Newly discovered ads featuring Zappa and The Mothers of Invention from the LA Free Press. Some, if not all of these, were designed by Zappa in his spindly lettered, collage style. I’ve featured some of these before but they are generally better quality and some crazy person has gone through all the magazines at the link above, scanning the Zappa/Mothers appearances.
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
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.
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…
Just announced – the Castles In Space Levitation event is moving down South to Bedford Esquires after three years in Whitby. Just look at that line up! I’m not sure how they’re going to fit all these in on the day (I think there are three rooms but don’t quote me) but I’m so pleased to be asked to reprise the modified turntable set I did with Graham Dunning at Fog Fest last year. Colin was manning the merch table that night at the back of Iklectik and saw the whole thing so knows what we’re capable of. Tickets are here, I know it’s months away but the early birds are already gone so be quick.
There are two other very special gigs on the horizon that will be announced shortly that I’m equally excited about too – stay tuned…
Next gig – we’re reprising our Candlemas performance of last year on January 28th with a variety of liquid lights and slides plus music and food at the Royal Foundation of St. Katherine in east London. Curated by Heena Song, she’ll be joined by Julian Hand, Paul Naudin, Joe and Janie of Whyte Light Visuals and myself for an evening of psychedelic projection in and outside around the grounds of the Foundation. Nearest train station is Limehouse and then it’s just round the corner, you should be able to see the lights from the train. Tickets are available here or on the gate and the event runs from 6pm to 9pm.
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
Here’s the performance Graham Dunning and I gave at Robin The Fog’s Fog Fest II this summer at Iklectik.
Totally improvised, we’d had a couple of rehearsals, and with visuals from PuttyRubber and Leon Trimble, it was exhilarating and felt like spinning plates rather than discs. Probably my favourite gig of the year along with the 10th anniversary of The Book & Record bar lock in.
I absolutely love this photo of Robin The Fog (centre) and Amy Cutler (right) from their brand new Species Piracy audio visual show that premiered last Thursday at Iklectik. I couldn’t go but this photo and the footage captured by Jamesalechardy looks great and more info on the project which centres around ‘an ongoing ensemble live cinema project inspired by the dark arts of de-extinction’ is available here amycutler.net. They’re looking for more gigs of this nature so contact Amy via the website.
A few highlights from Graham Dunning and my 40+ minute set on modified turntables at the Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava for the opening of the NEXT Festival 2023.
A couple of new episodes of James In Real Life’s video diaries on the build of his Duplokit turntable –
Tonearms:
The Chassis Pt.1:
Continuing the occasional overview of British psychedelic club advertising I’ve been compiling over the years…
I’ve not come across too many posters for the Middle Earth club, the psychedelic happening in Covent Garden that sprung up and eventually succeeded the UFO club in 1967 through to 1969. Michael English illustrated possibly the most famous poster for the club above and the original art was sold some years ago at auction.
From the auction blurb: “Michael English’s detailed explanatory letter explains that this was the last, and technically the most sophisticated, poster created under the Hapshash name. Printed by offset lithography rather than the usual silkscreen process, the image takes its theme from J.R. Tolkien’s books, from which the Middle Earth derived its name.
“In typical post-Freudian Hapshash style the content was heavily sexualized but the less explicit version of the two lovers was printed and used for promoting the club’s concerts. Above the lovers, entwined in foliage very much in Alphonse Mucha style, are two windows into two worlds, one of darkness, one of light. Locked in eternal balance, they are a symbol of the symmetry of space-time, as are the lovers – a reflection of each other, independent, yet inter-dependent. English recalls that, at the time, he felt it was somehow dishonest to hide the boy’s genitals in the printed version as it somehow diluted the force of their love and consequently weakened the message.”
Below is the background colour printing plate and below that a rather aged example of an original print.
There’s little info about this landscape poster except the credit at the bottom and the names Marc Tracy and Paul Bennett hidden in the hair. The V&A hold a copy in their archive, originating from 1967 but despite the title, ‘A Trip To Middle Earth’, it’s not clear whether this was for the club or just a Tolkien reference.
Below is a strange anomaly I found; a minute scan of a Middle Earth poster or advert – now upscaled – that cribs its main image and type from an American poster by Clifford Charles Sealey for the Summer of Love festival in San Francisco, dated March 1, 1967. From the dates on the British poster it must be from late 1967, over six months after the American event, I guess the similarity of the name was too good to pass up and they swiped it.
I’ll be going head to head with Graham Dunning‘s mechanical techno set up with my Quadraphon turntable on August 5th at Robin The Fog‘s second Fog Fest bonanza at our favourite London venue, Iklectik.
Graham’s turntable escapades have to be seen to be believed and he was very inspirational in kicking me into gear to build my own variation on a modified turntable some years back. So it’s thrilling to be able to collaborate on a performance with him, who knows what sweet music we will make? Also returning to the line up from last year is Steve Davis whose Utopia Strong group goes from strength to strength (ba-dum-tish!). I have to confess that the other names on the bill are new to me but Robin knows his onions so I’m sure the whole thing will be joyous.
Tickets available soon…
I’ll be at the East Street Tap in Brighton on June 7th to talk about my Wheels of Light book and show some projections for the monthly Sound Affects night. It’ll be a brief talk with a Q&A as I’m sharing the bill with sound artist Fiona Miller and author Richard Evans who will be talking about their own projects respectively.
Tickets and info here
Steve Pavlovsky of Liquid Light Lab in NYC has recently been doing tests inside a huge LED dome in the States. Having done work with domes ten years ago I can attest that this is a huge deal, he can do this is real time and the video footage is stunning. Would love to see this in the flesh one day. All photos © Steve Pavlovsky.
Beautiful poster that appeared earlier this week on the Pink Floyd socials, looks like a Mark Boyle/Boyle Family liquid image transposed into a screen printed poster. It dates from 1968 which was when Boyle was doing lights for them.
Sorry, no upload today as I’ve been crazily trying to catch up with work after a birthday weekend that morphed into a bank holiday and I’m also finishing two special new mixes that will debut on Monday.
As it was my birthday last Friday we went to see the Beyond The Streets exhibition before it closed at the Saatchi (2nd time for me) and ate the most amazing cream pastry thing from the small kiosk next to Sloan Sq station.
The evening was the Book & Record Bar‘s Stick It On night where you arrive with records of your choice, chalk your name on the board and wait your turn to play three in a row – and repeat with alcohol. Lots of friends turned up and we left at 1am.
Saturday there was something going on in town, I forget what, so we steered clear and checked out the new record shop in Crystal Palace – Vinyl. Packed with treats – quite literally as all the usual bins from outside were inside due to the terrible weather. Found some decent bits but need to go back for a deeper dig…
Sunday, up early for the Peckham carboot then on for lunch on the main high street and drinks at the CLF Art Lounge, a rooftop bar by the station I had no idea existed but felt tropical due to the open air insulation. Dom Servini was playing all afternoon and we met up with Deb Grant and friends before she went off to Manchester to start her new career as an official 6 Music DJ. Then rushed to Iklectic in Waterloo to see Sculpture do one of their usual incredible live sets, bagging an A0 poster along the way.
Monday we wandered down to Brixton to the Chip Shop (with the emphasis on Hip Hop) to hear Andy Higgs and Graeme Parker play with special guest Nik Weston from Mukatsuku records, with the extra treat of Zoe ‘Lucky Cat’ Baxter turning up unannounced.
Back to work Tuesday, assembling over 20 unique test cover versions of The New Obsolescents‘ LP cover for a future thing but then off to Iklectik again in the evening to witness Paul Cousins play live for the launch of his new album on Castles In Space.
My friend Joe Whyte was playing pedal steel guitar alongside him for several numbers and the whole thing was sublime despite the horrible weather outside. Saw even more friends and wobbled back home with a pile of new vinyl from Colin and the latest issue of Moonbuilding mag.
Back to the mix(es) – coming Monday for a very important birthday…
Part 2 of the Candlemas set sees a more psychedelic mix of tracks after the ambience of part 1, lots of 60s and 70s nuggets, culled from various comps over the years mixed in with contemporary freakbeats from the likes of The Giallos Flame, Broadcast and Vanishing Twin. Visioneers (4 Hero’s Marc Mac) covers Stereolab and we get two Eno collaborations from 20 years apart. Weirdly The Flies’ cover of Stepping Stone turned up on a vintage mix a couple of weeks ago. The Cut Chemist remix of Edan’s ‘Torture Chamber’ samples The Feed-Back (Ennio Morricone’s psych band masterpiece) so it seemed right to put them together. I was having way too much fun mixing the UNKLE remix of Can’s ‘Vitamin C’ with Tangerine Dream so that’s why the mix lasts so long.
As the night wore on, the vicar hosting the celebration was concerned that the music wasn’t pumping enough and urged me to ramp things up for the end of the night so that people would start dancing, hence the slight change of direction at the end of the set to a more uptempo selection. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the likelihood of a load of people dancing around in sub zero temperatures when there was a warm cafe and chapel nearby (where he commandeered most of the crowd for spoken word pieces) was virtually nil. The crowd stayed away in droves, preferring the cosy ambience of the chapel and the eight Solar 250 projectors with liquid wheels Whyte Light Visuals had positioned around the amazing room and I don’t blame them.
Part 2 Track list:
Air – Aphrodites Child
A Minha Menina – Os Mutantes
Track 01 – The Giallos Flame
Come And Play In The Milky Night – Visioneers
Group Autogenics I – The Books
Come With Us – Brian Eno & David Byrne
Persis – Eno & Schwalm
Nite-Is-A-Comin’ Smeta Murgaty – Warm Sounds
Love Love Love – Wool
Stepping Stone – The Flies
No One Receiving – Brian Eno
Messer, Scissors, Fork & Light – Can
The Feed-Back – The Feed-Back
Torture Chamber (Cut Chemist remix) – Edan
Hammer Without A Master – Broadcast
Backstroke – Vanishing Twin
Vitamin C (UNKLE remix) – Can
Tangerine Dream – Thru Metamorphic Rocks – Tangerine Dream
Pendulum – Broadcast
J Zimbra (J Large re-edit) – Talking Heads
And The Break Goes On – The Break Boys
The Phantom – Renegade Soundwave
Take A Love Break – A Jackin’ Freak
Groove Is In The Heart (Rex The Dog Beats In Space mix-edit) – Dee-Lite
Back from a whirlwind weekend in Stroud and Bristol – primarily to talk about my Wheels of Light book at Klang Tone Records in Stroud on Friday night as part of the Pop Up Subculture festival. The event went very well with an engaged crowd and many new friends made. Met up with old acquaintance Bill Brooks who introduced me to bonafide light show legend Sid Fossil who had come to the talk! Seen here next to yours truly with friend Craig in the middle and Bill on the right.
Stroud is lovely and sports three excellent record shops – Sound Records, Trading Post and the aforementioned Klang Tone which sits above the Pagan Vintage shop. All well worth your time, many treasures were found, not least a clutch of original International Times newspapers in stunning condition.
After a day’s digging I jumped on the train down to Bristol, met up with my video cohort, PuttyRubber, and went to the first Holotronica weekend at the disused IMAX cinemax. Hosted and opened by DJ Cheeba, Solid Steel family of old and now working with Stuart Warren-Hill’s Holotronica outfit, it was great to see old Bristol crew from our days doing regular nights with the Detectives of Perspective. The Light Surgeons played their excellent ‘Atemporal’ AV set, newly expanded into a 2.0 version and then Funki Porcini presented his incredible Laserium show which absolutely wowed people in the theatre. I’ve seen this three times now and it just gets better and better, there’s nothing like it and it’s impossible to convey via photos. Equally impossible is Stuart’s 3D Holotronica set (for obvious reasons) which was some of the most eye-poking 3D I’ve ever seen. All in all a triumph for audio visual gigs and I hope they do more.
Photos below are from Stuart Warren-Hill (Holotronica) and Christopher Thomas Allen (The Light Surgeons)
Crew photo L-R: DJ Cheeba, Stuart Warren-Hill, Funki Porcini, Chris Allen – missing in action Tim Cowie, the other Surgeon who provided an excellent live soundtrack.
Well, last Friday was a blast in Ramsgate, a packed room with an up for it crowd is all you could want but to have that crowd open to experimental turntable jams was even better. Myself and PuttyRubber overcame our pre-gig nerves and rattled through an hour plus of the set with a few hiccups but ultimately a banging show. Andre, Al and Conner at the venue bent over backwards to make it as easy as possible for us and Pleistoscene Megafauna did a fine job warming up for us. They really have a great venue and a good scene going on down there.
Some great photos came out of this, not least the one above taken by Pete Woodward which has to be one of my favourites ever taken.
We’re actively looking for gigs for this audio visual set up so please get in touch if you want to book us.
