Originals #30 • Peter Elson ‘Mission To Universe’


Anyone of a certain age who was into sci-fi in the 70’s and 80’s will be familiar with Peter Elson‘s work, if not his name. His highly detailed spaceships and futuristic tech were as recognisable as Chris Foss‘s and I used to seek out the tiny ‘PE’ logo that he hid in most of his work time and again as confirmation that an image was by him.

*Special ‘Originals’ guest post – I don’t own this one* My friend David Rees recently bought this original painting from Peter’s sister (Elson passed away many years ago) and was kind enough to share these images with me. It’s fascinating for me to see the close up details of this piece – ‘Mission To Universe’ – that I first saw in one of the Steven Caldwell Terran Trade Authority books way back when. As far as I know there is only one book of Elson’s work collected, ‘Parallel Lines’, long out of print and shared with another artist of the genre, Chris Moore. That’s a real shame and he deserves wider recognition. The painting is shown next to the paperback which it was painted for below.

PE-7PE-6PE-1PE-9PE-4PE-111PE-2PE-12PE-5PE-8

Posted in Art, Originals. | 6 Comments | Tags:

Dondi whole car

Found this online, no idea who took it, possibly Henry Chalfont or Martha Cooper. Always nice to see one of the classic whole cars from a new angle and in situ to see the scale and surroundings. It must have been incredible to see these running in the early 80’s. R.I.P. Dondo White, a true style master who made his mark and still impresses today.

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The return of Steinski

steinski_headingHis online blog has been dormant for a year now, rumours that he had come into some money and taken up morris dancing remain unsubstantiated, but now, the legend that is Steinski speaks:

“Folks –

I’ve emerged from hibernation to post 2 shows on WFMU.org. They’re streaming online, they’re NSFW, and they emphasize my favorite non-instrumental portion of the musical spectrum: the talking part.

Show #1 (3 hrs.) showcases monologue artists ranging from Ruth Draper and Lord Buckley to Ana Deavere Smith and Danny Hoch. The listenable playlist at WFMU.org is here:
If you want, you can download the show (.zip) in easy-to-listen-to tracks here:

The second show’s title is “Walkin’ and Talkin”; all the tracks are spoken word over music (3 hrs.). Speakers range from The Last Poets, Jack Kerouac and Jean Shepherd to William Burroughs, Jean Grae, and Saul Williams. The show ran once a few years ago and got buried because I never added any information about it. A listenable playlist has been coaxed into existence on WFMU.org here:
Download (.zip) here:

Thanks very much,

Steve Stein”

Posted in Mixes/Solid Steel, Radio. | 2 Comments |

Jodorowsky’s Dune documentary now available in the US

I saw this a few weeks back now and haven’t had time to post about it but I thought it was great. Fascinating, eye-opening and unexpectedly funny, Jodorowsky is an engaging, immediately likeable madman. He was present at the screening for a Q&A session afterward too and held the room enthralled. Some of his stories are so crazy they can’t possibly be true but they make for such an engaging sequence of events that you can’t help but go with his vision.

I can’t recommend this documentary enough and look forward to the Blu-ray with 45 minutes of extras when it gets released. It’s out in the US already and the European release isn’t far behind apparently. Word is that there is also a soundtrack release planned, the film was packed full of excellent synthy sci-fi sounds (maybe too many actually, my only negative comment on the film is that the soundtrack switched virtually ever scene it seemed).

See the Facebook page for locations where it’s playing at cinemas near you.

 

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Mahfood does The Beasties again…

Jim Mahfood comes with the goods two years after he did our ‘Caught In The Middle of a 3-Way Mix’ cover.

This is for SM&A Productions‘ forthcoming Visual Companion to Paul’s Boutique, due online on July 25th, the 25th anniversary of the great album.

They also commissioned Derek Langille to do a poster, he of the Sabotage comic fame.
“Yeah, you can’t front on that!”

Posted in Art, Event, Film, Music. | 3 Comments | Tags: , , , ,

More archival work on the Pleasuredome box set

Another look behind the scenes at some work I’ve been doing on the Frankie Goes To Hollywood box set for the 30th anniversary edition of their ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ album. Earlier this year I visited photographer Steve Rumney who took a set of photos backstage at the London launch party of ‘Relax’ at the Camden Palace (now Koko) back in November 1983, one of which ended up on a promo poster, cassette and sheet music.

FGTH backstage AOZTT restoration © Steve Rumney

We looked through boxes of negatives and found very little aside from some prints and one badly damaged negative strip. Nevertheless, on that strip was an image that I recognised from the inside sleeve of the original album and he graciously let me take it away. After having it scanned at a professional lab I took the digital files and proceeded to repair all the dust and scratches it had incurred over the years. See above the 5-step cleaning and cropping process, this will then be used on the inner sleeve of the new version of the album. Quite a bit of work for one small 4 x 5.5cm image.

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Space In This Place at the ArcelorMittal Orbit, London

I’ve managed to land myself a gig at the top of the ArcelorMittal Orbit in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London. I’ll be playing spacey sounds whilst visitors have a great view over the city and various other performers play at different parts of the structure. Visitors can expect views like this (except it will be at sundown). Ben Eshmade of the Arctic Circle is putting on the event, the first ever musical one at the site and it will be limited to 300 people only.

Tickets are £20 which sounds steep but they are usually £15 and you get a whole night of music for an extra fiver. Tickets are also limited because of the nature of the structure and at the moment you can call to book on 0333 800 8099. Other performers will be Transept, Astronauts (acoustic) & ex-Homelife band leader Paddy Steer with DJ sets from Inch-time & Ninja label mates Grasscut.

Posted in DJ Food, Event. | No Comments | Tags: , ,

The Ghost Of A Sabre Tooth Tiger ‘Midnight Sun’ LP


I only just caught on to the new Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl record under the name The Ghost Of A Sabre Tooth Tiger (or GHOASTT for short). It was released a couple of months ago, titled ‘Midnight Sun’ and an article on them in the new MOJO made me curious to seek it out. If you liked the last couple of Pepe Deluxe albums and the way they mix up psychedelia with female vocals, strong pop hooks and all manner of vintage electronics and effects then this is for you.

It pushes so many of my buttons, you can hear west coast harmonies, Pink Floyd, heavy drums, Radiophonics, Tame Impala and of course a sprinkling of Sean’s dad here and there. It gloriously references the 60’s both sonically and visually and pulls it off without sounding clichéd, their videos are good fun too with a definite Kenneth Anger homage going on here in this NSFW one above. You can listen to the whole album here and watch another video too.

Posted in Film, Music. | 1 Comment |

Four Four Fatherhood article

I took part in an article about parenting and DJing, talking about my experience playing at the Big Fish Little Fish party. It’s over on Inverted Audio and it’s actually part 4 of a series with lots of other DJs talking about their take on partying after parenthood. Talking of BFLF, I’ll be taking to the decks for a second time with them this coming autumn in South London, announcement soon…

Posted in DJ Food, Magazines. | No Comments |

Training Days – The Subway Artists Then and Now book

Due out September or mid-October (depending on what you read online), ‘Training Days’ catches up with the characters and writers who populated the scene during the early 80’s when Henry Chalfort, Martha Cooper and James Prigoff were documenting the New York graffiti scene in book and film with ‘Subway Art’ and ‘Style Wars’.

Interviews by Chalfont and Sacha Jenkins find out who did what and how the movement changed their lives when graffiti was catapulted into the international spotlight 30 years ago. The 176 page hardback has B&W and colour images plus interviews with writers like Lady Pink, Kel, Jon One, Skeme, Daze and more. It looks like it will be a perfect addition to Subway and ‘Spraycan Art’, making it a neat trilogy after 30 years.
Seems like you can only pre-order if from A*az*n at the moment unfortunately but it’s a bargain at under £10 so if you have no qualms with dealing with them, go here.

Posted in Art, Books. | 3 Comments | Tags: , , , ,

Z / Bernard Szajner ‘Visions of Dune’

I got sent this the other day and by coincidence (or possible design?) I’m going to see ‘The Making of Jodorowsky’s Dune’ today at the British Library. This record is about to be reissued and shares a fascination with Frank Herbert‘s book, being a concept album based on Dune. The composer is Bernard Szajner – ‘the French Brian Eno‘ as the press release tell us – and it was recorded in 1979 for Pathé Marconi EMI.

The album is full of droning synthscapes and great drums, definitely a lost classic of the genre and, typically, Finder’s Keepers label boss Andy Votel has already been here and come up with a minimix for us to hear. The album will be released on 25th August on InFiné Reissues from Germany and include two new tracks, previously unreleased from the original sessions. More info here and pre-order here.

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Pleasuredome artwork scanning A/B comparisons

I’ve been scanning the original Welcome To The Pleasuredome artwork by Lo Cole this week and, comparing it to the existing scans I was working with, there’s quite a bit of difference. It’s tempting with Photoshop to put images through all sorts of filters and processes to make the image ‘pop’, much like compression and limiting on audio files. After a while you can lose sight of the original but having the original paintings to hand I could check on screen that they were as accurate reproductions as possible. Certain colours didn’t initially scan exactly so I made sure that I corrected them to as near as possible with the colours of origin.


It’s actually hard to tell but the lower left of the moon is a subtlely different shade to the rest. The background is a more yellow/grey tone of blue.

This is a little like remastering from the original master tapes, cleaning up any stray dust or hair particles that have got on to the surface in the process. The blurrier, more saturated images here are the working files I’ve had and the subtler, sharper ones are the new scans that will be seen on the forthcoming box set. If you get the prints from the box, rest assured that the colours on them will be as accurate as possible to the original source (as long as the printer doesn’t mess things up) and if you display them they will nearly pass for originals.


As you can see with this comparison, there’s a bit more of the image on the top and the blues are more grey/yellow.

Posted in Art, Books, Design, Openmind designs. | No Comments |

Soul Food – quizzing Matt Johnson about ‘Soul Mining’

On Monday evening I joined Matt Johnson of The The on stage at Rough Trade East in London for a two hr Q&A about his ‘debut’ album, ‘Soul Mining’. It was a great evening with plenty to talk about and 200 eager fans there to listen and ask questions before queuing half way down the shop floor for autographs.

One fan even had the original art for the ‘Soul Mining’ cassette with him, complete with pasted up overlay. Matt recorded it all via clip on mics and I believe someone was video taping as well. I should be editing the audio sometime next week for a podcast. (Top photos by Nancy Brown and Adam James Seth-Ward, photo below posted on Twitter, thank you , please let me know who you are so I can credit you).

The recently released box set is something to cherish with lots of quirks courtesy of Matt’s designer Cally at Antar. Upon lifting the lid you’re greeted with a huge scan of one of the original master tapes on the underside and a 24″ x 36″ foldout containing images and liner notes. The download card is a large replica of a 1/4 inch reel to reel tape and I was thrilled to have a thank you on the reverse for providing images from my archive to the project.
The bonus disc of remixes and B-sides is probably the jewel in the crown as it arrives in a full colour gatefold plastered with Andy DOG Johnson‘s classic imagery. Finally we come to the original LP which is a faithful recreation with an inner sleeve showing the original labels barely visible printed straight on to the paper. Cally tells me he had to fight hard to present details like this and more as part of the package as Sony wanted it all cleaned up but to me these are the details that make it unique, showing off the artifact. More master tape scans finish the experience on the box bottom and the quality is top notch, it all feels as if a lot of care and attention has been taken to put this together.






The audio really doesn’t need rhapsodising over but the bonus Recollected disc contains alternate 12″ and early versions of Uncertain Smile, Perfect, This Is The Day and I’ve Been Waiting For Tomorrow (all of my life) from the album and period B side Fruit of the Heart. The remaster has been very sympathetic to the original and with a lack of outtakes or demos the quality of the songs never dips or falters. You can order a copy direct here and there are several articles doing the rounds on the web at the moment, one of the best being John Doran‘s piece on the Quietus and check the latest issue of Mojo for 6 pages of Soul Mining.


Also I should point out that the box set is (intentionally) large enough to easily fit the dual 12″ of Matt and mine’s versions of ‘GIANT’ that was released for Record Store Day. This was always intended and nicely completes the set of Andy Dog cover art from that era whilst adding a touch of my own take on his work.

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

New ‘Other Voices’ 7″ series pre order on Ghost Box

The new series of singles by regular Ghost Box artists and some very exciting guests commences later this month. The series is called Other Voices and kicks off with a collaboration between Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas and Jon Brooks of The Advisory Circle. Future contributors so far include, Steve Moore, Ed MacFarlane (Friendly Fires), Listening Center, Pye Corner Audio and The Soundcarriers. Pre-order here…

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Beyond The Black Rainbow soundtrack by Sinoia Caves

I’ve been waiting for this to drop for over a year now, Spencer from Death Waltz hinted at it a long time ago and has since confirmed it here and there online. I saw him a few weeks back and he was saying September and he’s been true to his word as it popped up for pre-order out of the blue yesterday. A synth and organ-heavy score to the ‘lost 80’s movie’ by Black Mountain member Jeremy Schmidt, it has all the slow moving menace of the film and the sleeve is just as beautiful.

There are two versions : one for Europe on clear vinyl with red smoke effect via Death Waltz and one on clear vinyl via Jagjaguwar for N. America who are also doing a bundle with a DVD of the film.

Posted in Music, Records. | 2 Comments |