I’m totally in love with this Danish label, run by two guys, Jakob Skott and Jonas Munk, El Paraiso Records.
If you want modern psychedelic rock then try Monarch, Causa Sui, Mythic Sunship, Papir or Landing, for percussion-heavy jazz with electronic krautrock overtones try Jakob Skott, for guitar-led workouts try Nicklas Sorenson and for cosmic synth minimalism then Jonas Munk is your man
I just received this gorgeous screen print from Glass Siren Studios – check out their site for more amazing designs – not sure how many colours this is but it’s a work of art.
Coming at the end of August from Ghost Box – reminds me of the 60s sci-fi Penguin covers of Franco Grignani
My latest Freaky Formats piece for The Vinyl Factory just went up – this time it’s about holograms on both records and their sleeves, I even sneaked a CD in. 
Several boxes were ticked last Monday night when I was invited to Abbey Road Studios in North London to feature on a panel to talk about Star Wars and its influence on music over the last near 40 years. It was part of the launch of a new vinyl edition of the soundtrack to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, complete with holographic Tie Fighters and Millennium Falcons etched into the surface of the two discs by Tristan Duke.
Journalist Andrew Harrison (Your Empire Needs You T-shirt) chaired a small panel of myself, Tristan Duke (peeking over my shoulder) – the man responsible for the holograms, and Alex Milas (centre back, editor of Metal Hammer magazine and life-long SW fan). After plenty of nerdy fan banter two First Order Storm Troopers strode in to deliver the LP to Tristan who then played it as it was projected onto the screen above. Food was served, vinyl was cooed over, photos were taken with Storm Troopers and much was discussed of a fanboy nature.
A few days later I took on trying to capture the holograms from my vinyl copy at home. This was easily achieved with just direct sunlight or you can use a torch or lamp in dark conditions. This is what the hologram looks like in normal light (above) and this is what it looks like when having direct light pointed at it (below)
The LP sleeve is printed on thick mirror board card which makes the star field sparkle when light hits it and the cover logo is embossed. It’s a beautiful package that Disney/Universal have really gone the extra length to get looking and feeling special. There’s also a 16 page 12″-sized booklet with a forward by JJ Abrams and stills from the film.
It’s released worldwide on Friday, June 17th.
On the panel I remarked on how the new release is so like the original OST in layout – minimal and tasteful. That made be want to dig out my 1977 copy, check the poster and gatefold. I’d forgotten how big the poster was!
How many Millennium Falcons? Early John Berkey concept painting when the Falcon was a rebel fighter – there’s a fascinating glimpse at more Star Wars Berkey prelim paintings on his site
Several artists have produced posters for the Remain campaign, Wolfgang Tillmans, Eva Rothschild, Trevor Jackson are shown here and all can be viewed and downloaded on the Artists For IN site.
The Olivetti exhibition currently at the ICA in London is small but perfectly formed, much like its contents. Blink and you’ll miss it (tucked away in a little room under the stairs to the bar), it’s a beautiful collection of vintage typewriters and word processors supported by original posters, promo material and historical documents.
Inspired by this tiny treasure trove of gorgeous design I raided my archives of Graphis Annuals and Architecture Aujourd’hui magazines and snapped a few quick shots of Olivetti adverts contained within.
This weekend I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for the final week of the KAWS and Eduardo Paolozzi exhibitions (not shown but awesome). Highly recommended but only one week left! I’ll let the pictures do the talking, they’re mainly KAWS but there are some other incidentals from the park added in too.
Things have been a bit quiet on here recently due to various changes happening in my life right now, 2016 is turning out to be quite a rollercoaster. I’ve been a little more active over on Instagram though, with almost daily postings of personal miscellania, record finds and the Kosmischer Debris series, but even that’s taken a hit this month.
Above – top row, some experiments that date back a fair few years now with manipulated audio waves put through a spectral visualiser. Middle row – left: collage detail, middle: ‘Circult Skull 1′ test, right: ‘weird jazz thing’ that was the unexpected result of an old Freehand file where I held down the wrong key. Bottom row – experiments with a flexible material and light reflections – more to come with that…
The front and back covers of two amazing religious spoken word records – love the double entendre.
Below: Four Music De Wolfe 10″ library records, the ‘Electroshake’ is particularly good, there’s a vol.2 as well…
45 finds – the Public Enemy includes the instrumental on the flip
A fun little flexi disc from Fermaley Flame – nice electronics at the beginning and end
Lastly – a beautiful Robert Crumb sleeve from 1974
I did some pack shots of the new Belbury Poly LP for Jim Jupp at Ghost Box. The multi-coloured cover art and Rainbow-esque inner sleeve does the music justice; a seemingly random collection of tunes emanating from approximately 1974. Autobahn-era Kraftwerk meets Glitter Band glam stomp meets folk-tinged vocals and sunshine Sesame Street ‘ba-ba-bum’ singalong harmonies. New Ways Out is a perfect title for this release in many ways, it’s his most curious and varied work to date and – much the same as The Soundcarriers and Hintermass releases – pushes out of the usual territory you’d expect from the label. Be prepared to be taken in new directions on 10 track vinyl and 11 track CD, up for pre-order on the Ghost Box shop now.
Also coming soon is Other Voices 08 featuring two tracks from Beautify Junkyards on June 10th…
The Brix System is a series of handcrafted wooden electronic devices inspired by LEGO by Swedish designer Love Hulten. Each of these (and more) work as objects ranging from computer games, phones or music-making devices. Visually taken from the classic Space Lego series of the early 80s and scaled up but still able to be assembled like real pieces, they have sockets at the reverse and can be plugged together to work in tandem too.
Very pleased to see Sadiq Khan win the post of Mayor of London over the weekend but also this campaign leaflet from the Greens raised a smile. With a tagline of ‘Make Your Vote Go Further’, the leaflet can be folded into a paper plane, complete with a note that they’re not so keen on extra runways and please recycle this leaflet. Kudos to the designer who came up with this idea, nicely done.
The Alan Kitching exhibition at Somerset House is fantastic, a huge collection of letterpress posters, experiments and book designs that stretch the medium to its limits. It’s only on until May 2nd so be quick, Alan is also doing live, Utopian-themed demonstrations between 12 – 3pm on Saturday 30th April and Monday 2nd May.
Bit late on posting these as it’s been on for a few weeks but I thought I’d let RSD die down a bit and there’s still time to view the Secret 7″ entries before buying day. As every year, I went along to see what was being cooked up on the custom 45 front. This year they reside in the Sonos building in Shoreditch and the sleeves are displayed until May 1st. On May 2nd they are all up for grabs at £50 each which, this year, goes to Amnesty International UK. There are 700 this year and, if you go, make sure you check upstairs as I nearly missed that half.
Whilst at the new Pick Me Up exhibition at Somerset House today I ran across the 3rd Rail Print House with these lovely diamond-shaped screen-prints. Part of a beer promotion campaign, they can be purchased online here
Op-Art April continues daily over on Instagram
I did a gig with Ameet Hindocha, aka Ambigraph, last summer and we ended up collaborating on an audio visual alt. soundtrack to Dune. I was so impressed with his geometric designs I asked him to do me a commission based on a complex pattern we both chose. Here are some work-in-progress shots and the final thing, all hand drawn, no computer was used, just pen, pencil and ruler. See more of his work here
Psychedelic stoner rock from Dead Sea Apes with a gorgeous cover by Luke Insect on Sunrise Ocean Bender and Cardinal Fuzz. More info, sound and buy options here
Zyprazol 7″ animation picture disc by Sculpture from Sculpture on Vimeo.
As usual with Sculpture, they just knock things out the park again with this new single/video. More ideas in one second of music and video that most songs in the top 40. Pre-order here.