Format & Phill ‘UK vs Philly’ + Mr Armtone SS25 mixes

A very special pair of exclusive mixes on Solid Steel this week (isn’t there every week?) or should that be three mixes?

First up we have DJ Format AND Phill Most Chill, hot off the release of their new album, ‘The Foremost’, they’ve put together a 30 minute mix each, representing their home turfs of the UK and Philadelphia respectively and in Matt’s own words:
“Instead of doing yet another promo mix that incorporates a song or two from our new album, I thought it would be fun for me & Phill to each do a 30 minute mix of Hip Hop from our respective areas. I’m from Southampton, and since that’s not a very big place I thought it would be more fitting to play some of my favourite old UK Hip Hop records. Philadelphia always had a healthy Hip Hop scene that boasted famous artists such as DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, Cash Money & Marvelous and Steady B just to name a few. Phill wanted to showcase some of the more obscure/random Rap records from Philly that he loves.”

You can hear and buy the album HERE and HERE – I know this is the third post about it in as many weeks but it really is great.

Next up is Solid Steel’s Russian agent, Mr Armtone, back with the follow up to his ‘Time Machine’ video mix from last year (how does he do it?). Firmly club-based in style and with a very high standard of visuals and on-screen blends (no YouTube rips here) he brings a 80 minute AV set to add to the quality collection we’re slowly building on our Vimeo page.

Mr. Armtone – Time Machine II from Solid Steel on Vimeo.

Posted in Film, Mixes/Solid Steel, Solid Steel. | 1 Comment |

Kirby Vision

I was hipped to a blog today called Kirby-Vision, a place where artists can indulge their inner Jack Kirby fantasies or just pay homage to the King of Comics. By far the best find was the incredible work of Giorgio Comolo who, not only nails Kirby’s style, but also takes the characters somewhere else by his own hand.


He definitely joins the ranks of Shaky Kane, Tom Scioli and Edmund Bagwell as an artist who can invoke the spirit of Kirby in a fresh way. Not to say he’s the only one though, plenty of others measure up.

Posted in Art, Comics. | No Comments |

DJ Format & Phill Most Chill LP test pressings by Mr Krum

Check out these DJ Format & Phill Most Chill ‘The Foremost’ Test Pressing versions by Mr Krum. Sold blind in an edition of just 25 to members of the DWG board a few months ago – no one knew what they were going to look like and those who took a chance are reaping the reward now.

25 hand-crafted sleeves were made with recycled, organically-aged jackets, paste-on info sheets and unique hand written comments/markings. All copies were individually number stamped and placed inside vintage ‘rope-seamed’ PVC sleeves.

Sadly these are all sold out now but the good news is that the regular LP isn’t and has an even doper sleeve, again by Mr Krum whose Facebook page these photos come from (check his other work too!). The LP is a classic in every sense, the sound, the look and the very spirit of it stake their claim as soon as the needle hits the groove. Buy it here.

Posted in Design, Records. | No Comments |

Adam Ant plays ‘Dirk Wears White Sox’ live

I will most definitely be attending this next year (in fact I already have a ticket). As readers of this blog will already know I’m a massive Ant fan since hearing ‘Dog Eat Dog’ at the age of 10 in 1981. Adam & The Antz were the first pop group who really mattered to me as a kid getting into music and their post-punk debut, ‘Dirk Wears White Sox’ went on to be my favourite without a doubt. Even so, I only saw him perform for the first time earlier this year, after several ‘shall I / shan’t I?’ misses and I wasn’t disappointed. Tickets available here.

Posted in Gigs. | 1 Comment |

3 Way Mix practice session

I just spent Sunday in Bristol continuing rehearsal work on the 3-Way Mix that DJs Cheeba, Moneyshot and I will be premiering in Paris on Nov 16th at the Solid Steel 25th anniversary gig at La Bellevilloise. This is a 90 minute version of last years ‘Caught in The Middle of a 3-Way Mix’ tribute to The Beastie Boys‘ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album, made from all the original samples, acappellas and more.

We’ll also be performing it at the London Solid Steel gig at Fire on Dec 6th and taking it to Australia in February next year. Anyone wishing to book us please contact Ben Coghill at Elastic Artists.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Mixes/Solid Steel. | 2 Comments |

Fulldome mix on Solipsistic Nation no.308

The soundtrack mix to my fulldome version of The Search Engine has just gone up as part of the latest podcast on Solipsistic Nation. Alongside a short interview you can hear an altered, slightly more ambient version of the album with remixed versions and edits of a lot of the tracks.

This is the version that plays at the dome shows and includes the ‘Deep Space’ version of ‘GIANT’ remixed for Matt Johnson‘s as yet unreleased Lazarus compilation ‘The Others’. You can listen to the podcast here or download it directly here.

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes/Solid Steel, Radio. | No Comments |

Music Sans Frontiers from Balkan Vinyl

Music SansPosthuman and Balkan Vinyl have put together a new charity compilation of electronic music, raising money & awareness for Médecins Sans Frontières. If you like high quality techno and electronica then this is your bag, barely a duff track on it, which is rare for comps like this where artists are giving work for free. This is no collection of off-cuts with stand out tracks by Shadow Dancer, Posthuman, B12, Jokers of the Scene and Radioactive Man.

Médecins Sans Frontières – also known as ‘Doctors Without Borders’ – is an impartial, independent, and neutral organisation that provide medical and humanitarian aid wherever needed, across the globe. With the current civil war in Syria, much of the media focus has been on the political aspects, often forgetting the tens of thousands of victims and refugees. Médecins Sans Frontières, and their volunteers, are still on the ground in the region providing aid.

It’s available on a ‘pay what you choose’ basis – you can download for free or any amount you decide at  the balkanvinyl bandcamp page and they will donate here (and claim gift aid) on your behalf or you can go to Just Giving.com and donate directly. All profits go directly to MSF. All of the artists have contributed their music for free. It is entirely digital to ensure as much money as possible goes to charity

Artists on the 18 track compilation include: Posthuman, Hrdvsion, Echaskech, Trackman, Global Goon, B12, Plaid, Milanese, Radioactive Man

http://www.musicsansfrontiers.com

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Four Tet 2 hour Solid Steel takeover

It’s never been done before but Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet has been granted a 2 hour mix for this week’s Solid Steel ahead of his appearance at Solid Steel 25 at Fire in London on Dec 6th.

This mix is made from exclusive DJ edits either by Kieran or by fellow DJs like Daphni or Floating Points, very few of these will ever see the light of day legally and are made for club sets rather than release.

Kieran will be headlining the main room for our 25th anniversary show in London, tickets can be bought here.

Posted in Mixes/Solid Steel, Solid Steel. | No Comments |

Solid Steel 25: new website and extra London guests

The Solid Steel website has had a makeover to include a 25th guest mix playlist and the ability to step back in time to older playlists and mixes. We’ve also just announced two extra guests for the London party at Fire on December 6th.

Not only will Mr Scruff be joining Illum Sphere for a 4 hour back to back vinyl session but we’ll have Four Tet headlining the main room! Very excited to add both of these excellent DJs to the line up, Scruff recorded his own Solid Steel mix nearly 10 years ago and Kieran was our first guest at the London residency of our club night in 2004. Get tickets here...

Four Tet will also be taking over the whole show this Friday Nov 1st – something no guest has ever done before – for a 2 hour mix of exclusive DJ edits.

Posted in Gigs, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer, Solid Steel. | 1 Comment |

DJ Format & Phill Most Chill LP out today

Out today, another Hip Hop sureshot from DJ Format, this time teamed up with Phill Most Chill for a straight up rap album, the way they used to make ’em. Here’s an exclusive peek at the back cover artwork below by the on-the-money Mr Krum, love the biro touches.

Available on vinyl LP or CD here or all good records shops and for download from the usual sources. Format will be doing an exclusive mix for Solid Steel in the coming weeks mixing new and old UK and Philadelphia rap to mirror the sources for the album.

Posted in Music. | No Comments |

Ollie Teeba’s War of the Worlds mix for Solid Steel 25

About a decade ago Ollie Teeba and I embarked upon a session to re-soundtrack The War of the Worlds using Richard Burton’s excellent narrative for Jeff Wayne‘s version as the glue. That session was never finished and the audio languished for years until Ollie rebooted it and recorded a 45 minute version a few years back, presenting unique CDRs to friends and family one Xmas.

It was good but it was dense and the spoken word sometimes relentless, so I suggested he spread things out, play more of the underlying music and extend it to an hour for the show. And he has, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the radio play first being broadcast across America and sparking a panic that the world was being invaded.

Ollie has re-styled the piece with large helpings of 70’s soundtrack work and psyche rock, digging into his favourite genres outside of Hip Hop. Well known pieces by Axelrod and Schifrin take on a new light when coupled with Burton’s story-telling and many seem tailor made for this presentation. Re-scores of famous books are pretty unique and I think this is the first time we’ve featured anything like this on Solid Steel.

You can hear Ollie performing as part of Soundsci in Bristol this evening at Sip The Juice in Stokes Croft. His Herbaliser partner in crime, Jake Wherry, will be holding it down tonight in London at Village Underground with Jaga Jazzist, Mr Thing, Kelpe and Tom Central.

Posted in Mixes/Solid Steel, Solid Steel. | No Comments |

Secret Songs Of Savamala by Howlaround

Robin The Fog has just released the follow-up to ‘The Ghosts Of Bush’ LP on his Fog Signals label which I’ve featured previously on this blog. ‘Secret Songs Of Savamala’ was recorded entirely in the flooded basement underneath a ruined customs house in Belgrade.

Like ‘Ghosts…’, it was made using reel-to-reel tape machines with all artificial and additional effects strictly forbidden. It’s a short, three track affair with a beautifully desolate haunting ambiance that’s already drawn comparisons to Philip Jeck, Morton Feldman and, bizarrely, the sculptures of Rachel Whiteread. I will be purchasing a copy forthwith, you can too as a download or LP but vinyl is very limited.

Among the many other areas he specialises in, Robin also writes, and his recent piece on Public Information Films (PIFs) had me literally crying with laughter. I didn’t know that a new attempt had been made to reach kids and teach them on the dangers of the railway, you have to see it to believe how wrong they got it and Robin’s gently mocking tone makes it all the funnier.

Posted in Music. | 1 Comment |

John Higgs’ ‘The KLF: Chaos, Magic & the Band who…’

I once took on a jigsaw of a Jackson Pollock painting, I forget which one exactly but it took me something like three months to finish, slowly chipping away every day, finding where the next blob of paint belonged. The same day I placed the final piece it seemed like a burden was lifted and I started and finished a vintage 500 piece Vaughn Bodé jigsaw in a few hours. This book was the Bodé puzzle equivalent after finishing Julian Cope‘s monster-sized book from the previous post.

Up until this point, Cope had been the clear front-runner for book of the year, his exhaustive, multi-genre compilation easily fending off all others by size and heaviness alone (of the Rock kind as well as weight). But John Higgs‘ far-reaching yet concise, ‘The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned A Million Pounds’, is going to pip him to the post by sheer force of ideas and vision.

My love of the KLF and all things related is well documented in the hoax soundtrack and visuals I created with Mr Trick some years back so it’s no surprise that this was on the reading list. The e-book version emerged a year ago to great acclaim and a printed edition followed shortly after with many trumpeting it as a unique view on their well-worn tale.

Rather than trot out a regular history of the duo, detailing all their adventures, hits and misses, Higgs chooses to expand outwards from the band, both back and forward in time. If there’s one event that the book centers on it’s the burning of a million pounds and from there he draws clear lines to Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea, Alan Moore, Ken Campbell, the number 23, Dr Who, magical thinking, The Dadaists, the Devil, Discordianism, the assassination of Kennedy, Wicker Men and the banking crisis of the late 20th Century.

Not your average KLF biography then? Higgs places the band in amongst all of these and more, highlighting the synchronicities and coincidences surrounding them and showing you a bigger picture which may or may not have influenced their actions. He’s also not a fawning fan boy ready to mythologise their back catalogue with rose-tinted spectacles either. He describes their first album, ‘1987’, as ‘shit’, ‘Doctorin The Tardis’ as ‘a novelty record’ and wonders if Drummond and Cauty aren’t just ‘attention-seeking arseholes’. On the first two counts he’s mostly right.

No more to say, I don’t want to spoil it, go and find the book and I guarantee you’ll see the band in a different light, even if you’re the most hardened fan. Also check Higgs’ website as it’s full of great articles related and unrelated including an automated, self-referencing tumblr dedicated to quotes from the book that generates random gifs regularly.

 

Posted in Books, Music. | No Comments |