The front and back covers of two amazing religious spoken word records – love the double entendre.
Below: Four Music De Wolfe 10″ library records, the ‘Electroshake’ is particularly good, there’s a vol.2 as well…
45 finds – the Public Enemy includes the instrumental on the flip
A fun little flexi disc from Fermaley Flame – nice electronics at the beginning and end
Lastly – a beautiful Robert Crumb sleeve from 1974
I did some pack shots of the new Belbury Poly LP for Jim Jupp at Ghost Box. The multi-coloured cover art and Rainbow-esque inner sleeve does the music justice; a seemingly random collection of tunes emanating from approximately 1974. Autobahn-era Kraftwerk meets Glitter Band glam stomp meets folk-tinged vocals and sunshine Sesame Street ‘ba-ba-bum’ singalong harmonies. New Ways Out is a perfect title for this release in many ways, it’s his most curious and varied work to date and – much the same as The Soundcarriers and Hintermass releases – pushes out of the usual territory you’d expect from the label. Be prepared to be taken in new directions on 10 track vinyl and 11 track CD, up for pre-order on the Ghost Box shop now.
Also coming soon is Other Voices 08 featuring two tracks from Beautify Junkyards on June 10th…
The Brix System is a series of handcrafted wooden electronic devices inspired by LEGO by Swedish designer Love Hulten. Each of these (and more) work as objects ranging from computer games, phones or music-making devices. Visually taken from the classic Space Lego series of the early 80s and scaled up but still able to be assembled like real pieces, they have sockets at the reverse and can be plugged together to work in tandem too.
Very pleased to see Sadiq Khan win the post of Mayor of London over the weekend but also this campaign leaflet from the Greens raised a smile. With a tagline of ‘Make Your Vote Go Further’, the leaflet can be folded into a paper plane, complete with a note that they’re not so keen on extra runways and please recycle this leaflet. Kudos to the designer who came up with this idea, nicely done.
The Alan Kitching exhibition at Somerset House is fantastic, a huge collection of letterpress posters, experiments and book designs that stretch the medium to its limits. It’s only on until May 2nd so be quick, Alan is also doing live, Utopian-themed demonstrations between 12 – 3pm on Saturday 30th April and Monday 2nd May.
Bit late on posting these as it’s been on for a few weeks but I thought I’d let RSD die down a bit and there’s still time to view the Secret 7″ entries before buying day. As every year, I went along to see what was being cooked up on the custom 45 front. This year they reside in the Sonos building in Shoreditch and the sleeves are displayed until May 1st. On May 2nd they are all up for grabs at £50 each which, this year, goes to Amnesty International UK. There are 700 this year and, if you go, make sure you check upstairs as I nearly missed that half.
Whilst at the new Pick Me Up exhibition at Somerset House today I ran across the 3rd Rail Print House with these lovely diamond-shaped screen-prints. Part of a beer promotion campaign, they can be purchased online here
Op-Art April continues daily over on Instagram
I did a gig with Ameet Hindocha, aka Ambigraph, last summer and we ended up collaborating on an audio visual alt. soundtrack to Dune. I was so impressed with his geometric designs I asked him to do me a commission based on a complex pattern we both chose. Here are some work-in-progress shots and the final thing, all hand drawn, no computer was used, just pen, pencil and ruler. See more of his work here
Psychedelic stoner rock from Dead Sea Apes with a gorgeous cover by Luke Insect on Sunrise Ocean Bender and Cardinal Fuzz. More info, sound and buy options here
Zyprazol 7″ animation picture disc by Sculpture from Sculpture on Vimeo.
As usual with Sculpture, they just knock things out the park again with this new single/video. More ideas in one second of music and video that most songs in the top 40. Pre-order here.
Czech this out (sorry, couldn’t resist) via Jonny Trunk’s fabulous weekly newsletter comes a trailer for a remastered mix of live action and animated collage from 1958 (!) Think Jules Verne meets Terry Gilliam.
The launch party for Jonny’s new book, ‘The Music Library’, last night was excellent with a bit of celeb-spotting going down (Jarvis, Matt Berry) and a storming reggae cover version set from Jerry Dammers. The book is an expansion of the original version he released 10 years ago, this time with twice as many covers and a nifty, if pricey, slipcased edition with a 10″ record. There is of course a reasonably priced version without either of those two as well, get them both here.
Yes, you read that right, Stolid Seal, not Solid Steel unfortunately as this mix got squeezed out of the selection process due to an overflowing number of guest mixes piling up for the show. I asked Glyn and PK from The Dandelion Set to do a mix last year after the band had played at the Delaware Road event in Reading. To me this is prime SS material and he’s done a sterling job but alas, it wasn’t to be. But, by the miracle that is the internet, you can still hear it and see what you’re missing.
I’ve featured The Dandelion Set before, way back when their releases were confined to digital only, and I’m now pleased to learn that their debut album is coming out on a favourite label of mine, Buried Treasure. It also features the sleeve notes, lyrics & vocals of none other than Alan Moore (surely no introduction necessary?) among others. Inhabiting the worlds of folk, radiophonics, jazz, psychedelia, library music, soundtracks and spoken word, the album is packed with over 20 tracks and enough tricky time signatures to require some very deep listening. ‘A Thousand Strands’ is out April 22nd on CD, LP, cassette (yes!) and download from Buried Treasure. Beautiful cover too
DEEZER – Music Unleashed from CRCR on Vimeo.
Fantastic animation by CRCR using designs by McBess and a remixed ‘Wannamama’ by Pop Levi.
The, by now, ubiquitous Ghost Box post when they release a new record (they’re not paying me, honest). Hintermass – a collaboration between Jon Brooks and Tim Felton – just came out on LP, CD and DL and lovely it is too. Next up is an album by Belbury Poly (at last!), Jim Jupp‘s recording alias which is coming in May. Download these two posters HERE.
The vinyl heads among you may want to jump sharpish over to the Drumetrics store and secure a copy of this gorgeous op art-covered, die-cut triangular picture disc and sleeve (300 copies only). If you don’t know about Drumetrics then you need to visit their site
The First Book Of Jazz (1955) is the third of five books that Langston Hughes (1902-1967) wrote for the Franklin Watts First Books series. “When boys and girls FIRST start asking why?…what?…and how? FIRST BOOKS are the first books to read on any subject.”
Cliff Roberts (1929-1999) was a cartoonist and animator. His cartoons appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker and Playboy. He worked as an animator on Sesame Street, and wrote and drew the short-lived Sesame Street newspaper comic strip.
Image and text cribbed from Ariel S. Winter’s Flickr where he has the full book scanned. For more information see this blog post
I do like seeing animated versions of graphics I’ve designed. This was done by Elliot Seeds from the Ninja Tune office and here’s this week’s guest mix version.
The Hintermass LP arrived yesterday in all its summery glory, just check out that artwork, good enough to eat. As with all things Ghost Box it’s another piece of Julian House wonder, how he does it I do not know, always different but always quintessentially ‘House’. The music is a new collaboration by Jon Brooks (The Advisory Circle etc.) with lyrics on half the tracks by Tim Felton (Seeland / ex-Broadcast). A mixture of folk-tinged songs and ‘Krauty’ electronica, it’s too early to fully comment at the moment but on first listen I’d say it’s worth it for the last track alone. Listen and buy here
Graphic Means (Official Trailer) from Briar Levit on Vimeo.
Graphic Means is a film about graphic design processes through history from hot metal, PMT to the desktop publishing revolution of the 90s and beyond. Funded by a Kickstarter in 2014, director Briar Levit has pulled together 25 interviews with many leading figures in the field and is now in post-production with the aim of an Autumn 2016 release. You can find out more at the Graphic Means website, pre-order the DVD and buy a calendar and badges to help fund the film to the finish line.