A new map, designed by Peter Trotman, that displays journey times on the London Underground from each location, try it out HERE (not mobile-friendly apparently)
I know I’ve written about this before but I’ve finally finished reading Stephen Coates‘ ‘X-Ray Audio’ book, about how underground bootleggers from the Soviet Union used to cut forbidden music onto old X-Rays. It’s a fascinating read in a time when we have pretty much any media we desire at our fingertips. It tells of a time where just possessing certain records could get you in serious trouble or even thrown in prison. Having to buy forbidden songs for huge amounts of money that were sometimes not even on the disc or of a fidelity so bad that they were virtually unlistenable.
But what it highlights most of all is the power of music, what lengths people will go to to hear it and when they do, the effect it can have. This quote from an interview with Kolya Vasin really stood out, he became known as ‘The Beatles Guy’ and he recounts first hearing ‘All My Loving’.
“When I heard them I felt something so phenomenal, even the great Little Richard whom I had adored faded for me. They enlightened me, it was insane. Little Richard was atomic happiness but The Beatles were insanity, something else, the limit, something unexplainable. And I understood everything… I felt in them a holiness. It was freedom.”
The Vinyl Factory also recently premiered a new short film about the phenomenon that they’d made with Stephen
Photographer Tim Walker has channeled Hieronymus Bosch for this new shoot for Love Magazine‘s Spring issue. These are the more ‘safe for work’ images but there are loads more here.
Bosch is back in the news at the moment as there is a major exhibition of his work at the Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands at the moment with paintings and drawings assembled from across the globe to mark 500 years since his birth.
Thanks to Mr Primate for pointing this new trailer out for the restored version of Belladonna of Sadness. Incredible animated psychedelia from Japan with an additional 8 minutes of restored footage. It’s getting a US cinema release this May and will hopefully make it’s way overseas too. Finders Keepers recently reissued the soundtrack by Masahiko Sato with an unheard track and have promised more in the future. Here’s the original trailer too, both are a bit NSFW but incredibly beautiful
This is a really well researched and put together piece by Matt Anniss (and I’m not just saying that because I’m featured) with all the major players present. It’s nice that sometimes, with hindsight, someone writes a history of a movement and gets it right. It can never be complete of course but this is a very accurate account of how it played out.
I put this pile of 45s down in a mix last week, possibly the world’s first all 7″, all-Acid mix? I’ve been collecting acid tracks on 7″ for a while now and, when Josh from I Love Acid asked me to do a mix for his I Love Acid Radio slot, I thought this would be the perfect slot to showcase them. The mix is due to debut on March 10th, I’ll post a link here when it does. Pete Isaac from 45 Live is also a big acid 45 collector and we’ll be doing something in that vein later this year…
Acid on 45 is a pretty niche area, a lot of the releases are UK pressings as several tracks made the charts at the end of the 80s and record labels were still pressing 7″s alongside the 12s to get radio play. There are also a lot of european singles from around that time too, tracks that were big in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain but won’t maybe be known elsewhere. In the 90s a lot of acid on 45 is confined to the more uptempo almost gabba-techno kind and there are slim pickings to be had until the 00s when the sound made a resurgence back into techno.
Another round of Kosmischer Debris entries – these were from a series of experiments and tests I did for a Ninja Tune thing last summer that didn’t get used. A couple work for me and elements of them have since led down a different path – I recently created 60 different images from them in one day, yet to find a home. You see my daily postings from the hard drive on my Instagram along with other images shot whilst out and about, record finds, art and more.
The second part of Robin The Fog & Hannah Brown‘s ‘Neat Mint’ show for Resonance FM just aired tonight with the continuation of their peek into the odder end of my record collection. Hear what these records sound like below.
Also we’ll all be playing at The Book & Record Bar in West Norwood on Friday alongside the landlord Micheal (not listed below) and Zoe ‘Lucky Cat’ Baxter who, I just found out, is the daughter of Glen Baxter! Come down, the shop is less than a minute’s walk from the West Norwood train station. £5 entry in aid of Resonance FM who have their annual fundraising drive on at the moment to keep them on the air for another year. Some very unique prizes to be auctioned off in a very good cause, truly independent radio with no playlist.
Always nice to see a refreshing take on the usual sci-fi tropes of aliens, robots, vehicles and weapons. This lot is by Darren Bartley and you can see loads more on his FightPunch tumblr.
Went to the British Library yesterday to see the Alice In Wonderland exhibition, a collection of many vintage books illustrated by various artists over the last 150 years as well as puzzles, cards, posters and ephemera featuring the characters. Also present were some of Lewis Carroll‘s original notebooks, letters and photos plus printing blocks of John Tenniel‘s original illustrations, used for the first edition.
Interesting as all that was though, it was the design of the exhibition that wowed the most, with playful typography riffing off quotes from the book and that fantastic logo hanging from a balcony on a giant tag. I would have got more of it if there hadn’t be an over-zealous security guard warning people from taking photos. Nevertheless, it’s free as it’s in the foyer and it’s worth your time if you’re in the Kings Cross area plus there’s a pop up shop separate from the main one with about 20 different Alice book versions, loads of merchandise and the swirly floor seen in the last photo.
I really like what this guy does. Comics and collage, two of my favourite things combined, especially when it’s this out there. He’s doing a similar thing to what Cyriak does with film in some instances but the subject matter that’s being used also makes some of his work reminiscent of Robert Williams‘ paintings too. There is a ton of this and much more to view on the Samplerman tumblr
Records about plants, flora and fauna
NASA has created Space Tourism posters for various planets and moons in our solar system – see and download them here plus there are all sorts of activities like planetary makeovers and trip planners to do as well.
Markey back on Solid Steel (yeah, I’ll admit it, I asked him). If you enjoy this and haven’t heard the album that he’s just released then it’s a treat – listen and try before you buy here.
This is just stunning and beautiful to see the sounds connect with the shapes. In the 70’s, Rainer Wehinger created a visual listening score to accompany Gyorgy Ligeti’s ‘Artikulation’. Donald Craig scanned the pages and synchronized them with the music, check his YouTube channel for more.
The slipmat has long been a part of Ninja Tune‘s merch lines, alongside the T-shirt, record bag and Ninja Skinz. The last one I designed for them was back in 2007 for mine and DK‘s ‘Now, Listen Again’ Solid Steel comp. At the time sales of vinyl were seriously in freefall, Serato and Tractor were taking over and people were looking at digital as the way forward, slipmats weren’t exactly flying out the door.
By the end of the decade I don’t think the label even considered making any for their 20th anniversary, they just weren’t on the radar anymore. But things have a habit of coming back again and, nearly a decade on, here’s a new twist on an old design – available now from the Ninjashop.
This fantastic mixtape by Arandel comes from the InFiné Music podcast – 55 tracks layered up for 45 mins by 35 female electronic pioneers. More details and full tracklist at the link above.
For all those who won’t see the updated posts further down the feed; here’s last night’s new Resonance FM show, Near Mint, that I featured on with some highlights of my collection. Plus here’s the 45Live Radio Show I had an all-45s guest mix slot on with Greg Belson last Friday night/Saturday morning on Dublab.
Some of the recent Kosmischer Debris experiments from my Instagram – not sure about these, there are a couple of interesting ones but nothing I’m super happy with. These images are all generated from one piece, collaged elements of the Musée des Confluences that I took in Lyon last year. I want to see how far I can push them before they look like visual soup. The lower right one is pretty much there I’d say.
Absolutely love that logo by Fiona Barlow, shouldn’t work but it does. To celebrate 150 of Alice In Wonderland there’s a small exhibition at the British Library with art from various versions of the book over the years, including John Tenniel’s original illustrations as well as examples from Ralph Steadman, Salvador Dali and morel.