I saw Amon‘s live show Friday night and it was amazing, highly recommended and a real kick up the backside in terms of how electronic music can be presented live. Some great pictures here from my friends Emma and Frazer.
Music
It’s been a productive week for music, I finally finished the 3rd EP in the trilogy that will make up my album. Plus the cover version of The The’s GIANT featuring Matt Johnson on vocals that I’ve literally been working on for years. The keen-eyed among you will also have spotted that Matt’s friend and sometime musical collaborator, JG Thirlwell appears on one track too.
I have one more track that I’m reworking from a previous EP to finish for the album and then I have to sequence it all for the CD version and do artwork. Also next week I am remixing Loka for the first single from their second LP, due out this autumn on Ninja Tune. 2econd Class Citizen, whom I collaborated on this EP on one track, has also turned in a remix for this which is a nice touch.
I’ve been waiting for this issue to crop up on Brian McClosekey‘s excellent ‘Like Punk Never Happened’ blog – the 1981 issue with Adam Ant on the cover – one that I strongly remember, being mad about anything with an Ant attachment at the time. Brian posts complete issues of Smash Hits, every two weeks, 30 years to the day they were first published and he’ll continue until his collection stops. The pages are viewable via Flickr and are slowly forming an excellent time capsule of late 70’s and 80’s pop, in context, as it happened. I was eleven when this was published and 1981 was Adam Ant’s year, he was everywhere, from the pop charts to TV to the daily newspapers. He looked and sounded great, gave good copy and they couldn’t get enough of him.
Another page in this issue caught my eye later on though, a half page advert for five Kraftwerk albums. They had a freak number one in the UK with ‘The Model’ in February 1982 – a traditional post-Xmas quiet spot for record releases. It seems Phonogram were eagerly flooding the market with reissues of their back catalogue at this point though because they’d just released the Computer World album. When I first saw the ad (obviously, re-reading the mag later) I thought, “What? how can they have five albums?”, little knowing that there were another four at least to add to this list. Unfortunately none of these made it to my local record shop but I did manage to get copies of ‘Computer World’, ‘The Man Machine’ and ‘Trans Europe Express’ – all on cassette – the latter of which I took back to the shop, complaining to them that the tape only had one track on side 2 when it listed four. Again, little did I realise all four tracks segued into one so there weren’t any breaks in between (!) I love the way they’ve spelt picture with a ‘k’ in the text and my god do I wish I’d been old enough to see them on that tour.
I don’t know how he does it but here’s another one from Jon Brooks on Café Kaput. “Every sound on this record, from the melodic sounds to the percussion, the atmospheric effects to the bass lines originates from the Braun AB-30 alarm clock.”
Listen and buy here
Martin Rushent, the man behind The Human League‘s incredible ‘Love and Dancing’ remix album from 1982, has passed away.
Rushent described working on Love and Dancing during an interview in 2007:
“The dub mixes started because we didn’t have time to do ‘B’ sides, We’d send Virgin Records a track and they’d want to rush-release it. I’d been listening to Grandmaster Flash and played it to Phil (Oakey). He liked it so I suggested doing a remix of “Love Action” by chopping it up and adding effects, then we could get Virgin off our backs!
When it was all finished I had four or five remixes. Phil wasn’t sure about releasing them on an album and left me to make Love and Dancing on my own. It was mixed on a board, so I had the multitrack of Dare feeding in, a Harmonizer on send one, delay lines and phasers everywhere and I’d flick it about. I’d do a section and if I liked it I’d make a tape cut and splice it in. There were thousands of edits on the master and it took forever to do.”
This album was a major inspiration when I was young and continues to be today. Synth pop twisted and remixed before the genre really existed and any rules were set in stone. This predated the Art of Noise and Trevor Horn‘s remix frenzies and, I’m fairly certain, could probably lay claim to being the first remix album. Certainly one by a chart-topping band at any rate.
I’ve recently completed a track with long-time musical hero JG Thirlwell, aka Foetus, Manorexia, Steroid Maximus and many more, for my new record due out in Sept. To say it was an honor is an understatement as well a dream fulfilled. Since first being given a cassette of seminal album’s ‘Hole’ and ‘Nail’ in the 80’s I’ve been hooked on his music and always checked for new releases. He’s been on the list of collaborators I’ve wanted for this new record for years and, to add the icing on the cake, I’m pleased beyond words with the resulting track – ‘Prey’. It will kick off my third EP this autumn, before the album compiles the trilogy shortly after.
If you’re not familiar with his work, the Quietus have just published this piece by my good friend Mark Emsley of ireallylovemusic. It’s as good a place as any to start. I’ve also put together a visual discography of all his many guises – Foetus, Wiseblood, Steroid Maximus, Manorexia, Garage Monsters, Stinkfist, Clint Ruin, The Flesh Volcano, Baby Zizanie, Hydroze Plus and of course, JG Thirlwell. Three decades’ work and that’s just his own productions, not including remixes, collaborations and four season’s worth of scores for The Venture Brothers TV series. One of the joys of any JGT production is that the artwork is always excellent, with themes and colours recurring to form a visual identity.
If this has piqued your interest but you don’t know where to start, I suggest the 80’s albums ‘Hole’, Nail’ and ‘Thaw’. ‘Sink’ is a great catch-all compilation of a lot of the surrounding singles and compilation tracks of the era. Noughties albums ‘Flow’, ‘Damp’ and ‘Hide’ are amazing and, if vocals aren’t your thing, any Steroid Maximus album is worth a try.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0GRxu0oIEA&feature=player_embedded#at=22[/youtube]
I went to the opening of Amon Tobin and Tessa Farma‘s exhibition last night, showing original sculptures from the ‘ISAM’ album artwork at the Crypt Gallery in St. Pancras, London. It’s on between the 26th May and the 5th June 2011 and is free, before being taken to Paris (Galery Art Roch) between the 13th and 23rd June. Dates are also being confirmed for Brussels, Berlin, and North America later in the year.
Also very much looking forward to seeing Amon’s live set when it comes to town, it debuts at Mutek next week.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umf0C0WCsr8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”480″]http://vimeo.com/18267299[/vimeo]
Documentary Feature 83 mins
A film by Nichola Bruce
Music by Matt Johnson
Bitten by the ‘Moonbug‘, photographer Steve Pyke sets out on a journey across America in his search to meet and photograph the men who walked on the moon.
My good friend Riz Maslen aka Neotropic has a new sound piece installed at Kew Gardens in London called ‘The Alpine Path’. It’s on from May 14th to Sept 25th at The Davies Alpine House, more info here
Check the ball section near the end – amazing
[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fjUgopSdw&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
New 6 track EP from DJ Shadow just jumped out of nowhere –
3 ‘new’ tracks
(2 have been floating around for a bit) and 3 remixes of same.
‘I Gotta Rokk’ will be his new ‘Organ Donor’ I think. Grab mp3, CD of vinyl versions here.
Yep, ANOTHER one, Ian Hodgson is churning them out right now, the new offering from the mysterious Blank Workshop is ‘Somewhere a Fox is Getting Married’. Limited to 450 copies, it’s a full length LP housed in a thick double card sleeve and comes with a large poster of the cover art. Released on the 10th May you can pre-order it here and there’s more info here about the tracks.
[vimeo width=”636″ height=”380″]http://vimeo.com/3302330[/vimeo]
Incredible motion typography with music by Forss
CUSTOMTONE by Fracture & Neptune feat. Martin Fieber from Astrophonica on Vimeo.
Brand new Fracture & Neptune video for ‘Customtone’ video by resident Astrophonica artists Emilski & Nick Duggins.
My good friend David Vallade did this for our very own local record store – Rat Records in Camberwell. Even though they are a used store they’re celebrating too and I’ll be playing up at the Lock Lounge in Camden Saturday night too.
Out today, Black Mill Tapes Volume 2: Do You Synthesize? More info here – Pye Corner Audio
Out on both 12″ vinyl and digital download via the Cheap Thrills label are 2011 remixes of this classic. Fast forward to the Lone remix which just kills it, a perfect blend of old and new. He manages to retain the soul of the original whilst updating it with modern production touches to make it sound fresh again, the man really does it justice where most remixes like this miss the point.
Love this cover for the new Gnod and White Hills LP