Clone ‘Hallowe’en 1976’ cassette package

Love this oversize clam shell cassette packaging and design from Andy Votel‘s Cache Cache label. The artist is Clone – aka Gary Sloane of last years ‘Harmonitalk’ and this is 26 minutes of electronic jam sessions from 1976 supposedly. Inside each box is a bonus plastic skeleton to keep with the Halloween theme. Still in stock over at Finders Keepers but limited to only 100 copies.

Posted in Design, Music, Packaging. | 4 Comments |

Machine Drum ‘Vapor City’ artwork

The whole design and packaging of Machine Drum‘s ‘Vapor City’ LP and satellite singles is really building into a nice collection. Designed by Dominic Flannigan & Eclair Fifi for LuckyMe Arts it’s nice to see such meticulous detail in a time of thumbnail images that need to be easily identifiable. I hope this makes end of year lists on the artwork alone as the combination of minimal colours, copper and splatter vinyl really give it a unique feel.

Mark Bodé / Cheo exhibition London West Bank Gallery

I visited the London West Bank Gallery on Friday to see the Mark Bodé and Cheo exhibition, Junkwaffel. Mark is the son of Vaughn Bodé, the famous comic artist who created Cheech Wizard and whose style and characters were later given a new lease of life by graffiti artists worldwide.

Mark keeps his (now deceased) dad’s legacy and creations alive and can turn out a mean imitation of Vaughn’s style. It’s always nice to see Bodé’s unique vision in new contexts and there were characters painted on metal and subway maps as well as largely unseen original sketches from Vaughn’s note books.

Cheo is a graffiti art from Bristol whose style is influenced by Bodé and his creations are a perfect fit stylistically with Mark’s. His Egg Head character is an obvious nod to Cheech and he even incorporates the Wizard and the infamous Bodé Broads into some of his work. He also works in 3D with cut out characters, furry Bees and a huge marker pen trailing paint out of a frame into the middle of the room.

It’s only on until Nov 21st and Vaughn’s sketches go back to the US with Mark after Sunday but it’s free and at the London West Bank Gallery, 133-137 Westbourne Grove, London, W11 2RS.

Posted in Art, Comics. | 2 Comments |

Dr Who 50th anniversary

The Doctor isn’t the only one who has an anniversary this year, it’s also the Upper Norwood Library in Crystal Palace’s half century and my friend David Vallade has done some celebrations designs. The library has been faced with cuts and possible closure from the Council in recent years but are still there thanks to the support of the local community. They’re running a Dr Who-themed fun day for the family today (details online) so go and support if you’re in the area or just go and support them any day of the week.

 

Another Council to take on the Doctor comes via the always brilliant Scarfolk blog, with a pairing so obvious I’m amazed it hasn’t been done before.

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Solid Steel: Amorphous Androgynous + Stephen Mallinder

This weeks Solid Steel features not one but two guest mixes plus a 30 minute set from yours truly. Kicking things off we welcome The Amorphous Androgynous back with a half hour culled from their new 2xCD release of ‘psychesploitation’, ‘The Cartel’. They showcase some of their new tracks in a funky 70’s cop soundtracks/ fuzzed up Blacksploitation style – it’s the sound of Get Carter‘s swinging London and the sleazy San Francisco of Dirty Harry. Both volumes are available now from their online store and a third volume will feature a remix from me at some point in 2014.

From here we drift into a darker, more synthetic sci-fi soundscape with eight esoteric tracks I picked that play on the spacier side. Tracks from compilations; ‘The Sound of Belgium’, ‘Music Sans Frontiers’ and ‘Space Oddities’ feature as does music from the new Richard Norris/Luke Insect collaboration Dark Seed. This is the first part of a mix called ‘Night Music’, a selection of new acquisitions that I’ve been enjoying after dark recently.

In the second hour we have a real coup, Stephen Mallinder – ex of Cabaret Voltaire and a long-standing solo artist in his own right – has put together an hour of:

“Peers, associates, co-conspirators, influences and baton-carriers. Starting with early head-turners This Heat (1978) and filtered  through the mix claps from composer Steve Reich (1972) onto post-punkers 23 Skidoo who I’d gigged and recorded with.
A couple of FSOL tracks – covert Cabs somewhere in there and back up north to Sheffield’s first real label WARP – the original Forgemasters reworked by bleepers Unique 3, The Black Dog posse and sonic provocateurs supreme, Autechre. An offering from my own Cabaret Voltaire – a rework of ‘Yashar’ with the original ’70 billion people’ sample.
Keith le Blanc and co – Major Malfunction, classic tough electro, there’s a whole history from Sugarhill to Tackhead in there. And rounded  off with our one-time co-conspiritor On-U’s Adrian Sherwood‘s mix of metal-machiners Einstürzende Neubauten, complete with sniff sample.

All spiced with some period spoken word courtesy of Malcolm X, Mr Burroughs and JG Ballard stories and lovingly mixed by hand.”

It’s an excellent selection and there’s also a timely Cabaret Voltaire box set just out covering the years ’83-’85.

Christine ‘Death On Wheels’ cover art

Love this cover for French electro duo Christine – what a great image. Their music is banging chopped and screwed electro club music with some killer cutting and flashes of cult movie soundtracks like The Bionic Man. Not all my bag but you can check out some of this EP here (my favourite track, ‘No Way’ isn’t previewed unfortunately). Here are a couple of previous single covers too, love that logo and they like eyes it seems.

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Recent comic purchases

BatMan_BLKWHT_Cv3_I seem to have been buying an inordinate amount of comics recently, far more than usual, so I thought I’d share my best buys on here. I recently saw a statistic that said that comic sales had risen 1000% in the last decade – largely I assume because of comic-based films now being big business in Hollywood. I’ve bought, or have been bought, comics since as long as I can remember but recently I’ve been buying some that I never thought I would – issues from the big two. Marvel and DC titles are rarely on my shopping list, superheroes don’t interest me that much unless they’re being subverted in some way and I’ll usually only buy these kind of books for a particular guest artist.

Batman B&W1

This is the case with recently purchases of Batman, Superman AND Spiderman comics, a highly unlikely trio for me to want to read at the best of times. The Batman book (Batman Black & White #3) is something I’ve been waiting for for months now, mainly due to Rian Hughes‘ excellent typographic take on the character. He deconstructs language, both literally and visually and breaks down the story to incorporate the black & white theme via the print process. Adding in digs at Post-modernism and New Brit Art, it’s a unique, hilarious and very British take on Batman, seen through the eyes of a designer and illustrator – of which Hughes is both.

The next major super hero book to catch my eye was Spiderman: Marvel Knights – mainly because of the incredible interior art and some of the most inventive page layouts in years. Artist, Marco Rudy, channels the multi-dimensional angles of Alex Nino and the psychedelia of Brendan McCarthy on the page as Spidey has to battle 99 different foes to prevent a bomb going off. There seems to be a different style on each page and the writing is rapid-fire and light, I’ve included some sample spreads here to show what I mean.

The last of the big three is Superman Action Comics with a story called ‘Krypton Returns’, this is purely because the artist, Kenneth Rocafort, is on the book and I’ll buy pretty much anything he draws. The story is crap but it’s beautiful to look at, as is ‘Brainiac #1’, drawn by Pascal Alixe, a Superman spin-off issue where his many villains take over a book for the month of November, each with an eye-catching lenticular cover.


These are by no means the best of the bunch this month, I’m just highlighting them as they’re not the norm. The really good stuff is, as ever, happening on the smaller labels and independents like Image, Dark Horse and IDW. Huge mention for Brandon Graham‘s incredible Prophet, now up to issue 40, which continues to confound and amaze with every page. There are so many ideas packed into the dialogue that you can imagine multiple worlds, races and histories within every page. His scope is huge and I think this will, one day, come to be held up alongside works like Jodorowsky and Moebius‘The Incal’ for its vision.

More Graham goodness via Image comes with the reprint edition of his early Multiple Warheads strips and a compilation of sketchbook material called ‘Walrus’ via Picture Box. Scott Snyder’s ‘The Wake’ is an excellent underwater creature siege on a secret oil rig adventure with incredible art from Sean Murphy, they’re up to issue 4 but have just put out a ‘director’s cut’ of issue 1 with extra material, something that seems to be a new trend.

Over at Dark Horse the new Hellboy hardback, ‘The Midnight Circus’ by Mignola and Duncan Fegrado is beautiful, B.P.R.D. continues to intrigue and the Abe Sapien solo title is very good. Jeff Darrow is back with a new series of Shaolin Cowboy – always a joy to look at although the print size at the start of issue no.1 was enough to try the most persistent reader. The Star Wars is an interesting concept for a series too, taking the original screenplay for Star Wars from George Lucas and adapting it into comic form, complete with Ralph McQuarrie-esque early designs for the characters, makes for an alternate retro SW universe.

In the 2000ad universe the weekly Prog, which has been going through an incredible second golden period for the last decade, has suddenly hit the skids with it’s latest run of stories. But taking up the slack is the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine which is on fire at the moment with every story an absolute winner. I’ve recently started writing a monthly 2000ad vs Megazine post on the Everything Comes Back To 2000ad website which pits the Prog against the Meg on the week they are both released. Still in Dredd-world but over at IDW, their monthly take on the Judge has been more miss than hit but the cross-over Mars Attacks Judge Dredd title (yes, you read that correctly) has been good, largely because Brit writer Al Ewing is lashing on the black humour.

Lastly I must mention two more independent titles with connections to 2000ad: firstly Si Spurrier‘s 6 Gun Gorilla – a future war western with a tooled-up gorilla as star, sounds like it shouldn’t work but does. Secondly Gordon Rennie and PJ Holden‘s Dept. of Monsterology via Renegade is worth a look, kind of a Brit take on B.P.R.D. with enough strong characters to take it further after the first four issues finish. Phew! and that’s only the best of what I bought this month, there’s more but that’s enough for tonight, I have a Tooth vs Meg report to start as well as the complete run of Milligan and McCarthy‘s ‘The Electric Hoax’ strips from late 70’s Sounds to read.

 

Posted in Comics. | 1 Comment |

45 adaptor Xmas cards from Factory Road

OK, I’m unequivocally biased because they are friends of mine but – damn – if these Factory Road 45 adaptor designs aren’t the best Xmas cards you’ll see all year then I don’t know what are. They’ve upped the ante in 2013 with new recruit Graham Robson‘s ‘Wizard’ design with a crown of dinks.

For those of you who don’t know what these little plastic wonders are, they’re adaptors for 7″ records with large cut out centers that would have gone into jukeboxes and are a part of vinyl history. Order them HERE – QUICK!

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Ashley Wood Iron Man prototype

Can’t wait to see the final colourway versions of this design, as Ash Wood says himself on the first fruit of his hook up with Marvel:

“I thought I would share some prototype images of our IRON MAN with you guys ( We have some nifty colorways to show you soon ) I’m having a killer time designing Marvel Universe characters, getting to play with iconic characters is pretty amazing. I still remember reading IRON MAN 200 as a kid, dreaming of being a Marvel comic artist etc, never did I think I would have a toy company and the chance to make my own! I should mention that Marvel has been nothing but supportive and hands-off, I’ll tell you that its a rare thing with such popular and well known characters! After Iron Man we have Doc Doom, Ultron and Spiderman and his Pal, actually many more, but I wanna keep some surprises!”

“He could do with some armour on his legs” was the comment from my kids on this one.


 

Posted in Comics, Toys. | 1 Comment |

The Amorphous Androgynous – ‘The Cartel’ 2xCD

Available now via their FSOLDigital site is the next installment of The Amorphous AndrogynousMonstrous Psychedelic Bubble project. Instead of a compilation of others’ music they’ve made their own in the form of 2 CDs worth of freaked-out Blacksploitation cop soundtracks called ‘The Cartel’ vol. 1&2.

You can download it now or pre-order CDs from HERE and there will be a third volume next year with remixes, one of which I have been very excited to contribute. There’s also the rumour of a mix forthcoming on a certain radio show in the not too distant future too…

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Metal Made Flesh comic Kickstarter


Some of you may remember an independent comic I posted about earlier this year called Metal Made Flesh by a small company named Subversive. I thought the first issue was very promising, with great art and an original story but 6 months later and still no second issue.

They’ve now got a Kickstarter online to help them finish the last two issues with comics, T shirts and the chance to have your likeness drawn into the comic as incentives. The idea is to do three inter-connecting origin stories – Metal, Made and Flesh – that cross over and act as springboards for future adventures. If you like a mix of sci-fi and body horror then this will be up your street with influences such as Moebius, 2000ad and Katsuhiro Otomo prominent.

*UPDATE : I’m pleased to say they made their target in less than 4 days!

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