More Jack Davis art from my collection, a beautiful Electric Company album including gatefold, code wheel (or crypto spectometer) and comic with Davis art alongside Joe Kubert and more. Also below are some soundtracks, Salt & Pepper, The Russians Are Coming and The Sound of Sight.
Sonic Cathedral will be releasing a very special glow in the dark vinyl 12″ of Kraftwerk covers especially for the Independent Label Market, which takes place at Old Spitalfields Market in London on Saturday, July 23. It comes with a DL card and a badge of the centre label – top of my wants list! Check out this new version of ‘Neonlicht’ by Remover (a new band that is essentially three fifths of Hookworms)
The ‘Kraftwerk? Ja Bitte!’ EP includes the two songs from the long-sold-out 7” they released back in 2013 – Disappears doing ‘Trans Europa Express’ and Cloudland Canyon covering ‘Radioaktivität’ – alongside a raucous reboot of ‘The Robots’ by Californian space-rockers White Manna, which was actually recorded live in soundcheck at Ramsgate Music Hall in September 2014.
Last night I played at the launch party for Funki Porcini‘s new album, ‘Conservative Apocalypse’, at the BFI (never a more apt title that in the last two weeks). He showed his rescore to the Russian film, ‘Chemi Bebia’ which was crazed and dark and hilarious in equal measure. You can now see the new short that goes with the album of the same name via the magic of YouTube too…
Lots of old faces came out for the night, it was like a small reunion of people from the last 20 years, back when Ninja Tune was in Clink Street, London Bridge. Graeme Ross took this photo of me with a strategically placed BFI notice.
You can now buy Funki’s new album as a rather nifty box set and he has a new website too
Today, 2 hrs before The Orb‘s Alex Paterson starts his new Cake Lab residency at the Book and Record Bar in W. Norwood, I’ll be on the Out of the Wood Show hosted by WNBC.LONDON https://m.facebook.com/outofthewoodradioshow/ after which….
“From 2pm a new Sunday ambient club called Cake Lab launches. Dr. Alex Paterson and George Holt take you back to the good old days of the Ambient Club Room, circa 1987 with a free Sunday afternoon club… Expect an eclectic mix of Electronica, Dub, World, Jazz, Dance and every genre in between… and there will be cake.. and coffee and tea, and beer and cider and wine and spirits….”
The Cake Lab set up Alex & George brought along was amazing; delicious cakes, crazy decor, T-shirts and most of all, great music. Pete W, Hannah Brown and I were playing on the Out Of The Wood show beforehand. Photos by Pete and Hannah from across the afternoon. In fact the whole of FEAST in West Norwood is really worth checking out, food, drink, retro goods, craft stalls, sound systems and live bands, first weekend of every month.
All week Wordplay Magazine have been hosting a takeover by Soundsci who take you through the various elements of how they work as an international crew. Short films and interviews form the basis of the daily pieces leading up to the release of their new album, ‘Walk The Earth’ on Monday.
Part 1: Digging With Oxygen
Part 2: No Sleep Nigel interview – fascinating article with the legendary mixer
Part 3: Connecting the Dots with Audyessey
Part 4: Interview with Darrell Krum – the art of Soundsci, the World Expo label and many more.
Part 5: In the studio with Ollie Teeba and Jonny Cuba
Also out today is the second single, ‘Write On’ / ‘Changing The Gods’, on a limited 45 – available here
Part 6: Rhyming with Audessey
AND FINALLY!!! Here’s the album to buy SOUNDSCI BANDCAMP – it’s digital only for now, aside from the 45s but there’s talk of a vinyl edition although that’s a way off yet
Lo, and did the hordes descend onto Rat Records in Camberwell like a plague of locusts and the music flowed freely, from the decks to the racks and into the bags of the hungry vinyl scavengers. Sometimes it didn’t even make it into the racks, being bagsied whilst still on the turntable by eagle-eared punters inquiring, ‘what’s this playing?’. Jonny Trunk and I played whilst Lucy and Pete (behind the camera below) served and a wonderful afternoon was had by all.
Rat has a policy of restocking their shelves with new stock every Saturday and several hundred discs make their way onto the floor each and every weekend for the regulars who are at the door at the 10.30 opening time. This past weekend they had an additional box of soundtracks, library and weird music to add to that, the difference being that no one knew what any of it was until Jonny or I played it so the music stood or fell on its own merits. A collection they’d got in recently was put aside specially for this purpose and most of what was played in the two and half hour set you can hear below was sold. I even added a clutch from my own collection to the box.
As the box emptied and more friends arrived at the shop it was decided that a drink was needed and the nearby Stormbird bar was chosen, partly because it’s the only place in London you can get a bottle of Pastelism, a beer brewed by Domino Records band, The Pastels. Much was consumed and many words were spoken of the crate-digging, vinyl-hunting nature alongside Tom Central (Keep Up!), PC (DJ Food), Graeme (Frenchbloke & Son) Ross, Zoe Lucky Cat Baxter and more. Robin the Fog and Hannah Brown from Resonance FM were also on hand to conduct an impromptu recording for their Near Mint show and the results can be heard below. The results of the alcohol consumption can also be heard as the show progresses too! It was great to see so many friends and play in my local record shop among like-minded punters and there are plans to do a rematch at Audio Gold in Crouch End soon. If any other record stores want to host this kind of event in the future then get in touch…
Beautiful typography on one of Adam James Seth-Ward‘s purchases.
I’m totally in love with this Danish label, run by two guys, Jakob Skott and Jonas Munk, El Paraiso Records.
If you want modern psychedelic rock then try Monarch, Causa Sui, Mythic Sunship, Papir or Landing, for percussion-heavy jazz with electronic krautrock overtones try Jakob Skott, for guitar-led workouts try Nicklas Sorenson and for cosmic synth minimalism then Jonas Munk is your man
Just a quick reminder; Jonny Trunk and I, this Saturday, Rat Records, Camberwell, London, SE5, 1.30 onwards…. FREE!
My latest Freaky Formats piece for The Vinyl Factory just went up – this time it’s about holograms on both records and their sleeves, I even sneaked a CD in. 
Several boxes were ticked last Monday night when I was invited to Abbey Road Studios in North London to feature on a panel to talk about Star Wars and its influence on music over the last near 40 years. It was part of the launch of a new vinyl edition of the soundtrack to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, complete with holographic Tie Fighters and Millennium Falcons etched into the surface of the two discs by Tristan Duke.
Journalist Andrew Harrison (Your Empire Needs You T-shirt) chaired a small panel of myself, Tristan Duke (peeking over my shoulder) – the man responsible for the holograms, and Alex Milas (centre back, editor of Metal Hammer magazine and life-long SW fan). After plenty of nerdy fan banter two First Order Storm Troopers strode in to deliver the LP to Tristan who then played it as it was projected onto the screen above. Food was served, vinyl was cooed over, photos were taken with Storm Troopers and much was discussed of a fanboy nature.
A few days later I took on trying to capture the holograms from my vinyl copy at home. This was easily achieved with just direct sunlight or you can use a torch or lamp in dark conditions. This is what the hologram looks like in normal light (above) and this is what it looks like when having direct light pointed at it (below)
The LP sleeve is printed on thick mirror board card which makes the star field sparkle when light hits it and the cover logo is embossed. It’s a beautiful package that Disney/Universal have really gone the extra length to get looking and feeling special. There’s also a 16 page 12″-sized booklet with a forward by JJ Abrams and stills from the film.
It’s released worldwide on Friday, June 17th.
On the panel I remarked on how the new release is so like the original OST in layout – minimal and tasteful. That made be want to dig out my 1977 copy, check the poster and gatefold. I’d forgotten how big the poster was!
How many Millennium Falcons? Early John Berkey concept painting when the Falcon was a rebel fighter – there’s a fascinating glimpse at more Star Wars Berkey prelim paintings on his site
Two dates for your diaries: June 25th I’ll be DJing with Jonny Trunk at Camberwell’s finest used record emporium, Rat Records. They recently bought in a really good selection of soundtrack, electronic, library and weird records which we’ll be playing selections from before adding them to the racks for punters to buy. Let US try, before YOU buy.
But before that – this Saturday to be precise – I’ll be sitting in for Jonny on his OST radio show on Resonance 104.4 FM from 4.30-6.40pm. There’ll be a theme to the show and I’ll have special guest Jonny Cuba from Soundsci talking about library digs and soundtrack finds. Listen here this weekend
The front and back covers of two amazing religious spoken word records – love the double entendre.
Below: Four Music De Wolfe 10″ library records, the ‘Electroshake’ is particularly good, there’s a vol.2 as well…
45 finds – the Public Enemy includes the instrumental on the flip
A fun little flexi disc from Fermaley Flame – nice electronics at the beginning and end
Lastly – a beautiful Robert Crumb sleeve from 1974
I’ve always been fascinated by this cover art, the artist is simply listed as ‘Corrigan’. On the back of the Castor LP it has a passage about the cover, possibly written by Corrigan (?):
“The illustration depicts Jimmy Castor in a double role: as a Gemini and Cancer personality. Gemini’s aspects are described as egocentric, intellectual and airy. Castor’s egocentric aspect is affirmed by his unconcealed face; his intellect is symbolized by the tube running from a fitting on his temple to a fitting in the musical tree. His mind drives his music. A second tube runs on to a small cluster of clouds hovering near Castor’s head, symbolizing his airy and mutable nature. Castor’s Cancer aspects are symbolized on the right by the slum tenement which rises out of wasteland. Castor is directly above a large opening in a wall containing his heart; this serves to stress Cancer’s intuitive qualities. Castor’s face is partially concealed to correspond to the introverted nature of Cancer personalities. The tube which runs from his heart is attached to an armored egg; spilling out of the egg are three elements associated with Cancer: the moon, water and food. The prehistoric, “Troglodyte”-like figures are the end products of the intellectual, emotional and astrological input of Castor from above.”
After a bit of help from fellow facebook-ers, it seems the man responsible was Dennis Corrigan, a surrealist American illustrator who only has one other record sleeve listed on Discogs (The New York Rock & Rock Ensemble, front and back covers below).
Still with us and now teaching at Marywood University in Pennsylvania, he has work in various art institute collections and illustrated for the likes of The New York Times, Random House, Pan American Airways and more. He’s had several books of his work published, ‘The Amusement Park’ from 1982 and ‘True Love Knows No Boundaries’ from just last year. You can find more about his weird world at his website, Dennis Corrigan Artist.
Ted Coconis – love this cover art, he didn’t do many record covers but the ones he did are beautiful.
I did some pack shots of the new Belbury Poly LP for Jim Jupp at Ghost Box. The multi-coloured cover art and Rainbow-esque inner sleeve does the music justice; a seemingly random collection of tunes emanating from approximately 1974. Autobahn-era Kraftwerk meets Glitter Band glam stomp meets folk-tinged vocals and sunshine Sesame Street ‘ba-ba-bum’ singalong harmonies. New Ways Out is a perfect title for this release in many ways, it’s his most curious and varied work to date and – much the same as The Soundcarriers and Hintermass releases – pushes out of the usual territory you’d expect from the label. Be prepared to be taken in new directions on 10 track vinyl and 11 track CD, up for pre-order on the Ghost Box shop now.
Also coming soon is Other Voices 08 featuring two tracks from Beautify Junkyards on June 10th…
Bit late on posting these as it’s been on for a few weeks but I thought I’d let RSD die down a bit and there’s still time to view the Secret 7″ entries before buying day. As every year, I went along to see what was being cooked up on the custom 45 front. This year they reside in the Sonos building in Shoreditch and the sleeves are displayed until May 1st. On May 2nd they are all up for grabs at £50 each which, this year, goes to Amnesty International UK. There are 700 this year and, if you go, make sure you check upstairs as I nearly missed that half.
Psychedelic stoner rock from Dead Sea Apes with a gorgeous cover by Luke Insect on Sunrise Ocean Bender and Cardinal Fuzz. More info, sound and buy options here
Zyprazol 7″ animation picture disc by Sculpture from Sculpture on Vimeo.
As usual with Sculpture, they just knock things out the park again with this new single/video. More ideas in one second of music and video that most songs in the top 40. Pre-order here.
Czech this out (sorry, couldn’t resist) via Jonny Trunk’s fabulous weekly newsletter comes a trailer for a remastered mix of live action and animated collage from 1958 (!) Think Jules Verne meets Terry Gilliam.
The launch party for Jonny’s new book, ‘The Music Library’, last night was excellent with a bit of celeb-spotting going down (Jarvis, Matt Berry) and a storming reggae cover version set from Jerry Dammers. The book is an expansion of the original version he released 10 years ago, this time with twice as many covers and a nifty, if pricey, slipcased edition with a 10″ record. There is of course a reasonably priced version without either of those two as well, get them both here.
