Absolutely love this, both sound and vision. The Soundcarriers are a new signing to Ghost Box although they’ve released several albums before, some featuring the songs here but in different forms.
You can order the LP here and marvel at yet another Julian House created video for the track ‘Boiling Point’ above. More info here and more soundclips here too, sounds like they’re moving towards a pure 60’s/70’s West Coast Sunshine Pop mood, reminds me of The Free Design or The Hellers‘ records on Command with a bit more edge. Previous LPs ‘Harmonium’, ‘Celeste’ and ‘The Other World Of…’ are highly recommended. Check ‘This is Normal’ from their last LP, featuring the dulcet tones on none other than Elijah Wood!
Records
I was pretty excited when Matt Johnson got in touch to ask about the possibility of licensing my version of ‘GIANT’ for a The The vs DJ Food double A side 12″ on Record Store Day. Not only because my version would be paired with his original on vinyl (the only track from the album not to make it to vinyl in last years repress of the original EPs as his vocal didn’t make the deadline when those were pressed) but because he wanted me to design one side of the sleeve too.
The brief was simple, the front was his brother, Andy ‘Dog’ Johnson‘s shouting face image from the cover of the American issue of the ‘Soul Mining’ LP and I was to do my interpretation for the reverse. OK, so a shouting face, fairly obviously Matt’s, to compliment Andy’s vision, how best to go about this? I didn’t want to ape his style as that would be pointless but there had to be some visual connection so I decide to use the same colour palette.
I’d remembered an image of Matt shouting/singing from the Infected video that was featured in the The The songbook as a still, taken straight from the TV by the looks of it and so scanned that as the basis of my version. The head was facing the opposite direction from Andy’s so this was a good start and I took the idea of the arrows he would add to some of his images and redrew the face, now made from a warren of intertwined arrows. This was supposed to represent the confusion in the character but also served to create a dynamic image with movement without copying the blizzard of detail that gives Andy’s art such a visual buzz.
After inking the pencil tracing I scanned it and cleaned up edges to get a clear B&W version before adding a limited colour palette that would mimic the lighting of the original photo. The background I’d decided would be black rather than white to counterbalance the other side and I added some distorted TV feedback I’d taken years before to reference the texture of the original photo. It was looking a little clean for my taste so a layer of grain was added across the face just to give it some ‘glue’ to pull the flat face together with the background and a tiny amount of spin blurring to the black outlines to blend it further.
I then experimented with adding a section of the Robosunburst from the background of the ‘Search Engine’ LP cover to reference that release but, while it added an extra level of dynamism to the image. I felt it was too busy although I did submit a couple of versions to Matt for a second opinion and my feeling was Matt’s too and he went with the simpler image.
I also felt that my colour choice was a bit on the dark side so a re-balancing of the browns for redder tones evened things out and bought it a little closer to Andy’s colourful original.
All that remained then was to add the titles and I wanted my clean DJ Food logo to reflect Fiona Skinner‘s original choppy The The logo design. For this I imported the Food one into Illustrator and used the tracing tool too create a rougher outline as it can never trace exactly, especially at small sizes.
This was then further roughed up on the edges in Photoshop and the words ‘featuring Matt Johnson’ and ‘GIANT’ were taken from the back of the ‘Soul Mining’ LP cover. Actually I think I had to cobble the ‘featuring’ together from several different words…
After this I wanted a copy of the arrow Andy had pointing toward the nose of the face to tie our designs together and form an anchor point to align the titles with.
Luckily Matt and the people at Sony loved what I had done and it was all sent off to have barcodes and other text added by Matt’s manager Cally at Antar (a fascinating character with many tales to tell if you ever run into him). The hardest thing then was the wait as this was finished back in January and I wasn’t allowed to announce anything about it until the end of March when all I wanted to do was scream about it from the rooftops. The finished copies arrived a couple of weeks before RSD and that was a day to remember I can tell you.
It’s impossible to convey how much Matt’s music has meant to me since I first heard it in college in the 80’s when a classmate taped ‘Soul Mining’ and ‘Infected’ back to back on a C90 cassette for me, instantly turning me into a fan who hunted down everything else he had recorded. To meet him for the first time, over ten years ago now, was a big enough deal but to then record and be a part of an official The The release is something I never thought would happen in a million years. As another friend of mine named Matt would say, “living the dream”…
The Dust and Grooves Limited Edition Book from Dust & Grooves on Vimeo.
LIMITED EDITION. Signed and numbered edition of 400. Includes:
* Signed and numbered copy. Edition of 400.
* Slipcase cover with blind de-boss and red foil stamping.
* Original 8.5×11 inch print, printed on matt archival photo paper.
* The Dust & Grooves photo mosaic poster.
Hard Cover, 416 pages, matt art paper.
Only available on the Dust & Grooves online store.
A designer called Harvezt on Flickr has done some reverse views of classic albums with a ‘what if?’ look at ‘the dark side of the cover’. More are at the link above, I’ve just picked my favourites.
I’m finally allowed to shout about this. A remastered, deluxe box set of The The‘s seminal debut LP, ‘Soul Mining’. A classic to many and one of my all time top 5 albums as well as the source of the track ‘GIANT’ that I covered with Matt Johnson on my LP, ‘The Search Engine’.
I posted a photo of myself with Matt back in January when we met up at Abbey Road studios to re-cut ‘GIANT’ for a double A sided 12″ due out on April 19th for Record Store Day. At the same time he was making the final tweaks to the bonus disc of remixes and B sides that accompanies the original album in this set.
Re-mastered by Matt from the original master tapes and packaged in a lavish 12” box, this vinyl only release includes an authentic reproduction of the 1983 release on 180g vinyl, plus an extra 12” gatefold vinyl of alternative versions and remixes.
The tracklist for the second disc is :
LP 2 – SOUL MINING RECOLLECTED
1. Uncertain Smile (New York 12” version)
2. Perfect (New York 12” version)
3. This Is The Day (12” version)
4. Fruit Of The Heart
5. Perfect (London 12” version)
6. I’ve Been Waitin’ For Tomorrow (All My Life) (12” mix)
For those who like their mp3’s the re-mastered audio has also then been dubbed from the new vinyl test pressings played on Matt’s original 1982 Thorens TD-147 gramophone for a new analogue to digital experience, obtainable via a download code contained within the box set. The set also includes a unique ‘news-poster’ containing extensive notes written by Matt detailing the making of the album including his decision not to include the cassette only tracks that were on the original release.
I’m very honored to have played a tiny part in this release by providing artwork from my archive of adverts from this period for the poster. But I’m even more honored to be part of the ‘GIANT2FACED12 INCH’ for Record Store Day next week, including providing the back cover art for my side of the single. This 12″ has been designed to fit inside the ‘Soul Mining’ box to add to the collection. Of course this won’t be available until April 19th (I haven’t even got a copy myself yet aside from a test pressing) but the box set is available to pre-order now and due on June 30th..
Those lovely people at Factory Road (purveyors of Solid Eggs, 45 adaptors, gallery spaces, Inkymole illustration etc) also run an occasional record label called Blunt Force Trauma.
Their latest release is in conjunction with Sage Francis, an artist they’ve enjoyed a long association with, providing artwork for several of his releases over the years. Co-released with his Strange Famous label this one consists of a mini Hip Hop supergroup, the Epic Beard Men aka Sage, B. Dolan and the UK’s very own Buddy Peace.
It’s a double A-sided 45 with an ode to black plastic on the A (“Viva La Vinyl‘) and a stomping funk party rap on the flip (‘You Can’t Win‘). As usual they’ve gone the extra mile on the packaging and artwork on this one and the 7″ comes in a 12″ fold out ‘sleeve’ with tear off double-sided art print and custom Factory Road 45 dink in the center.
You can also listen to it and buy direct from them right now, ahead of its April 14th release date HERE. Also, check Sarah (Inkymole) Coleman illustrating some of the work in these two shorts.
Taken from the Galaxial Pharmacutical: The tracklisting for The Amorphous Androgynous‘ ‘The Cartel’ 2xLP Record Store Day vinyl edition has been revealed:
1. The Chaser [Black Light Cinema Remix]
2. 000000 [Cranium Pie’s Baking Research Centre Remix]
3. City Of Regrets [Broadcast Of Variants Remix]
4. Where Does The Evil Go
5. Tunnel Vision [DJ Food Remix]
6. Billionaire
7. Bugged [Virgil Howe Remix]
8. The Watch Man
9. The Killin’ Spree
10. The Costa Rican Cartel
11. Visiting The Visitor [Seafar Remix]
12. Out About [Mikey Rowe Remix]
13. Wasp [Blood Solution] [Youth Remix]
14. Banksters
15. The Bug
16. Regrets [Re-edit]
17. Radio Break [NMESH Re-mix]
18. Wasped [Cranium Pie’s Baking Research Centre Remix]
19. The Wasp
20. Bankster Island
21. The First Billion Is The Hardest
22. Regrets And The Damage Done [Lost In Edit Re-mix]
23. The Rat
24. Opium Smiles
Very pleased to be a part of this release, being a fan of the band for so long,
can’t wait for people to hear the mix, Record Store Day is April 19th.
I saw this is coming out for Record Store Day, the soundtrack to ‘A Field In England’ re-imagined by a band called Teeth of the Sea. No idea what it sounds like but I like the cover.
Trevor Jackson has a new exhibition opening today in Paris called ‘yesterday, today, tomorrow, forever’. It focuses on microscopic photography of some of his favourite records, zooming into the grooves and then blowing the images up to a huge scale.
This project has been gestating for years now, I remember it being featured in the Japanese +81 magazine over 5 years back. He’s finally found a home for it though at 12 Mail in Paris and has produced a soundtrack made from the records he’s photographed. There is a 500 copy 12″ and poster available at the show and it runs until the middle of May.
As readers of this blog will know, I’ve been lucky enough to have records release on Record Store Day for the last two years and 2014 will be no exception. The difference will be that I’ll be involved in three different releases this year with only two of them being on vinyl.
Firstly there will some new music from me in the form of a remix I’ve done for The Amorphous Androgynous called ‘Tunnel Sequence’ from their spy-funk psychesploitation albums, ‘The Cartel’.
The two CDs are getting the remix treatment in vinyl form on April 19th in a nice reciprocal gesture as it was they who remixed me for my first RSD release back in 2012.
Secondly, more music but you might know this one. My version of The The‘s ‘GIANT’ with vocals by Matt Johnson himself is the only track from 2012’s ‘The Search Engine’ not to be released on vinyl (last year’s quadruple LP version only had the instrumental).
Now my version has been paired with the original on what’s being billed as the ‘GIANT2FACED12INCH’ – a double A-sided release via Sony. Not only do I provide music but I’ve also designed one side of the sleeve which is paired up with an original Andy Dog painting for the cover, see a preview above for the origin of the ‘2-faced’ title.
Thirdly, the non-musical release will be the Dust & Grooves book by Eilon Paz which I’m both featured in photographically and in the guise of writer/interviewer for a huge article about Four Tet‘s collecting habits. ‘Adventures In Record Collecting’ has been on-going for some years now and I got involved about 11 months ago when Eilon visited my studio for a mammoth photo session and Q&A which will see the light of day on his site at some stage.
There’s a strong Ninja Tune presence in the book with an interview with The Gaslamp Killer, photos of Ollie Teeba from The Herbaliser/Soundsci and Mr Scruff who actually makes the cover photo, (I also did an extensive interview with Scruff which didn’t make the deadline, maybe next time).
By a weird coincidence one of the photos shows me doing a sleeve face pose with the very same The The sleeve that features on the ‘GIANT’ 12″ cover, and by the same I mean, the very same. When Matt was putting together the sleeve for ‘GIANT’ he wanted to use the US version of the ‘Soul Mining’ LP sleeve but didn’t have a copy himself so I scanned my copy, the same one in the photo in Eilon’s book.
All three of these releases are a very big deal for me, being asked to contribute to releases by FSOL and The The, two of my all time favourite groups, is pretty special. Being involved in just a small part of Eilon’s book plus the on-going work we’ll be doing after it’s published is new and exciting too, I’ve seen the layouts of the book and it’s stunning.
Whilst in Utrecht the other week for a gig I noticed that there’s now a second Mega Record fair in April as well as the Autumn. Finders Keepers just posted this great poster as they will have a stall there too. I’ve been before and it’s the largest fair in Europe, absolutely huge, you need days to go round it.
I’m featuring this again because I just got the special (Record Store Day 2013) edition and it’s one of the nicest packages I’ve seen in a while. A heavyweight slipcase to house the sumptuous book of drum machine photos which really aren’t done justice on a blog here as they are gorgeous up close in richly printed colour – see more of the inside in my previous post.
But this is all about what’s with the book – namely a cassette and 7″ record housed in the front of the slipcase. The 7″ features a version of the Beasties Boys‘ ‘Paul Revere’ remade on the 808 drum machine on side A and the same beat played the original way (ie not reversed) on the flip. In a nice touch, the B side plays from the label outwards towards the edge, backwards rather than forwards. The cassette has samples on it but I can’t listen to then right now as my tape deck broke about a year back. All are done out in the black and white schematic that adorns some of the book, adding to the fitting design aesthetic of the package.
Another nice touch is the inner sleeve for the 45 which opens to reveal a painting of an 808 on one side, and in a nod to the Beasties’ ‘Licensed To Ill’ LP, shows it crunching into a mountainside on the reverse. I’ve placed the two sides together here so you can see how the full image should look as the artist has nicely matched the original style.
You can still pick this version up from Rap & Soul Mail Order in the UK for £50 and it’s worth every penny.
I’m pretty thrilled to see this book, by photographer Eilon Paz, make its way out into the world. If you’re not familiar with his Dust & Grooves site and you’re a vinyl collector then it’s a must. Not only am I featured in it as a collector (a full photo feature, interview and mix will be online some day after the book is done) but I also contributed to the text by interviewing Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet for a chapter of it. Here’s the blurb for the book:
“Eilon Paz’s 416-page coffee-table book illuminates over 130 vinyl collectors and their collections in the most intimate of environments—their record rooms. With a foreword by the RZA, compelling photographic essays are paired with in-depth interviews to illustrate what motivates record collectors to keep digging for more records.
Readers get an up close and personal look at a variety of well-known vinyl champions as well as a glimpse into the collections of known and unknown DJs, producers, record dealers, and everyday enthusiasts. The book is divided into two main parts: the first features 250 full-page photos framed by captions and select quotes, while the second consists of 12 full-length interviews that delve deeper into collectors’ personal histories and vinyl troves.”
US Street Date: Record Store Day, April 19, 2014
Worldwide Street Date: Saturday, May 10, 2014
Great sleeves and great music from the Antinote label out of Paris, France. Run by Gwen Jamois – ex of The Sycophants and now excavating old techno tapes he recorded in the 90’s as Iueke. The label is only just 2 years old and their latest release is a total beauty by Nico Motte, a synth-led future music soundtrack with a gorgeous sleeve.
There’s a whole host of new Finders Keepers material hitting their shop at the moment including this limited edition cassette mix from Andy Votel.
UGeorge has a video for his track, ‘Blowing Up’ from the new Soundsci ‘Expo 2014’ sampler 10″ up now.
The EP is released and available now HERE and features other forthcoming joints from the crew as well as an Ollie Teeba solo cut and an exclusive group track unavailable elsewhere.
Check the sampler video I edited for them last month.
This is the best slice of acid-techno I’ve heard in a long while with beats bordering on the industrial. It’s by New Yorker-in-Berlin, Doug Lee under the alias An-i and is out now on Cititrax on luminous yellow vinyl, some with large newsprint poster. In a lot of ways it reminds me of things like Stakker ‘Humanoid’ but is way more relentless and noisy.
La Boca have designed this lovely box set for the new Bombay Bicycle Club LP, ‘So Long’, which comes with a CD, a gatefold LP, an exclusive 7″, story & song book and a working Phenakistoscope (similar to a zoetrope). Find one at their site or see the beautiful fly posters of the artwork around town.
Now available – a new release by Sculpture on a 7″ picture disc with zoetropic tendancies – BUY HERE NOW – View with strobe 25 flashes per second or video camera 25fps, very high shutter speed, progressive.
Includes immediate download of 2-track album in the high-quality format of your choice (MP3, FLAC, and more), plus unlimited mobile access using the free Bandcamp listening app. It’s their best yet and the video below shows just how detailed and beautiful the disc can be when filmed spinning.
Out on Feb 14th, 2014 – 30 years after the record was banned by the BBC and still sitting at No.1 in the charts – yet another version of Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s notorious ‘Relax’.
This time it’s ‘The Sex Mix’ (Edition 3) – formerly known as ‘Sex Mix Edit’, a hitherto undiscovered mix that first surfaced on a Japanese compilation called ‘Return To The Pleasuredome’ a few years ago. The original ‘Sex Mix Edit’ (or Edition 2) is a little known 8 minute odd edit of the original 16 minute ‘Sex Mix’ that came and went (pun intended) in late ’83 before being replaced by a 7.20 minute ‘US Remix / New York Night mix’ which many consider as the definitive 12″ of ‘Relax’.
This new mix (Edition 3) had been created by Trevor Horn session man and renown percussionist Luis Jardim in December ’84 – who knows what for? It was then filed away, forgotten, later mislabeled and then extracted over 25 years later to end up on a compilation on the other side of the world. Hardcore fans from The Alternate ZTT Board soon spotted the difference and this sent the reissue curator, Ian Peel, back into the ZTT archives to search for more info and tapes that would lead to this previously unheard remix being given a proper vinyl release nearly 30 years after it was created.
Confused? This isn’t even half the ‘Relax’ mix story but I’ll save that for another time. Here, the original XLZTT artwork and Anne Yvonne Gilbert illustration have been tweaked by Element Series designer Philip Marshall to mirror the colour scheme for the 2012 Frankie rarities compilation, ‘Sex Mix’. The tracklist is: A. Relax ‘Sex Mix’ (Edition 3) B1. Ferry Cross the Mersey B2. Relax ‘The Instrumental’. You can pre-order it from Amazon here
