Design

2017: WTF Is Going On?

K2Plant Hire
You may have seen my name loosely connected with The KLF in various different articles over the last few days due to a speculative comment in my end of year post coupled with a year old video made by my old friend Dave Hopkinson that appeared on New Year’s Day teasing a possible return. After speculation and denial we get a confirmation (or do we?). This story seems to be progressing by the hour at the moment. Follow K2PlantHire here

For those wondering what all this is about – here’s some history, a mixumentary by United States of Audio.

A little caper myself and Mr Trick cooked up in 2005, playing at being the JAMMs, wishful thinking for a return…


Some Million Mu notes that I designed for the KLF-themed event held at the Cube Microplex in Bristol in 2015.

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Flexibition 2017: Stephen Coates #3 – French flexi disc magazines

Theatrorama cover
The French, it seems, went gaga for flexi disc magazines in the late 50s as these four examples from Stephen Coates‘ collection illustrate. The 7″x 7.5″ ring bound format, similar to the American Echo magazines and their own long-running Sonorama seems to have been a winner although there are less pages in these examples which lean towards more specialist subjects. Occasionally included as a supplement with the main magazine, Theatrorama showcased extracts from plays across no less than nine discs and made it to at least a third issue in 1959.Theatrorama flexi 2 Theatrorama indexTheatrorama flexi
Cuisinorama (can you spot a theme emerging here?) followed the same format in the same year with five discs, a full colour cover as well as colour pages inside, concentrating on recipes, restaurants and food prep. You can see more examples of ‘orama’ spin-off publications on this excellent Made In Vinyl page including many of the issues featured here, Echo and the previously featured Soviet magazine, Krugazor.Cuisinorama cover Cuisinorama flexi 1 Cuisinorama flexi 2Cuisinorama back
‘Sound magazine of medical information’ Medicophone, issue seven from 1961. I’ve found evidence of up to 26 issues of this, all with the same cover. This one came with five discs covering such fascinating subjects as the heart and hernias.Medicophone coverMedicophone flexi 1Medicophone insideMedicophone flexi 2
In The Beginning There Was Rhythm, ‘strictly reserved for the medical corps‘ (this is stamped no. 0131 inside) concentrates on jazz and seems to be a freebie produced or sponsored by Vegetaline, a coconut-based lard.

ITBTWRhythm cover ITBTWRhythm flexi 1 ITBTWRhythm flexi 2

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Flexibition 2017: Stephen Coates #2 – Echo magazine No.1

Echo #1 cover
Again from the collection of Stephen Coates (The Real Tuesday Weld, Antique Beat, X-Ray Audio), Echo magazine no.1 (“a magazine of sight and sound”) debuted in 1959 with five two-colour, card-backed flexi discs featuring Mike Nichols & Elaine May, Fred Astaire, Larry Alder, ‘Gypsy’ and Alexander King on the Human Dilemma. Art directed by Cynthia Pennell, the issue has an almost medieval look from the choice of fonts with a more ‘jazz’ feel to the discs which include the red and gold of the cover – sadly lacking in later issues, of which no.2 will be featured here soon.

Echo #1 Publisher noteEcho #1 Fashion flexiEcho #1 Intro offerEcho #1 red flexi Echo #1 Fred AstaireEcho #1 Alder flexi Echo #1 EntertreneurEcho #1 Avant GardeEcho #1 King Flexi Echo #1 Needle hereEcho #1 back

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Maps of the 20th Century exhibition

MOL PlaymapThe British Library is currently hosting a fascinating exhibition of maps – no!, come back! really! Not just everyday maps of towns, cities, countries and continents but also metro maps, moon maps, curious cartography of imaginary places, mind maps and Beatles guides to Liverpool. Maps & The 20th Century is on until March 1st.

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The graphics adorning the floor & walls that guide you around the exhibition are as captivating as the contents too.

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Flexibition 2017: Stephen Coates #1- Postcard records

Atomium postcard 2
Stephen Coates – he of The Real Tuesday Weld, Antique Beat and the X-Ray Audio project amongst other things – gamely lent me part of his collection of flexi discs and postcard records late last year with the express purpose of me showcasing them on the blog. So here we have the first of several posts highlighting some of the treasures he’s found over the years.
Some of these were on show at the Horse Hospital in 2015 when the X-Ray Audio book debuted but have been hidden since. I especially coveted the nearly 6″ in diameter Atomium postcard above when I spied it back then and inspecting it now I see that it seems to be an idealised painting or possibly a hand-tinted photo with part of the background erased as similar photographs don’t quite match this viewpoint. The song, ‘Marche Atomium’ by M. Leemans, is a swinging brass type number which sadly doesn’t mirror the futuristic architecture it plays over.

Atomium postcardback

The tiny, beautiful but fairly unremarkable postcard below takes on a new importance when you turn it over to discover that the Beach Boys‘ ‘Help Me Rhonda’ is etched into the front image. Or ‘Help Me Rondoo’ as it’s spelt here. It measures 12cm x 10cm and, despite sounding like you’re listening to the song through a sandstorm, you can easily make out the pop classic, possibly a live version to boot which has very odd soft and loud parts near the end.

Beach boys card frontBeach boys card back

The 19cm x 16cm postcard below is the Polish singer Maryla Rodowicz as a young woman, and the song pressed across her face was the one that made her famous, ‘Malgoska’.

Maryla Rodowicz frontMaryla Rodowicz back

US Marines were allowed to record messages home for their loved ones and discs came with a pre-printed design as well as an envelope that broadcast the contents for the postman and recipients. This one is unused, approx 6.5 inches across and has a second hole stamped in the center label, presumably to steady the disc when it was being cut. The darker ring over the illustrations is a thick, shiny layer where the grooves would have been cut. The cartoons make war out to be a fairly light-hearted affair.

US Marine letter record

US Marine letter

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Star Wars Identities comes to London

SWI_Falcon
The Star Wars Identities exhibition opened last month in London at the O2 in Greenwich. Over 200 props, models, costumes, paintings and designs are collected around a 10 step trail based on building your own personal characters within the Star Wars universe. There have been a few additions and subtractions since I first saw it in Montreal four years ago but it’s essentially the same. Just check some of the pictures below and you’ll get the idea, absolutely essential for any Star Wars fan and very child-friendly. So nice to go into an exhibition that doesn’t discourage photography too. It’s on until September 2017 and you can buy tickets HERE.

SWI_Falconguns SWI_Falconradar SWI_FalconcockpitSWI_Slave SWI_SDestroyerSWI_CCity SWI_Dagobah SWI_SandcrawlerSWI_Han SWI_Vader SWI_Helmets2 SWI_Jawa SWI_JJ SWI_Droids SWI_BobaTroopers SWI_R2BB8 SWI_Boba SWI_Stormtroopers SWI_Mouse

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FourFromFoodFridays 13

FourFromFoodFridays13
Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things 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:
The Karminsky Experience Inc. ‘Beat!’ LP (Patterns of Behaviour)
Various Artists – Selected Ambient Covers Vol.2 (Bandcamp)
David Sylvian – Gone To Earth (Virgin) LP
? – A Huge 54 Minute Mix Mk2 (unreleased) CD-R

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The new Design Museum opens

Science Museum Paolozzi
I visited the new Design Museum off High Street Kensington at the weekend and the permanent collection was full of lovely bits and pieces, including a new film by The Light Surgeons. Perhaps it was because it was teeming with people but the gallery spaces seemed very small and cramped next to the yawning atrium and the cafe was hidden round a corner, almost embarrassed to be seen but packed nevertheless. People were being told to queue as they ascended up the levels to the top floor but we just got in the lift and bypassed all this. An oddly disfunctional design of a space for a Design Museum.

Science Museum Science Museum Kennard Science Museum olivetti3 Science Museum olivetti2 Science Museum olivetti1DesignTLSDesignformats Science Museum TV Science Museum Braun Science Museum timeline Science Museum User Science Museum logos Science Museum shapes Science Museum S

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Two new Patterned Air releases

Patterened Air front
I’ve been meaning to post about Matt Saunders‘ new(ish) Patterned Air Recordings imprint for a while now but work is taking over at the moment. Suffice to say that after The Assembled Minds’ debut release late last year he’s just released the second and third in the catalogue back to back. CukoO and Running On Air couldn’t be further apart stylistically but they make sense when tied together in the elaborate CD packaging that Matt assembles for each release. Patterened Air back
Taking up the baton from labels like The Folklore Tapes or A Year In The Country, each pouch contains multiple items that enhance the release in some way, hand printed, stamped, signed, numbered and then tied with a leather strip. They’re a nightmare to store and get into but there’s nothing out there quite like them and the label mission statement on their website reads like a ‘Hauntology 101’. “We are a record label interested in weird things. We like analogue synths, reel-to-reel machines, Radiophonics, music for children, music for falling to sleep by, early electronic experiments, folkloric eeriness, seances, electronic voice phenomenon, old techno, deteriorated music — in a nutshell, soundtracks to get us off this mundane plain and onto an elevated, if creepy, state of euphoria”.

I’ll buy that for a dollar but there’s more at work here than that – the music is just as unique as the packaging, sitting somewhere between earthy folk, spine-chilling electronica and the kind of melodic, stately British nostalgia found in Grasscut‘s records. Labels like this are always fun at the beginning because they’re full of ideas, idealism, experiments and no musical formula in place. These are all still available from the label’s Bandcamp page.

Assembled Minds front Cukoo front Cukoo backRunning On Air frontRunning On Air back

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Songs of Immigrants & Experience

Songsfront
Earlier this year I reconnected with an old friend from the early Ninja Tune days, Shane Solanki, a writer and poet who was responsible for the original Ninja press releases and the lexicon inside the original Ninja Skinz packets. These freeform, punning, cut and paste definitions, profiles and prose helped define part of the aesthetic and thinking behind the label in the early years and gave voice to Coldcut and co.’s ideals. He’s currently constructing a hugely ambitious project involving a stage play, an album and a graphic novel based on a story he’s written called ‘Songs of Immigrants and Experience’.
I helped him visualize certain scenes for the play and put together a rough version of an extract from the novel to help present the complicated project to prospective publishers. Below you can see examples of the A4 handout at the last performance and shots from the show with some of the scenes as backdrops. For more info go to Lastmangoinparis.netSongsinsideSongsinsidedoveSongsinsidedetailSongsback

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De:tuned Brainbox compilation artwork

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As you’ll be aware if you read this blog, I’ve designed the artwork for the new 6xLP ‘Brainbox’ compilation from Belgian label, De:Tuned. This was somewhat of a dream job in every sense as not only did I have multiple surfaces to play with but the design brief was an ideal one from the start. Ruben Boons, label manager, came to me over a year ago wanting something that jumped off from my work with Amon Tobin around the ‘Out From Out Where’ album sleeves which is one of my personal favourite designs and was exactly where my head was at this particular time. Using similar methods of assembly and composition I created a main image that everyone was happy with (which became the cover) and then remixed it mulitple times to form images for the rest of the compilation. Everything you see here stems from at least part of the cover image.

From the off it seemed that Ruben and I was on exactly the same page and any suggestions he made always bettered the designs and, as I’d been given pretty much free reign over what to produce, this made the whole process even more enjoyable. There’s nothing worse that presenting a client with multiple variations of a job and them picking the weakest one. From experience I try never to send any examples of prospective designs on a job that I ultimately wouldn’t be happy to see in print but there are always favourites. No such worries on this job, it was bliss from beginning to end and I couldn’t be happier with the final result. There are only 300 box sets out there (I know mine says 304 below, that’s part of a small overun for the artists involved) and each comes with a download code for those who like their music digital – there is no CD though, another godsend as one of the most boring parts of a job like this is reformatting a design down to a small version for a CD.

You can hear excerpts from it and more above in this Solid Steel mix I made and buy it from the many links below:
Juno: bit.ly/2eD3NzG Bleep: bit.ly/2dsrXzY Hardwax: bit.ly/2f51Tdr Rushhour: bit.ly/2eN9dsN
Norman: bit.ly/2errQmc Japhy: bit.ly/2eaHxOU Decks: bit.ly/2emIWni Deejay.de: bit.ly/2eN2VwO

NB: Each disc was given a subtitle as well as a number, referring to different parts of the brain: Frontal, Cerebellum, Parietal etc. also, the last image below is of a sticker that comes with the box.

BBnumberBBbottom BBinners3 BBbox+innersBBinners2 BBinnerstext BBinner6 BBinner4Bblabel2BBinner1BBinner7 BBlabel1 BBinner5BBinner5.2BBinner2 BBsticker

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Colossus – The Forbin Project screenshots

Colossus1
A great film about an American AI super computer that holds its creator and the human race to ransom for its own good. Some great cinematography and a cracking score by Michel Colombier (as yet unreleased), recommended viewing but a tale that could easily become reality all too soon. Maybe it’s what we need right now though?

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Howlround vs DJ Food at the Museum of London

MOLTorchpurple
I had such a good time last night at the Museum of Last Parties event at the Museum of London – improvising with turntables and FX alongside Jonny Trunk and Howlround‘s tape loops in the room that houses Thomas Heatherwick‘s Olympic Torch. Moon rock beanbags and video compilations of psychedelic space film clips set it off nicely – my favourite gig of the year so far.

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MOLTapePlayers
We recorded 3 hours of the set so now have to go through it and see if any bares repetition / broadcasting. After the event we trooped over to the Lo & Behold event at the State 51 HQ in Shoreditch and caught Jon Tye and Pete Fowler‘s DJ sets. Sadly we’d missed The Pattern Forms and Grasscut plus a screening of the Delia Derbyshire soundtracked ‘Circle of Light’ film, supplied by Jonny. Speaking of film soundtracks, I was treated to a sneak preview of a film, ‘A Creak In Time’ that Howlround have soundtracked for their next (imminent) record, and it is beautiful, all macro/microscopic imagery and perfect for their eerie soundscapes. I’ll be featuring it here when it’s due for release for sure.

MOLRoomMOLBeanbags2 MOL_ScreensbeanbagsMOLBeanbags MOL_Howlround MOLTorchStemsMOLRobintapeMOLChrisJonnyRobinKev

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