… all of them I heard of from Morris before I’d seen their names in print anywhere.

(top: Morris invited me to play at his Nubient night at the Big Chill Bar in 2010, right: with Stevie Chick at the Ninja Tune 20th anniversary book launch.)
Here is side A of the first mixtape he did for me, this blew my 22 year old mind at the time as it opened up a new world of music, I’ll post side B later.

and here’s side B

Posted in Music. | 2 Comments |

Pepe Deluxé ‘Queen of the Wave’ album launch

In addition to the prep for the Pure Evil gallery exhibition I was playing at the Pepe Deluxe album launch party at the London Aquarium on Monday night, mixing water, sea and surf inspired music before and after their ‘Queen of the Wave’ LP play back. Out came everything from Jaws, James Bond and The Deep soundtracks to Led Zep’s ‘The Ocean’ and Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’. The gig was held in the Ship Wreck Room which has a whole wall of glass looking into a giant fish tank populated by all manner of sharks, fish and three huge Easter Island heads. It was fun to play to an audience who didn’t make requests and gently bobbed their heads to even the most obscure surf soundtracks.

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I finally met Jari and Paul too (Pepe Deluxé) and they gave out mini books containing all the album companions they’d been posting on their site a well as nice little lunch boxes for the post-work crowd to chew on.

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Not only is their new album, ‘Queen of the Wave’, (finally) out today but they have a new mix on this week’s Solid Steel too which you can listen to and preview some of the album right now. Buy it here (physical) and here (digital)

There’s also a great grindhouse-esque trailer for the record to give you some sound AND vision – seriously, you need to hear this album, it’s going to be a love it or hate it affair but if you love it you’re going to LOVE it. If you liked ‘Spare Time Machine’ then this is a worthy successor but also even deeper in detail, it takes a fair few listens but will have you humming tunes out of the blue before you know it.
In case you hadn’t already guessed, I love this band and record.

Posted in Event, Music, Records, Solid Steel, Uncategorized. | No Comments |

Japanese ‘Solid Psyche’ mix CD in the Ninjashop

There are limited quantities of the Japanese exclusive mix CD, ‘Solid Psyche’ available in the Ninjashop right now. I did this as a freebie for independent stores alongside the domestic CD version of ‘The Search Engine’ for Japan. The tracks are all taken from Ninja, Big Dada, Counter & Brainfeeder releases and Ninja have a limited amount for sale so don’t hang around.

You might also notice a little digital release called ‘The Good Food Guide’ in the link too. This is a 23 track retrospective compilation spanning the DJ Food canon from 1990-2001, sort of a catch up for people jumping on at the new album.

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music, Ninja Tune. | 1 Comment |

A couple of reviews

Sometimes with a release, gig or event, there are reviews that stand out, where the person has delved a little deeper than the first impression or copied the press release. Here are two, one from someone who knows me (Inkymole – reviewing the planetarium album launch) and one from someone who doesn’t (Kris Needs via Data Transmission – reviewing the album). Also here are some photos by Emma Gutteridge of the foyer outside the planetarium during the launch, photography inside was difficult because of the darkness but I’ve just picked up film footage which I’ll be editing into a short next week.

With courtesy of the Royal Observatory Greenwich

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Music. | 3 Comments |

64 Bar Challenge on Ninja Tune

Out today (with artwork by Remi/Rough) is a tidy compilation of highlights from the Ninja Tune forum instigated 64 Bar Challenge entitled ‘Boundaries’. Started by Kovas a few years ago, the concept was to make a piece of music in any style for 64 bars at a predetermined tempo. Numerous producers, both professional and unreleased, took part across the six different challenges and the quality was remarkably high. I was approached to mix the sixth installment and helped forward the best of the bunch to Ninja for a possible release, and here it is!

Released today digitally, with the option of a vinyl pressing after a certain number is reached coming soon via Ninja’s new Beat Delete arm, it’s 20 tracks of largely instrumental electronica by producers from the US, Canada, Russia, Chile, Australia and all over Europe. Congratulations to all involved and respect to Kovas for pulling the whole thing together, here’s a little preview put together by Tom Central from the Keep Up! crew, followed by a mini DJ Moneyshot megamix of various tracks.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71HuMfCSVhw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

DJ Moneyshot – 64 Bar Challenge blendable by 64barmusic

Posted in Music, Ninja Tune. | No Comments |

Postcard records have arrived!!!

The 2 minute postcard records I’ve made specially for the Pure Evil Gallery opening on Jan 26th have arrived :) They are a thing of great beauty and I couldn’t be happier with them. 30 copies only and they will retail for £8 each at the show with any left over available from me direct via this site.


The fidelity isn’t going to win any awards but it’s better than some recent postcard records I’ve acquired and the track is an exclusive ‘discovery’ version of ‘In Orbit Every Monday’, only available here. If you want to make your own there’s more info on where to get these beauties made, and other sizes and formats too. Contact Kenneth Winkler: www.vinylpostcards.com/ or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Vinylpostcards

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Openmind designs, Records. | 3 Comments |

DJ Food vs The Amorphous Androgynous & 2CC

Just arrived, fresh from the Amorphous Androgynous (aka Future Sound of London) is a, frankly mind-melting, 17 minute remix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’, a track from the album, featuring Natural Self on vocals. This has been in the pipeline for a while and they initially started work on a version of ‘GIANT’ but changed direction and so a three part Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix of the Hoax has been born. To say that they’ve thrown everything into it is an understatement, after a manic version of the original they proceed to tear it apart and reassemble fragments of it in two new versions.

Not only that but 2econd Class Citizen has also created what can only be described as an ambient acoustic version of the same track, completely different but brilliant in its simplicity. As soon as I heard it I realised it was perfect for the planetarium shows next week and it will get its premiere there. As to when these will be available and on what formats, I’ll get back to you on that but we’re looking at sometime in April.

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Ninja Tune. | 8 Comments |

365breaks with free Steinski download

Marcin Cichy from Skalpel and plug audio mastering had been running a project posting a break a day for the whole of 2011, to give loops for free to let producers sample and create with. As we’re on the last day of the year he has a very special treat for everyone – a downloadable track by Steinski, made from some of the breaks on the site.

All loops will be available to download in 2012 so go and check them out and grab your free Steinski track in the process.

Posted in Mixes/Solid Steel, Music. | No Comments |

Pepe Deluxé – Night & Day video

[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfYw9nxQdB8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

I’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks now, completely nuts video to ‘Night & Day’, the first release from Pepe Deluxé‘s new album ‘Queen of the Wave’. The album comes out on Jan 30th via Catskills Records and they will be having a release party at the London aquarium on Jan 23rd with films, an album playback and your truly spinning some sea-themed tunes. The band’s website has a nice 8 page download about the making and history behind the record too.

Posted in Film, Music. | 2 Comments |