First gigs abroad in 2.5 years

June 8, 2022June 9, 2022

This weekend sees me playing the first gigs of the year and going abroad for the first time since Covid hit in 2020. To say I’m apprehensive is an understatement. Two and a half years is a long time and I’ve become quite comfortable saying at home in a weird way. It’s also a long time in the music world, how will things have changed? What will be being played out now? Not that I’m seeking to fit in but will I enjoy it like I used to? I’ve got some travelling to do which is my least favourite part, especially when you have flight connections although thankfully neither of the countries I’m visiting have Covid restrictions at the moment so that part should be easy.
~~Tomorrow night I’m in Budapest, Hungary on a boat called Pontoon, apparently it’s free and I’m on at midnight until 2am, come on down if you’re nearby.~~
UPDATE: Due to the current weather situation over Budapest, my flight has been cancelled and I’m sorry to say I can’t perform at Pontoon tonight. We tried various ways to get around it but the elements were against us today unfortunately.
I am so sorry to be missing this, what would have been my first gig abroad post-Covid, but we’re working hard to get this one rescheduled. I hope I’ll be back in Budapest very soon! Ironically getting through the airport was fine, nothing to worry about there.
Friday is a travel day where I’ll either be in a plane, a car or an airport for the most part. Saturday is the Kala festival in Dhermi, Albania, a beach festival where I’ll be playing at the Cove which I’m told is the chillout area, from 2am to 5am. Then I leave for the 4 hr drive to the airport at 8am Sunday morning…

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs. | No Comments | Tags: kala festival, pontoon

Mixcloud Select 96: Kinky Voodoo Hardcore Mix 27/03/2003

March 18, 2022

Warning – this mix gets a bit full on in places!
Spectrum / Kinky Voodoo was a night put on by John Power as I recall, initially below the newsagent off Tottenham Court Road that originally hosted the mash up night, Bastard. This set was made for Graeme Ross’s 30th birthday party – a big excuse for a nostalgic rave up and this was 20 years ago so it was very early days for the rave revival. I was asked to play and pulled out a bunch of classics from the late 80s and early 90s – 20 years later I’m still playing some of these too!
I snuck Ministry in there just for the hell of it as it was a great crowd up for anything, the intro was put together specially for the night and refused in the mix for radio. The flyer was a knowing homage to the old Spectrum nights at Heaven which helped kick off the acid house craze in ’88. This is a studio recording of some of the mix I did for that night, complete with spoken word overdubs. As you can hear, it degenerated into utter silliness and during John’s set he was so drunk his trousers started falling down (see photo evidence below).

Tracklist:
DJ Food/A Guy Called Gerald – Kinky intro/Voodoo Ray
KLF – What Time Is Love?
808 State – Cobra Bora
Bam Bam – Where’s Your Child?
Stakker – Stakker Humanoid
Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod
Orbital – Speed Freak (Moby remix)
The Scientist – The Bee (Honey Combed remix)
Hypnotist – House Is Mine
Smart Systems – The Tingler (remix)
Eygptian Empire – The Horn Track
The Prodigy – Out Of Space (remix)
Aphex twin – Digeridoo
Acen – Trip II The Moon pt 2
dsico – This is Missy Country

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixcloud Select, Mixes/Solid Steel, Radio. | No Comments | Tags: Mixcloud Select

All change for tonight at BSMT Space

March 10, 2022

Dear friends, I hate to be the bringer of bad news but the Covid curse has finally struck – and at the worst time possible too.
After evading the bugger for 2 years I tested positive yesterday, the day before tonight’s opening BSMT Space for EPOD‘s first solo show of new work. I was supposed to be there and this has put months of work and prep out the window. Be vigilant, we’re not through this yet, no matter what our government tells us.

But it’s not all bad news though as my man Ollie Teeba has gamely stepped up to bat at the 11th hour with his box of 45s and two turntables for your delectation tonight. I’m sure he needs little introduction but having hands in The Herbaliser, The Process and Soundsci as well as a solo artist and DJ in his own right is nothing to scoff at – he’ll do us all proud.

So – the show must go on, get down to BSMT tonight between 6-9pm, there will be excellent art, great music and free beers supplied by Vedett. Maybe even snag one of the limited slipmats or prints being sold on the night?

I’ll be there in spirit and hopefully we can do something once I’m out of isolation.

Posted in Art, DJ Food, Event, Gigs, Music, Poster / flyer. | 1 Comment | Tags: BSMT space, EPOD, Ollie Teeba

EPOD solo show opening at BSMT Space this Thursday

March 8, 2022March 8, 2022

This Thursday – March 10th – .EPOD‘s first solo show opens at BSMT Space in Dalston. EPOD has made a pair of slipmats in five different colourways which will be on sale on the night and exclusively through the gallery. There will also be prints and new canvases plus beers by the Vedett brewery.

I’ll be providing the music on the opening night from 6pm-9pm via my Quadraphon turntable with the currently unreleased Omnitronic TRM-422 mixer and the Ninja Tune Zen Delay, creating music live with locked grooves and up to four tone arms.
RSVP to [email protected] for entry to the private view on Thursday.

Posted in Art, DJ Food, Event, Gigs, Ninja Tune, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: BSMT space, EPOD, Omnitronic, Zen Delay

EPOD solo show at BSMT Space, London

February 12, 2022

Very pleased to be a part of EPOD‘s first solo show after being a fan of his work for years.
Open @bsmtspace in Dalston on March 10th and running until the 27th.

I’ll be creating a live soundtrack during the private view 6-9pm on the 10th using my Quadraphon turntable, Ninja Tune Zen Delay and a brand new mixer I can’t reveal yet…
I’ve been making some further adjustments to the deck and hope to have them ready by March 10th

RSVP to [email protected] for entry on the 10th

Posted in Art, DJ Food, Exhibition, Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: BSMT, EPOD

The The – Global Eyes DJ Food remix video by People Like Us

February 4, 2022February 9, 2022

Last year I had the pleasure of being asked by Matt Johnson to remix The The‘s ‘Global Eyes’ for the Comeback Special box set. The remix features on an exclusive 10″ that comes with the deluxe book and CD/DVD set and isn’t featured anywhere else. Now you can hear it as well as see a special video made by Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us who did the visuals for the tour while I opened up in the support slot. Matt likes to keep things ‘in the family’ as he calls it and it’s great to see Vicki’s take on my take of the song that opened the concert.

Anyone unfamiliar with Vicki’s work should check out her many albums and watch for her surround screen & sound films like Gone, Gone Beyond if they’re playing near you. She’s one of the great cut and paste artists of our time with a career that spans three decades now.
For the full Comeback Special gig on vinyl, CD and DVD/Blu Ray plus sumptuous photo book with 10″, extra interview discs and much more merch, head to https://thethe.tmstor.es/

Work has also progressed on my Cineolascape mix too, a version of my opening sets for The The back in 2018. Matt and I were in his studio before Christmas going through it with a fine-tooth comb, editing, refining and adding parts. It’s awaiting a proper mixdown in which Matt wants to ‘spatialize’ elements for a proper headphone experience. Watch this space…

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: People Like Us, The The

UFO Club posters

January 18, 2022January 21, 2023

Having already covered adverts for the UFO Club in a previous post I thought I’d try to match the posters up with the dates. The club started life at The Blarney Club in the basement of the Berkley Cinema at 31 Tottenham Court Road in December 1966. Founded by John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins and Joe Boyd, the night was first billed as ‘UFO Presents Nite Tripper‘ because they couldn’t decide on a name, it came to be the former, pronounced, ‘You-Fo’.
Listings taken from the UFO wiki page, I’ve tried to match posters to the dates but sometimes bands were announced but wouldn’t play as their fame grew and other commitments called. Most were done by Michael English and Nigel Waymouth who designed under the name Hapshash & The Coloured Coat.

23/30 Dec: Nite Tripper under Gala Berkeley Cinema; Warhol movies; Soft Machine; Pink Floyd; Anger movies; Heating warm; IT god
Poster by Michael English

13 Jan: Pink Floyd; Marilyn Monroe movie; The Sun Trolley; Technicolor strobe; Five acre slides; Karate
20 Jan: Pink Floyd; Anger movie
Poster by Michael English

27 Jan: AMM Music; Pink Floyd; Five Acre Light; Flight of the Aerogenius Chpt 1; International Times; IT Girl Beauty Contest
3 Feb: Soft Machine; Brown’s Poetry; Flight of the Aerogenius Chpt 2; Bruce Connor Movies
Poster by Michael English

10 Feb: Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band; Ginger Johnson African Drums; flix – Dali – Bunuel, WC Fields
17 Feb: Soft Machine; Indian Music; Disney Cartoons; Mark Boyle Projections; Feature Movie; ‘erogenius 3 + 4’
Poster by Michael English

24 Feb: Pink Floyd; Brothers Grimm
3 Mar: Soft Machine; Pink Floyd
10 Mar: Pink Floyd
Poster by Michael English, below is English’s original artwork, notice there is a mistake with the date, it should have read Feb 24th

17 Mar: St Patrick’s day off

The classic ‘UFO Mk2’ by Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, this is the reprint, stamped and signed by Nigel Waymouth

24 Mar: Soft Machine
31 Mar: Crazy World of Arthur Brown; Pink Alberts; ‘spot the fuzz contest’
7 Apr: Soft Machine
14 Apr: Arthur Brown; Social Deviants; Special: the fuzz
21 Apr: Pink Floyd
28 Apr: Tomorrow; The Purple Gang

(29/30 Apr: The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream at the Alexandra Palace) – To be covered in a future post…

5 May: Soft Machine; Arthur Brown
12 May: The Graham Bond Organisation; Procol Harum
19 May: Tomorrow; Arthur Brown; The People Show

26 May: The Move, The Knack
2 Jun: Pink Floyd; Soft Machine; The Tales of Ollin dance group; Hydrogen Jukebox
Poster by Jacob And The Coloured Coat (Michael English & Nigel Waymouth)

9 Jun: Procol Harum; The Smoke
10 Jun: Pink Floyd

16 Jun: Crazy World of Arthur Brown; Soft Machine; The People Blues Band 4.30am
23 Jun: Liverpool Love Festival; The Trip
30 Jun: Tomorrow; The Knack; Dead Sea Fruit
7 Jul: Denny Laine; The Pretty Things

UPDATE: Rare colour variant via the High Meadows Vintage Posters amazing poster site, absolutely essential, give them a follow.
UFO Dusk To Dawn
A more accurate line up on this new poster for the next two dates
14 Jul: Arthur Brown; Alexis Korner; Victor Brox
21 Jul: Tomorrow; Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

28 Jul: Pink Floyd; CIA v UFO; Fairport Convention; Shiva’s Children

After an article published in the News of the World on 30 July, the landlord told Joe Boyd the UFO could not continue at the Blarney and Boyd decided to use the larger Roundhouse venue.

4 Aug: Eric Burdon & The New Animals; Family; The Hydrogen Juke Box
11 Aug: Tomorrow
18 Aug: Arthur Brown; The Incredible String Band
1/2 Sep: UFO Festival: Pink Floyd; Soft Machine; The Move; Arthur Brown; Tomorrow; Denny Laine
8 Sep: Eric Burdon & The New Animals; Aynsley Dunbar
15 Sep: Soft Machine; Family

This fantastic Martin Sharp poster sadly heralded the end of the UFO’s run at the Roundhouse.
22 Sep: Dantalian’s Chariot w/ Zoot Money & His Light Show; The Social Deviants; The Exploding Galaxy
29 Sep: Jeff Beck; Ten Years After; Mark Boyle’s New Sensual Laboratory; Contessa Veronica

Posted in Bureau of Lost Culture, Design, Event, Gigs, Poster / flyer. | 3 Comments | Tags: Bureau of Lost Culture, UFO Club

2021

December 31, 2021December 31, 2021

After ending on a bummer in the final hours of 2020 as MF Doom‘s death emerged on social media, we awoke to the news on January 1st of The KLF re-entering the music industry via Spotify and YouTube with remastered material in the form of the first of five compilations. By Jan 6th though any hopes of a better year were dashed, despite the historic swing for the Democrats in the Senate and Congress, with the scenes at Capitol Hill and 1k daily deaths reported in the UK. No surprises on Trump‘s acquittal after the second impeachment hearing in February either.

Surprise of the year was that the UK’s vaccination programme rolled out fast and with few hitches – amazing what can happen when you don’t pump billions into untested private companies and instead let a trusted national institution handle it. I won’t go on, it was pretty much downhill from there and some of those promised KLF albums are still yet to emerge.

Anyway, as is usual on Dec 31st, here are some favourites from the last 12 months in no particular order. There’s been an avalanche of amazing music and art again this year, some coming out of the lockdown months, let’s hope it continues and the virus eases up in 2022. Please check out and support these artists if you like their work, Bandcamp is an excellent way to put a large chunk of money straight in musicians and label’s pockets and buying a print, T-shirt or piece of merch at a gig really helps too. Even a share or piece of positive feedback on someone’s post can give them a boost to know that people are watching or listening out there and they’re not shouting into the void.

Music:
Concretism – The Concretism Archive Vol.1 LP (CiS Subs Library)
Steve Roach – Tomorrow LP (Behind The Sky)
Snow Palms – Land Waves LP (Village Green)
Jane Weaver – Flock LP (Fire Records)
Stereolab – Switched On vol.4 LP (Warp/Duophonic)
Robert Fripp – Music for Quiet Moments (DGM)
DJ Format – Devil’s Workshop LP
Trevor Jackson – Underdog 1993-1998 radio mix (NTS)
The Hauntologists – Tales From The Scary Magic Field 7″ (Bandcamp)
Various Artists – BLE-EP 12″ (Yellow Machines)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000 LP (Flightless)
CAVS – CAVS 12″ (PHC)
Various Artists – Infected Machinery EP 12″ (Downfall Recordings)
The Nevermen – Treat ‘Em Right (Boards of Canada remix) DL (Lex)
Vanishing Twin – Ookii Gekkou LP (Fire Records)
Jay Glass Dubs – Jungle Shuffle 12″ (The Wormhole)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse (Sonos HD)
Regal Worm – The Hideous Goblink LP (Quatermass)
Ternion Sound – Dovetail (Kursa remix) 12″ (Next Level)

Podcasts:
Chris Atkins – A Bit of a Stretch (Apple podcasts)
The Alexei Sayle Podcast
Martyn Ware – Electronically Yours
Ed Piskor / Jim Rugg – Cartoonist Kayfabe (YouTube)
Stephen Coates – The Bureau of Lost Culture
We Buy Records (Apple podcasts)
Matt Black – Pirate TV (Twitch/FB/YouTube)
The Bunker/Culture Bunker (Acast)
The Adam Buxton Podcast (Acast)

Gigs / Events:
Vanishing Twin – Pensiero Magico live stream Jan 20th
Alice In Wonderland @ The V&A Museum, London
Savage Pencil @ OrbitalSpace, London
Eno @ Paul Stolper Gallery, London
The Light Surgeons ‘Atemporal’ @ Iklectik, London
Funki Porcini @ Common Ground, Coventry
The The’s Comeback Special premier @ Troxy Cinema, London
Jonny Trunk’s Groovy Record Fayre @ Mildmay Club, London
Vanishing Twin @ Kings Place, London
Levitation Festival, @ Flowergate Hall, Whitby
People Like Us – Gone, Gone Beyond @The Pit Theatre, Barbican, London
Pye Corner Audio @ State 51, London
Anicka Yi – Aerobes @ Tate Modern, London

Design / Packaging:
Hattie Cooke – The Sleepers LP (Spun Out of Control) by Eric Adrian Lee
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – live bootlegs series LP (Fuzz Club)
Krashslaughter feat. Phil Most Chill – Rebel Base 7″
Sync 24 – Inside The Microbeat LP (Cultivated Electronics) by Will Barras
Une – Spomenik LP (Spun Out Of Control) by Eric Adrian Lee
Cos – Mix LP (Finders Keepers) by Andy Votel
Castles In Space Subscription Library series LPs (Castles In Space) by Nick Taylor + more
The Third Man Records shop in Soho, London
Pepe Deluxe – The Phantom Cabinet vol.1 LP (Catskills) by Vilunki/James Spectrum
Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse 10th anniversary edition (Brainfeeder)
The Zen Delay (Ninja Tune / Erica Synths)
Roger Webb – Shadows of Fear 7″ (Trunk) by Julian House
Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra – Stylophonika (Spun Out Of Control) by Eric Adrian Lee
Brian Eno’s turntable

Books / Magazines / Comics:
Rain Like Hammers – Brandon Graham (Image)
Breaking Open The Head – Daniel Pinchbeck
Bedroom Beats & B-Sides – Laurent Fintoni (Velocity Press)
Decorum – Jonathan Hickman & Mike Huddleston (Image)
Ultramega – James Harren (Skybound/Image)
Anatomie Narrative – Samplerman
The Black Locomotive – Rian Hughes (Picador)
Cruisin’ with the Hound – Spain Rodriguez (Fantagraphics)
Kane & Able – Shaky Kane & Krent Able (Image)
Tales To Enlighten – Matt King & James Edward Clark (Kickstarter)
The Out – Dan Abnett & Mark Harrison (2000AD)
Electronic Sound magazine
99 Balls Pond Road – Julie Drower (Scrudge Books)

Artists:
Savant
RX Skulls
Pablo Fiasco
Donk
ZombieSqueegee
Karoline Rerrie
.EPOD
FiftySevenDesign
Minty
Stinkfish
Perspicereartist
Tamar Cohen
Hoxxoh
Lovepusher
Artyom Trakhanov
Prentler
Soda
Smitheone
Raymond Lemstra

Film /TV:
Bathtubs Over Broadway (Netflix)
Wandavision (Disney+)
Dead Pixels (Ch 4)
Grayson’s Art Club (Ch 4)
Sisters With Transistors – Lisa Rovener (BFI)
Loki (Disney+)
What We Do In The Shadows Season 3 (BBC2)
Martha: A Picture Story (Projector Films)
Records – Alan Zweig (TVO)
Big Mouth (Adult Swim)
The Book of Boba Fett (Disney+)

Another year over and what have I done?
A second mix of religious rock for Megatrip‘s ‘Tales To Enlighten’ comic kickstarter
Stuck 300 foil covers to 300 LP sleeves for The New Obsolescents album on Castles In Space which ended up selling out in 25 minutes and went for a repress.
Finally finished the design and packaging for The Real Tuesday Weld‘s ‘Blood’ and ‘Tape Dust Memories’ releases, the first in a trilogy as Stephen Coates winds up his recording project.
Released the Celestial Mechanic LP on Utter with music by Saron Hughes and myself and design by Rian Hughes
Appeared on the Big Mouth, We Buy Records, Sleevenote‘s Under The Covers, KTMusic Online and Bureau of Lost Culture podcasts, had guest mixes featured on the Jonny Cuba & Friends and 45 Live shows
Released the Kaleidoscope/Companion reissue 4xLP on Ninja Tune subsidiary Ahead Of Our Time
Designed the Lo Recordings’ 100th edition library album for a limited edition lathe cut LP
Started the Openmindesign Instagram account for current designs and archive ephemera
Continued the DJ Food Mixcloud Select weekly upload series
Saw designs for Steven Rutter, Amon Tobin, Clocolan and Humanoid released on De:tuned, Ninja Tune, FSOL Digital and Castles In Space
Written the forward for a book about light show picture wheels for Four Corners Books
Remixed The The’s ‘Global Eyes’ for The Comeback Special live box set
Designed a Janko Nilovic & Yeti On the Pads 7″ sleeve
Collaborated with Imeus Designs on a second book of Forgotten Graphics Command LP sleeves
Edited hours worth of Pirate TV audio visual broadcasts for Matt Black
Remodelled my Quadraphon turntable for live performance
Oversaw the repressed New Obsolescents LP with screen printed black prism board
Contributed the singles column to MU magazine each issue
Designed a Hey Duggee zoetrope LP for the BBC
Designed a 25th anniversary Stealth T-shirt for 1 of 100
Mixed a preview CD of Touched Music‘s ‘Project OO’ – ‘DJ Food’s Oona Selecta’
Designed a 3rd fold out Xmas card, ‘Solstice Songs‘ for The Real Tuesday Weld
Finished my Cineolascape mix for The The, due for release in 2022

RIP: Phil Spector, Larry King, Ricky Powell, Double K (PUTS), S. Clay Wilson, Chick Corea, Victor G. Ambrus, Frank Thorne, Lou Ottens, Orbital Comics, Malcolm Cecil, Shock G, James Prigoff, Captain Rock, Ken Garland, Eric Carle, Gift of Gab, Peter Zinovieff, Jon Hassell, Peter Rehberg, Chuck Close, Charlie Watts, Lee Scratch Perry, Sir Clive Sinclair, Richard H. Kirk, Alan Hawkshaw, Orbital Comics, Lionel Blair, Andrew Barker, Mick Rock, Alvin Lucier, Robbie Shakespear, Chris Achilleos, Michael Nesmith, Richard Rogers, Desmond Tutu, Janice Long,

New Year’s resolution: Use less black in my work

Looking forward to:
The return of Saga comic
The Soundcarriers‘ new album, ‘Wilds’
King Gizzard remix album
A mixer to complete my Quadraphon set up
Collaborations…

Posted in Comics, Design, Event, Film, Gigs, Music, Records. | 2 Comments |

Mixcloud Select 86: DJ Food at Stealth – The Blue Note, Dec 7th 1995 – Part 2

December 20, 2021December 21, 2021

Here’s part 2, DJ Food – PC and myself – on 4 decks at The Blue Note, Dec 7th, 1995 – a more drum n bass led set coming out of some Ninja business from Up, Bustle & Out and The Herbaliser. It’s possible, listening back, that these first two tracks aren’t PC and I but the end of either The Herbaliser or Coldcut’s DJ set and we start with the breakdown sample of Dirty Harry from the end of The Real Killer Pt.2. There are also sudden stops or breaks in the recordings where tapes must have run out and by the time they’re changed the music has moved on so I’ve crossfaded a couple of bits so there are no sudden stops or jump edits. The levels on a lot of it were up and down so I’ve done my best to make volumes a bit more consistent across the mix.

This is available as part of my Mixcloud Select subscription – £3 a month gets you an archive mix a week every Friday morning with tracklist and notes – you can sign up here and leave any time

At a couple of points there’s what seems to be a theremin being played over the top of the set, I’d completely forgotten about this but it lit a dim recollection of someone doing something like this, not Patrick or I though I hasten to add. The mix is rough and ready, straight from the central mixer we were both plugged into with no crowd noise sadly so it’s a little dry. Every rough mix, distorted level and jumping record can be heard but you get the sense that this is very live, improvised on the spot with vinyl and the occasional spoken word overlaid from CD. For some context, this is very early days of this kind of music being played in a main room of a club, not the back room/chill out, on a four deck set up with DJs facing each other on a club stage in London. There are a lot of unknown tunes in these sets, some PC’s and some mine, lesser known break beats and DnB tunes that Spotify can’t recognise and the old braincells won’t remember, I’m hoping people can spot some and fill in the blanks.

There was an odd jump at the end of this tape, from DnB to a sudden 130 tempo, the DAT must have either stopped or ended and there was a sudden change at Bushflange. We probably did the 45-33rpm trick and turned the deck off for a second so the tempo ran down and landed at a more techno pace then mixed into that at the slower speed. Bushflange have come up numerous times during these mix excavations and their tracks were always solid, strange that they weren’t remembered in the scheme of things. Owners of the Sunday At Bundy’s mix tape will probably recognise a couple of sections from this set as they were featured on that tape back in 1996.
Below is the original print file layout for the flyer, this was printed on gold card so the purple came out more a burnt umber brown as you can see by the tape inlay above that I made from a flyer.

Remember, if you want a 1 of 100 commemorative Stealth T shirt then I think there are some left, follow this link, choose you colour, size and T shirt number from the ones left and place an order, once the 100 are sold there won’t be any more.
https://weare1of100.co.uk/limited-edition/dj-food-openmind/

Track list:
Up, Bustle & Out – Revolutionary Woman Of The Windmill
The Herbaliser – The Real Killer Pt.2 (Rooftop Prowler)
Larceny – Who Are You? (Aquasky mix)
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown (acappella on 33rpm)
Alex Reece & Wax Doctor – Detroit
DJ Vadim – Call Me
Photek – The Rain
The Pharcyde – Passin’ Me By (acappella)
Unknown
The Shamen – Transamazonia (LTJ Bukem mix)
Unknown
Incognito – Still A Friend Of Mine
Squarepusher – Male Pill 5
Dream Warriors – My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style (acappella)
Fatboy Slim – Weekend Bonus Beats
Rae – Free Rolling
KRS One – Uh Oh
Cypress Hill – Scooby Doo
Unknown
Unknown
Bushflange – Cloud Cover
Plastikman – Helikopter
DJ Shadow – In/Flux
Colourbox – Baby I Love You So

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixcloud Select, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music, Ninja Tune, Openmind designs, Records. | No Comments | Tags: 1 of 100, DJ Food, Mixcloud Select, Ninja Tune, Stealth

Mixcloud Select 85: DJ Food at Stealth – The Blue Note, Dec 7th 1995 – Part 1

December 19, 2021December 19, 2021

As some may have seen, I recently did a collaboration with 1 of 100 shirts on a Stealth t-shirt as the date of the first Ninja Tune night called Stealth was on December 7th, coincidentally the same day as 1 of 100 formed four years ago. The anniversary for the Ninja night was 26 years ago and I managed to find tapes from that same night to encode for you all to hear. Unfortunately it all came at a time when I’ve been busier than any other part of the year so things got held up.

The set presented here is DJ Food – PC and myself – on 4 decks at The Blue Note, Dec 7th, 1995 and the photo above was taken that same night by Martin LeSanto-Smith. The set is about two and a half hours in total, recorded from a DAT across two TDK tapes. I’ve no idea where the original DAT is, I don’t think I have it and PC doesn’t, maybe Coldcut do but where it would be is a mystery at the moment. It’s possible that we played twice on the night but I can’t be certain, there’s a point where Coldcut mix into us when Jive Samba is played at the end of part 1, this was a Jon More special at this point in time so I know it’s him, but there’s more music from us later. There are also sudden stops or breaks in the recordings where tapes must have run out and by the time they’re changed the music has moved on so I’ve crossfaded a couple of bits so there are no sudden stops or jump edits. The levels on a lot of it were up and down so I’ve done my best to make volumes a bit more consistent across the mix.

PC and I were keen to have lots of tools to play with so there were also a delay and flanger pedal incorporated into the set up at different points as well as a sampler on the mixer used to capture little snatches of beats and trigger them over the mix too. Occasionally I would use a little tool I made from a film canister with a pencil stuck in the top, placing it over the centre spindle and balancing a record or top, using the pencil as a spindle. The tonearm would then be heavily weighted on the back end and the cartridge unscrewed and inserted upside down, placed under the elevated record which would then cause the sound to come out reversed as if the turntable was playing backwards. You can hear it around the 31 minute mark in part 1 and see me doing it in this photo, taken at the Sonar festival the next year. PC would use his delay pedal to loop up sections occasionally and then drop back into the records. Sometimes one of us would pick a snare sound and the person who was playing would find a kick on the one and we’d scratch improvised beat patterns for a few bars before dropping back into a track, hoping the records wouldn’t jump which they sometimes did if we got carried away.

Anyway, here’s part 1, a more downtempo, trip hop, hip hop set, with part 2, more drum n bass led, to follow. Subscribers to my Mixcloud Select can access it for £3 a month, for that you get an archive mix each Friday and notes, tracklists and photos.
If you want a commemorative Stealth T shirt then I think there are some left, follow this link, choose you colour, size and T shirt number from the ones left and place an order, once the 100 are sold there won’t be any more.
https://weare1of100.co.uk/limited-edition/dj-food-openmind/

Track list:
Unknown
DJ Food – The Food Song
Unknown
Whistle – We’re Called Whistle
Unknown
LL Cool J – Rock The Bells
The Herbaliser – Up 4 The Get Downs
Unknown
III Most Wanted – Calm Down (a cappella)
DJ Food – Spiral Dub
Kid N Play – Gittin’ Funky
Coldcut – More Beats
Big Apple Productions vol.3 – Genius At Work
Depth Charge – Queen of the Scorpion
Trouble Funk – Live Percussion Solos
Unknown
Eric B & Rakim – Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em (acapella)
Autechre – Rotar
Unknown
Unknown
Caveman – Victory
Def Jef – Droppin’ Rhymes on Drums
Hardhouse – 11:55 (Bee Boys Club)
4E – Temple Traxx
Dirty Beatniks – Getting Stupid (Live At The Blue Note)
Oh-Zone Layer – Dark Side Of The Shroom
The Last Minister – Tribute To J.B. Family
DJ Chuck Chillout & Kool Chip – Rhythm Is The Master
Unknown
Kraftwerk – The Model
Jack Constanzo & Gerry Woo – Jive Samba

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music, Ninja Tune. | No Comments | Tags: 1 of 100, DJ Food, Mixcloud Select, Stealth, T shirt

What a crazy week…

December 12, 2021December 12, 2021

Monday: Photographed The Real Tuesday Weld‘s annual 3″ CD Xmas card I’d designed which then went on sale online. Buy here

Tuesday: 1 of 100 shirts / DJ Food/Openmind collab went on sale, 100 shirts with the Stealth club logo. 26 years to the day of the first Ninja Tune club night called Stealth, mini commemorative flyer swing ticket to round it off.
Recorded a ton of jams on my Quadrophon turntable and found the recording of PC and my set at The Blue Note from the same night all those years ago…

Wednesday: Fine tuning a 7,500 word intro to a book about light show picture wheels I’m doing with Four Corners Books, for publication next year, months of research and interviews distilled into a huge piece.
DJed at the Let’s Stick Together night with Mira Calix at The Gun pub in Hackney, people came and made collages all evening while we played, the best will go into Mira’s next collage zine, out next year.
Got home at 11pm, started editing turntable jams for Saturday…

Thursday: Working in Studio Cineola with Matt Johnson of The The, finishing off my CineolaScape mix for release on his label next year. This is a distillation of my opening sets for their live comeback tour, playing Matt’s music from across his 40 year career. We’re doing final mixdowns and edits. Also finally got a copy of the Comeback Special deluxe set with my exclusive remix on the bonus 10″ vinyl.

Friday: More of the same and then off home to see the Touched Music‘s Project OO go live with a virtual release party online at 7.30pm and the release of a 58 track, 5xCD compilation in aid of 7 yr old Oona Dooks who needs special treatments to walk. Also available is a 74 min mix CD I made to promote the project featuring many tracks from it. Amazing response as both sold out in hours.
News that Electronic Sound magazine had both the DJ Food Kaleidoscope/Companion reissue and The New Obsolescents‘ album in their end of year list and a two page photo of us performing at the Levitation festival. Delightfully modelled here by fellow Obsolescent Robin The Fog at the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood.

Saturday: Jamming with original Antz/Bow Wow Wow drummer Dave Barbarossa in a West London studio with tracks made on my four-armed Quadraphon turntable, making exploratory music for a possible collaboration.

Posted in Books, Design, DJ Food, Event, Gigs, Music. | 1 Comment | Tags: 1 of 100, Dave Barbarossa, Electronic Sound, Mira Calix, Project OO, The Real Tuesday Weld, The The, Touched Music

Calix Collage Party! Lets Stick Together

December 2, 2021

Doing this next week: Wednesday at The Gun in Hackney with old friend Mira Calix

A collage party, come and cut and paste images while we cut it up on the decks.
FREE! but you have to book on this link, limited places too.
Plus, Mira is launching a call for collage with the theme, ‘let’s stick together – in a divided world’, details on the link too.
Her new album, ‘~~absent~~ origin’ is out now on Warp and limited numbers come with a 48 page collage fanzine and stickers.

Posted in Art, DJ Food, Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: collage, lets stick together, Mira Calix

Spiritland gig with James Lavelle

November 16, 2021

This should be a fun night, next Friday at Spiritland on the Southbank. A night for the headz – warming up for James Lavelle, I’ll be pulling out lots of stuff that’s not been aired during the 18 month pandemic lay off. Early bird tickets have gone but mid price are still available.

Tickets: https://ra.co/events/1478022

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs. | No Comments | Tags: James Lavelle, Spiritland

The Kick, The Snare, The Hat & A Clap documentary

September 20, 2021

I saw The Light Surgeons last night (still amazing) and had been sent a link to a documentary about Newcastle raves when I got home that included this screen shot. It’s called ‘The Kick, The Snare, The Hat & A Clap’

Watch the whole thing here

Posted in Film, Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: The Hat & A Clap, The Kick, The Snare

The Quadraphon Mk II turntable & Levitation fest

September 20, 2021

The Quadraphon Mk II – a lot of last week was spent working on this, making container pods that hold three extra tone arms, attached to a modular sliding rail that can be fitted over any DJ turntable.

Each tone arm can be moved and locked into position to recalibrate where the arm sits in the groove and the whole thing comes apart for portability.

It’s not perfect but better than the Mark I which had free-standing tone arms. Still got to perfect the sliding action to make it smoother and retool one of the pods but it all works. If you want to hear what comes out of such a contraption then check out the releases on my Infinite Illectrik label on Bandcamp.

Its debut should be at the Castles In Space Levitation show in Whitby, Nov 6th as part of The New Obsolescents’ first proper live show, the time and details of which are below. There are two nights and tickets can be bought here

Posted in Design, DJ Food, Gigs, Music, Poster / flyer. | 1 Comment | Tags: Levitation, Quadraphon

First gig in 18 months – Carnivalesque

July 5, 2021

The day is fast approaching, a gig is on the horizon! Going back to back with Ollie Teeba of The Herbaliser in support of Norman Jay, Crazy P and David Rodigan, I’ll be down in Brighton on Sunday, August 1st at Carnivalesque – tickets here.

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Middle Earth flyers part 2

July 4, 2021March 29, 2022

In this second part of Middle Earth flyers collected from the International Times archive we get to the point where the club moved from their original Covent Garden home to The New Roundhouse in Chalk Farm after numerous raids by the police. At the top we see the Magical Mystery Tour event still advertised on Aug 24th/25th 1968 (see previous post) but by the next issue (two weeks later) it was replaced by a regular gig featuring Traffic, Family and Free but with a large ‘& then’ before announcing The Doors and Jefferson Airplane gig. There’s a uniformity to these ads previously unseen at the old venue, broken by the tall thin ad above right and the circular orange one below which advertises a programme of classical music by the Middle Earth Symphony Orchestra!

Problems with The Roundhouse meant that the club was forced to move again by early 1969, the nearly blank advert above appearing mid February in IT. Following a message in the next issue stating they’d moved to the Royalty Cinema in Notting Hill Gate, a month’s worth of gigs were later listed through March into April. After that things appeared to dry up until a series of tiny ads appeared in September, one a week, stating, ‘Middle Earth is alive and well…’ ‘and coming soon’, ‘is The Power of The Picts’. Then in November, a full page ad announced the rebirth of the night as a record label with a management address in Soho Square. It lasted for two years, releasing five singles and five albums in that time, there’s a short history of it here.

Posted in Bureau of Lost Culture, Event, Gigs, Music, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: Bureau of Lost Culture, International times, Middle Earth

Middle Earth flyers part 1.5 – The Magical Mystery Tour

June 24, 2021November 9, 2023

The full page back cover advert above appeared in the 9th Aug 1968 issue of International Times magazine, promises much and looks like some sort of insane bargain for the princely sum of £3. The idea of the event, as you can read from the text, was to take 3,000 paying punters on a Magical Mystery Tour via a fleet of blacked out buses. 90 minutes later attendees would disembark inside a ‘walled Pleasure Garden’ with deer roaming in the grounds for 48 hrs of music, mischief and mayhem. Undoubtedly taking its name from The Beatles’ song of the same name released the previous year, there were reportedly the first showings of the film of the same name due to take place but I’ve not been able to confirm this.
The first sign of the impending gig was a small ad in the back of the 12th July 1968 issue of IT with just these words…

This also seems to coincide with the moment when Middle Earth at the King St. address in Covent Garden moved to The (New) Roundhouse in Chalk Farm with some reports suggesting that this event even took place at that venue. Again this seems to be pure speculation and hardly fits the bill of the advertised ‘lawns and woods within the walls’ plus how would they do a six hour firework show indoors?

Above is a full colour poster for the event by Hapshash & The Coloured Coat although it’s been credited solely to Michael English too. A version of this image also exists for the First International Pop Festival in Rome earlier the same year, and it appears that the poster may have been over-printed, adding new band names whilst obliterating the original festival name and date. According to Middle Earth club DJ, Jeff Dexter, this was, “put together by Giorgio Gomelsky with Dave Howson from Middle Earth.” I’d speculate that they wanted to add to the promotion for the event with an eye-catching poster at short notice, thinking that few would have seen the Italian festival poster? Hapshash had of course done many posters for both UFO and Middle Earth and were pretty much the premiere poster designers for that era in the UK along with Martin Sharp. If anyone has any further info on this I’d love to know more.

Below are both sides of a poster (or possibly flyer) designed by Ozmosis – who had also assembled the ad at the top of this post plus the smaller flying baby one. I’ve not been able to dig up anything about who Ozmosis were from anywhere – Jeff Dexter didn’t know, psychedelic poster collector, Peter Golding had heard the name but no more, antique book and magazine seller, Adrian Sclanders of Beatbooks drew a blank and artist and ex-IT arts editor Mike McInnerney hasn’t so far got back to me. Magical Mystery Tour poster back
So what happened? Any eye witness accounts, footage or reviews of the event are missing in action whereas there are plenty for the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream or The Million Volt Light & Sound Rave. You’d think something as ambitious as this would be up there as one of the events of the era? The answer seems to be in a small news piece in the 23rd August 1968 edition of IT.

Jeff Dexter again, “The Mystery tour never happened due the weather and lack of sales, but there was a quickly put together event by coaches from Covent Garden to a very smart reception space the ‘Baronial Hall’ in the City of London.”
The Doors / Jefferson Airplane gig mentioned here two weeks later has of course passed into legend though…

Posted in Bureau of Lost Culture, Event, Gigs, Magazines, Music, Poster / flyer. | 1 Comment | Tags: Bureau of Lost Culture, Magical mystery Tour, Middle Earth

Middle Earth flyers part 1

June 14, 2021March 29, 2022

Middle Earth was one of the original, late 60s psychedelic clubs in London, coming shortly after The UFO (pronounced You-Fo – Underground Freak Out) club on Tottenham Court Rd. and pitching itself up in King St, Covent Garden. It actually started out as The Electric Garden in May 1967 but, after a disastrous opening weekend with completely misjudged vibes, heavy security and bizarre VIP areas, it had a change of name as well as management and became Middle Earth in September.

See below for eye witness details of the opening event – all these clippings taken from the International Times magazine online archive which is an invaluable resource of the times. Orange flyer above taken from Jill Drower’s excellent book on The Exploding Galaxy, ’99 Balls Pond Road’.

Middle Earth, an obvious Tolkien reference, John Peel was one of the resident DJs along with Jeff Dexter who would play to the crowd and the dance floor rather than Peel who would play more for the listeners out there. Jeff told me that they would be situated under the lighting rig for the light show until a small booth was built for them out with the stages for the bands to make them more part of the events. A regular track for him was The Lemon Pipers’ ‘Through With You’ apparently, the nearest thing to an anthem for the nights, he liked this because it was nearly 10 minutes long so he could go for a smoke.

Above, the listing for the re-opening week, I like the way they were closed on the Friday that UFO was on rather than give the impression that they were competing.

There was no consistent art direction with the adverts featured in IT and most were dictated over the phone and the magazine would come up with the designs for the issue.

Below right: A benefit for Oz magazine with a ‘sexy Barney Bubbles Light Show’ – Barney Bubbles being the alias of Colin Fulcher who went on to design so many great sleeves for Hawkwind, Stiff Records and many more. Along with other pioneers like Liquid Len, he got his nickname from doing light shows where he would heat ink and oil under glass clock faces and project it across the club after witnessing this on the hippy scene in San Francisco on a trip to the States.

One of the mysteries of the Apple Middle Earth 3 Day festival listed above was that it never officially happened, something I’ll cover in another post, but things were changing for the club around this time. Middle Earth was raided repeatedly by the police and was eventually forced to move to another venue, The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, which I’ll cover in part 2.

Posted in Bureau of Lost Culture, Event, Gigs, Magazines, Music, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: Bureau of Lost Culture, Electric Garden, flyers, IT magazine, Middle Earth

Mixcloud 59: Solid Steel – Audio Adventure’s in Africa

June 4, 2021June 4, 2021

This one may divide people and lose me a few subscribers as it’s not your regular mix set. A few weeks ago Ninja Tune re-shared a small red packet of Ninja Rizlas on their social media from my new Openmindesign Instagram page where I post my artwork and Ninja ephemera. The customised packet had the ‘Rizla’ logo replaced by ‘Ninja’ and a separate tab pasted in with details of a gig in South Africa that Amon Tobin, Kid Koala, PC and I did in 1999.

Promoters Ralph Borland and Adam Lieber bought us out and South African promoter living in Montreal, Victor Shifman came out with us to tour manage and show us around. Whilst out there I had a handheld tape recorder and recorded all sorts of things during our long stay out in Cape Town and Johannesburg. As a result the sound quality is pretty bad but it’s a moment in time that I’m happy I recorded, this is the nearest thing to being on tour and at shows with us back then.

On the bus to the plane: Victor, Amon, Ralph, Adam, Eric, PC

Ralph and Adam

Worse places to break down

As you will hear, we were all watching The Fast Show a lot and had got Kid Koala into it as well. You’ll hear in-flight banter, improvised scratch demos at a youth club, unknown bands jamming at restaurants, gig excerpts with technical problems and running tour gags. The Johannesburg show was plagued with technical problems at the start and we were playing in a disused prison in the open night air, it was awesome but by 5am we had to stop or we weren’t going to catch our flight back to Cape Town in time to which the crowd roared their displeasure. Eric had started to do his ‘Drunk Trumpet’ show piece around this time although I’m not sure it had a title at that point but it was a show-stopper.

Johannesburg gig in an open air ex-prison

The Treasury in Johannesburg, a 5 story warehouse, this was one floor, insane amounts of records.

We were lucky to have several days off and went up mountains to see the sunsets, drove round the coast to see Penguins on the beach, went to outdoor markets, did a free performance in a youth club, met all sorts of great people, an amazing trip which I’ll never forget.

Airport farewell: Eric, Victor, Amon, Kev, PC, Ralph centre, Adam kneeling

Part 1 of this was broadcast at the end of the 02/05/99 show but part 2 has never been heard. Normal service will be restored next week…

Part 1: Cape Town
KLM voice over – Take off
Kid Koala, PC, Strictly, Reddy D – Cape Town Turntable Jam Pt. 2
skit – Amon’s table
Unidentified bar band 1 – unknown
skit – How old is Eric San?
Kid Koala, PC, Strictly, Reddy D – Cape Town Turntable Jam Pt. 1 inc. technical problems
skit – Suits you
Unidentified bar band 2 – unknown

Part 2: Jo’Burg/Cape Town
KLM voice over – in flight banter
DJ Food – 1sr set intro – Summertime sound problems
skit – Some words with Amon Tobin
Kid Koala – Techno set
Eric San – this week…
DJ Food – 2nd set intro – Yussef meets Jeru
skit – More words with Amon Tobin
DJ Food – Plastic Neotropic Gangstarr
DJ Food – Scruffy
Kid Koala – Easy now chair (Drunk Trumpet)
KLM voice over – Landing

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixcloud Select, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music, Radio. | No Comments | Tags: Mixcloud Select