Double Dee & Steinski ‘Now We Come To The Payoff’ Solid Steel interview

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  • DK and I interviewed the dynamic duo in Double Dee's studio after a great sushi meal in what turned out to be the longest interview they'd ever done together. It was the first time we'd met Douglas and he was on top form (as was Steve) throughout the two hour recording.

    After I'd gone through the material he dug out the original re-edit of Led Zeppelin's 'The Crunge' that he'd made for 'Lesson 3' so that we could use it in the piece. Likewise Steve provided adverts, audio flyers for old gigs and the original session material for the unfinished 'Lesson 4' from back in the eighties.

  • Two versions exist, a two hour internet broadcast one and another for the double CDs that has 17 more minutes of material. When Douglas heard the final show he emailed me within 20 minutes to say thanks as he was totally blown away.

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RELEASED: 2003
FORMAT: 2xCD
LABEL: n/a
CAT NO.: n/a
MIXER: Strictly Kev
GUESTS: DK
SPOTTERS DELIGHT: A handful of handmade CDR versions include extra material, radio ads and outtakes
EXTRA ZEN:

Guggenheim / Blueprint images

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    • CREATED: 2000
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • EXTRA ZEN: The Blueprint image features in the ‘Paper City: Urban Utopias’ exhibition in the Architecture Space at the Royal Academy of Arts, 31st July to 27th October, 2009.

    I was asked to supply an image for Blueprint magazine’s ‘Paper Cities’ end page in 2007, the text I supplied tells the story.

    From Blueprint magazine: “‘This image is one third of a triptych made by Strictly Kev, art director of music label Ninja Tune. Kev visited Bilbao in the late Nineties and photographed Gehry’s (then) new Guggenheim Museum with a view to using it as source material later. At the end of 1999 he wanted a design for Amon Tobin’s ‘Supermodified’ album, and decided that these would be the perfect textures to use: mechanical, yet organic and ambiguous. By layering images and then using the transparency filters to ‘burn through’ to the images underneath, he achieved some excellent results and colours. Tobin, however, turned them down.”

    I actually had a fourth set of layers for a spread in US magazine EXP around the same time as the Supermodified album was released which I titled ‘Eating Darkness’. These are some of my favourite unused images so i’m glad they’ve seen the light of day in some form at last.

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The Versus Project Exhibition (Tokyo) 2002

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    • OPENED: 2002
    • LOCATION: Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
    • LABEL: n/a
    • CAT No.: n/a
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • PHOTOGRAPHY: The Versus Project

    The idea here was two pair up two different designers, one European and one Japanese, who would design something which would then be remixed by the other and vice versa. As well as showing the results as huge posters there was an exhibition of selected works by each creator.
    This was held at the Parco gallery in Shibuya, Tokyo, there was a fully illustrated brochure as limited T-shirts from each designer too. I used two variations of the original designs I did for Amon Tobin‘s ‘Verbal’ single for my T-shirts at this event (see gallery above).

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Xen Solid Steel flyers

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    • RELEASED: 2001-2003
    • FORMAT: round / oblong card flyers
    • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
    • DESIGN: Openmind / Martin LeSanto-Smith
    • PHOTOGRAPHY:  Nancy Brown

    Xen Solid Steel flyers 2001 – 2002 (circular)

    They started off round and all included images of ‘the Ninja model’ as it is known – a 30 cm high hand-sculpted model of the Ninja logo made by Richard Johnston, a model maker who has worked for Aardman and the later Star Wars trilogy.

    Xen Solid Steel flyers 2002 – 2003 (rectangular)

    And then they went tall and thin… These make use of Chinese brush motifs by Martin LeSanto-Smith who gave me a bundle of different ones he’d done as a hobby. There were no July and August ones due to them being traditionally dead holiday months.

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Jazz Fudge release adverts / promo cards

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    • DESIGNED: 1997-2000
    • FORMAT: n/a
    • LABEL: JAZZ FUDGE
    • CAT No.: n/a
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • PHOTOGRAPHY: Nancy Brown / unknown

    I really like these ads as they were a little series for a while, always long and thin whether portrait or landscape. A lot were printed in The Wire and a few in Straight No Chaser and Trace. The postcards were inserted into various releases and – like the ads – usually contained info on upcoming releases that was later changed or didn’t happen at all.

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Funkungfusion flyers

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    • RELEASED: Apr 98 – Dec 99
    • FORMAT: oblong / A6 card flyers
    • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
    • CAT No.: n/a
    • DESIGN: Openmind & Oscar Wilson
    • PHOTOGRAPHY: Harriet Fuller
    • SPOTTERS DELIGHT: The first 6 flyers joined up to form images on both sides

    These were a collaboration with Oscar Wilson who did a Ninja inspired illustration on one side across six flyers for another of my beloved ‘collect them all and make a bigger image’ themes (a recurring device no doubt inspired by collecting Star Wars cards as a child that made large Chewbacca pictures when you flipped them over). Look at those line ups!

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Stealth flyers

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    • RELEASED: Oct 1995 – May 1997
    • FORMAT: A6 card flyer
    • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
    • CAT No.: n/a
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • SPOTTERS DELIGHT: Several successive months joined up to form a larger image on one side of the flyers

    This club started as a launch party for the ‘Recipe For Disaster’ album and lasted 18 months. For the first 3 flyers I was into metallics, then into a little 4 card join up of the Ninja logo, then I’d come back from Japan with mini Ultraman figures and did a series of 6 with them (including the first instance of the phrase ‘Yes Mate’)

    And here is the epilogue…..

    And thus it came to pass that on 16th January 1997 the great soul Ninja was crucified at the Blue Note in her manifest form of Stealth.
    She did so to convert her physical death into a metaphor for the rest of the undaground to hear.
    Sacrifice implies ‘to make sacred’. However, a sacrifice does not make anything sacred unless what we are giving up is very dear to our hearts and of utmost personal significance.
    This is why the Book of Stealth must come to a close. Search for the Ninja inside ya, and you will realise that Stealth can never die, for the multidimensional message we came to bring burns as a bright spark in the core of your inna bass-bin; beyond the bullshit, without the ego-bism, within the music… is Life itself. Perhaps you may find left behind a soundscape filled with the triphoptimism of a generation which has learnt there may be more to dance music than two decks and a mixer….

    And besides, all good things must come to a trend, and when they do, it’s time to get back to where you Really Come From. See ya around suckas: End of transMission.

    Remixed by Mr. Sho’nuff, da elfish Kid Chameleon. Uncleared samples from Angel Tech and the Mothership. Thanks and respect to the Blue Note massive. Kallisti: dedicated to the Prettiest One. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Government Stealth Warning: this flyer may seriously damage your conformity. Ninja Tune: Food for the Sole.

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Ninja Tune logos

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    • DESIGNED: 1994 / 2000 / 2008 / 2010
    • FORMAT: n/a
    • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • EXTRA ZEN: www.ninjatune.net

    My first job for Ninja Tune in 1994 was redesigning their logo into what became the classic face of the label. Over the years it has changed, most notably in 2000 when the pose changed and the jumping Ninja finally landed and threw the record it had been brandishing all those years.

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Amon Tobin

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    • DESIGNED: 1996 / 2004 / 2007
    • FORMAT: n/a
    • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • EXTRA ZEN: www.amontobin.com

    Logos for all Amon’s releases up until ‘Foley Room’.

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The Herbaliser

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    • DESIGNED: 1996 / 2002
    • FORMAT: n/a
    • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • EXTRA ZEN: theherbaliser.com

    I’ve worked with The Herbaliser since their first record in 1994 and produced all manner of logos and sleeves for them, some more successful than others. Here are some of my favourites.

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DJ Food

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    • DESIGNED: 2000 / 2007 / 2011
    • FORMAT: n/a
    • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
    • DESIGN: Openmind
    • EXTRA ZEN: www.djfood.org

    I took the Franklin Extra Condensed font and the knife & fork from the original ‘Jazz Brakes’ LP cover designs and forged the two into a more dynamic logo.

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