The Orb – A History of the Future boxset

Due on October 7th and spread across 3 CDs and 1 DVD:

Disc 1: The Singles Collection
01. A A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld: Loving You (Orbital Dance Mix)
02. Little Fluffy Clouds (Single Version)
03. Perpetual Dawn (Solar Youth Mix)
04. Blue Room (Seven-Inch Version)
05. Assassin (Seven-Inch Version)
06. Oxbow Lakes (Album Version)
07. Asylum (Album Version)
08. Toxygene (Album Version)
09. Once More (Album Version)
10. Ghost Dancing (Album Version)

Disc 2: Remixes and Rarities
01. A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld: Loving You (Aubrey Mix Mk II)
02. Little Fluffy Clouds (Coldcut Heavyweight Dub Mix)
03. Perpetual Dawn (Andrew Weatherall Ultrabass 1 Mix)
04. Blue Room (Excerpt 605)
05. Majestic (Heavy Mix – The Orb and Youth)
06. Close Encounters (Smile, You’re On Camera mix – The Orb and Slam)
07. Assassin (Another Live Mix)
08. Toxygene (Ganja Kru Mix)
09. Once More (Mark Pritchard Mix)

Disc 3: Live In Copenhagen & Woodstock
01. Towers of Dub (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
02. Little Fluffy Clouds (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
03. Blue Room (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
04. Star 6 & 7 8 9 (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
05. Valley (Live @ Trekkoner Sunset Gig)
06. Assassin (Live @ Woodstock 2)

Disc 4: DVD
01. Fluffy Little Clouds
02. Perpetual Dawn
03. Assassin
04. Oxbow Lakes
05. Pomme Fritz
06. Toxygene
07. DJ Asylum
08. Once More
09. Blue Room (Top Of The Pops ’92)
10. Toxygene (Top Of The Pops ’97)
11. Little Fluffy Clouds (T In The Park)
12. Perpetual Dawn (Ten-Inch TV Advert)

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Will Eisner’s ‘Spirit’ title pages

I got into a conversation recently about comic book opening pages where type and title became part of the landscape which reminded me of the king of this; Will Eisner. I can’t claim to be an expert but I always found The Spirit opening pages that I saw to be endlessly inventive with the idea being ripped off numerous times over the decades.

 

Posted in Art, Comics. | 2 Comments |

Solid Steel 25th Anniversary Party (London)

This promises to be a pretty unique event, you’re not going to get a line up like this every day. Even more so once the Very Special Guests (3 in total) are announced. The end of the 25th year will be seen out in style and Cheeba, Moneyshot and I will attempt to recreate the Paul’s Boutique mix we put together last year.

Tickets can be bought here and we should be announcing similar events in Bristol and Paris very soon.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Solid Steel. | No Comments |

Shaky Kane Orbital bag

Speaks for itself really, Shaky Kane redesigns the Orbital Comics bag.


The bag is in black & white but, if you pick up the latest issue of the free paper Your Days Are Numbered (cover, left), you get a colour version in the back (above). This is a decent quarterly freebie, printed A3 size and available in various places by the counter or where they put flyers.

Featuring original comics, interviews with creators and reviews, it’s one of the good ones to look for. The latest issue has interviews with David Hine & Shaky Kane, Gustavo Duarte (who also does the cover) and Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba.

Also inside is this great ad for Gosh! Comics by Ben Newman (below) which, along with the new Orbital bag by Shaky, means that Forbidden Planet really need to step up with their promo artwork.

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DJ Moneyshot – Solid Steel & the Hour of Chaos

This week we return to the Solid Steel birthday celebrations and share the cake with something else that turns 25 this year – Public Enemy‘s ‘It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’ album.
To honour both occasions our very own DJ Moneyshot shows us once again why he’s the mixtape king with the career-best offering, ‘Solid Steel and the Hour of Chaos’.
Over 60 blistering minutes he takes in all the beats, breaks, samples and spoken word nuggets that made this seminal Bomb Squad production such an explosive release.
Amongst the vast stack of tracks in the mix, expect words of wisdom from Louis Farrakhan, exclusive interviews with Hank Shocklee, and all the soul, rock ‘n’ roll and early rap tracks that went into making up P.E’s (if not hip-hop’s) finest album.


After taking part in last year’s dissection of ‘Paul’s Boutique’ and US of Audio‘s trbute to ‘3 Feet High & Rising’ – can Moneyshot raise the bar? Of course he can. If you enjoy the mix, why not read his exhaustive feature on the album in the pages of this month’s Future Music magazine?
Power to the people and the broadest beats.

Posted in Mixes/Solid Steel, Solid Steel. | 2 Comments |

Markey Funk & Gilli tha Kid ‘…in search of Mordy Laye’ mix

I love these guys. Taste-wise I may as well be listening to one of my own mixes here, so many tracks that I know and love. And the ones that I don’t know, I want to know.

With a graphic like that I can’t resist either – go take a listen and then – if you like what you hear – check the Group Modular album that Markey Funk made with Mule Driver.

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Aborted Micronauts cartoon pitch illustrations

How cool is this? An animated version of the Micronauts toy and comic franchise that looks pitched somewhere between Transformers Animated and Tron: Uprising.

These are concept drawings, posted by Dave Johnson aka @Devilpig666 via his Twitter account after reaching 10k followers.

The pitch ultimately failed and it looks like it won’t be made because Hasbro bought the rights but he revealed that they would have got original Micronauts comic artist Michael Golden in to do some designs too.

Regardless, it’s just nice to see this modern day re-imagining of an old classic although this does look like it would be a bit less brutal than the old comics.

Posted in Art, Design, Film. | No Comments |

Jack Kirby concept drawings from ‘Argo’ up for sale

From the Heritage Auctions sale site where these two original Jack Kirby pieces are due to be auctioned this weekend:

“Jack Kirby Lord of Light/Argo “Pavilions of Joy” Illustration Original Art (1978). This incredible Jack Kirby illustration, loaded with the kind of style only “King” Kirby could provide, has a very interesting story connected with it. Originally conceived as production pieces for a proposed film, based on a Roger Zelazny Science Fiction novel, the commissioned art was stored away when producer Barry Geller lost his funding. It was later picked up by the CIA for use in a daring covert rescue mission of six Americans held in Iran. A fake film production company was created, with offices set up in Hollywood, and permission to film scenes in Iran was obtained, all as a ruse to spirit the Americans out. The Ben Affleck film, Argo, is based on these true events, and this piece of art played a pivotal role in that astounding and successful mission.
The art is in ink on paper, with an approximate image area of 22.25″ x 17″, matted to an overall size of 26″ x 20″. The art is in Excellent condition, and even without the fascinating story behind it, this is Classic Kirby as you love him.

Incidentally, this piece and the other “Lord of Light” piece we’re offering have spent the last 20 years in the collection of star artist and DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee.”

* post script: in the end these two pieces sold for $16, 730 and $23,900!

Posted in Art, Comics, Film. | No Comments |

Jason and Jim at Tribal Gathering

Steve Cook put these photos up last week on his Secret Oranges blog. Above is Jim Murray and below, Jason Brashill, taken at Tribal Gathering in ’97. Both were then working for 2000ad on various projects, with Jim eventually finishing off vol.2 of the Batman/Judge Dredd team-up ‘Die Laughing’ after Glenn Fabry couldn’t commit to it. He then went off to work in the computer games industry but has just put out a gorgeous book with Robbie Morrison called ‘Drowntown’ which is the first of several apparently. Jason followed a similar path but not before he’d painted one of my favourite sleeves for The Herbaliser in the shape of ‘Wall Crawling Giant Insect Breaks’, which I commissioned from him after seeing his work with graffiti artists She One and Req 1 as part of their Brighton crew, The Dusty Knights.

Posted in 2000ad, Art, Comics, Design, Ninja Tune. | No Comments |

The Devil’s In The Details

Friends on my Facebook page recently will have seen a new photo album called ‘The Devil’s In The Details’ where I’ve been posting design finds that I’ve photographed whilst going through a load of records recently. All these details are hidden on the backs of sleeves or on the actual labels, another example of something that’s disappearing with the digital age.


I’ve been having a clear out recently, I’ve not properly weeded out my record collection for years apart from going through the Hip Hop last year and it’s always fascinating to realise what you have and what’s contained within the artwork as well as the grooves. Speaking of Facebook, I now have a dedicated DJ Food Official page for gig news and official releases.

Posted in Design, Records. | No Comments |