This month’s Infinite Illectrik release is two polyrhythmic percussion phonomontages by The Infinity Curve, one of several aliases for my Quadraphon turntable experiments. Recorded earlier this year and utilising an array of locked grooves from the drummer Julian Sartorius’ locked groove record, these are some of my favourite recordings so far and point in a direction I’d like to continue in.
New artwork I created for the latest 4 track 12″ from Humanoid – out this Friday June 2nd on De:tuned records on black or red marbled vinyl and DL. A great slice of acid with a reworking of an old 808 State classic thrown in too.
Always a pleasure to work for this label and to get to design for artists and releases of this calibre is a dream. Just wrapping up another 12″ design for later in the year today.
Order here: https://detunedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-acid-sound
Part 2 of last week’s tape excavation and we kick off with the first fruits of Mark B & Blade’s collaborations, released on Jazz Fudge as the Hitman For Hire EP, an amazing record that I had the pleasure of providing artwork for. Shot one rainy Friday night in DJ Vadim’s Kingston loft studio using the reflections in a circular subway mirror – good times, RIP Mark B. Here he chops up Mantronix’s production of Just Ice and makes it his own, with Mr Thing on the cuts and Blade on fine form, just excellent hip hop. Amon Tobin remixes Gus Gus’ ‘Polyesterday’ on 4AD, one of his first remixes, and another Ninja Tune group, The Herbaliser, remix The Invisible Pair of Hands before neatly segueing into Boards of Canada’s ‘Aquarius’. Always a bugger to mix with the beat-less intro chords, I actually manage to drop it in on beat here but that old BoC detuning gets you every time, there is no harder band to mix melodically, everything sounds out of tune with everything else, it’s one of their secrets.
DJ Vadim lopes into view with ‘Aural Prostitution’ from his debut LP on Ninja and then into Pt.2 of Skylab’s ‘?’ release. I loved Skylab, they embodied everything that I thought the phrase ‘trip hop’ should have but ultimately didn’t – electronics, heavy beats, swirling psychedelia and weird spoken word from the most left field records they could find. Unfortunately the phrase is usually reserved for bands like Portishead these days who are up next with a Parlour Talk remix which really is not that comfortable to listen to, I’m sorry, should never have played this one. Req is back briefly with the Linn Mix of his ‘I’ track from part 1 and so is a snatch of the KLF UFO mix of the Pet Shop Boys then we play out with the soothing tones of Kid Koala and Money Mark’s track from the Funkungfusion compilation, ‘Carpel Tunnel Syndrome’. Kid Koala was still working on his debut album at this point (from which this track’s title was taken) and played typewriter for beats under Mark’s soft keyboards.
This was an exclusive for the comp (as were most of the tracks at the time) and it’s an interesting snapshot in time for the label which was just coming off the back of its first flush of success and was looking to the future. You have a Roots Manuva track which predates his Big Dada releases, the first music from what would become The Cinematic Orchestra under the name J Swinscoe (then still working in Ninja’s shipping department). The mix of artists were drawn from sub label Ntone as well as Ninja and the outlook was far more electronic and jazz-based. It was a turning point for the label at the time I felt and I think the comp was received with some confusion from fans and critics but it pointed to the future, away from the trip hop label and onto new horizons. By the time the Xen Cuts anniversary album rolled around 2.5 years later it would all make sense and several of the artists featured here for the first time would be making their marks with their own records.
Track list:
Mark B & Blade – Use Your Head
Gus Gus – Polyesterday (Amon Tobin remix)
The Invisible Pair of Hands – Sloppy’s Not Sloppy Any More (The Herbaliser vs Invisible Pair of Hands remix)
Boards of Canada – Aquarius
DJ Vadim – Aural Prostitution
Skylab – ? Pt.2
Portishead – Elysium (Parlour Talk)
Req – I (Linn Mix)
Pet Shop Boys – It Must Be Obvious (UFO mix)
Kid Koala & Money Mark – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
The Kaleidoscope was a psychedelic rock venue run by the management of the band CANNED HEAT. It only lasted about a year from 1967 into 1968 and was one of many unsuccessful efforts to create a viable Fillmore type venue in Los Angeles. A mixture of police pressure and bad management did for it in the end but it had some fantastic posters, which were always circular, mostly numbered and designed in all manner of styles of the day. The strong typographic design of the logo was used liberally across their advertising, sometimes being sliced in half or half hidden but so readily recognisable that it didn’t matter. I’ve tried to find as many of the posters as possible and put them in the order the nights appeared in below.
(images sourced from around the web including RockPosters.com and Heritage Auctions).
After the first three nights in 1967 the club took a break and relocated to 6230 Sunset Blvd where it reopened in 1968 and stayed for most of the year, the venue was renamed The Aquarius Theatre starting with the LA residency of the musical HAIR.
There seems to be no visual record online of posters numbered 11 or 12 but the dates suggest maybe whoever was numbering them made a mistake as no.10 is only a week before no.13
Below is a promo postcard which had a couple of months worth of dates on the back, whilst it was not numbered as #17 in the series the time frame suggests it would have filled that spot.
After poster #20 there seem to be no visual references for physical posters but these newspaper ads in the Los Angeles Free Press featuring circular designs with one numbered ‘No.24’ suggest that the series was ongoing.
Below is a rare promo sticker for the club which came up for auction a while back, similar to the promo badge I posted before, this is pretty rare.
Unconnected but in a similar vein, the promo badge below was also auctioned recently, I love oddities like this.
Rock Posters.com has opened up their archives and is selling some of the original art to some classic posters by Wes Wilson and Lee Conklin.
I love seeing original art of any kind, it gives a further look behind the curtain at the process and prowess of the creators. None of this is cheap, mind, but given these are one of a kinds it’s no surprise. I’ve included the originals alongside the posters here.
The printing plate (or one of them) was sold some years ago at auction for this too, seen here in red on metal, the poster was in purple and green inks.
Another blast from the tape drawer past in the form of an early March 98 show where we roll through many of the tunes of the day and try to recall what exactly I played. Kicking the door in with their amazing remix of Liquid Liquid’s ‘Scraper’, the Psychonauts absolutely load the track up with heaviness, dropping down into a slower tempo at one point and adding all manner of dance floor destruction. Always loved what they did and had a chance to play with them down in Brighton (I think) early on when there were four of them in the crew. Boards of Canada’s ‘Sixtyten’ – not much to be said here, it’s a classic now but this was being played from a white label test pressing before the album was released at the time. Scorn’s ‘Falling’ gets made over by Rob and Sean from Autechre in a finely sliced piece of precision dark techno dub.
From there I’m mixing well above my ability, the 4/4 of Autechre’s moody remix into the lush heavily swung 6/8 of Max Brennan (from the Invisible Soundtracks compilation on Leaf) and then out into more heavy swing of ‘Mrs Chombee…’ (this time on the wrong beat). The tempos might be the same but they sure don’t sit together too nicely – thankfully the mix back out into Cut Chemist’s remix of Liquid Liquid’s ‘Cavern’ isn’t too painful. I’d forgotten how excellent this was, Cut was on a roll at this point, after his mix of Shadow’s ‘Number Song’ and with his Major Force one yet to come.
At this point we dip into something weird and formless that seems to be a mix of Headstone Lane’s ‘Back In The Day’ from the EBV label, the KLF’s UFO remix of the Pet Shop Boys and Req’s ‘I’ before what must have been an ad break interrupts.
Part 2 next week…
Track list:
Unknown – Intro
Liquid Liquid – Scraper (Psychonauts remix)
Boards of Canada – Sixtyten
Scorn – Falling (Autechre FR 13 mix)
Max Brennan – From The Temple To The Nile
The Herbaliser – Mrs Chombee Takes The Plunge (DJ Food remix)
Liquid Liquid – Cavern (Cut Chemist Rocks A Rave In A Missile Silo remix)
Headstone Lane – Back In The Day
Pet Shop Boys – It Must Be Obvious (UFO mix)
Req – I
I’ll be at the East Street Tap in Brighton on June 7th to talk about my Wheels of Light book and show some projections for the monthly Sound Affects night. It’ll be a brief talk with a Q&A as I’m sharing the bill with sound artist Fiona Miller and author Richard Evans who will be talking about their own projects respectively.
Tickets and info here
Steve Pavlovsky of Liquid Light Lab in NYC has recently been doing tests inside a huge LED dome in the States. Having done work with domes ten years ago I can attest that this is a huge deal, he can do this is real time and the video footage is stunning. Would love to see this in the flesh one day. All photos © Steve Pavlovsky.
Brian Eno is 75 today! In celebration I’ve made two new Funky Eno mixes for the occasion after being contacted by Josh at the nowbodhi’s blissness website earlier this year. He’d loved my first mix, ‘More Volts’, made back in 2010 and dug out a load more funk from the deepest depths of the Eno back catalogue, asking if I would be up for mixing them.
The selection was deep and thorough, including a few bits I’d not heard so how could I refuse, what with Brian reaching a milestone three quarters of a century? Adding my own spoken word spice to the tracks I’ve arranged Josh’s selections into two hour+ volumes entitled ‘Spunk Worship’ (Josh’s pick for his original Pt.2 selection – Eno’s song title) and ‘Dust Shuffle’. I’ve also slightly updated and expanded the first part to include a few extras after sourcing a master file from DK’s archive, something I didn’t even have myself.
We have mixed and unmixed playlist versions complete with UK and US version artwork based on the different Obscure label sleeve designs for the two territories. Way back last year I made some mutated Eno portraits when experimenting with early AI apps and these finally came in use for this project. Josh expertly put these together and is hosting everything on his Google Drive here now that Mixcloud won’t let you put up mixes with multiple instances of the same artist.
Josh’s blog post – mixed and unmixed versions of all three mixes
http://www.nowbodhisblissness.com/2023/05/noblesse-oblique-brian-eno-75.html
Hopefully today will also see some more news about Gary Hustwit‘s Eno film/installation/project…
Also check out Josh’s site, it’s a treasure trove of audio for uber fans of all different artists.
Mixcloud has already restricted this but hit the link above to listen and DL the updated vol.1 mix
More Volts: The Funky Eno I
Track list:
I Fall Up
R.A.F. (w. Snatch)
Regiment (w. David Byrne)
The Grid – Heartbeat (Brian Eno Squelchy Mix)
More Volts
Ali Click
Untitled
No One Receiving
America Is Waiting (w. David Byrne)
Defiant
Strong Flashes Of Light
What Actually Happened
Talking Heads – I, Zimbra (12” Version Brian Eno remix)
The Jezebel Spirit (w. David Byrne)
Fractal Zoom
Talking Heads – Crosseyed and Painless
Kurt’s Rejoinder
Help Me Somebody (w. David Byrne)
Talking Heads – The Great Curve
Chemin De Fer
Spunk Worship: The Funky Eno II
Track list:
Qu’ran (w. David Byrne)
Fat Nude Dance
Marine Radio (w. Jah Wobble)
Radiothesia III
Nikkei
Like Pictures Pt.2 (w. Peter Schwalm)
Unusual Balance
Evil Thoughts
Beast
Monomedia
Glitterbug 6
Heat Beat
Wire Shock
Glitterbug 14
Jon Hassell – Adedara Rising (Nowbodhi remix)
Spunk Worship
With Howie B
Sky Saw
Never Tunnelling
Seeded
T.N.K. (w. 801)
Dust Shuffle: The Funky Eno III
Track list:
Jon Hassell – Mashujaa (Nowbodhi edit 3)
Theme From Lets Go Native (w. Passengers)
Over Fire Island
Spinning Away (w. John Cale)
City of Life
Lot – Into The Spirit World (demo) (w. David Byrne)
War Fetish
Sounds Alien
David Bowie – Abdulmajid
DBF (w. Karl Hyde)
Itch (EN Stitch edit)
Glitch
Reasonable Question
United Colours (Nowbodhi edit) (w. Passengers)
Cheeky Hopa
Move
Gbenta (w. Edikanfo)
Sanctuaries
Tutti Forgetti
Dust Shuffle (w. Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams)
Beautiful poster that appeared earlier this week on the Pink Floyd socials, looks like a Mark Boyle/Boyle Family liquid image transposed into a screen printed poster. It dates from 1968 which was when Boyle was doing lights for them.
Sorry, no upload today as I’ve been crazily trying to catch up with work after a birthday weekend that morphed into a bank holiday and I’m also finishing two special new mixes that will debut on Monday.
As it was my birthday last Friday we went to see the Beyond The Streets exhibition before it closed at the Saatchi (2nd time for me) and ate the most amazing cream pastry thing from the small kiosk next to Sloan Sq station.
The evening was the Book & Record Bar‘s Stick It On night where you arrive with records of your choice, chalk your name on the board and wait your turn to play three in a row – and repeat with alcohol. Lots of friends turned up and we left at 1am.
Saturday there was something going on in town, I forget what, so we steered clear and checked out the new record shop in Crystal Palace – Vinyl. Packed with treats – quite literally as all the usual bins from outside were inside due to the terrible weather. Found some decent bits but need to go back for a deeper dig…
Sunday, up early for the Peckham carboot then on for lunch on the main high street and drinks at the CLF Art Lounge, a rooftop bar by the station I had no idea existed but felt tropical due to the open air insulation. Dom Servini was playing all afternoon and we met up with Deb Grant and friends before she went off to Manchester to start her new career as an official 6 Music DJ. Then rushed to Iklectic in Waterloo to see Sculpture do one of their usual incredible live sets, bagging an A0 poster along the way.
Monday we wandered down to Brixton to the Chip Shop (with the emphasis on Hip Hop) to hear Andy Higgs and Graeme Parker play with special guest Nik Weston from Mukatsuku records, with the extra treat of Zoe ‘Lucky Cat’ Baxter turning up unannounced.
Back to work Tuesday, assembling over 20 unique test cover versions of The New Obsolescents‘ LP cover for a future thing but then off to Iklectik again in the evening to witness Paul Cousins play live for the launch of his new album on Castles In Space.
My friend Joe Whyte was playing pedal steel guitar alongside him for several numbers and the whole thing was sublime despite the horrible weather outside. Saw even more friends and wobbled back home with a pile of new vinyl from Colin and the latest issue of Moonbuilding mag.
Back to the mix(es) – coming Monday for a very important birthday…
According to the tape box, this was a Coldcut Solid Sphinx, that being a 2 hr set with no ad breaks or chat from us. Given that I have most of it on tape that bears out the description but of course there are no track lists on the mic and no indication as to who is playing when. I could spot my section though and, from the sound of the rest of the tapes, Matt, Jon and PC were also present. Not enough mention is given to the insertion of jingles, spoken word and fx over the top of the DJ mixes and this was something that really made the radio shows special. Matt, Jon and Patrick were expert at this and would frequently have something ready for a break or pause in the music, all flown in live as we DJed.
All the shows were done in one take back then, although mostly pre-records on the Friday evening before they were aired Saturday night/Sunday morning. We didn’t have the facilities to do hard disc edits back then – well, KISS did but we didn’t like we do now – and also there wasn’t time. So if things are a little rough round the edges occasionally that’s because it’s all live. A quick run through of the tracks; Sam Sever from his Raiders of the Lost Art 12” licensed to MoWax kicks things off, I had to transplant the start of it from another source as the tape cut in after it had started. I see the ‘record company is the pimp, the artist is the ho…’ analogy attributed to Ice Cube a lot on the web but he was evidently cribbing from whatever source Sam sampled this from. DJ Shadow’s debut release, ‘Entropy’ had either had a repress after his first releases on MoWax due to high demand or someone had booted it, either way, copies started floating around again in 1995 and Discogs suggests it was the latter.
Another semi-official /semi-boot release was Think Tank, sporting a Tommy Boy label but on Hakattak Records. Both tracks appeared on the Information Society’s LP ‘Hack’ the same year so was this a promo idea from Tommy Boy because of the huge James Brown and Kraftwerk samples? The Jungle Brothers’ Ultimatum megamix came with the free 12” available with copies of the UK release of their debut LP, ‘Straight Out The Jungle’ and Ultimatum were actually the Stereo MCs when DJ Cesare was part of the crew. More trip hop, DJ Krush with ‘Ruff-Neck Jam’ from his debut LP and then into DJ Crystl’s classic ‘Let It Roll’ on the wrong speed for a quick switch up in tempo.
This stuff, along with early Photek and Droppin’ Science 12”s, were some of the first D’n’B I bought when I was working at Ambient Soho, jungle had largely passed me by but this newer, sleeker, more intricate form was working its way into the record box. The next track with ‘Gunshots… Firing’ initially drew a blank but Anon in the comments identified it as something from Luke Vibert’s Plug series, ‘3:41’ from Plug 1 – Visible Crater Funk. Link’s ‘Amazon Amenity’ Chameleon remix stands out a mile, such a tune, utter classic, and Danny Breaks’ ‘Step Off’ fits right in, funny that they collaborated later on too. Funki Porcini’s ‘Wicked, Cruel, Nasty & Bad’ rounds things off, from his Hed Phone Sex debut LP, I’d forgotten this, must dig that album out again. Speaking of Funki (as I was just the other day), he’s making high quality prints of my Fast Asleep album cover again very soon so if you fancy hanging that on your wall then check his website in about a month.
Track list:
Sam Sever & The Raiders of the Lost Art – Words of Wisdom (They Don’t Know)
DJ Shadow feat Gift of Gab – Count & Estimate
Think Tank – A Knife & A Fork (The Massively Parallel Mix)
Jungle Brothers – Ultimatum Ultramix
DJ Krush – Ruff-Neck Jam
DJ Crystl – Let It Roll
Plug – 3:41
Link – Amazon Amenity (Chameleon remix)
Danny Breaks – Step Off
Funki Porcini – Wicked, Cruel, Nasty & Bad
On May 1st 2020, in the midst of the first lockdown, I quietly started my online label, Infinite Iklectik. Like most people at the time, I was housebound and in the midst of a mass of creative activity now that all the hours of the day were mine. I was also about to turn 50 and thought it would be good to have my own label online by the time I turned half a century. The reason for creating a label of my own? I’d built the first version of the four-armed Quadraphon turntable the summer before and been recording all sorts of material on it to test it out.
Created through simultaneously playing vinyl records with multiple locked grooves (infinitely looping single grooves) with four needles and then patching the individual channels through an FX pedal to build and alter rhythmic tracks, there was hours of audio to go through. Having time on my hands I’d slowly been editing down the jams to their highlights, careful to keep track of which records I’d used for each one. Now was the time to give them a home and Bandcamp was the most obvious place to easily host files that I had no intention of releasing in a physical format but wanted to see the light. Being that this material is very different to the music I release as DJ Food – and also the fact that I’m signed to Ninja Tune under that name – I elected to create a series of pseudonyms with a nod to the turntable more than anything to play the part of the various groups that would be signed to my label. It’s fun to play label manager, artist, designer, A&R and PR agent all on your own, I could do anything I liked without having to refer to others to sign anything off, guess I am a control freak sometimes.
I uploaded seven releases on May 1st and a further Four Tet remix a month later and then nothing… Other work got in the way (not least three albums under the DJ Food, Celestial Mechanic and The New Obsolecents monikers) plus artwork duties and further improvements to the Quadraphon which would take another two years to complete. With a gig earlier this year at the Ramsgate Music Hall I started rehearsing and recording in earnest, again amassing a huge array of material, you can record albums worth in a matter of days with this thing. Anyway, to cut a long story short, three years on from the initial label debut I’ve readied a batch of releases which will be released monthly, the first being this Friday, May 5th, which is coincidentally my birthday.
Forthcoming releases:
The keen-eyed will notice a new name on the list; jamesinreallife is from New Zealand and has unknowingly been working along the same lines as me with his own device for years too. I hadn’t intended to release anything but my own music on II but when he sent me some of his first recordings it was too good to ignore. More about him in time, his release is a way off yet and there’s much to discuss there. Anyway, here’s a short clip of the Ramsgate gig where I’m remixing the locked groove side of Four Tet’s ‘Sixteen Oceans’ LP live. I’ve been posting more clips on my Instagram and YouTube channels too.
The photo above was taken from DJ Hurricane’s Facebook page today, commemorating 11 years since the death of MCA – 11? How is it that long? The eagle-eyed among you will spot a copy of Jazz Brakes vol.2 nestling in the Hurra’s embrace there. I had no idea, maximum respect.
The Cinematic Orchestra are reissuing Man With A Movie Camera, their third album, in a 20th anniversary re-pressing this autumn along with a run of dates in Europe. The album will be issued in a foiled, embossed AND debossed tip-on cover with new sleeve notes and ashen and pewter grey vinyl. Below is a mock up of what it should look like (not made by me but my original artwork will be largely unchanged I’m told). More details here
Also this Friday a new Ninja Tune presents Solid Steel page will arrive on Apple Music with a collection of mixes selected from the now defunct radio show by the label. One of mine will be included I’m told and this has come about because of recent changes whereby mixes are now able to be monetised on the platform whereby each artist played is accounted to so that mix sessions like this and the CD series will be able to be made available for streaming.
In non-Ninja business I have a release going up on May 5th on my own Infinite Illectrik label too via Bandcamp, this will kick off a string of monthly releases of my Quadraphon turntable experiments which will lead up to the end of the year. See a full post about that tomorrow.
Part 2 of the Candlemas set sees a more psychedelic mix of tracks after the ambience of part 1, lots of 60s and 70s nuggets, culled from various comps over the years mixed in with contemporary freakbeats from the likes of The Giallos Flame, Broadcast and Vanishing Twin. Visioneers (4 Hero’s Marc Mac) covers Stereolab and we get two Eno collaborations from 20 years apart. Weirdly The Flies’ cover of Stepping Stone turned up on a vintage mix a couple of weeks ago. The Cut Chemist remix of Edan’s ‘Torture Chamber’ samples The Feed-Back (Ennio Morricone’s psych band masterpiece) so it seemed right to put them together. I was having way too much fun mixing the UNKLE remix of Can’s ‘Vitamin C’ with Tangerine Dream so that’s why the mix lasts so long.
As the night wore on, the vicar hosting the celebration was concerned that the music wasn’t pumping enough and urged me to ramp things up for the end of the night so that people would start dancing, hence the slight change of direction at the end of the set to a more uptempo selection. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the likelihood of a load of people dancing around in sub zero temperatures when there was a warm cafe and chapel nearby (where he commandeered most of the crowd for spoken word pieces) was virtually nil. The crowd stayed away in droves, preferring the cosy ambience of the chapel and the eight Solar 250 projectors with liquid wheels Whyte Light Visuals had positioned around the amazing room and I don’t blame them.
Part 2 Track list:
Air – Aphrodites Child
A Minha Menina – Os Mutantes
Track 01 – The Giallos Flame
Come And Play In The Milky Night – Visioneers
Group Autogenics I – The Books
Come With Us – Brian Eno & David Byrne
Persis – Eno & Schwalm
Nite-Is-A-Comin’ Smeta Murgaty – Warm Sounds
Love Love Love – Wool
Stepping Stone – The Flies
No One Receiving – Brian Eno
Messer, Scissors, Fork & Light – Can
The Feed-Back – The Feed-Back
Torture Chamber (Cut Chemist remix) – Edan
Hammer Without A Master – Broadcast
Backstroke – Vanishing Twin
Vitamin C (UNKLE remix) – Can
Tangerine Dream – Thru Metamorphic Rocks – Tangerine Dream
Pendulum – Broadcast
J Zimbra (J Large re-edit) – Talking Heads
And The Break Goes On – The Break Boys
The Phantom – Renegade Soundwave
Take A Love Break – A Jackin’ Freak
Groove Is In The Heart (Rex The Dog Beats In Space mix-edit) – Dee-Lite
Wheeling around the internet (as I do) you pick up all sorts of interesting things, here are some that have been cluttering up the desktop with nowhere to go this month. Above is a promo badge – or button as they call them in the States – for the opening of The Kaleidoscope club in 1967, apparently the Grateful Dead played – taken from a RockPosters.com post.
The cover of the Sexedelic LP, most of which became one half of the Vampyros Lesbos Psychedelic Dance Party compilation on Crippled Dick Hot Wax. Despite owning said comp since the 90s I’d never seen this cover.
International Times newsagents poster, sent to me by Drew Mulholland
Robert Williams illustrated header card for a bag of weed! Not sure the year but looks 70s.
Gorgeous box design for a Philips projector lens.
Original art for an Alex Nino spread from Star Reach magazine no.6 from Heritage Auctions
Beautiful Odyssey computer box design plus computer inside, look at those huge chips! Seen on Facebook Marketplace.
New Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan LP cover – possibly by Nick Taylor? Out next week…
Gorgeous designs by Louise Mason for the State 51 Singularity series of lathe cuts, made in conjunction with The Quietus website. Patrons on the highest tier of The Quietus’ subscription service get regular digital releases from various bands championed by the website and these are starting to be made available as limited lathe cut singles via State 51. Each edition (of 50) comes in an embossed box with hand-finished details and features a 20 minute disc of exclusive music from each artist.
Talking of The Quietus, they desperately need more subscribers to survive so if you want to support good, independent journalism you can sign up to three different options with the site, each of which unlocks more content. Subscribe here.
Rather than an archive mix this week I’ve decided to do a new one – of sorts – for subscribers as I’ve had this on the laptop for several months, waiting for a chance to edit and post it. There will be two parts and it’s culled from a DJ set I did earlier this year. There are no edits in this first section, just a fade in at the beginning from a longer piece. Part 2 follows next week with more info on the mix and I’m readying another Mixcloud Select Exclusive mix for May too…
Back at the start of the year, at the end of January to be precise, I took part in an outdoor sound and light celebration as part of the Candlemas festival at the Royal Foundation of St. Katherine in Limehouse, East London. I was mainly responsible for the music selection but also bought along some projectors and FX wheels to add to the many others happening around the site. Alongside me were Julian Hand and Paul Naudin, boiling oil and ink inside slides which they then projected around the canopy we were stationed under. Elsewhere Heena Song and Joe and Janie from Whyte Light Visuals were doing similar things either inside one of the cafe tents or in the main chapel area.
The musical brief was ambient / psychedelic / krautrock / cosmic and I was using a small digital controller to layer tracks and add FX, seated outside in the freezing cold, wrapped up in layers of clothing, thermals, hat and scarf. As part of my set I added a truncated version of the Solid Steel mix for the show’s 30 anniversary a few years back, so that I could have some time to socialise and see the rest of the site. This 30 minute mix could be seen as a continuation of the Influences set I put together for Dust & Grooves nearly 10 years ago, full of key tracks from the last 50 years that have stuck with me and informed my tastes. If you missed it back then then it’s a very densely layered set that took many hours to get right in the studio, not live by any stretch of the imagination, but something I laboured over to create a gently shifting flow of songs and textures. That it also included some religious references was a bonus considering the event and location we were playing at. It begins and ends with the Linda Perhacs track ‘Parallelograms’ and is preceded with some very deep ambient, largely from the German school.
More photos and details of the evening here:
Part 1 Tracklist:
Cyclicia (Extended) – Jon Brooks
Electric Garden – Conrad Schnitzler
Phaedra (shhhhhh) – Tangerine Dream
Aqua – Edgar Froese
Slow Action – Pictogram
– Solid Steel 30 A Dream Within A Dream mix (short version 30.29) – DJ Food
Parallelograms / Linda Perhacs
The Carrier / Brian Eno & David Byrne
On The Run / Pink Floyd
Autobahn / Kraftwerk
Ascent (An Ending) / Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois
Our Prayer / The Beach Boys
Gravitational Arch of 10 / Vapour Space
Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix) / David Bowie
Rain Dance / Herbie Hancock
Messer, Scissors, Fork & Light / Can
Rainbow Dome Musick / Steve Hillage
Tardis Cymbals / Cavern of Anti-Matter
Electric Counterpoint fast / Pat Metheny
Music for 18 Musicians / Steve Reich
Wet Rubber Soup / 10cc
Rainbow Dome Musick / Steve Hillage
Answered Prayers / David Sylvian
E2:E4 / Manuel Gottsching
Deep Shit (The Cult of Mu 7″ mix) / The KLF
A Mechanical Eye / Jon Brooks
In C (Version 4.2) / Terry Riley vs Meat Beat Manifesto
Telepath / Boards of Canada
Obsidian (Organically Decomposed) / Psychic Warriors of Gaia
Waves Become Wings / This Mortal Coil
Rainbow Dome Musick / Steve Hillage
A New Day / Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani
Gravitational Arch of 10 / Vapour Space
Parallelograms / Linda Perhacs
Butterfly – The Fox
Recorded on the 30th March but broadcast three weeks later on the 21st April, 2006 – this set of vaguely psychedelic, drum-heavy tracks was another dip of the toe into the melting pot of funky freakout gear I was getting more and more into by the mid 00’s. Some pretty pedestrian stuff here to be honest but most of it still holds up. Some of the mixes come fast and furious, barely holding in there as tempos and swing are all over the place but that’s the beauty of it isn’t it? This was all done from vinyl but I would shortly switch to Serato after a disastrous trip to Dublin where my record box didn’t take the same plane and I had to raid the promoter’s record collection to piece together a set on the spot. I’d just been given a demo of Serato at Mr Trick’s house and this was all I needed to push me over to the digital side.
We all know the Beatles, The Osmonds’ number is a great track from their Crazy Horses album and I have a soft spot for them as there are some killer tunes in their catalogue alongside the schmaltz. That Rastas track has the most insane drum solo, I think I found that on one of the North American tours and the cover has definitely been nibbled by a few mice in its time. DJ Food fans might recognise elements from Lalo Schifrin’s ‘Life Insurance’ but I’ll say no more, the Vanilla Fudge was also plundered later on… Andy Votel’s mix of Schwab’s ‘DJs In A Row’ was a killer DJ party tool that DK and I used to cane in the latter half of the 00’s in our 4-deck sets, especially the latter half with it’s multi-tempo breaks, I even cut a nice video to it at one point which I should dig out some time. DK and I must have edited hundreds of custom videos to tracks over the years between 2008 and 2012 when we regularly toured our AV sets, maybe once these tapes are done I should dig them out and upload them for all.
‘Freakout’ by the Electric Flag with John Simon (presumably controlling the electronics and mix) does exactly what it says on the tin, a 10 minute utter craze-fest with panning effects and samples flying everywhere. In my head there’s a definition of psychedelic music and this is one of the benchmarks of the 60s era – few are as insane and relentless as this monster vamp. It’s the last track on the You Are What You Eat OST if you need a copy. Sweet Smoke’s ‘Silly Sally’ is another huge, phased drum solo from the latter half of their side-long, Conny Plank-produced debut LP. The Sub’s ‘Ma-Mari-Huana’ is a tune from the German band’s only single and The Mind Expanders’ album is a must for a pot shot at all things psych in 1967 even if it does sound like a bit of a cash in.
Charlie Daniels’ ‘Funky Junky’ was something I found in a Greenwich basement and bought on spec, turns out it’s a funky rock tune with a killer breakdown – nice. Beaver & Krause have another nice breakdown in the middle of their country-rock tune ‘Gandharva’ (with a bit of a Ken Nordine voice-over from the intro to the Jackson’s ‘Triumph’ no less). Rock doesn’t get much funkier than Deep Purple’s ‘Flight Of The Rat’ with that wah-wah guitar in the mix, there must be a re-edit of this somewhere? We take a slight pause from the percussion mayhem with a snatch of The Hellers before Don Sebesky’s fuzz jazz cut ‘Elliot’s Pad’ from The People Next Door OST. Elliot’s Pad seems to include sitars, flutes and drum breaks too and then we’re back into big beat breakdowns from Cozy Powell, The Osmonds (again – showcasing ‘My Drum’) and a second pass for Lalo Schifrin from his Rock Requiem LP which opens like Stereolab and then goes all Jesus Christ Superstar on us, sounding more David Axelrod than David Axelrod in places.
The Flies’ cover of (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone is just the right side of nasty and Dr John’s evergreen ‘Right Place, Wrong Time’ is always welcome. Rare Earth’s bass line to ‘(I Know I’m) Losing You’ mixes remarkably well out of it too. I’ve always wanted to do something with that but never got it to work in a track, probably too late now as the sample boat has long sailed. Over the extended breakdown you’ll hear Frank Zappa, Alvin Lucier and the ‘Persons are gifts…’ monologue from Rosko that I would later feature on the Ninja Tune 1000 Masks mix.
Tracklist:
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR – THE BEATLES
HOLD HER TIGHT – THE OSMONDS
BLACK CAT – RASTAS
LIFE INSURANCE – LALO SCHIFRIN
THE BEAT GOES ON – VANILLA FUDGE
DJS IN A ROW (ANDY VOTEL MIX) – SCHWAB
FREAKOUT – THE ELECTRIC FLAG & JOHN SIMON
SILLY SALLY – SWEET SMOKE
MA-MARI-HUANA – THE SUB
LOVE SYNDROME – MIND EXPANDERS
FUNKY JUNKY – CHARLIE DANIELS
GANDHARVA – BEAVER & KRAUSE
FLIGHT OF THE RAT – DEEP PURPLE
ELLIOT’S PAD – DON SEBESKY
AND THEN THERE WAS SKIN – COZY POWELL
MY DRUM – THE OSMONDS
INTROIT – LALO SCHIFRIN
(I’M NOT YOUR) STEPPIN’ STONE – THE FLIES
RIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME – DR JOHN
(I KNOW I’M) LOSING YOU – RARE EARTH