Markey back on Solid Steel (yeah, I’ll admit it, I asked him). If you enjoy this and haven’t heard the album that he’s just released then it’s a treat – listen and try before you buy here.
Music
This is just stunning and beautiful to see the sounds connect with the shapes. In the 70’s, Rainer Wehinger created a visual listening score to accompany Gyorgy Ligeti’s ‘Artikulation’. Donald Craig scanned the pages and synchronized them with the music, check his YouTube channel for more.
This fantastic mixtape by Arandel comes from the InFiné Music podcast – 55 tracks layered up for 45 mins by 35 female electronic pioneers. More details and full tracklist at the link above.
Tonight at 8pm US PST (tomorrow 4am UK time) I’ll be the featured guest mixer on the 45 Live Radio Show, hosted by Greg Belson on Dublab in LA. The hour-long mix takes in Rock, Pop, Psych, Hip Hop, Electronics, Breaks, Funk and more. My mix starts 32 mins in but Greg drops some ridiculously rare gems too.
Pete Fowler aka The Monsterist has started a crowd funding drive to publish a book of the best of 25 years of his sketchbooks called ‘Decades of Lead’ via Unbound. There are various levels from eBook to hardback, signed, sketched and ever an option to go for a curry and have a studio tour with Pete.
Malcolm McLaren would have been 70 years old today, here’s a collection of articles surrounding his seminal ‘Duck Rock’ album release in the early 80s from Sounds. Click to enlarge
I’ve added a small news piece about the Double Dutch girls to the interview above to fill space. Big interviews were frequently cut up and placed at different points of the paper and I’ve cobbled this one back to a double page spread.
Above: The Garry Bushell-penned review of ‘Duck Rock’ which is rather damning – see the three ads below that were run in the paper the next week, all deftly extracting a rather different angle using quotes from the piece. There’s a definite whiff of Paul Morley on the tagline at the bottom and this would have been around the time when he and Trevor Horn, the album’s producer, would have been setting up their ZTT label.
It quickly became common knowledge that McLaren had ripped off several compositions and taken writing credits on the album (something he had already done with Bow Wow Wow and would do again with ‘Fans’). Not even two months after the album’s release the writs were already flying.
Back in 1981, Fred Vermorel – never one to mince his words and badly burned by his experience with Malcolm over the extremely dodgy ‘Chicken’ magazine – laid into him over two pages. It’s hard to justify what McLaren was intending with this publication (and I wouldn’t try) and thankfully we’ll never find out. There’s also a piece about the pirate fashions McLaren and partner Vivienne Westwood created that they launched Bow Wow Wow with.
I’m lost for words, there’s so much to say here and I just don’t have it in me to write how much Andy’s work means to me, sitting alongside his brother Matt’s music and helping shape me as a teenager. Gutted.
Some great late 90s footage of Req One, She One and Jase (Jason Brashill) aka The Dusty Knights painting in Brighton in this new Mongrels release by Kid Acne & Benjamin. You can pick up a copy of the limited six track 10″ here, complete with signed, numbered screen-printed covers.
I found the record above at a carboot sale around 1987 in a muddy sports ground in South Park, Reigate. It was shortly after I had started to ‘dig for breaks’, inspired by hip hop and sampling, in as much as a skint 17 year old could ‘dig’ in a small town 30 miles south of London with only an Our Price, a Woolworths and one other indie record shop to excavate. I had no idea what this was but, with a cover like that and on a label called Weird World, I wasn’t about to leave it in the box.
There were no track titles and for good reason; ‘Shake Your Ass’, ‘Bad Fuck’, ‘Suck It’ and ‘Spread Your Cheeks’ were some of the delights contained within. But I knew the signs were good: black artist, 70s release, the word ‘Disco’ put me off a bit but there were all those other LPs on the back too. Who was Blow Fly? The dude in the mask and home made super hero (villain?) suit presumably, and why were all these women naked around him? The ‘For Mature Adults Only’ sticker needn’t have been on there, it was pretty obvious that this wasn’t for kids.
I got it, probably cost 50p, and never showed my parents that particular cover. It contained enough profanity to sink a ship as Blow Fly took established songs and changed the lyrics to suit his dirty mind. The classic ‘What A Difference’ took ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’ and turned it into ‘… A Lay Makes’ while ‘Suck it’ paraphrased ‘Do It ‘Til You’re Satisfied’. Purile stuff for sure and the blueprint for every Blow Fly album I’ve ever heard since but hilarious stuff to a teenage boy. With no internet it was impossible to find out more about the masked man and it wasn’t until I started touring the States in the late 90s, buying from a wider range of records, that I found out who he was and picked up the other albums on the back cover.
The Fly was the alter-ego of Clarence Reid, record producer and songwriter since the 60s, who had started changing the lyrics to hit records for a laugh at parties. Recording an album of them, he created the Blow Fly persona to protect his respectable career name and the rest is history. ‘Disco’ isn’t his best album (and he got sued good and proper for that ‘What A Difference…’ cover) but I’ll remember it with the most affection as it was the first one I found and for introducing me to his weird world. RIP Clarence Reid aka Blow Fly.
I’m extremely late to this particular party but have to flag them up for the care and attention that’s gone into the presentation and back story of these releases. There are now three volumes of ‘Kosmischer Läufer’ (Cosmic Runner) released on Scottish label, Unknown Capability Recordings. Subtitled ‘The Secret Cosmic Music of the East German Olympic Program 1972-83’ and packaged in beautifully designed 70s-era psychedelic sports graphics on black, red and yellow coloured vinyl (see what they did there?), with a biography that gives a new twist on the ‘unearthed private tapes from unknown Krautrock-inspired musician who rates Kraftwerk, Cluster and Neu! as influences’ story.
This particular angle concerns a certain Martin Zeichnete who was working as a sound engineer in Dresden with his ear to the sounds of the emerging West German underground in the early 70s. Martin, a runner who had the idea to make music for athletes to train to, is spirited away to Berlin by the authorities to work in secret on just such a project for the ‘Nationales Olympisches Komitee’ to help strengthen their team for the next Olympic bid. The music is a perfect distillation of the motorik, synth-driven grooves you’d expect when thinking of the above influences and I don’t believe the story for one minute as the sounds are too clean and knowing.
But that doesn’t matter because the music contained therein is good and, coupled with the entertaining setting, you want to believe it. Sometimes music is all about the mindset and these releases set you up and frame the work perfectly. I’ve lost count of the amount of music I’ve listened to in the wrong mood or place and initially dismissed only to hear the same thing again later and be knocked out by it simply because the circumstances and setting were different. Had I heard this dry, without the illusion (or is it? – yes it probably is) of the liner notes and cover art, then maybe I’d have reacted differently to it – I’ll never know.
Some of the best music is made by artists making their own myths – Boards of Canada, Kraftwerk and yes, Bowie while we’re still all on that page – and these releases do it with love and care. Now, has anyone got a copy of vol. 2 at a decent price please? Buy vinyl and digital from here.
Woke up still thinking about Bowie this morning. Watched a bit of the BBC coverage in the wake of his death last night and was struck by a vintage interview clip which ended with the reporter saying that he wasn’t your average rock star. Bowie countered that he was wrong and that he wasn’t a rock star at all.
Elsewhere some pundit they’d wheeled in seemed to want to press home the title ‘The Picasso of Pop’ in relation to him and repeated it in a couple of instances. Personally I found the analogy tacky, Bowie wasn’t like anyone else, more like parts of many people and comparing him to Picasso is a limiting comparison. As someone else pointed out yesterday, no one is ever proclaimed as ‘the new David Bowie’.
In the lyrics to ‘Blackstar’ he states what he is and he isn’t;
I can’t answer why (I’m a blackstar)
Just go with me (I’m not a filmstar)
I’m-a take you home (I’m a blackstar)
Take your passport and shoes (I’m not a popstar)
And your sedatives, boo (I’m a blackstar)
You’re a flash in the pan (I’m not a marvel star)
I’m the great I am (I’m a blackstar)
I’m a blackstar, way up, oh honey, I’ve got game
I see right so white, so open-heart it’s pain
I want eagles in my daydreams, diamonds in my eyes
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a star star, I’m a blackstar)
I can’t answer why (I’m not a gangster)
But I can tell you how (I’m not a film star)
We were born upside-down (I’m a star star)
Born the wrong way ‘round (I’m not a white star)
(I’m a blackstar, I’m not a gangster
I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar
I’m not a pornstar, I’m not a wandering star
I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
What a Blackstar is I have no idea but it seems he wanted to be remembered as something or someone unique and unclassifiable rather than a ‘pop’ version of someone else.
The top image is included for no reason other than it’s the combination of two iconic designs, the Ziggy Stardust flash now seemingly becoming the main graphic identifier for Bowie. I don’t know who did the image but it’s fun.
In shock, see the post before last, the new album was on since Friday, I’d revisited ‘The Next Day’ as a result. Bowie has been in my life since my first memories of radio and Top Of The Pops and now he’s gone. A huge loss for music and another legend taken from us by cancer. Watching the video for new album track ‘Lazarus’ over the weekend I now realise the significance of the final scene. What an exit, a career orchestrated down to the last days. RIP David Bowie
UPDATE: There have been some lovely tributes cropping up in my social media feed today, this one from Christian Ward is beautiful. “Been thinking about what to say. Figured art would say it better. See you Star-man. Thanks for the music”.
Sophie Harrington did this via Twitter which says it all
Continuing the Ziggy Stardust theme, Shindig magazine posted this…
Rough Trade are donating all profits from sales of the artist to Cancer Research for the whole of January.
PS. Just remembered that there’s a little nod to Bowie in the text of ‘The Search Engine’, see if you can find it.
With the new Bowie ‘Blackstar’ LP just out and the world (quite rightly) going gaga over it, I thought I’d revisit the original version ‘Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)’ from the ‘Nothing Has Changed’ compilation of last Xmas. This version is different to the one on the new LP, being way more jazz-orientated than the newer LP one which adds guitars to stunning effect. What I’d not seen before was the video that accompanied the original release and is quite beautiful, taking all sorts of visual cues from Carol Reed‘s ‘The Third Man’ tunnel scenes with added projected lyrics. This is also an edit of the original near eight minute track so try and check that out if you’re liking this.
If you’ve still not seen the ten minute video to lead LP track ‘Blackstar’ then it’s a must too. Equally beautiful, disturbing and fascinating it’s a mini epic that reveals more with each viewing. Any video featuring a skeleton in a spacesuit is OK with me and Bowie’s cheeky moves to camera in the second half are delightful.
A cross-over album from the end of 2015, delayed until 2016 – these records always get lost in the Xmas rush and so I’m secretly glad that the original release date of mid December was pushed back to the new year for Markey Funk‘s second solo album, ‘Instinct: A Study In Tension, Fear and Anxiety’. A dark, brooding imaginary soundtrack of a record full of swirling synths, ghostly voices and taut, brittle beats. Out now on LP and DL via his Bandcamp page (there’s also an LP/CD bundle that includes his rare first album (Forgot the Word) too). You can preview the album in full and also find several of his other releases there. An early package that came with a screen print of Asfe‘s excellent cover image has long sold out and we have a Solid Steel mix from him being lined up soon…
One of my favourite releases of 2015 and one I’ve been meaning to photograph for ages, the pre-order version of Kurt Stenzel’s ‘Jodoroowsky’s Dune’ soundtrack. Everything about this release is top notch, the design (by Signalstarr), the quality of the sleeve, the obi strip and insert with sleeve notes. The coloured vinyl is stunning, one of the best examples of its use I’ve seen and the music – which let’s not forget is the reason to buy such an item – is excellent too. One point deducted on an otherwise 10/10 release though, there was no 27″ x 40″ folded film poster as promised on the pre-order and sticker – did anyone else get one or was it just me?. I’ve mailed Light In The Attic about this and they’ve promised to send one though which will complete this as one of the best record packages released last year. * See below for update
*UPDATE* – and here’s the poster, newly arrived from those lovely people at Light In The Attic – it’s huge and makes this my favourite piece of music, design and packaging of 2015.
RIP Mark Barnes aka Mark B – Very sad news and a genuine shock. I did a bunch of covers for him in the 90s when he and DJ Vadim started Jazz Fudge, he knew what he wanted but was always open to new ideas. (Mark above with Blade in DJ Vadim’s old studio, Kingston, late 90s) A talented producer who was at the forefront of the UK Hip Hop production scene with a wealth of knowledge, especially on Library music. I remember accompanying him and (I think) Joel Martin to a lock up in Wembley one day when the Bruton and Chappell catalogue was housed there, researching for a compilation. They went through master tape reels and vinyl LPs whilst I took photos for what would have been the cover but there were gaps, someone had been and cherry picked it already and the comp never happened in the end. One of the only people I knew to have an original copy of ‘Beat Bop’ on 12″ in the 90s and appeared on Top of The Pops when his album with Blade blew up. Always humble, even when KRS One freestyled over his beats on 279‘s radio show that time…
They say that creativity flourishes under oppression and bleak times and it’s been a great year for music so there must be a grain of truth there. In an effort to glean something positive to remember 2015 by in light of all the injustice and hate out there in the world, here are some of my favourite things, in no order whatsoever.
There were several amazing music releases that went far beyond the normal album format – the main one being Aphex Twin‘s incredible Soundcloud dump of archive tracks which continue to drip out and now number over 200 tracks even if he has taken a lot of them down now. If there’s a ‘release’ of the year then that wins hands down although I’m still trying to process it all and tried to compile a selection of the cream in this mix for Solid Steel but bear in mind that that was when he’d only released half of it so by it’s no means definitive.
The other mega-release that deserves special mention is Rammellzee‘s ‘Cosmic Flush’ magnum opus that’s still in the process of materializing in a physical format. Released across seven 12″s with one track + remix + instrumentals + art print each, to be collected in a limited box with booklet around Spring 2016, it’s taken a huge effort by the Gamma Proforma label to bring to fruition seven years after the record’s completion and five years after Rammellzee’s death. It’s been a vintage year for independent Hip Hop too with great albums by Divine Styler, Ollie Teeba, Memory Man and The Fabreeze Brothers.
It’s nice to see the Leaf label celebrating 20 years of existence and still as vital as ever with Melt Yourself Down, Polar Bear, Radioland and new signing The Comet Is Coming all releasing excellent records this year. One last mention must go to the album at the top of the list below that crept out under everyone’s noses on Record Store Day and has slowly been gathering attention through word of mouth in the last eight months. So much so that it won the Dead Albatross Music Prize – an alternative to the Mercury award set up by independent Norman Records to nominate records that would otherwise be passed over at such things. If you only listen to one album from the list below, make it the Annabel (lee) one.
Albums:
Annabel (lee) – By The Sea & Other Solitary Places (If Music/Ninja Tune)
Rammellzee – Cosmic Flush (Gamma Proforma)
Divine Styler – Def Mask (Gamma Proforma) (technically 2014)
Memory Man – Broadcast One (Chopped Herring)
Eagles of Death Metal – Zipper Down
Jane Weaver – The Amber Light (Bird)
Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Blood Music (Grautag Records) (technically 2013)
The The – Hyena (Death Waltz)
The Fabreeze Brothers – S/T (AE Productions)
Markey Funk – Instinct (Audio Montage) (released fully in Jan 2016)
Aphex Twin – Soundcloud Archive dump
Amon Tobin – Dark Jovian EP (Ninja Tune)
Radioland – Radio-Activity Revisited (Leaf)
Ollie Teeba – Short Order (World Expo)
Kurt Stenzel – Jodorowsky’s Dune (Light In The Attic)
Various Artists – The Delaware Road (Buried Treasure)
Floating Points – Elaenia (Pluto)
Morgan Delt – S/T (Trouble In Mind) (technically 2014)
Gaz Coombes – Matador (Universal)
Black Devil – Disco Club (Lo Recordings)
Bruce Ditmas – Yellow Dust (Finders Keepers)
Rodinia – Drumside / Dreamside (Now Again)
Various Artists – In A Moment (Ghost Box)
Jaga Jazzist – Starfire (Ninja Tune)
Tracks:
a few of these are from a few years ago but new to me…
Noel Gallagher – The Right Stuff (Sour Mash)
Graeme Miller & Steve Shill – Moomins Theme (Finders Keepers)
The The – Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven But Nobody Wants To Die) (Cineola)
The Comet Is Coming – Neon Baby (Leaf)
Reso – Richochet (Hospital)
Black Channels – Oracles (Death Waltz Originals)
Paul Rutherford – Get Real (Hardcore) (1989)
Beck – Dreams (Capitol)
Band of Skulls – Hootchie Cootchie (Ignition Records) (2014)
Pond – Zond (EMI)
Ash Grunwald – Walking (2011 but via the Amorphous Androgynous ‘Wizards of Oz’ 2015 RSD comp)
Olivier Libaux – No One Knows (feat. Inara George) (2013)
Alan Copeland – Mission Impossible/Norwegian Wood (ABC) (1968!)
Design / packaging / covers:
so many incredibly high quality creations, a oglden age for record sleeve packaging and design…
Science Fiction Dancehall Classics compilation (Trevor Jackson) (On-U Sound)
The The – Hyena (Cineola / Death Waltz/Mondo)
Kurt Stenzel – Jodorowsky’s Dune (Signal Starr) (Light In The Attic)
Jaga Jazzist – Starfire (Ninja Tune)
Tame Impala – Currents (Robert Beatty)
The ‘Beat Bop’ record case (Jean-Michel Basquiat)
Grasscut – Everyone Was A Bird (Lo Recordings)
Artists:
Dan Lish
Kim Jung Gi
Signal Starr
Oddly Head
Ameet Hindocha
Reuben Sutherland
Stan & Vince
Jonathan Edwards
Laurie Lipton
Larry Carlson
Books / Comics:
Augustine Kofie – Keep Drafting (ZERO+ Publishing)
Stephen Coates – X-Ray Audio (Strange Attractor Press)
Roger Perry – The Writing On The Wall (Plain Crisp Books Ltd)
Hanson, Godtland & Krassner – Psychedelic Sex (Taschen)
Island – Various (Image)
Sandman: Overture – Gaiman/Williams (Vertigo)
Ody-C – Fraction/Ward (Image)
8-House – Various (Image)
B.P.R.D: Hell On Earth – Various (Dark Horse)
Punks: The Comic – Fialkov/Chamberlain (Image)
Judge Dredd: Enceladus – New Life – Williams / Flint (2000AD)
Exhibitions:
Peter Kennard at the Imperial War Museum
Charles & Ray Eames at the Barbican
Cosmonauts at the Science Museum
X-Ray Audio at the Horse Hospital
Trevor Jackson / Format at the Vinyl Factory space
Zulu Nation 42nd Anniversary at House of Vans
Film / TV: (I really didn’t watch much this year)
Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars : The Force Awakens
Love & Mercy
Dune The Complete Saga (Fan edit)
‘Colossus: The Forbin Project’
Rick & Morty
Moments:
The X-Wing Fighter flying overhead during Star Wars Secret Cinema
The Frankie Goes To Hollywood box set getting nominated for an AIM award for best box set design
Interviewing Edwin Pouncey aka Savage Pencil for a forthcoming book
Getting to wear a full Stormtrooper suit whilst DJing during Star Wars Secret Cinema
DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist – Renegades of Rhythm show at Koko
Writing a piece and creating a mix about Rammellzee for the Quietus
The moving sale finds at Lambiek in Amsterdam
Crazy scenes at the Southbank for the Big Fish Little Fish free Sunday session
Heroes:
Ben Coghill (again) for being the best agent in the business
The NHS – for saving my mum’s life and generally being incredible
Joshu Docherty – for recommending me for Star Wars Secret Cinema
Jeremy Corbyn – for giving hope that there can be an alternative
Sarah Coleman & Leigh Adams – for releasing their first film, making unique and
interesting things and generally being great people
Pete Williams – for getting the keys to the basement
Shindig! magazine – for overcoming the odds and turning a bad situation to their advantage
Pete Isaac & Scott Boca 45 for getting the whole 45 Live crew together and building an international collective
Everyone who gave their time and dug through their collections to contribute to the weekly Flexibition posts on the site: Jonny Trunk, Pete Isaac, Jon Brooks, Markey Funk & Ofer Tal, Stephen Coates, Jon More, John Stapleton, Steve Cook, Anton Armtone, Sarah & Leigh, Spencer Hickman.
RIP:
Mike Allen (Legendary Hip Hop DJ), Lemmy, Demis Roussos, The Pizz, Don Joyce (Negativland), Shusei Nagaoka, Kája Saudek, Errol Brown (Hot Chocolate), Daevid Allen (Gong), Leonard Nimoy, Brett Ewins, Noriyoshi Ohrai, Rod McKuen, Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream), Mark B.
Looking forward to:
Transmission shop opening in Margate
David Bowie – Black Star LP
Mute 40 book
The Black Channels LP
The Allergies – Rock Rock feat. Andy Cat (Ugly Duckling)
Prophet: Earth War
Sculpture have made a Christmas record, just released last week in a limited edition of 160 (each record individually cut) by Hasenbart Records… (the people who did the great People Like Us Xmas record this time last year)
It’s called ‘Self Checkout Ego Death Westfield Stratford City’ and is a 1-sided lathe cut 8” zoetropic picture disc, square cardboard with full colour printing on both sides, stamped on the back, audio on front side.
Loving everything Sculpture, flexi disc and zoetropic, I had to have one, you can too, order here
