Custom Lego Blade Runner Spinner

That’s right, a Blade Runner Police Spinner vehicle made from Lego, custom designed and completely unauthorised. It’s not big, it’s not clever and it’s certainly not cheap when they don’t pay all the postage and you have to pick up the bill. If you fancy it for Xmas then there’s the URLs to follow in the photo and they do all sorts of other vehicles from other sci-fi franchises.

Posted in Toys. | 1 Comment |

Star Wars Angry Birds trailer

[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6lYFO_tKlE&feature=relmfu[/youtube]
I’m not going to comment on the recent Disney buys Lucasfilm story or the current media scramble to find out who will be starring and directing because… honestly, I don’t give a shit. As I posted the other day, the other SW franchise hook up is with Angry Birds and I have to say, this is very well done. My kids play the game and if the new films failed to sell it to a new generation then this is a good start on the next one.

Posted in Film, Star Wars. | No Comments |

Hellboy timeline

Only 3 more weeks until Hellboy In Hell arrives in stores, written AND drawn by the great Mike Mignola for the first time in years. If you’re new to this and fancy jumping on then now’s the time to do it and this handy resumé of Hellboy’s history popped up on the web a few weeks back.

Not that it’s any substitute for reading the actual stories (about 11 collected graphic novels now I think plus a handful of spin offs and B.P.R.D. which is a whole other story). Also this board had been created on Pinterest: The Gothic Genius of Mike Mignola if you need a fix of his artwork anytime.

 

Posted in Art, Comics. | No Comments |

Love, love, love!

It’s been a bit quiet on the blog these last two weeks because I’ve been busy finishing the fulldome show for this weekend’s FulldomeUK2012 (tickets still available) and gigging in Tel Aviv, Berlin and Bucharest. There’s loads of stuff to come when I can find time to photograph and upload it all though. The studio is a mess, I can’t find anything without moving piles of crap, I need a day to sort stuff out but today won’t be it unfortunately.

Also this Sunday sees an appearance at The Regeneration Festival at the Tabernacle in London that runs for Saturday and Sunday and features Time & Space Machine, Wolf People, Bardo Light Show, talks and films on the psychedelic experience.
Besides that there’s all sorts of things going on behind the scenes as we prepare for 2013 and Solid Steel being 25 years old, starting with a new residency in Brighton at the Blind Tiger, starting this Friday with DK with support from 2econd Class Citizen and Banks.

Coming up: The 4xLP repress of ‘The Search Engine’ – yep, still not done, we went back and changed the cover from a heavy card gatefold to a quad foldout gatefold (remember the limited edition Paul’s Boutique LP? yes, like that), so I have to reconfigure the artwork this week.

Currently finishing a mix for Solid Steel that has a high proportion of music I was given in Israel, both old and new that is up there with the best of anything currently released on labels like Finders Keepers or Now Again (see the post of Markey Funk‘s The Mystery of Mordy Laye & The Group Modular‘).
On Saturday I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the ‘Man Machine’ performance by Kraftwerk in Dusseldorf next January (thanks Tony Morley!) so I will be doing Kraftwerk Kover Kollection vol.8 to coincide with that early next year (the group are doing their 8 albums over 8 nights thing in their home town in case you didn’t hear, tickets sold out in less than 2 hours).

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Music. | 1 Comment |

Beta Hector – Trust Me (The Simonsound Remix)


Wow, this is right up my street. A video collage for The Simonsound remix of Beta Hector‘s ‘Trust Me‘, featuring clips from Psychomania, Mala Morska Vila mixed with oil projections performed on overhead projector. The original song, featuring Rosi Lalor on vocals, is re-imagined by The Simonsound as mythical adventure story, told using analogue synthesisers, Optigan orchestra, home made percussion, pre recorded flute replayed and performed on reel to reel tape machine, and a scattering of voices plucked from the ether.

Available as a free download from Tru Thoughts Records

Posted in Film, Music. | No Comments |

The Mystery of Mordy Laye & the Group Modular

I’ve just come back from Tel Aviv and while I was there I met Markey Funk, whoseGo Ask Alice’ image and mix I posted by complete coincidence earlier this week. He gave me a load of records including his latest album ‘The Mystery of Mordy Laye’ as well as a DVD with 3D glasses.

If you love radiophonic / moog / library / space beats then this is the album for you. The nearest I can pitch it is The Simonsound LP by DJ Format & Simon James on First Word last year. I definitely recommend this record, check out the album and the intriguing back story on their bandcamp page. On the same label, Audio Montage – also the home to The Apples – are a number of 45’s of old and new psyche, funk, surf, sitar material and the same goes for the Fortuna label which is only 2 releases old.

Posted in Music, Records. | 1 Comment |

Solid Steel – residency at the Blind Tiger Club, Brighton

Starting this month we have a brand new residency in Brighton for Solid Steel at the Blind Tiger Club. Each monthly gig will feature one Solid Steel DJ and support from locals Banks and 2econd Class Citizen.

DK kicks it off in on Nov 16th, then Cheeba in Dec and myself in Jan 2013, hopefully we can make the cold, wet winter months a little warmer. We’re keeping the door price low and the content high, 3rd Friday of each month is a date for the diary.

It’ll be nice to have something regular in Brighton again, it’s been a while now and next year we celebrate 25 years of broadcasting. We’re planning several different things for next year but those will be revealed in good time.

Posted in Gigs, Solid Steel. | 1 Comment |

Felt Mistress – Creature Couture book and talk

Felt Mistress aka Louise Evans has a book coming out of her creature designs from the last 18 years. 400-pages feature over 1,650 photographs, previously unseen drawings of her partner Jonathan Edwards’ original design ideas, details of every Felt Mistress collaboration with other artists and more. With in-depth interviews with Loiuse, Jonathan, Jon Burgerman, Pete Fowler, Ben Newman, John Knox, Nobrow and more, it looks like the definitive article.

If you pre-order the book from the publishers Blank Slate you’re in with a chance to win an actual Creature made by Louise which is featured in the book. One book will come with a felt ‘You Win’ ticket as seen below and details of how to claim your prize.

There are also versions of the book with Mr Tippy characters in regular and gold editions and, if you still can’t get enough creature love, you can hear Louise and Jonathan talk about the book at Foyles on Charing Cross Rd. on Dec 11th at 8.30pm. The talk is free but you have to book a place online and Jonathan will be doing creature portraits on a first come first served basis.

Posted in Art, Books, Design, Toys. | No Comments |

Mister Jason – Son of Frankensteez EP

Out next week but having a release party this Halloween night in Boston is Mister Jason‘s Frankensteez project’s latest release – ‘Son of Frankensteez’. Anyone who caught the original limited Frankensteez 10″ will know the instant classic ‘Mister Jason Has A Posse’, a rap tune where 26 different rappers take a letter of the alphabet for four bars and let rip using as many words starting with their given letter as possible.

‘Son of…’s’ opening track ups the ante even further with DJ Format‘s remix where he swaps a classic break underneath each rapper at the same time. Also featured on the EP are remixes and production by The Herbaliser, Rain and J-Zone. The clear vinyl is limited to 500 copies and available to pre-order via UGHH.com, digital is via iTunes and there’s a whole album on Amazon.

They’ve knocked up this great video for the original ‘Mister Jason…’ track too.

Posted in Records. | 2 Comments |

The Herbaliser – ‘March Of The Dead Things’ video treat


Just in time for Halloween The Herbaliser premiere the video for their next single, ‘March of The Dead Things (Night Of The Necromantics)featuring Canadian duo Teenburger.

Directed by Caley Maclenan and shot on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia earlier this year it sees the zombie apocalypse happen right in the middle of their new video shoot. Damn! The group sent out a message to fans in the city to sign up for the shoot and gain entry to an exclusive gig whilst they were in town.

You can grab the new album, ‘There Were Seven’ from their online store on vinyl or download (Hit the red ‘shop’ tab, top right). If you want CD it’s available in all good stores, distributed by Kudos.

Posted in Film. | 2 Comments |

Prophet

If off-the-hook sci-fi is your thing then you could do worse than read Brandon Graham‘s Prophet, now up to issue 30 although it’s a reboot of an old title so the new book actually started at issue 21. With a revolving roster of artists and short back up strips in each issue it has more ideas in one page than some comics have in a whole issue. Graham has also just launched another title that he draws AND writes – Multiple Warheads – which is similarly bizarre and comes off the back of his huge King City collection.

Posted in Comics. | No Comments |

Go Ask Alice

Never seen this poster before but Dangerous Minds posted it and you can watch the film on YouTube if LSD frightspoiltation films are your thing. Whenever I see the name Alice associated with LSD I’m reminded of the Kenny Everett jingle he once did… KE – Alice D
*UPDATE* Seems that this poster was made by Markey Funk in 2006, for Agitpop Records – not for the film at all. It was for a psychedelic mix and here’s it is in three parts with additional info – well worth a listen.

Posted in Poster / flyer. | 2 Comments |

Shepard Fairey ‘Sound & Vision’ – StolenSpace, London

Obey-Sound-and-Vision-London-invite-flatI finally got to see the Shepard Fairey ‘Sound & Vision’ show at StolenSpace over the weekend and it is highly recommended. There was a vast amount of work pitched between two galleries with a shop in between for good measure and as a body of work it’s very impressive. I’ve been a fan since seeing his early paste ups in New York in the mid 90’s and attended his first London show in ’99 at the Horse Hospital. That he was doing a music-themed show was music to my ears (sorry), given that he’s designed sleeves and videos for a number of acts over the years and knows the language, always inserting musical icons into his work. For those that know Fairey’s style – it’s not a massive departure visually, the red, cream and black colour scheme dominates throughout and that’s fine because it’s a classic. He really doesn’t need to mess with the formula as there’s more than enough here to see and it gives everything a certain coherence.

He’s experimented with other ways of presenting though, a series of A2 images are repeated on brushed metal in one part of the gallery and there’s an underlying collage feel to some of the pieces where he’s pasted several layers of paper together before printing over the top, much like the fly-postered surfaces he goes over on the streets. Elsewhere multiple copies of the same print have been dissected, mixed up and reassembled so that geometric patterns are present from the different print and paper colours. These are stunning to see in the flesh, like some ancient scrolls unearthed from an Eastern archive, each one is dirty as if layers of varnish and glue have been applied and their edges remain ragged. Elsewhere he has ‘retired’ stencils pasted into collages, edges thick with paint and given a new lease of life as the tools become exhibits in their own right.

The part of the show that I thought most successful was the gallery with the records in racks, (part of Fairey’s own collection), customised turntables and 12″x12″ prints. Copies of sleeves he’d designed were randomly inserted throughout the vinyl as well as a tantalising selection of 7″ custom ‘Obey Recordings’ laser-cut sleeves and record labels. These were beautiful objects and the fact that you could touch them just added to the experience, sadly they weren’t for sale and I wanted to steal one so badly but resisted. Various vintage record and tape players were dotted about with stencils and stickers added to personalise them in the Obey way, you could even play the records on some of the turntables which was a nice touch. A lot of the prints in this gallery were fictional Obey record sleeves using advertising logos and jargon from the classic Stereo Test record era mixed with Fairey’s usual propaganda-type slogans. There was repetition of the imagery but each design held it’s own and it was hard to pick a favourite as they were all beautiful. Above the record racks sat a wall of black & white gig posters, except they weren’t. Fairey had taken existing images and posters and retooled them with his own logos and messages and this is where I start to have issues with some of the work.

Before everyone pulls me up and says, “Shepard Fairey using other people’s work? surely not!? Next you’ll be telling me bears shit in the woods?” I’m pretty well versed in his history. He’s always appropriated the imagery of others, subverted existing logos and messages to his own needs, he’s by no means the first or the last to do this and various lawsuits have been filed as with any successful artist – ‘where there’s a hit there’s a writ’. The whole argument for and against appropriation could fill books and I’m not about to go into it at length here, also given that I use others materials in my own work there’s an element of the pot calling the kettle black. However I have my own yardstick for how much of something is used, abused or hinted at in any work and far too often he goes over the line with parts of his designs here. I find this work to be the weakest and it cheapens the rest of it somewhat as it’s a quick and easy thing to take an existing image or logo and reinterpret it – it’s lazy for the most part, a quick artistic crowd-pleaser.

I find it more interesting to take the benign and turn it into something beautiful by re-contextualising it like Warhol‘s Campbell’s Soup tins or Lichtenstein‘s comic art appropriations (although this still doesn’t discount the matter of copyright infringement). Fairey does this well with the various nods to the design language of 60’s and 70’s era record graphics: turntable speeds, 45 adapter shapes, retro fonts and patterns – you’ve seen it, or something like it, before but it’s not a complete rip. But by taking existing gig posters and redesigning them into more gig posters in his own image he’s not bringing anything new to the medium, just basking in the reflected glory of others’ work. Chuck D‘s Public Enemy logo is modified so that the silhouetted figure in the crosshairs now has a pasting brush, Lichtenstein’s pop art is parodied with a grenade as spray can adding an ‘er‘ to a ‘POW!’ speech balloon, Jamie Reid‘s ‘No Future’ Sex Pistols tour poster is modified and Joe Petagno‘s Motorhead logo is just used straight in a couple of pieces. Another one takes Jasper Johns‘ multi-layered number paintings as inspiration and just changes the typeface, again using the collaged bed for texture that worked far more successfully on the previously mentioned pieces where he’d used his own designs.

By parodying other artists’ work I feel Fairey is cheapening his own art, I think he’s better than this, well, I know he is because of all the other work in the show. It is littered with cultural bookmarks and (mostly Rock) icons – Joey Ramone, Lennon & Yoko, Lemmy, Iggy, Cash, etc. – again taken from existing (uncredited) photographs and homogenised in the clean, smoothed out style he made famous with his Obama ‘Hope’ poster. 80’s graffiti heroes like Haring and Basquiat feature alongside enough punk and post punk legends to fill an issue of Mojo. And that’s fine but I’m not sure what he’s trying to say by including these aside from the inherited ‘cool’ factor and the rebel nature of a lot of the subjects, linking into the subversive attitude and message in many of the other pieces no doubt. Grenades feature in several pieces and the grenade as spray can image from the ‘PowER’ piece is an extremely strong icon which he should revisit and exploit in future works rather than have relegated to a Lichtenstein pastiche.

I found the upstairs of the main Stolen Space gallery the most uneven of all the work including a few larger pieces that looked like they were experiments in a new direction but with little visual direction apparent. Interestingly, whilst virtually every piece had sold throughout the exhibition, these had not, possibly more due to their high price tag than the virtual absence of anything that said ‘Obey’ about them. It was this elevated section that seemed to have the left overs in it, odd sized pieces which didn’t fit elsewhere so had been clustered together when a few less and a bit more surrounding space would have given them more impact and taken any filler out. The best here were the retired stencils – one of his classic Andre The Giant with painting instructions – and the design for the show poster itself which greeted you when you walked in. Overall though there was way more good than bad and to have such high quality throughout with that number of pieces – there must have been around 200 or more – is some feat.

The show ends on Nov 4th so you have less than a week to check it out and we feature Z-Trip‘s soundtrack mix for the exhibition on this weeks Solid Steel.