DJ Food vs The Amorphous Androgynous & 2CC

Just arrived, fresh from the Amorphous Androgynous (aka Future Sound of London) is a, frankly mind-melting, 17 minute remix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’, a track from the album, featuring Natural Self on vocals. This has been in the pipeline for a while and they initially started work on a version of ‘GIANT’ but changed direction and so a three part Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble remix of the Hoax has been born. To say that they’ve thrown everything into it is an understatement, after a manic version of the original they proceed to tear it apart and reassemble fragments of it in two new versions.

Not only that but 2econd Class Citizen has also created what can only be described as an ambient acoustic version of the same track, completely different but brilliant in its simplicity. As soon as I heard it I realised it was perfect for the planetarium shows next week and it will get its premiere there. As to when these will be available and on what formats, I’ll get back to you on that but we’re looking at sometime in April.

Posted in DJ Food, Music, Ninja Tune. | 8 Comments |

Hope 2012

I love the switch of sides, from Obama to Anonymous, Shepard Fairey has made using the same message. I fully expect a book of all the variants the Hope poster has generated some time down the line, it’s a real iconic image for our age, like Warhol‘s Cambell’s Soup Tins or the Smiley.

 

Posted in Art, Design. | No Comments |

not long now…

Limited CD/Comic/Flexi package has arrived at Ninja along with some A3 promo posters.

A very limited number of postcard records are on their way from a Vienna cutting house featuring an adapted track for the Pure Evil Gallery show on the 26th.

Most of the artwork is framed, just waiting on some mounts to be cut and figuring out how to present two of Henry’s pieces that have artwork on both sides!

Planetarium show is nearing completion, still some video editing to be done, the astronomers are coding footage for the full dome experience. There are various other video edits in progress too, more later. Two page spread in Clash magazine too.

Oh, and a remix is about to be delivered imminently apparently, not your average remix, for a post-album release around April.

Posted in DJ Food. | 6 Comments |

Electrical Banana book

Forthcoming this Spring from Damiani. Electrical Banana: Masters of Psychedelic Art by Norman Hathaway and Dan Nadel is the first definitive examination of the international language of psychedelia, focusing on the most important practitioners in their respective fields with a deft combination of hundreds of unseen images and exclusive interviews and essays, Electrical Banana aims to revise the common perception of psychedelic art, showing it to be more innovative, compelling, and revolutionary than was ever thought before.

The artists include: Marijke Koger, a Dutch artist responsible for dressing the Beatles; Mati Klarwein, who painted the cover for Miles Davis‘ Bitches Brew; Keiichi Tanaami, the Japanese master of psychedelic posters; Heinz Edelmann, the German illustrator and designer of the Yellow Submarine animated film; Tadanori Yokoo, whose prints and books, defined the ‘60s in Japan; Dudley Edwards, a painter, car designer, and graphic embellisher for the London rock scene, and the enigmatic Australian Martin Sharp, whose work for Cream and underground magazines made him a hippie household name in Europe.

Yes please. €29.00 – Order it here

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

The Reprisalizer

Garth Marenghi (of Dark Place fame) has a new site up for a series of fictitious pulp detective novels called ‘The Reprisalizer’ in ‘the violent paperback worlds of Terry Finch‘. The Reprisalizer, aka Bob Shuter, is a throwback to the 70’s in the same way as Life On Mars was, think The Sweeney crossed with The Equalizer, set in Kent. There’s also a gunslinger character called Draw too – ‘one man whirlwind of the west’.

The site is beautifully realised with excerpts from old novels on yellowing pages, reverse covers, a biog of Finch with ‘praise for the author’ and even vintage fanzines from the 80’s supposedly commemorating the books. Apparently the recent ‘A Gun For George’ film is also tied into this but I’ve not seen it yet and there are ebooks and podcasts promised as ‘coming soon’ too.

Posted in Books, Film. | No Comments |

Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem posters


 Illustrator Michael De Pippo created 5 retro posters for each member of the Muppet band Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem in anticipation of the new Muppet film release.

Disney got wind of them and licensed them for sale on their ACME Specialty Art site, some are sold out but a couple are still available. The versions shown here are the original designs with fake creases and misregistered print which didn’t survive for the Disney versions.
It’s a shame because these really give them the sense of original gig posters, also the date of the gig is the date that the Muppets first aired on TV, nice touch.

Posted in Design, Poster / flyer. | No Comments |

Happy New Year!

EdBag2012As we begin a new year and I feel like death warmed up after a lovely night in with friends and family (my first non-gig New Year’s Eve for a while now) I’m looking forward to 2012 and the treats it will bring.

This time last year I think I said, “There WILL be a new DJ Food album this year”, and there was, sort of. I completed the trilogy of vinyl EPs that would make up the bulk of the album, finished all the artwork and it was even released early in Japan so at least that was done.

The worldwide release is in just over 3 weeks though, on Jan 23rd, preceded by a launch party at the London Planetarium and followed by my joint exhibition with Henry Flint at the Pure Evil Gallery, January is going to be a very busy month, coupled with the various DJ gigs I have as well.

So that kicks off the year nicely, the album will be out in various different formats and the full dome planetarium show is slowly coming together, something I plan to develop over the year. There should also be a 4th 12″ with remixes, one by 2econd Class Citizen which is excellent, and more which I’ll reveal as they come in.

Solid Steel will continue to develop, after topping the AV podcast charts last year, with a new residency at a London studio from February, more on that as it happens. I want to get back into doing mixes in 2012 too, it’s been very thin on the ground for me the last few years as music and design has taken a bigger role but 2012 is the year to get back to it and get the DJ set re-routed to fit the new record. I also want to take my design work in different areas, pursuing some personal avenues started with the new album artwork and learning more about app-based alternatives. I also want to get an electronic drum kit but that’s something else altogether.

I’ve had a love / hate relationship with ‘modern’ music for the last few years with little new stuff getting me that excited (another reason for less mixes) but I’m genuinely excited about a load of albums due to see the light this year:

DJ Format – Statement of Intent

2econd Class Citizen – The Small Minority

Pepe Deluxé – Queen Of The Wave

Sound Sci – The Formula

Belbury Poly – The Belbury Tales

Demdike Stare – Elemental pt.3 & 4

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds remixed by Amorphous Androgynous

The The – Moonbug Soundtrack

and all the great things Finder’s Keepers, Trunk and Ghost Box will throw at us.

On the film front Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus looks about as good as it can get, The Dark Knight Rises could be decent blockbuster fun and I’m hoping the second go at adapting Judge Dredd for the big screen won’t stink too much. The newly 3D-ified Phantom Menace with still be shit but it will be fun to take the boys to see it for the first time and their first 3D experience. In the comics world I’m very much looking forward to Mike Mignola‘s return to drawing Hellboy (in Hell!) after re-reading the entire graphic novel series in 2011, I’m going to try and do B.P.R.D this year. Jim Mahfood and Mike McMahon‘s first turns on Tank Girl should be good fun, the final League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will be worth a look although the last one wasn’t all that exciting, I wish Moore would stop trying to crowbar every single literary character or reference into it as it’s becoming tedious now.

Anyway, a year full of possibilities as always, let’s not dwell on all the negatives we will inevitably be faced with at some point, the album is done, time to launch it and see if it hits the mark or disappears into the great beyond…

PS: the 2012 image is by Edmund Bagwell, pinched from the Bad Librarianship blog

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365breaks with free Steinski download

Marcin Cichy from Skalpel and plug audio mastering had been running a project posting a break a day for the whole of 2011, to give loops for free to let producers sample and create with. As we’re on the last day of the year he has a very special treat for everyone – a downloadable track by Steinski, made from some of the breaks on the site.

All loops will be available to download in 2012 so go and check them out and grab your free Steinski track in the process.

Posted in Mixes/Solid Steel, Music. | No Comments |