Items created by by design alter-ego, Openmind
Another entry in the stalled but occasional Mini CDs series (I have loads yet to feature), The Clerkenwell Kid, aka The Real Tuesday Weld, aka Stephen Coates – just released Songs For Crow. A double mini CD release with download, badge and concertina booklet that I put together at top speed with Stephen some months back. Available in two versions: a deluxe gift box with discs and ephemera…
…or an audio Xmas card edition. Order either or both, here
Here’s a look at the artwork I made for As One‘s new album, ‘Requiem’ (I think this is the third album I’ve designed for them now). As One is now Kirk Degiorgio and Catherine Siofra Prendergast and the duo have created eight new tracks for this album which you can pre-order and preview here. The vinyl comes in the usual black and coloured variants and is out on December 6th.
Here’s the new Robert Leiner album I designed for De:tuned which also happens to be their 50th release!
Up for pre-order now and released on Nov 8th on black or bottle green vinyl.
Here’s an audio preview of the whole album
You can now contact Wow And Flutter and order one of the remaining unique New Obsolescents albums via the web rather than going into the shop in person.
Contact them if you’re interested in a copy, wherever you are in the world and they can calculate postage and payment, link above or email at the bottom of the image.
As it says above – Wow and Flutter in Hastings will have the 20 unique LPs for sale that we displayed during our live instore last month. As you can see in the video at the top, each one has a hand-assembled, screenprinted sleeve on a different type of holographic card in a variety of printings (black/white ink and postive/negative image inversions). These were all test ideas for the second print run of the LP and were passed over in favour of the prism effect card we eventually used.
Castles in Space had 20 extra sleeveless copies of the LP left over from the second batch (silver and white swirl vinyl) and so we married them up for this unique final run. Wow and Flutter are the only people selling these anywhere in the world, they will be a highly affordable £25 each and it’s first come, first served plus they’ll let you pick your favourite sleeve from the bunch – a Castle’s in Space completist’s nightmare but there you go.
Here’s a quick blast of a bit of our instore performance which will possibly wind up on the next album in some form or other. Video by Tim Scullion from W&F – also if you’ve not heard the podcast Tim does with Paul Field under the name We Buy Records then check that out too.
A couple of Sundays ago The New Obsolescents played live at the excellent Wow And Flutter record shop in Hastings. Chris Weaver, Robin The Fog and myself, improvised live for several hours in-store as people watched, listened and shopped. As you will see in the video, hanging above their heads were test printed sleeves for the second pressing of our debut LP that had been passed over in favour of the prism version we eventually used. These unique items have been retained by the shop and will be sold (with the vinyl) on a first come, first served basis to those who visit over the next month before the remainder go online to those who can’t make it down to the South coast.
Here’s a little snippet of our performance put together by the shop’s own Tim Scullion as a very early taster for our second album as we will be using some of the recordings made in the shop on the next release. Thanks to everyone who came down, Colin from Castles In Space and especially Tim and Susan from Wow And Flutter for having us. This is their 10th year in business and they are planning nine more in-store events over the year so give them a follow or better yet, a visit!
We also play at the Deliaphonic all-dayer in Coventry on May 2nd at the newly re-christened Delia Derbyshire Building University alongside… well, just look at that line up! Entry is FREE via the sign up here. I will also be playing a solo Quadraphon set with PuttyRubber on the visuals to close the event. By coincidence, Delia and I share the same birthday just a few days later.
Big legacy reissue just announced – I started working on the artwork for this last summer and I’d say it *might* be even nicer than the original.
Amon Tobin‘s second LP for Ninja Tune – Permutation – gets a 25th anniversary reissue at the end of May.
We’ve gone to town on it and I can’t wait to get a copy in hand. Yes it will have the spot varnish plus a die cut front cover and reimagined inner sleeves. It’s a Ninja Tune co-release with Turntablelab who have an exclusive purple vinyl version.
Pre-order is up now for a May 31st release. I’m indebted to Graham Needham of MacStrategy who helped access Freehand Mac files from 1998 so that I could remake the sleeve from the original elements
The T-shirt I designed for De:tuned records’ 15th anniversary is still available, inc. free download of the Future Sound of London’s ‘Pulse Five’ EP (which I designed too) – only 6 left!
There is also now a CD version of the EP available separately from FSOLdigital with extra tracks!
Music:
Kosmischer Laufer – Volume 5 LP (UCR)
Soia, Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau – In C for 11 Oscillators and 53 Forms LP (unjenesaisquoi)
Cate Brooks – Tapeworks DL (Cafe Kaput)
Memorials – Music For Film: Tramps! LP (State 51 Conspiracy)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse… LP (Album of the year)
Field Lines Cartographer – Moonbuilding Sessions LP (CiS Subscription Library)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse radio station (Sonos) (most listened to)
Niholoxica – Source of Denial LP (Crammed Discs)
SareemOne – Olivine Window
Coast Contra – Breathe & Stop Freestyle/Never Freestyle/Scenario Freestyle
Move78 – Grains LP
Heiroglyphic Being – The Moon Dance LP (Apnea)
Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP 12″ (To Pikap Records)
Gordon Chapman-Fox – The Nine Travellers LP (Castles In Space Subscription Library)
Podcasts:
Oh God What Now?
Cartoonist Kayfabe
Jonny Trunk’s Patreon Show
What Goes Around
The Bunker
The Bureau of Lost Culture
Not A Diving Podcast with Scuba
Gigs / Events:
Art of Noise @Jazz Café, London
The Light Surgeons – SuperEverything launch @iklectik, London
Quadraphon debut @Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
Beyond The Streets exhibition @Saatchi gallery, London
Pop Up Subculture festival, Stroud
Holotronica, @IMAX Bristol
Sunroof / Finlay Shakespeare @iklectik, London
0282 Club, the library, Burnley
Paul Cousins @iklectik, London
The Light Surgeons – The Consensual Hallucination @iklectik, London
Memorials at the State 51 Summer Psych party @State 51, London
Queens of the Stone Age @Glastonbury
FogFest2 @iklectik, London
JG Thirlwell & Emsemble @Bush Hall, London
The Book & Record Bar 10th anniversary party, London
Machina Bristronica, Bristol
Visiting Peel Acres with Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves
Nihiloxia @the Jazz Cafe, London
NEXT Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia
Design / Packaging:
Yves Malone – A Hello To A Goodbye LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – Phuzzle (Drumetrics)
Waclaw Zimpel – Train Spotter LP (State 51)
David Boulter – Factory 3″ CD (Clay Pipe Music)
Fluctuosa – Wetware EP 12″ (Analogical Force)
Fluxus – Orbit & Shine LP (Castles In Space)
Floating Points – Birth4000 12″ (Ninja Tune)
Cate Brooks – Easel Studies LP + badge (Clay Pipe Music)
Brian Eno – Top Boy OST CD (Beatink)
Artists:
Kallamity
Soda
Nick Taylor (Spectral Studio)
Louise Mason
Francis Castle (Clay Pipe)
Tradd Moore
KO_Computer
Kishi Omori
Autone1
Mike Mignola
Geometric Love
Anna Readman
Zoe Thorogood
Colin & Maria @ Time Released Sound
Books / Magazines / Comics:
Medical Grade Music – Steve Davis & Kavis Torabi (White Rabbit)
Doctor Strange – Fall Sunrise – Tradd & Heather Moore (Marvel)
Tales To Enlighten – The New Testament – Matt King and James Edward Clark
Beyond The Streets exhibition book
Pop – Milton Glaser (Phaidon)
Kevin O’Neill Apex Edition (2000AD)
Mark Stafford – Salmonella Smorgasbord (Soaring Penguin Press)
Savage Impressions – Bruce Lichen (Independent Project Records)
Hexagon Bridge – Richard Blake (Image)
Monica – Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
Acid Valley – Luke Insect
Petrol Head – Rob Williams & Pye Parr (Image)
Lawless – Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade (Rebellion)
Giant Robot Hellboy – Mignola/Fegredo (Dark Horse)
Facelss & The Family – Matt Lesniewski (Oni Press)
Film:
Barbie
Squaring The Circle : The Story of Hipgnosis
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed a retro jungle cover for District 1727 release Rinse Out The Raw Steel
Opened for The Art of Noise two nights running at the Jazz Cafe
Designed The Home Current & Peter Wix and UNE CDs for Spun Out Of Control
Performed at Candlemas with Julian Hand, Heena Song, Paul Naudin and Whyte Light Visuals
Started working with visual artist PuttyRubber with my Quadraphon turntable at live gigs
Designed the Stasis 12″‘Quondam Sequences’ for De:tuned
Edited a short video for Holotronica after their Bristol event (not sure this ever got broadcast/finished actually)
Restarted my Infinite Illectrik label with 7 monthly releases from May
Mixed two new volumes of The Funky Eno with selections provided by Nohbodhi
Gave talks about Wheels of Light in Stroud and Brighton
Collaborated with Graham Dunning live with visuals by PuttyRubber and Chromatech for FogFest2
Appeared on the 45 Live and What Goes Around podcasts
Wrote the theme for the new Why? podcast
Remade and remixed Amon Tobin’s Permutation LP artwork for the 25th reissue
Continued the weekly Mixcloud Select series of archive mix uploads
Designed and illustrated Wonders of the Undersea World LP for Trunk Records including a sheet of stickers to make your own cover design.
Designed zoetropes for T Rex, Donna Summer, Dr Who, Lily Allen and Steps(!)
Designed the Pulse Five EP, poster and postcards for FSOL, working with Jonas Ranson again on the screenprint
Designed the De:tuned 15 logo and T-shirt for the label’s fifteenth year in 2024
Designed the Clerkenwell Kid Junkyard Melodies album + ephemera and 3″ Xmas Winter Warmers companion CD for Stephen Coates/The Real Tuesday Weld
Designed the A’bear album sleeve for Castles In Space
Contributed vintage graffiti photos to the second Old So Kool book about the UK graf scene in the 80s
Ongoing research into at least three other book projects…
RIP:
Alan Rankin, Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Burt Bacharach, Raquel Welch, Alain Goraguer, Lee Purkis aka In Sync, Paul O’Grady, Al Jaffee, Jah Shaka, Mary Quant, Mark Stewart, Frank Kozik, Andy Rourke, Peter Jones (Colourscape designer), Martin Amis, Kenneth Anger, Tina Turner, Astrud Gilberto, John Romita Snr, Glenda Jackson, Jane Birkin, Paul Rubens, Jamie Reid, Michael Parkinson, David McCallum, Mark the 45 King, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ian Gibson,
Looking forward to:
Candlemas II
Gary Hustwit’s Eno film
The Time Released Sound Book – A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging
Furiosa – A Mad Max Saga
The Hoppy documentary
Richard Norris’ autobiography, Strange Things Are Happening
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s ‘Sensuous Laboratories’ book
The The’s new tour
Doug Shipton’s new Fundamental Frequencies label
More collaborations
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#21. The Clerkenwell Kid – Junkshop Melodies CD
A solo album from The Clerkenwell finally, another Stephen Coates alias and a final design credit for 2023 for me. Housed in a printed tin, with CD, colour insert, TRTW badge, Clerkenwell Kid card and what is that array of mini cards fanned out at the bottom? Not actually out until January but keep an eye on The Real Tuesday Weld Bandcamp page in the new year.
https://therealtuesdayweld.bandcamp.com/
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.
#6. The Real Tuesday Weld – Winter Warmers 3” CD
As is the custom, each December brings a 3” CD release from Stephen Coates aka The Real Tuesday Weld. This is a companion to the soon-to-be-released Camberwell Kid album and the fifth Xmas CD I’ve designed for him.
https://therealtuesdayweld.bandcamp.com/album/winter-warmers
https://therealtuesdayweld.bandcamp.com/
I want to start a post to document photos of the Jezz Woodroffe covers I see that have been decorated with the sticker sheet provided inside. This fantastic electronic synth soundtrack is available now on Trunk Reords and only the first pressing will have the stickers so if you want a copy get it here before they’re gone.
The above cover is by Johnny Cuba (he promises to do the back soon) and the couple below are by Jason Applin.
SusansLegPolicy goes for the minimal details below and we finish off with animated Jonny Trunk‘s film…
This just in from Davidboyt84… nice use of fish wrapping round to the back cover there
Simon Bowker Heighes has gone a step further and saved sharks for the labels as well as having divers explore the Jezz Woodroffe logo and some nice fish pairing up on the back cover.
This just in from Jolyon Green
Out today – ii15 – Locked Loop Group – Phonomontages #15.1-4 – a mini album of four techno-centric Quadraphon turntable workouts on the heavier side of things. Of course it’s also Bandcamp Friday today which is when 100% of the revenue for all releases bought goes to the artists and labels on the platform.
These are nearly the last of the sessions that I recorded earlier this year in preparation for the Ramsgate Music Hall gig (which has just celebrated 10 years as a venue!). I’m hoping to get one more release out by the end of the year and there are some other pieces I’m saving for a label compilation that may come in cassette form in the new year which will tie up this phase of my label, Infinite Illectrik. There are a few more pieces floating around though; one will be coming out on a compilation early next year, another two will be part of a physical release on a new label at some point in 2024 too, more on that when I’ve finished the design. The Quadraphon is getting a companion soon which may change the whole set up and I also want to work on the hole in the catalogue, ii03, which still isn’t underway and is a very different beast.
Also just out: part 2 of James In Real Life‘s ‘Duplokit’ build series
His Duplokit Infinite Illectrik release: https://duplokit.bandcamp.com/album/phonocollage-131-132
Support him on Patreon for more videos and exclusive audio: www.patreon.com/JamesInRealLife
Dropping soon: video footage of Graham Dunning and I at Iklectik earlier this year for Fog Fest.
You may have heard the news but it seems the venue’s numbered days may be even shorter than anticipated. The whole of the Waterloo Paradise complex that houses the venue and several other businesses and art studios now faces eviction before Xmas when they were previously told there would be none until the proposed development deal was finalised and demolition due to begin. Due to their campaign to fight the site being levelled to make way for office buildings they now believe that the eviction notice has been accelerated to remove any resistence from the land despite demolition proceedings being way off into the future. Please read their latest statement here and help spread the word.
Graham and I play at the NEXT Festival on modified turntables on Nov 29th in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Design work has been relentless since September (I’m not complaining) with multiple zoetropes in the works, an album for The Real Tuesday Weld under a new alias, work for De:tuned that should be announced in December and work for Castles In Space. This is alongside writing assignments for the second Dust & Grooves book, my weekly Mixcloud Select uploads and research for another book.
This Sunday sees a Delights special radio show for Out Of The Wood at the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood alongside Paul Osbourne (Project Gemini) and Hannah Brown with special guest Markey Funk beaming in live from Jerusalem. Sadly because of the war in Israel he won’t be able to make it to the UK for a long projected trip and several gigs but this is as near as we can get, huge thanks to Pete Williams for sorting the technicals out. The show is an all 45 set from the four of us and you can listen back to all four sets here
This one’s been in the pipeline a while now but finally its time has come. Jonny Trunk asked me to repackage the cover to Jezz Woodroffe‘s 1981 album, ‘Wonders of the Underwater World’ over a year ago now but to turn it into a seascape that stickers could be used on to make your own scenario in the style of those old rub down tranfer books from the 70s. He looked for the old Letraset style transfer-makers but to no avail so we plumped for a transparent sticker sheet holding all manner of fish, divers and a SP-350 Denise mini sub as featured in the Jacques Cousteau documentaries.
Elements of the seabed were generated using AI (well over a year ago now) and then collaged together for the cover and labels. We chose to keep the original typography as it’s so of its time and the insert with the album notes apes the wavey countours of the original back cover. The album is a synth-heavy soundtrack to a documentary about the Truk Lagoon, an infamous battleground which is now home to numerous sunken military vehicles; planes, tanks and boats which are slowly rotting on the sea bed.
You can order it right here and now
KLF and Justified Ancients of Mu Mu watchers will have been excited by the news a few weeks back that not only had Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty delivered their entire recorded output to the British Library, warts and all, for the public to trawl through at will but they also announced a DVD of most of their film and video work which will be released in November. This is exciting enough but I was tickled to see the cover of the DVD featuring their classic ‘T Speaker’ on fire at night which bore more than a passing resemblance to a couple of the fake KLF posters I made back in 2003 to accompany Mr Trick‘s and my mix, ‘The Sound of Mu(sic)’. I messaged Jimmy and he confirmed that it was the inspiration which is mighty fine by me :). With the transferral of the KLF Re-enactment Society to the hands of fans (an online repository for any KLF-related homages or fan made artifacts) could this be the first case of a re-re-enactment instigated by the band I was spoofing?
This month’s Infinite Illectrik release is two polyrhythmic percussion phonomontages by The Infinity Curve, one of several aliases for my Quadraphon turntable experiments. Recorded earlier this year and utilising an array of locked grooves from the drummer Julian Sartorius’ locked groove record, these are some of my favourite recordings so far and point in a direction I’d like to continue in.
New artwork I created for the latest 4 track 12″ from Humanoid – out this Friday June 2nd on De:tuned records on black or red marbled vinyl and DL. A great slice of acid with a reworking of an old 808 State classic thrown in too.
Always a pleasure to work for this label and to get to design for artists and releases of this calibre is a dream. Just wrapping up another 12″ design for later in the year today.
Order here: https://detunedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-acid-sound
On May 1st 2020, in the midst of the first lockdown, I quietly started my online label, Infinite Iklectik. Like most people at the time, I was housebound and in the midst of a mass of creative activity now that all the hours of the day were mine. I was also about to turn 50 and thought it would be good to have my own label online by the time I turned half a century. The reason for creating a label of my own? I’d built the first version of the four-armed Quadraphon turntable the summer before and been recording all sorts of material on it to test it out.
Created through simultaneously playing vinyl records with multiple locked grooves (infinitely looping single grooves) with four needles and then patching the individual channels through an FX pedal to build and alter rhythmic tracks, there was hours of audio to go through. Having time on my hands I’d slowly been editing down the jams to their highlights, careful to keep track of which records I’d used for each one. Now was the time to give them a home and Bandcamp was the most obvious place to easily host files that I had no intention of releasing in a physical format but wanted to see the light. Being that this material is very different to the music I release as DJ Food – and also the fact that I’m signed to Ninja Tune under that name – I elected to create a series of pseudonyms with a nod to the turntable more than anything to play the part of the various groups that would be signed to my label. It’s fun to play label manager, artist, designer, A&R and PR agent all on your own, I could do anything I liked without having to refer to others to sign anything off, guess I am a control freak sometimes.
I uploaded seven releases on May 1st and a further Four Tet remix a month later and then nothing… Other work got in the way (not least three albums under the DJ Food, Celestial Mechanic and The New Obsolecents monikers) plus artwork duties and further improvements to the Quadraphon which would take another two years to complete. With a gig earlier this year at the Ramsgate Music Hall I started rehearsing and recording in earnest, again amassing a huge array of material, you can record albums worth in a matter of days with this thing. Anyway, to cut a long story short, three years on from the initial label debut I’ve readied a batch of releases which will be released monthly, the first being this Friday, May 5th, which is coincidentally my birthday.
Forthcoming releases:
The keen-eyed will notice a new name on the list; jamesinreallife is from New Zealand and has unknowingly been working along the same lines as me with his own device for years too. I hadn’t intended to release anything but my own music on II but when he sent me some of his first recordings it was too good to ignore. More about him in time, his release is a way off yet and there’s much to discuss there. Anyway, here’s a short clip of the Ramsgate gig where I’m remixing the locked groove side of Four Tet’s ‘Sixteen Oceans’ LP live. I’ve been posting more clips on my Instagram and YouTube channels too.
The Cinematic Orchestra are reissuing Man With A Movie Camera, their third album, in a 20th anniversary re-pressing this autumn along with a run of dates in Europe. The album will be issued in a foiled, embossed AND debossed tip-on cover with new sleeve notes and ashen and pewter grey vinyl. Below is a mock up of what it should look like (not made by me but my original artwork will be largely unchanged I’m told). More details here
Also this Friday a new Ninja Tune presents Solid Steel page will arrive on Apple Music with a collection of mixes selected from the now defunct radio show by the label. One of mine will be included I’m told and this has come about because of recent changes whereby mixes are now able to be monetised on the platform whereby each artist played is accounted to so that mix sessions like this and the CD series will be able to be made available for streaming.
In non-Ninja business I have a release going up on May 5th on my own Infinite Illectrik label too via Bandcamp, this will kick off a string of monthly releases of my Quadraphon turntable experiments which will lead up to the end of the year. See a full post about that tomorrow.