There was an old lady…

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Max in boat 650

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Bought this book for my boys yesterday (I’m a sucker for beautifully designed childrens books) Such a unique way of presenting the old tale and at the end her eyes close after she eats the horse. We also have another version by Jan Pienkowski (who did Meg & Mog and the classic Haunted House pop up book) in which she turns into a ghost on the last page!

This book though is illustrated by Jeremy Holmes and available from Chronicle Books from San Francisco, presumable available online but I got mine from Tales on Moon Lane in Herne Hill who have re-installed part of my Where the Wild Things Are Window display.

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

Ah yeah…

I was in the Ninja office today, sifting through boxes of press archive, found some amazing things, hilarious photos of old and some situations I don’t even remember. Lots of weird and wonderful people have passed through Ninja over the years and there are a lot of memories attached to it for me. I’m currently deep into the design and ongoing picture research for the Ninja Tune book which will be published this summer by Black Dog Publishing.

It’s a gargantuan project and one that we are not taking lightly – don’t expect the usual spread of press shots you’ve all seen before, we’re digging deep for lots of unseen material and it turns up in the most unlikely places. There’s no way it will all make it into the book but I promise to share some of the bits and pieces that don’t make it at a later date via this blog.

Also, these turned up today… :) Better res than Vimeo, I promise.
L&L DVD 650

Posted in Books, Design, DJ Food, Film, Ninja Tune, Solid Steel. | 6 Comments |

Psychedelic Pink

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A current big hit in our household are the Pink Panther cartoons from the 60’s and 70’s with variations on Henry Mancini’s excellent theme to by Walter Greene to accompany them. One of my favourite episodes is this tripped out classic from 1968, the Panther goes into a weird bookshop and strange things start to happen. The background designs by Tom O’Loughlin are sublime and show a rare glimpse of the times in a children’s cartoon. See the gallery above for more shots…

Posted in Design, Film, Oddities. | 1 Comment |

Something In The Water

These two CDs landed on the doormat within a week of each other, both originating from Brighton and both featuring the sea as cover star. The contents aren’t a millions miles away from each other either, beautiful ambience and laid back electronica being the order of the day, a perfect soundtrack to the current weather and late night work sessions.

Lost Idol‘s second album – ‘Brave The Elements’, out soon on Cookshop – is perhaps the most varied of the two, featuring vocals on some tracks, a distinct nod to Boards of Canada here and there and a full tip of the hat to Kraftwerk on the excellent opener ‘Lightwerk’.

Lost Idol / Nest

Nest’s ‘Retold‘ – on the Serein label – is partly made up of the duo’s self-titled EP from 3 years ago but bolstered up into an album by five new tracks. All mine a similar vein to the Eno and Cluster school of ambience. Mostly beatless it takes in drones, piano, strings and odd percussion to create spaces filled with calm and beauty without ever resorting to the tweeness that some ambient music seems to come ingrained with. The new tracks are even stronger than the EP in my opinion, looking forward to more from these guys.

Thanks to James at Cookshop and Rob at Multilink for the CDs.

Posted in Music. | No Comments |

7 Up

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This arrived this morning, most won’t know or care what it is but for those who do and are expecting a similar package it’s the end of months of waiting and speculation.

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Another Ashley Wood/3A toy production, pre-sold with a few prototype shots last Autumn to a rabid fanbase – seven 1/12 scale Bertie droids and their Square companions – all in packaging that won’t have you throwing the box away and not half the price you’d think.

Proper pics of the actual bots soon…

Posted in Design, Robots, Toys. | 1 Comment |

Solid Steel, Soundcloud and the Funky Eno

Solid Soundcloud
More Volts: The Funky Eno by DJ Food

Eno-Roxy

We’ve finally knocked the streaming problems that have plagued the Solid Steel site on the head and embedded file playable from Soundcloud directly into the page.

I’ve also got a mix up in the second hour this week called ‘More Volts: The Funky Eno’ – an hour long trip through the funked-up side of Brian’s output since the 70’s. Expect David Bryne, nonsense verse, Talking Heads, The Grid and a whole lot of slap bass.

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Radio, Solid Steel. | 3 Comments |

Edward Willliams’ Life On Earth soundtrack

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I only got this last week, a shameful admission as I’m usually first in line with my tenner when the Trunk mailout pops in the In Box, and yes I have done the funny drawings Jonny asks for too. Had I bought it when it was released though then it would have instantly made my best of 2009 list – what a soundtrack! A mixture of classical wind and strings sections with occasional gamelan-like percussion and electronics. One track even has snatches of David Attenborough’s narration dubbed into it with full echo, was that in the series?

Best of all it invoked one of my favourite sensations upon first listen, something I only experience on rare occasions and frustratingly fleeting at that. The sense of a door in my childhood that has been locked for decades suddenly being opened again, remembering something entirely forgotten but has been sitting patiently for the right code to active it again.

That code was the rising crescendo of notes that finish the ‘theme’ to Life On Earth, music I haven’t heard for 30 years but that is still etched into my memory. As soon as I heard them I was transported back to being a 9 year old, getting ready for bed on a (Sunday?) evening as the closing credits of the series faded. I didn’t watch it, I was more interested in Star Wars and life in outer space than watching life on this planet, but my parents obviously did and something must have stuck. So, thankyou Jonny Trunk for releasing it (and sending me one of your remaining copies too), it really made my day.

You can read more here and listen and buy the CD here

Posted in Music, Records. | No Comments |

A Shape Of Things Reader – a 70 minute EP mix

Shapes track images A Shape Of Things Reader by DJ Food
I’ve just uploaded last weeks’ Solid Steel mix to Soundcloud – it’s a trip, it’s got a funky beat, and I can… oh, wait, that’s not right, (although it does include an old Beastie Boys track). As with the last ‘reader’ that accompanied the first EP, it showcases the tracks from the new record alongside, influences I was listening to at the time, the odd sample I used in it’s original form and also some of my favourite tracks from the tail end of 2009.

• Tracklistng:
The Simonsound – Tour De Mars (Project Blue Book)
John Murtaugh – Slinky (Unknown)
Anti Pop Consortium – The Solution (Big Dada)
DJ Food & DK – Sentinel (Shadow Guard) (Ninja Tune)
2econd Class Citizen – A World Without (Equinox)
The Slew – Robbing Banks, Doing Time (Ninja Tune)
Dudley Moore Trio – GPO Tower (Decca)
DJ Food – Brother John (Ninja Tune)
Alan Parker – The Free Life (a) (Whr)
The The – Tender Mercy (Lazarus)
DJ Food – Extract From Stolen Moments Too (Ninja Tune)
Beastie Boys – Do It (Grand Royal)
Anti Pop Consortium – Capricorn One (Big Dada)
King Cannibal – A Shining Force (Ninja Tune)
DJ Food – All Covered In Darkness (Mr P Beats/Vocal Remix) (Ninja Tune)
Deckard – Dignity Of Men (Equinox)
DJ Food – Giant (instrumental) (Ninja Tune)
Juice Aleem – Higher Higher (Big Dada)
The Slew – Battle Of Heaven & Hell (Ninja Tune)
DJ Food – Sentinel (Lunar Defence) (Ninja Tune)
Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics – Anglo Ethio Suite (Strut)
DJ Food – All Covered In Darkness (Mr P In 3 Remix) (Ninja Tune)
Imogen Heap – Just For Now (Deep Design Just For Later remix) (Mp3)
Skylab – ? Pt.3 (Eye Q)

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Ninja Tune, Radio, Solid Steel. | 2 Comments |

Rave Wars 7″ with free figure

AT-AT DriverTie Fighter PilotDarth

A mysterious package turned up yesterday, inside were three 7″‘s titled Rave Wars, each complete with an original Star Wars figure attached to the front in the style of the old Palitoy figures of yesteryear. Whoever sent them must have figured me for a follower of the dark side as I got Darth vader, a Tie Fighter pilot and an AT-AT driver. The back cover shows a gallery of characters from the first trilogy (collect all 77 – ah the memories). The labels are blank save for a rebel and imperial logo and the legends “If only you knew the power of the dark side” and “The Force is strong with the one” (sic). The music is a ravetastic barrage of amen breaks, electronics and samples from the first (only) three films. Any more I cannot tell you…

Back coverRun Out Groove
Hear and buy here but be quick there are only 200

Posted in Music, Oddities, Toys. | 10 Comments |

Colouring Henry Flint

So, my new EP – The Shape Of Things That Hum – should finally be in shops today (Jan 11th) after a pressing plant mistake led to the whole lot being repressed, missing the Dec 14th release date.

You’ll find a poster wrapped around the vinyl and inside is another of Henry Flint’s amazing illustrations – done specially for this release. He only provides the line work though and I colour each image in Photoshop using a combination of photos, transparency and colour balancing.

It’s a painstaking process involving many layers, minute mouse work and multiple options and variations. I did several screen shots of the work in progress as I went this time (see below) and I’d estimate it took roughly 2 weeks of intense work.
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It wasn’t helped by Photoshop bugs flattening the image for no reason after saving a session. I’d wake up the next morning to find a whole session had been lost and I had to use Time Machine to go back a stage to un-flatten the thing.

Another setback was ‘the orange juice incident‘ after a weeks work on it in the evenings on holiday. That seems an age away now and I’m at work on the final installment, due out around May. Not sure what the cover to that will be but I have plenty more of Henry’s work available to use and then there’s the album cover…

There will be a Shape Of Things Reader mix up on Soundcloud later this week featuring music from the EP plus influential tracks I was listening to whilst making it and other favourites from 2009.

Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food, Ninja Tune, Openmind designs. | No Comments |

C-Mon & Kypski’s More Is Less video

Video clipI’d never heard of this dutch group C-Mon & Kypski before until someone posted a link to their new video on the Ninja Tune forum. Besides loving the track – an mixture of ska, a sampled soul tune and synth bass more than a little reminiscent of Shadow’s ‘Mashin’ on The Motorway’ – the band are attempting to make their video online with the help of the general public.

The idea is very simple and anyone can take part as long as they have a webcam. They have already shot a basic video of the band larking about and you are invited to switch on your cam whereby one frame will be chosen at random for you to replicate. Strike a pose (they alternate your view with the chosen frame) take the picture (you have 5 seconds to get back into position) and they will add your image into the video. They already have over 6000 frames done and you can watch the video so far which is updated hourly.  Try it yourself

Posted in Film, Music, Oddities. | No Comments |

Amorphous Androgynous CD with this months Mojo

A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix (starting with Ninja offshoot Counter Records’ Pop Levi no less) cover mounted with February’s issue of Mojo (out now though). It also features an exclusive version of their Oasis remix which was one of my favourite tracks of 2009 (who could have predicted that?). The mag features an interview with AA as well as a multi-page article on Slayer! I’d buy that for errr… £4.50.

AA Mojo CD

Posted in Music. | 1 Comment |

10 favourite sleeves / packages for 2009

Looking at my favourite records for 2009 made me think of my favourite sleeve designs as well, as several were represented in the selection. I’ve noticed a definite resurgence in sci-fi imagery this year, particularly of the 70’s Roger Dean / Heavy Metal / Moebius fantasy variety. Dan McPharlin is probably the best exponent of this style and has two designs in the selection. Julian House is still mining the collage aesthetic although seems to be leaving the Penguin cover design style behind more and more. Warp’s 20th boxset was a beautiful piece of work, making for a great celebratory object in the age of the download and Jeff Jank continues to innovate over at Stones Throw.

12 x favourite covers 2009 650

Oasis -Falling Down (Amorphous Androgynous remix)(Big Brother)
Designed by Julian House

Various Artists – The Byg Deal (Finders Keepers)
Designed by Liars

Roj – The Transectional Dharma of Roj (Ghost Box)
Designed by Julian House

Various Artists – Warp 20 boxsert (Warp)
Designed by YES / Bernard Ryan / Metropolitan Works

Anti Pop Consortium – Flourescent Black  (Big Dada)
Designed by Ron Croudy Illustration by Mark Evans

Mr Chop – Light Worlds (Now Again)
Designed by Dan McPharlin

Prefuse 73 – Everything She Touched Turned Amphexian (Warp)
Designed by Dan McPharlin

Madlib – Beat Konducta vol.5-6 (Stones Throw)
Designed by Jeff Jank Photo by Ernesto Yerena

J G Thirlwell – The Venture Brothers vol.1 (Adult Swim /Williams St)
Designed by unknown

Various Artists – Studio G – G Spots (Trunk)
Designed by Flack

Posted in Art, Design, Music, Records. | 1 Comment |