The Looking Planet from Eric Law Anderson on Vimeo.
This is pretty special – “During the construction of the universe, a young member of the Cosmos Corps of Engineers decides to break some fundamental laws in the name of self-expression.”
Film
17 more days… Above are apparently official posters in the style of the original film’s teasers.
Below is a selection of my favourites from Steven Martin Lear‘s WhyTheLongPlayFace Instagram account where he mashes up famous album covers with modern day films. These are all Star Wars of course but there are others (many!) and, unlike some I’ve seen around the web, Steven has some Photoshop skills and when he gets it right, he really hits the nail on the head. There’s some background on his creations on the My Geek Heart website.
Scenes from last weekend’s KLF-themed night at the Cube Cinema, Bristol. John Higgs gave a talk and there was an hour-long video montage by Mr Hopkinson of which this is but a short segment.
Below my friends Phil and Stuart prepare to burn part of their entrance fee which was given back to them upon entry. Jonathan Harris led several money burning rituals outside and writes about the experience on his blog here.
Several attendees purchased the One Million Mu notes that I designed for the night and posted their acquisitions afterwards, sorry for the lack of credits but I know the last one is DJ Moneyshot‘s copy. I’m still waiting for my copies in the post but will post shots when they arrive.
This Sunday at The Cube microplex in Bristol there will be a very special event centered around The KLF and their burning of a million pounds over 20 years ago. Entitled ‘KLF : Chaos, Magic and the band who burned a million pounds‘, the night takes its name from John Higgs‘ recent book and he’ll be talking about Discordianism, Doctor Who, ‘The Illuminatus! Trilogy’, Alan Moore’s Idea Space, the number 23 and more amidst ‘talks, screenings, loops and rituals in The Black Room‘. More info here, tickets are limited.
I was asked to provide some sort of musical accompaniment but this weekend’s gig schedule means I’d never make it back to the gig in time unfortunately. Instead I’ve fashioned this fictitious One Million Mu note for them to ‘do what thou wilt’ with. Click each note for a larger version and see how many easter eggs I’ve put into them – whoever spots them all wins something interesting.
Those merry pranksters Cheeba and Moneyshot have a new, irregular ‘thing’ – Journeys By DJs – inane in-car chat in transit to and from gigs. This is a peek into the world of the superstar DJ, touching on all the exciting things we like to talk about in the run up to the big gig you’ve been looking forward to for weeks. You’ll learn about Anal Caravan, what DJs eat on the road and thrill to the latest news of that Serato update last week. Looking forward to catching up with Cheeba on Dec 4th at the Videocrash Rich Mix gig in London for our AV night with Robin Hexstatic and Tom Central.
That opening shot! Excitement building…
London. 1968. Two pioneering musicians compose electronic themes for television & radio. They discover a recording that leads to a startling revelation about their employer. Fascinated by the occult nature of the tape they conduct a studio ritual that will alter their lives forever.
The Delaware Road is a psychological thriller & an audio-visual treat for fans of archived electronica, far out jazz & haunted folk grooves. Story written by Alan Gubby. Words by David Yates. Trailer audio & video synthesis by Jeffrey Siedler. For those with a taste for Radiophonics, Hauntology and Tape loops then this gig is a must.
THE DELAWARE ROAD – LIVE! SAT 14TH NOVEMBER
Debut performance on Sat 14th Nov 2015 @ South Street Arts Centre, Reading, Berks.
Live performances by: Howlround, The Dandelion Set, Ian Helliwell, The Rowan Amber Mill, Robin Lee, Loose Capacitor, Tim Hill, The Twelve Hour Foundation & Revbjelde.
DJs: Jonny Trunk & The Séance (feat. Pete Wiggs from Saint Etienne)
Tickets: £15 advance, £13 concession; £16 on the door. Available here:
Price inc. free poster & advance DL code for ‘The Delaware Road’ compilation album on Buried Treasure Records. Seriously, check this album via the preview on the link, so many great tracks, if the live event even lives up to half of the album’s content it’ll be awesome.
Found online, looks like it was years ago, still looks great and you can buy one here for $10! The artist is Chris Lee and his The Beast Is Back site is a wonder.
Absolutely beautiful collection of 55 vintage book graphics animated by Henning M. Lederer – mesmerising, thanks to Markey Funk for hipping me to this one.
So glad I got my tickets yesterday, opening day with the family… also, check this ad for SW Battlefront 3, grown men and women will weep tears of nostalgia…
One of the extras from the new Monty Python & the Holy Grail 40th anniversary blu-ray. Get it here including a castle-shaped box set version with catapult and rubber animals.
The Space Merchants (London) run a monthly film night in East London showing classic Sci-Fi (the more out there and dystopian the better) whilst also operating an online book store and posting related items on their Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.
The next date is October 19th where they’ll be showing the early 80s Christopher Walken-starring Brainstorm. They design a new poster for each event and sell prints at the showing or online, below are some of my favourites and give you a flavour for what they’re about.
I’ve no idea if these are official or fan-made but please Hollywood – more film poster like this please rather than those godawful over-retouched photoshop collages you seem to love.
Taken from the always excellent Live For Films site.
Love this poster for 1972 film ZPG (Zero Population Growth), sort of a visual mix of Logan’s Run and Yellow Submarine. The film looks awful though…
I saw this recently and, although dated technically, it has some fantastic sets, shots and soundtrack moments. A tale of the world’s first AI supercomputer who decides man is a danger to himself and holds the world to ransom. The film was based on a novel by D.F. Jones from two years previous and there were two sequels although none apparently live up to the original. Highly recommended and sporting some great poster and book cover design from the late 60s.
Last Saturday (Sept 12th) I played an hour long set after a showing of ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’ documentary at one of the FEAST film nights in West Norwood’s Portico Gallery. During the mix the audience were greeted with a film of the slowly evolving, geometric designs of Ambigraph aka Ameet Hindocha.
Night co-ordinator Pete Williams recorded the mix and Ameet has reworked his visuals to accompany it in an hour long, meditative soundscape where all tracks are sourced from releases connected with Frank Herbert‘s most famous novel. *I recommend viewing in HD, probably late at night with the lights off.
Over the decades many artists have been inspired by this work and there are many concept albums built around themes from his books. As well as Toto‘s score for David Lynch‘s big screen adaptation there’s also music from the forthcoming soundtrack to the documentary I mentioned and tunes from Bernard Szajner‘s ‘Visions of Dune’ release among others.
Beautiful artwork by Nick Stewart Hoyle aka Signalstarr for the soundtrack release of ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’. Pre-order is up now via One Way Static for European customers, who have an exclusive variant. For US customers, order via Light In The Attic. It comes as a double LP with coloured swirl vinyl, silver foil embossing, gatefold sleeve and a poster version of this cover.
“Building upon director Frank Pavich’s idea for a score with a “Tangerine Dream-type feel,” Stenzel lays out a cosmic arsenal of analog synthesizers that would make any collector green at the gills: among other gems are a rare Moog Source, CZ-101s, and a Roland Juno 6, as well as unorthodox instruments like a toy Concertmate organ and a Nintendo DS. “I also played guitar and did vocals,” says Stenzel, “some chanting… and some screaming, which comes naturally to me.” The score also features narration by Jodorowsky himself. As Stenzel notes, “Jodo’s voice is actually the soundtrack’s main musical instrument–listening to him was almost like hypnosis, like going to the guru every night.”
My DJ set from Saturday, performed after the showing of the doc. at the FEAST night in West Norwood, is almost ready to post and contains several cuts from this album alongside all manner of other Dune-centric material.
This is slowly creeping up on us, a new release and launch party from Buried Treasure whose recent compilation of John Baker cuts, The Vendetta Tapes, I loved.
“London. 1968. Two pioneering musicians compose electronic themes for television & radio. They discover a recording that leads to a startling revelation about their employer. Fascinated by the occult nature of the tape they conduct a studio ritual that will alter their lives forever.”
The Delaware Road is a psychological thriller & an audio-visual treat for fans of archived electronica, far out jazz & haunted folk grooves. Conceived & written by Alan Gubby. Additional material by David Yates. Compere: Dolly Dolly
Debut performance on Sat 14th Nov 2015 @ South Street Arts Centre, Reading, Berks.
Tickets here:
Live performances by: Howlround, The Dandelion Set, Ian Helliwell, The Rowan Amber Mill, Robin Lee, Loose Capacitor, Tim Hill, The Twelve Hour Foundation & Revbjelde.
DJs: Jonny Trunk & The Séance (feat. Pete Wiggs from Saint Etienne)
Tickets: £15 advance, £13 concession; £16 on the door.
Price includes free poster & advance download code for ‘The Delaware Road’ compilation album on Buried Treasure Records. All tickets are inclusive of booking fee
Finally, after a long hiatus, I’ve managed a new mix, and a audio visual one at that. The school summer holidays are a killer creatively when you have kids to attend to but now that the little ones are back to the 9-3.30 I’m back in gear. Something else that’s been occupying my time this summer, since May to be precise, is Secret Cinema‘s production of The Empire Strikes Back that I’ve been playing at in various locations and guises since it opened. Last night was my last gig, sound-tracking the Cantina Bar post-film with the run finishing completely in two weeks.
To say it’s been an experience is an understatement and it’s one I will cherish forever as it is like nothing else out there. If you were one of the thousands who attended then you’ll know what I’m talking about and I’ll do a full post about my time there in a few weeks time when it’s closed as I don’t want to spoil things for those yet to go. But to commemorate the end of my run I’ve put together this 30 minute Star Wars-themed mix, complete with a video accompaniment, featuring some of the songs I played in amongst the rest of the themed tunes selected for the different areas.
Titled ‘The Tracks Go Off In This Direction…’ it follows the hunt for the Droids as songs and styles from the SW canon get progressively more random. It’s all Star Wars, plenty of which you will have seen and heard before, but I like to think I’ve dug a little and unearthed some hidden gems that might not be as familiar as Meco‘s ubiquitous disco-fied Star Wars Theme.
For example: Rico Rodriguez, The Specials‘ trombonist who recently passed away, released a cover version called ‘Ska Wars’ (what else?) in 1977 on Island records which I’ve included as a tribute. Dickie Goodman, creator of the infamous UFO ‘break-in’ records’ made a ‘Star Warts’ 45 to cash in the same year, I’ve included a later (better) version and several cuts from Herbie Hancock‘s modular synth sidekick, Dr Patrick Gleeson‘s analogue Star Wars album.
It’s not all period covers though, there’s plenty of modern day Hip Hop, Rave and Techno from the likes of AGT Rave Cru, Mark Archer, DJ Shadow and all manner of, shall we say, ‘copyright infringing’ releases under pseudonyms. At the start of the Secret Cinema run, when they also ran a separate satellite Cantina Club in Hoxton, I made a ton of video clips to go with tracks for a one-off AV performance and some of the work I put into those has found its way into the video mix. With a property like Star Wars this is a red flag to a bull so how long it will stay up is anyone’s guess. Grab it while you can… UPDATE – Sorry folks, I’ve been asked to take it down… back up!
I only just saw this, a teaser of just some of the moments during the Empire Strikes Back Secret Cinema event. I’m back there this weekend, playing both nights and the run finishes at the end of the month so be quick if you still want to go. I’ll be dropping a special SW-centric mix before that to commemorate this amazing spectacle.