Howlround ‘A Creak In Time’ LP and film


I’ve been looking forward to this since I had a sneak peak about a month ago, the new Howlround album is also the soundtrack to a film called ‘A Creak in Time’. Two years in the making, “A Creak In Time is a film directed by Steven McInerney exploring the interrelation of the macrocosm and microcosm navigating its journey through time in two parts. The soundtrack has been composed entirely from creaking objects and manipulated on magnetic tape machines.”
The film is “…Taken from source material discovered in London, Yosemite and the Mojave desert, these sounds, through simple manipulation, gradually cast off their moorings and head into space, leaving their original identities far behind and chiming perfectly with the film’s recurring themes of transformation and altered perception, switching scale in a heartbeat from microscopic topography to the vast distances of the cosmos. Shot entirely on 16mm film with a musique concréte soundtrack, it’s both science and fiction and marks a dramatic new direction for all involved”.

Howlround CreakLP
Available to pre-order on McInerney‘s audio-visual Psyché Tropes label now, the LP comes with a download and link to an online stream of the full film. You can order it here or, if you want to see it and hear Howlround live they’re playing a launch party in London on Dec 10th at Iklectik as part of Pascal Savy‘s two day residence. The night after they’ll be doing a more traditional tape loop set at the Brunel Museum as part of the Film Sound Performance weekend – more info and tickets here (no tickets on the door).

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The Diskery, Birmingham

Diskery outside
Last weekend I played at The Dark Horse in Moseley, Birmingham and a fine gig it was too. The day after, Thomas, the promoter, and DJ Cro took me to The Diskery, supposedly the oldest record shop in the UK. It’s the kind you only run across occasionally these days, seemingly held together by the records pinned to every surface. Stuck in a time warp, a perfectly preserved example of your classic secondhand record shop of old, despite the Record Store Day banner in the window. There were so many records in every nook and cranny, on several floors, that I barely scratched the surface whilst I was there. We were offered tea almost immediately on entry and the two hours I had before my train yielded some great 45s, some of which are below. Definitely one of my favourite record shops in the UK and I want to go back and spend the whole day in there…

Diskery est1952 Diskery ceilingDiskery insideDiskery shelvesDiskery dolls Diskery stickersDiskery FCJuddDiskery Action Man Diskery happytime Diskery Huegel Paris Diskery JingleDiskery ListenMoveDanceDiskery Rhythm Diskery SparkyDiskery 3 blind mice
More about this flexi disc in a future post…

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The new Design Museum opens

Science Museum Paolozzi
I visited the new Design Museum off High Street Kensington at the weekend and the permanent collection was full of lovely bits and pieces, including a new film by The Light Surgeons. Perhaps it was because it was teeming with people but the gallery spaces seemed very small and cramped next to the yawning atrium and the cafe was hidden round a corner, almost embarrassed to be seen but packed nevertheless. People were being told to queue as they ascended up the levels to the top floor but we just got in the lift and bypassed all this. An oddly disfunctional design of a space for a Design Museum.

Science Museum Science Museum Kennard Science Museum olivetti3 Science Museum olivetti2 Science Museum olivetti1DesignTLSDesignformats Science Museum TV Science Museum Braun Science Museum timeline Science Museum User Science Museum logos Science Museum shapes Science Museum S

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Two new Patterned Air releases

Patterened Air front
I’ve been meaning to post about Matt Saunders‘ new(ish) Patterned Air Recordings imprint for a while now but work is taking over at the moment. Suffice to say that after The Assembled Minds’ debut release late last year he’s just released the second and third in the catalogue back to back. CukoO and Running On Air couldn’t be further apart stylistically but they make sense when tied together in the elaborate CD packaging that Matt assembles for each release. Patterened Air back
Taking up the baton from labels like The Folklore Tapes or A Year In The Country, each pouch contains multiple items that enhance the release in some way, hand printed, stamped, signed, numbered and then tied with a leather strip. They’re a nightmare to store and get into but there’s nothing out there quite like them and the label mission statement on their website reads like a ‘Hauntology 101’. “We are a record label interested in weird things. We like analogue synths, reel-to-reel machines, Radiophonics, music for children, music for falling to sleep by, early electronic experiments, folkloric eeriness, seances, electronic voice phenomenon, old techno, deteriorated music — in a nutshell, soundtracks to get us off this mundane plain and onto an elevated, if creepy, state of euphoria”.

I’ll buy that for a dollar but there’s more at work here than that – the music is just as unique as the packaging, sitting somewhere between earthy folk, spine-chilling electronica and the kind of melodic, stately British nostalgia found in Grasscut‘s records. Labels like this are always fun at the beginning because they’re full of ideas, idealism, experiments and no musical formula in place. These are all still available from the label’s Bandcamp page.

Assembled Minds front Cukoo front Cukoo backRunning On Air frontRunning On Air back

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The Karminsky Experience Inc. Beat LP launch

Karminsky LPs
Thursday evening last week saw the release of this fab record; ‘Beat!’ by The Karminsky Experience Inc. and they had a party above a pub in the middle of Soho to celebrate. It was small, hot, packed and great. I hadn’t seen them for years so it was nice to catch up and the music was spot on. I even danced a bit, which is very rare for me. The album is out now, packed full of beautifully cinematic / library / funky / exotic sounds and anyone who opens a side with snatches of John Rydgren closely followed by Ken Nordine is alright with me. You can buy it on vinyl, cassette and DL here.

Karminsky bagKarminsky Exp Karminsky OptiKarminsky tape

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The vinyl reissues we actually want this Black Friday

8Slightly late as I had a crazy weekend but still relevant as the consumer chaos and pressing plant queues will testify. I canvassed opinion from various DJs, collectors, sellers and artists as to what their top reissues/represses would be come the next Record Store Day and presented them to The Vinyl Factory.

You can see and read our choices HERE

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FourFromFoodFridays 12

FourFromFoodFridays12Four 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:
Barry Adamson – Know Where To Run (Central Control International) LP
DJ Mighty Atom deconstructs DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’ (Solid Steel)
Sculpture – Form Foam (Ana Ott) 12″ picture disc
Carl Matthews – East/West (Mirage) Cassette

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Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar

Lego-Star-Wars-Adventskalender-2016-75146-Cover-w600
It’s that time of year again, check these lovely images for some of the contents of the new SW Lego calendar – miniature building at it’s best.

“The 2016 edition of the LEGO Star Wars advent calendar features a theme focused around the ice planet, Hoth. Most of the builds and figures center around the integral battle at the Echo Base which kicks off The Empire Strikes Back. Snowtroopers and Hoth Rebel Troopers, along with select weapons and vehicles, are among the more prominent figures included, with another wintery-themed pieces such as a sleigh and exclusive white Chewbacca minifigure. The set is rounded it with pieces from Attack of the Clones and a couple from Return of the Jedi, including the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi, only the second time this character has been featured in a LEGO Star Wars advent calendar.”
More info and photos of the calendar contents here: (German language)

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TIE-Interceptor-Lego-Star-Wars-Adventskalender-2016 Stormtrooper-Lego-Star-Wars-Adventskalender-2016Tantive-IV

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Songs of Immigrants & Experience

Songsfront
Earlier this year I reconnected with an old friend from the early Ninja Tune days, Shane Solanki, a writer and poet who was responsible for the original Ninja press releases and the lexicon inside the original Ninja Skinz packets. These freeform, punning, cut and paste definitions, profiles and prose helped define part of the aesthetic and thinking behind the label in the early years and gave voice to Coldcut and co.’s ideals. He’s currently constructing a hugely ambitious project involving a stage play, an album and a graphic novel based on a story he’s written called ‘Songs of Immigrants and Experience’.
I helped him visualize certain scenes for the play and put together a rough version of an extract from the novel to help present the complicated project to prospective publishers. Below you can see examples of the A4 handout at the last performance and shots from the show with some of the scenes as backdrops. For more info go to Lastmangoinparis.netSongsinsideSongsinsidedoveSongsinsidedetailSongsback

Image Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

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De:tuned Brainbox compilation artwork

BBtop
As you’ll be aware if you read this blog, I’ve designed the artwork for the new 6xLP ‘Brainbox’ compilation from Belgian label, De:Tuned. This was somewhat of a dream job in every sense as not only did I have multiple surfaces to play with but the design brief was an ideal one from the start. Ruben Boons, label manager, came to me over a year ago wanting something that jumped off from my work with Amon Tobin around the ‘Out From Out Where’ album sleeves which is one of my personal favourite designs and was exactly where my head was at this particular time. Using similar methods of assembly and composition I created a main image that everyone was happy with (which became the cover) and then remixed it mulitple times to form images for the rest of the compilation. Everything you see here stems from at least part of the cover image.

From the off it seemed that Ruben and I was on exactly the same page and any suggestions he made always bettered the designs and, as I’d been given pretty much free reign over what to produce, this made the whole process even more enjoyable. There’s nothing worse that presenting a client with multiple variations of a job and them picking the weakest one. From experience I try never to send any examples of prospective designs on a job that I ultimately wouldn’t be happy to see in print but there are always favourites. No such worries on this job, it was bliss from beginning to end and I couldn’t be happier with the final result. There are only 300 box sets out there (I know mine says 304 below, that’s part of a small overun for the artists involved) and each comes with a download code for those who like their music digital – there is no CD though, another godsend as one of the most boring parts of a job like this is reformatting a design down to a small version for a CD.

You can hear excerpts from it and more above in this Solid Steel mix I made and buy it from the many links below:
Juno: bit.ly/2eD3NzG Bleep: bit.ly/2dsrXzY Hardwax: bit.ly/2f51Tdr Rushhour: bit.ly/2eN9dsN
Norman: bit.ly/2errQmc Japhy: bit.ly/2eaHxOU Decks: bit.ly/2emIWni Deejay.de: bit.ly/2eN2VwO

NB: Each disc was given a subtitle as well as a number, referring to different parts of the brain: Frontal, Cerebellum, Parietal etc. also, the last image below is of a sticker that comes with the box.

BBnumberBBbottom BBinners3 BBbox+innersBBinners2 BBinnerstext BBinner6 BBinner4Bblabel2BBinner1BBinner7 BBlabel1 BBinner5BBinner5.2BBinner2 BBsticker

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Solid Steel: DJ Mighty Atom vs DJ Shadow + DJ Food vs De:tuned

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The latest Solid Steel show features DJ Mighty Atom‘s deconstruction of DJ Shadow‘s ‘Endtroducing’ album, now 20 years old, in hour 1 and my taster mix for the new De:tuned Records ‘Brainbox’ compilation in hour 2. I’m biased but that’s a great way to spend 2 hours this weekend IMO.

Mighty Atom’s mix follows Solid Steel’s tried and tested blueprint of finding the original sources used in heavily sampled classics (see Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Beck and Nas of past shows) and adding spoken word snippets relating to the making of said album. He rises to the challenge admirably and this has to be one of my favourite mixes of the year.

My own mix takes a sample of tracks from the huge new 6xLP ‘Brainbox’ compilation, adds some past releases from the same label and hides some exclusives not due until next year in too. For fans of 90s era electronica from labels like Warp, R&S, Red Planet or Axis then this is for you – lots of familiar names, all brand new tracks.
SS imageDJFoodvsDeTuned

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Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill samples mix by Bobafatt


It seems anniversaries are everywhere these days, this week alone sees three decades since the release of both The The‘s ‘Infected’ LP and the Beastie Boys‘ ‘Licensed To Ill’ album. DJ Bobafatt has put together a little sample mix of the latter complete with original samples and interview snippets to mark the occasion.
Whilst never my favourite Beasties album, I was a fan and saw them on the Raising Hell tour opening for Whodini, LL Cool J and Run DMC in ’86 as well as the Licensed to Ill tour in ’87.
Looking through old sketch books this morning in search of something else I ran across this, done May ’87 during ‘Beastie Mania’. D-Vice was my first graffiti tag at the time and 3DGrafX was our crew (it was the 80s).
BeastieBoysKevinFoakesdrawing1987web

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FourFromFoodFridays 11

FourFromFoodFridays12
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:
JG Thirlwell vs Tim Ritchie on Triple J interview – (DJ Food Mixcloud)
The OST Show – The Pattern Forms library music special (Resonance FM)
DJ Bobafatt – Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill 30th anniversary mix (first aired on The Huey Morgan Show, BBC 6 Music)
Queen – Flash Gordon Original Soundtrack LP (EMI)

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How Stuff Works Ambient Music feature

steve-hillage-rainbow-dome-musickI recently contributed a track suggestion to Robert Lamb‘s How Stuff Works site on the subject of relaxing music in these troubled times. I chose Steve Hillage‘s ‘Rainbow Dome Musick’ as my current choice and even managed to find the poster for the original Mind – Body – Spirit festival that it was recorded for in 1979. Have a read and see what others are recommending too.

Mind-Body-Soulfestival79poster

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