I’m pleased to announce that I’ve collaborated with the good people at The Vinyl Factory for a monthly look through the weirder reaches of my record collection. After the short film on flexi discs they made this summer we’ve got together to produce an irregular look at the weird & wonderful world on vinyl and the myriad forms of pressings and packaging it can come in, dug directly from my collection. The first post just went live and focuses on 3D sleeves, photographer Michael Wilkin shot the sleeves.
DJ Food
A couple of weeks ago I was in Amsterdam, taking part in discussions about ‘The Art of Curation’ with Mixcloud co-founder Nikhil Shah. The chat was hosted by the electronics company Sonos as part of the annual ADE music conference that takes place there, the biggest in Europe. I chose five tracks that linked with the subjects of Music, Art, Sci-Fi, Comics & Design which largely tie into the things I collect and post about on this site. This is the part where the blog eats itself as I blog about myself talking about blogging and readers will hear some familiar names and sounds during the interview.
The trip was a fruitful one in terms of digging for new things in my time off and I went with a mission for 45s, underground comics and sci-fi paperbacks. Things got off to a poor start with my first stop at Record Palace (Op Art -themed wall display at the top) which is on the outer rim of the centre of the city. I’ve shopped there a few times and it’s always yielded treasures but this time it wasn’t to be. Of the two 7″s I bought (a substandard late 80s Dickie Goodman break-in record and Raze‘s ‘Break 4 Love’) when I returned home to play them I discovered that the disc inside the Raze cover was in fact a Thompson Twins single. My fault for not checking the disc but they were only 50c and there was a strict ‘no playing’ rule on records from the cheap bins. The only good thing about it was the Trevor Jackson-designed cover which, when you look at the ‘dancing’ figures, is actually quite dirty.
From here I visited Lambiek a few roads away, the oldest comic shop in the world if their website is to be believed and, on the strength of their stock, I can believe it. The shop is about to move to a new premises and their usual gallery space was now a large dumping ground for what looks like all manner of random stock. Very little of it was priced apart from the odd penciled number on an inside cover and many of the piles can contain anything, very little order exists as you can see below.
But there was some gold there and I soon had a little pile building, the owner unable to direct me to the undergrounds as everything was mixed up due to the impending move. They closed at 5pm and at approximately 4.45 I glanced under a shelf and saw a box that looked like it was exactly what I was looking for. Going through it my suspicions were confirmed and I started pulling out handfuls of British and American underground and independent press comix as fast as I could, some in not-so-good condition but still a lot that you only find on eBay these days.
This copy of Oz magazine was nestling in the box, looking like a Robert Crumb comic, copies usually go for £10-20 and up.
These three Subvert comics by Spain were a bit water-damaged but I’d never seen copies before aside from being reprinted in other mags.
No.s 1 and 3 of Mother Oats Comix by the late, great Dave Sheridan.
They had five copies of this Radical Rock comic, all badly water-damaged but readable. You can easily find these for about $5 on eBay, but the postage triples the price as they’re always from the States.
I wasn’t going to leave a comic behind with a cover like the Bizarre Sex one, the issue of Tasty has some really nice abstract acid trip visuals inside although the cover isn’t up to much.
That Dutch NIMFKE comic on the right is probably one of the filthiest things I’ve ever seen in comic form.
There was more but here’s a lot of it. I’d been tempering my choices, thinking that this was adding up to quite a bundle but some of this stuff just doesn’t come around in Europe that often, even in this condition. Upon taking them to the counter I couldn’t quite believe my luck when the assistant proceeded to charge me one Euro for each comic with only two for some slightly over-sized books like Imagine and Heavy Metal. Digs like that don’t happen every day.
On then, with a spring in my step, to a couple more comic shops further north near Centraal station. On my way I passed a shop with a big sign outside, ‘Used Books, English Language’, and took a quick peek to see what it was like. Once inside I inquired if they had any vintage sci-fi paperbacks and the guy at the counter pointed to eight large apple boxes stacked in the aisle. “Four for ten Euros“, he quipped, “How long until you close?”, “20 minutes!”. I probably got through about two thirds of them, given that they were two rows deep inside but it was worth it.
I think this is one of my favourite videos of the year. From the Resultart party DK and I did in Nizhny Novgorod in Russia last weekend (that’s him playing on the right) I wasn’t around for this but wish I had been. The party was in an old warehouse that had been left unused until just a month before and had been transformed with artwork and a huge video screen into a great club space. The soundsystem was SO loud that the bass frequencies were hurting my ears and rippling the screen of my laptop at times.
Polar bear video courtesy of Mr. Armtone who managed to find me a very rare ‘bone disc’ (see last week’s Flexibition) which I will treasure forever. Thanks Anton! 
Here’s the details for the Psychonavigation Records 2000-2015 mix CD I’ve just finished: 23 tracks from the 45 track ‘Music On A Shoestring’ digital compilation, mixed by yours truly into a 74 minute head trip. Here’s an online stream of the mix in full, see what you think…
If ambient electronica, deep space dub, classical piano and acoustic pieces are your thing then this is for you.
Some names you might recognise from the line up: The Future Sound of London, Autechre, Brian Eno, Alex Paterson, Thomas Fehlmann, Dr Atmo, Spacetime Continuum…
It was very hard to fit all the tracks I wanted onto one disc as the hit rate on the compilation is so high, my original wishlist was 35 of the 45 tracks. You can pre-order the mix CD here or buy the full digital compilation for only €10(!), selected by label boss Keith Downey from the last 15 years of releases. I can’t convey how many beautiful tracks are on this comp and all for €10 is an absolute steal, some of them are available to preview on the Bandcamp page right now.
I’ll be taking part in this this coming weekend, an afternoon of interviews on the art of curation where I’ll be talking about the thinking behind this very blog and how I go about selecting its content. The interview should be streaming live but bear in mind that the Netherlands is one hour ahead of London.
Yes, that’s what it says on the flyer above. 20 years ago today Ninja Tune held a launch party for the DJ Food album ‘A Recipe For Disaster’ at a small club called The Blue Note in a little known part of London called Shoreditch. Metalheadz hosted a club there every Sunday and a few others had done nights there at the time but such was the success of this one-off it was decided that the label should make it regular. Two months later ‘Stealth’ was born and Ninja became the second label to host a regularly monthly night at the club which, it’s no exaggeration to say, brought people to Shoreditch and spearheaded the interest and popularity of the area as we know it today.
My last album cover (The Search Engine, 4-panel vinyl edition) that I collaborated on with Henry Flint is the first cover you see in an exhibition of record sleeves by comic artists entitled PHONO+GRAPHIC, curated by artist Sean Phillips.
This is a bit of a dream come true for me, to be one of 60 sleeves displayed alongside artists like Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Brett Ewins, Hunt Emerson and Moebius!
It opens next week at the Kendal Museum and will be on until the 20th October, including the weekend of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Many thanks to Sean for selecting the cover completely unbeknownst to me until he’d announced the exhibit and framing it so nicely.
Photos taken from Sean’s blog and here’s more info
As if I’ve not been banging on about Divine Styler and Gamma Proforma enough this year, here’s another reason but this time I’m involved in the release. I was asked to remix a track from his last album, Def Mask and chose ‘Pandorum’ which will sit alongside other guests like EVAC (Touchin Bass), Mophono (Liquid Amber), GFQ, Audiosyncracy, Monkphat, Co-Pilot, Auxilary Phoenix, Third Shock & Methodblack. It’s due out Jan 2016 but you can pre-order it here and comes with a Will Barras cover and print. Here’s a preview
Another upcoming Gamma event sounds very promising, this was tweeted today…
“10th Dec 2015, London. Rammellzee – Cosmic Flush Exhibition Ft. Futura, Doze Green, Delta, Ian Kuali’i and more.” Make a note in the diary.
Also don’t forget the 4th part of the 7-release Rammellzee Cosmic Flush album is available to order here featuring a Doze Green cover and a remix from Edan.
Something to get you in the mood for the 45 Live gig this Saturday at Factory in Plymouth.
All 7″s, no track list yet, bonus point for those that get the title reference without googling it.
After a drought I’m overflowing with mixes at the moment and there’s more to come…
Last Saturday (Sept 12th) I played an hour long set after a showing of ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’ documentary at one of the FEAST film nights in West Norwood’s Portico Gallery. During the mix the audience were greeted with a film of the slowly evolving, geometric designs of Ambigraph aka Ameet Hindocha.
Night co-ordinator Pete Williams recorded the mix and Ameet has reworked his visuals to accompany it in an hour long, meditative soundscape where all tracks are sourced from releases connected with Frank Herbert‘s most famous novel. *I recommend viewing in HD, probably late at night with the lights off.
Over the decades many artists have been inspired by this work and there are many concept albums built around themes from his books. As well as Toto‘s score for David Lynch‘s big screen adaptation there’s also music from the forthcoming soundtrack to the documentary I mentioned and tunes from Bernard Szajner‘s ‘Visions of Dune’ release among others.
Finally, after a long hiatus, I’ve managed a new mix, and a audio visual one at that. The school summer holidays are a killer creatively when you have kids to attend to but now that the little ones are back to the 9-3.30 I’m back in gear. Something else that’s been occupying my time this summer, since May to be precise, is Secret Cinema‘s production of The Empire Strikes Back that I’ve been playing at in various locations and guises since it opened. Last night was my last gig, sound-tracking the Cantina Bar post-film with the run finishing completely in two weeks.
To say it’s been an experience is an understatement and it’s one I will cherish forever as it is like nothing else out there. If you were one of the thousands who attended then you’ll know what I’m talking about and I’ll do a full post about my time there in a few weeks time when it’s closed as I don’t want to spoil things for those yet to go. But to commemorate the end of my run I’ve put together this 30 minute Star Wars-themed mix, complete with a video accompaniment, featuring some of the songs I played in amongst the rest of the themed tunes selected for the different areas.
Titled ‘The Tracks Go Off In This Direction…’ it follows the hunt for the Droids as songs and styles from the SW canon get progressively more random. It’s all Star Wars, plenty of which you will have seen and heard before, but I like to think I’ve dug a little and unearthed some hidden gems that might not be as familiar as Meco‘s ubiquitous disco-fied Star Wars Theme.
For example: Rico Rodriguez, The Specials‘ trombonist who recently passed away, released a cover version called ‘Ska Wars’ (what else?) in 1977 on Island records which I’ve included as a tribute. Dickie Goodman, creator of the infamous UFO ‘break-in’ records’ made a ‘Star Warts’ 45 to cash in the same year, I’ve included a later (better) version and several cuts from Herbie Hancock‘s modular synth sidekick, Dr Patrick Gleeson‘s analogue Star Wars album.
It’s not all period covers though, there’s plenty of modern day Hip Hop, Rave and Techno from the likes of AGT Rave Cru, Mark Archer, DJ Shadow and all manner of, shall we say, ‘copyright infringing’ releases under pseudonyms. At the start of the Secret Cinema run, when they also ran a separate satellite Cantina Club in Hoxton, I made a ton of video clips to go with tracks for a one-off AV performance and some of the work I put into those has found its way into the video mix. With a property like Star Wars this is a red flag to a bull so how long it will stay up is anyone’s guess. Grab it while you can… UPDATE – Sorry folks, I’ve been asked to take it down… back up!
Here’s my new 45 Live image by Paul Trewin aka Sub2 – he’s certainly captured the likeness even if I do look a bit serious. Check his work out here and see the whole 45 Live roster below (including new member Jon More from Coldcut). There the start of a new night in Plymouth on the 26th of this month too with myself, Boca 45, Pete Issac and Francois Parker if you’re in the area. There’s be a new mix from me next week to go with it…
My good friends, Sarah ‘inkymole’ Coleman and Leigh Adams have made a short film about working creatives called Stupid Enough (the reason for the title becomes evident when you watch the film). They talked to friends in a multitude of different creative industries about how they work and each give a glimpse into how they started, got to the position they now occupy and impart their personal knowledge of how to make it on your own in worlds with few rules or guides. I feature alongside rapper Sage Francis, director Gareth Edwards, gallery owner Jonathan Levine and more and its got some great advice buried in it.
Interviews were conducted over a period of six months in New York and at locations around the UK, including a Bristol barber’s shop, gallery space; a Manhattan apartment, hen-filled workshop, steamy kitchen and Battersea Park. Where possible, they filmed people in their working environments – and any background noise was just part of the atmosphere on the day.
It’s being premiered at creative event ‘Schmiede’ in Austria, on Thursday 10th September, and shown again at a historic cinema ‘across the river’ near Salzburg on Sunday 13th September.
The film was made with the purpose of touring it to colleges and universities here and abroad, presenting and engaging in lively discussions about the nature of creativity in business, and installing (hopefully) enthusiasm and optimism among people about to embark on their creative careers. If you are a lecturer or tutor; student president or keen student about to enter your final year and want to show the film – then let them know, they are reaching out to these educational sorts over the next few months.
On Saturday 12th September I’ll be at the Portico Gallery (23a Knights Hill, West Norwood, London, SE27 OHS) to play one of my Future Shock DJ sets of space music after a screening of ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’ – the documentary of the unmade sci-fi classic. This is part of their regular FEAST Film Nights where they show a rarely seen film with sympathetic music selections afterwards and my set will be accompanied by the amazing geometric animations of Ameet Hindocha. The price is £5 and I’m excited to be part of this in an arts space that’s local to me, supporting people doing interesting things in less obvious spots in the city. 7.30pm Doors open – 8pm Film screening – 9.30pm DJ set
My article on The Dragons is in issue #49 of Shindig! Magazine – out now, 6 pages too. New interviews with Doug & Dennis Dragon plus Donn Landee who produced their BFI album. After their recent publisher troubles the mag is back and as good as ever, you should be able to find it in most WH Smiths and decent record shops. If the article piques your interest and you want to hear the music they made then Ninja Tune still has digital and CDs in stock although the vinyl is long gone.
Big News! I’ll be present at the inaugural 45 Live night at Factory in Plymouth on September 26th alongside Boca 45 and Pete Issac. You know the concept by now, all vinyl, all 45s, all night. That doesn’t just mean Hip Hop, Funk, Soul and Latin either, I’ll be chucking in plenty of Psyche, Rock, Beats, Pop, Electronica and Acid too.
Above is the flyer for Psychedelic Sushi the first of what I hope will become regular nights at Brilliant Corners in Kingsland Road, London. Myself and Matty from Skylab will be playing Psychedelic music in all its myriad forms on vinyl whilst diners scoff from the excellent japanese menu. After 11 the tables get pushed back and we go until 1.30am – entry is free so Turn up, Tuck in and Freq out! 
How good is this? Cover version from Moscow band Grant Minasyan – nice one guys
I’m reliably informed – by curator Sean Phillips – that the sleeve of my last album,‘The Search Engine’, features in this forthcoming exhibition of 60 album sleeves drawn by 60 comic artists. Phono+Graphic opens at the Kendal Museum in, errr… Kendal this October. Check out Sean’s blog for more info nearer the time.
