[vimeo width=”640″ height=”370″]http://vimeo.com/31395235[/vimeo]
Excellent little video by long time Ninja Tune fans Jim Jam and Kid Vector, there is a competition to make fan videos for Amon Tobin running at the moment on Vimeo.
Love this cover of JRocc‘s new single, artwork by Gustavo Eandi.
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”480″]http://vimeo.com/30727793[/vimeo]
I’ll have one of those please, now they just need to reissue his children’s book ‘Henri’s Walk To Paris’ and I’ll be happy.
Postscript – apparently ‘Henri’s..’ is due for reissue in Feb 2012! Also this beautiful compilation of Bass film titles was put together by Ian Albinson of the Art of the Title website recently, in honor of the book being published.
I recently came across a couple of new postcard records, people are suddenly reviving old vinyl pressing techniques the likes of which I never thought I’d see again. The first one was by The Stepkids, a massive favourite of mine after only one album, on the excellent Stones Throw label, and came free with online orders of the new record. It’s a short exclusive track called ‘Bitter Bug’ and the grooves are cut right into the cardboard so the sound quality is not far short of dirt (but that’s not the point, it looks great).
The second one I chanced upon on Facebook and is the creation of Markus Oberndorfer as part of an art project called Lenscape#02 for which he created 33 copies. I was lucky enough to secure the last copy and the difference between this and the Stepkids one is that the grooves are cut into a transparent slice of plastic and the postcard is fixed to this.
I have several records like these and most get filed along with the flexi discs I collect as they are usually 5 or 7 inches in size and square. These postcards are, well, postcard sized and have the space to write a name and address on the back.
The incredible line work of Henry Flint from the inner sleeve of the ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ vinyl.
The 12″ EP and download, out Nov 7th, is available to preview and pre-order at the Ninja shop.
Henry’s book of ‘doodles’, ‘Broadcast’ is supposed to be released today but is still on pre-order at Amazon.
The Magpie Music mp3 treasure hunt continues today with the second mp3 available on a certain site, use your search engine to find it.
The first segment, ‘Finders Keepers’ was here, pretty close to home, the second won’t be so easy.
With one week away until the release of my ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons‘ EP Ninja are giving you the chance to download 5 different segments of the track ‘Magpie Music’ that I did with 2econd Class Citizen. This is a suite of tracks we made and then stitched together to form an 11 minute piece on the new EP and album, various tracks have been extracted from it and cleaned up to form little standalone DJ tracks for you to enjoy.
The only catch is, you have to find them, Magpie-like, and steal them from wherever they are hiding on the web using your computer’s search engine (incidentally, the new album’s title). The first one is up now, four more go online each day this week and the EP is released on Monday 7th November. Lots of exciting things happening on the lead up to this release at the moment, I’ll give all the info as each thing is confirmed but January is going to be packed at this rate.
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Equinox Records out of Berlin have been around for a while and they currently have a sale on in their shop so I recently hoovered up some bits I fancied. The packaging and design aesthetic of the label is very strong, being overseen by the label head Gunter Stoppel aka DJ Scientist. There is a look of unbleached card, circular designs, B&W inner sleeve photography and a multitude of formats including colour and clear vinyl, 5″ and postcard records, cassettes and other oddities. It’s a varied roster, mainly concentrating on instrumental beats and electronica with a heavy leaning toward Hip Hop and sampling. Of course I would be first to recommend 2econd Class Citizen but the new David Vangel album is excellent as are releases by Davinci and Deckard amongst others.
As the release of my new EP is imminent (Nov 7th) I’ve put together a special mix entitled ‘A Magpies, Maps & Moons Reader’, available on Solid Steel this Friday, to showcase it and the tracks that influenced me whilst I was making it.
I’m very pleased with this one (there are mix companions to the previous EPs in the Downloads section of this site) as I spent a long time doing special re-edits and remixes on some tracks. It also contains a couple the premiers of tracks by Pepe Deluxé and 2econd Class Citizen from their respective albums, both due next year.
If you like what you hear you can pre-order the EP here.
Solid Steel Radio Show 28/10/2011 Part 1 + 2 – DJ Food by Ninja Tune
[quicktime width=”636″ height=”480″]http://www.djfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/SS-animation-O-for-Orange.mp4[/quicktime]
First look at the cover and tracklist for next February’s second ‘The Art of the 12″ Two’ compilation via the ZTT Facebook page!
Disc One:
01. ‘you are warmly invited to come inside’
02. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: ‘Two Tribes’ (Keep the Peace) *
03. Paul McCartney: ‘Spies Like Us’ (Art of Noise Remix) **
04. Godley & Creme: ‘Cry’ (Extended Remix) *
05. Instinct: ‘Swamp Down’ (12” Mix) **
06. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: ‘Julia’s Song’ (Extended Version) *
07. 808 State Vs. Art of Noise: ‘Moments in Love’ (Massey Mix One) **
08. Thomas Leer: ‘Heartbeat’ (Extended Mix) *
09. ‘bassline interlude’ **
10. Act: ‘Chance’ (Whammy Mix) **
11. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: ‘War’ (Coming Out of Hiding) **
12. Propaganda: ‘Dr Mabuse der Spieler’ (An International Incident) *
Disc Two:
01. Scritti Politti: ‘Absolute’ (Version)
02. Art of Noise: ‘Close Up’
03. Propaganda: ‘Sorry for Laughing’ (12” Mix) **
04. Das Psych-Oh! Rangers: ‘He He Radical’ (Episode 2) *
05. ‘piano interlude’ **
06. Nasty Rox Inc.: ‘What Is It’ (Live Instrumental Wonder) **
07. Mint Juleps: ‘Every Kinda People’ (Parts I, II and III)
08. Anne Pigalle: ‘Hé Stranger’ (Parts I, II and III)
09. 808 State Vs. Art of Noise: ‘Moments in Love’ (Massey Mix Three) **
10. ‘the flash forward’
11. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: ‘Relax’ (Man Has a Sense for the Discovery of Beauty, Part I) **
12. ‘zang tuum interlude’;
13. Art of Noise: ‘Close Up’ (Hop)
14. Propaganda: ‘Dr Mabuse’ (Special Instrumental Mix) *
15. ‘cadenza’
** previously unreleased
* previously unreleased on CD
It’s out on Feb 20, 2012 on Zang Tuum Tumb
Something I just knocked up, probably further ruining my eyesight in the process. Probably the only time I’m going to be able to use the Victor Moscoso font and get away with it. Possible CD design for limited edition of my ‘Solid Psyche’ mix of tracks from Ninja, Big Dada, Counter and Brainfeeder for Japan.
Regular blog readers will have noticed a love for Ashley Wood‘s 3A toy company and its works and his legion of fans are putting on a custom show in the 1:AM gallery in San Francisco in two weeks time. A blank severed Bot head was given to each participant, to customise as they wish but it seems a few have gone outside the brief too with amazing results. Over at the 3A forum there has been a slow reveal of some of the custom creations set to appear and the overall quality and ingenuity of some of the pieces is staggering. Wish I could see some of these in the, er… plastic. More to come once the show opens hopefully.
There’s so much to like in Alex Varanese‘s images and design. The restricted colour palette, abstract architecture, retro grain and lens effects, robots, analogue era technology and on and on. There is such a thing as too much talent, this is the biggest gallery I’ve done by a mile, see much more at his site.
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It’s time to unveil the second print in the series of my collaboration with Henry Flint – ‘Mad Man’, from the ‘One Man’s Weird Is Another Man’s World’ cover. As with the first print, it is printed to the very high standards of the Fine Art Trade Guild on 300gsm Somerset Photo Satin which is a 100% cotton paper. It measures 64.5cm x 47.1cm, in an edition of 33, all signed by myself and Henry and is available from Scraffer.com as a pre-order, to be shipped on Nov 12th.
The difference with this print (and the cause of a slight price hike) is that each one will come with an individual doodle drawn into the blank speech bubble in the centre by Henry himself, making each print unique. The quality is hard to convey without having them in hand but these really are the most gorgeously printed items I’ve seen in a long while, of course I’m biased but I can’t think of a better way to see these images. Really excited to see all the different things Henry draws for this one 
Available now: 11 separate figures for $85 each or one humongous 11 figure set for $650 – from 3A‘s Bambalandstore
“The Simonsound is Simon James and Matt Ford (DJ Format). Sometimes we make music together and sometimes alone and maybe that’s a bit confusing but we don’t mind as long as people enjoy the music. When we started making music together as The Simonsound we didn’t want people to associate it with the music of DJ Format because it is so completely different but eventually we decided to let people know and just judge for themselves. The mix is a selection of Psychedelic/Electric records from around the world collected by Matt and put together by Matt & Simon. DJ Format‘s new album A Statement Of Intent is due for release in Feb 2012. Reverse Engineering by The Simonsound is available on Vinyl,CD & MP3.” (DJ Format)
A new mix from DJ Format and Simon James from The Simonsound for the Paris DJs site. I was also lucky enough to here a remix Format has just finished for a forthcoming Soundsci release, Hip Hop is alive and well is all I can say.
The second track from the Pepe Deluxé album, ‘Queen of the Wave’, is up for your delectation. ‘The Storm’ redefines the word ‘EPIC’ with tribes of restless natives chanting ‘Listen, listen, God of Thunder!’ over a track so packed full of ideas it should be illegal.
Check for yourselves over at the official Pepe site and stay tuned for a further two exclusives.
Two new Ninja releases with tracks by myself and 2econd Class Citizen. Loka‘s ‘Temporary External’ EP has remixes from us both of tracks from the forthcoming album ‘Passing Place’.
My EP – ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ – is the last in the trilogy before they get compiled into a new form on the album due in January 2012. Both are available to pre-order from the Ninjashop as digital downloads with mine also coming in 12″ form too. Click the covers for previews and direct order links.