’88 was great but ’89 is mine

classicI was recently asked to play at a night called Classic Material, run by Chris Read and Nick Armitage. The idea for this is to give each month over to a year from Hip Hop’s past and only play tracks released during it. DJ Format did ’87 (entirely on 45’s!), Andy Smith – ’88 and I was given 1989. ’89 was a special year for me as it was the year I moved away from my home and parents and started studying in London, a city I’ve remained in for more than half my life now.

It was also a year rich in musical delights with the beginnings of gangster rap taking over Hip Hop and the emergence of De La Soul‘s Daisy Age with their incredible ‘3 Feet High & Rising’ album. Actually possibly my top three all-time favourite Hip Hop albums were released in ’89, the aforementioned ‘3 Feet High…’, the Beastie Boys‘Paul’s Boutique’ and the Jungle Brothers‘Done By The Forces of Nature’.

De La shirt webThe Beasties’ album was critically mauled at the time but has undergone a reappraisal since and is now hailed as the classic it is but the Jungle Brothers’ record is still only really feted by Hip Hop heads in the know. It’s their strongest record with as much inventiveness as the De La album if not quite the wackiness of Prince Paul‘s production. In it you can hear the whole blueprint for the Native Tongues movement that was beginning to emerge but also a precursor to Deee-Lite‘s ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ – which would be the anthem of 1990 – Towa Tei was even involved in aspects of the record. On the west coast the Dust Brothers were in their most high profile period with Tone Loc, Young MC and the production of the Beastie’ record. The whole NWA/Ruthless Records camp was basking in the glory of ’88’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and surrounding releases like the D.O.C‘s ‘No One Can Do It Better’ album.

Hip House and the general speeding up of Hip Hop was the order of the day with a lot of UK only remixes of licensed US tracks having this edge to them. Alongside this you had the Stone Roses’ debut album and the whole Maddchester scene as well as the fallout from the acid house excess of the previous year making it’s mark on both the charts and surrounding music genres. S’Express made their best records and Tim Burton‘s first Batman was the film of the summer, complete with soundtrack by Prince.

Whilst all this was going on I was doing my Foundation course in Art and Design in Reigate and used the screen printing facilities to make some custom T-shirts for myself and others featuring De La Soul surrounded by psychedelic lettering I drew. It’s with this design that I want to illustrate the mix I put together for Classic Material, done completely on vinyl – what a pain that was after using Serato for 5 years!

’88 was great but ’89 is mine by DJ Food

Elsewhere J Saul Kane was starting his own journey with the first Depth Charge releases on DC Recordings but that comes to fruition about five years down the line.

Posted in Art, Music, Records. | 2 Comments |

Avatar by Tarkovsky?

Avatar by Tarkofsky
Found this on the web whilst looking for something else, nice idea, no idea where the original picture comes from, presumably an ancient sci-fi novel. Not sure if Avatar would be quite so action packed with this director at the helm.

Posted in Art, Books, Oddities. | No Comments |

West London Graffiti join-ups from the late 80’s

Tuff Times, Non Stop, Hell Raisers – The Pit, Ladbroke Grove, London, ’80s

Funké – CazBee, under the Westway, Ladbroke Grove, London, ’80s

Non Stop Are World Destruction – Kilburn, London, 80s

Enigma 137 – Rebel, under the Westway, Ladbroke Grove, London, ’80s

JUSTICE / MUM, The Pit, Ladbroke Grove, London, ’80s

I’ve been going through stuff, more info on the individual pieces plus a few more on my Flickr (click any picture)

‘The Earth’s Edge’, Trellick Tower, London, UK, ’80s

‘It’s Time 4 War’ – All Star Kings, The Pit, Ladbroke Grove, London, ’80s

Posted in Art, Oddities. | 4 Comments |

R.I.P. Trish Keenan

Very sad news of Trish Keenan from Broadcast’s death this morning. My thoughts go out to her family and friends. Official statement here

[youtube width=”636″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqINetENovg[/youtube]

Posted in Music. | No Comments |

V23 Calendars from years passed

Around this time of year some of us are thinking about getting new calendars to plan our way through the next 12 months. I’ve just sold several OLD calendars, very beautiful ones designed by Vaughn Oliver at V23. Below are some examples of various months I’ve picked out. The V23 calendars were always very obscure, you couldn’t write on them and you could hardly tell which day or month it was on some, but that wasn’t the point.

V23 July 93 1V23 July 93 2V23 May 96

V23 Mar 96V23 Feb 96V23 mar 93Summer 88

V23 posters 1&2V23 Feb 90 web

Music Week magazine quotes and headlines 1983-84

Music Week mags
I recently sold a pile of nearly 40 issues of Music Week from the end of ’83 and throughout ’84. Reading the news and ongoing concerns back then, nearly 30 years ago, seems like another world next to today’s download culture. Cassette piracy was still a concern, compact discs were only just being introduced, MTV and video promos were the hot item with VHS releases a much hyped format.

No eBay –  Adrians‘ weekly listings in the back of the music press was as near as you got. No iPods –  Sony Walkmans and boom boxes were the carrier of choice. No YouTube – only Top of The Pops, Whistle Test or MTV (if you had cable). No Discogs, Wikipedia or search engines to find out about your music – The NME, Melody Maker, Sounds, No.1, Record Mirror or Music Week every Wednesday or Thursday with Smash Hits, The Face, and i-D (surely the first emoticon?) monthly.

Here are some choice headlines from the issues:
‘Chrysalis sends promo video to NY via satellite’
‘Linn set to challenge CD quality claims with vinyl label’
‘Computer games industry woos record retailers’
‘High hopes for CD’
‘CD set for 1/2m sales in 1983’
‘City reports predicts CD will be ‘household item’
‘Japanese tape 8bn songs a year’
‘Weller to support home-tapers on TV’
‘Dealers angry at the £3 12″ single’
‘No moves on Sunday trading ‘in this season”
‘Quo: End of the Road’ (apparently Status Quo played their last ever gig in ’84!!)

Posted in Magazines, Oddities. | 1 Comment |

Popbot 3-pack by Ashley Wood and 3A

Ascended headLook what Santa had in his sack for me this year. The Popbot 3-Pack (Popbot, Badbot and The Ascended plus a Kitty each in different colourways). Popbot is an on-going comic by Ashley Wood and his company 3A make toys from this world and others…

Long sold out from pre-order night and waiting in customs for a month while Parcel Force got their act together, they arrived on Dec 23rd so I decided to save them a couple more days before the big opening.

Pop sidePop topBad fullAscendedAscended legs & kittyBad legs

Posted in Comics, Design, Robots, Toys. | 2 Comments |