Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things I’ve been loving in the last seven days. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. SO much good music about at the moment, from top left:
Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology (Fire Records) – Fantastic new album, didn’t think she could better The Amber Light but this is already up there
Jon Brooks – Autres Directions (Clay Pipe Music) – Recorded on location in France, beautiful ambient soundscapes from Jon Brooks aka The Advisory Circle
Danny Scrilla – Ancient Musical Box (Cosmic Bridge) Cassette/DL – A surprise from Om Unit’s Cosmic Bridge label, in the form of an album on cassette and DL full of short ambient synth pieces with not a beat in sight.
Jean-Jacques Perry – Et son Ondioline (Forgotten Futures) LP – New reissue label unearthing unreleased early JJP recordings direct from his archive, beautifully packaged too.
Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. A package arrived from the excellent Castles In Space label from Brighton late last week, from top left:
Kl(aus) – Kl(aus) (Castles In Space) LP – Perfect synthscapes evoking everything from 70s electronica to 80s library to 90s ambience, on green vinyl.
CHXFX – Transcranial Targets (Castles In Space) LP – Incredible experimental electronic album that’s as crazed as its sleeve artwork, on orange splatter vinyl too.
Two Ragged Soldiers – Asulya / Water (Castles In Space) 7″ – Beautiful red and black splatter 45
Akiha Den Den – untitled LP (Castles In Space) .wav – Bit of a cheat as it’s still in production, but I was lucky enough to hear the finished album soundtrack of the radio play of the same name and it very good.
Whilst combing the web for something else entirely I stumbled across the work of the late David Klein. I’ve always been envious of artists who can seemingly use every colour in the palette and not make the result look like a dog’s dinner and there are some wonderful combinations here. His travel posters are lushous examples of a bygone era that occasionally resurfaces when illustrating period pieces like Mad Men. His psychedelic version of Alice In Wonderland is one of the best I’ve seen and there’s an oddity of what looks like six unused prelims for The Exorcist in there too. Visit his website to find out and see more…
On Friday night I finally made the pilgrimage to South Norwood, SE25 – not an area of London I’m familiar with – to the little beacon of sound and colour that is Gamma/Sector 25. Run by Rob Swain of the Gamma Proforma label, it’s a bar and gallery representing the music and artists he’s collected around him over the last 15 years and the next step in the evolution of the project. His influence in the area is immediately felt with street pieces in evidence around the location of the bar from artists like She One, Phil Ashcroft and Epod.
Each month he hosts a new display of work entitled ‘Milestones’ where the gallery shows work from an artist he’s worked with and this month was the turn of Will Barras with original paintings from the Divine Styler album Def Mask, his Rammellzee portrait and the upcoming Juice Aleem album among others. Gamma also recently published a book of Will’s work that is well worth getting if you like what you see here. The bar is situated at 14 Portland Road, London, SE25 4PF, nearest train station is Norwood Junction, and is generally open from 7am-5pm, later at weekends.
Below: Details from ‘the coolest toilet in South London’
Below: Details from the art for Juice Aleem‘s new album, ‘Voodoostarchild’
Below: Details from a recent commission, definitely channeling some Syd Mead on the car there.
Below: Details from the art for Divine Styler‘s last album, ‘Def Mask’
Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. From top left:
Markey Funk has been busy of late, releasing several 45s on his Delights label and he’s about to go on tour in Europe too, catch him near you soon.
Kunst – Kunst (Clone) LP – D’n’B producer dgoHn meets Jodey Kendrick which results in an incredible 4th World / post punk / drum n bass / gamelan hybrid.
Daisy Clan – Love Needs Love (Golden 12) 7″ – The guitar line from the Theme to Peter Gunn underpins this heavy, early 70s pop number from Germany.
David Vorhaus – The Vorhaus Sound Experiments (KPM) LP – post White Noise, early 80s electronica from Vorhaus on the KPM 1000 Series.
Pete Williams and I opened and closed our first Further at the Portico Gallery on Saturday. We’d spent the past six months or more preparing for this, creating over 350 hand painted slides, video loops, chaining projectors together to automate them remotely and working out the best way to transform the gallery into a canvas for our work. During my set I looked around and finally relaxed, feeling dwarfed by the encompassing visuals, most of which I’d been painting under a microscope only a few weeks earlier. This is just the beginning, we have plenty more to show and do…
I’ve been posting photos of each of the acts every day here and we’ve set up a new Facebook page for the venture where you can get a peek at all the photos right now, please ‘like’ our page if you do that sort of thing whilst you’re there. Martin LeSanto-Smith took the photos and without him we wouldn’t have been able to physically set the thing up. John Price from the Portico Gallery let us make it happen and was supportive all the way – massive thanks to both of them and also for Hannah Saunders from Big Fish Little Fish who gave advice, loaned projectors, helped on the door and bar and was generally a hero on the night.
Local tape loop heroes Howlround aka Robin The Fog and Chris Weaver performed the score to Steven McInerney’s film, ‘A Creak in Time’ for the first time at Further on May 6th. Tapes were tangled, tweaked and stretched with an audience member even acting as a loop holder at one point. I’ll be posting photos of each of the acts each day here and we’ve set up a new Facebook page for the venture where you can get an early peek at the photos right now, please ‘like’ our page if you do that sort of thing whilst you’re there.
Martin LeSanto-Smith took the photos.
Jim Jupp (Belbury Poly) and Julian House (The Focus Group) from Ghost Box graced us with a 90 minute AV set for the first Further on May 6th. With Julian DJing off vinyl and CD and Jim playing with a small suitcase of tricks it was a rare treat to host them and project their visuals around the hall. Martin LeSanto-Smith took the photos. I’ll be posting photos of each of the acts each day here and we’ve set up a new Facebook page for the venture where you can get an early peek at the photos right now, please ‘like’ our page if you do that sort of thing whilst you’re there.
Two collab mixed media prints from Jim Mahfood and Mike Huddleston. Limited edition, printed on acid-free, 300gsm, lightly textured fine art rag paper. Signed by both artists with a little original doodle!
Measures 15 x 29 – buy here
The reason it’s been a bit quiet on here recently is because of a little (big!) thing called Further that’s been occupying my time for the last few months. Myself and Pete Williams hatched this idea last summer, started talking about it seriously in the autumn and stockpiling equipment over the winter. A studio space was found early in January and we started planning an event that brings together lots of the things we love into one space. Music, visuals, records, food & drink, analogue techniques and leftfield artists. After a test run a couple of weeks ago, at the behest of Alex from The Orb, at the Royal Festival Hall we unveiled the first evening at the Portico Gallery in West Norwood on Saurday May 6th.
Featuring guests Jim Jupp & Julian House from Ghost Box records playing an AV set and Howlround presenting the premiere of their live rescore to Steven McInerney‘s film ‘A Creak In Time’, we opened and closed the night with our own multi-projection slide / oil / video sets. Local café/deli Pintadera came over to provide delicious Italian food and Michael Johnson from the Book & Record Bar down the road set up a record stall selling records by the artists and music sympathetic to the event. The whole thing wouldn’t have been possible without the support of John Price at the Gallery who let us use the building as our own for the night and Martin LeSanto-Smith who helped set up on the day and managed to take amazing photos all night whilst simultaneously being on a date!
I’ll be posting photos of each of the acts each day here and we’ve set up a new Facebook page for the venture where you can get an early peek at the photos right now, please ‘like’ our page if you do that sort of thing whilst you’re there. There should be a video by the end of the week too but there’s a lot of footage to go through. To give you a taste, here are just a few of the photos harvested from social media, Tuesday I’ll post Ghost Box images, then Howlround, then us on Thursday with the video to follow by the end of the week.
Photo credits: Top: Neil Mason (Electronic Sound), 2x panoramas: Nathan Adams, slide stills: Spectrascopic, Howlround silhouette: Zoe Plumb, video: Tony Coleman (London Electricity)
Looks gorgeous, sounds decent, a bit too ‘action packed’ in places but I’m assuming that’s the edit for the trailer rather than quite how the film will ultimately play out. I took some screen grabs of favourite scenes. The Atari logo, the new Spinner design, the old Spinner in Deckard‘s home, the epic architecture, deep colour grade, sumptuous neon.
Great poster by Pete Isaac (with illustrations by Sub2) for the 45 Live tent at the Masked Ball at the end of May in Cornwall. This is just one small part of the whole festival, more details and tickets on sale here
Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. These are some selections for the first Further event this Saturday. From top left:
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia – Obsidian (Deconstructure) (KK Records) 12″ – a 20 minute ambient trance classic and Further anthem if such a thing existed
Stereolab – Come And Play In The Milky Night (from ‘Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night’) LP (Duophonic UHF) LP – Fabulous album closer from the ‘lab.
Sheila Chandra – One and Mecca (from Roots & Wings) (Indiepop) LP – beautiful vocal drones and harmonies.
Markey Funk – JLM 1913/1921 (no label) – as yet unreleased album of music for two silent documentaries about Jerusalem
My latest Freaky Formats piece for The Vinyl Factory is up – this one focus’ on moiré effect patterns on sleeves – read it here and see the sleeves animated. Photos and gif animations by Michael Wilkin.
DJ HDD hipped me to this, it’s a couple of years old but I’d never heard of or seen the artist before. A hell of a lot of work there in 15 minutes, elements remind me of Cyriak, People Like Us and more…
Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things that have been doing it for me. They can be new or old, any style so long as it’s been getting some rotation in the studio. As with all record store day releases, there’s a period of time that shops who didn’t order have to wait until the releases are officially available so some of these aren’t immediately easy to pick up. From top left:
The Future Sound Of London – Archived : Enviromental : Views (Jumpin & Pumpin) 3xLP – Triple collection of new and old material never before on vinyl (not available until next Friday)
The Comet Is Coming – Death To The Planet (Leaf) 12″ – New cosmic jazz from the trio on orange vinyl
Vanishing Twin – Dream By Numbers (Soundway Records) 10″ – incredible new 6 track EP on red vinyl
The The – We Can’t Stop What’s Coming (Cineola) 7″ – New song from the live broadcast last summer with etched B side (it doesn’t appear to be on the web yet but you can hear it open my 5hr set last Sunday at Spiritland)
Shot last Friday during our stint in support of the Orb – big shouts out to Steve Williams for filming, Martin LeSanto-Smith and Mike Oscar for photos and everyone who knows us.
This was a test, tickets for the first Further proper on May 6th at the Portico Gallery, SE27 are on sale now and nearly gone…
I was never a Beano or Dandy reader, but this book, Willy the Kid Book 2, as well as Sweeney Toddler when I was a kid, was poured over by me and my brother, we knew every little detail. It took me years to find a copy of Book 1 (and I only just found out there was a Book 3!) and his book, Thrrp! for Knockabout probably wins the stupidest comic ever award.
RIP Leo Baxendale
Very pleased to be bringing my Selected Aphex Works AV set to the Splice festival on Friday May 26th at Rich Mix in London. Coldcut and the legendary Emergency Broadcast Network are playing the same evening and there are acts all weekend with workshops, talks and more in the day. Check the line up and buy tickets at www.splicefestival.com
