The flyer says it all, the legendary Savage Pencil aka Edwin Pouncey will be at Orbital on Jan 10th.
Event
*In no particular order at all
Albums:
Pepe Deluxé – ‘Queen of the Wave’ (Deluxe Edition) (Catskills)
2econd Class Citizen – ‘The Small Minority’ (Equinox)
Tame Impala – ‘Lonerism’ (Modular Recordings)
The The – ‘Moonbug’ (Lazarus)
Gaz Coombes – ‘Here Come The Bombs’ (Hot Fruit)
Paul Weller – ‘Sonik Kicks’ (Universal/Island)
Robert Duncan & David Cain – ‘The Seasons’ (Trunk)
Frankensteez – ‘Son of Frankensteez’ (Fort Point Recordings)
Various (selected by Andy Votel) – ‘Music Minus Music’ (Fat City)
Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune (Virgin)
Reso – ‘Tangram’ (Civil Music)
Kid Koala – ’12-Bit Blues’ (Ninja Tune)
Cults Percussion Ensemble – ‘Cults Percussion Ensemble’ (Trunk)
Belbury Poly – ‘The Belbury Tales’ (Ghost Box)
Mordy Laye & The Group Modular – ‘The Mystery of Mordy Laye’ (Audio Montage)
Gaslamp Killer – ‘Breakthrough’ (Brainfeeder)
Singles:
DJ Format – ‘Spaceship Earth/Terror’ (Slice of Spice)
Soundsci – ‘In A Flash’ (Crate Escape)
Cut Chemist – ‘Outro (Revisited)’ feat. Blackbird (A Stable Sound)
Noel Gallagher – ‘AKA…What A Life’ (Amorphous Androgynous remix) (Big Brother)
Lone – ‘Crystal Caverns 1991’ (R&S)
Tame Impala – Elephant (Modular Recordings)
Tomorrow’s World – ‘So Long My Love’ (Protoyp Recordings)
Comics:
Prophet – Brandon Graham and others (Image)
B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth / Hellboy – Mignola, Allie, Cudi and others (Dark Horse)
2000ad – a cast of thousands (Rebellion)
The Bulletproof Coffin Disinterred – David Hine & Shaky Kane (Image)
Multiple Warheads – Brandon Graham (Image)
Godland – Joe Casey and Tom Scioli (Image)
Films:
The Avengers
Beyond The Black Rainbow
Tron:Uprising
Dredd 3D
Sleeve design / packaging: (designer in brackets)
Tame Impala – ‘Elephant’ (Leif Podhajsky)
DJ Format – ‘Terror/Spaceship Earth’ (Mr Krum)
Fulgeance – Step-thru (Ease/madeofwood)
Demdike Stare – ‘Elemental’ (Andy Votel)
The Herbaliser – ‘There Were Seven’ (Snub 23 stencil edition) (Openmind / Snub 23)
Machine, Dear – ‘Killing Something That’s Already Dead’ (Klaus Matthiesen)
Various – ‘The Minimal Wave Tapes vol.2’ (unknown)
Bruce Haack – ‘Remixes’ (Alexandre Korobov)
Clark – ‘Iradelphic’ (Julian House)
Young Magic – ‘Melt’ (Leif Podhajsky)
Ital – ‘Hive Mind’ (Sam Chirnside)
Carter/Tutti/Void – Transverse (Chris & Cosey)
R.I.P.
Ewan Robertson
Moebius
MCA/Adam Yauch
Ralph McQuarrie
Pete Namlook
Maurice Sendak
Davy Jones
Looking forward to:
Pacific Rim
Kraftwerk live in Dusseldorf and London
Hellboy In Hell / Sledgehammer
Mike McMahon Dredd/Cursed Earth commission piece
Iron Man 3
Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree Book
Appalled, saddened and depressed by the events in Connecticut yesterday I tweeted that if my performance in Brussels last night was lacking it was because it was the last place I wanted to be after hearing about such atrocities. Finding the enthusiasm to go and rock a club for 2 hours after hearing such news was hard but pales into insignificance next to what the friends and families of those caught up in the tragedy must be going through.
I went to sleep thinking about it and woke up with it immediately in mind. I was sent this message by Christoper Whipple early this morning and it helped to brighten up the day a little:
“i wasn’t in brussels, but i saw your tweet about it and felt inspired to share this:
i remember back in 2001, the shock of 9/11 was still pretty fresh for us in nyc, but late that november there was an amazing (dare i say, purifying?) show of tremendous energy and resolve. i remember waiting to get in, a bunch of us were mulling over what would take the place of vadim’s terrorist track – or if you’d keep it in the set. the get ur freak on mix was perfect – i remember it with such clarity. that was the first time i really felt alive again after that whole tragedy.
thanks for that.”
I’ve featured Stéphane Halleux’s work before and he has a new exhibition opening at the Galerie Ariel Sibony in Paris this week.
I was shocked to hear of the death of Ewan Robertson yesterday, one half of design duo Oscar & Ewan who created many iconic covers for Ninja Tune and Big Dada g others. Ewan also recorded as Offshore for Big Dada and had just released his first album only a month ago –‘Bake Haus’. Alongside Oscar Bauer, Ewan created some iconic sleeves for the labels including Roots Manuva, Wiley, Bonobo and the recent Amon Tobin set housed inside a ‘flower press’.
I only met him once or twice – first at the exhibition for the release of the Ninja Tune ’20 years of Beats & Pieces’ book – and he was friendly, humble and easy to talk to. We’d corresponded over email many times in order to get his and Oscar’s work well represented in the book and he graciously agreed to show the plaster cast of Roots Manuva’s head they’d made for the ‘Slime & Reason’ LP campaign at the opening.
He was always super helpful and supplied many exclusive images from behind the scenes which showed the processes they went through when designing. My thoughts go out to his family and friends, he left a small but striking caché of music and visuals behind that will ensure he isn’t forgotten.
It’s on the horizon, no denying it any more, best accept it and hope you get something you actually want. Here’s the last of the scans from the European magazines Steve Cook and I found back in May, all Xmas-themed for you. As usual there’s an unhealthy obsession with guns and what looks like a cut out card to send to Santa.
Very sad to hear the news of Pete Namlook‘s passing (aka Peter Kuhlmann) artist and founder of the Fax +49-69/450464 label from Germany. Back in the early 90’s a lot of his releases were very big in both Telepathic Fish and my early Solid Steel sets through his hook up with Rising High in the UK.
All his label sleeves had a distinctive house style for many years and were colour-coded to alert the buyer to the music contained within. I even laid out a sleeve for one of his releases once, a debut album by a young kid, just out of school called Daniel Pemberton – I wonder what happened to him?
R.I.P. Pete
With the US election upon us I thought I’d share these photos which were taken during the run up to the 2004 Presidential election. The display was in the window of Record Palace in Amsterdam (a shop I’d recommend to anyone visiting the city).
Also Steinski knocked up a little topical skit about Mitt Romney over here.
Jealous of all those in the vicinity of Glasgow tomorrow for this event.
Starting tonight Shepard Fairey brings his Sound & Vision show to the StolenSpace Gallery in London. The show is themed around a record store with an installation including vintage turntables and part of Fairey’s own record collection on display. As well as that there will be designs based on record sleeves plus posters, stencils etc.
Fairey has been painting several murals around East London this week with his team (Rivington St. above), you can see plenty of photos over on his site: London trip Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4. The exhibition runs until Nov 4th at the Stolenspace Gallery, The Old Truman Brewery, Dray Walk, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL.
Z-Trip is in town to play at the opening and we will have a special themed mix he’s done on Solid Steel next week (26th).
DJ Food ‘The Search Engine’ live at SAT, Montreal from Solid Steel on Vimeo.
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be bringing my revamped full dome show back to the UK this November and showing it (remixed yet further) at the third Fulldome UK festival at the National Space Centre, Leicester on November 16th.
Tickets can be bought here (my show is on the 17th) and a list of contributors is here – full schedule to be determined.
In other dome news, the Search Engine show at the SAT in Montreal has just had its run extended by another 2 weeks until the 26th of October.
“Sometimes you have to go up really high to see how small you are.”
Kid Koala tonight – DAMN! – way to build a show around a turntable blues record with an average bpm of 80. Dancing girls, puppets, giant record deck, paper planes, kazoos, audience participation and crowd surfing.
And that’s not even everything, in the middle of the show he plays a particular track, one I never thought I’d hear him play, those that have seen it will know what it is but I won’t spoil it. He plays Bristol tonight and Manchester Saturday, make sure you see it, he only does these shows once.
If you can’t then do the next best thing and buy his new ’12-Bit Blues’ LP which melds The Blues with Turntablism perfectly and also comes with a DIY turntable and 5″ flexi disc.
Kid Koala tonight – DAMN! – way to build a show around a turntable blues record with an average bpm of 80. Dancing girls, puppets, giant record deck, paper planes, kazoos, audience participation and crowd surfing.
And that’s not even everything, in the middle of the show he plays a particular track, one I never thought I’d hear him play, those that have seen it will know what it is but I won’t spoil it. He plays Bristol tonight and Manchester Saturday, make sure you see it, he only does these shows once.
If you can’t then do the next best thing and buy his new ’12-Bit Blues’ LP which melds The Blues with Turntablism perfectly and also comes with a DIY turntable and 5″ flexi disc.
[singlepic id=4112 w=640 h=480 float=left] [singlepic id=4101 w=640 h=480 float=left]
More photos from the recent Sacrum Profanum concert in Poland – this time by the excellent photographer Bartosz Holoszkiewicz. These go right through from our arrival, rehearsal, backstage banter and make up (B&W) to the final performance (colour). There are even more over on Bart’s site but this is my pick of the bunch, also that’s Prof. Penderecki with Skalpel below.
It’s taken me a while to post these as I was collating a lot of photos from the concert in Poland last weekend. Here’s a selection of images from my own efforts plus a few that I gleaned from the web, some by photographers Andrzej Banas and Wojciech Wandzel
Copyright: 10th Sacrum Profanum Festival, Krakow, Poland
The event was Sacrum Profanum, the 10th time it has happened in Krakow, situated in a working steelworks which is usually a no go area for the city’s inhabitants. This time the focus was on four Polish composers – Penderecki, Gorecki, Kilar and Lutoslawski – and the reinterpretation of their works. I was invited, alongside The Kronos Quartet, DJ Vadim, King Cannibal and Grasscut, by the Polish duo Skalpel, to perform a work by Kilar called ‘Krzesany’ in front of over 2,000 people for the event.
The set up ran like this: The Kronos Quartet would perform a piece (or a section of) by one of the composers, then one of us would perform our remix, then Skalpel would perform their take on another piece by the same composer. Once the show began we were encouraged to leave very little time between each piece so as to present a seamless flow, save for applause at the end of each piece. The audience were incredible, absolute silence during the pieces, no talking, mobile phones etc. – you wouldn’t find that in the UK at an event like this.
Skalpel are huge in Poland and this also acted as their reunion concert as they have been working apart the last few years (the Igor Boxx album on Ninja Tune is a solo record by Igor Pudlo from the group). They got big cheers when they appeared and, even though I was unfamiliar with all the music in both its original or remixed form, theirs stood out as being quite excellent. But the highlight for me was Grasscut’s take on Lutoslawski, an incredible piece in 11/2 time which grew to epic proportions with the addition of drummer Aram Zarikian. Coupled with the multi-layered projection screens behind them and the fantastic lighting design the whole stage resembled a huge stained glass window with the sun streaming through at points. The visuals were a big part throughout, helping fill the cavenous space.
The Kronos Quartet played their first piece with their backs to the crowd, reading a huge rolling projection of the score as they plucked and tapped their instruments to create a concrete opener for the concert. After this the screen was lowered as DJ Vadim presented his take on Penderecki (who was actually in attendance too) and an ‘X’ shaped cluster of screens were revealed showing different notes and textures. The X was a feature of the festival graphics, being that it was their 10th anniversary, and two of the huge supporting structures within the factory had also been lit to form the giant letter. I had sent animations of my own although I couldn’t see them when I was performing but was delighted to see used in photos afterwards.
A truly incredible gig in a year that has already had its share of great moments and events. I was honoured to be asked to such a concert (Aphex Twin and Johnny Greenwood had played similar pieces the year before) and will remember it for a long time. All the music I heard was excellent and I hope this will be collected and released as an album at some point. It was all filmed for DVD and Blu-ray release at a later date as well. More gigs like this please!
I’m currently in Krakow preparing for this gig which promises to be a highlight of the year as performances go. This is an annual festival, highlighting and celebrating Polish composers be presenting their works in new and different ways.
The composers celebrated this year are Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki and Wojciech Kilar and the Kronos Quartet will play versions of their original compositions tonight before myself, DJ Vadim, Skalpel, Grasscut and King Cannibal present out reinterpretations. I have taken on Kilar’s ‘Krzesany’ and turned in a 13 minute piece of strings, electronics and drums.
Tomorrow night Kronos will perform with Sigur Ros and it all takes place inside a huge steelworks that an house 3,000 people and is usually off limits to the public. I’ve heard some of the new versions as rehearsals and they sound incredible, I can’t wait to hear them in front of a large crowd tonight. Below is a shot of Kronos practicing yesterday inside the venue.
I’m very pleased to announce that my full dome show ‘The Search Engine’ will be returning to the SAT in Montreal for another run between 18th Sept and 12th Oct (that’s next week!).
For those who didn’t get to make the 5 day run in July there’s another chance to see it in one of 16 showings Tuesdays – Fridays.
I won’t actually be at these performances but before I left in July we programmed the whole piece to be automated in that certain sounds will follow random patterns around the dome the same as if I was controlling them.
Full details of dates, times, ticket prices etc. are on the Facebook event page. Or a direct link to tickets for each event is here. I’m told that Friday 21st might have two showings and some sort of Ninja Tune after party in the Foodlab space (good name), more info when I get that.
A quick reminder of what’s in store in the form of this little promo video I shot there last time.
DJ Food ‘The Search Engine’ live at SAT, Montreal from Solid Steel on Vimeo.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”290″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZvfAYdn4DA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Finally the day has come, Dredd3D is released and will, hopefully, wash away the (distant) memory of the 1995 Stallone blow out (which, to be fair, had a great looking Mega City 1 and Stallone’s chin looked the part). Here’s hoping also that it will open the door to many more franchises from the vast back catalogue that the comic holds – there’s already talk of Grant Morrison writing a Rogue Trooper screen play. Got my tickets for tonight with several other long-time fans / friends, some sort of review tomorrow…
Here’s a short featurette on the film and the world of Dredd from the comic
To the news that George Obsbourne just got booed by a stadium of 80,000 at the Paralympics medal giving ceremony, I bring you more beautiful design from the games’ past.
The gorgeous look for the Olympic Games held in Munich in 1972 was designed by Otl Aicher and his team. This is widely credited as a superb reaction to such a wide-ranging brief with everything working together in harmony to create a perfect look and feel. 
