King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, ever-restless and unable to tour as much as they normally would, are making videos for each of the tracks from their latest album – Butterfly 3000 – in sequence, at an average of one every two weeks. They’re a mixture of animation and live action shorts which flow from one to another. They’re currently up to track 6 with four more to go, I can highly recommend ‘Interior People’ as the animation is a great mix of 70s Moebius/Heavy Metal era sci-fi and the track is one of my top tunes of the year. Keep up with them on their YouTube channel
Watch your bass bins because we’re about to go Darkside! I was definitely channelling the heavier side of my music tastes on this one, sometimes you need some good old fashioned nastiness to get the accounts done. Amen Andrews – a rave/jungle hybrid from Luke Vibert – kicks things off and Killing Joke’s excellent Seeing Red awkwardly tries to mix out of it. Jagz Kooner did an amazing remix of this track which is even more brutal. The P Brothers are well known for some of the heaviest production in hip hop and here they put Dick Hyman’s cover of Give It Up & Turn It Loose through a barrage of gunshots. Then things crank up a gear with Amon Tobin and Jeff Waye’s retooling of Slayer’s Angel of Death, complete with Satanic messages overdubbed, I think I might have been putting this through my old CDJ FX unit too – like I said, brutal.
Love Marilyn Manson, although this was from probably his last great record – Broadcast need no introduction, neither does The Bug, remixed by Aphex Twin no less. Evil Twin was one of those mash up artists who came and went in the blink of an eye, I checked Discogs and the only mentions of him are in mixes of mine. Here heard replaying Justin Timberlake to the tune of Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express. Poj Masta stuck around a bit longer, a young guy on the mash up scene who had some serious production chops, I wonder what he’s doing now? He cuts Girls Aloud’s debut Sound of the Underground to bits although it’s strictly mp3 quality. The Evolution Control Committee are arguably one of the groups responsible for kicking off the mash up movement with their 1996 Whipped Cream Mixes 7” which got a repress in 1999. Here they cut together the title lyric from dozens of songs, which I’m sure was as much a statement from me about the contents of this mix as it was from them.
The date on the CD isn’t one that corresponds with a Solid Steel show, there was one I featured on on the 18th that seems most likely so I could have mislabeled the disc. The PRS sheet says 25/08/2003 for this mix but I don’t feature on that week on the solidsteel.net site.
*UPDATE – Anton tells me it was the 18th – the Solid Steel oracle has spoken!
Amen Andrews – Fear
Killing Joke – Seeing Red
The P Brothers feat Mr 45 – Showstopper Pt2
Player – Angel of Theft
Marilyn Manson – Doll Dagga Buzz Buzz Ziggety Zag
Broadcast – Violent Playground
The Bug feat Daddy Freddy – Run The Place Red (AFX mix)
Evil Twin – The Lady & The Lake
Girls Aloud – S.O.T.U (Poj Masta mix)
Evolution Control Committee – I Don’t Care
Thanks to universalcollage for alerting me to these amazing tape reel boxes, once belonging to Louis Armstrong, now archived in an online museum on his website. There are hundreds of these plus even more pieces of ephemera to see, it looks like someone has gone through every piece of music-related item he ever owned and photographed it with notes for the site.
The 4xLP reissue – the original Kaleidoscope LP repressed on blue/white vinyl and the all new Kaleidoscope Companion featuring unreleased/alternate tracks ’97-2000 on orange/red vinyl in gatefold sleeve w. download – is out now! The average price seems to be around the £25-30 mark which is a bargain for 4 bits of coloured vinyl in a gatefold sleeve if I say so myself.
Buy here : (support record shops if you can)
Norman Records. http://bitly.ws/dZwy
Bleep http://bitly.ws/dZwC
Resident http://bitly.ws/dZwJ
Sister Ray http://bitly.ws/dZH8
Phonica http://bitly.ws/dZHq
Ninja Tune http://bitly.ws/dZwN
Bandcamp http://bitly.ws/dZwR
Full Digital / streaming links: https://djfood.lnk.to/kaleidoscope
The new Companion LP tracklist: The Crow features in two forms – Crow (Slow) and The Rook + Type 3 – The Quadraplex EP has been remixed and edited into a new 13 minute epic that includes unreleased material, the keen-eared with recognised Stealth as the backing for the Xen Cuts remix of The Ageing Young Rebel although this is a different mix, and Boohoo is an early version of The Sky At Night. All tracks on the companion were recorded around the time of Kaleidoscope.
28 years ago last week I was heading back into London from my Dad’s 50th birthday party to the Holloway Road to meet Matt Black at KISS FM. This was the first time I ever appeared on Solid Steel, alongside old DJ partner Mario Aguera as part of the Openmind collective. Mixed totally live on air on 3 decks and a CD player (the old rack mounted ones) with a few Coldcut jingles being thrown in off of 8 track-style carts by Matt (Jon wasn’t in the studio for this session).
I’ll never forget it, the nervous countdown to 1am in the quiet studio, both of us shitting ourselves as we were going to be live on the radio for the first time and it was on Solid Steel! The news ending and Matt triggered the intro jingle, and we were off with the luxury of 3 turntables layer up the mix with. It was a seminal moment in my DJ career and I’m eternally grateful to Matt for inviting us on and giving us a chance as it was like getting a foot in the door or the first rung of the ladder. If I’d never done another Solid Steel again I’d have been happy but of course he asked us back again and again.
Looking at the track list I’m pleased that it all still stands up and a few long-term staples were in there; Kraftwerk, Aphex, ZTT, Jungle Brothers and The Irresistible Force. The mix is mostly tight, the odd stumble here and there but no disasters – not bad for a first go live on 3 decks although there was way too much George Carlin in the mix.
Mario took over after the Barbarella track, we shared a house at the time and pooled our records when playing out as I was only just out of college and he had a full-time job so could afford to buy more new records than me. Along with Chantal Passamonte (now Mira Calix) and David Vallade, a fellow graphic designer who has done covers for Clear, Reflective, Worm Interface, Ninja Tune and many more, we did the Telepathic Fish chill out parties. One day I’ll get a little site together with all the mixes, photos, magazines and flyers I have stored up from those years…
Thanks to Steve Norgate many years ago for the superior audio and track listing as the quality is superior to my own D90 cassette and I doubt a DAT recording of this exists.
Track list:
Sequential – The Mission (Live From the Outer Zone
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome to The Pleasure Dome 12″ intro (on 33rpm)
Sexy Selector – Original Rockers
St Etienne – Your Head My Voice (Voix Revirement by Aphex Twin)
Jungle Brothers – Ultimatum Jungle Beats + unknown African chanting
LS Diesel & Launch DAT – Rougher Than A Lion
Psychic Warriors of Gaia – Maenad (The Valley) + Hear This! spoken word
Kraftwerk – Home Computer
Seefeel – Minky Starshine
Nightmares On Wax – Nights Interlude + George Carlin – God
No-Man – Heaven Taste
21st Century Aura – Disorientation
DJ Spike – Outer Land (part one)
Grace Jones – The Crossing (Ohh The Action…)
Kraftwerk – Morgenspaziergang
Dreamfish – School Of Fish
Barbarella – Barbarella (Irresistible Force Mix) + George Carlin – Nursery Rhymes
Just announced, Amon Tobin‘s 2002 classic, Out From Out Where, is being repressed in a new edition this September. Pressed on opaque gold vinyl with fully printed inner sleeve, a 60x30cm poster and phosphorescent varnished sleeve. I remade the artwork from the original near 20 year old files and I’m so pleased with this as it’s one of my personal favourite designs, not just for Amon but for any artist I’ve worked with.
Pre-order here:
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are halfway through making a video for every track on their latest album, Butterfly 3000. I’ve been waiting for this one, my favourite track on the LP, ‘Interior People’, and they’ve picked a Metal Hurlant / Time Eaters / Moebius angle with the visual style. Animated by Melbourne company, Showoffilms.
Thanks to universalcollage for alerting me to these amazing tape reel boxes, once belonging to Louis Armstrong, now archived in an online museum on his website. There are hundreds of these plus even more pieces of ephemera to see, it looks like someone has gone through every piece of music-related item he ever owned and photographed it with notes for the site. Any one of these could be a record cover, sometimes both sides of the boxes are collaged and the ageing sellotape just adds to their appeal for me.
More pages from the Wisconsin Historical Society G.I. Press Collection of The East Village Other papers I came across, all scanned in high res, (much higher than here). As the 60s heading to a close The Other started featuring a selection of the underground cartoonists of the day, namely Robert Crumb, Vaughn Bodé, Susan Morris, Spain Rodriguez, Kim Dietch and Charles Francis Winans. As well as striking covers, several artists did comic strip ads for Douglas Records and a lot of this art – save for some of the Crumb works – I’ve never seen reprinted elsewhere before.
The Allergies are back, there’s an album on the horizon, but first this single and it’s incredible video. All make from paper and animated by the Seen Film studio.
The single is out on 7″ and download from Jalapeno Records.
I was thrilled to be asked to remix ‘Global Eyes’ on the exclusive 10″ with the deluxe box set of
The The‘s Comeback Special live set. See and hear the full show plus loads of extras.
Due out this October – pre-order now live plus there’s a special screening at The Troxy, the venue for the third London night back 3 years ago.
A telling peek back at the end of the 90s when the musical roller coaster of the decade was winding down after the relentless innovation of multiple genres. I remember finding it harder to find music that excited me around the last couple of years of the decade, not that there wasn’t good stuff out there but the sheer flood of great music released throughout the 90s every year as new scenes exploded was sometimes overwhelming. The post-rock scene is in evidence here with Isotope 217, Fridge and Rothko as well as trip hop/hip hop from Dynamic Syncopation, Major Force and Jadell. Four Tet and Add N To X point to an analogue electronica in thrall to Krautrock and Plaid and Anjali kick things off with a beautiful downbeat pair of tracks which set the mood for the mix title.
Track list:
Plaid – Ralome
Anjali – Astra
Isotope 217 – Hodah
Dynamic Syncopation – Ground Zero (acappella)
Fridge – Fbad Ischl
Major Force – ?
Archive – The Way You Love Me (Super Collider remix)
Rothko – Rivers Become Oceans
Four Tet – Glasshead
Add N to X – This Is The Flex (Lo Fi mix)
Jadell – Come & Get Some
Oh just get this, it’s so good, a whole album of drums by Michael Cavanagh, drummer for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Comics legend Glenn Fabry even did the front cover!
Perusing the Wisconsin Historical Society G.I. Press Collection I came across a stash of East Village Other papers, all scanned in high res, (much higher than here) and started going through them. Here’s a selection of things that caught my eye from the covers and back pages.
Possibly Susan Morris‘ work above?
Is that an early Spain Rodriguez inking the figure above? The clouds don’t look like his work but the darker ink work does
Another bit of sleeve design I did last summer emerges from the vinyl log jam. I was asked by Clocolan to illustrate the cover of his 3rd album (second for Castles in Space), ‘This Will End In Love’. Out Aug 6th in pink Nebula vinyl and red or blackberry purple cassette housed in a rave tape case.
No pre order on this but the label has them in hand I’m told so look out for it in a month’s time, I’ll be posting a process video of the cover then too. In the mean time you can get his previous album and single here.
Sure, Star Wars packaging has been done before, not least by I Love Acid for their Rave Wars 7″s (including original figure sealed to each cover). But this new 45 from Krash Slaughta featuring Phill Most Chill has nailed it and stuck a 7″ to the cover of a 12″ sleeve. Love the Snowspeeder spiral detail on the label. There are even some still left on his website!
Also on the retro Star Wars tip – now that The Mandalorian has at least restored some of the old school faith in the franchise – modern and retro Mandos.
People are receiving their copies of Celestial Mechanic – ‘Citizen Void’ LP on Utter.
Due to reasons too dull to go into here there’s no DL with the vinyl but,, if you post a photo of your copy on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tag us in, I’ll send you a code.
Music by Saron Hughes, Howlround, Peter Harris and myself – a soundtrack to the Rian Hughes‘ novel, ‘XX‘
(paperback released August by Picador Books)
Yellow vinyl LP + 7″ + print + info sheet Buy now
If you’ve been enjoying the ASCII animations we’ve been posting with the Celestial Mechanic posts then you can make your own with Andreas Gysin‘s online app
The day is fast approaching, a gig is on the horizon! Going back to back with Ollie Teeba of The Herbaliser in support of Norman Jay, Crazy P and David Rodigan, I’ll be down in Brighton on Sunday, August 1st at Carnivalesque – tickets here.
In this second part of Middle Earth flyers collected from the International Times archive we get to the point where the club moved from their original Covent Garden home to The New Roundhouse in Chalk Farm after numerous raids by the police. At the top we see the Magical Mystery Tour event still advertised on Aug 24th/25th 1968 (see previous post) but by the next issue (two weeks later) it was replaced by a regular gig featuring Traffic, Family and Free but with a large ‘& then’ before announcing The Doors and Jefferson Airplane gig. There’s a uniformity to these ads previously unseen at the old venue, broken by the tall thin ad above right and the circular orange one below which advertises a programme of classical music by the Middle Earth Symphony Orchestra!
Problems with The Roundhouse meant that the club was forced to move again by early 1969, the nearly blank advert above appearing mid February in IT. Following a message in the next issue stating they’d moved to the Royalty Cinema in Notting Hill Gate, a month’s worth of gigs were later listed through March into April. After that things appeared to dry up until a series of tiny ads appeared in September, one a week, stating, ‘Middle Earth is alive and well…’ ‘and coming soon’, ‘is The Power of The Picts’. Then in November, a full page ad announced the rebirth of the night as a record label with a management address in Soho Square. It lasted for two years, releasing five singles and five albums in that time, there’s a short history of it here.
There’s a documentary about Del Close coming this month to Apple TV, which combines comedy and comics and looks fantastic. Diggers will know Close’s name from the John Brent & Del Close classic ‘How To Speak Hip’ (sampled by me and plenty of others) as well as ‘The Do-It-Yourself Psychoanalyst’s Kit’ (plundered for a whole album by Prince Paul). Close was, by all accounts, an unhinged madman/genius who hung out with The Merry Pranksters in the 60s and taught all the future comedy greats in the 70’s and 80’s. There’s not been much written about him aside from a couple of biographies and he’s probably best known for his involvement in Saturday Night Live. Check the trailer and hunt down those records and copies of the Wasteland comics.
