My third EP will be called ‘Magpies, Maps and Moons’, featuring 5 tracks with a vocal collaboration from JG Thirlwell and a musical one from 2econd Class Citizen. It will be out Oct/Nov, on 12″ and DL, not entirely sure the exact date yet, with the album to follow shortly afterwards.
…only the Eagles of Death Metal will do
Poster by Michael Hacker, ed. of 71
Excellent promo video for Pendulum‘s ‘Coffin’ by Jude and Jolyon Greenaway.
I can’t seem to embed the video here so you’ll have to click the link, they are also doing a 360 degree film presentation for Ron Arad at the Roundhouse next Wednesday.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwbR8ubfHtY&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
The ever reliable Stones Throw label have their new signing – The Stepkids – coming to the UK this week for the first time. Lots of people including Gilles Peterson and The Guardian have been raving about them and they live up to the hype. If you like Rotary Connection, Charles Stepney productions and psychedelic soul then this band is for you. They play Cargo in Shoreditch, London on Wednesday the 3rd August, tickets are £5 in advance and £8 on the door and they play around 8.30pm. They’re also playing the Big Chill Festival Friday 5th but I’m not sure the exact stage and time yet.
The song everyone is raving about is ‘La La’, available on the B-side of this gorgeous splatter vinyl 12″, but everything I’ve heard so far has been great (check the ‘Wonderfox’ video I posted earlier)
The Stepkids – La La by stonesthrow
I’ll be mixing the last selection of tracks submitted for the 64 Bar Music project early next month. Here are some previews of some of the 30 odd tracks submitted, mainly via the Ninja Tune forum. The standard is very high for the sixth installment, the brief being to write 64 bars at the tempo of 110 beats per minute in any style although the prevailing style seems to be very electronic.
64:6 promo tracks by 64barmusic
Musically it’s not my bag but the cover is great, reminds me of Trevor Jackson‘s work for Soulwax a few years back. New 12″ ‘Black Waves’ EP on Civil Music.
Funki Porcini aka James Braddell (disclosure: very good friend of mine, I’ve designed several of his record sleeves over the years) is putting out some sublime music right now through his own channels. His Bandcamp page is seeing regular updates of new tracks and there are some real gems emerging, the latest being his ‘Six Minutes In Manchester’ single, complete with 9 Lazy 9 remix. Also check out another recent track ‘The Devil Drives’ below
[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3zoRYoNw1M[/youtube]
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rAHVkEeC-4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Oh, I like that a lot, out on Stones Throw, myspace page here for more
I’m currently enjoying People Like Us’ (aka Vicki Bennett) new album ‘Welcome Abroad’, it’s a frequently hilarious mixture of cut and pastry based around her time stuck abroad due to the recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland. You can listen to the whole album on her Soundcloud page or buy it here. She also has her first solo exhibition, ‘The Doors of Perspection’, opening at the end of July in London at the Vitrine Gallery, previewing new films she has made by extending panning shots from existing films into widescreen format (if i’ve understood the press release correctly).
Also a few months back I received a lovely box set from the Edinburgh Printmakers‘ ‘Prints of Darkness’ exhibition, which includes a gatefold sleeve housing a poster and 12″ picture disc by Vicki entitled ‘This Is Light Music’. This 10 track mini album heavily cross references some of the music on ‘Welcome Abroad’ too and can still be bought here although it is limited to 250 copies.
PS: I actually think this is even more wonderful than ‘Welcome Abroad’, I’ll never be able to hear certain well known classics the same way again.
in production now, not the 3rd EP, not the album, more info soon…
Another killer album from Ghost Box regular The Advisory Circle, if you like mid-70’s Kraftwerk, melancholic Radiophonica and that undefinable Britishness of yesteryear then this is for you. Definitely in the albums of the year list.
Continuing the theme of paintings on walls: New 3 track EP by Martyn out on Brainfeeder August 1st. Love the cover and the London’s Arches edit of ‘Viper’ is exceptional.
Spent the day at Soundmasters in Latima Road, West London, cutting my third EP before the album gets compiled. Kevin Metcalfe was again in control and Aaron Thomason aka 2econd Class Citizen came down to oversee the track we had collaborated on. It all went well until the Analogue to Digitial converters started playing up, causing a drop out as we were cutting the actual disc. I had to leave before the end but I’m assured it won’t be on the final cut. Here’s a few shots of the mastering room, the kit and cutting the disc.
This is the third of three EPs which will form the DJ Food album proper, this one totals about 27 minutes over 5 tracks. That means I have nearly 90 minutes of music to choose from for the album, some tracks from the EPs won’t make it, four from the previous two EPs have been reworked or remixed so will be in different states when it’s all finished. I’m mastering these four next week and then compiling a running order for the CD which will be all mixed, with the downloads as separate tracks.
Looks amazing, more info here
It’s been a productive week for music, I finally finished the 3rd EP in the trilogy that will make up my album. Plus the cover version of The The’s GIANT featuring Matt Johnson on vocals that I’ve literally been working on for years. The keen-eyed among you will also have spotted that Matt’s friend and sometime musical collaborator, JG Thirlwell appears on one track too.
I have one more track that I’m reworking from a previous EP to finish for the album and then I have to sequence it all for the CD version and do artwork. Also next week I am remixing Loka for the first single from their second LP, due out this autumn on Ninja Tune. 2econd Class Citizen, whom I collaborated on this EP on one track, has also turned in a remix for this which is a nice touch.
I’ve been waiting for this issue to crop up on Brian McClosekey‘s excellent ‘Like Punk Never Happened’ blog – the 1981 issue with Adam Ant on the cover – one that I strongly remember, being mad about anything with an Ant attachment at the time. Brian posts complete issues of Smash Hits, every two weeks, 30 years to the day they were first published and he’ll continue until his collection stops. The pages are viewable via Flickr and are slowly forming an excellent time capsule of late 70’s and 80’s pop, in context, as it happened. I was eleven when this was published and 1981 was Adam Ant’s year, he was everywhere, from the pop charts to TV to the daily newspapers. He looked and sounded great, gave good copy and they couldn’t get enough of him.
Another page in this issue caught my eye later on though, a half page advert for five Kraftwerk albums. They had a freak number one in the UK with ‘The Model’ in February 1982 – a traditional post-Xmas quiet spot for record releases. It seems Phonogram were eagerly flooding the market with reissues of their back catalogue at this point though because they’d just released the Computer World album. When I first saw the ad (obviously, re-reading the mag later) I thought, “What? how can they have five albums?”, little knowing that there were another four at least to add to this list. Unfortunately none of these made it to my local record shop but I did manage to get copies of ‘Computer World’, ‘The Man Machine’ and ‘Trans Europe Express’ – all on cassette – the latter of which I took back to the shop, complaining to them that the tape only had one track on side 2 when it listed four. Again, little did I realise all four tracks segued into one so there weren’t any breaks in between (!) I love the way they’ve spelt picture with a ‘k’ in the text and my god do I wish I’d been old enough to see them on that tour.
I don’t know how he does it but here’s another one from Jon Brooks on Café Kaput. “Every sound on this record, from the melodic sounds to the percussion, the atmospheric effects to the bass lines originates from the Braun AB-30 alarm clock.”
Listen and buy here
Martin Rushent, the man behind The Human League‘s incredible ‘Love and Dancing’ remix album from 1982, has passed away.
Rushent described working on Love and Dancing during an interview in 2007:
“The dub mixes started because we didn’t have time to do ‘B’ sides, We’d send Virgin Records a track and they’d want to rush-release it. I’d been listening to Grandmaster Flash and played it to Phil (Oakey). He liked it so I suggested doing a remix of “Love Action” by chopping it up and adding effects, then we could get Virgin off our backs!
When it was all finished I had four or five remixes. Phil wasn’t sure about releasing them on an album and left me to make Love and Dancing on my own. It was mixed on a board, so I had the multitrack of Dare feeding in, a Harmonizer on send one, delay lines and phasers everywhere and I’d flick it about. I’d do a section and if I liked it I’d make a tape cut and splice it in. There were thousands of edits on the master and it took forever to do.”
This album was a major inspiration when I was young and continues to be today. Synth pop twisted and remixed before the genre really existed and any rules were set in stone. This predated the Art of Noise and Trevor Horn‘s remix frenzies and, I’m fairly certain, could probably lay claim to being the first remix album. Certainly one by a chart-topping band at any rate.
I’ve recently completed a track with long-time musical hero JG Thirlwell, aka Foetus, Manorexia, Steroid Maximus and many more, for my new record due out in Sept. To say it was an honor is an understatement as well a dream fulfilled. Since first being given a cassette of seminal album’s ‘Hole’ and ‘Nail’ in the 80’s I’ve been hooked on his music and always checked for new releases. He’s been on the list of collaborators I’ve wanted for this new record for years and, to add the icing on the cake, I’m pleased beyond words with the resulting track – ‘Prey’. It will kick off my third EP this autumn, before the album compiles the trilogy shortly after.
If you’re not familiar with his work, the Quietus have just published this piece by my good friend Mark Emsley of ireallylovemusic. It’s as good a place as any to start. I’ve also put together a visual discography of all his many guises – Foetus, Wiseblood, Steroid Maximus, Manorexia, Garage Monsters, Stinkfist, Clint Ruin, The Flesh Volcano, Baby Zizanie, Hydroze Plus and of course, JG Thirlwell. Three decades’ work and that’s just his own productions, not including remixes, collaborations and four season’s worth of scores for The Venture Brothers TV series. One of the joys of any JGT production is that the artwork is always excellent, with themes and colours recurring to form a visual identity.
If this has piqued your interest but you don’t know where to start, I suggest the 80’s albums ‘Hole’, Nail’ and ‘Thaw’. ‘Sink’ is a great catch-all compilation of a lot of the surrounding singles and compilation tracks of the era. Noughties albums ‘Flow’, ‘Damp’ and ‘Hide’ are amazing and, if vocals aren’t your thing, any Steroid Maximus album is worth a try.
