Loving these graphics for Baltimore band The Flying Eyes, they were done by Kiryk although the posters may be by someone else.
Design
When I did the interview on design for music in the digital age for Gilles Peterson‘s Worldwide + magazine I submitted a lot of extra images that weren’t able to be used for space reasons. I thought I’d put them up here as I love them all and they illustrate some of the people I talk about who didn’t get featured visually.
The mag is now available on iTunes to download for the iPad.
Top to bottom, left to right:
Julian House / Ghost Box label,
The Designers Republic / Emigre magazine cover,
Michael C. Place / Build poster,
Vaughn Oliver & Chris Bigg – V23 / Lonely Is An Eyesore deluxe LP,
Pete Fowler / The Magic Numbers LP,
Mr Krum / The Simonsound mp3.
The Herbaliser return on October 8th with their 7th album proper, (not including Session 1&2, Herbal Blend, Herbal Tonic etc.), ‘There Were Seven’. There’s a loose concept at work within the album, which I don’t want to give away too much of but there are a myriad of clues in the titles, lyrics and graphics to a narrative that runs through much of the album.
I’ve kindly been asked back to design the record, which will be available on vinyl, CD and download plus a very limited special vinyl package from their own Dept. H label. Full details of the ltd. vinyl are yet to be finalised but even the standard vinyl will be a special package and I’m looking forward to getting that one back from the printers.
The album features vocals from MCs Ghettosocks, Muneshine, Timbuktu, George The Poet and vocals from Hannah Clive. A promo single, ‘The Lost Boy‘ will be doing the rounds soon with remixes forthcoming from The Colman Brothers, 2econd Class Citizen and more…
Memory 9‘s new 12″ packaging and disc, plus the new Falty DL release in retro Ninja house bag. Win both of these tonight on Solid Steel between 7-9pm GMT on Strongroom Alive. I’ll be in the studio with Jon More from Coldcut and Memory 9 is supplying the guest mix.
My mix has a lot of killer new Hip Hop including an exclusive first play from the new Herbaliser album plus DJ Format, 2econd Class Citizen, Mister Jason, Cut Chemist, Soundsci and an unreleased mix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ by The Amorphous Androgynous.
And here’s the show:
The Soundsci LP is finally out today! Ex-Dynamic Syncopation producer Jonny Cuba and current part-Herbaliser DJ Ollie Teeba – alongside ex-Mass Influence MC Audessey, U-George and Oxygen. The deluxe bundle I posted about a few weeks back sold out in a day but the regular vinyl and digital is out now. Here’s a little snippets mix by Ollie Teeba to wet the taste buds…
[youtube width=”640″ height=”479″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKP0rmBUMp8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
and an even longer version on Soundcloud…
Steve Cook and I went on a scavenge for old magazines on my birthday earlier this year and, whilst in a well known West London basement, Steve found dozens of kids magazines from the 60’s and 70’s.
I’ve only had time to scan a few pieces but they are riddled with beautiful illustrations and typography from back in the day, check the Mini 22 logo on the toy gun ad for instance (there’s a telling amount of adverts for toy guns in each issue). Absolutely LOVE the robot cover and spread, which Steve graciously gave up for me from the pile, see also the ad for a vintage Lego train set.
These scans are primarly from an Italian mag called Corriere dei Piccoli (Italian for “Courier of the Little Ones”) and Steve has some from French ‘Lissette’ over on his Secret Oranges blog today. There’s plenty more from both mags to come from both of us so stay tuned and click images for larger versions.
Nice font there, possibly by Mike Hinge? Interesting choice of cover ‘image’, forces you to focus on the type. The contents of the portfolio can be seen over on fredschiller’s site, there’s a great final page that looks like a storyboard for the opening of a film which I’ve nicked to show below.
Syd Mead, another artist who just can’t make a bad mark. Found this whilst searching for Tron stuff for the kids. Check out these two puzzles available from his website.
Late last year I wrote an extensive piece in response to an interview by Miguel Angel Rolland for Gilles Peterson‘s Worldwide Festival magazine about design for music in the digital age. It’s finally been published over on Issu and it’s 16 pages long (!) You can order a print copy or just download a digital version and physical copies should be available at the festival this summer. Not sure why they didn’t credit Miguel or photographer Steve Cook for the studio shot either but I’m very pleased to have been given the chance to air my views.
Very much looking forward to this, available August 6th from ZTT
CD1: Frankie Goes To Hollywood in The Pleasuredome, a Zang Tuum Tumb singlette in five parts: Happy Hi! (All in the Body), The Soundtrack from Bernard Rose’s Video of the Welcome to the Pleasuredome single, Get It On, Welcome to the Pleasure Dome (How to Remake the World), Happy Hi! (All in the Mind); Relax (International); The Power of Love (I’ll Protect You From The Holocaust) can be read in various ways but, for the sake of CD indexing, has six distinct sections: The Power of Love (extended, singlette – as opposed to 12” – version), The World is My Oyster (Trapped), Holier Than Thou (FGTH’s Christmas message), The World is My Oyster (Scrapped), Holier Than Thou (further festive messaging), The Power of Love (instrumental, singlette version); The World is My Oyster (at its full length); Don’t Lose What’s Left, Rage Hard + ++ *.
CD2: Extracts from Relax, From Soft to Hard, Dry to Moist: Relax (Sex Mix), Later On (from One September Monday), Ferry Cross The Mersey (…and here I’ll stay); Music from and inspired by Two Tribes (Keep The Peace): Two Tribes (singlette extracts), One February Friday (singlette extracts), War (somewhere between Hidden and Hiding); Further elements from The Liverpool Look: Warriors of the Wasteland (Compacted), Do You Think I’m Sexy?, Watching the Wildlife (Voiceless).
I’m totally in love with the design of the new Tron Uprising cartoon that just premiered on Disney’s XD channel. Starting with a 30 minute pilot last month to set the whole thing up they have eighteen 20 minute episodes in the first season with only Flynn, Tron and Clu remaining from the films and a host of new characters to flesh out the story. The design cues are taken from Tron Legacy and ramped up with Aeon Flux-like proportions on the characters and hyper neon designs.
Two new takes on an old concept – films as Penguin Book covers – with the, now ubiquitous original Star Wars trilogy and Studio Ghibli films too. The SW ones are available as posters by Studio Concepcion, the SG ones by 84/5 Studio as prints and a postcard set.
I’ve written about SoundSci before, I even cut a video for them for a track called ‘The Illness’ from their ‘Dig For Victory’ EP on Crate Escape the other year. I’m slightly biased in my opinion of the group being that two of my closest friends are in it (ex-Dynamic Syncopation producer Jonny Cuba and current part-Herbaliser DJ Ollie Teeba – alongside Audessey, ex-Mass Influence, U-George and Oxygen). As you may have guessed if you recognise any of the names present, they make Hip Hop, the great kind, the Boom-Bap kind, the kind you remember and wish people made more of. It’s solid, made with love and care, skills on the mic, the decks and the SP 1200, made with respect for the artform, an ear for a dope sample and an eye for a great sleeve design (here supplied by Mr Krum no less).
There are plenty of people making this kind of Hip Hop but, like the samples that form it’s foundations, you have to dig for it these days as it’s no longer the prominent kind. After an EP and a 45, their LP, ‘Formula 99’, is finally ready to be released on double vinyl with insert and CD on Crate Escape. An ultra limited deluxe package is up for order now as well (see image below). This set contains hand stamped test pressings, T-shirt, poster, sticker, badge and more.
Here’s a little snippets mix by Ollie Teeba to wet the taste buds…
[youtube width=”640″ height=”479″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKP0rmBUMp8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
More sleeve porn from the ever-reliable Stones Throw label, a Bruce Haack remix LP and an Oh No/Doom collaboration which comes as an LP, a double sided poster and a 5″ single.
A quick gallery of images I shot whilst walking around the lovely city of Montreal this past week. So much art on the streets of this city, second favourite only to my own home town of London.
These beautiful prints are going to be available on May 29th from Dark Hall Mansion in 3 different editions of 5 prints. Tom Whalen has been featured before with his take on the original Star Wars trilogy and he’s been commissioned to created this official portfolio for The Beatles. They’re not cheap but they’re beautiful.
More gorgeous artwork from Mr Krum for the new DJ Format 10″ single featuring Edan & Mr Lif – available now from Slice of Spice but be quick! Lots of limited versions available, black vinyl, clear with black swirls, a postcard remix of an exclusive remix, test pressing versions of the album ‘Statement of Intent’. These are two of the best Hip Hop cuts I’ve heard in a long time and instrumentals are included too.
I’ve had this for a while now but not had time to photograph it properly. Beautiful primer for the upcoming 2econd Class Citizen album – ‘The Small Minority’ – on Equinox Records out of Berlin.
They’ve put my postcard record to shame with this package and were sold out in a day sadly (very expensive to produce in large numbers, as I found out). Love the detail of the 2nd class stamps on the reverse when you remove the postcards from the backing board!
The album is out in May and I’ve just finished a 17 minute preview mini-mix of the whole record which will be online soon. Aaron has also put down the space-themed mix he assembled for my album launch party too and it will be appearing on Solid Steel soon.
Vinyl cover with analog light animation from Michael Hansen on Vimeo.
Another record employing the phenakistoscope animation technique just popped up – description below abbreviated from Michael Hansen‘s site.
“An album cover for the modern classical composer Allan Gravgaard Madsen . My idea was to translate Allan’s sensorial music into a visual experience with elements of sensuality. There is not an A- or B-side, each has its own front page. ‘Waves’ is a visualisation of the music performed by nine trumpets in a line, as simple as possible with nine circles on a line. ‘Crystal Tapestry’ is a pattern of crystals that has no front or back end, it refers to a crystal that merges into itself. Inside I made a visualisation that combines the two sides, a crystalized wave. On the record I created patterns that gives the design a visual sensuality. I made an analog animation with a 50 Hz strobe lamp and made it interact with the music.”
Beautiful, I wish I could buy a copy.
