Seeing as “today is the 1st of September!” (Foetus ‘day’ if ever there was one) here’s a vintage interview with JG Thirlwell himself, not far off 30 years ago, from Sounds. (right click on the image and download in to read a larger version)
Music
Following on from the themes of the first four ‘Environments’ albums, Five explores the space / time / dimension that exists when we die. The moment of departure. It includes appearances from Daniel Pemberton (BAFTA nominated / Ivor Novello winning composer), Raven Bush (Syd Arthur) and Riz Maslen (Neotropic). The Environment series originally began as an archive of previously unreleased recordings but Environment Five features thirteen all new songs recorded in the first half of 2014.
All pre-orders of the new album made through FSOLDigital will receive a bonus free 3-track EP on release! Here’s a new teaser video and album cover too – more info on fsolnews.blogspot.
My very good friend Roy ‘DJ Moneyshot’ Spencer recently interviewed Garry Cobain for the classic album series in this month’s Future Music, focusing on their ‘Lifeforms’ album.
Kid Koala‘s latest show is so multifaceted that it almost defies description, it certainly isn’t easy to sum up in one sentence anyway. In 2003 he released a 300 page silent graphic novel called ‘Nufonia Must Fall’ about a robot who falls in love with a girl (no spoilers there). He’s now translated it into a hour long stage performance that sees the story performed with puppets whilst being filmed live as Kid plays the soundtrack alongside The Afiara Quartet.
The puppets, or more accurately models / macquettes, came in different sizes and there must have been at least 10 different stage sets on pedestals which would be filmed before the camera moved on to the next on a tracking dolly. The puppeteers all wore black so as to be more inconspicuous and would change stage sets between filming as each scene was projected and edited live above the stage on a huge screen. All the while Kid Koala was soundtracking the performance alongside a string quartet, one minute playing keyboards then scratching, playing mandolin or affecting voices into a vocoder. At one point he was playing a keyboard figure with one hand and then needle dropping tones from the Spiritualized drone record ‘Pure Phase’ to form melodies.
The whole piece was incredible, funny and moving and the sit down setting of the Roundhouse on a rainy Monday night made it even more fantastic. It was also the antithesis of his previous ‘Short Attention Span Theatre’ shows of a few years ago, often moving as a glacial pace because of the limitations placed on the crew moving between scenes which took time to set up and assemble. Prerecorded inserts of the robot’s chest-mounted tape recorder or cut-away scenes involving hands performing acts that the models couldn’t were included where needed and bought time for the puppeteers and variety to the camera angles.
The music was an integral part of the piece and bought scenes to life, the themes repeating to form a fully realised score that built on the original soundtrack included with the book. I was close to tears at one point and realised that it was the music that had bought me there but it was also used as a sound effect with a particularly effective cello bow sound used to make the sound of the robot’s head turning in an elevator scene.
If you get the chance to see this then take it as it won’t be getting too many outings due to the size of the production. Sadly it was only on once in London before moving to a four night residency in Hamburg and then more in the Netherlands. Watching it on the web would only give you a portion of the experience, you really have to see it in all its multi-layered glory. We joked afterwards that a DVD of the performance would have more behind the scenes features than the actual main feature.
Another unexpected aspect of the show was that there was a near stage invasion as the end as people wanted to inspect the props, sets and characters that had been used, take photos and try to deduce how what they’d just seen had been done. It’s a rare show that can achieve such an effect on a crowd in this day and age, also, I forgot to mention – the whole night started out with a gain on bingo on specially drawn Kid Koala cards.
It’s been a long time coming and it’s finally almost here – the long trailed album by The Heliocentrics featuring Melvin Van Peebles drops on Now Again on Oct 7th on double CD and deluxe vinyl with bonus instrumentals disc. It comes on like Cannonball Adderly‘s David Axelord-produced ‘Soul Zodiac’ and from the 4 tracks I’ve heard, doesn’t disappoint. More info here and an exclusive instrumental to check out.
photo by Edwin Wong
Not one but two electronica bombshells were dropped this week – first the Aphex Twin blimp and stencils then the announcement yesterday of a new album. You can pre-order the album here including being entered into a raffle to purchase a £250 (!) limited edition vinyl version and read the press release which looks like it’s been google-translated from Japanese.
Over on Facebook, Gaz from Future Sound Of London has finally been giving some previews of Environment 5 – the long-awaited next installment of their Environments series, the low-key soundscape set that they’ve been releasing for the past few years. This time though it seems as if this is THE new Future Sound of London album as the tracks are all said to have been written this year instead of from their archive. This will also be available on vinyl as well as CD and Download and note that it’s ‘Environment’ instead of the plural. Now all we need is a new Kraftwerk album…
Love these graphics for Paper Tiger who have a mix on Solid Steel in a week or so.
Photo © Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves, taken in my studio April 2013
Yes, it’s 25 years ago today that ‘Paul’s Boutique’ was launched into an expectant world only to be met with a mixture of acclaim, incomprehension and disappointment from critics and fans alike. ‘Licensed to Ill’ pt.2 it wasn’t and was such a departure it alienated a large proportion of their (newly acquired) audience immediately. The Hip Hop landscape had moved on by the summer of ’89 and the militant beats and rhymes of Public Enemy rubbed shoulders with De La Soul‘s newly planted Daisy Age or the emerging gangster rap of NWA. Suddenly the Beasties were back after a two year break in LA, sampling Disco, The Beatles, Psycho and rhyming about throwing eggs, street bums and plastering the album with stop-start skits instead of the Rock Rap they’d become known for.
Of course this was intended but it was largely out of step with what was happening in their field at the time. Hip Hop was still fiercely about looking forward as far as its own history was concerned and here were snatches of Afrika Bambaataa and Lovebug Starski. Also DJs and producers were still in the mindset of the rare and unknown sample, Rose Royce, Chic, The Beatles and the theme to Jaws weren’t exactly obscure yet here they all were. In fact the inclusion of The Beatles drew some discussion as no one had been so blatant before and it was speculated that their signing to Capitol was on the condition that they could sample liberally from the label’s huge back catalogue.
But time and hindsight are a great thing and here we are, a quarter of a century later, with the album acknowledged as an ahead of its time classic. To celebrate we have SM&A from Italy who have put together a‘Visual Companion’ to the album, made from existing videos, film clips, ads and other footage to make a long playing video. This has been a labour of love for months now and we met with Paolo from the team in Italy earlier this year on one of our 3-Way Mix excursions for the same album. I can’t embed it in the site at the moment so you’ll have to go to the link above to watch it.
Not only is there a film but now there’s another book from Dan LeRoy – author of the brilliant 331/3 book on said album – this time entitled ‘For Whom The Cowbell Tolls’. I was interviewed by Dan earlier this year for an updated version of the 331/3 book but this new title appeared out of nowhere on several sites last week and is something else altogether it seems. Having come across a huge stash of PB-related memorabilia in his research it seems Dan has now teamed up with a pop archeologist named Peter Relic and written a follow up book that reveals previously lost treasures and info about the album that will also be released on the 25th anniversary. I’m really looking forward to this as it’s come out of nowhere and promises much, it’s available through Amazon as a digital book initially though. In related news, Cheeba, Moneyshot and I continue with our tribute to the album and begin a series of weekend runs at festivals this summer before heading to Canada for a show at the SAT in Montreal on September 19th, our own mix not even 2 years old but having clocked over 150,000 plays.
So perfectly put and brilliantly animated.
Jim Mahfood comes with the goods two years after he did our ‘Caught In The Middle of a 3-Way Mix’ cover.
This is for SM&A Productions‘ forthcoming Visual Companion to Paul’s Boutique, due online on July 25th, the 25th anniversary of the great album.
They also commissioned Derek Langille to do a poster, he of the Sabotage comic fame.
“Yeah, you can’t front on that!”
I’ve never heard this before, an interview with Matt Johnson playing some of his favourite records on Greenwich Sound Radio way back in 1983 when ‘Soul Mining’ was first released.
Another look behind the scenes at some work I’ve been doing on the Frankie Goes To Hollywood box set for the 30th anniversary edition of their ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ album. Earlier this year I visited photographer Steve Rumney who took a set of photos backstage at the London launch party of ‘Relax’ at the Camden Palace (now Koko) back in November 1983, one of which ended up on a promo poster, cassette and sheet music.
We looked through boxes of negatives and found very little aside from some prints and one badly damaged negative strip. Nevertheless, on that strip was an image that I recognised from the inside sleeve of the original album and he graciously let me take it away. After having it scanned at a professional lab I took the digital files and proceeded to repair all the dust and scratches it had incurred over the years. See above the 5-step cleaning and cropping process, this will then be used on the inner sleeve of the new version of the album. Quite a bit of work for one small 4 x 5.5cm image.
I only just caught on to the new Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl record under the name The Ghost Of A Sabre Tooth Tiger (or GHOASTT for short). It was released a couple of months ago, titled ‘Midnight Sun’ and an article on them in the new MOJO made me curious to seek it out. If you liked the last couple of Pepe Deluxe albums and the way they mix up psychedelia with female vocals, strong pop hooks and all manner of vintage electronics and effects then this is for you.
It pushes so many of my buttons, you can hear west coast harmonies, Pink Floyd, heavy drums, Radiophonics, Tame Impala and of course a sprinkling of Sean’s dad here and there. It gloriously references the 60’s both sonically and visually and pulls it off without sounding clichéd, their videos are good fun too with a definite Kenneth Anger homage going on here in this NSFW one above. You can listen to the whole album here and watch another video too.
I got sent this the other day and by coincidence (or possible design?) I’m going to see ‘The Making of Jodorowsky’s Dune’ today at the British Library. This record is about to be reissued and shares a fascination with Frank Herbert‘s book, being a concept album based on Dune. The composer is Bernard Szajner – ‘the French Brian Eno‘ as the press release tell us – and it was recorded in 1979 for Pathé Marconi EMI.
The album is full of droning synthscapes and great drums, definitely a lost classic of the genre and, typically, Finder’s Keepers label boss Andy Votel has already been here and come up with a minimix for us to hear. The album will be released on 25th August on InFiné Reissues from Germany and include two new tracks, previously unreleased from the original sessions. More info here and pre-order here.
On Monday evening I joined Matt Johnson of The The on stage at Rough Trade East in London for a two hr Q&A about his ‘debut’ album, ‘Soul Mining’. It was a great evening with plenty to talk about and 200 eager fans there to listen and ask questions before queuing half way down the shop floor for autographs.
One fan even had the original art for the ‘Soul Mining’ cassette with him, complete with pasted up overlay. Matt recorded it all via clip on mics and I believe someone was video taping as well. I should be editing the audio sometime next week for a podcast. (Top photos by Nancy Brown and Adam James Seth-Ward, photo below posted on Twitter, thank you , please let me know who you are so I can credit you).
The recently released box set is something to cherish with lots of quirks courtesy of Matt’s designer Cally at Antar. Upon lifting the lid you’re greeted with a huge scan of one of the original master tapes on the underside and a 24″ x 36″ foldout containing images and liner notes. The download card is a large replica of a 1/4 inch reel to reel tape and I was thrilled to have a thank you on the reverse for providing images from my archive to the project.
The bonus disc of remixes and B-sides is probably the jewel in the crown as it arrives in a full colour gatefold plastered with Andy DOG Johnson‘s classic imagery. Finally we come to the original LP which is a faithful recreation with an inner sleeve showing the original labels barely visible printed straight on to the paper. Cally tells me he had to fight hard to present details like this and more as part of the package as Sony wanted it all cleaned up but to me these are the details that make it unique, showing off the artifact. More master tape scans finish the experience on the box bottom and the quality is top notch, it all feels as if a lot of care and attention has been taken to put this together.
The audio really doesn’t need rhapsodising over but the bonus Recollected disc contains alternate 12″ and early versions of Uncertain Smile, Perfect, This Is The Day and I’ve Been Waiting For Tomorrow (all of my life) from the album and period B side Fruit of the Heart. The remaster has been very sympathetic to the original and with a lack of outtakes or demos the quality of the songs never dips or falters. You can order a copy direct here and there are several articles doing the rounds on the web at the moment, one of the best being John Doran‘s piece on the Quietus and check the latest issue of Mojo for 6 pages of Soul Mining.
Also I should point out that the box set is (intentionally) large enough to easily fit the dual 12″ of Matt and mine’s versions of ‘GIANT’ that was released for Record Store Day. This was always intended and nicely completes the set of Andy Dog cover art from that era whilst adding a touch of my own take on his work.
Very pleased to log on and see that the Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Inside The Pleasuredome’ box set I designed has tipped over the 100% mark to become fully funded :). Rob Puricelli has put together a great overview of the project on his Failed Muso blog.
I’ve been waiting for this to drop for over a year now, Spencer from Death Waltz hinted at it a long time ago and has since confirmed it here and there online. I saw him a few weeks back and he was saying September and he’s been true to his word as it popped up for pre-order out of the blue yesterday. A synth and organ-heavy score to the ‘lost 80’s movie’ by Black Mountain member Jeremy Schmidt, it has all the slow moving menace of the film and the sleeve is just as beautiful.
There are two versions : one for Europe on clear vinyl with red smoke effect via Death Waltz and one on clear vinyl via Jagjaguwar for N. America who are also doing a bundle with a DVD of the film.
There seem to be an inordinate amount of anniversaries for great albums and films at the moment. 30, 25 and 20 ‘years ago today’ posts pop up every day at the moment, reminding up of countless classics and making me wonder if there’ll be quite so many in 10, 20, 30 years time?
One that no one will argue with is Global Communication‘s masterwork, ’76:14′ – one of the greatest ambient albums of the 90’s (alongside Aphex Twin’s ‘Selected Ambient Works II’, The Orb’s ‘Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld’ and FSOL’s ‘Lifeforms’).
Apparently it’s 20th has come and to commemorate the occasion a producer called Huess has created a tribute version and flipped the timing around (the numbers of the title refer to the minutes and seconds the album lasts for – maybe Kasabian never heard of GC before?). It’s pretty good and well worth the 15 minute listen.
Enjoying this new compilation on Buried Treasure that takes a slightly different angle on the library comp from what’s been done before. They add ‘Brass’ to the line up of Psych and Moogs, not something that you usually find but it’s there alright.
The tracks come from the German Sonoton Music Library and they’ve done a great job with superb mastering and a fatastic sleeve by Rob Crespo to pull you in. John Fiddy and Sammy Burdson seem to make up around half of the tracks and it’s all new to me.
There’s some really great material on here and whilst I would question the amount of ‘Psych’ in the selection there’s plenty of Brass and modular keyboard sounds. Most of all there’s some superb playing all over the selections even though is can slip into cheese occasionally.
Sven Perner‘s ‘High Tension’ is a thinly veiled take on Led Zep‘s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ whilst ‘Crime & Glamour’ by Hermann Langschwert & Wolfgang Killian is a classic slice of spy funk. More info and clips here.
Really enjoying this new album by Mark De Clive-Lowe, was attracted by the cover and gave it a listen on Bandcamp. He’s one of those names I’ve seen around for years and probably heard a few things but would be hard-pressed to name any of them. This album is a full on jazz epic taking in guests vocals, raps and solos but all wrapped up in modern production techniques and sampling. The overall tone reminded me of Stanley Clarke / Return To Forever or moments of Weather Report and I was taken by the opening instrumental jazz track that suddenly flipped and sampled itself, turning into a rap tune within a few bars. Hear and buy it here.
I did a couple of interviews for the upcoming Farmfest in Someret on August 1st/2nd: one for their first podcast (above) and another Q&A for the Bass Explorer website where I added my then current top 3 favourite tunes. Farmfest is one of a growing breed of smaller festivals, very cheap tickets starting at £53 and with a pro-organic slant to the food and drink onsite. If you repost their podcast you will be entered into a draw to win a pair of tickets.