Records

Buy Music Club Recommends August 2024

Buy Music Club Aug 2024
The August recommends list is out: here’s nine records that have been floating my boat recently, quite a few hip hop bits this month from The Allergies feat. Ohmega Watts, DJ Krash Slaughter feat. Phil Most Chill, Kid Acne and Bsidewinsagain’s cut ups. Markey Funk and Jem Stone bring the downtempo funk beats and Sculpture’s new LP and Earth Leakage Trip’s reissued debut bring the electronic weirdness. The new physical issue of Moonbuilding mag is also with us, containing an exclusive unreleased Polypors album of ambient bliss. For more ambient bliss, not pictured is the Floating World Pictures meets Ocean Moon album – get on that this summer for sure.

My new ROVR radio show featuring some of these was aired yesterday, Friday Aug 2nd and should be available to listen back to now via the ROVR live app APPLE or ANDROID

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Castles In Space records

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Just announced by Castles In Space – Jo Johnson – Let Go Your Fear – a beautiful album of mesmerising minimalist modular in an equally striking sleeve. When paired with the vinyl it just ticks all the boxes for me. I know some people have a problem with coloured/splatter/whatever vinyl but when the disc fits the artwork it creates a unison unlike any other, something we always try to do with the releases I work on for De:tuned, especially as the process is always random for each disc.

Jo was part of 90s band Huggy Bear and has been ploughing the electronic minimalism furrow for the last decade. During the long, 20 minute final track ‘Unfolding and folding’ there are points where the music seems to stumble, different tangents are tried in real time and the flow is temporarily lost. This is something you rarely hear on studio albums, these ‘mistakes’ would be edited out but Jo states that she wanted to ‘drop the perfection’ and left them in. It’s released August 9th and there’s loads of music to discover on her Bandcamp page if you enjoy this.

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Another great example is the recently released Nick Taylor-designed Lone Bison 12″.

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DJ Food and Hannah Brown – Upside Down Records set 13/07/24


The in store mix that Hannah Brown and I did last Saturday at Upside Down Records in Deptford is now up on their new Mixcloud – give them a follow.
Two sets from me, one from Hannah (her first slamming set didn’t record sadly) – all fully trackmarked.
There’s still a crate of my records for sale at the shop, with more joining them soon… Pay them a visit, one stop from London Bridge on the overground.

Foood Records Upside Down
Track list:
Strictly Kev mix 1
David Essex – Rock On
Jack Wilkins – Red Tribe
Santaka – No Rivers Here
Spacetime Continuum – Flurescense
Special Request – That Wisnae A Microdose / Melon Farmer / Epsilon
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia – Obsidian (Organically Decomposed)
John Heckle – The 4th Dimension
Spiral Deluxe – The Cosmos
Caustic Window – Cordialatron
Murcof – Maiz
Akufen – Late Night Munchies
Luke Vibert – Everybody
Radio Slave – Dedication
Lalo Schifrin – Quiet Village
DJ Format & The Simonsound – Holy Thursday

Hannah Brown
Lonnie Liston-Smith – Expansions
Another Taste – Time Is On Our Side
Nu Genea – Disco Sole
Mildlife – Magnificent Moon
Phantom Handclap Band – Judge Not (Ray Mang remix)
Vivian Vee – Alright
Pleasure Pool – Ask Your Body
The Units – High Pressure Days (Todd Terje remix)
Talking Heads – Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
Brother Resistance – Dancin’ Shoes Rapso
Surprise Chef – Crayfish Caper (Nuyorican Broken mix)

Strictly Kev mix 2
Martina Topley-Bird – Soul Food (Charles Webster’s Bangin’ House Dub)
Dream 2 Science – My Love Turns To Liquid (Beat Foundation Liquid Lustre mix)
Tin Man – Flip
Dream 2 Science – My Love Turns To Liquid (Padappella)
Four Tet – Peace For Earth
Sam Clarence – Sextant Daktari
Unknown – Beam Me Up (Creative Use)
Bon Voyage – Ils Disent Que L’orient Est Rouge
Chicago Housing Committee – Six Million Dollar Acid
Rockers Revenge – Rockin’ On Sunshine
D Train – You’re The One For Me (Dub)
Renegade Soundwave – The Phantom
Marshall Jefferson present Truth – Open Our Eyes
Baby Ford – Fordtrax
Cabaret Voltaire – Easy Life
Mr Lee – I Can’t Forget
S’Express – Mantra System
Frank K (feat. Wiston Office) – Everybody Lets Somebody Love
Sueno Latino – Sueno Latino

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Supersonic 2003 photos

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More photos found on an old disc; from that time I played at the Supersonic festival in Birmingham alongside The Bug, Coil, LCD Soundsystem, Kid Acne, Req, V/Vm and more. Above, a young Kid Acne, below, Edna soundchecking with Req-1 and Remark (I think?). Req live-painting 12″ sleeves outside and Lucy McLauchlan‘s Beat 13 plane installation. Lastly, The Green Man sculpture by Tawney Gray, just outside the main square where the festival was held.

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This year’s Supersonic, now 21 years old, happens at the end of August over 3 days
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Dust & Grooves 2 and Portables books

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After being interviewed for the Dust & Grooves site over a decade ago and interviewing Kieran Hebden for the first book I have been heavily involved in the follow up – Dust & Grooves 2 with creator/photographer Eilon Paz. Accompanying him on many trips around the UK to interview noted collectors like Andy Votel, DJ Format, Alex Paterson, Zoe Baxter, Trevor Jackoson and Tom Ravenscroft was a treat and I also conducted a transatlantic interview with old friend Eric San aka Kid Koala. The full book contains way more and clocks in at 650 pages, to be released this October alongside a reprint of the first D&G volume with a new cover and also available in a 2 in 1 slipcased edition.

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Not only that but Paz also shot a second book in parallel; Portables, a visual history of over 200 portable turntables from around the world – the guy is a machine. Also available this October, you can find out more about all these and sign up to be notified once they are up for pre-order over at the Dust & Grooves site. There’s more in the pipeline to come too so sign up to stay in the loop.
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Upside Down Records in store – Saturday July 13th

Upside Down Records poster web July 13th
This one has been on the cards for a while, an extended Saturday afternoon in store at Upside Down Records alongside my partner in crime Hannah Brown. We’ll both be spinning randomly all afternoon while you browse the racks at South East London’s finest new used record emporium – Upside Down – brainchild of ex-Rat Records manager Philippe Giron as I’m sure you will know if you read this blog regularly.

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New Sculpture album, Max Ax announced

Sculpture – Max Ax (Official Audio) from Sculpture on Vimeo.

Dan and Reuben from Sculpture have announced a new album for release on August 2nd. The 11 track LP appears on 2 x 10″ zoetrope discs (below) and digital via Psyché Tropes and LTR Records.
You can listen to the track ‘Max Ax’ which gives the album its title above and order direct from the labels soon.

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Sculpture passes

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The New Obsolescents’ LP exclusives at Wow and Flutter from this Saturday

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As it says above – Wow and Flutter in Hastings will have the 20 unique LPs for sale that we displayed during our live instore last month. As you can see in the video at the top, each one has a hand-assembled, screenprinted sleeve on a different type of holographic card in a variety of printings (black/white ink and postive/negative image inversions). These were all test ideas for the second print run of the LP and were passed over in favour of the prism effect card we eventually used.

Castles in Space had 20 extra sleeveless copies of the LP left over from the second batch (silver and white swirl vinyl) and so we married them up for this unique final run. Wow and Flutter are the only people selling these anywhere in the world, they will be a highly affordable £25 each and it’s first come, first served plus they’ll let you pick your favourite sleeve from the bunch – a Castle’s in Space completist’s nightmare but there you go.

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Here’s a quick blast of a bit of our instore performance which will possibly wind up on the next album in some form or other. Video by Tim Scullion from W&F – also if you’ve not heard the podcast Tim does with Paul Field under the name We Buy Records then check that out too.

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The New Obsolescents Live at Wow And Flutter 2024-04-07 + Deliaphonic!

A couple of Sundays ago The New Obsolescents played live at the excellent Wow And Flutter record shop in Hastings. Chris Weaver, Robin The Fog and myself, improvised live for several hours in-store as people watched, listened and shopped. As you will see in the video, hanging above their heads were test printed sleeves for the second pressing of our debut LP that had been passed over in favour of the prism version we eventually used. These unique items have been retained by the shop and will be sold (with the vinyl) on a first come, first served basis to those who visit over the next month before the remainder go online to those who can’t make it down to the South coast.

Here’s a little snippet of our performance put together by the shop’s own Tim Scullion as a very early taster for our second album as we will be using some of the recordings made in the shop on the next release. Thanks to everyone who came down, Colin from Castles In Space and especially Tim and Susan from Wow And Flutter for having us. This is their 10th year in business and they are planning nine more in-store events over the year so give them a follow or better yet, a visit!

We also play at the Deliaphonic all-dayer in Coventry on May 2nd at the newly re-christened Delia Derbyshire Building University alongside… well, just look at that line up! Entry is FREE via the sign up here. I will also be playing a solo Quadraphon set with PuttyRubber on the visuals to close the event. By coincidence, Delia and I share the same birthday just a few days later.

Deliaphonic flyer

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Turn On Exhibition


The first (that I’ve ever heard of) exhibition of zoetrope art – TURN ON – ended recently at the Place des Rotondes in Luxembourg and they have made this short film of the event, directed by Raoul Schmitz. Sculpture played at the opening and my 2013 zoetrope of Bonobo‘s ‘Cirrus’ using animations by Cyriak was featured alongside discs by Reuben Sutherland, Drew Tetz, Tess Martin, Iloobia and more.
A note to cultural spaces – the exhibition is now available for hire and can’t wait to go on tour! A presentation kit is being finalised for interested art and cultural centres. Email Marine Deravet at Rotondes if you are interested in hosting the event in your city or town. Photos below by Lynn Theisen (first 3) and Mike Zenari.

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Time Released Sound – A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging book

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I recently took delivery of this incredible book, ‘A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging’ by the label Time Released Sound.

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The label specialises in handmade limited edition packaging for each release, mainly CD but also lathe cut vinyl.

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They’ve made over 100 releases in 10 years which is quite something when you see the work that goes into every one.

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The level of detail is staggering as each release is collaged together from found ephemera and assembled by hand. I’m going to have to post more spreads because 10 images just doesn’t do it justice.

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For fans of music packaging, there’s never been a book as good as this since the Independent Project Records‘ ‘Savage Impressions’ collection.

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Time Released Sound have copies available to buy now, each comes with 2 CDs of music from the label on the inside cover, give them a follow and check out all the wonderful art they make.

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Amon Tobin – Permutation 25th anniversary reissue

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Big legacy reissue just announced – I started working on the artwork for this last summer and I’d say it *might* be even nicer than the original.
Amon Tobin‘s second LP for Ninja Tune – Permutation – gets a 25th anniversary reissue at the end of May.

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We’ve gone to town on it and I can’t wait to get a copy in hand. Yes it will have the spot varnish plus a die cut front cover and reimagined inner sleeves. It’s a Ninja Tune co-release with Turntablelab who have an exclusive purple vinyl version.

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Pre-order is up now for a May 31st release. I’m indebted to Graham Needham of MacStrategy who helped access Freehand Mac files from 1998 so that I could remake the sleeve from the original elements

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Eno Eno Eno

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The second edition of Brian Eno‘s turntable is showing at the Paul Stolper Gallery in London this month. Prices last time were eye-watering and actually went up as the edition sold out giving an incentive for early buyers.

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Eno 1+2 Gary Hustwit Print set

Gary Hustwit‘s Eno film premiered at the Sundance Festival in January to rave reviews, it compiles a different film with each showing from 168 hours of footage. You can buy these limited prints or Sundance Poster, designed by Build, from Hustwit’s site
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And if that wasn’t enough Eno for you, there have been more tracks added to his radio station, The Lighthouse, on Sonos. At the end of 2023 there were 424 but 447 and 448 cropped up today, The Lighthouse is a continuous stream of largely unreleased tracks from Brian’s archive that play randomly 24 hours a day – am investigating…
UPDATE: There are at least 25 new tracks from 2023 and 2022 added as of Feb 2024 bringing the total of tracks up to 449.

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Turn On zoetrope exhibition, Luxembourg

Turn On posterAn exhibition of phenakistoscopes and zoetropes revolving around music and audio has just opened at the Rotundes venue in Luxembourg. I was thrilled to see my design and viewer for Bonobo‘s ‘Cirrus’ on Ninja Tune way back in 2013 using animations by Cyriak from his video for the song.
Turn On is open from Saturday 20.01 to Sunday 11.02 as part of the festival Fabula Rasa.

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All photos and film by Reuben Sutherland/Sculpture who played there on Saturday after their triumphant turn at The Light Surgeons‘ takeover at Iklectik last Thursday. The exhibition is on until February 11th and there’s an exclusive slipmat available as part of it, designed by Etienne Duval.

Opening hours:
Thu + Fri >15:00 – 18:00
Sat + Sun >11:00 – 18:00
Closed from Monday to Wednesday

More info: www.rotondes.lu

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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

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