The Soundcarriers LP on Ghost Box pre-order


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!

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Is this what KLF is about?

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.

Posted in Design, Music. | 2 Comments |

‘Moon Rock’ comp on Throne of Blood

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.

Posted in Music. | 1 Comment |

Scenes from the Easter weekend

Two views of Lisbon; inside my hotel and out on the street by the MusicBox club where I played on Thursday night.

Sun through the clouds in Switzerland, driving towards France on Friday afternoon.

Sound check in La Rodia, Besancon, France with our new banner featuring every artist sampled on the ‘Paul’s Boutique’ LP.


The not-quite-finished hotel in France the next morning – note the 2 stars – it was actually OK inside. Next, a fantastic view on the road back to Geneva.


Saturday night back in London – Adam & The (original) Antz do ‘Dirk Wears White Sox’ at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Beastie fans get ready for the 3-Way Mix at the Moon Club in Cardiff on Sunday night and we premiere our new picture disc controller records from 12InchSkinz during the set.

Cover art process for the RSD ‘Giant’ 12″

I was pretty excited when Matt Johnson got in touch to ask about the possibility of licensing my version of ‘GIANT’ for a The The vs DJ Food double A side 12″ on Record Store Day. Not only because my version would be paired with his original on vinyl (the only track from the album not to make it to vinyl in last years repress of the original EPs as his vocal didn’t make the deadline when those were pressed) but because he wanted me to design one side of the sleeve too.

The brief was simple, the front was his brother, Andy ‘Dog’ Johnson‘s shouting face image from the cover of the American issue of the ‘Soul Mining’ LP and I was to do my interpretation for the reverse. OK, so a shouting face, fairly obviously Matt’s, to compliment Andy’s vision, how best to go about this? I didn’t want to ape his style as that would be pointless but there had to be some visual connection so I decide to use the same colour palette.

I’d remembered an image of Matt shouting/singing from the Infected video that was featured in the The The songbook as a still, taken straight from the TV by the looks of it and so scanned that as the basis of my version. The head was facing the opposite direction from Andy’s so this was a good start and I took the idea of the arrows he would add to some of his images and redrew the face, now made from a warren of intertwined arrows. This was supposed to represent the confusion in the character but also served to create a dynamic image with movement without copying the blizzard of detail that gives Andy’s art such a visual buzz.

After inking the pencil tracing I scanned it and cleaned up edges to get a clear B&W version before adding a limited colour palette that would mimic the lighting of the original photo. The background I’d decided would be black rather than white to counterbalance the other side and I added some distorted TV feedback I’d taken years before to reference the texture of the original photo. It was looking a little clean for my taste so a layer of grain was added across the face just to give it some ‘glue’ to pull the flat face together with the background and a tiny amount of spin blurring to the black outlines to blend it further.

I then experimented with adding a section of the Robosunburst from the background of the ‘Search Engine’ LP cover to reference that release but, while it added an extra level of dynamism to the image. I felt it was too busy although I did submit a couple of versions to Matt for a second opinion and my feeling was Matt’s too and he went with the simpler image.

I also felt that my colour choice was a bit on the dark side so a re-balancing of the browns for redder tones evened things out and bought it a little closer to Andy’s colourful original.

 

All that remained then was to add the titles and I wanted my clean DJ Food logo to reflect Fiona Skinner‘s original choppy The The logo design. For this I imported the Food one into Illustrator and used the tracing tool too create a rougher outline as it can never trace exactly, especially at small sizes.

This was then further roughed up on the edges in Photoshop and the words ‘featuring Matt Johnson’ and ‘GIANT’ were taken from the back of the ‘Soul Mining’ LP cover. Actually I think I had to cobble the ‘featuring’ together from several different words…

After this I wanted a copy of the arrow Andy had pointing toward the nose of the face to tie our designs together and form an anchor point to align the titles with.

Luckily Matt and the people at Sony loved what I had done and it was all sent off to have barcodes and other text added by Matt’s manager Cally at Antar (a fascinating character with many tales to tell if you ever run into him). The hardest thing then was the wait as this was finished back in January and I wasn’t allowed to announce anything about it until the end of March when all I wanted to do was scream about it from the rooftops. The finished copies arrived a couple of weeks before RSD and that was a day to remember I can tell you.

It’s impossible to convey how much Matt’s music has meant to me since I first heard it in college in the 80’s when a classmate taped ‘Soul Mining’ and ‘Infected’ back to back on a C90 cassette for me, instantly turning me into a fan who hunted down everything else he had recorded. To meet him for the first time, over ten years ago now, was a big enough deal but to then record and be a part of an official The The release is something I never thought would happen in a million years. As another friend of mine named Matt would say, “living the dream”

Dust & Grooves limited edition book – a look inside

The Dust and Grooves Limited Edition Book from Dust & Grooves on Vimeo.

LIMITED EDITION. Signed and numbered edition of 400. Includes:
* Signed and numbered copy. Edition of 400.
* Slipcase cover with blind de-boss and red foil stamping.
* Original 8.5×11 inch print, printed on matt archival photo paper.
* The Dust & Grooves photo mosaic poster.
Hard Cover, 416 pages, matt art paper.
Only available on the Dust & Grooves online store.

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Syd Mead’s Lego Blade Runner Spinner in detail

A recent edition of the Brick Journal (issue 28) has a feature on building the Police Spinner car from Blade Runner. It also has some new photos of the one-off version that Lego built for designer Syd Mead.

You can find physical copies of the magazine in Forbidden Planet sometimes or download it from their site here. The rest of the issue is heavy with insights into the Lego Movie and the various character, vehicle and set builds behind it.

Posted in Design, Lego. | No Comments |

30 Years of Acid mix by Posthuman on Solid Steel

This week’s Solid Steel has a particular Acid taste with two distinct flavours. In the first hour Posthuman give us a very special look through 30 years of music made with the Roland TB303 from 1984-2014 assigning one track a year to give just one particular history of the machine. The choices had to be harsh and lots of obvious tracks were missed but you get a year by year progression ending with Posthuman themselves.

Talking of endings, their seven year-old night, ‘I Love Acid’, will breath its last on April 12th, the day after this mix debuts and this is a fitting way to celebrate the end of an era.
Amongst the line up is a certain Luke Vibert whose track of the same name titled the night in the first place. In a beautiful piece of synchronicity we have Lexis from Music Is My Sanctuary with an hour-long retrospective look at Luke’s career in many of his different guises after 20 years of official releases.

and in another little bit of Acid-related news I found this first review for the Roland TB 303 in a 1982 issue of Sounds this week, even back then with only two years left until production would cease, it received a glowing review.

The The ‘Soul Mining’ deluxe box set + ‘GIANT’ 12″

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..

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Records. | 2 Comments |

Epic Beard Men 7″ on Blunt Force Trauma

Those lovely people at Factory Road (purveyors of Solid Eggs, 45 adaptors, gallery spaces, Inkymole illustration etc) also run an occasional record label called Blunt Force Trauma.

Their latest release is in conjunction with Sage Francis, an artist they’ve enjoyed a long association with, providing artwork for several of his releases over the years. Co-released with his Strange Famous label this one consists of a mini Hip Hop supergroup, the Epic Beard Men aka Sage, B. Dolan and the UK’s very own Buddy Peace.

It’s a double A-sided 45 with an ode to black plastic on the A (“Viva La Vinyl‘) and a stomping funk party rap on the flip (‘You Can’t Win‘). As usual they’ve gone the extra mile on the packaging and artwork on this one and the 7″ comes in a 12″ fold out ‘sleeve’ with tear off double-sided art print and custom Factory Road 45 dink in the center.

You can also listen to it and buy direct from them right now, ahead of its April 14th release date HERE. Also, check Sarah (Inkymole) Coleman illustrating some of the work in these two shorts.

Posted in Art, Design, Packaging, Records. | 1 Comment |