Amazing work all round by Mutate Britain, Hit + Run and Chu with contributions from myself and Doc Vek
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Urb magazine’s website has had a makeover! In the run up to our US dates there’s plenty to see at the site including interviews, mixes, videos and a chapter from the Ninja Tune book.
Keen listeners of DJ Food material will have picked up that the late Dudley Moore’s fantastic score to the 1967 film ‘Bedazzled’ (NOT the recent remake!) is a big favourite. I’ve sampled it a couple of times now (both licensed too) and the record has been long out of print. Several dodgy bootlegs have surfaced over the years, mainly on the Harkit label and Jonny Trunk has long been trying to reissue it with little success as the Moore estate seems zipped up tighter than a nun’s habit.
But even they seem to have cottoned on to the fact that it’s a great score that’s in demand as I stumbled across this last week – a legit reissue, from the Moore estate, remastered from the original tapes, with two alternate versions of the ‘single’ from the album too! Sadly it’s CD only and how far into the stores it’s going to make it is unknown but it’s available from the official Dudley Moore site along with several other releases.
France – Lyon, this Friday – special XX set,
Ninja XX USA – NYC, SF, LA, Ninja XX Japan – Tokyo, Osaka,
Classic Material – starts October 16th at The CAMP (City Arts and Music Project) and is FREE!. My turn is December 18th – ’89 Hip Hop classics and deeper cuts all night, go here for a free Chris Read mix
Party of the Year (so far), no question. Amazing response from everyone involved and an incredible effort to make happen. I can’t quite believe it happened actually, didn’t manage to see even half the acts though so am looking forward to seeing photos and hearing what people thought.
I did see a bit of DJ Kentaro, who was sick as usual, Mark Pritchard dropping ‘Warhead’ was nice, Robin from Hexstatic was ripping it up in arch 2 early on and Koala is always a treat but unfortunately we had to set up during his set so couldn’t really take much notice. I really felt as though everyone I spoke to was so happy to be there, thanks to all who came down and queued in the rain, you made it the success it was. Also thanks to Martin LeSanto-Smith whose photos here show just a tiny glimpse of what went on.
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Thanks to Hit + Run for the T-shirt printing in the chill out arch which was a nice touch and it was a thrill to see mine and doc Vek’s designs being printed live. See them printing the back of my shirt in the video below
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Chu did some great work in the outside bar between arch 1 & 2, probably not seen by most though and hopefully not painted over in a hurry either.
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I had designed an archive gallery which was pasted onto 5×7 feet boards and there were several huge banners and posters around too.
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Out in the tunnel / entrance there were specially made gobos showing Ninja logos and in arch 1 Mutate Britain had constructed a huge Ninja head with lasers and smoke coming from the eyes.
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Wow, what a week, seems I’m just coming down from it now. Full on all-hands-on-deck stuff from everyone involved in all this weeks Ninja events. Wednesday night I hopped on the bus with King Cannibal, Daedelus, Eskmo, Mox and other assorted Ninjas, bound for Brussels. Thursday saw the XX party at the Ancienne Belgique, otherwise known as the AB, easily one of the best venues in Europe both for sound and stage and backstage catering, which is phenomenal.
After a complete breakfast fail where Mox and I waited 30 minutes for a Croque Monsieur (!) I went record shopping with Daedelus, King Cannibal, Jon More and Kid Koala. Found some great flexi discs – a 5″, 7″ and a book with loads inside as pages – a Halloween Library record and a rather overpriced Jazz/Moog album featuring Herbie Hancock and Bernard Purdie I’d been after for a while. Back at the AB for soundcheck, various other Ninjas were arriving, The Bug, Andreya Triana, The Heavy, DK, as well as staff from the office and Big Dada as well. Jon More regaled Brendan Eskmo with the origins of ‘piss poor’ and ‘haven’t got a pot to piss in’ and Alfred Daedelus compared his cat paint phone app with our tour manager Suzi’s – rock n roll! A huge birthday cake was wheeled out for the evening meal, decorated with the XX logo.
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The gig was amazing, the show long sold out, the second club room rammed all night. The merch stall had three copies of the box set that all sold in less than 5 minutes. Kid Koala debuted his Yo Gabba Gabba Koala suit and a Happy Birthday routine, Dorian Concept wowed everyone with his playing, DK and I had a great set and The Bug had everyone running for ear plugs as he cranked up the volume. A great night which we later found out was webcast live much to our delight.
This lovely A2 sized custom poster by Doc Vek, £5 to you, 100 only, remainder will be put on the Ninja shop next week. Also Hit + Run will be screen printing a selection of 5 different Ninja designs on T-shirts for people during the gig. Not sure the price or exact designs yet but possibly this poster will be one of them in some form too. More on-location art comes from Chu who painted the mural on the 333 last month and SheOne who has an exhibition just opened alongside Pride, Prime, Fuel and Partism.
A couple of juicy Ninja XX features are on the magazine racks at the moment. The latest issue of Blueprint contains a six page feature on the artwork and design of the label with quotes from yours truly. Also in the same issue are pictures of the Manchester gallery that Agents of Change painted recently (see gallery above), nice to see them getting some props in an architecture magazine.
You can also now read this article online here
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Clash magazine has a nice little 8 page commemorative foldout too in their October issue where I pick some of my favourite sleeve designs on one page.
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‘Trailer’ for a new album by I, The Phoenix, the CD comes with a 3D booklet and glasses.
Love stuff like this but you’ll need red and blue glasses to view it properly
I, the phoenix // stereoscopic trailer from I, the phoenix on Vimeo.
One of the nicest things about the job I do is meeting other artists and like-minded people, and sometimes you get unexpected surprises because of this. Two recent packages turned up within days of each other and bought a smile to my face. The first was from Nigel Peake and he’d sent a unique screen print of the Ninja Family Tree he’d designed for the XX box set. This had reversed colours – blue on white – and he had hand-coloured my name on the print. Beautiful. He has now made a limited, signed edition available via his site so, if you didn’t get the box set, prefer the reversed colours and want a fold-free version, head on over there.
This week saw not one but two posters from Doc Vek at the door, his design for the DJ Kentaro show earlier in the year (right) and the forthcoming Ninja Tune party in Bristol at Motion (left). This was one of only three made and I’ve already framed it for the studio. I loved it so much that I suggested to Ninja that they have some made for the Ewer St. party in London on Oct 2nd. They will be personalised with the date, location and line up and probably available from the Ninja shop afterwards.
Coldcut host a 2 hour show celebrating the 20th anniversary of the label this Sunday on 6 Music’s 6 Mix show . Special mixes have been compiled by myself, Mr Scruff, Daedelus and Toddla T (doing a Roots Manuva special) showcasing tracks from the new XX compilations and Ninja classics. It starts at 8pm and will be available on the BBC’s Listen Again feature for a week afterwards.
What a week this is turning out to be 
Congratulations to DK who put this together with interviews with Coldcut and Pete Quicke.
You can listen here (iTunes link) or here (non-iTunes link)
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5 day Ninja-related features on the highly esteemed site including an extract from the new book by Stevie Chick, the box set reviewed, Roots Manuva and Coldcut interviews…
Some more (better) images and a great little film shot by Anthony Dickenson and Dan Lowe of the Ninja Tune XX mural Chu painted outside the 333 in Shoreditch the other week. He’s painting something else special at the Ewer Street gig on October 2nd alongside She-1, can’t wait.
The Light Surgeons’ short film about luck, ‘Shimazeltov’, has been shortlisted in the documentary category for the Vimeo awards! The film focuses on the Jewish community and their ideas about luck, it’s insightful, humorous and beautifully shot and framed.
I’m pretty excited about this because not only is it an excellent short but my wife assistant produced it and my kids make a fleeting cameo in it. The Vimeo festival takes place in NYC in October, fingers crossed crossed… You can VOTE for it here and more info about the awards is here and, if you have 10 minutes, please take a look at this beautiful film.
Schlimazeltov! from THE LIGHT SURGEONS on Vimeo.
At last the day is here, two decades old and a teenager no more. Ninja is 20 and we celebrate the date – and also the 200th post here – in style with two double CD sets, four 12″s and a lavish box set which is now sold out on the Ninjashop although stores will have it from today.
The book, ‘Ninja Tune: 20 Years of Beats & Pieces’ has been in the shops a month now, 192 pages and over 1,200 images charting the history of the label from Coldcut’s late 80’s chart hits to today.
This week’s Solid Steel has been given over to celebrating the occasion with an anniversary mix of classics from all the labels by DK and a one hour interview with Coldcut and label manager Peter Quicke about where it all began and where it’s going.
Solid Steel Radio Show 17/9/2010 Part 1 + 2 – DK by Ninja Tune & Big Dada
Solid Steel Radio Show 17/9/2010 Part 3 + 4 – Interview with Coldcut & Peter Quicke by Ninja Tune & Big Dada
After that it’s shows around the world, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, NYC, San Francisco, LA, Tokyo and Osaka, King Cannibal’s ‘The Way Of The Ninja’ mix CD and Zen TV pt.2 on DVD.
Trailer for a 15 minute CGI version of Shaun Tan’s book, ‘The Lost Thing’ – looks gorgeous.
More info at his site
Some more (not very good) pictures of the XX 12″s – out Monday. 1 & 2 only available with a purchase code from the XX box set, 3-6 available for general sale. A mystery seventh 12″ with two remixes of a Ninja classic unavailable anywhere else, will creep into circulation shortly.
and a sneaky reason to own all six 12″s, when put together, the spines spell Ninja Tune XX
