Flint & Food at Factory Road

On June 1st I’ll be traveling up to my friends’ Sarah and Leigh‘s place in Hinckley, Leicestershire for the opening of a rejigged version of the DJ Food & Henry Flint exhibition that we held at the Pure Evil Gallery in January.

Their Factory Road Gallery will host a lot of the posters and original art and there will be local ale, special food and prints, CDs and books for sale. More details here.

There will be special limited editions available at the show, a 20 copy giclée print of the recent 12″ cover, printed tea towels (!) and chocolate bars in silver space-type wrapping. There will also be food on the opening night, local ale and I’ll be around to answer any questions.

Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food, Event, Openmind designs. | No Comments |

The Bulletproof Coffin Disinterred #4 – the cut up issue

David Hine and Shaky Kane‘s ‘The Bulletproof Coffin – Disinterred’ series has been sending ripples through the comics industry recently not least for the format of the latest issue. Taking the form of a Beats-style cut up as the method with which the issue was assembled, it reads in a random array of images in no particular order in the same way that Gysin and Burroughs rearranged cut up texts to create an alternate version of their work. Fairly radical in as far as comics go at present but what really set the cat among the pigeons were images online of Shaky cutting up an original issue of Fantastic Four #2 from his own collection.

I asked David about his intentions with the issue and if – had I bought 2 copies and cut them up – I would be able to discern a linear narrative from it if I’d attempted to rearrange it into a logical order?

“There is no preconceived or ‘correct’ way to view the panels. There are a few that do follow a pattern. There are four images of Hairy Men that revisit the scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey where prehistoric man discovers the first tool/weapon. Some of the images refer back to past issues of the Coffin, some to future issues and a few to a planned ‘biography’ of George Adamski. We’ve also reworked a few panels from my adaptation of Lovecraft‘s ‘The Colour out of Space’ originally illustrated by Mark Stafford. You may also spot other quotes from Lovecraft, Kafka, William Burroughs, Aldous Huxley‘s ‘The Doors of Perception’ and lots of other sources.

The idea is to create an open-ended merging of words and images that set off whole new narratives and are open to infinite interpretations. I’ve found new meanings in the random sequence we ended up with here. The way the last page links four deaths – Kennedy‘s assassination, the death of the fictional Hine, the murder of one of Steve Newman‘s twin ‘sons’ and the murder of one of the scientists from The Colour Out of Space. Purely coincidental.

What I really want is an app that will allow random reading of the digital version of the comic. Ideally one that will allow for alternative captions too – something I played with in the last four pages, where I took four of the panels and created an alternative narrative thread between them.”


Also notable are the text pieces ‘Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing / Stop Dancing’ at the end of the comic: a regular and then cut up version, demonstrating the process again for those who may be wondering what the hell they just read. I think there’s definitely room for a deluxe cut up version of the whole book with each panel printed separately on card to be arranged as you see fit.

Shaky had this to say: “Thanx Kev, note how I spelt thanx with a ‘X’! See- I’m there Kev, I’m there!”

Posted in Comics. | 1 Comment |

DJ Format 10″ release

More gorgeous artwork from Mr Krum for the new DJ Format 10″ single featuring Edan & Mr Lif – available now from Slice of Spice but be quick! Lots of limited versions available, black vinyl, clear with black swirls, a postcard remix of an exclusive remix, test pressing versions of the album ‘Statement of Intent’. These are two of the best Hip Hop cuts I’ve heard in a long time and instrumentals are included too.

Posted in Design, Music, Records. | No Comments |

R.I.P. MCA of the Beastie Boys

To most kids of my generation, only a couple of years behind Adrock in age at the time they blew up, the Beastie’s were super heroes. Who didn’t want to be them? Signed to the coolest Hip Hop label, growing up in public and doing the rock star thing for their first album and then moving to the west coast and hooking up with the Dust Brothers for the second.

They were a gang, you knew all their close friends from shout outs on the records and collages on the record sleeves, and you knew what they were into from their lyrics. Skateboarding, snowboarding, hardcore, rap, funk, rock, playing basketball backstage, making films and building their own recording studio. Always flipping the script with artwork and videos and always one step ahead of a trend as evidenced by countless articles in their Grand Royal magazine and the Yauch-directed ‘Sabotage’ video. Never taking themselves too seriously, you knew they were doing exactly what they wanted and having a ball.

The news that Yauch is gone is just unfathomable, I mean, he had throat cancer a few years back and he beat that, didn’t he? As far a we knew he did – of course he did, he was a superhero, beating cancer was childs play for him – “hang on, we’re just going to postpone our album for a bit while Adam battles cancer”. 6 months later, job done, the album’s out, let’s move on. You never doubted he’d beat it, it was just a formality, he was a Beastie Boy, a super hero. The news on May the 4th came out of the blue like a left hook you never saw coming, this time there would be no comeback for a new cross-over series starting next month. Now I’ve had time to take it in I’ve written some memories of the Beasties – who it will always be impossible to separate MCA from – who have been part of my musical merry go round since 1985.

I (unknowingly) first heard MCA’s gruff tones over the early Def Jam oddity, ‘Drum Machine’ by Burzootie, shouting, “Now there’s a thing called the drum machine”, repeatedly over a DMX beat that sounded like Tackhead. One of those weird one-off records that only happen when labels are finding their feet, it was a collab between Jay Burnett (Burzootie) MCA (Master Def Yauch) and Arthur Baker (Shakin’ Baker) with edits by the Latin Rascals. Next was ‘Slow & Low’ which turned up on a free 7″ with the NME I think and by the time ‘Hold It Now, Hit It’ surfaced they were most definitely on the radar.

Raising Hell Tour ’86 at the Hammersmith Odeon with LL, Whodini & Run DMC: Beasties were first on, they did ‘Slow & Low’ and ‘Hold It Now, Hit It’, wisely leaving the metal of ‘She’s On It’ off the set list for the Hip Hop crowd, and that was it. They had precious other material released at that point that anyone had heard (‘Cookie Puss’ was still under the radar and even ‘Rock Hard’ and ‘Drum Machine’ were not that well known). ‘Licensed to Ill’ wasn’t out then but they tore into the 10 minute set they had with Rick ‘DJ Double R’ Rubin as their DJ.

Less than a year later ‘Licensed To Ill’ was the soundtrack to the summer holiday of ’87 and I painted the Beastie Boys’ logo from the tail of the plane on the cover on the back of my jacket. A kid at college asked me, “what’s does ‘Licensed to three’ mean?”. After seeing Mike D on the cover of the NME wearing a VW logo round his neck I went out and pulled a big silver one off the front of a van the next weekend. Saw them in Brighton at the Conference Centre and they had the caged girls, inflatable penis, beer throwing and we saw them walking along the sea front, I still have the programme. I bought the tour T-shirt which I wore into an exam that bore the legend ‘Get Off My Dick’ on the back, I was told not to wear it again.

‘Paul’s Boutique’ – still one of my top 3 Hip Hop records and one of my favourite albums of all time. The haters at the time were wrong, it was a classic all along, they were far more than just a white rap act with rock riffs. The bad press didn’t make sense at all, this album was way better than the debut – just too far ahead of the game I suppose. It’s widely acknowledged that, along with De La‘s ‘3ft High & Rising’, ‘Paul’s Boutique’ was one of the last albums made with huge samples. They were sampling the Beatles for godsake, you can’t make records like that anymore.

‘Check Your Head’ – summer soundtrack of ’92, up their with PB as a favourite, but this time they were playing as well as sampling! I used to walk around with this on my Walkman trying to find a job when college finished for the summer. I had no money and had just come out of a long relationship, it kept me sane. Saw them with the Rollins Band at the Town & Country Club and crowd-surfed  – awesome gig.

‘Ill Communication’ – blasting it out of the warehouse in the first job I had post-college, that and Grand Royal magazine after it just cemented the legend. Video for ‘Sabotage’ was a classic and I saw them at Glastonbury in the rain in ’94, and sought out the bootleg tape of the set later.

‘Hello Nasty’ tour, Brixton Academy ’98, I was one of the support acts alongside Kid Koala, Money Mark, Invisibl Skratch Picklz, X-Men, Ollie Teeba and the Scratch Perverts. Ollie and I practiced a 4 deck routine for weeks but I was so nervous I couldn’t enjoy the gig for one second. Had dinner backstage with Mixmaster Mike and Kid Koala and MCA sat on the next table, no big star trip, just a regular guy. The gig poster still hangs in my kids’ bedroom and they have a gang that they want to call the Beastie Boys.

I always thought that MCA came across as the more mature member of the group, the one keenest to put the events of their first album behind them. He seemed to grow out of that the quickest and his support for the Tibetan Monks just cemented this, his concerns were far wider than just the group. Out of all the lyrics that MCA threw out into the world this one always comes back and I think it would make a fine epitaph:

“I want to say a little something that’s long overdue
The disrespect to women has got to be through
To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends
I want to offer my love and respect to the end”

Thank you MCA, Adam Yauch – I will miss you but I have so many good memories because of what you and the Beasties did.

Posted in Event. | 8 Comments |

The Avengers

Saw this last night, REALLY good, go and see it, everything you’d want in a blockbuster superhero film.

3D isn’t essential but doesn’t spoil it, just really well paced character driven action with an unexpected dose of genuinely funny humour.

Also some cracking design on the vehicles, looking forward to the follow up. 10/10 to all involved and I’ve never read an Avengers comic in my life.

Posted in Film. | No Comments |

The 1st East London Comics & Arts Festival

Gorgeous poster for the 1st East London Comics & Arts Festival by one of my favourite artists currently – McBess. 7th June is the date with McBess as the artist in residence; live drawing relay races from Luke Pearson, Jack Teagle, Kyle Platts, and many more; a process talk by  BLEXBOLEX, chaired by Paul Gravett; 600 second interviews from Avoid the Future; a kids workshop organised by Anorak; Screenings by Nexus; panel discussions with Karrie Fransman, Darryl Cunningham and Simone Lia; stalls from the very best comics publishers, including Jonathan Cape, SelfMadeHero, Blank Slate, Nobrow, Knockabout, Landfill Editions, Solopsistic Pop, WAWAP and more. Alos there will be a ticketed concert featuring the Dead Pirates (McBess’ band), the Vuvuvultures and a special guest running from 8 ’til late.

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

New DJ Food track and video – ‘Sunspot’

Here’s something I did last month in conjunction with Carling Zest, a new drink being promoted this summer. The idea was to take three producers, myself, DJ Yoda and Jaguar Skills, and give everyone sights and sounds of summer to incorporate into a track that had the feeling of summer to it. I called mine ‘Sunspot’, after one of my favourite Vaughn Bodé strips, and used some of my home made phenakistoscopes as elements for the video in conjunction with the footage Carling supplied.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”375″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_8Nx1TmC1o&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

I was left to my own devices and incorporated a lot of my own melodies into the track, using their bee sounds and lots of percussive elements to form the basic beat of the piece. Making a track that evokes a ‘summer’ feeling is a lot harder than making something dark and moody, especially without stepping into cheesy territory but I’m really pleased with the outcome.

During the process I was filmed going through samples in my studio and generally talking about records I thought bought out the summer feeling in me. This quickly degenerated into what seemed like a massive advert for Boards of Canada‘s back catalogue :) with other shouts to the Orb (Little Fluffy Clouds) and The The (This Is The Day). The film crew, who were great fun to work with, shot for a whole day and then crammed it all into 2 minutes, so, if the editing seems a little fragmented here and there, you’ll know why. Big thank you to Ash for getting the shots and Tom for doing a great job on helping me with the last touches on the video edit.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”375″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQFCJtD7S1w&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

Wish they hadn’t put that ice cream bit in :) Spot the ‘Rave Wars’ 7″s and 3A robots everywhere :) There’ll be an online competition to remix this track and win tickets to the V festival and other goodies coming up on May 23rd so I’ll post about that when it’s online.

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Music. | 3 Comments |

On the horizon…

A quick update on things on the DJ Food front these coming months…

Aside from the usual round of DJ gigs and festival appearances >>> over there on the right hand side column >>>, I’m going to Montreal in less than 2 weeks to research and train at the SAT Dome on the best ways to make full dome content for my planetarium show. This will be followed by a performance over several nights in Montreal mid July. This will be a remixed, updated version of the show I did at the London Planetarium and I’ll be bringing it back to the UK for the winter months before the year is out too.

On the music front, I’ve just finished a mix for 2econd Class Citizen‘s album, a couple of mixes for a DJ Shadow project premiering this summer (not the MPC archive one), there’s a 3 DJ tag team mix on the agenda for a July release and an AV project in conjunction with Carling that will go online at the end of May. The response to the Amorphous Androgynous remix release for Record Store Day has been fantastic, thanks to all who bought copies and sent pictures, the repress should be in next week so all those waiting for copies should get them.

Design-wise I’ve just started work on The Herbaliser‘s 7th studio album artwork which I’m really excited about, there’s also talk of a remix if I can fit it into the schedule. I’ve also just been asked to chair a discussion between two 80’s sleeve design heroes of mine which will be quite mind-blowing if it actually happens. I’ll also soon be announcing a second round of the exhibition of mine and Henry Flint‘s artwork for ‘The Search Engine’ which will be taking place in the UK within the month.

Posted in DJ Food. | 1 Comment |

The Dark Judges Return to 2000ad on CBR

There’s been a lot of press in the comics world concerning the return of three of the Dark Judges to the current Judge Dredd epic, ‘Day of Chaos’, in 2000ad recently. Besides them being great characters, who haven’t featured in the comic for a few years now, I’m especially into this because Henry Flint is sharing art duties on this story and he’s never drawn them before save for a few promotional images.

What’s also a big deal is that no one saw this coming and their introduction into the story at this point is one of the biggest WTF? moments, and strokes of genius from writer John Wagner, that I can remember in a long time. What’s so good about the story currently running is that, unlike past ‘epics’ in Dredd’s world, this one hasn’t been trailed in quite the same way. There was no big announcement that the-story-to-end-all-stories was about to begin, more that several slow boiling story lines have come together and built upon each other and snowballed.

The basic set up for this epic in the making is that the Sovs (Soviet Judges) have been planning an attack on Mega City 1 in reprisal for Dredd annihilating East Meg 1 in the Apocalypse War decades ago. This has been a slow burn, deep cover operation where they’ve infiltrated the Judicial system to it’s core. Add to that the kidnap of a scientist who has created a doomsday virus with no cure that’s slowly infecting the population of the city, bogus propaganda (or is it?) that the Judges are simply taking the infected and dumping them into plague pits outside the city and full on city-wide civilian rebellion and we’re firing on all cylinders.

To then ramp things up a gear and drop the Dark Judges into the equation (inter dimensional beings who’s maxim is that life is a crime and the sentence is death) and it’s looking like there is no way out for Dredd, or the city for that matter, this time. All the praise that’s being heaped on this story is justified and it seems lapsed readers are returning to the comic after years away and being wowed.

If you want to see what the fuss is all about you can read two chapters over on CBR and an interview with Henry, John Wagner and second artist Colin MacNeil. There’s also a ‘Day of Chaos’ catch up on the 2000ad site too and with the rest of the comic bearing rich fruit and the impending Dredd film at the end of the year, it’s turning out to be a very good year for the title.

Posted in Comics. | No Comments |

2econd Class Citizen album preview megamix

May I present for your delectation: a personally mixed, sliced and diced preview of 2econd Class Citizen‘s forthcoming album – ‘The Small Minority’.

I’ve been lucky enough to hear it in progress over the last 2 years and it’s changed and developed to a point where it really all holds together as a complete album rather than a collection of separate tracks.

This is definitely up there alongside DJ Format and Pepe Deluxé as one of my albums of 2012 already. It will get compared to DJ Shadow‘s older work but the folk stylings and Aaron’s violin playing set it apart. If you enjoyed 2009’s ‘A World Without’ album – available to listen to in full here – then this is the logical progression.

This mix is available to download from Bandcamp but it’s only streaming via Soundcloud at the moment. It was a real labour of love and I think I managed to get elements from all the tracks in there at some point including a remix of the single ‘Outside Your Doorway’ – see if you can untangle it all when you listen to the LP.

The full album is available on Equinox Records on May 25th, on CD and double vinyl with a gatefold sleeve plus digital download (Juno will have it a week early). The artwork you can see below is by label boss Gunter Stoppel, the man responsible for the overall look of the label as well as the day to day running of it.

 

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music. | 1 Comment |

Agents of Change – Megaro Hotel Project

[vimeo width=”640″ height=”370″]http://vimeo.com/41214166[/vimeo]

Amazing achievement by the Agents of Change on this mega project for a hotel in London’s Kings X. What you don’t see here is that they painted inside the building too, including murals and canvases that filter inside the hotel and restuarant and flesh out the experience.

Posted in Art, Film. | No Comments |

Fracture – The Limit VIP limited 10″

This new series from Fracture & Neptune‘s Astrophonica label is going to go pretty fast I think. Three limited 300 copy 10″s from Om Unit, Machine Drum and Fracture based on footwork/juke rhythms, each with screen-printed sleeves.

I’m not the first person to sing the praises of juke and I find a lot of the shoehorning of old samples into new rhythms that’s going on with it a bit tedious. It’s not easy music to play out, audiences don’t respond particularly well to it as it’s not particularly dynamic in its arrangements but then the same could have been said for dubstep and look where we are now.

But, there are always exceptions and this is one of them, what starts out as straight dnb then drops and wrong foot(works) you into a juke rhythm that cuts it in the same way as Machine Drum, Africa Hi Tech or the Phillip D Kick boots of last year. ‘The Limit’ is going to be the first of 3 releases, each featuring the aforementioned producers, and this will be the transition track between the two generes in my box for a while I think.

It’s out on May 7th, preview and pre-order it here.

Posted in Records. | No Comments |

Perfecting Sound Forever – Greg Milner

I heartily recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of recording. No, no, don’t all run away, it’s actually very good and I say this as someone who literally falls asleep reading any sort of manual.

Starting with the Big Bang and progressing through Edison’s cylinders and tone tests Greg Milner knows his stuff and the stuff he doesn’t he’s gone out and researched. Histories of the birth of vinyl, cassettes, laser discs, synclaviers and fairlights, the New York radio amplification battles and the loudness wars are all covered.

The uneasy birth of the CD and the industries’ initial refusal to accept the medium features along with a step by step guide to what the air particles where doing when John Bonham hit his drums in a stairwell for ‘The Crunge’.

The analogue vs digital debate is also covered but with an even hand rather than the usual ‘vinyl is warmer’ stance adopted by most.

Posted in Books, Music. | 1 Comment |

2econd Class Citizen postcard set

I’ve had this for a while now but not had time to photograph it properly. Beautiful primer for the upcoming 2econd Class Citizen album – ‘The Small Minority’ – on Equinox Records out of Berlin.

They’ve put my postcard record to shame with this package and were sold out in a day sadly (very expensive to produce in large numbers, as I found out). Love the detail of the 2nd class stamps on the reverse when you remove the postcards from the backing board!

The album is out in May and I’ve just finished a 17 minute preview mini-mix of the whole record which will be online soon. Aaron has also put down the space-themed mix he assembled for my album launch party too and it will be appearing on Solid Steel soon.

 

Posted in Design, Records. | 1 Comment |