Black Dog Publishing, 10a Acton St. London, WC1X 9NG
There’s a buzzer to the left, you get let in when you ring
This little beauty was released today apparently – from Black Dog Publishing. The exhibition opens to the public on Friday too…
I’ve been picking up old Jack Kirby comics over the last year or so just because I like their throwaway-ness. The man was an art juggernaut, churning out pages like nobodies business, often copied, never bettered. What strikes you when you read the scripts from the 70’s is how basic they are and some of the language, in today’s context, verges on double entendre. Some is just plain odd, like this one.
This dropped through the post last week, well, it actually arrived by courier, soaking wet, looking like it had been sitting in a puddle for some time, the cardboard around it literally falling off when I unwrapped it. Good job they wrapped it in bubble wrap, and it’s a heavy bugger too at 12″x12″ size. This is Entr3At – a visual celebration of the first 2 years of Ashley Wood and Kim Fung Wong’s 3A toy making company, makers of the best robot toys in the world by a long chalk. This is my kind of book, studio shots of the badly weathered toys, production designs, work in progress, box layouts and logo art for the individual figures. To think that they made all this in just 2 years is incredible and there’s already much more in the pipeline for a follow up later.
Their latest release is a ‘Heavy’ version of the popular Bramble bot, this time with huge bazooka and tougher build, coming in 4 different colourways. My good friend JP McCarthy managed to score me a Grave Digger variant this week and they sold out on pre-order in hours. Not cheap at $280 a pop but that includes shipping to anywhere in the world (and these bots aren’t small), some of the nicest packaging you’ll ever see and the most detailed paint jobs this side of a film set. These will doubtless not even turn up until around xmas time, if that, as they take a long time to make but a 3A package at the door is always a treat.
3 years back I recorded a robot-themed mix for Solid Steel to coincide with the imminent release of the first Transformers film. I’d been meaning to do this for some time but this gave me the impetus and I crafted a little Transformers intro from various samples or tracks that sampled the robots in disguise. After that it’s mainly material from the 60’s and 70’s with that novelty look at robotics pre-Star Wars, what some would call ‘the golden age’.
I love this stuff, real oddity bin stuff, plenty of madcap psyche, dance craze records, vocoders and even a country ode to an electronic brain. A friend recently asked me to dig it out so here it is again.
Coming in September – Study Series 3 & 4
Sorry to everyone who came down to the festival and wanted to see a proper DJ Food set today, the police made several visits and sadly it was third time unlucky during my set. I managed about 20 minutes before they pulled the plug, they literally turned the sound system off on me. I wanted to do a full set, well, there was only 1 hour left because things overran, but didn’t even get that far. I feel sorry for the organisers as this was their first attempt and hope the rest of the festival goes off over the next 2 days.
Saw this earlier in issue 5 of LSD (London Street-Art Design) magazine and it made me chuckle, next to it is the original image it was copied from. Click for larger verrsions
Here’s something interesting I stumbled across whilst perusing the Kraftwerk Facebook page that’s been set up by fans. A limited edition of the band’s Tour De France 12″ that comes with a built in player like those cheesy birthday cards you can get that play a tune when you open them.
The designer’s name is Woes Van Haaften and there are 5 different sleeve colours to choose from but they don’t come cheap let me warn you! Full info and a little film here
The good man DJ Woody foisted one of these beauties on me at the weekend at the Big Chill, I never knew he was a graphic designer in a previous life. This is the logo for his AV performances ‘Turntables in Technicolour’, a homage to Santa Cruz artist Jim Phillips‘ iconic screaming hand logo and a beautiful job he’s done too, this shirt is quality.
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I finally got my hands on the thing that consumed most of my waking hours for the first 6 months of this year today… the Ninja Tune book I slaved over. I was up at Black Dog Publishing sorting out some things for the forthcoming exhibition and a shipment arrived from Italy, soaking wet, with the card board split down the sides in some cases! Hilariously the delivery man placed them beneath a poster proclaiming “Properly packed parcels please” 
They only had one copy of the hardback edition which comes with the XX box set because all other copies are being routed to the factory where it is being put together but it is a beautiful thing to behold. Also in the pictures you can see some of the exhibits stacked up ready for the opening on the 20th. The paperback version should be in stores by the end or the month, 192 pages, priced £19.95, if you see one, have a flick through and find out what the label has been up to for the last two decades.
…and nobody told me – luckily Kid Koala snapped this on his travels and sent it over.
I’m sure no one turned up asking for Ninja Tune tracks.
Yes! At last I can complete (sort of) my Ghost Box collection with the forthcoming reissue of their first release, now revised and on 10″ vinyl. There will also be a new edition of the CD and a download, all coming on September 10th. No tracklist yet but it’s great to know that GB are going to slowly reissue all their back catalogue on gorgeous vinyl, yeah I’m a sucker like that.
Opening in 2 weeks time will be Ninja’s first bonafide exhibition in the UK to celebrate the publication of the book, ‘Ninja Tune: 20 Years of Beats & Pieces’. Black Dog Publishing have generously offered to host a little showcase of the design and imagery that went into it and, after designing the book, the box set and all the paraphernalia that goes with it, I’m curating the exhibition too. It will feature lots of original artwork, models, posters, sleeves, flyers and promo bits from across the years.
It opens Friday, 20th of August at Black Dog’s gallery space, 10 Acton St. London, WC1X 9NG between 12-5pm weekdays and is only on for a month. There will be a special pop up shop on Saturday 11th September where there will be several special items for sale, hand picked from the Ninja archives as well as the new book.
We’re playing in a dome with 360 degree video, come and check us out, a few Ninja XX compilation exclusives in the set so far…
21.00- 21.15 Warm Up
21.15-22.45 JFB
22.45-23.45 DJ Woody Turntables In Technicolor
23.45-1 .15 am DJ Food & DK
1.15 – 2.45 am Hexstatic present Trailer Trax
2.45 – 4.00 am Sampology’s Super Visual Smackdown
The sold out MOOG T-shirt design I did earlier in the year is now back in stock at Chalk Brighton with a very limited repress of the Charcoal on Black original version. But adding to the range is a new off-white on white variant for the summer months – be quick, these sold out pretty fast first time round. Also check out their ‘SOUL’ shirt too.
