Two new Kraftwerk books

Two new Kraftwerk books are about to hit the shelves. The Vinyl Factory issue a collection of 45 sleeves from around the world in a limited edition book with a 7″ of an interview on Sept 12″ with a free exhibition of the sleeves at The Vinyl Factory Chelsea gallery, 91 Walton Street, London SW1 between Sept 13th and Oct 5th. You can pre-order the book for an eye-watering £80 here.

A new biography is also released this week called ‘Publikation’, written by David Buckley and published by Omnibus Press. It got a good review in the recent issue of Mojo as he seems to have interviewed as many of their close associates and ex-band members as possible. You can buy it now and it’s nice to see that it’s been designed by Malcolm Garrett.

Posted in Books, Kraftwerk, Records. | 1 Comment |

Shakara The Destroyer graphic novel

As readers may know, I’m a fan of Henry Flint‘s art, kind of obvious since I got him to provide visuals for all my recent releases. One of his finest comic book creations – along with writer Robbie Morrison – is the alien Shakara, a lone assassin, seeking revenge for the destruction of his race. This ran for five series’ in the UK comic anthology 2000ad and finished last year with an epic finale that I won’t spoil here.

This final series is now collected (along with the 4th series) in a graphic novel priced £14.99 – or even cheaper if you get it from Forbidden Planet! The first 3 chapters are also available at the bargain price of £12.99 here. For anyone who enjoyed Kevin O’Neill‘s Nemesis the Warlock or Simon Bisley‘s take on the ABC Warriors books, this is on par with those classics – stunning visuals and plot set pieces to blow your mind.

I’ve also been reminded that Factory Road still have a small quantity of the 2 colour screen printed tea towels that they made for our recent exhibition, sporting Henry’s line drawing for my album cover. Check them out on their shop.

Posted in Comics, DJ Food. | No Comments |

DJ Food news…

I’ve got some big gigs coming up in the next few months, see the above film for something very special at the Sacrum Profanum festival in Krakow on Sept 15th alongside other Ninja artists past and present, Grasscut, King Cannibal, Skalpel and DJ Vadim. I’ll be remixing a piece by Polish composer Wojciech Kilar and presenting that live, very excited about this one as it will look and sound amazing. The big gig in October is at the Forum – the first time I’ve ever played there – alongside Belleruche, DJ Cam, Chris Read and headliners The Herbaliser who will be using it as the release party for their album, ‘There Were Seven’.

Before both of those though I can finally reveal a very special project that I’ve had in the pipeline for several years now that has finally come to fruition. DJ Cheeba, DJ Moneyshot and myself had the idea of collaborating on a version of the Beastie Boys‘ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album shortly after Moneyshot aired his mix of their ‘Check Your Head’ made entirely from the original sample sources. It was one of my favourite mixes that year (or any year) and we decided we should get together to try and tackle ‘Paul’s Boutique’ as it was a far bigger task being that it has at least twice as many samples.

The result is ‘Caught In The Middle Of A 3-Way Mix’ – a tribute to The Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album, and it will make its debut on Solid Steel on August 30th. Each of us have taken a third of the album each to work on and combined our efforts into a mix that lasts just over an hour, if you’re a fan of the record then be prepared to hear it in a new way. Aside from the original sample sources we’ve included commentary from the Beasties, vintage interviews, demo versions and much more, if you thought the original was multi-layered then this adds even more.

The mix was over half way completed when we heard the tragic news of MCA‘s death in May so the impetus to finish it was instantly doubled and new meaning given to the project. It goes without saying that this is also a tribute to Adam Yauch and the legacy he left behind and we hope it will be embraced by Beastie fans around the globe when it drops, we’re just putting the finishing touches to it this weekend.

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

Robin The Fog’s ‘The Ghosts of Bush’ album

[vimeo width=”640″ height=”360″]http://vimeo.com/44845805[/vimeo]

How can my interest not be piqued by this playful pun on Eno & Byrne‘s masterpiece when it’s coupled with Radiophonic tape manipulation and my friend Robin The Fog – BBC employee and sidekick to Jonny Trunk on the OST show?

“‘Ghosts Of Bush’ was created entirely using the natural acoustic sounds of Bush House, the iconic home for the past seven decades of the BBC World Service which will shortly be closing its doors for the last time. All of the sounds were captured in the small hours of the morning in empty offices, corridors, stairwells and other hidden corners by a Studio Manager working overnight. These recordings were then dubbed onto quarter-inch tape in the basement studio deep in the bowels of the South-East wing using two of the surviving reel-to-reel machines.”

You can read more about how it was put together as well as hear the whole album on Robin’s blog – The Fog Signals.

Posted in Music. | 1 Comment |

Scanone ‘Archive’ DVD

I’ve featured work by Jude Greenaway, before, his promo for Pendulum‘s ‘Coffin‘ last summer was fantastic. Long time associate of The Light Surgeons, owner of the Yellow Machines label and music maker under the name Scanone.

Now he’s put together a DVD of 13 unreleased experimental / cinematic audio tracks that have been worked on visually by 12 directors and collectives. The tracks span a 10 year period and this project has taken four years to put together overall. Catch a sample in the trailer below and pre-order the DVD here.

[quicktime width=”636″ height=”380″]http://www.djfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LRV-DVD-GREENAWAY-YM.mov[/quicktime]

Posted in Film, Music. | No Comments |

More Tron Uprising concept art

While Tron Uprising fans wait until October (!) for the remaining episodes of the first season to air here’s some more concept art by Alberto Mielgo. If you haven’t seen this show (and if you’re outside the US then it’s unlikely unless you’re downloading torrents or subscribe to Disney’s XD channel) you can now buy a series subscription from iTunes and view the first episode here.

Posted in Art, Film. | 1 Comment |

All I could hear was static

[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz13yVociqc&feature=plcp[/youtube]

I recently unlinked my old YouTube account and created a DJFoodOfficial one instead. Below is the screen you get when you unlink an account, nice touch. There’s not much up there at the moment but it will grow over time and I put the ‘Sunspot’ track up that I did for the Carling Zest campaign as this is the only place you can get it…

Posted in Film. | No Comments |

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre at Space Station 65

The Cabaret Mechanical Theatre are the guest exhibitors this summer at Space Station 65‘s gallery in North Cross Road, East Dulwuch, London. More than 20 mechanical artworks, or Automata if you prefer, are on display for free and fantastic for adults and kids alike. The CMT website has more info about what they do as well as lots to read and learn if you want to get into making automata. They also have various papercraft models on sale at the exhibition so you can make your own.

The gallery is open every day except Mondays 11-6pm and it’s free, also if you’re in the area, the East Dulwich Picture Gallery is a short bus ride up the hill and they have an Andy Warhol screenprint exhibition on.

Posted in Art, Toys. | No Comments |

Akira fan made live action trailer project

This is the poster for an online initiative to make a live action trailer for Akira, this time by fans rather than Hollywood who have tried and failed many times to get a version of the film made. The Akira Project have just started a site and blog asking for help and equipment but already have a small team of people working on it.

This came about because of their love of the film and various leaked Hollywood plot rewrites and re-locations (Neo-Tokyo to Neo New York) that have frustrated fans of the original for years. In a recent interview with comic artist Chris Weston, who was drafted in to work on a Hollywood version of Akira, he said the first thing the production team asked him to do was redesign Kanada‘s bike. This is a classic case of Hollywood just not understanding the fundamentals of what makes something a classic and he said he was relieved when it was finally taken out of production.

The Akira Project’s aim is to stick as close to the original as possible and bring a faithful version of it to the big screen but they intend to start at a trailer to show what they are capable of.

Posted in Film. | 3 Comments |

DJ Food – ‘The Search Engine’ Live at SAT, Montreal

DJ Food ‘The Search Engine’ live at SAT, Montreal from Solid Steel on Vimeo.

This is what I got up to in Montreal recently. Many, many thanks to Anne-Marie Bergeron who put this together at very short notice. If anyone seeing this works at a dome or planetarium, anywhere in the world, and are interested in hosting it in the future then please get in touch. I realise not every dome has a surround system or space to lay on the floor, it doesn’t have to, I will happily work with you to tailor the show to your needs. Contact details are up on the right there…

Posted in DJ Food, Event, Film. | 2 Comments |