Mark De Clive-Lowe ‘Church’ album

Really enjoying this new album by Mark De Clive-Lowe, was attracted by the cover and gave it a listen on Bandcamp. He’s one of those names I’ve seen around for years and probably heard a few things but would be hard-pressed to name any of them. This album is a full on jazz epic taking in guests vocals, raps and solos but all wrapped up in modern production techniques and sampling. The overall tone reminded me of Stanley Clarke / Return To Forever or moments of Weather Report and I was taken by the opening instrumental jazz track that suddenly flipped and sampled itself, turning into a rap tune within a few bars. Hear and buy it here.

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Farmfest podcast and Bass Explorer interview

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I did a couple of interviews for the upcoming Farmfest in Someret on August 1st/2nd: one for their first podcast (above) and another Q&A for the Bass Explorer website where I added my then current top 3 favourite tunes. Farmfest is one of a growing breed of smaller festivals, very cheap tickets starting at £53 and with a pro-organic slant to the food and drink onsite. If you repost their podcast you will be entered into a draw to win a pair of tickets.

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Moose Kid Comics launches today

This is excellent – a free 36 page comic aimed at kids by 40 artists with the intent of promoting unique characters with non-brand tie ins to a new young audience. Anyone with small kids will know that there aren’t that many weekly comics out there for the under 10s that don’t tie in to some sort of franchise whether that be a computer game, a toy line, a film or TV show. The days of weekly creator-owned comics for kids are largely a thing of the past save for The Beano which struggles on and The Phoenix which has gone from strength to strength over the past two and a half years.

Jamie Smart is one of the regular contributors to The Phoenix and has put together Moose Kid Comics as a statement about what British kids comics can be with the intent to open up a debate and introduce new audiences to the medium. Read more about their intent here and download the first issue free here. I’ve not read it yet but had a quick flick through and it looks excellent with a Young Tank Girl strip written by Alan Martin and work by Mark Stafford standing out immediately. All I know is that my kids are going to freak when they see this.

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Pye Corner Audio ‘The Black Mist’ EP


Really liking this new Pye Corner Audio 12″ on Front & Follow, ‘The Black Mist EP’. The EP features an extended mix of the title track ‘Black Mist’ (the original featured on last year’s Outer Church compilation), new track ‘Bulk Erase’ and a remix of ‘Black Mist’ by fellow OC collaborators Old Apparatus. Released on August 18th as a limited edition (of 500) 12” on 180g vinyl and download, more info and order details here.

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The Quietus talks to Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson of The The doesn’t give many interviews any more but he made an exception for John Doran from the Quietus recently and the resulting piece is chock full of revealing anecdotes and information.

Only two weeks away from my own interrogation of Matt at Rough Trade for the release of the deluxe ‘Soul Mining’ reissue and I’m cursing John as he’s used a good few of my questions already :)

Nevertheless, this is a fascinating piece that reveals many aspects of Matt’s past career and present state of mind.

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DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist ‘Renegades of Rhythm’ tour

This fall DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist will embark on the ‘Renegades of Rhythm Tour’ celebrating the legacy of Hip-Hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa.

Shadow & Cut pulled from Bambaataa’s beautifully tattered 40,000 strong vinyl collection to bring you not just Soul and Rap, but also Soca, Calypso, Dub, Salsa and more.

As Bambaataa puts it himself, “DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist are going to blow your funky mind.”

US dates only at the moment but as soon as this comes to the UK, I’m there…

More info on the ROR tour at http://bit.ly/RORTour
Ticket info at http://on.fb.me/1qVjBO6

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Count Counsellor

This is an interesting use of vinyl to promote a new artist. This arrived a while back now but I’ve only just got round to putting it up here. This LP arrived in the post unannounced, no clue as to where it came from (although I have a possible lead). It’s a used album (Peters & Lee in this case) with ‘CC’ 07.04.14 screen printed over the front with another black square covering most of the back.


The record inside is unplayable due to two large paper square’s being stuck over the grooves, one blank but for a ‘cc.’ in the centre and the other with message and illustration. “Want a tune for today? Well here’s two. Take a listen, you might just smile, Count Counsellor www.viewsource.cc“



I think this is first time I’ve seen vinyl used a the carrier for a web link and it’s a clever way to get the attention in an age of digital promos. The image of the head viewed from the back suggests that the Count isn’t ready to fully reveal himself yet although I see a few music blogs have picked up one track last month. If you visit the site at the link above you will be able to hear two tracks with very little other information aside from a few ‘coming soon…’ messages. A curio for sure but an innovative attempt to engage the attention by customising a music format to carry a message rather than a sound.

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Death Waltz Record Store Day releases

Death Waltz Recording Company releases for Record Store Day 2014 (only 2 of the 4). Each album has a splattered colour vinyl disc, a huge 36″x36″ poster, a 12″x12″ card print of the poster plus sleeve notes, a housebag that’s both embossed and debossed and a paper wraparound with release details.

These retail at an average of £20 each – incredible when you see the prices of other releases only offering half that. Plus Spencer Hickman, the label owner, is a straight up dude, one of the soundest people I’ve come across in the music industry. DW details x2

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Mo Wax 21 / Urban Archaeology exhibition, London

I visited the MoWax 21 / Urban Archaeology exhibition that opened at the Southbank Centre in London, currently home to the James Lavelle-curated Meltdown season.it was stuffed with everything you could want from a visual label retrospective with memorabilia and artwork from across the label’s history and beyond into post MW UNKLE releases.

For those familiar with the label there us much here to wallow in but plenty of behind the scenes stuff too. A letter from Mike D about a planned MoWax / Grand Royal ‘Battle of the Beats’ record, working drawings and model for Futura Pointmen toys and plenty of original art that graced many a sleeve. There are toys in every kind of colourway, some still at prototype stage, flyers reaching back to the early 90’s to when MoWax was more of a Talking Loud wannabe than the trip hop and electronica powerhouse of its heyday.

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It’s free but only open until June 22nd so you only have this week to catch it before it’s gone. But if you don’t manage to make it down then there is an extensive book now available with even more info and photos. Initially funded via Kickstarter, I received a copy last week and it’s beautiful to behold, a perfect visual encapsulation of the label.

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808 State Cassettes from Artoffact Records

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These beautiful objects are soon to be available from Canadian label Artoffact Records. 808 State’s classic turn of the decade albums, ’90’ and ‘Ex:el’ have been made in 8 different colours on cassette at the very reasonable price of CAN $9.98 each.

For the completists out there they are also selling a bundle of all 8 tape colours for CAN$74.98. View all the different colours and buy here.

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Terry Lee Miall’s old kick drum cover

Seen this morning in Spitalfields Market, East London: part of Terry Lee Miall‘s bass drum from his time playing with Adam & the Ants.

The seller was apparently a neighbour of Terry’s and did a house clearance for him when he moved. I did a quick search online and it appears to be the same as the one in this picture.

I was wavering as to whether to buy it but it was absolutely knackered and quite large so I didn’t pursue a price. It was still there when I left…

Posted in Artifacts. | 2 Comments | Tags: , ,

DJ Shadow’s D.N.A.P. site

DJ Shadow has started a tumblr to showcase pieces from his collection called D.N.A.P., short for ‘Does Not Affect Play’ – a term record buyers will recognise as a description on some used discs when marks are visible on the wax. It’s a collector’s wet dream with not only records but also promo photos, badges, 8-Track tapes, flyers, customised covers and even James Brown cookies. Check it out here.

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R.I.P. Rik Mayall

So sad to hear that Rik Mayall passed away today, so many of his characters kept me and my mates laughing through school in the 80’s. Mayall and the Comic Strip were our equivalent of the Pythons with episodes replayed on video and recounted word for word in the playground the next day.

Many of his lines are still used around our house to this day (‘hands up who likes me?’ ‘answer that and stay fashionable’, ‘get down and groove, we dance all day in this house’) and characters like Rick – the People’s Poet, Colin Grigson (in Bad News) and Lord Flashheart (in Blackadder) are timeless.

Bad News Tour and More Bad News are two of my all time favourite musical comedies so I’ve dug out their records in his honour, scanned some sleeves and will be listening and watching tonight.

Posted in Event, Records. | 1 Comment |