Psych-tinged film posters from the latest Omega Auctions catalogue.
I’ve included ‘If’ at the bottom even though it doesn’t fit the description but because I love it so.
3D
Telepathic Fish resurfaces in 2027 with a chill out room at Bloc‘s 20 year reunion party. Get tickets here
This year’s mix for the 45 Live radio show, hosted by DJ Greg Belson on Dublab, is upon us! Posting this after the event as I was too preoccupied at the end of last week but as usual I got an hour to do what I like as long it’s all played from 7″ vinyl. The selection veers from the late 80s through the early 90s, taking in hip house, regular house, rave and that breakbeat sound mixed with ragga vocals that soon sped up and morphed into jungle. A supremely interesting time and one I followed closely via radio shows like Colin Faver’s Abstrakt Dance and Colin Dale‘s Outer Limits shows on KISS FM alongside Max & Dave’s hip hop show.
The mix is part of Friday’s Oct 2nd show and here’s the archived show, my mix starts around the 30 min mark.
New on De:tuned this month, Terrace with a new album hot on the heels of ‘Branches’, ‘Nodes’ is a double and I join Al White on artwork duties again although the front cover is all his own. Boards of Canada reissue their ‘Hi-Scores’ EP for the first time on Warp for its 30th anniversary and it’s still as peerless as ever, up there with the best of their albums. Robin The Fog just missed out on last month’s list with his ‘This House Burned Still’ release of two live Howlround tracks nipped and tucked into one self-released CD.
Having wound up the Ghost Box label for the foreseeable, Jim Jupp aka Belbury Poly has now put his back catalogue on Bandcamp, everything’s up there as well as his new album, ‘Sorcery’ but you could do worse than start at the beginning with ‘Farmer’s Angle’ and work your way through two decades of music. Luke Vibert never sleeps, hot on the heels of his triple ‘Variety Magic’ album here’s a 4-track 12″ with more unreleased vintage mid-90s DnB cuts, again on De:tuned. Also on art duties again is Pablo Fiasco who painted a number of ‘Robotic Futuristic’ pieces around London’s East End which I then massaged into a sleeve. Birmingham’s HALT. (very important full stop there) bring to mind classic 90s era Autechre or Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia on their ‘Slag Anthems’ album – genuinely refreshing dark electronica.
Jo Johnson‘s Silver Threads label has just announced its first compilation, ‘Filaments’ and on first three preview tracks alone it’s a must purchase. Actually, just the Cate Brooks track had me adding it to my basket to be purchased this coming Bandcamp Friday. Speaking of Cate, she had an album out in April that I’ve only just caught up with, ‘For Your Security’ reminds me of elements of THX1138, disembodied voices and electronics from CCTV monitors chattering away to melodic beats. There’s another artist I can’t keep up with and that’s Hieroglyphic Being, he’s put out seven albums in the last month, probably more by the time this goes live.
‘Premonitions: Underground Cassette Network 1989-90’ is a compilation of obscure experimental music from the pre-internet era of underground cassette releases put together by the makers of my new favourite podcast, Cassette Culture. The pod explores the web-like network of micro labels, lone music makers and fanzines that formed the ecosystem of a pre-streaming niche music scene via interviews and snippets from ultra obscure releases that are now under the microscope as yesteryear’s lost treasures. Listen to the podcast here, The The‘s Matt Johnson is the latest guest. In tribute to seeing possibly the greatest live performance in memory last Sunday – Steve Reich‘s ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ played by the Paraorchestra in the round at the RFH – I dug this version up by Keith Lo Bue. ‘Music for 324 Musicians’ takes 18 different performances of the piece, lines them up and presses play. Over the course of the hour + playing time things drift and wobbly, the differences and speeds of the versions push and pull at each other, often threatening to fall to pieces which is itself quite an experience.
Warning – spoilers! I don’t generally do gig reviews but I’ve just witnessed one of the most incredible, life-affirming performances I think I’m ever likely to. The Royal Festival Hall are hosting a series of performances of Steve Reich’s work on the cusp of his 90th birthday this week. ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ has been on my bucket list to see for years and I’ve always just missed it or been away. When the Paraorchestra‘s performance was announced I jumped on it and I don’t think I could have experienced a better version.
Situated in the Clore Ballroom, a sunken, black-draped space inside the upper level looking out over the Thames on London’s Southbank, the players are not on stage but scattered around the room with a circular centre delineated by huge pillars. The audience are invited to roam about during the performance and we find ourselves, quite by chance, standing right next to the two marimba (or was it xylophone?) players who start the whole piece off. Immediately I feel a lump in my throat as the first notes project out into the room, the lights are low and there is a slight smoke haze in the air. All the instruments are acoustic, only the four vocalists have amplification, and moving around the room means you can use the space as your own mixing desk, drifting in and out of range of any instrument you please, shifting the balance of the sound. Despite it being a continuous piece there are obvious stages where the focus shifts and a new pattern forms whereby the audience begins to drift as it senses a new section ending, reorientating themselves to a new space for the next part.
The centre of the room becomes the sweet spot, a place where everything can be heard equally and a large gaggle of people cluster together there whilst others weave in and out or around the perimeter. Suddenly there’s a woman in orange throwing angular shapes which seem at odds with the music, she’s joined by more dotted all over the room and my first thought is, ‘oh god, contemporary dance.’ They weave their way around the audience, picking spots to perform, distracting from the players but breaking up the relentless shuffle of the crowd. It’s fine but feels a bit forced, the players deep in concentration as is the audience, some with eyes closed, some pacing, turning, filming or bobbing their heads. There are a few young children with parents, the dancers entice them to join in inside the central space, a couple of kids read books on the floor, unengaged with the spectacle unfolding around them.
Without wanting to spoil the proceedings further for those who haven’t seen it (yet), something happens in the middle of the piece, an obvious transition and suddenly the centre of the room erupts in collective dance, professional and punter alike. It hits you like a truck and the room becomes one, the centre emanating pure joy and the music shifts up a gear as inhibitions are loosened. We’re inside the music now, inhabiting a living, breathing, growing performance in a way that simply can’t be experienced watching a group on a stage. This is true surround sound but instead of a static listening point, we move to the instruments we want to hear foremost. It’s exhilarating being in control like this and the players move too; two players to one piano, one section sees three on one xylophone in unison, an incredible display of dexterity.
Now half the audience are sitting around the centre, swaths of wide beam lighting sweeping the audience and slowly people are drawn back up into circles in the middle, hands up in revelation, adoration, release to the pulse of the performance. It’s a joyous, life-affirming feeling, a collective connection bringing some to tears. At its end the applause is rapturous, lasting several minutes and we don’t want to leave this womb-like space and return to the outside world. I implore anyone to experience this piece in this way if they get the chance, it was simply mind-blowing and I don’t know how it can be topped. Gig of the year.
Zendik Farm Arts Commune was a roaming commune / cult determined to live off the land and reject mainstream society, or the Death Culture as they saw it. Starting in the late 60s and ending in 2013 after the death of their original founders Wulf and Arol Zendik. They made magazines and cassettes (later CDs and even vinyl), T-shirts and stickers to earn money to help with living costs and below are some examples you can find on eBay. You can find out more here and here.
Up for sale recently in one of Andrew Sclanders‘ excellent sales; this beautiful stationery for Better Books – one of THE countercultural books shops in London’s West End in the 60s. Quite possibly from Barry Miles‘ personal collection (there were a lot of other items for sale which surely couldn’t have come from anyone else), the wrapping paper above and paper bags below were designed by John Sewell who worked for Penguin.
The bookmarks below probably all came from Sewell’s hand too and were part of the Better Books: Oxford University Press bookshop that opened down the road from the original shop. There’s an excellent history of the shop(s) published by Koenig Books in 2018 from a previous exhibition in 2012 which has some of these and much more, seek it out.
Here’s a selection of posters featuring light shows listed by name, actually something of a rarity despite the light shows of the late 60s and early 70s being a key part of some bands’ appeal. Above is one of the only posters devoted entirely to a UK light show, Bristol’s Great Western Light Show. More info about them can be found here.
Below are a set up I know very little about, out of Downey, south west LA, Wick Light Show had many great posters and flyers for their shows, lots which can be seen here.
Two of these next three appeared in the previous Ewell Tech post and feature either Black Lights or Mass Spectrumeter / Spectrometer although they’re somewhat hidden on the last two.
Above is a ticket I found somewhere online, looks like a US show from New Jersey, Jorma Kaukonen was a blues/folk/rock guitarist – anyone know who the lights were by? ‘Psych-A-delic’. Below is a poster featuring the legendary Bill Ham’s Light Show – gotta be late 60s. I’ll add to these periodically as I find more.
Misc. comic/comix-related images from the desktop. The first three are from a seller on eBay who’s been posting some crazily rare underground and small press comics recently. The prices are off the charts and I’d be surprised if any sell for what they are asking but then again, these were probably produced in tiny runs many decades ago. Above is a super rare Hunt Emerson comic that I’ve never seen before and below the Amon Spek is a rare Crumb publication with equally scarce ‘For Adult Intellectuals Only!’ sticker.
The Simon Bisley painting above recently sold at auction for around £35,000 if I remember correctly. It featured on the cover of the second collection of the ABC Warriors ‘Black Hole’ story in the late 80s and you can see more of the image here as well as a superior reproduction. Below is a random Bill Sienkiewicz pin up I ran across, possibly on Comic Art Fans.
Above is a variant cover by Andrew Robinson for an issue of DC‘s excellent Absolute Martian Manhunter comic. Below is a Kevin O’Neill tribute piece for Jack Kirby after his death in 1994.
Above; a rare flyer by Dave McKean for a signing at The Comic Zone comic shop in Reading in 1989. Below; an ad and badge by Bryan Talbot for the legendary Dark They Were And Golden Eyed comic shop in London from 1979. This is, I think, the third such badge design I’ve seen for the shop, anyone have originals?
Another mix of new and old favourites this month. Top of the pile is the re-recording and reanimation of Marc Almond and JG Thirlwell’s cover of Suicide‘s ‘Ghost Rider’ in a new edition with three remixes by JG. A live favourite (seek out their performance from the 80s on YouTube), this ups the ante and also comes with a great video by Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us. “America, America is killing its youth” – well indeed, one of my records of the year for sure. Dimensional Holographic Sound is back with a new album which doesn’t happen often and ‘Concept Record’ is packed with samples as you’d expect from Ben Stokes who is always worth a listen. Nate Krafft wasn’t a name I was familiar with but I did the cover art for this release sometime last year for Musique Pour La Danse, it went off to manufacture and I forgot about it. I didn’t actually realise it was even out until I stumbled across it on Bandcamp earlier this month, a double disc reissue of two hard to find techno/electro discs in one package.
Ferries were new to me too, a ‘secret’ band who’ve done a couple of albums so far of which ‘Eye Wander’ is the second. If you dig dubby, mellow, psychedelic krautrock then this might be for you, out now on World of Echo. Pentagrams of Discordia are a recent discovery too and their new album is full of their take on the darker occult side of electronica that Boards of Canada do so well. The LP with bonus 7″ sold out on the day of launch but don’t let that put you off. I can’t keep up with The Allergies, they put singles out so often around an album I lose track, I think there are now two physical singles so an album must be imminent. ‘Dig It Up’ is an excellent fast party rap track featuring Andy Cooper and Dutch MC, Blabbermouf with a fantastic animated video.
Andrew Poppy‘s ‘The Beating of Wings’ album, originally on ZTT, is 40 years old! Where did the time go? Probably my first exposure to modern classical composition / minimalism as a 16 year old and still sounds great today. Ramjac (aka Ramjac Corporation) has an equally long history in the rave scene and this new compilation of unreleased material from ’88-92 on Mental Groove Records. It comes complete with period adjacent artwork by Grant Fulton who did The Shamen‘s Synergy flyers of which Ramjac was a part way back in time. Lastly I thought I’d feature KiF Productions‘ ‘Passiflora’ again as it slipped out quietly last month on cassette via Music To Watch Seeds Grow By and I’d missed it. I saw Will from the group last week at Doug Shipton‘s Pour Decisions night at the Tate Modern and he played an excellent set of chilled tracks.
Right, back to work, lots to do… until next month!
A whole raft of rarely seen posters from the Lindsay Brown collection coming up for sale at Omega Auctions on the 14th September. Most of these look screen printed using the split fountain technique where one colour will fade to another across the page. Brown was the Social Secretary at Ewell Technical College in Surrey in the 60s and 70s so was in charge of booking bands to appear at the site. Above is the star exhibit from the auction, designed by David Arnott (as are several of the others) and features Nick Drake. Another poster in the collection is from Drake’s last known gig where he left the stage mid-concert and both are expected to fetch a high price.
There have been a lot of images building up on the desktop of late and my workload hasn’t allowed any time to go through them for presentation. But a brief pause over the bank holiday has afforded some housekeeping so expect a few themed posts this week. Some of these posters here come from the Omega Auctions catalogue for upcoming lots from the Lindsay Brown collection in two weeks time. Some of these posters are for student union gigs so are extremely rare.
After spending an amount of time in Leicester in recent years I’m convinced there’s a hidden psychedelic history and below is another piece of evidence for the case. This poster was from 1970.
Beautiful typography on the two images below, unrelated to the above material.
Famous record covers but with Cookie Monster as the star, all made with AI but very well done. Loads more here.
Resident King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard artist, Jason Galea is on fire with his recent designs for their new Alien Metal album and four night run of gigs in the US this weekend just gone. A quartet of designs appeared featuring robots in the style of Shogun Warriors or early Transformers, each made up of elements that relate to previous KG records or songs.
Besides designing these mecha warriors he also 3D printed and painted versions as seen below, how does he find the time?
Below is the new album artwork, no AI, 100% physically printed and painted sculpture which was built digitally before 3D printing. His Instagram shows a speeded up film of the process which is frankly mind-blowing. He also printed the dragon from the song of the same name’s video, also seen below.
Vintage inspiration from Jason’s studio.
DgoHn (pronounced ‘John’!) has a new album on Planet Mu and whilst I’m not hugely up on current DnB, his music is always pushing that envelope as well as being suitable for home listening. My good friend Ali Gibbs aka Nebraska has changed his two decade long moniker to Dubl Drat and produced a new EP of electro funk and ‘understated club functionality’ (not my words – © Electronic Groove website). That’s his dog Olive on the cover too. I was sent a mystery package of occult-themed electronica by someone last week containing all sorts of bits and pieces by the band Pentagrams of Discordia, a shadowy collective who make music somewhere between FSOL and BoC whilst bringing something new to the table with their longform pieces containing multiple sketches and tracks.
Michigan native, Rebecca Goldberg has her debut album out now and it’s a great collection that builds across the spectrum of night time electronica, acid house and ravey techno. PC is back! Patrick Carpenter, my old DJ Food companion, mixmaster in crime and brilliant DJ has released the second instalment of his Electric Envelope (sort of) archive series. I’ve heard some of these tracks in different forms for years, one even dates back to 2009! Someone commission this man to soundtrack their film, it’s his natural calling. Stephen Buckley‘s release schedule takes some keeping up with, his Hungry Vortex release on Feral Child comes from late last year and sees him in vari-speed psychedelic mode, well worth a listen.
Funki Porcini recently put up a collection of early 80s experiments originating from his time in San Francisco – field recordings, tape collages and ambient pieces that are fascinating. Sherman Heath‘s second release on Coarse Fish Records swings from site-specific nature recordings to dark acid and on into wonky garage by the end of side 2 – out this week. Only two tracks are available from a new, barely advertised archive release from Vanishing Twin so it’s hard to tell how the whole thing will sound but they are always worth investigating, roll on September.
I do so hate to relentlessly promote things I’m involved with but if I don’t them this pile of tapes won’t leave the studio. I’ve repressed the tape I did with Graham Dunning earlier this year as it sold out pretty fast. I have less than 10 copies here I think but Graham has some on his Bandcamp too – it’s our FogFest performance from 2023 as well as a bunch of rehearsal jams we recorded around that time, vol.2 is nearly finished. Duplokit will be winging their way back to New Zealand shortly after their stint in Europe for the Extended Turntablism dates and their debut album, Warpdrive, is something I’m very happy to be involved with. The music originates from a few years ago when James Meharry was playing with a similar four-armed turntable set up to my own and a bunch of self-made locked groove records. Both of these are on my Infinite Illectrik label and are the first physical music releases I’ve done, so far they’re limited edition, hand-assembled objects that I’ll do more of if they sell. Rounding out the selection and just released on Friday – SD_OA‘s second album arrives on Detroit Underground with more meticulous clipped and cut beats and tones, wrapped in beautifully minimal artwork by his graffiti alter ego Soda.
It’s been a while coming but finally the Duplokit Warpdrive tapes are ready. Each red glitter cassette has a fold out mini zine inlay with double die-cut hexagonal windows. Every one hand cut, scored, folded and die-cut personally, complete with a full Infinite Illectrik discography inside the fold out inlay.
The Extended Turntablism UK dates so far have been great fun. Brighton (even with its 10pm curfew / football clash) and Bristol all bought the local heads out to see how many tone arms we could pack onto a stage with our turntable-driven contraptions (10 at the last count). Despite a major technical failure with their set up at soundcheck in Brighton, Duplokit still managed to wow the audience and, after a week of scouting for parts, were back up and running for Bristol at the Synced night Holotronica host out in Long Ashton.
Next up for the duo is a trip to the continent for a Berlin date at Drugstore on July 25th and then they’re back in the UK on August 1st for a headline slot at FogFest in Iklectik‘s new space in the Peckham Levels. Furrowed and I will be doing our first live collab on that bill as he cuts parts of my set onto vinyl in real time before feeding the loops back into the mix.
We lose Graham Dunning for that gig as he’s playing elsewhere but gain PuttyRubber who provided amazing visuals for us in Bristol and at Graham and I’s debut live outing at FogFest 2023. Talking of which, there are restocks of the tape featuring most of that performance and a pile of rehearsal jams over on Graham’s Bandcamp page right now as well as his latest album, Quern.
I struggled to find nine releases this month, most probably because I haven’t listened to as much new music, choosing instead podcasts, live sessions on YouTube and a wealth of old music that I both bought or am auditioning for possible future sale. But there is still plenty out there: Posthuman‘s albums always catch me off guard as they’re more listening affairs than club bangers, their new record is no exception but the tracks will worm their way inside your head after a few listens. I’ve still not had time to full engage with the Lines of Silence album Lines In Opposition yet but the first listen was rewarded with motorik krautpop that immediately draws nineties Stereolab comparisons before descending into Berlin school kosmische ambience. Awkward is back with a fifth collection of Secret Remixes, this time centred on one very famous hip hop trio who are no longer active (although one member has recently launched a solo career). He concentrates on the less obvious/classic tracks from their later albums and makes them over in his own image in ever more interesting ways.
Luke Vibert aka Wagon Christ dips into his unreleased DAT drawer and comes up with 11 mid 90s DnB jams from his Plug alias on Variety Magic for De:tuned, the sleeve of which I had the pleasure of putting together with my good friend, stencil artist Pablo Fiasco. Duplokit‘s Warpdrive album is finally out on my Infinite Illectrik label after sitting on my hard drive for far too long. Multi-armed turntable experiments from New Zealand make up this first outing and there’s already another collection awaiting release for later – cassettes are coming to Bandcamp this month too. Lone takes ‘Affinity’ from his recent Hyperphastasia album and creates two new versions for a single release, ‘so good, so good’ as the chorus goes.
The Empress is a new alias for Paul Osbourne, appearing on the ever reliable Library of the Occult label with an album of guitar-led psych funk fuzz. KiF Productions return for the summer with a new album centred around plant life – Music To Watch Seeds Grow By – it’s not out for another month but I’ve heard the whole thing and it’s a beautiful ambient record. Raz Ullah‘s Noosphere is a woozy oddity on Andy Votel‘s new/old Twisted Nerve / Niche Market label, arriving on cassette format full of short abstract electronic modulations and found sound adventures like some long lost sixties time capsule, finishing with a beautiful, undulating ambient piece.
The month is upon us, three Extended Turntablism gigs with Graham Dunning, Furrowed, Duplokit, PuttyRubber and myself are happening this month in the UK with several more on the continent for Duplokit who arrive next week from New Zealand. Get a taste and buy tickets at the links below… Duplokit’s ‘Warpdrive’ album and mine and Graham’s ‘Extended Turntablism vol.1’ cassettes are nearly ready to go too, available at the shows.
Rose Hill Tavern Ticket link – July 11th
Church House Studios Ticket link – July 17th
FogFest Ticket link – August 1st
The great Julio Le Parc passed away recently, less than two weeks before a retrospective show at the Tate Modern opened which I visited yesterday. Small but full of sublime light sculptures, op art pieces and multi-hued spectrum paintings, it’s a must see for anyone interested in light art as Le Parc was producing pieces utilising light and reflective surfaces back in the Fifties.
These really need to be seen in the flesh as no still or even film can truly capture their subtlety but I had fun with my phone camera’s panorama function to try and capture the scope and motion of some of the pieces.
My good friend Martin LeSanto Smith grabbed this one of me behind the reflecting vertical mirrors in one of the rooms which included several interactive pieces. The show just opened and is on until May 2027.
More dates are emerging for the Extended Turntablism dates I’ve set up for the summer. We head to Holotronica‘s Church House Studios just outside Bristol on July 17th for their second Synced night of audio visual goodness where we’re joined by PuttyRubber on projection duties. Tickets here.
A couple of weeks later and she joins us (minus Graham) in London for this year’s FogFest alongside Xylitol, Sarah Anglis & Karina Townsend and The Howling at Iklectik in its new home in Peckham.
Tickets on sale soon…
There will be cassettes on sale at both, the new Duplokit album plus a second batch of mine and Graham’s ‘Extended Turntablism vol.1’