Yep, ANOTHER one, Ian Hodgson is churning them out right now, the new offering from the mysterious Blank Workshop is ‘Somewhere a Fox is Getting Married’. Limited to 450 copies, it’s a full length LP housed in a thick double card sleeve and comes with a large poster of the cover art. Released on the 10th May you can pre-order it here and there’s more info here about the tracks.
This entry was originally posted 28th October 2008 on my old Myspace blog, before this site existed.
I have been obsessed with this film since I saw a couple of clips in a documentary called ‘I Drew Roger Rabbit’ back in the late 80’s. It is / was the life’s work of the legendary Richard Williams, who most people will know for his animation on Roger Rabbit. For those that don’t know of it, it’s no big surprise, it’s history is long, complicated and it is still unfinished in the form it’s creator intended. There is an DVD in existence but this is a pale shadow of it’s intended groundbreaking form which Williams has disowned.
A short history of the production: it was begun in the sixties and loosely based on both Aladdin and the Sufi stories of the character Mulla Nasrudin, some of which Williams illustrated in early editions. It was his intention that it would compare to the early Disney greats and feature some of the most jaw dropping animated sequences ever made, all hand drawn, no computer imagery involved. And it does, from the footage I’ve seen, it delivers several scenes of breathtaking brilliance that have to be watched repeatedly just to pick up just how much detail is in them.
Williams worked in advertising primarily and headed one of the leading animation studios in the UK. He was responsible for lots of adverts you would have seen as a child (if you live in the UK) such as Frosties’ Tony The Tiger, the Listerine Dragon or the Pink Panther selling TDK video cassettes. But all the while he was churning out work that paid the rent he was chipping away at his big project. He used actors such as Vincent Price, Anthony Quayle, Sean Connery and Kenneth Williams, constantly revisiting them over the years to re-voice parts as the story changed. By the time Roger Rabbit hit he was an industry legend and finally the larger public also knew his name – it was time to seize the moment and finish his masterpiece. A deal with Warner Brothers meant he worked full time on it for a number of years but financial troubles and missed deadlines bought bankruptcy and the film was taken from him.
Warners finished the film without him, cut it to bits, added and deleted characters and released it as ‘The Princess & The Cobbler’, a thoroughly bastardised version of the original and miles away from Williams’ original vision. The film was later recut again and released as ‘Arabian Knight’ for the US market which ended up wrecking it even further. Even the release of a DVD was so poor it garnered an award for the worst standard edition DVD of 2006. Williams wasn’t involved with any of these versions, having disowned the project when it fell out of his control.
All was not lost though, with the internet, and like anything that promised so much but fell at the last hurdle, (think Brian Wilson’s ‘Smile’ LP) the cult of the Cobbler has grown over the years. Starting in 2004, a fan and industry insider, Garrett Gilchrist, collected all the best sources he could find, including a copy of an original workprint of the almost finished film. He then assembled a ‘Recobbled Cut’ of the film as Williams would have had it and made it available on the web. When I found this I couldn’t believe it even existed, this was too good to be true, a film I never thought I’d see and now someone had gone to the trouble to assemble all the finished parts into a semi-coherent form.
But there was more, a new blog was started last year simply called The Thief by some of the original animators and staff on the project. They post anecdotes, line tests and technical details behind various scenes along with with in-house memorabilia and countless other things privy only to those involved in such a production. This is also one of the reasons I’m writing this blog now, they have recently initiated a poll in an attempt to drum up an official DVD release of the surviving parts of Williams’ version. Finishing the actual film seems out of the question (Williams rarely wishes to discuss it) but there is a wealth of material finished that ranks amongst some of the best animation ever produced. Various restoration projects have been started over the years and here is another attempt to set the wheels in motion to give it some form of dignified release to the public.
This film is a legend in animation circles and it slowly seems to be coming to light via the web (it already has a lengthy Wikipedia entry). I urge you to check out Garrett’s website for more info on a copy and see it, marvel at it’s contents and then tell someone else. Maybe check out the Thief blog for more of the background behind it or add your vote to the poll to have a DVD released by the studio that holds the footage. Whatever you do, try and make time to see it in some way as it is a superhuman feat in a medium that has become dominated by computers – they simply don’t make them like this anymore.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”355″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aidc7gS1-II&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
A new film about the history of Richard Williams‘ ‘The Cobbler & The Thief‘. I’ll have to dig up my old blog on this from my myspace days, if you’ve never seen or heard of this film there is good reason, and the story behind it is as fascinating as the animation, one of the great unfinished masterpieces of art.
via the Crack 2 blog, more here, utterly beautiful!
“These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (like Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković…), conveying powerful visual impact to show the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. In the 1980s, these monuments attracted millions of visitors per year, especially young pioneers for their “patriotic education.” After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings were forever lost.
From 2006 to 2009, Jan Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavia region (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) with the help of a 1975 map of memorials, bringing before our eyes a series of melancholy yet striking images. His photos raise a question: can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On one hand, their physical dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social historical fracturing. And on the other hand, they are still of stunning beauty without any symbolic significances.”
Much more detail on Kempenaers‘ book of these stunning monuments here and you can buy his book of the photographs on Amazon
Hot out of the in-box this morning, here’s a detail of Henry Flint‘s cover image for the forthcoming DJ Food album. I’ll post more as time goes on but this is only a close up of part of it, there will be background added (by Henry) and colour (by myself). On the finished product you’ll see how all the different images he’s done for the releases work together too, although I’m trying to find a way to make that work with the packaging!
[vimeo width=”636″ height=”380″]http://vimeo.com/3302330[/vimeo]
Incredible motion typography with music by Forss
CUSTOMTONE by Fracture & Neptune feat. Martin Fieber from Astrophonica on Vimeo.
Brand new Fracture & Neptune video for ‘Customtone’ video by resident Astrophonica artists Emilski & Nick Duggins.
She 1 – ‘Kev’ illustration, 1997
(240 x 420 mm, marker pen on cardboard).
Doodle on a box full of spray paint.
Lots of my friends seem to be turning 40 this year, this is for them, illustrated by Richard Williams from ‘The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin‘.
I should take some time to fill you in on what’s been going on in Food land this year and some of the reasons why no third EP and album appeared last year. There is one very good reason and it simply translates as 2010 = Ninja Tune XX. As I tried to begin the third and final part of my album/EP trilogy early last year the full enormity of the task of creating the elements that would make up the 20th anniversary for Ninja came into focus.
I’ve already gone into detail about what was involved in creating the look, book and box set for the whole campaign elsewhere but breaking down 2010 went roughly like this:
Jan – Jun – creating the identity for the whole event, designing, researching and laying out the entire ’20 Years of Beats & Pieces’ book. Also beginning consultation as to what the box set would contain and designing the package from scratch.
Jun – Aug – designing the box components alongside many other offshoot releases such as the separate CDs, multiple 12″s, posters, flyers and more. I also curated and put together the exhibition of artwork that opened in London for the book launch before getting a week off for a family holiday.
Sept -Dec – preparing an audio visual best of Ninja / Big Dada DJ set with DK, helping with design elements for the big London show, designing King Cannibal‘s ‘Way of the Ninja’ mix CD and then taking it all on the road. I did every city on the NTXX tour, taking in Europe, the States and Japan and even went to China for a one-off gig near the end of it. The final gig was in Brighton on December 10th and to say that I was burnt out would be pretty accurate. I wouldn’t have missed the opportunity for the world though because what came out of it was my biggest design project ever, the celebration of the label I love and have grown with for over 15 years and a great load of memories to go with it. Trying to find the energy and imagination to create new tracks as the year drew to a close went nowhere, a new DJ Food record could wait another year, Ninja XX couldn’t.
Now it’s time to look forward rather than back though, so, in January, I began work on the final phase of the Food album. At the moment I have no title for the EP but the album is called ‘Stolen Moments’ although that may change. I’ve remixed some of the tracks from the first two EPs for the album and have a few more collaborations but I don’t want to reveal them until they’re properly in the bag. One that’s almost finished is a multi-part track with 2econd Class Citizen called ‘Magpie Music’ that’s currently clocking in at nearly 12 minutes. Stylistically it’s all over the place but features Bollywood, Gamelan, Rock and Turkish influences and more with a ton of spoken word.
Cover artist on the previous EPs, Henry Flint, is completing the final part of the cover art (detail left) and I plan to spend most of May mixing down the final tracks and versions. There should be a 12″ with four or 5 tracks for the final EP and then a CD for the album collecting all the major tracks in a continuous sequence while the digital version will have them all separate. Release is pencilled in for Sept/Oct if I deliver in June and a new DJ Food-centric AV set will be in the works as soon as the album is mastered to go out and tour with. There’s more but I’ll save that for another time.
My good friend David Vallade did this for our very own local record store – Rat Records in Camberwell. Even though they are a used store they’re celebrating too and I’ll be playing up at the Lock Lounge in Camden Saturday night too.
Out today, Black Mill Tapes Volume 2: Do You Synthesize? More info here – Pye Corner Audio
By no means definitive, but seeing as I’m on a Mike Hinge kick at the moment, here is a selection of his book and magazine covers, scavenged from various blogs and galleries around the web.
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This has been going on for a while now over on Warren Ellis’ sprawling Whitechapel forum. The idea is that you get a few scraps of info about what has now become a classic comic or series, and have to imagine you’ve never seen or read the comic before but were given the job of illustrating the front cover of that issue or book.
[singlepic id=2875 w=320 h=437 float=left] [singlepic id=2866 w=343 h=437 float=right]
The Fantastic Four, Spiderman (via Amazing Adult Fantasy), 2000ad, Superman, Zap Comix and more have all come in for a re-imagining over the last year and I’ve rounded up my favourites in the gallery below.
More can be seen here and there’s also a Remake/Remodel series where you’re asked to redesign obscure characters from the past.
Much more to see and read here – just ignore the ultra geek programming / processing tech-speak of this piece and marvel at what it achieved on screen.
King Megatrip, the shadowy ‘5th Beatle’ of the Solid Steel crew and one of our US operatives, has got a new blog – ‘This World Renounced!’. Anyone who knows him or reads his blog will know that he is one of the world’s great collectors, he regularly sources obscure children’s books or vintage toy parts for me from overseas. But it’s come to a head, a man can only consume so much before he has to make room, and the King has reached capacity. His new blog will showcase his attempts to separate the wheat from the chaff and give some of his collection a new home whether via eBay, thrift stores or online offers. Bookmark it now, you never know what might come up.
Out on both 12″ vinyl and digital download via the Cheap Thrills label are 2011 remixes of this classic. Fast forward to the Lone remix which just kills it, a perfect blend of old and new. He manages to retain the soul of the original whilst updating it with modern production touches to make it sound fresh again, the man really does it justice where most remixes like this miss the point.
