These Serato controller discs just arrived from 12inchSkinz in the US. They are clear 12″ discs with custom-made graphic pictures on the underside and a label over the top.
They are sanctioned by Serato but only playable on one side because of the image underneath. Expensive but well worth it as they are objects of beauty.
12inchSkinz also do stickers for your laptop and mixer and I highly recommend them as I’ve got stickers for both of those as well and they’re very high quality.
Went to an event at Brian Eno‘s studio last Thursday evening and on the way I found this Pop Annual from 1974 in the local book exchange with 4 pages about the man himself. Thinking that this was an Eno-esque bit of chance and how funny it would be to show it to him 40 years after the fact, I bought it. Managed to get him to sign it whilst chatting about his comedy turn interviewing himself in the guise of Dick Flash in an old promo video. I have now officially met God and obtained his autograph.
Friday at the Dust & Grooves book launch – so many lovely people, shame I had to jet early for another gig, will make up for it later today at the Vinyl Library get together. 
Last minute post I know but I’ll be on Altar Ego Radio at 6 – 8pm tonight with a show of electronica that sounds like the past predicting the future called ‘Future Shock’. You can listen live here – I’ll even be talking.
Then tomorrow, Sunday 25th I’ll be doing another show with 2econd Class Citizen called ‘Magpie Music’ – one hour each of heavy psychedelia and the like.
The Electric Hoax Pt.21 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version
I’ll be playing from 6pm – all vinyl – alongside Ollie Teeba, Jonny Trunk, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, Dom Servini, Kid Dyno and Sheila B. It’s FREE and takes place at the Proud Archivist gallery in East London – more details here.
This is what the last post was all about, a project I’ve been working on for the last few months but feels like I’ve been working towards for over a decade. 10 years ago I actively started contacting and interviewing the people involved in the creation of the ZTT label’s artwork, starting with Paul Morley who I collaborated with on ‘Raiding the 20th Century’. Through the years after I met designers, illustrators and photographers who had all had hands in the late 80’s output of the label whilst collecting promo posters, magazine ads and in some cases original artwork and photos.
After starting my ArtofZTT site early last year and having been in contact with Ian Peel, responsible for the ongoing reissue series at the label, I was asked to collaborate with resident designer Philip Marshall on what would become the 30th anniversary of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’.
Now re-titled ‘Inside The Pleasuredome’ this deluxe box set is available to pre-order via Pledge Music and will be released on the anniversary later this year at the end of October. The set will contain:
Re-mastered and redesigned original LP,
3 x 10″s of remixes, demos and alt. takes
a hardback Art of FGTH book with sleeve art, adverts, ultra rare promo posters, LP prelims and making of interviews
a cassette of multiple ‘Relax’ remixes with new artwork inside a card slipcase
a DVD with videos plus 5.1 audio from various singles and album tracks
3 x Prints of the original Lo Cole album artwork (with uncensored back cover image)
a digital only EP of instrumentals
a Pleasuredome TV ad flick book
a Tumbometer (fans will know what this is)
6 x cards with download codes for the remastered LP, the 3 10″s, the cassette and the digital EP
I’ll be sharing photos here during the pledge period of 65 days, I’d love to post it all now but there will be a slow roll out as items are unveiled to people who pre-order . Once the order / pledge period is up no more orders will be taken and once /if the target it reached that will be the extent of the number of sets made. Of the 10 ‘elements’ contained inside the box, half of them will be exclusive including the art book and 10″ featuring ‘Slave…’ It has already made a quarter of the target less than a day after going online but there’s still a way to go. You can pre-order here but once that window is closed that will be your only chance, the box set won’t be sold in shops.
Fans of Brandon Graham and Simon Roy‘s ‘Prophet’ (which is apparently ending soon) could do worse than grab a copy of this. A collection of short sci-fi stories from the last four years or so, some new, some not. They all have that off-kilter look at a future we’ve come to recognise in the pages of Prophet where the everyday mundanities of life are seen through deadened eyes and it’s a dog eat dog world.
This Friday I’ll be doing an early (6pm) all vinyl set at the Dust & Grooves book launch at the Proud Archivist in Hackney and then racing down to join Cheeba and Moneyshot in Southampton for another round of our Paul’s Boutique deconstruction. The gig was to be in the Orange Rooms but has been moved next door to the Roxx apparently.
Fascinating feature on New York Rap from an old issue of Sounds in 1982. Check the feeling towards the Sugarhill Gang and the sense that some feel that the movement was already on the wain.
‘Children of the Sun’ is a mix about the sun and summer in general, made especially for Farmfest 2014. 50 minutes designed to relax to outside, lying on the grass in the warmth of the sun. Taking in jazz, beats, ambient, soul, funk, rock and electronica each track comments on the sun, summer or the great outdoors in some way.
This is just being premiered over on ClashMusic.com and won’t be appearing on Solid Steel, being exclusively for Farmfest where I’ll be playing on August 1st.
Tracklist:
Wolfgang Dauner – Take Off Your Shoes To Feel The Setting Sun (MPS)
The KLF – Brownsville Turnaround On The Tex-Mex Border (KLF Communications)
Koushik – Lying In the Sun (Stones Throw)
DJ Food – Sunspot (Unreleased)
Boards of Canada – A Beautiful Place Out In The Country (Warp)
Three Dog Night – Out In The Country (Dunhill)
Dr Rubberfunk – Sunset Breakdown (GPS Recordings)
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds (Ambient Mix MkI) (Big Life)
Ammoncontact – Children Of The Sun (Ninja Tune)
Belbury Poly – Summer Round (Ghost Box)
Sesame Street – Bees & Honey (Children’s Television Workshop)
July – Dandelion Seeds (Bam-Caruso)
Diplo – Summer’s Gonna Hurt You (Big Dada)
Isley Brothers – Summer Breeze (Epic)
Roberta Flack – I Can See The Sun In Late December (Atlantic)
Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange – Dreams / Land (BBC)
The Dells – Wichita Lineman (Cadet)
The KLF – Pulling Out of Ricardo And The Dusk Is Falling Fast (KLF Communications)
Go HERE to buy the album and download this and another Julian House-designed poster for free.
Friday May 23rd, Dust and Grooves along with Wah Wah 45s, Ninja Tune, MixCloud, Dewar’s + Classic Album Sundays celebrates the release of their book (released today!) at the Proud Archivist in East London.
DJ’s include: myself, Ollie Teeba, Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy, Jonny Trunk, Kid Dyno, Dom Servini, and Sheila B. They’ve just held parties in Amsterdam and Paris but now it’s our turn – more info here.
Also for those who can’t make it there will be a gathering up at the Vinyl Library in Islington on Sunday 25th from 3-9pm – info here.
Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest The Movie from Julien Lavigne on Vimeo.
Compiling fan-made/official videos and visions on “Tomorrow’s Harvest” album by Boards of Canada.
The Electric Hoax Pt.20 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version
This doesn’t look much different from the last (terrible) Transformers film except the lead actors have been replaced by identikit ones. This time we get invasions and Dinobots though, sad thing is that I will still go to see this knowing how terrible it will probably be.
Imagine an alternate version of the 80’s pop chart, not the one already there in the form of the extended 12″ remix that came to prominence in that decade, but a secret, subtly twisted one with different producers at the controls. Imagine Depeche Mode and Gary Numan remixed by a Hip Hop engineer, Tears For Fears cut to ribbons by a tape edit king, Bow Wow Wow and The Human League streamlined into a slow disco groove. Grace Jones and Heaven 17 pumped up for a House club, Japan remixed by Giorgio Morodor or Grace Jones covering Tubeway Army – no actually, those last two really happened.
My latest Solid Steel mix compiles an hour of mostly unofficial remixes, re-edits and versions of classic pop songs from the 80’s, remodeled by fans or studio engineers with access to the separate track stems. What emerges is a collection of pop classics seen through a distorted looking glass, culled from the darkest corners of Soundcloud or the hard drives of those with access to audio they shouldn’t have and time on their hands. See below for track listing and more info.
‘E Is For Eighties’ – An Alternate 80’s (Re)mix
Gary Numan – Films (DJ Butcher Instrumental) (soundcloud mp3) – Found on Soundcloud, this toughened up Hip Hop take on the Numan classic, beloved by break fiends from back in the day, is minimally tweaked for the dance floor. Check more of DJ Butcher‘s wares here.
Tears For Fears – Shout (Remix di Marco De Luca) (soundcloud mp3) – a crazed edit-fest of cuts and splices of one of TFF’s best known songs, I actually had to edit this down a little as the machine gun edits got so relentless that it was a difficult listen – the full 8 minutes is here.
Grace Jones – Slave To the Rhythm (Better Days’ Rough Slave version) (mp3) – The first of three versions of Grace’s finest moment – this one takes the multitracks and strips away the percussion and bass to leave a gorgeous string and acappella version that’s billed as a ‘Rough Slave’ version on YouTube.. Info suggests that this was done by DJ Bruce Forest circa 1990, who got the chance to do a quick mix when working at SARM Studios on a different project. It has since been taken off of the web.
Grace Jones – Slave To the Disco (Tribute To Trevor Horn mix) (We Mean Disco mp3) – upping the bpm to a steady 110 this new cheeky re-edit turns a mid 80’s hyper-polished pop masterpiece into a dirty disco groove to brilliant effect. I’ve added a fair amount of the Better Days acappella and strings version over the top of this as the original is mainly instrumental.
Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy (Deep Sound Design Balearic Dub) (soundcloud mp3) – Taking the original’s drum and bass groove and stretching it out, the mix just feels so dirty. Again I edited this down as the sugar-sweet singing of Annabella sounded a little too cheesy in the mix but check out Deep Sound Design‘s Soundcloud pages for tons of excellent mixes both past and present, he even makes ZZ Top sound good.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax (Hibakusha ‘Don’t Crack’ mix) (CDR) – One of my favourite 80’s songs tackled by my good friend Jeff Knowler aka Hibakusha. This is a few years old now and was largely achieved through EQing the various mixes of the song and re-sampling parts to achieve a mix. This is actually only half of Jeff’s version and he’s done many more Frankie and ZTT mixes in his own time, all sounding like they could have existed 30 years ago and among the best fan mixes I’ve ever come across.
Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime (Hibakusha remix) (CDR) – Another one of Jeff’s, originally done for a friend’s birthday present and now presented here for the first time in public.
The Human League – Seconds (Antony Toga Unlimited Orchestra Mix) (soundcloud mp3) – The ‘Don’t You Want Me’ B-side taken and stretched into a menacing 8 minute groove with the help of the ‘Love & Dancing’ version by Anthony Toga. I added the news bulletin dialogue as JFK’s assassination took place and edited it again for length.
Japan – Life In Tokyo (Extended Disco mix) (Virgin) – A bonafide original, this actually saw a release in 1979 with Giorgio Morodor at the controls, one of the turning points in Japan’s history which saw them at a crossroads between outdated glam rockers and early adopters of synthesisers who were put in the same bracket as the Futurists.
Grace Jones – Slave to the Rhythm (Steve Anderson & Chad Jackson remix) (soundcloud mp3) – A third outing but justified by this killer mix for DMC from the late 90’s, unreleased but one that successfully ups the bpm by 20 or so to make this go-go pop classic into an 11 minute house club banger. Check out Steve Anderson’s Soundcloud for tons of interesting mixes in this vein.
Tears For Fears – Mad World (ABH Remix) (soundcloud mp3) – Another Soundcloud find, TFF’s breakthrough hit given a crunching big beat undercarriage by ABH from London.
Depeche Mode – Big Muff (K Master bootleg demo) (soundcloud mp3) – This is actually an unfinished demo but I liked it so much I featured it anyway. A slowed down, Plastikman-esque remake of one of my favourite tracks from DM’s debut album, ‘Speak & Spell’ – hopefully one day he’ll finish it. K_Master hails for Minnesota, USA, not to be confused with the K Master from the UK.
Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement (Eggman Remix) (soundcloud mp3) – The mysterious Eggman Productions from London, filters the Heaven 17 classic into House territory – the original is nearly 10 minutes long but I edited it a lot to fit it in, hear the full version here.
The Clash – Rock The Casbah (Dubrobots 12″) (mp3) – One of Jeff’s engineer friends who goes by the name of Dubrobots takes on The Clash. ‘…Casbah’ has been versioned a few times over the years but this sympathetic, dubbed out mix using the original stems to break it down caught my ear for the open piano passages. Also check out his Dubrobots HQ blog for a great mix of Adam & The Antz – Cartrouble Pt.1 (Dubrobots ‘Who’s The Slave & Who’s the Master’ mix). It’s a rarity to find any remixes of Adam Ant material, even more so to find one of the original, pre-fame Antz tracks. His is a fantastic re-imagining of ‘Cartrouble Pt.1’ which really exists in its own little world, I’m not sure how you’d place this with any other music successfully and it just didn’t make the final cut because of this.
Grace Jones – Me, I Disconnect From You (Island) Another track that’s legit but has only just seen the light of day. Originally recorded in 1981 for inclusion on the ‘Night Clubbing’ album, Grace covered Tubeway Army but it sadly never made the cut. Finally released on the new 2 CD deluxe edition we get to hear it and I mixed a little of the original into the ending so that Numan bookends the whole mix.
Along the way, whilst making this mix and auditioning a lot of other mixes in a similar vein, I stumbled upon Paul Dakeyne‘s site where he has a number of interesting posts including one on tape edits with an unreleased Omar Santana ‘Bullet edit’ version of the same Tears For Fears track I used. It’s pretty full on and comes from a cassette Paul had, his Soundcloud page is also worth a look with unreleased megamixes of Paul Hardcastle material.
In case you missed it a new label has sprung up with three releases in swift succession in the last 5 months. Rotary Tower‘s first offerings are two EPs from the archives of Ron Graham aka Giallos Flame. Ron had various releases out a few years back, most notably of DC Recordings and then promptly disappeared.
Now he’s back with Archivio Giallo Vols 1 & 2 (plus a third is planned apparently for an August release). As you would expect if you knew his work of old they lean heavily towards the soundtrack and library medium, mostly on the horror, blackploitation and action genres. Heavy drums and analogue synths abound with plenty of homages to famous scores along the way.
The third release (actually no.002 here in the green cover) is by Ganzfeld – Temas Spatiale Vol.1 – which is the debut of a duo and leans more towards jazz than anything else but includes electronics and modern classical elements too. There are plenty of sound clips available to check out over on the new site, neatly divided by colour per artist. The label also acts as a licensing hub for the music, being that it’s so well suited to soundtracking other media.
