Flexi Record Store Day stuff

April 18, 2019April 18, 2019

Just so much going on at the moment, hard to keep track – Record Store Day was great fun, got a few releases (the Yage and Acid 88 releases are excellent, the Stone Tape less so). Played silly flexi discs at Audio Gold with Shane Quentin first thing, the shop was bustling and my Jonathan King ‘Lick A Smurpf For Christmas’ disc got a cheer. The staff generously treated us to pizza and drinks as well as pushing a couple of filthy flexi’s my way – thanks guys!

Excellent package of the day goes to the Kubrick 7″ from Silva Screen which is a delight on many levels even though it’s actually Wendy Carlos arrangements re-recorded by Mark Ayres and not quite what it was sold as on the original RSD info mail out. The Acid 88 design is also particularly tasteful with the label designs causing some excellent flickering motion when revolving.

After this we headed down to Palace Vinyl in Crystal Palace for a bit of acid techno with the Downfall crew and a dig through their considerably stuffed crates – if you want any kind of secondhand electronic dance music from the last 30 years then this is the place to go although they mainly sell online. The new Corroded Circuits EP on their label is another winner.

Last stop was the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood where we nearly didn’t get in it was so packed for the showing of Shawn Lee‘s ‘The Library Music Film’, a 2 hr journey through the medium that had our legs aching as we had to stand the whole way through. Records were bought, played and beers consumed afterwards too and it rounded off a great day with friends and a set from King Michael that culminated in a shop-clearing Goblin tune.

Monday saw a private showing of Vickie Bennet‘s ‘Gone, Gone Beyond’ 360 degree film at Goldsmith’s College, a kind of fever-dream across multiple screens with surround sound that made me wonder if she was sane. Collage cross-referencing across multiple decades and genres was the order of the day with a particularly successful hall of mirrors sequence and crazed compression of what seemed like my 70’s childhood for a finalé. If you get the chance, go and see it but it’s only showable in a tiny amount of spaces due to the nature of the surround medium.

Tuesday night saw Shane, myself and Jonny Trunk at Spiritland in Kings X for the Wobbly Sounds book launch, playing flexi discs on their mega sound system – it sounded awful! 😀 It didn’t matter though as the place was packed and everyone had a great time, especially the Four Corners Book publishers Elinor and Richard. I ended up chatting to actor Paul Putner (aka The Curious Orange from This Morning With Richard Not Judy among many other roles) who is a massive music fan who really knows his stuff.

Off to Bristol this Saturday for the second performance of my Kraftwerk: Klassics, Kovers & Kurios AV show at the Cube Cinema with DJ Cheeba, which is sold out! There are two mixes forthcoming this month too, one imminently and one on the 27th – both very different, more info soon.

Posted in Books, Event, Film, Flexi Discs, Gigs, Music, Records. | 5 Comments | Tags: flexi discs, RSD19, Spiritland, vicki bennett, wobbly sounds

Flexi discs and wobbly sounds

April 4, 2019March 29, 2022

A quick round up of all things flexi disc-related that’s coming up over this month. The good news is that the Wobbly Sounds book by Jonny Trunk and published by Four Corners Books that I contributed to is back from the printers and looking great! It’s 160 pages and is only a tenner – pre-order here for an April 15th release date.

As a result there’s a plethora of promotion coming up: The Eye on Design blog has just published this article on the book.

On April 13th (Record Store Day) I’ll be at Audio Gold in Crouch End, London with Shane Quentin from The Garden of Earthly Delights radio show, playing flexi disc sets with hidden discs in the racks and free beer as well – check the event page for more details.

April 16th sees the official book launch at Spiritland in Kings X, 6.30-8pm along with Jonny, Shane and Andrew Beedell Coram with an evening set by Jonny from real vinyl.

Later this month I should be joining Jonny on his OST show (4.30-6.30pm) on Resonance FM for a flexi special, playing selections from the book and more, hopefully with the usual competition hilarity.

I’m told print pieces in Record Collector and Shindig magazines are on the horizon too…

Other non-flexi related things happening: I have a guest mix coming up on The Allergies podcast mid April

I’ll be playing on Out Of The Wood radio at the Book & Record Bar this Sunday 7th with Pete Williams during the first West Norwood FEAST of 2019.

Also at the B&RB on Record Store Day (April 13th, remember?) I’ll be playing records with Ceri Preston after a showing of The Library Music Film and a Q&A from Shawn Lee. Starts at 7.30pm and goes to 1am.

Unfortunately the Kraftwerk AV gig I was to do at the Sheffield O2 Academy on the 27th April has been rescheduled for Nov 8th now but will be locking more in for May/June.

Also, I’ll be supporting DJ Krush on June 20th at Oslo in Hackney – tickets just went on sale yesterday.

Posted in Books, Bureau of Lost Culture, DJ Food, Flexi Discs, Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: Bureau of Lost Culture, Flexi Disc, Jonny Trunk, wobbly sounds

Record Store Day 2019

March 7, 2019

I was going to post about Record Store Day releases last week when the list was announced but wanted to wait for the announcement above as well. For once I’m heading to North London, after spending years down South or in the West End… to Audio Gold, those fine purveyors of vintage audio equipment, hi-fi components and records, old and new. My good friend Robin from Hexstatic has worked there for many years and has been trying to get Jonny Trunk and I up there for nearly as long.

Jonny will be promoting his RSD release on Trunk, the official reissue of Basil Kirchin‘s ‘World’s Within Worlds’, by playing original reels from Basil’s archive via one of the shop’s lovely machines no doubt. I’ll be joined by fellow flexi finder Shane Quentin who, along with Jonny and I, has contributed to the forthcoming book, ‘Wobbly Sounds’ which is all about British flexi discs. Shane’s collection of the disposable discs is enough to make any collector envious and between us we pulled out some sweet examples of the different uses they had from household product advertising to pop music promotion, event invites to educational aids, and yes, porn.

The book is published by those lovely people at Four Corners Books and forms part of their Irregulars series of Great British oddities, I don’t think I’m allowed to show you the cover yet though as it’s not online. Hopefully copies will be back from the printers and available at Audio Gold for April 13th. We’ll be playing some of our collections in the shop and I’m even going to hide some freebies in the racks for people to find…

Now – to my RSD ones to watch list – if your pockets are deep enough of course:

808 State – Four States of 808 (ZTT) 4×12″ box set

Limited edition 4 x 12″ box set exploring four very different sides of 808 State; Hacienda-inspired acid house classics, Thunderdome-inspired full-frontal aural assaults, renowned collaborations, and downtempo sonic baths. Featuring 27 tracks across four discs, including rare and previously unreleased mixes, hidden tracks, brand new artwork and liner notes. Includes three previously unreleased tracks and three previously unreleased on vinyl. The entire set is remastered from the original master tapes.

Art of Noise – Daft As A Brush! (ZTT) 4×12″ box set

Limited edition 4 x 12″ box set and a vinyl companion piece to the renowned 1986 CD compilation, Daft. Hear a fresh take on three game-changing records – ‘Beat Box’, ‘Close (to the Edit)’ and ‘ Moments in Love’ – while a fourth disc finally unleashes Trevor Horn and Paul Morley‘s mythical post-AoN project, Art and ACT. Featuring 25 tracks across four discs, including hidden tracks, brand new artwork and liner notes. 20 tracks previously unreleased on vinyl with the entire set remastered from the original master tapes.

Basil Kirchin – Worlds Within Worlds (Trunk) LP

Worlds Within Worlds (Part I and II) is one of the most important improvised jazz-based recordings of all time. Released in 1971 it sold just a handful of copies, but has become a keystone in the development of experimental and ambient sounds – originals now fetch £1000+. This pressing features a new gatefold sleeve (Kirchin hated the original sleeve), with images of Kirchin, his original field recording tapes and notes by WWW fan Thurston Moore. There are just 1500 being pressed with 250 on gold vinyl, which will be mixed randomly in with the 1250 black versions. There will be no way of telling which colour is which as all LPs will be sealed. The LP will not be repressed.

Bob Dorough – Multiplication Rock (Original Soundtrack Recording) (Jackpot) LP

LP Colored Vinyl (Red/Blue Swirl on Multiplication Rock). 1st ever reissue, from the original master tapes. 1500 total worldwide. Original ABC 1973 TV soundtrack, part of the Schoolhouse Rock! Series. Jazz Bop Vocalist Bob Dorough (1923-2018) composed “Multiplication Rock” as a way for children to remember multiplicaton tables. Colored Vinyl LP from The Original Master Tapes with original Tape Box artwork. includes ‘Three Is A Magic Number’, as sampled by De La Soul.

Deadly Avenger – Your God Is Too Small (Burning Witches) LP

More sonic electro infused speaker decimation from Deadly Avenger in a brand new follow up to 2018′ s ‘I Am Godzilla You Are Japan’. ‘Your God Is Too Small’ picks up the DA Godzilla story from the very begining in a prequel to IAGYAJ. Includes 3D artwork and glasses, Insert, and download card. UK Exclusive variant. Artwork by Luke Insect.

Desmond Briscoe, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop – The Stone Tape (Silva Screen Records) 10″

10″ EP on Green Vinyl Long awaited BBC 1972 soundtrack, previously unreleased. Numbered Edition.

DJ Pierre presents / Various Artists – ACID 88 volume 3 (Afro Acid) 2xLP

A double LP of 1 Black + 1 White vinyl of 12 killer acid trax selected by legendary pioneer DJ Pierre featuring Mark Archer, A Guy Called Gerald, K Alexi, Lauren Flax, Type 303, Hiroko Yamamura & many more.

Future Sound of London, The – Yage 2019

In 1996 iconic group The Future Sound of London released the UK Top 40 chart album ‘Dead Cities’, from which came a track ‘Yage’. Such has been the interest in this masterpiece of electronica over the years that the guys have been back into the studio to revisit it. Here, on this limited edition, individually numbered LP press exclusively for 2019′ s Record Store Day comes the results. ‘Yage 2019’ takes the core of the original and rebuilds it. All together there are eleven tracks reconstructions and interpretations, woven together (as FSOL do) into a 42 minute dreamscape journey across the 2 sides of vinyl. Only 1000 copies of this release will be pressed on vinyl.

Herbie Hancock – Dedication (Get On Down) LP

Vinyl has never been officially issued outside of Japan. 3000 made worldwide. ‘Dedication’ is a unique Herbie Hancock outing in more ways than one. This is a solo Hancock release, all sounds heard on this recording are Hancock at the keyboards, be it an acoustic piano, a Fender Rhodes or a synth. The project was recorded live in Tokyo in July of 1974 and never saw release outside of Japan until well into the 21st century. For Record Store Day 2019 Get On Down presents the first ever US vinyl release of this important piece of Hancock’ s artistic legacy.

Worth it for ‘Nobu’ alone, no poster though!?

Propaganda – The Eight Testaments of Propaganda (ZTT) 4×12″ box set

This limited edition 4 x 12″ box set dives deep into the hits and mythology of Propaganda‘ s highly influential ZTT years. Take a fresh look at their two biggest singles – ‘Duel’ and ‘Dr. Mabuse’ – and their two most beloved live/album tracks, ‘Dream Within A Dream’ and ‘Frozen Faces’ . Featuring 24 tracks across four discs, including rare and previously unreleased mixes, brand new artwork and liner notes. Includes two tracks previously unreleased, and 13 tracks previously unreleased on vinyl. The entire set is remastered from the original master tapes.

Wendy Carlos /Rachel Elkind – Kubrick (Silva Screen) 7″

7″ Die Cut Sleeve/ Printed Inner Sleeve Transparent Orange Vinyl Double A Side: The Shining/ A Clockwork Orange For both these iconic films, Stanley Kubrick chose to work with the extraordinary Wendy Carlos, who wrote (or realised, as both are based on classical pieces) the main themes to both movies. The 7″ AA Side, March from A Clockwork Orange (1971), is an arrangement of Beethoven‘ s rousing Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (fourth movement) and is the first recorded song using a vocoder. Almost ten years later, Carlos was to work with Kubrick again on The Shining (1980). The Shining – Main Theme on the 7″ A side takes as its starting point the Dies Irae from Hector Berlioz‘ s Requiem (Op5), appropriately taken to new levels of darkness by Carlos and Rachel Elkind‘ s electronic treatment.

Posted in Books, DJ Food, Flexi Discs, Gigs, Music, Records. | No Comments | Tags: Audio Gold, flexi discs, Jonny Trunk, record store day, RSD, Shane Quentin, vinyl

20 years of Ping Pong, Paris

February 26, 2019

I’m doing a special gig in Paris on March 15th – DJing on a mega line up to celebrate 20 years of Ping Pong, the promotion agency headed by Fred/Jais Elalouf aka DJ Oof of Cinemix fame who has worked with Ninja Tune for two decades now. Oof is also the collector and curator of the Psychedelic Art Centre and there will be an exhibition of works featured for six weeks to launch the special issue of Perfect Bliss, the new Graph Zine and review which comes with stereoscopic glasses for 3D.

Posted in Art, Design, DJ Food, Event, Gigs, Music, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: Ping Pong, psychedelic

Delaware Road line up roll call

February 12, 2019July 5, 2019

The line up for this summer’s Delaware Road event at a secret army base in Wiltshire is finally confirmed and Buried Treasure – the label run by Alan Gubby who set up the gig – is dripping out performer names and info over the next few weeks. I’ll add them as they appear – Collect the set! This will not be like any other festival you attend this year. A new dedicated website explains all and there is a bus service you can book to get you to the venue.
Tickets are available here

….and last but not least – the master of ceremonies….

Posted in Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: buried treasure, Delaware Road

Kraftwerk – Klassics, Kovers & Kurios premiere this Saturday

February 7, 2019September 7, 2019

One of the reasons it’s been so quiet on here this year is because I’ve had my head in the video editing suite for this Saturday’s premiere of my new AV show; Kraftwerk: Klassics, Kovers & Kurios. I’ll be taking this up to Manchester for its initial outing, at The Deaf Institute, who have previously hosted my other AV sets (why should London have all the good stuff first?). Tickets are available here

The show (at the moment) is very dance-orientated with the obvious techno, electro styles accompanied by hip hop, samba, breaks, mash ups and maybe a bit of juke if I can make it fit. Above is a tiny excerpt from one track where I got a bit carried away. The show takes the band’s various eras, looks and line ups and combines them into a 60 track, 90 min+ collage of Teutonic Techno, European Electro & Kraut Crunk together with the visual history of the group. I’ve really dug around for old archive for this one, which is hard on the older material as there is so little and in bad quality but I’ve been collecting this stuff since the early ’00s so have a fair bit. Below are some screen grabs of an Italian performance of Pocket Calculator where the cameraman really wanted to know what they were playing.

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Gigs, Kraftwerk, Music. | No Comments | Tags: Deaf Institute, Kraftwerk. DJ Food

Bluedot festival

January 22, 2019January 22, 2019

Very happy to announce that I’ll be playing my Boards of Canada-centric Audio Visual show, ‘O Is For Orange’ at the Bluedot festival this year, on Sunday 21st of July. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, just hope I’m not on at the same time as Kraftwerk! See these links for more details
Website – https://www.discoverthebluedot.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/bluedotfestival
Twitter – @bluedotfestival
Instagram – @bluedotfestival
Hashtag – #discoverthebluedot

Posted in DJ Food, Event, Gigs. | No Comments | Tags: Bluedot festival, o Is For Orange

DJ Food – Kraftwerk: Klassics, Kovers & Kurios trailers

January 15, 2019September 7, 2019

Less than a month to go – my AV series #3 debuts at The Deaf Institute on Feb 9th – a new Audio Visual set of Kraftwerk-orientated covers, samples and classics.

Bookings via Ben Child at Hot Cakes

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Gigs, Kraftwerk, Music. | 1 Comment |

2018 – a vintage year for new music

December 31, 2018January 19, 2019

It’s the end of the year and reading down the list of sounds that have moved me most in 2018 I’m struck by how much new music there is after years of digging a lot of reissues over current styles. This may well be because the well is finally running dry on a lot of the stuff I’m interested in but more likely that the old adage of great music being made in times of great strife is coming home to roost again. There is no order to the lists below, no No.1 or ‘best’ of anything although they are mostly chronological as I write stuff down as I hear or see it.

Special mentions though for the Castles In Space label that continues to go from strength to strength, the Confidence Man album which got a lot of play despite me missing them live twice. Trevor Jackson‘s beautiful design for his ‘System’ CD and cassette, so good I bought it three times, The Advisory Circle‘s ‘Ways Of Seeing’ LP and the Tomorrow Syndicate‘s excellent ‘Future Tense’ album, complete with Nick Taylor artwork.

Supporting both The The (on several UK dates) and the Art Of Noise was the stuff of teenage dreams and the former’s biography by Neil Fraser is a fascinating read. The Karminsky Experience Inc.’s ‘See Inside’ VR single was a genuinely eye-opening experience and having them and Markey Funk down at Further was a treat. Walking into the House of Illustration‘s John Vernon Lord exhibition to be unexpectedly confronted with the original drawing of his 1966 masterpiece, ‘Beneath The Tree’, was the art high of the year and the People’s Vote march in October restored my faith in humanity for an afternoon. Electronic Sound magazine continues to excel and their first LP release, Jack Dangers‘ remix of Terry Riley‘s ‘In C’, was another disc that saw a lot of play this year.

On Dec 23rd I played a lot of my favourite releases of 2018 on WNBC‘s Out Of The Wood show which you can hear below, complete with mic. fluffs and wrong track listings.

As we go into 2019 I’m dreading the first three months, leading up to the Br*x*t deadline, hoping against hope for a last minute chance to reconsider but bracing for a fallout post 29/03/19 that could see chaos come to the UK. I hope that I’m writing a more positive missive this time next year, if not then at least the music will only get better and better…

Music / chat:
The Karminsky Experience Inc. – See Inside 7″ (Patterns of Behaviour)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Gumboot Soup LP (Flightless)
Beautify Junkyards – The Invisible Worlds of LP (Ghost Box)
Basil Kirchin – I Start Counting LP (Trunk)
Bigmouth podcast (Audioboom)
The Turbans – Baba Ganooz 7″ (Mona Tone/Delights)
Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Hormone Lemonade LP (Duophonic)
The Advisory Circle – Ways Of Seeing LP (Ghost Box)
Janelle Monae – Make Me Feel (single) (Wondaland)
Confidence Man – Confident Music For Confident People LP (Heavenly)
Concretism – For Concrete & Country LP (Castles In Space)
Trevor Jackson – System CD (Pre_)
Tomorrow Syndicate – Future Tense LP (Polytechnic Youth)
Chaka Khan – Like Sugar (single) (Dairy)
Jonny Trunk – OST show (Resonance FM)
Regal Worm – Pig Views / Use And Ornament (Uranium Club)
Meat Beat Manifesto vs Terry Riley – In C (Electronic Sound)
Patrick R. Park – Library Sounds LP (Castles In Space)
David Shire – The Conversation LP (Trunk)
Amgala Temple – Invisible Airships LP (Pekula)
Adam Buxton podcast
Type 303 – The New Ravelution EP (Insult To Injury)
Luke Vibert – 165 303 – from the Gradients vol.2 LP (Astrophonica)
Luke Vibert presents Garave vol.1 LP (Hypercolour)
Kosmischer Laufer – Vol.4 LP (UCR)

Packaging / design:
The Karminsky Experience Inc. – See Inside VR glasses (Patterns of Behaviour)
Chop – CDL 10″ (Drumetrics)
Concretism – For Concrete & Country LP (2nd edition) (Castles In Space)
Trevor Jackson – System 1st & 2nd edition CD + Cassette (Pre_)
Sculpture – Nearest Neighbour Cassette & comic (Tapebox)
Tomorrow Syndicate – Future Tense Regular + Ltd Ed. LP (Polytechnic Youth)
Spider Jazz – splatter vinyl edition LP (Trunk)
Spun Out Of Control vinyl + cassettes
Aver – River of Ice Cream 7″ promo flexi disc
Listening Centre 5″ lathe cut picture disc (Polytechnic Youth)

Books/Comics:
VS – Ivan Brandon / Eric Ribic (Image)
A Year In The Country ‘Wandering Through Spectral Fields’ – Stephen Prince
The Adventures of Jodelle – Guy Peellhaert (Fantagraphics)
Batman – White Knight – Sean Murphy (DC)
Orla Kiely – A Life In Pattern (Octopus Books)
Electronic Sound magazine
Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music – David Hollander (Anthology Editions)
House Industries – The Process Is The Inspiration (Watson-Guptill Publications)
Sculpture – Nearest Neighbour comic (Tapebox)
Proxima Centuri – Farel Dalrymple (Image)
Doomsday Clock – Geoff Johns / Gary Frank (DC)
Saga – Brian K. Vaughn / Fiona Staples (Image)
Long Shadows, High Hopes – Neil Fraser (Omnibus Press)
Judge Dredd – The Small House (Rob Williams & Henry Flint) (2000AD/Rebellion)
Lawless – Dan Abnett / Phil Winslade (Judge Dredd Megazine/Rebellion)
Pete Fowler – Decades of Lead (Unbound)
Diary of a Bookseller – Shaun Bythell (Profile books)

Film/TV:
Inside No.9 series 4 + Halloween special
The Inertia Variations documentary
Flowers series 2
Avengers: Infinity War
Yellow Submarine 50th anniversary remaster
The Karminsky Experience Inc. – See Inside VR + packaging
Bobby Gillespie on Newsnight
The Clock – Christian Marclay, Tate Modern
Bros: After The Screaming Stops (BBC)

Events / Gigs:
Art of Noise, British Library
‘O Is For Orange’ premiere Archspace, London
The The, Albert Hall, The Troxy, London, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
The Crystal Palace Festival afterparty @ The Paxton Pub, Gypsy Hill, London – one of those gigs where every track flows and lands just right.
The Indie Label Market, Spitalfields, London
The People’s Vote march in October
Jane Weaver at EArtH, London
The Soundcarriers, Gloria and Strange Majick @ The Victoria, London
Dirty Fan Male at the Bethnal Green Working Man’s Club, London

Exhibitions:
Sister Corita Kent – Ditchling Art & Craft Museum
Orla Kiely – Fashion & Textile Museum, London
Aphex Twin posters – Elephant & Castle underground, London
The Shape of Light, Tate Modern, London
May The Toys Be With You – New Walk Museum, Leicester
John Vernon Lord – The House of Illustration, London
Peanuts – Somerset House, London
Daniel Mullen – Lisa Norris Gallery, London

“Another year over and what have I done?”
Designed Peshay‘s ‘Reflections’ LP for the De:Tuned label
Created a 3 minute spoken word collage for Penguin/Random House‘s Voices event at the London Palladium on World Book Day
Supported the Art Of Noise at The British Library
DJed multiple times at Secret Cinema presents Blade Runner
Opened for The The at several of their UK gigs including the Royal Albert Hall, Brixton Academy, Glasgow Barrowlands and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Further at the Portico Gallery with Pete Williams, Markey Funk and the Karminsky Experience Inc.
Designed a nine disc set for De:tuned‘s forthcoming 10th anniversary releases
Mixes for Solid Steel, 45 Live, Brokers, Rat Records, Out Of The Wood, Diggers Dozen and radio show appearances for Resonance and Soho Radio
Overhauled my Openmindesign.uk website

RIP: France Gall, Ken Dodd, Stephen Hawking, Matt Dike, Lovebug Starski, Jabo Starks, Tom Wolfe, Aretha Franklin, Orla Kiely shops, Carlos Ezquerra, Paul Allen, Stan ‘The Man’ Lee, HMV, June Whitfield.

Looking forward to: The Delaware Road 2019, Keith Haring retrospective at Tate Liverpool, the Wobbly Sounds book, Further at the Ace Hotel, Sister Corita Kent at the House of Illustration, De:tuned‘s monthly 10th anniversary 12″s, Avengers: Endgame

Happy New Year!

Posted in Art, Books, Comics, Design, DJ Food, Event, Film, Gigs, Music, Records. | 1 Comment | Tags: 2018

The Delaware Road 2019

December 23, 2018December 23, 2018

Tickets are already on sale and the line up is being drip feed out over the Xmas period for The Delaware Road‘s third incarnation next August at a secret military base somewhere in Salisbury. This promises to be the biggest and most ambitious version yet, and those who were present at the first two will know that there is nothing quite like them. I’m very pleased to be asked to play for a second time and so far the whole line up is looking like a who’s who of the leftfield electronica/radiophonic/hauntology scene. Put August 17th in the diary and get in on the early bird tickets before they’re gone.

“A unique festival of music, theatre, film, sound & light inside a secret military base near Stonehenge.
Featuring an incredible line up of artists, DJs, video producers, sound designers, record labels, speakers, writers, illustrators & agitators. Gathered inside the austere military complex of New Zealand Farm near West Lavington, artists will perform work inspired by landscape, myth, broadcast propaganda & the transformative nature of sound.
Performances start at 5pm Saturday evening & end at 3am Sunday morning. Licensed bar, food & merch stalls.
Overnight camping & parking. This event contains adult themes & strobing effects. Under 18s must be accompanied by a responsible adult.”

The line up so far:

THE SEANCE / FRONT & FOLLOW / KEMPER NORTON / THE SLOWEST LIFT / EMBLA QUICKBEAM / ARC SOUNDTRACKS / DJ FOOD \ SARAH ANGLISS / CLAY PIPE MUSIC / SIMON JAMES / REVBJELDE / CASTLES IN SPACE / THE TWELVE HOUR FOUNDATION / CONCRETISM / POLYPORES / PSYCHE TROPES / SCULPTURE / HOWLROUND / MERKABA MACABRE / A’BEAR / DOUG SHIPTON / NICK TAYLOR / ALISON COTTON / IAN HELLIWELL / RADIONICS RADIO

Tickets : https://fixr.co/event/839412645

Posted in Art, Design, DJ Food, Event, Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: The Delaware Road

So you want to be a Chill Out DJ?

October 14, 2018November 10, 2018

This went down well when I posted it on social media yesterday, a CD insert that did the rounds in the mid 90s by Charles Uzzell-Edwards (otherwise now known as Pure Evil), it was inserted into some Fax releases and also printed in XLR8R magazine. Some things never change it seems.

Posted in Gigs, Music, Oddities. | No Comments | Tags: charles uzzell-edwards, chill out, fax records

Further 3 at the Portico Gallery – by Warm Glow Photo

October 4, 2018October 4, 2018

Many thanks to West Norwood local, Anna Hindocha of Warm Glow Photo for coming down at the last moment to shoot for us at on Sept 15th at the Portico Gallery. She managed to capture the ambience of the night in still form and convey the luminescence of the slides perfectly. Pictured below are Markey Funk, myself and The Karminsky Experience Inc. amongst the projections at various stages during the night.

Posted in DJ Food, Event, Gigs, Photography. | No Comments | Tags: Further, Markey Funk, portico gallery, The Karminsky Experience, Warm Glow

Further 3 at the Portico Gallery – photos by Mike Oscar

October 4, 2018

Mike Oscar nails some of the atmosphere at the September 15th edition of Further at the Portico Gallery, West Norwood. Most of these were taken during my ‘O Is For Orange’ audio visual set where the main video screen was complimented by hexagonal slides in blues and oranges.

Posted in Event, Gigs, Photography. | No Comments | Tags: Further, Mike Oscar, photos

Further preview radio show

September 9, 2018

It’s less than a week until the next Further at the Portico Gallery, and i’ve has put a special preview together of the acts playing for the Out Of The Wood radio show on WNBC.London.

The first hour consists of a primer for special guests The Karminsky Experience Inc. and Markey Funk followed by a selection of Boards of Canada – the subject matter for my ‘O Is For Orange’ audio visual performance. Finishing with the kind of eclectic set co-host Pete Williams will be spinning in the last half hour, you get the gist of the sounds going down this Saturday 15th in West Norwood.

Add copious amounts of retina-singeing visuals, the Karminsky’s giving away copies of their new VR glasses (see above) and tasty local food on sale via the Pimento ’62 people (see menu below) and you get the idea about what to expect. Final batch of tickets for Sept 15th available here.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixes / Podcast, Music, Poster / flyer, Radio. | No Comments |

DJ Food – Welcome To The Dark Ages – Invisible Wind Factory 25.08.17

August 26, 2018August 28, 2018

Finally, my 3 hr set at the Welcome To The Dark Ages Graduation Ball – Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool, 26.08.17

Originally thought lost after only a recording of the final 11 minutes could be found on my laptop after the gig, the remainder of the set was hidden as an untitled file, found months later during the Christmas TOTP special of 2017. Re-edited back together with the odd touch up, I present the full set played after Badger Kull‘s debut/final performance.

Contains JAMs/Timelords/KLF samples and sources tribute / acid house classics club set / winding down to 3am with occasional attempts to clear the dance floor (didn’t work, the diehard stayed until the end).

For my fully illustrated ‘diary’ of the events of ‘Welcome To The Dark Ages’ check here
Part 1. / Part 2. / Part 3. / Part 4. and my post-happening comedown Chill Out tribute mix at Emotion Wave the day after.

UPDATE: I recently also found my notes for this mix with a rough outline and potential other sections that I could have played including a ‘Liverpool bands’ medley and ‘money’ section that never made it. Bill Drummond had sent me a scan of the page from 2023 that lists the performers at the Xmas Top Of The Pops so I could cram a lot of things into the set list that would later be relevant. Of course, all this stuff is well and good in theory and in the safety of your studio but in the heat of the moment you have to judge what will work and what might not with a crowd in front of you. I was passed a USB stick by Phil Blake on the day of the gig with two fan-made tracks featuring badger samples (Little Fluffy Badgers…) that I threw into the line up at the 11th hour too.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixes / Podcast. | 2 Comments | Tags: Invisible Wind Factory, KLF, The JAMs, Welcome To The Dark Ages

Coming 2019…

August 23, 2018August 23, 2018

AV series #3

inquiries [email protected]

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Gigs, Kraftwerk, Latest Designs, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: AV series

O Is For Orange AV set for Glasgow

August 14, 2018

Glasgow friends, I’ve finally managed to sneak in a performance of my ‘O Is For Orange’ AV set in your fine town, during the two days I’m in Scotland with The The next month.

I performed the 1st AV mix – Selected Aphex Works – last year and Glasgow was one of the best audiences ever.

This is the 2nd and if you like Boards of Canada then this mix is for you…

Sept 4th, McChuills bar, limited tickets here

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Gigs, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: o Is For Orange

Further 2 at the Portico Gallery, November 2017

August 13, 2018

Seeing as I never got round to posting these at the time (I moved house the week after) and with a new event upon us in a month’s time, here’s a quick look back at the last Further at the Portico Gallery, November 2017 with guests Sculpture and Simon James (The Simonsound). Photos by Martin LeSanto-Smith and myself

Simon James at the Buchla 200e Electric Music Box

Here’s a film of Simon’s performance by his brother, Curtis James

Simon James Buchla 200e performance at Further from Simon James on Vimeo.

The record and merch stall was kindly provided by Michael and Dorian from the local Book & Record Bar

Sculpture at soundcheck and during their performance

Tickets for the next one – Sept 15th, 2018 with myself, Pete WIlliams, The Karminsky Experience Inc. and Markey Funk (Delights) are available here.

Posted in Design, DJ Food, Event, Film, Gigs, Music, Openmind designs. | No Comments | Tags: Further, pete williams, portico gallery, Sculpture, Simon James

Further returns Sept 15th

August 2, 2018August 2, 2018

Further returns to its spiritual home at the Portico Gallery for another night of Light, Sound & Design.

Markey Funk flys in from Jerusalem to present his take on the heavy fuzz and psych sounds coming from his Delights label.
I’ll be bringing my AV ode to Boards of Canada – O Is For Orange – to the big screens with exclusive visual extras.
The Karminsky Experience Inc. grace the decks with their selection of swinging library, soundtrack and beatnik grooves.
And just when you think you’ve heard it all, Pete WIlliams pulls out those special audio treats he’s been hoarding for just this occasion, all accompanied by the sensory overload of the Further slide, oil and video projections.

Delicious food will be available from Pimento ’62 Catering and a fully licensed bar.

V. ltd. early bird tickets available here now!

Posted in Design, DJ Food, Gigs, Music, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: DJ Food, Further, Markey Funk, o Is For Orange, pete williams, portico gallery, The Karminsky Experience

It was 30 years ago today

June 29, 2018June 30, 2018

Another anniversary post, this occasion being three decades ago that Public Enemy released their second LP, ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’. This post isn’t entirely about that though but about their debut London gig as part of the 87 Def Jam Tour, supporting LL Cool J at the Hammersmith Odeon, the November before. Also on the bill were Eric B & Rakim (notice the spelling below – and the upcoming Bad News live show posters) and the whole thing was being recorded by the BBC for their ‘Fresh Start To The Week’ rap show.

Keen-eared listeners will of course know this from the opening lines of the album, MC’d by Fresh Start… host, Dave Pearce, “Hammersmith Odeon are you ready for the Def Jam Tour? Let me hear you make some noise!”. Parts of the gig were interspersed throughout ‘Nations…’ courtesy of The BBC who had already broadcast it by the time the album dropped the next year. Somewhere in among the hollering and whistling were my friends and I as well as many others I would later go on to meet along the way. But first some context:

This was PE’s first trip to the UK, their debut, ‘Yo, Bum Rush The Show’ had been out a while but they’d also released the iconic ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ on the B-side of their last single, ‘You Gonna Get Yours/Mi Uzi Weighs A Ton’. They were supporting LL Cool J on this trip alongside Eric B & Rakim (who were having their own hits like Paid In Full). PE rose up the ranks with incredible speed though. Their first single, ‘Time Bomb/Public Enemy No.1’ was a real oddity, the album dropped in February ’87 and was even weirder but was released on Def Jam so was given perhaps more time than an unknown. When they dropped ‘You Gonna Get Yours’ with the crazed Terminator X Getaway Mix and ‘Rebel…’ on the B side, it was a done deal.

‘Rebel’ was an instant classic – a summer anthem – and more of the same followed. In the autumn, ‘Bring the Noise’, (from the Less Than Zero soundtrack) proved they could do it again and once ‘Nation’ dropped to unanimous acclaim, they were premiere league. By the time they came back to the UK they were either headlining or co-headlining with Run DMC who were still riding off the back of their world-smashing ‘Raising Hell’ album and easily the biggest rap group in the world apart from the Beastie Boys, who still looked like a novelty at that point. But Run DMC’s star was fading and PE – arguably – replaced them.

Winding back to November ’87, they were still the new kids but they’d put quite a show together to make a good first impression. Before we even entered the venue, the unexpected happened, Chuck and Flav appeared outside – behind a barrier and escorted by S1Ws – and chatted with fans. At first they were hesitant but there was such a clamour that they embraced it for a bit, well, Flav did as you can see below.

That’s me above on the left in the black Kangol hat, what you can’t see is the black body warmer I had on over my leather jacket with a hand-painted Public Enemy stencil logo on the back. This was back before the band even had merch for sale. Chuck was impressed. Below is the concert ticket with a message from Flav scribbled on my train ticket. In hindsight, I think they were perhaps a little overwhelmed at how the UK embraced them on that first tour (remember, ‘Yo, Bum Rush the Show’ was their current record, hence the faded intro on the opening segment on ‘Nation…’). But once the second album dropped, with its BBC recordings and copious thanks to DJs and artists from the UK alongside PE’s US peers, it seems that we made as big an impression as they did.

Public Enemy were on first – the stage was packed, there were air raid sirens and the enormous PE logo. Terminator X flanked by two gun-toting, S1Ws on pedestals either side, Professor Griff stalking in the shadows with Chuck and Flav in bright white, bounding all over the place. It was a full on, high octane experience from start to very quick end (about half an hour I think), a scrappy, stop-start show that didn’t let up, and if it did then the whistle and foghorn posse just filled in the gaps as can be heard on the recording.

Above is the ‘Terminator X!’ moment from ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ which the crowd went absolutely nuts for.
You can see actual footage of the gig on the DVD, ‘The First London Invasion 1987’.

In the middle we had Eric B & Rakim who seemed dwarfed by the huge stage with Eric B largely static, high up on his DJ pedestal and no backdrop graphic, leaving only Rakim to prowl the stage for visual entertainment. I’ve actually cropped more off these photos but wanted to show the enormity of the space they occupied. The sound was poor and Rakim called for more volume a few times.

After this slightly underwhelming middle act it was LL’s turn and at this point he was the bonafide star of the show. At the top of his golden era hip hop peak with his second album, ‘Bigger & Deffer’, out and the forumla-breaking but uneven ‘Walking With a Panther’ yet to come. His intro blew nearly everything before it to pieces. Set in a mocked up Farmer’s Boulevard street scene (his home, referenced on countless numbers of his rhymes), bookended by two DJ booths, a huge, flashing mothership of a boom box descended from the ceiling to the theme tune of ‘2001’ as his DJs, Cut Creator and Bobcat, scratched over the Original Concept’s ‘Can You Feel It’ until the ‘legend in leather’ walked onstage.

Oozing youthful arrogance, you could see why there were a LOT of women in the audience there for him, here was your first young hip hop heartthrob, only just out of his teens. He was in amazing shape too (see bottom photo) and knew exactly how to work the crowd with a choreographed set involving both DJs (Bobcat even played hype man I seem to remember). His one misstep was to do ‘I Need Love’, the soppy, skip-it-please-ballad from the second album, and he was booed mercilessly for it by a large proportion of the crowd from where I was standing, eager to get back to the high-testosterone beats and cuts. At that point, love ballads had no place in hip hop such as this but the joke’s on all of us as LL and Def Jam had seen some sort of future where RnB would slowly blend with rap so as to become one. James Todd Smith can claim to be a pioneer of that scene, for good or bad, (he didn’t do too badly out of it).

Posted in Event, Gigs, Music, Radio, Records. | 8 Comments | Tags: It Takes A Nation of Millions, Public Enemy