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.
The Electric Hoax Pt.15 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version
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.
This guy’s work is phenomenal, that perfect balance of 70’s and 80’s retro, vague sci-fi overtones, interesting lost fonts, saturated colours and a distinctly weathered texture all round. Check out his site, Signalstarr Portals for more.
A designer called Harvezt on Flickr has done some reverse views of classic albums with a ‘what if?’ look at ‘the dark side of the cover’. More are at the link above, I’ve just picked my favourites.
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..
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.
I’ll be breaking out the vinyl for this one! Fumetto is the most important comic festival in Switzerland and I’ll be playing the final party this Saturday.
Some shots from last Friday’s 3-Way Mix set at Sonar in Siena, Italy taken by FotoSintesi lab project. See more shots here.
It’s going to great to be sharing a stage with these artists this coming Friday plus I’ll get to hook up with Kid Koala as a he’s part of the Deltron line up.
On Saturday I’ll be doing a rare vinyl-only set at the closing party of the Fumetto comics festival in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The Electric Hoax Pt.14 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version
Taken from the Galaxial Pharmacutical: The tracklisting for The Amorphous Androgynous‘ ‘The Cartel’ 2xLP Record Store Day vinyl edition has been revealed:
1. The Chaser [Black Light Cinema Remix]
2. 000000 [Cranium Pie’s Baking Research Centre Remix]
3. City Of Regrets [Broadcast Of Variants Remix]
4. Where Does The Evil Go
5. Tunnel Vision [DJ Food Remix]
6. Billionaire
7. Bugged [Virgil Howe Remix]
8. The Watch Man
9. The Killin’ Spree
10. The Costa Rican Cartel
11. Visiting The Visitor [Seafar Remix]
12. Out About [Mikey Rowe Remix]
13. Wasp [Blood Solution] [Youth Remix]
14. Banksters
15. The Bug
16. Regrets [Re-edit]
17. Radio Break [NMESH Re-mix]
18. Wasped [Cranium Pie’s Baking Research Centre Remix]
19. The Wasp
20. Bankster Island
21. The First Billion Is The Hardest
22. Regrets And The Damage Done [Lost In Edit Re-mix]
23. The Rat
24. Opium Smiles
Very pleased to be a part of this release, being a fan of the band for so long,
can’t wait for people to hear the mix, Record Store Day is April 19th.
Love this record so much, one of the best of the year so far. Now there’s a video to go with it and you can get it on iTunes too.
E is for Eighties Edits – the next installment in the Alphabet mix series…
Check out these great photos from our gig with DJ Format at La Sirene in La Rochelle, France last weekend by Max Chill. Even more excellence on his tumblr HERE.
There’s a Kickstarter that just, er… started for a new Tank Girl book. Maybe this is nothing special because Alan Martin has been churning them out with an revolving door of artists for a few years now.
This time though, Jamie Hewlett is back on board, = and no, this is not an April Fool. Firstly for a cover (two actually) but also for his first strip for nearly 20 years. Add to this a line up of Philip Bond, Jim Mahfood, Jonathan Edwards and more and you get what could be the ultimate Xmas present come it’s projected Nov 2014 release date.
This is only if they reach their goal of £57,000 in the next 29 days though. They’re off to a strong start with over £16k pledged already after less than a day but there’s a long way to go. You can check their progress and even pledge yourself HERE – the basic hard back book package is a very reasonable £23 + postage and there are all sorts of other extras and incentives to be had as add-ons too.
A few artists are conspicuous by their absence – Rufus Dayglo for one who helped (ahem) kick start TG back into the public eye all those years back as well as Ashley Wood and Mike McMahon. Check Hewlett’s Kickstarter-only cover below with a huge blue-veiner of a space ship.
*UPDATE* – Funded in 48 hours!
I love these examples of early Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back posters with alternate logos and artwork. Even the finished film poster above has a rare shot of the heroes with Leia in Chewbacca‘s arms and the uneven red ‘crawl’ logo which is quite badly rendered when you look at it.
Below is an even earlier version with Ralph McQuarrie paintings plus an invite to one of the first public screenings.
Below are what look like poster prelims for Empire… with a totally different logo design that I’d never seen before.
Then another, more finished version of the logo with original SW poster art adapted. Love the way Leia is riding side saddle on the version above.
Actually, for all I know, these could be fan art but all the images are sourced from the Star Wars Archives page on Facebook which lends some sort of credibility to them.
Below we get yet another logo with a Luke on Tauntaun image.
Lastly, a preview poster for Empire with a big “BEWARE!” warning across it, this certainly looks real.
Poster for my solo DJ gig at Musicbox in Lisbon, Portugal on April 17th.
This May I’ll be playing in Sheffield at The Harley for the Thirsty Ear 9th birthday party.