I’ll be at the Leicester Print Workshop this weekend, helping Kvist Studio launch her new Fantasy 45’s screen and riso prints as well as new stationary, Buchla and Galt Toys-inspired risos. These are now online in her shop.
There will be loads of other artists selling and exhibiting with an open evening on Friday to start the weekend. Details on the last image. Come down and say hello!
There’s obviously something about the word, ‘groove’ that ticks several boxes for me. My favourite record fair of the year is this Saturday, The Groovy Record Fayre at the Mildmay Club on Newington Green. The record fair is in the day until about 5-6pm then a pub quiz after 7pm followed by a party until 1am – all FREE!
Then on November 19th it’s the UK launch of the Dust & Grooves vol.2 at the BBE Store in Hackney – could this be the line up of the year? Also FREE but you have to RSVP here
More photos found on an old disc; from that time I played at the Supersonic festival in Birmingham alongside The Bug, Coil, LCD Soundsystem, Kid Acne, Req, V/Vm and more. Above, a young Kid Acne, below, Edna soundchecking with Req-1 and Remark (I think?). Req live-painting 12″ sleeves outside and Lucy McLauchlan‘s Beat 13 plane installation. Lastly, The Green Man sculpture by Tawney Gray, just outside the main square where the festival was held.
This year’s Supersonic, now 21 years old, happens at the end of August over 3 days
Photos I recently rediscovered on an old disc from the UNKLE/Futura 2000 exhibition at the ICA in London, 2003. This was the artwork that became sleeve material for the Never, Never, Land album and surrounding singles, painted in panels and exhibited alongside various toys and ephemera for a limited time. A unique Futura Bearbrick figure was also produced for the show as well which I still have although I’ve bought and sold numerous FT2 toys over the years including the clear multi figure set and the Pointman action figure seen here.
This one has been on the cards for a while, an extended Saturday afternoon in store at Upside Down Records alongside my partner in crime Hannah Brown. We’ll both be spinning randomly all afternoon while you browse the racks at South East London’s finest new used record emporium – Upside Down – brainchild of ex-Rat Records manager Philippe Giron as I’m sure you will know if you read this blog regularly.
As it says above – Wow and Flutter in Hastings will have the 20 unique LPs for sale that we displayed during our live instore last month. As you can see in the video at the top, each one has a hand-assembled, screenprinted sleeve on a different type of holographic card in a variety of printings (black/white ink and postive/negative image inversions). These were all test ideas for the second print run of the LP and were passed over in favour of the prism effect card we eventually used.
Castles in Space had 20 extra sleeveless copies of the LP left over from the second batch (silver and white swirl vinyl) and so we married them up for this unique final run. Wow and Flutter are the only people selling these anywhere in the world, they will be a highly affordable £25 each and it’s first come, first served plus they’ll let you pick your favourite sleeve from the bunch – a Castle’s in Space completist’s nightmare but there you go.
Here’s a quick blast of a bit of our instore performance which will possibly wind up on the next album in some form or other. Video by Tim Scullion from W&F – also if you’ve not heard the podcast Tim does with Paul Field under the name We Buy Records then check that out too.
The first (that I’ve ever heard of) exhibition of zoetrope art – TURN ON – ended recently at the Place des Rotondes in Luxembourg and they have made this short film of the event, directed by Raoul Schmitz. Sculpture played at the opening and my 2013 zoetrope of Bonobo‘s ‘Cirrus’ using animations by Cyriak was featured alongside discs by Reuben Sutherland, Drew Tetz, Tess Martin, Iloobia and more.
A note to cultural spaces – the exhibition is now available for hire and can’t wait to go on tour! A presentation kit is being finalised for interested art and cultural centres. Email Marine Deravet at Rotondes if you are interested in hosting the event in your city or town. Photos below by Lynn Theisen (first 3) and Mike Zenari.
Two new gigs that showcase two sides of my Quadraphon turntable set up – first off – in two week’s time I’ll be playing an in-store at Wow & Flutter in Hastings alongside Robin the Fog and Chris Weaver as The New Obsolescents. We’ll be playing all afternoon on Sunday April 7th and generating material for our next album live in the shop. We’ll also be exhibiting multiple test sleeves for our debut LP that have so far not seen the light, these will be up for sale at some point with test pressings of the album from Castles In Space.
Speaking of which – the word is out for the label’s Levitation’24 festival which moves South to Bedford Esquires this year and boasts an incredible line up. I’ll be joined by Graham Dunning and we’ll be reprising out customised turntable/mechanical techno set from Fog Fest last year.
There will be a third announcement very soon along these lines that I’m also very excited about…
Out today for an extremely good cause and only available until March 1st – an album of exclusive electronic music in aid of Iklectik keeping going and finding a new venue to operate from. Put together by Castles In Space from a suggestion by Robin The Fog – the current crowdfunder has passed the £40k barrier and hopefully this will help.
The second edition of Brian Eno‘s turntable is showing at the Paul Stolper Gallery in London this month. Prices last time were eye-watering and actually went up as the edition sold out giving an incentive for early buyers.
Gary Hustwit‘s Eno film premiered at the Sundance Festival in January to rave reviews, it compiles a different film with each showing from 168 hours of footage. You can buy these limited prints or Sundance Poster, designed by Build, from Hustwit’s site
And if that wasn’t enough Eno for you, there have been more tracks added to his radio station, The Lighthouse, on Sonos. At the end of 2023 there were 424 but 447 and 448 cropped up today, The Lighthouse is a continuous stream of largely unreleased tracks from Brian’s archive that play randomly 24 hours a day – am investigating…
UPDATE: There are at least 25 new tracks from 2023 and 2022 added as of Feb 2024 bringing the total of tracks up to 449.
20 years ago today I premiered the first version of my Raiding The 20th Century guest mix on XFM‘s The Remix radio show. Originally commissioned by James Hyman as a 30 minute set for the evening show he and Eddie Temple-Morris chaired together, what emerged was a 39 minute mini history of the cut up. James had left the show by this time but I visited the studio and sat in live with Eddie as the show unfolded, chatting a little at the end about the mix and why I’d felt the need to undertake such an epic excercise. At the time the mix took down the home of online mash ups, the Boom Selection server for a bit when it was uploaded and I made a run of 100 copies of a CD version that I largely sold at our Solid Steel nights or through the Ninja Tune forum.
Fast forward about 18 years and I’m contacted by Yoshi from Delic Records in Japan who wanted to make a physical tape version of the mix as he thought it was an important work and wanted to have a physical item to save it from being just another digital file floating in the ether. At the time I was sceptical and not too interested – afterall, the mix is out there if you look, as is its bigger brother the Paul Morley-narrated Words & Music Expansion that clocks in at 59 minutes. Yoshi was persistant and, as the 20th anniversary approached, I could see his point and wanted to do something commemorate it.
So here we have a cassette version of the first edition of the mix, spread over both sides (I did the edit) and with rejigged artwork from the original CD release. Also available is a double-sided T-shirt or you can get both as a bundle. These are only being sold by Delic Records in Japan, I have none here aside from my own personal copies. I’m sure there will also be a companion release for the expanded mix this time next year…
Music:
Kosmischer Laufer – Volume 5 LP (UCR)
Soia, Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau – In C for 11 Oscillators and 53 Forms LP (unjenesaisquoi)
Cate Brooks – Tapeworks DL (Cafe Kaput)
Memorials – Music For Film: Tramps! LP (State 51 Conspiracy)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse… LP (Album of the year)
Field Lines Cartographer – Moonbuilding Sessions LP (CiS Subscription Library)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse radio station (Sonos) (most listened to)
Niholoxica – Source of Denial LP (Crammed Discs)
SareemOne – Olivine Window
Coast Contra – Breathe & Stop Freestyle/Never Freestyle/Scenario Freestyle
Move78 – Grains LP
Heiroglyphic Being – The Moon Dance LP (Apnea)
Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP 12″ (To Pikap Records)
Gordon Chapman-Fox – The Nine Travellers LP (Castles In Space Subscription Library)
Podcasts:
Oh God What Now?
Cartoonist Kayfabe
Jonny Trunk’s Patreon Show
What Goes Around
The Bunker
The Bureau of Lost Culture
Not A Diving Podcast with Scuba
Gigs / Events:
Art of Noise @Jazz Café, London
The Light Surgeons – SuperEverything launch @iklectik, London
Quadraphon debut @Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
Beyond The Streets exhibition @Saatchi gallery, London
Pop Up Subculture festival, Stroud
Holotronica, @IMAX Bristol
Sunroof / Finlay Shakespeare @iklectik, London
0282 Club, the library, Burnley
Paul Cousins @iklectik, London
The Light Surgeons – The Consensual Hallucination @iklectik, London
Memorials at the State 51 Summer Psych party @State 51, London
Queens of the Stone Age @Glastonbury
FogFest2 @iklectik, London
JG Thirlwell & Emsemble @Bush Hall, London
The Book & Record Bar 10th anniversary party, London
Machina Bristronica, Bristol
Visiting Peel Acres with Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves
Nihiloxia @the Jazz Cafe, London
NEXT Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia
Design / Packaging:
Yves Malone – A Hello To A Goodbye LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – Phuzzle (Drumetrics)
Waclaw Zimpel – Train Spotter LP (State 51)
David Boulter – Factory 3″ CD (Clay Pipe Music)
Fluctuosa – Wetware EP 12″ (Analogical Force)
Fluxus – Orbit & Shine LP (Castles In Space)
Floating Points – Birth4000 12″ (Ninja Tune)
Cate Brooks – Easel Studies LP + badge (Clay Pipe Music)
Brian Eno – Top Boy OST CD (Beatink)
Artists:
Kallamity
Soda
Nick Taylor (Spectral Studio)
Louise Mason
Francis Castle (Clay Pipe)
Tradd Moore
KO_Computer
Kishi Omori
Autone1
Mike Mignola
Geometric Love
Anna Readman
Zoe Thorogood
Colin & Maria @ Time Released Sound
Books / Magazines / Comics:
Medical Grade Music – Steve Davis & Kavis Torabi (White Rabbit)
Doctor Strange – Fall Sunrise – Tradd & Heather Moore (Marvel)
Tales To Enlighten – The New Testament – Matt King and James Edward Clark
Beyond The Streets exhibition book
Pop – Milton Glaser (Phaidon)
Kevin O’Neill Apex Edition (2000AD)
Mark Stafford – Salmonella Smorgasbord (Soaring Penguin Press)
Savage Impressions – Bruce Lichen (Independent Project Records)
Hexagon Bridge – Richard Blake (Image)
Monica – Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
Acid Valley – Luke Insect
Petrol Head – Rob Williams & Pye Parr (Image)
Lawless – Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade (Rebellion)
Giant Robot Hellboy – Mignola/Fegredo (Dark Horse)
Facelss & The Family – Matt Lesniewski (Oni Press)
Film:
Barbie
Squaring The Circle : The Story of Hipgnosis
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed a retro jungle cover for District 1727 release Rinse Out The Raw Steel
Opened for The Art of Noise two nights running at the Jazz Cafe
Designed The Home Current & Peter Wix and UNE CDs for Spun Out Of Control
Performed at Candlemas with Julian Hand, Heena Song, Paul Naudin and Whyte Light Visuals
Started working with visual artist PuttyRubber with my Quadraphon turntable at live gigs
Designed the Stasis 12″‘Quondam Sequences’ for De:tuned
Edited a short video for Holotronica after their Bristol event (not sure this ever got broadcast/finished actually)
Restarted my Infinite Illectrik label with 7 monthly releases from May
Mixed two new volumes of The Funky Eno with selections provided by Nohbodhi
Gave talks about Wheels of Light in Stroud and Brighton
Collaborated with Graham Dunning live with visuals by PuttyRubber and Chromatech for FogFest2
Appeared on the 45 Live and What Goes Around podcasts
Wrote the theme for the new Why? podcast
Remade and remixed Amon Tobin’s Permutation LP artwork for the 25th reissue
Continued the weekly Mixcloud Select series of archive mix uploads
Designed and illustrated Wonders of the Undersea World LP for Trunk Records including a sheet of stickers to make your own cover design.
Designed zoetropes for T Rex, Donna Summer, Dr Who, Lily Allen and Steps(!)
Designed the Pulse Five EP, poster and postcards for FSOL, working with Jonas Ranson again on the screenprint
Designed the De:tuned 15 logo and T-shirt for the label’s fifteenth year in 2024
Designed the Clerkenwell Kid Junkyard Melodies album + ephemera and 3″ Xmas Winter Warmers companion CD for Stephen Coates/The Real Tuesday Weld
Designed the A’bear album sleeve for Castles In Space
Contributed vintage graffiti photos to the second Old So Kool book about the UK graf scene in the 80s
Ongoing research into at least three other book projects…
RIP:
Alan Rankin, Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Burt Bacharach, Raquel Welch, Alain Goraguer, Lee Purkis aka In Sync, Paul O’Grady, Al Jaffee, Jah Shaka, Mary Quant, Mark Stewart, Frank Kozik, Andy Rourke, Peter Jones (Colourscape designer), Martin Amis, Kenneth Anger, Tina Turner, Astrud Gilberto, John Romita Snr, Glenda Jackson, Jane Birkin, Paul Rubens, Jamie Reid, Michael Parkinson, David McCallum, Mark the 45 King, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ian Gibson,
Looking forward to:
Candlemas II
Gary Hustwit’s Eno film
The Time Released Sound Book – A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging
Furiosa – A Mad Max Saga
The Hoppy documentary
Richard Norris’ autobiography, Strange Things Are Happening
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s ‘Sensuous Laboratories’ book
The The’s new tour
Doug Shipton’s new Fundamental Frequencies label
More collaborations
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#23. Special Request – What Time Is Love Sessions 2×12”
In at no. 23 – of course it would be – Special Request‘s loving tribute to the KLF’s finest single with nods to their classic ‘Chill Out’ album too – a superb homage. The physical release isn’t due to land until Feb 2024 but you can listen and pre-order now.
https://specialrequest187.bandcamp.com/album/what-time-is-love-sessions
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#22. Old So Kool book 2 – The Lost Years
A huge second volume of 80s UK graffiti photos and interviews compiled by Paul Pilgrim and Steven O’Hara. 400+ pages sourced from photo albums and black books from back in the day and a follow up to the first volume from last year – an incredible feat in such a short space of time. I was supposed to have photos in the original but didn’t get my shit together so made up for it this time round.
The Lost Years expands upon the first volume, covering the same time frame (the 80s) with a couple of differences. There are a few standalone sections aside from the geographical locations most of the book is grouped into, namely a look at the legendary Bridlington Jam, a tribute to departed writers and a ‘where are they now’type round up of key contributors. These slightly sparser chapters work well and serve to break up the visual overload of the other sections in which as many images as possible have been fitted on every page.
That such a sprawling urban artform grew out of a few books, films, record sleeves and magazine articles is fascinating, us 80s kids were certainly inspired – Subway Art being ‘the original handbook’ for most. You can see styles evolving all over the country but with a uniformity from writers who would never even see each other’s work – let alone meet – as everyone was cribbing from the same limited sources for a while. Of course the Americans were the first inspiration – you can see the character styles of Doze Green or Gnome copied here and there but unique styles and voices were held in highest regard. Cribbing off of other UK writers was inevitable though, The Chrome Angels being the most obvious as they were the most visible initially unless you were lucky enough to be able to travel abroad. You can also see British comic characters from 2000AD and computer games cropping up to replace the Marvel superheros and Vaughn Bodé lizards and wizards, a more angular computer style here, an abstract piece there.
I remember many trying to find their own identity rather than fit in with existing styles but for the most part though it’s a name and a character, with complimentary backgrounds and tags – in every conceivable permutation. There are few huge productions as you see regularly these days, a ladder was as far as you got, no cherry-pickers here and the paint quality was sometimes dubious at best with photographic skills even more sketchy. This is my only bugbear with the book, in trying to document so much it sacrifices quality for quantity and there are pieces that I personally would have disqualified on grounds of picture quality or artistic merit.
But then the graffiti world has always had its own set of politics and guidelines and maybe it’s a good thing that Paul and Steven haven’t played gatekeepers to what was a budding sub culture, learning from itself with sometimes the most meagre of resources. They’ve compiled a vast and unique snapshot in time of an urban artform’s formative years from all over the UK, something no one’s attempted before on this scale. Coupled with the first book, The Lost Years offers a time capsule of thousands of artworks, 99% of which I’d wager no longer exist, and a peek into the imaginations of a generation of kids who decided to make the streets their own galleries. And that’s to be applauded.
https://oldsokool.co.uk/store/
The piece middle right above was the first piece of graffiti in my home town of Reigate, it appeared in two halves initially (hence the ‘Rusty again’ tag) and word spread around the town like wildfire. This was painted by Russel Mears aka Rusty Spray who is now sadly no longer with us – more about him here.
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#21. The Clerkenwell Kid – Junkshop Melodies CD
A solo album from The Clerkenwell finally, another Stephen Coates alias and a final design credit for 2023 for me. Housed in a printed tin, with CD, colour insert, TRTW badge, Clerkenwell Kid card and what is that array of mini cards fanned out at the bottom? Not actually out until January but keep an eye on The Real Tuesday Weld Bandcamp page in the new year.
https://therealtuesdayweld.bandcamp.com/
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#20. Upside Down Records
South East London’s newest used record shop, located at 203 Deptford High Street, SE8 3NT and run by ex-Rat Records manager Philippe Giron – pay them a visit as they settle in with daily new-in vinyl top ups and hi-fi.
https://upsidedownrecords.co.uk/ (SE London)
https://www.instagram.com/upsidedownrecords/
Other great used record shops in the UK:
https://www.instagram.com/thebookandrecordbar/ (SW London)
https://www.instagram.com/wowandflutterhastings/ (Hastings)
https://www.instagram.com/pressingmattersrecordshop/ (Hastings)
https://www.instagram.com/musicandvideoexchange/ (SE London)
https://www.instagram.com/the_diskery/ (Birmingham)
https://www.instagram.com/lorosspiralscratch/ (Leicester)
https://www.instagram.com/mixeduprecords/ (Glasgow)
https://www.instagram.com/kingbeerecords/ (Manchester)
https://www.instagram.com/digvinyl/ (Liverpool)
https://www.instagram.com/rarekindrecords/ (Brighton)
https://www.instagram.com/wantedrecordsbristol/ (Bristol)
https://www.instagram.com/atlantis_records_hackney/ (E London)
https://www.instagram.com/yoyorecordslondon/ (E London)
https://www.instagram.com/wsa.london/ (N London)
Also (not on Instagram):
Prime Cuts (Bristol)
Alan’s Records (N London)
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#18. West Norwood Cassette Library label 12”/10”/DL
Excellent South East London label of hard as nails bass and bleeps run by Bob Bhamra. Check out Jane In Palma’s banging version of ‘The Horn Track’ to start.
https://wnclrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/wncl042
https://wnclrecordings.bandcamp.com/
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#18. Obscure Records Collection 10xLP/CD box set
w. book
The Brian Eno-curated mid-70s label gets the reissue treatment and it’s beautifully done but not cheap! 10xCD set with book around £130, 10xLP set with book around £300-£430!
Downloads of six of the albums are available on the label’s Bandcamp for €12 per LP – minus the classics by Eno, Penguin Cafe, Michael Nyman, Harold Budd (which you can find easily elsewhere).
https://spaceechorecords.bandcamp.com/
See more details in my earlier post
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#17. Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP 12”
My old friend Raj Pannu finally releases a new 12” with his own compositions on this excellent electronic 5 track EP. On the To Pikap label out of Thessaloniki, Greece.
https://topikaprecords.bandcamp.com/album/past-crimes
https://topikaprecords.bandcamp.com/music
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#16. Various Artists – Tape Excavation LP
Literally what it says on the tin; obscurities from the tape drawer compiled by Bruce Licher and beautifully printed on a custom card sleeve with inserts, all lovingly detailed in the Savage Impressions book that this originally accompanied which showcases 30 years of the Independent Print Project label’s release history.
https://brucelicher.bandcamp.com/album/tape-excavation
https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/savage-impressions-an-aesthetic-expedition-through-the-archives-of-independent-project-records-press-book
https://independentprojectrecords.bandcamp.com/music
