Four From Food Fridays 5

FourFromFoodFridays5

Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four music releases that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. From top left:
Yves Hayat – ‘Le Chemin de L’ascension’ – from ‘Conversation Between The East & The West’ LP (Music de Wolfe)
Radiohead – ‘The Numbers’ – from ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ LP (XL Recordings)
David Morley – ‘The Origin Of Storms’ 12″+10″ (De:Tuned)
Chris Carter – ‘The Man-Machine’ – from ‘Electronic Sound Covers Collection 2’ (free with Electronic Sound magazine #22)

Kilar’s ‘Krzesany’ remix for Sacrum Profanum 2012

DJ-Food-@-Sacrum-profanum-fot.-Wojciech-Wandzel-
I just found this whilst going through the archive, a remix I did of Polish composer Kilar’s ‘Krzesany’ for the 2012 Sacrum Profanum event in a steel works in Krakow, Poland – never released. Has its moments… photo above of me performing it at the concert by Wojciech Wandzel, more info and photos here www.djfood.org/sacrum-profanum-2012-krakow-poland/

Coming this Friday… I Love Acid 45s Too mix

ILoveAcid45sToo2
For my second featured mix on the 45 Live radio show, hosted by Greg Belson on Dublab, I’ve put together a second hour’s worth of Acid House 45s. My first was for Posthuman‘s radio show and Pete Isaac put together one for his last mix on the show too. It goes out this Friday at 8pm US PST or 4am UK GMT but I’ll post a link once it’s on Mixcloud.

Artifacts #21: 7″ invite to Vinyl’s first birthday

Vinyl 1st Birthday 45 record
Here’s an oddity I picked up in a South London charity recently, a one-sided 7″ invite to a club called Vinyl‘s first birthday party. I don’t remember the club personally but it appears to have had a home at The Dogstar in Brixton. Unlike several invites to parties I’ve found on vinyl over the years (old random 7″s with new labels pasted on) this one actually has music pressed on one side and the track isn’t bad. A vocodered voice gives details of the date, DJs and aural delights to be expected with an opening line cribbed from an Orb song title.

Vinyl 1st Birthday 45 label

Oddly the date has been pasted over on the label, underneath it says the 14th and on the front of the sleeve was a post-it note exclaiming, “Check with Joan if any phogs(?) we know are going”. Maybe ‘phogs’ is short for photographers and this was sent to a music magazine who may have wanted to cover it?

UPDATE: – Turns out it was an old college friend, Jem Panufnik with Martin Moveya...
Jem:Yes indeed! Can’t remember what order it all happened but of course this became our first Soul of Man track and first Finger Lickin‘ release a few months later, I guess we’d just finished it and used it for this party invite celebrating a year of Bar Vinyl with Vinyl Addiction record shop downstairs (where of course Mr Moveya was selector extraordinaire). I guess we got the date wrong on the artwork! Martin – was this party in a very sweaty low ceiling basement in Kentish Town? The Dogstar connection was our Finger Lickin ‘ nights we did every Thursday a year or so later. Don’t know who’s notes about phogs are, I know it went to a lot of music mags. Think we did 250 so not many around…”

Vinyl 1st Birthday 45

Four From Food Fridays 4

FourFromFoodFridays4
Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four music releases that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. From top left:
DJ SupremeR.I.P. featuring Son of Noise 7″ (Backbone Records)
Om UnitTorchlight vol.3 12″ (Cosmic Bridge)
Cosmic GroundCosmic Ground III LP (Adansonia Records / Bandcamp)
Brain MachineS/T LP (This Is Not An Exit / Bandcamp)

Mongrols – Attack The Monolith ltd LP & London show

KidAcne flyer
Great line up at one of my local venues this Saturday when Mike Ladd, Strange U, Juice Aleem and Mongrels (Kid Acne & Benjamin) rock up in support of Scotty Hard, the legendary producer currently partially paralysed and facing huge medical bills in the US. Loving that Battle of the Planets-referencing flyer there.

I’ve been meaning to post about Mongrels’ recent ‘Attack The Monolith’ album – the limited vinyl of which is a thing of beauty and still available here. It comes in one of 3 alternative colourways (Gold, Silver or Bronze) hand-pulled screen printed sleeves + risograph insert, inner sleeves plus embossed and numbered on the back. The album features multiple appearances of Sebash from New Kingdom who is now an honourary member. Back in July, on the 20thh anniversary of NK’s 2nd album, ‘Paradise Don’t Come Cheap’, Mongrels made a special celebratory mix

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2000AD – Prog 2000

Prog2000
2000AD Prog (issue) 2000 lands today, that’s a lot of comics in nearly 40 years and only serves to strengthen what has become a British institution up there with The Eagle, The Beano, The Dandy and Viz in UK comic publishing.
Wrapped in one of three different covers, including a free poster and featuring many of the greats who made its name over 30 years ago returning for the party, it’s a perfect celebration of what makes it the galaxy’s greatest.

Prog2000DreddAndersonProg2000DreddProg2000SlaineProg2000Torq2Prog2000GibbonsProg2000Death Prog2000TorqProg200090s
They’re not afraid to poke fun at their misjudgements either and it’s not just a nostalgia-fest, new strip, Counterfeit Girl, by Peter Milligan and Rufus Dayglo holds its own with the rest.

Prog2000Ruf1
Prog2000Ruf2
Raygun Comics in Richmond, London have a special 2000ad day this Saturday Oct 1st to celebrate Prog 2000, they’ll be giving away back issues and the winner of their Judge Dredd colouring competition will get a copy of Prog 1. Also they have a copy of Prog 2 still with unused stickers! Never seen those before, an eye-watering £350 though…
Prog2000Prog2 Prog2000RayGun

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Future Shock 3AV mix

Future Shoc 3AV
After the audio version on Friday’s Solid Steel, here’s the video version, a collection of retro-futuristic sounds from the past and present that premiered at the recent Videocrash night in London. A host of specially edited videos assembled from my visual archive with interjections from ‘This Is Marshall McLuhan’ and ‘Magic Trip’ among others. Spot the difference between this and the audio version…


Due to various streaming problems we’ve put it on two different platforms, if one doesn’t work for you try the other

DJ Food – Future Shock 3 (AV-Mix) from ARMTONE on Vimeo.

Cosmic Ground III pre-order

Cosmic ground 3
The pre-order for Cosmic Ground‘s ‘Cosmic Ground III’ just went live, there’s CD and digital available via their Bandcamp page but if you want the vinyl version you have to order if via Adansonia Records‘ website which is mostly in German. A tip for those wanting to order in the UK, the country to select in the drop down menu is “Vereinigte Königreich” = United Kingdom apparently! The vinyl comes in black or marbled blue as well. You’ll be able to hear for yourself on the Bandcamp page but this doesn’t break with the mould of the previous two, four near-20 minute synth workouts that recall Tangerine Dream‘s best moments.

Posted in Music, Records. | No Comments | Tags:

Four From Food Fridays 3

FourFromFoodFridays23.09.16

Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four music releases that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. From top left:
Videodrones – Mondo Ferox LP (El Paraiso Records)
The Gaslamp Killer – Instrumentalepathy LP (Cuss Records)
Peter Thomas & Mocambo Astronautic Sound System Orchestra – Space Patrol / Picciacto In Heaven 7″ (Mocambo Records)
The National Curriculum – The Best Fertiliser Is The Gardener’s Shadow LP (TNC)

The Natural Curriculum

TNC LP cover
I’m still trying to digest the output from Manchester group, The Natural Curriculum after DJ Format put them in touch with me last month. For the new initiate there’s a lot to take in, just check out their Bandcamp page for releases going back five years now. Their take on hip hop is well left of centre with deep layers of lyricism and untrodden sampling paths whilst staying true to the spirit of the classic rap blueprint.

TNC LP
Rather than being reverential to the past they’re pushing it forward, even their new album title, ‘The Best Fertiliser Is The Gardener’s Shadow’, recalls the absurdity of early De La productions and the cover image (above) isn’t something that immediately jumps out as signalling a hip hop record. With their videos you can also see tongues firmly embedded in cheeks, not afraid to send themselves or anyone else up, again, not your standard hip hop fodder. They have a super limited vinyl pressing of the new album out right now… be quick!

Loose Lips Radio show mix


A little off-the-cuff mix I did on Monday evening at the Market Place pub in Brixton for the Loose Lips Radio Show, was going to play a load of acid and then decided to go into outer space instead. Their Meat Transmission venue in Old Street was shut down just the week before so they quickly relocated to the back of the pub and we squeezed into a tiny DJ booth to do a Q&A before I took over to play to the rapidly-filling room of drinkers and diners. There’s a little teaser about a night I’m doing next year plus a couple of tracks that I picked that signpost my musical influences. The Loose Lips guys, Fred and Dan, are up first and then my bit starts around the 52 min mark onwards.

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Radio. | 3 Comments | Tags:

You Say You Want A Revolution exhibition at the V&A, London

GrannyNewly opened last weekend, the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington plays host to a celebration of the latter part of the psychedelic 60s under the banner, ‘You Say You Want A Revolution: Records & Rebels 1966-1970’. It’s an often stunning and inspiring look back at a small section of the counter culture that we now think of as ‘The Swinging Sixties’, encompassing music, art, fashion, politics, advertising, product design, expos and the space race. What was interesting, in the light of the recent drug-related deaths forcing Fabric to close, was that LSD was mentioned copiously in the quotes as you entered the exhibition and kept popping up throughout, as a catalyst for the many strands of the hippy movement. One national institution celebrates drug-fuelled counter culture in the heart of the richest part of the city just as another is closed in the East End – the irony.

The exhibition isn’t just about the beautiful flower children chanting ‘hari krishna’ and wearing threads from the Kings Road via India either (*slight spoiler alert!*). A middle section brings you down to earth with a bump, confronting you with the more political side of events at the end of the decade, the Vietnam War, racism, The Black Panthers, police brutality, feminism, gay rights and more. The starkness of this section, largely in monochrome, against the multi-coloured blossoming of earlier rooms, is a reminder that it wasn’t all peace and love man, and that the curators weren’t wearing rose-tinted spectacles the whole time.

It was worth the price of admission alone to see Mati Klarwein‘s original ‘Grain Of Sand’ painting up close. I’ve always loved this piece, never thought I’d see it in the flesh but there is was, nestled behind the entrance as I walked in. Absolutely wondrous.

GrainOfSandfull GrainOfSand GrainOfSanddetailGrainOfSandcentreGrainOfSandMarilyn

There is a LOT to see and take in, an associate who works at the museum confided that the curators wanted ‘everything’ but were restricted by time and conservation rules. There was some padding in parts, a section about consumerism and advertising sees corridor walls plastered with ads, interspersed with huge mirrored sections which give the impression of much more in the reflections but ultimately can’t conceal that not much is actually on display. Film and TV is given fairly short thrift aside from a section about Blow Up, a selection of experimental shorts in a walled-off cinema area and the Woodstock footage (although it has to be said that the Woodstock room is very well put together). Underground comics were almost entirely missing aside from one interior spread used to comment on the Manson murders, no Robert Crumb, Zap, Furry Freak Brothers... The Oz trials were mentioned but I didn’t see any copies of the magazine, or IT, or Ink. There was a lot in it but some omissions were glaring.

Cooks poster
Leaving, to the strains of Lennon‘s ‘Imagine’ and a fast cut montage zooming through the decades up to the present day, you’re depressingly but inevitably taken via the gift shop where you’re confronted with sanitised, consumable versions of the era to take home. Most of it is utter tat and the price tags are enough to burn a huge hole through the Levi jeans they seem to think were a good idea to have on sale. Cleverly, and as a sign of the vinyl-resurgence times we currently live in, they’ve released a compilation album alongside the usual book of the exhibition. Unfortunately the cover – a denim jacket covered in band logo badges – is so horrendous it looks like the kind of three quid compilation you’d find in a service station. There are some beautifully executed repro posters but the prices are so exorbitant I’d rather seek out an original, they’d probably only be a little more.
Still, there may not be many revelations or things you’ve not seen before in an era that’s been to widely celebrated already but it’s well worth the entrance fee. It runs until Feb 26th 2017 – more info here.

 

Four From Food Fridays 2

FourFromFoodFridays16.09.16
Forgot to put this up on Friday – Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four music releases that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. From top left:
Akiha Den Den – S/T (Castles in Space)
Cosmic EyeDream Sequence (Light In The Attic)
The Pattern Forms – Peel Away The Ivy (Ghost Box)
Various – I Love Acid #10 (Balkan Recordings)

Peter Thomas’ Space Patrol 50th anniversary 7 inch

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“SPACE PATROL (“Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion”) was the first German science fiction television series. Its seven episodes were broadcast by ARD TV, the first episode being aired on September 17th of 1966. Being a huge success with audience ratings up to 56%, the series acquired a distinct cult status in Germany and worldwide.

Peter Thomas composed and recorded the original score, which has become a soundtrack classic and collector’s item among rare groove aficionados since its original release on Philips. The music, floating between avant garde jazz, big band beat and spaced-out psychedelia, set a new benchmark in the history of film music and science fiction scores and became one of Thomas’ best known works. The title theme is the first known piece of music in pop history to feature a vocoder, a device that until then had exclusively been used for voice encoding in military warfare. Peter Thomas borrowed a device from the Siemens factory to process his voice for the recording of the countdown.

The composer remembers: “When producing the score, I had complete creative freedom. No one had ever been into space, so no one would dare to tell me how the music should sound like.”

Now, 50 years on, The Mighty Mocambos teamed up with the legendary musical mastermind a recorded an up to date, truly global and funky 2016 version in tribute of the original theme. “Space Patrol (Raumpatrouille)” is the only official recording of the track released for this anniversary and authorized by Peter Thomas, who even plays on it himself. To give this 50 years version a new twist, the specially formed Mocambo Astronautic Sound Orchestra adds steel band orchestration to the massive brass and funky rhythm section.”

Orion 2016 is available as a 7inch single in a deluxe picture sleeve on Mocambo Records and as a digital download on Légère Recordings. There’s a v. ltd. 50 copy edition in gold too.

Space Patrol Gold