By complete coincidence about a minute after I posted this I saw that VW has a competition to win tickets to the MOMA shows (so that’s where they all went) if you make a gif ! Weird synchronicity.
I have to say that Kraftwerk’s incessant tinkering and airbrushing of their past isn’t much to my taste (especially the erasing of past members’ contributions) and is one of the reasons why most of the content I’m putting up here this month doesn’t go beyond ‘Tour De France’. I’m not a fan of ‘The Mix’, as I found that they’d ironed all the soul out of their music in reconstructing it for a real computer age. The irony of the men who wanted to sound like machines finally attaining their wish as technology caught up with them is that they lost the one thing that gave their music depth – the humanity.
Similarly the hand drawn, painted and coloured graphics and photography have been replaced by cold, dull cgi versions of their classic sleeves. The reduction of the ‘Radio-Activity’, ‘Trans Europe Express’ and ‘Man Machine’ sleeves to basic typography and logos may bring them into a neat line with the rest of the Catalogue but it does little for me aesthetically. The one example I will concede to however, (and this happened fairly quickly back in the 70’s), is the re-draughting of the ‘Autobahn’ sleeve. Above you can see the original with its dashboard and rear view mirror most definitely placing the sleeve in the early 70’s. The removal of the dashboard on later sleeves definitely makes for a better composition but the adoption of the UK sleeve, that centered on the white on blue motorway logo, gives it the jump from literal illustration to iconic status.
Above are different front and back sleeves for various 7″ singles utilising parts of the ‘Autobahn’ artwork and below are two CD booklet illustrations from the Catalogue remasters. I assume these are newly commissioned pieces in the style of the original cover but the hyperreal colour does nothing for me.
…and a couple of late entries: Not official in any way but linked visually to the above designs, flyers for a club my friend Graeme Ross was involved in.
Yet another batch of posters arrived from Scraffer (via Henry Flint) to be signed and then sent out to buyers. Above is a small selection of doodles by Henry for the ‘Madman’ print, of which every one has its own bespoke illustration by Henry inside the thought bubble. I think these are close to selling out now whilst the ‘Life Cycle of a Machine’ print is definitely sold out – don’t worry if you ordered and didn’t receive one yet, I just signed the last batch. The ‘Cosmonaut’ print below is also still available as we made that in a higher run.
This week has been fruitful in terms of new vinyl finding its way into my hands. A package from a friend, several online purchases, a spot of digging and a random find of a comic with a free record in the Nobrow shop in Shoreditch. Here’s a small selection including private press releases, airline records, postcard records, a Russian pressing of two Led Zeppelin albums and a hand painted cover.
Girls On Top ‘I Wanna Dance With Numbers’ 7″, Frenchbloke & Son ‘Sexy Model’ 7″, Late Night Radio 12″, ‘Dark Side Of The Autobahn‘ Mordant Music 7″ picture disc.
These are among the best reworkings I own on vinyl because the artwork perfectly mirrors the contents. I can credit the Girls On Top record for igniting my love of mash ups, I picked it up because of the cover and took a listen in Rough Trade over in Ladbroke Grove the week it came out. It was so insane I had to have it and I remember being slightly worried it would clear the floor the first time I played it out. The crowd went mad for it. ‘Sexy Model’ is a genius pairing of Right Said Fred‘s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ with Kraftwerk’s most known hit; “I’m a model, you know what I mean”. It’s also backed by a latin take on ‘Neon Lights’ and comes on transparent vinyl with a free badge. Graeme Ross, aka ‘Son’ in the duo, helped me greatly when I was first compiling the Kover Kollections too.
Late Night Radio is a mind boggling medley in the same vein as the Stars on 45 records but pitting Kraftwerk with Vangelis, has to be heard to be believed. ‘Dark Side of the Autobahn’ is an excellent coupling of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ with ‘Autobahn’ (as you can probably guess from the title), as well as snatches of Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Cook. The B side plays the same track backwards and all of these can be heard scattered around the various Kraftwerk Kover Kollection mix series. Below is a strange artifact from Russian that I picked up, a 5″ red flexi disc of ‘Boing Boom Tschak’, these things pop up all the time for bigger name groups but this is the first Kraftwerk one I’ve seen.
I received this beautiful item the other day after seeing it on both the RokRiot and Hardformat sites. Upon watching the short film of the record being opened (see below) I knew I had to have a copy. The group is Machine, Dear and the album is called ‘Killing Something That’s Already Dead’. Designed by Klaus Matthiesen of OddFischlein, there are only 150 copies and you can grab one here.
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I highlighted this before when it first appeared but I only had two of the four discs then and the photos didn’t really do it justice. I now have the complete set so I thought I’d revisit the package and try to get some better images of all the parts (very difficult). For those who missed these there is now a 2 CD version with all this and more out on Modern Love.
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Jean Giraud aka Moebius has died, he was a massive inspiration, especially on the recent artwork for my album with Henry Flint.
Moebius contributed to the European anthology ‘Métal Hurlant’ in the 70’s, a lot of which was reprinted in the American version, ‘Heavy Metal’, which helped to bring him to worldwide attention. He also drew the cowboy books ‘Blueberry’, collaborated on comics with Alejandro Jodorowsky and contributed designs to many classic films such as Alien, Tron and The 5th Element.
What with Ralph McQuarrie dying last week, it’s the end of an era for some of the most original designers of the sci-fi I grew up with.
Promotional ‘cube’ for record store display for the ‘Radio-Activity’ album. Sheet of stickers that came with early versions of the LP. Back cover of the UK 7″ single with a surprisingly un-Kraftwerk-like appraisal of their album.
Last nights’ Solid Steel mix from Strongroom Alive, sans speech, DJ Format provides an exclusive 30 minute mix and I finish the hour with the same. Tracklist:
– DJ Format
Natural Yogurt Band _ Pot Head _ Now Again
Beta Hector feat. Shane Hunter _ Oracle Bones _ Tru Thoughts
Edan _ Rap Beautician _ Humble Mag
SPOX-PHD _ Brilliance _ Correct Technique
Hero No.7 _ Roots Of A Hero _ Hero Records
DJ Soul Shock _ Wild Beats(edit) _ Solid
Nino Nardini _ Malaysia _ Crea Sound LTD
Mr Chop _ Monolith Voodoo Vibes _ Jazz & Milk
The Jon Bartel Thing _ Freak Show _ Capitol
Them _ I Keep Singing _ Happy Tiger
– DJ Food
The Stepkids _ Suburban Dream _ Stones Throw
Steinski _ Some Dreams Are Meant To Happen _ mp3
DJ Shadow _ Border Crossing _ Island
Pepe Deluxé _ The Storm _ Catskills
Eagles Of Death Metal _ I Only Want You _ Ant Acid Audio
C-Mon & Kypski – More Is Less (DJ Food re-edit) (unknown)
Tom & Jules – Version Galore Solid Steel jingle (mp3)
A-Ko _ dfuuu _ mp3
Jacky Chalard _ Superman, Supercool _ Cache Cache
David Vangel _ Sandpaper Script _ Equinox
The Creatures _ Mad-Eyed Screamer _ Polydor
A-Ko _ brake _ mp3
DJ Format _ Spaceship Earth feat. Edan _ Project Blue Book
I did a little interview with the RokRiot blog about the design of my new album.
I saw this in the window of a shop in Glasgow back in 2007.
This one veers heavily into hip hop territory at the beginning but then into more rock and, inevitably, techno areas. I was using voice synthesizers to generate ‘lyrics’ over some tracks and it contains one of my favourite mixes: two versions of ‘Autobahn’ running concurrently in the left and right speakers.
Gorefest and The Balanescu Quartet had both done versions that I noticed were very similar in arrangement and tempo and, being that the track is so long, rather than play them separately I panned each one left and right and played them together, I like the fact that they’re just so opposite in terms of style. This one originally debuted on Solid Steel on 04/08/06
(and no, you didn’t miss pts. 2 & 3 yet, I’m just not putting them up in logical order)
I’ve posted this video before but I never tire of it.
Also on the subject of ‘Ralf & Florian’, the UK pressing on Vertigo had a different sleeve to the regular release (see below), much the same as ‘Autobahn’. Both are believed to be the work of designer Barney Bubbles, although this has never been confirmed.
Emil Schult designed a sticker for the German issue of ‘Autobahn’ (right) that used the blue and white road sign and this was adapted and added to for the UK sleeve. Hardformat ran a great piece on it, arguing for Bubbles as the layout designer and there is a discussion on the subject here but the jury is still out. Also, the ‘Ralf & Florian’ UK cover below had embossing around the title and circuit pattern as well as florescent inks on the back cover.
‘Taschenrechner’ (Pocket Calculator) (live) – I love Florian’s aside to camera near the end. One of the instruments they were playing was a Bee Gees Rhythm Machine painted black, another was a Stylophone and they sent a musical calculator out as a promo for the single.
