Another AI-generated video using what looks like drone shots added into AI software for Hudson Mohawke‘s new song. The fascinating thing about this is that it’s still in its infant stages, in just a few years it’ll be better, faster, more detailed and adaptable. At the moment I’d wager this is at the same stage as, say, the cover of Warp‘s first Artificial Intelligence compilation in terms of computer graphics. I’d also wager that people will want to keep elements of the weird, almost horror elements that the AI produces in decades to come in the same way that we add grain, crackle and texture to digital recordings now. AI image making is creating a new visual language all of its own but I hope it doesn’t grow up and perfect things too soon, I like the alien-ness of it all.
You may have seen that Kool Herc‘s estate is going under the hammer at Christies this month. Everything from turntables and disco equipment to glasses, photos, belt buckles and records from the man called The Godfather of Hip Hop. Most interesting to me are the reams of flyers for the old Bronx jams featuring home made, hand drawn and collaged examples of the earliest form of Hip Hop promotion. There are plenty by Buddy Esq. probably the most gifted and well known exponent of early rap design work and there are fascinating little details dotted throughout about the way jams used to be from a time long since passed.
Below are my favourites and you can view the full auction online here:
“no drugs, no weapons, no sneakers”
“first 25 jazzy ladies free” – who decided?
“sneakers one nite only” love how cut and paste this is
How young are the Furious Five here?
That’s a lot of acts on the bill!
Lot of Zulu crews there
‘Guaranteed to perform’, the others might not be there but…
How many typefaces?
“giving away $50 to some lucky person, sincerely, Flash” – also “Creole’s got something special for the young ladies”
“Shea, please call me, love always, herc” – flyer done by Herc
Do you think that’s Shea?
I’ve been compiling this, off and on, all year, while listening to the 340+ unreleased tracks on Brian Eno‘s Sonos HD radio station, The Lighthouse. If I had the phone nearby I’d check what’s playing, make a note of the track number and year and write a short description. I was intrigued to see how often tracks repeated (not very often), how long it would take me to hear all of them (over 6 months) and what the ratio of good to average to bad was. It became quite addictive as I’d fill in more each day, a bit like collecting cards in a numbered sequence, filling in the blanks each day. Of course as time went on I’d hear more repetitions and less new tracks so filling in a new entry was like finding another piece of the puzzle. After a while I began to give them star ratings from 1 to 5; 5 being amazing, as good or better than anything he’d ever released, 4 great, 3 good, 2 so-so, 1 skippable.
For those interested, the highest number I’ve heard has been #349 (all the tracks are titled by number and year), the oldest was from 1989, newest from 2021. There were occasional different versions of previously released tracks from Nerve Net and Drawn From Life and many that had similar undertones to albums like Apollo or Ambient 4. The shortest was around a minute and 30 seconds, the longest approximately 24 minutes at a guess (there are no times on any of the tracks). If a title has been given to a piece in one of the two Lighthouse interviews it’s included in brackets. Where there’s no entry, I’ve not yet heard that track on the stream.
If albums on average have 10-15 tracks then that’s over 30 albums worth, or maybe The Lighthouse IS an album? It’s like being let into a secret vault every time you tune in, catching glimpses of precious (and sometimes not so precious) gems as the algorithm cycles through the selection. Similar to Aphex Twin‘s Soundcloud dump a few years back, this is the archive mother lode from one of my favourite artists.
UPDATE: at least another 75 tracks added since Sept 2023 – have heard #424 and counting and some tracks are from 2023, the longest one is over 24 minutes(!)… I noticed that at least two tracks from the Top Boy soundtrack that Eno released in September feature on The Lighthouse, I will mark them when I find them.
Track list: (UPDATED 23/12/23)
001 (2018) Algorithmic rhythm system groove w. male vocal ** (5.01)
002 (2018) Almost an ‘I Zimbra’ remix, Give it up and turn it loose bassline & female vocal – (title: Funk Groove Reduced) ***** (3.23)
003 (2018) Wooah yay, slow vocal sway ** (4.23)
004 (2019) Night drive passing cars, sudden end *** (3.28)
005 (2010) Slow beats glissando echo *** (4.54)
006 (2021) Dark low rumble bass pad, winding in and out *** (3.36)
007 (2019) Short solo keyboard lament ** (2.29)
008 (2019) Gated choir crawl abruptly stopping ** (2.41)
009 (2019) Stunning beauty but so short ***** (1.45)
010 (2019) Hovering guitar noodle *** (2.29)
011 (2018) Dark laidback plod with lead electric guitar *** (3.35)
012 (2011) Low sub bass ambience, v. short **** (2.15)
013 (2018) Computer controlled upbeat rhythm w. languid melody/‘lonely time’ vocal **** (4.31)
014 (2018) Uptempo sequencer tightness ** (4.37)
015 (2018) Gated voice over insistent machine rhythm ** (4.55)
016 (2018) Eno brings the machine funk w. female vocals ** (4.02)
017 (2018) Excellent fast paced rhythm w. drums and skronk piano **** (3.43)
018 (2021) Dark piano tension **** (9.59)
019 (2020) Super calm deep drift **** (3.27)
020 (2020) Hovering quiet piano *** (6.28)
021
022 (2018) Dinky keyboard workout ** (2.20)
023 (2018) Mid tempo funky wah wah w. distorted vocal sample, deep bass kicks ** (4.42)
024 (2021) Rapid Edits on machine funk *** (3.28)
025 (2018) Spiky funk excellence – love this one ***** (3.36)
026 (2021) Cheeky little number, almost reggae ** (3.44)
027 (2021) Beautiful space drift w. violin and electronics ****
028 (2015) Jaunty vocal funk w ping ponging electronics *** (4.14)
029 (2015) Twangy offbeat vocal country song ** (3.36)
030 (2017) Climbing sinister piano ** (2.59)
031 (2017) Airy piano drift / Slow hovering w. minor key piano ** (3.24)
032 (2017) Short wistful ambient *** (1.56)
033 (2015) Fast double time picking pattern *** (7.41)
034 (2017) Marimba with splashy snare ** (4.48)
035 (2009) Sweet high synth modulations descending *** (4.04)
036 (2009) Solo cautious piano / Wandering solo piano w. birds ** (4.31)
037 (2009) Aphex-ish Wandering piano and occasional wordless vocal delay interjections **** (4.13)
038 (2009) Moody Warszaw-ish Solo piano patterns (title: Eagleman 22)** (4.04)
039 (2009) Hesitant solo keys ** (2.48)
040 (2021) Slow, sustained, quiet decaying strings *** (5.05)
041 (2019) Slowly unfurling tones *** (5.02)
042 (2015) Any man… Dead Can Dance-ish medieval vocal *** (5.08)
043 (2015) Suspended vocal tones w. odd jungle interlude *** (6.20)
044
045 (2018) Solo soaring/searing string section *** (7.57)
046 (2011) v short Sinister gongs **** (2.18)
047 (2018) Jaunty bass synth riff * (4.03)
048 (2019) Bass plod and positive chords *** (6.04)
049 (2019) Short ringing, decaying loops **** (3.29)
050 (2020) Bright twang guitar and mysterious mood *** (3.48)
051 (2020) Plod bass dreamy underwater w. descending piano **** (2.15)
052
053 (2019) Floaty synths, buoyant melody, bit new age-y * (4.08)
054 (2020) Yawning expanse Fripp-like guitar w. shimmering bottom end rumble **** (5.55)
055 (2017) Chirrups and thunks, fading ** (2.39)
056 (2019) Thumping climber with whistling * (4.19)
057 (2019) Epic throbbing string soundtrack *** (5.53)
058 (2019) Sweet solo synth Shimmering *** (3.25)
059 (2019) Rushing and rising washes of bright synth *** (3.11)
060 (2020) Squalling funky guitar over bouncy rhythm ** (3.29)
061 (2011) Slow acoustic lament ** (5.01)
062 (2018) Synth strings, earnest, church- like ** (3.30)
063 (2020) Sawing cello and pitch bent strings * (3.05)
064 (2020) Underwater electronics **
065 (2020) Lightly gated church organ w. bubbling bright top end ** (2.46)
066 (2020) Dark shifts / Alien beasts viewed from afar *** (2.52)
067 (2020) Gently bubbling sorrowful surges **** (4.42)
068 (2020) Swamp ambient w. industrial overtones and buzzing malfunctioning electronics ** (4.22)
069 (2920) Industrial alarm warning with flourishes ** (3.45)
070 (2002) Twanging country vocal tune (3.50)
070 (2021) High pitched solo synth ** (3.50)
071 (2015) Bright, plucked machine guitar and drums, almost hi-life *** (3.29)
072 (2001) Creepy keys electric mood *** (8.42)
073 (2002) Expansive Bass exploration / winding drone ** (5.06)
074 (2002) Abstract audio synthesis / mysterious world *** (12.15)
075 (2002) Squalling fast funk w. synth brass *** (3.04)
076 (2002) Female spoken word (spots) over languid keys and deep bass **** (3.18)
077 (2002) He doesn’t want to be found, fast vocal song *** (3.13)
078 (2002) Jaunty sky saw Fripp guitar ** (3.17)
079 (2009) Rolling vistas ambient *** (6.34)
080 (2002) Frankly awful vocal country * (4.59)
081 (2002) Meandering country twang w. mournful bass *** (3.41)
082 (2002) Gentle vocoder vocal and electric guitar ** (5.09)
083 (2002) Bright keyboard ditty * (2.13)
084 (2002) Twangy guitar and bass idea ** (2.13)
085 (2002) Bouncy pop instrumental ** (4.43)
086 (2021) Low Humming w. signal bleeps ** (4.35)
087 (2021) Ambient lullaby humming w soaring strings *** (7.07)
088 (2021) Electro thrumming with yawning sawtooth surges *** (4.43)
089 (2021) Quiet keyboard figures ** (2.57)
090 (2021) Deep sea dive **** (5.22)
091 (2021) Springy bleeps and whirring w. heavy beat ** (2.28)
092 (2021) Low night time creeper ** (3.29)
093 (2021) Complex bass bounce, machine beat with skittering high synth **
094 (2021) Heavy Fairlight beat, Indian scales and time stretch *** (3.27)
095 (2021) Gravelly spring beat w. odd bass figure ** (2.43)
096 (2018) Fast funky drum, guitar & horn flourishes w. keyboard escapades **** (4.01)
097
098 (2021) Air snares skittering w. bells and industrial kettle drum ** (4.26)
099
100 (2001) Questing solo keys *** (3.46)
101 (2002) Gorgeous soaring sad keys **** (4.05)
102 (2002) Tentative keys in reverb soup, short ** (2.52)
103 (2003) Juddering gated bass beat with glissando guitar ** (3.41)
104 (2004) Gnarly distorting bass w bouncing pings **** (3.33)
105 (2004) Vocal guitar dirge * (4.04)
106 (2004) Swinging Eno vocal song with yearning guitar ** (4.03) (title: All The Bloody Fighters)
107 (1997) Lilting loop *** (4.24)
108 (1997) Short mysterious piece ** (2.32)
109 (1998) Upbeat xylophone ditty, great chorus *** (1998)
110 (1998) Building chord sketch for pop song ** (4.57)
111
112 (1998) Wobbling experiments – quite Aphex-ish ** (5.52)
113 (2021) Twinkling synths short ** (2.22)
114 (2015) Bubbling bright synth motifs occasionally coalescing into brief rhythms *** (2.31)
115 (2021) Beautiful soft focus morning ***** (6.11)
116 (2021) Classic Eno ambient drift voices **** (5.39)
117 (2021) Synthetic melodic runs almost identical to Funki Porcini’s ‘6 Minutes To Manchester’ *** (2.05)
118 (2021) Minimal suspense, fading *** (5.15)
119 (2011) Excellent Fast breakbeat cut up ***** (2.37)
120 (2020) Understated deep piano pads *** (2.54)
121 (2020) Gorgeous ambient drift ***** (6.08)
122 (2000) Vocal choir jolly ditty Slow That Bell ** (4.30)
123 (2000) Vocal song Run Out of Time ** (5.33)
124 (2000) Short strummy vocal song * (2.05)
125 (1998) Euphoric synth melodies ** (6.44)
126 (1998) Short eerie Eastern synth figure ** (1.33)
127 (1998) Ticking filtered sinister apprehension w. disturbances breaking through **** (5.56)
128 (1998) High pitched atonal crystalline rhythm pattern ** (2.28)
129 (1998) Church organ plays sea shanty * (2.08)
130 (1998) Odd little bass mood *** (3.04)
131 (2015) Japanese percussion & horns *** (2.46)
132 (2015) Mysterious mechanical groove **** (2.42)
133 (2015) Industrial trip hop beats + phased, gated noise – excellent **** (3.15)
134 (2015) Bright airy synth , fast beats *** (3.00)
135
136 (1998) Stumbling solo piano ** (3.26)
137 (1997) Jolly but slightly annoying descending melody * (4.23)
138 (1997) Cheeky electronic rhythm w DAT glitch fx ** (2.31)
139 (1997) Apollo-esque ambience ***** (11.08)
140 (2020) Soft reverb piano, contemplative *** (4.30)
141 (2011) Super lush ***** (6.51)
142 (1998) Distant tinkly reverb piano *** (10.40)
143 (1998) Apollo-ish drift, beautiful as only Eno can do ***** (11.34)
144 (2000) Dreary vocal pop with Bontempi organ * (3.48)
145 (2002) Minimal Darkness tubular echoes *** (10.29)
146 (2002) Lush strings pulling in and out of focus **** (7.12)
147 (1997) Slowly see-sawing drone *** (4.01)
148 (1998) Downbeat moody chugger ** (5.32)
149 (1998) Version of ‘Blissed’ from The Drop, Piano, bongos and insistent chink **** (4.23)
150 (1998) Climbing starlight filtered melody, glistening, twinkling *** (3.53)
151 (1998) Electronic bird screeches ** (3.47)
152 (1998) Aimless keyboard doodle * (2.30)
153 (1998) Stilted electric piano solo ** (2.48)
154 (1998) Icy high keys ** (3.44)
155 (1998) Hesitant flute-esque keyboard exploration * (2.25)
156 (1994) Scary Deep space choir *** (6.27)
157 (1994) African drums and metallic solo ** (4.15)
158
159 (2009) Solemn/sweet notes suspended *** (5.22)
160 (1991) Unreleased version of Fractal Zoom with distortion ***** (2.02)
161 (1991) Indian Violin and tablas ????
161 (2011) Slow, soft drifting pads **** (5.39)
162 (1991) Sneaky Bar jazz ** (4.02)
163 (1991) Sneaky Bar jazz II ** (3.57)
164 (1991) Eno vocal w. acoustic guitar, slap bass and keys – funky breakdown * (4.55)
165 (1991) Hey nonny nonny, Indian strings, London Bridge is falling down. * (3.49)
166 (1990) Ambient 4-ish – one of the best here ***** (12.02)
167 (2010) Slight sustained solo synth figure, hovering * (9.01)
168 (2019) Long decay piano & strings, slow sparse *** (9.26)
169 (1998) Purring undulating loop surges building to harsher noise *** 12.05)
170 (1989) Gentle Amazon forest ambience with birds, insects, building dread drone and bells **** (11.50)
171 (1995) Unbelievably beautiful dark ambience, celestial drift ***** (9.48)
172
173 (2017) Uplifting full band cut ***** (3.02)
174 (1994) Generative Xylophone noodle jazz * (3.39)
175 (1994) Insistent chugging machine rhythm w. whipping – long! *** (17.47)
176 (1994) Industrial hum / Stomping trip hip beat w. shimmering synths – long! **** (11.47)
177 (1994) Squeezebox & woodblock ** (4.22)
178 (1994) Percussive eastern rhythms ** (4.52)
179 (1994) Vocal harmonies and solemn keyboard * (1.50)
180 (1994) Eighties ambience with slithering background menace *** (2.18)
181 (1994) Menacing loop w. sudden random jazz piano *** (9.11)
182 (1991) Late night wander **** (3.14)
183 (1991) Nerve Net era snaking bass funk *** (4.47)
184 (1991) Off kilter bass mood *** (4.53)
185 (1991) Another Green World-like guitar and piano journey *** (2.46)
186 (1991) Atonal melody meander – Aphex before Aphex *** (3.39)
187 (1991) Sprightly, frantic urgent twiddling eastern melodies *** (2.51)
188 (1991) Godlike genius ambient ***** (5.34)
189 (1991) Slap bass and organ groove, Fractal Zoom-like drums ** (3.14)
190 (1991) Deep broody ambience / ‘The Electrician’-like dread **** (4.27)
191 (1991) Deeper broody ambience / Distant suspense, deep bass tones **** (5.56)
192 (1994) Short, sparse, hesitant bongs * (2.07)
193 (1994) Light, bobbling, slightly creepy ambience **** (6.05)
194 (1994) Low strings, acoustic, background female choir harmonies *** (4.29)
195 (1994) Low hovering cello *** (6.07)
196 (1994) Low whirring menacing drones and strings *** (3.56)
197 (1994) Low synth bass w high weirdo keys * (2.43)
198 (1994) Military tattoo drums w. metal banging and airy keys * (3.52)
199 (1994) Waves of voices, rushing, percolating noise, chiming bell, industrial thud *** (9.35)
200 (1989) Marsh-like Ambient 4 whistling birds ***** (14.55)
201 (1991) Organ-led vocal song *** (3.23)
202 (2005) Sombre string synths soaring and diving *** (3.29)
203 (1995) Hysterical piano and modulating sub bass machine jazz *** (3.36)
204 (1995) Watery submerged piano cascade reverb *** (8.06) an alternative version of ‘A Long Way Down’ from ‘Another Day on Earth’
205 (2001) Short filtered rising falling drum ** (2.55)
206 (2018) Live drums w. menace *** (4.09)
207 (2020) Cautious keys, building, dropping *** (5.25)
208 (2021) Fast bleep-y keyboard algorithm composition, sounds like early LFO or Autechre *** (3.54)
209 (2021) Gorgeous ambient drift / Distant reverb flutes, this one is lush – long too ***** (7.47)
210 (2020) Soft focus waves ebbing and flowing **** (4.57)
211 (2021) Solo piano algorithms & building strings *** (2.49)
212 (2021) Violin top note ambience, soft low and slow **** (12.53)
213 (2018) Euphoric ambient pads *** (3.21)
214 (1991) Eastern keyboard figures * (5.04)
215 (1991) Wailing vocal ballad with piano ** (5.33)
216 (1991) Off-kilter creep jazz bass riff w. soaring synth guitar solo and random piano * (4.46)
217 (1991) Fractal Zoom-ish upbeat funk w. squalling synths, metallic drums **** (5.35)
218 (1991) Vocal version of another song with different backing ** possibly 215 (5.18)
219 (1991) Dark ocean seabed *** (8.26)
220 (1991) Duplicate of another track here (163 Sneaky Bar Jazz II) eastern keyboard melody on fast tapping rhythm ** (3.57)
221 (1991) Arabic jam *** (2.52)
222 (2019) Ambient version of faster break number, excellent slow swoop **** (3.56)
223 (2021) Guitar and piano meander * (3.31)
224 (1994) Scary swirling **** (11.18)
225 (1991) High pitched ambience – beautiful and long ***** (12.25)
226 (2001) Singing bowls *** (3.25)
227 (2001) Choir singing bowls ***** (6.13)
228 (1995) Creeping ambience *** (3.26)
229 (1991) Deep ambient, winding drone w. distant movements **** (5.54)
230 (1994) Urgent snappy machine rhythm w. bubbling xylophone menace **** (4.23)
231 (1991) Stately synth bombast – same track as 232 despite year difference * (4.28)
232 (1994) Solemn synths – same track as 231 despite year difference * (4.28)
233 (2020) Spatial drift w. skittish surging signals *** (8.14)
234 (2020) Low droning cello ** (7.28)
235 (2020) Fading mournfulness / Low slow strings sweeps *** (4.44)
236 (2000) Offbeat machine funk and twisting bass **** (3.49)
237 (2000) Ominous drone ** (5.40)
238 (2000) Trampolines no beat with fast violin, short * (1.56)
239 (1996) Sombre strings ** (4.35)
240 (2000) Late night radio hiss, bobbing tempo and interference building to gorgeousness **** (5.11)
241 (2020) Insistent percussion over mysterious drone *** (2.28)
242 (1995) Digital horns over tepid rhythm – more sneaky bar jazz? * (4.16)
243 (1996) Whirring ambience *** (5.09)
244 (1996) Plinky Piano / Duelling solo pianos * (3.00)
245 (2021) Twangy guitar and backwards tape loops ** (4.05)
246 (2000) Early version of ‘Bloom’ from Drawn From Life **** (4.28)
247 (2021) Solo piano repeat figures *** (4.40)
248 (2020) Buzzing gated rhythm surging, ping pong highlights *** (2.13)
249 (2000) Dark fuzzy menace – Electrician-like ** (5.39)
250 (1994) Fast throbbing industrial engine rhythm w. floating electronics – long jam *** (12.12)
251 (2020) Desolate windy tundra **** (5.03)
252 (2020) Short slight tension, bright, Vangelis-like *** (4.11)
253 (2000) Ghostly vocoder ambience / Synthetic vocal poem with eerie accompaniment *** (5.01)
254 (2000) Acoustic light *** (2.51)
255 (2021) Distant girl reverb ambient *** (3.36)
256 (2021) Warm bass, high shimmering tones, hovering **** (7.29)
257 (1996) Fast percussion + bass, pursuit *** (7.40)
258 (1996) Lilting late night keys **** (3.14)
259 (2021) Double-timed bass with half time percussion and keyboard flourishes *** (5.10)
260 (1994) Insistent bobbing rhythm with synth washes and exploratory keys ** (3.32)
261 (1991) Gorgeous ambient, one of the best on here ***** (18.06)
262 (1998) Short bass groove with sinister keys *** (3.39)
263 (2009) Beautiful rising/falling synth chords w. muted kick drum **** (5.23)
264 (1994) Ominous background riff w. new bulletins and football match *** (2.26)
265 (2000) Two dogs in the night – excellent female spoken voice dark bass groove ***** (4.13)
266 (2019) Undulating pulsing techno *** (3.55)
267
268 (1996) Banging techno w. very bad scratching down to downtempo trip hop w. Miles David trumpet – very un-Eno **** (2.50)
269 (2000) Odd meandering wordless vocal w. sprightly melodic keys **** (7.41)
270
271 (2021) Downtempo doom-y band groove w. synth horns and percussion *** (3.14)
272 (2021) Ringing chime triplets ** (1.57)
273 (2018) Speedy skittering techno jazz w. organ solo and distorted vocal ***** (3.39)
274 (2018) Hiiiieeee!!!! *** (3.53)
275 (2018) Solo tremolo guitar ** (4.35)
276 (2020) Minimal plucked bleeps * (2.11)
277 (2010) Beautiful sparse chime keys – gorgeous **** (5.43)
278 (2021) More machine funk, algorithmic edits and high pitched top notes *** (2.44)
279 (2010) Lilting piano and odd strings – (title: Ross & Cromarty) ** (3.32)
280 (2021) Soft xylophone type melodies ** (2.05)
281 (2020) Grinding bass groove **** (4.03)
282 (2020) Murky reverb keys** (3.35)
283 (2020) Creepy pings, oriental tones *** (2.10)
284 (2018) Fast throbbing helicopter drumming *** (3.15)
285 (2006) Banging trip hop beats and breaks **** (3.04)
286 (2021) Off kilter machine funk *** (3.40)
287 (2019) Fractured transmissions breaking through, rumbling, becoming clearer ** (6.34)
288
289 (2018) Drum machine edits & wah wah funk **** (2.14)
290 (2103) Dark ambient kick short *** (3.30)
291 (2017) Bell-like tones **** (8.47)
292 (2017) Mournful woodwind ambience *** (15.17)
293 (2013) Live band jam, wandering guitar plucks, squealing solos, Drawn From Life-ish ** (8.34)
294 (2021) Bass synth noodle & stabs * (3.35)
295 (2011) Filtered fast breakbeat, throbbing bass and mysterious keys, DnB tempo *** (2.38)
296 (2016) Mid tempo bobbing gated pad / Gently bobbing keyboard instrumental ** (296)
297 (2019) Excellent moody downtempo beats and electronics ***** (4.50)
298 (2020) Arabian Eno vocal, uptempo live drums **** (4.05)
299 (1997) Epic choir and State of Independence vibe / pitched vocals **** (4.20)
300 (2019) Sweet descending reverb motif, building *** (4.57)
301
302 (2018) Meandering lightness & bass drops – long and beautiful! ***** (21.34)
303 (2004) Chugging rhythm w. wordless auto tuned vocal song idea, euphoric keys, short then fade*** (3.15)
304 (2009) Double time kick drum progression under triumphant organ melody ** (2.43)
305 (2005) Vocal song about eyes w. electric guitar and organ accompaniment ** (3.27)
306 (2004) Piano decays + ticking, short spoken word ‘almost like now’ *** (3.12)
307 (2004) Solo Eno vocal and piano *** (1.48)
308 (2006) Brian sounds miserable vocal song * (4.26)
309 (1996) Choir in space- short *** (2.15)
310 (2000) Beautiful undulating ambience, sunny warmth **** (9.58)
311 (2000) Slightly atonal glimmering crystal synths and washes ** (6.12)
312 (2000) Terry Riley-esque organ figures *** (4.05)
313 (2000) Drums w. echo & keys jam * (10.27)
314 (2000) Version of ‘Persis’ from Drawn From Life. Plodding beat and strings ***** (5.17)
315 (1999) Stark drum break reverb w. distorted electric bass *** (4.04)
316 (1999) Offbeat dark jazz rhythm w. surging monster sounds **** (5.23)
317 (1999) Shimmering crystal ambience **** (5.43)
318 (1999) So so-lo synth melody ** (6.59)
319 (2000) Frippertronic-like interweaving ambience **** (4.12)
320 (1999) Soaring & dive bombing ambience ***** (7.23)
321 (1999) Downtempo beats and drill bass ** (8.01)
322 (1999) Downtempo gated bass, drum machine and 80s-ish synth song arrangement ** (4.30)
323 (1999) Vocoder version of ‘Two Voices’ from Drawn From Life ***** (4.35)
324
325 (2019) Sweet ethereal melodies, Xmas-y ** (3.09)
326 (2021) Short Beautiful solo piano **** (2.08)
327 (2014) Female vocal experiments bird-like calls **** (6.52)
328 (2020) Squelchy fast machine funk ** (4.11)
329 (2000) Building Kinetic machine rhythms *** (8.06)
330 (2012) Neon Lights-ish pleasant synth and drum machine song ** (4.48)
331 (1999) Solo Arabian synth melody noodle * (2.41)
332 (2021) Abrasive chime reverb drone w. undulating high notes **** (8.57)
333 (1999) Short church organ figure ** (1.20)
334 (2021) Very fast drum machine percussion and wailing eastern synth w. micro edits *** (3.21)
335 (2019) Uplifting synth in 6/8 time *** (4.03)
336 (1999) Insistent throbbing foreboding click rhythm, snaking melody **** (9.10)
337 (2020) Odd, weird, slow, disjointed ** (3.11)
338 (1999) Oh this is really good! Beautiful soaring ambience ***** (6.29)
339 (2004) Eno vocal harmonies meets odd pop w. edited screech guitar and wayward piano ** (3.44)
340 (2021) Insistent strumming w. airy pads – short! *** (3.29)
341 (1999) Uptempo tribal drums, wah guitar, percussion and stereo electronics FX – funk jam **** (2.41)
342 (2021) Euphoric synth stomp ** (3.16)
343 (1999) Shimmering high pitched crystals **** (14.29)
344 (2013) Winding acoustic and piano shimmer ** (7.48)
345 (1999) Funeral procession solo keys** (2.17)
346 (2020) Galloping almost acid techno fading into ambience *** (2.09)
347 (1999) Crystals dropping – stunning ***** (2.58)
348 (2005) Upbeat vocal pop ditty, down down ** (5.21)
349 (1999) Excellent moody throbbing 6/8 beat & bass, War of the Worlds-ish synth motif ***** (5.33)
350 (2004) Rhodes-y solo ambience ** (4.58)
351 (1996) Mid tempo funk bass/guitar w. meandering keyboard + female instructional vocal ** (4.48)
352 (2000) Woozy high keyboard figures *** (3.33)
353 (1996) Sustained voice and keyboard drift meld *** (6.42)
354 (1996) Short stark piano piece ** (1.58)
355 (2021) Electronic autechre-ish mood ** (3.58)
356 (2004) Jangly acoustic vocal song, “I saw you there” ** (3.34)
357 (2019) Synth bass and glitched, loping beats ** (2.00)
358 (1996) Fast guitar funk w. keyboard solos and robotic drums *** (3.32)
359 (1994) Organ workout, short * (2.09)
360 (2000) Gorgeous ambient lushness ***** (7.28)
361 (2000) Bass synth exploratory w. delays ** (3.29)
362 (1996) Pitch-bent high synth solo, George Duke-esque * (3.52)
363 (1999) Bright, positive vocal pop tune * (6.42)
364 (2000) Undulating high pitched keyboard solo figures ** (2.06)
365 (2019) Slowly surging keyboard collage *** (3.10)
366 (2000) Gentle suspense, singing bowls tapping, builds to dark mood *** (7.57)
367 (2020) Plodding slow loop w sax/cow moo ** (3.42)
368 (2020) Mournful suspense *** (6.13)
369 (2020) Slow, sombre, languid guitar and keys ** (4.28)
370 (2020) Edited tabla workout with bass zooms and insistent piano *** (4.12)
371 (2021) Slow, meandering, open plains drift w. Skittish high pitched vocal **** (4.36)
372 (2020) Subdued mood movement ** (4.20)
373 (2020) Slow, mournful organ piece w. sparse beats ** (3.19)
374 (2021) Piano and Oboe-ish tension ** (3.22)
375 (2005) Country Eno song * (4.01)
376 (2005) Reverb-y downtempo song, swing hi-hats, ‘it’s no’ vocal *** (2.44)
377 (2006) Space radio signals, sparse w. huge swells *** (3.47)
378 (1994) TFF Shout-esque beat with wobbly top line ** (5.54)
379 (2000) Spooky climbing keys w reverb *** (5.16)
380 (2000) Sleep, sleep, vocal song idea ** (2.57)
381 (1999) Muted guitar squall and distant vocal repeats ** (2.10)
382 (2021) Gated epic chords ** (4.49)
383 (1999) Swirling atmospherics, ominous tension ** (3.00)
384 (1999) Muted Jazz drums w filtered atoms loop delays ** (5.06)
385 (1994) Gorgeous synth ambience **** (3.25)
386 (1996) Nerve Net-ish dark insistent groove with tapping and huge shifts *** (8.22)
387 (2021) High pitched dark ambience, Eno cyber vocal ‘In the last world’ **** (3.52)
388 (2021) Intrepid gongs **** (3.40)
389 (2020) Minimal shifting bass ambience w. panning high notes *** (4.08)
390 (2020) Urgent passing data surges in the night ** (2.49)
391 (2020) Soft beats and underlying static with minimal melodic flourishes ** (2.48)
392 (2013) Winding feedback screech pad and sombre ambience ** (2.24)
393 (2019) Solo keyboard melody idea *** (1.56)
394 (2017) Ticking beats and Kraftwerk-ish vocoder voice *** (2.29)
395 (2018) Inside a huge metallic tunnel ** (4.03)
396 (2020) Soft spooky-voiced wailing lament * (7.11)
397 (2019) Gated, almost Silent Night melody ** (3.28)
398 (1994) Fast machine rhythm, industrial w. fluctuating blobs and high synth lines, Long jam! *** (14.42)
399 (2011) Gorgeous drifting ambience with gaps, stereo panning – lush and very long ***** (24.20)
400 (2023) Long decay generative piano figures *** (13.33)
401 (2021) Fast sci-fi beats and urgent synths with micro edits **** (3.22)
402 (2022) Very odd, almost tribal electronica with decays *** (2.54)
403 (2023) Creeping suspense *** (4.44)
404 (2019) More amorphous gorgeous ambience ***** (5.04)
405 (2023) Stunning, how does he do it? ***** (5.09)
406 (2017) High female vocals ambience + reverb *** (3.03)
407 (2019) Cocteau’s-like guitar shoe gaze *** (3.38)
408 (2018) Pitched down Laraaji-like acoustic plucking with strings *** (7.30)
409 (2023) Wordless male and female voices swirling about the ether with crows. Soft far away tocking ** (4.51)
410 (2023) Quivering wordless ghostly voice + piano * (2.35)
411 (2019) Jaunty bright synth piece ** (3.09)
412 (2023) Percussion and electronics joined by male voices *** (2.44)
413 (2023) Lantern organ wurlitzer with faraway explosions ** (3.12)
414 (2023) Throbbing hum with choir-like synth voices ** (4.24)
415 (2023) Deep moody ambience with ticking ** (3.47)
416 (2023) Beautiful ambience, rising and falling, wordless high vocals, end of your life credits stuff, possibly related to 415 in places *** (6.39)
417 (2023) Otherworldly, mysterious deep space – gorgeous **** (3.27)
418 (2023) Fast jazz jungle jam with recorded documentary voice background and ominous sax *** (4.39)
419 (2023) Slow, deep bass synth and percussive rocking ** (4.11)
420 (2019) Epic Ship-like ambience with Eno singing *** *clicks (7.32)
421 (2023) Meandering medieval drone * (5.52)
422 (2023) Theme to a deep sea dive, inside the diving suit *** (7.56)
423 (2020) Solo organ piece, dips between funeral and euphoria *clicks ** (4.11)
424 (2023) Slow techno beat with bright overtones and female choir *** (3.43)
UPDATE 2024: There are at least 25 new tracks from 2023 and 2022 added as of Feb 2024 bringing the total up to 449. #429 will also be available on the forthcoming Eno documentary soundtrack album.
425 (2023) (3.27)
426 (2022) (3.21)
427 (2023) (5.34)
428 (2023) (4.46)
429 (202?) (5.43)
430 (2023) (2.13)
431 (2023) (1.20)
432 (2023) (2.24)
433 (2023) (4.51)
434 (2023) (3.29)
435 (2023) Thin synth with moody bass and washed-out female vocals. (6.26)
436 (2023) (5.35)
437 (2023) (4.39)
438 (2023) (9.22)
439 (2023) (1.16)
440 (2023) (3.43)
441 (2023) Muffled vocal sounds with minimal, hesitant beat (3.48)
442 (2022) (4.15)
443 (2022) (4.54)
444 (2023) Electronic birds with drifty ambient strings and light (8.59)
445 (2023) (5.00)
446 (2023) (2.31)
447 (2023) Solemn but beautiful piano ambience with long decay *** (6.54)
448 (2023) (4.16)
449 (2023) Airy, low atmospherics, building and fading with sinister shimmer (3.56)
This post is dedicated to Bob Rafelson, the director of Head, who passed away this week, RIP.
Back in 2001 I was asked to compose a turntable rescore for a film of my choice for a club night in Budapest, Hungary called Cinetrip. At the time I was really starting to explore psychedelia through digging trips in the US and Canada and thought this would an ideal way to soundtrack something weird and wild that would hold the attention without too much dialogue.
Sometime around the late 80’s I’d taped The Monkees’ freak film flop from TV as it intrigued me when reading the blurb. I was pretty confounded by it, this wasn’t the squeaky clean boy band with the ‘here we come…’ hi-jinx of their Saturday morning TV series. This contained cut up sequences, solarized freak outs, Vietnam war commentary and more fourth wall-breaking than you could shake the dandruff out of your hair to. It made no sense, consisted of an ever-changing series of completely different scenes designed to link songs and concepts together before looping back on itself and returning to the start. There was little plot to follow, just The Monkees as they jumped from genre to genre, location to location, costume change to character evolution.
Music choice ranged from present day right back to the 60s, a psychedelic flavour of course but elements of library, soundtracks, jazz, electronics, trip hop and spoken word to fill the few talking moments all fitted over an over-evolving selection that was refined each time I played it. After the initial performance I severely reworked the parts for The Big Chill Festival where it had evolved into a three turntable and FX performance that was so complex and stressful to perform that my legs weirdly seized up the minute I’d finished the set! I did another nine performances – mostly in the UK and Ireland but also playing at the Portuguese short film festival to a bemused audience – until it was retired in 2005.
After this I decided to preserve the set by making a DVD with both the original and my alternate soundtrack selectable via the audio menu, adding in some of the original film dialogue in the edit to mesh the sound and vision together a little more. The disc came wrapped in mirror board card to mimic the original soundtrack LP packaging and included a random flyer from one of the nine different cigarette card-sized ones made for the Dublin performance. These were sold online via the Ninja Tune forum and later on I uploaded the whole thing to the Internet Archive for posterity. This mix has never been put up solo on the web and I’ve never done a track listing for it, preferring for people to have to work it out. Sometimes it’s good to have a mystery to dig into, although a lot of tracks are fairly obvious to anyone with a decent musical knowledge. Also I sampled a few bits later on…
So here it is, sans the film of course, but that’s out there if you dig a little
“A few weeks ago having digested the implications of image creation AI, I decided I could either retire or respond. Here’s my response; a 96-page book of graphic shorts stories created in 12 days. Available at the end of July.” ~ Dave McKean
I’ve been very interested in, and using, AI-generated images since the turn of the year although I’ve not made a big deal out of it or posted much of the work in the way you’ll be seeing it on social media. It’s a fascinating and extremely powerful way of image creating which throws up all sorts of questions of ownership, copyright infringement and such. It’s a huge deal that will see an obvious visual shift across various mediums and another tool in the box of many creatives.
Rian Hughes and I have been trading thoughts and images on this back and forth and he highlighted another comic that purports to be the first of its kind with imagery generated entirely by AI algorithm by Carson Grubaugh. A four issue book due for release in October this year, ‘Abolition of Man’ was generated by lines taken from the C.S.Lewis book of the same name. It looks like it’s set to be beaten to the punch by McKean and, ironically, many of the images inside bear a strong resemblance to his regular non-AI-generated work.
A jazz and beats-heavy hours from mid July 17 years ago this week. The lead track is from Loka who were just releasing their first records on Ninja Tune and who now have so many aliases I can’t keep up (I just got the new Rotary Fifth LP this week and there’s also Harmoniche 23). Nostalgia 77 follows, this was during Tru Thoughts golden period where they barely put a foot wrong release-wise and Nostalgia aka Ben Lamdin was always a solid producer. Afu-Ra’s ‘Poisonous Taoist’ was doing the rounds on a weird bootleg-like 12” I seem to remember which I can’t find on Discogs, great DJ Premier production.
The only mention of the Kid Sublime ‘This Way’ track on Discogs is on a Japanese comp from 2008 which can’t be right unless I had a time machine. Lovely Harmonic 33 track mining the Lalo Schifrin vibe, the first of two from the ‘Music For Film, Television & Radio volume 1’ album on Warp (still don’t think we’ve seen a vol.2). Elmore Judd fitted into that west coast beat maker scene for a bit, Madlib, Dilla, Sa-Ra and Dr Who-DAT?. DJ Vadim’s One Self project with Blu Rum 13 and Yarah Bravo was on the same tip too. The Bees’ trippy remix was only on the 7” and sees Ninja riding a nice line between rap, soul and jazz. I really need to revisit this Harmonic 33 album, it’s really aged well. More Ninja business from The Herbaliser’s fifth album, ‘Take London’ with one of my favourites of theirs – ‘Geddim!’ in fine Roy Budd style, (as usual I love the uptempo numbers). Ollie once told me the source of the main riff and it’s really obvious once you know it but I’m sworn to secrecy.
Weirdly I’ve had Digital underground’s ‘Packet Man’ in my head all week and now Humpty Hump (RIP) turns up on this Perceptionists track, a group that includes Mr Lif from the B side of their second single. It’s a brilliant expose of gang bangers wanting to get into the rap game and they suggest better alternatives for their ‘skills’. Roisin Murphy produced by Matthew Herbert is always a joy, he has such a minimalist groove and bounce to this, from her Ruby Blue album. Ending with the vocoder funk of Rubin Steiner and Break Reform’s gorgeous Cut A Map in The Soles Of My Feet from their final album.
Wasps – Solid Steel intro
Loka – Safe Self Tester
Nostalgia 77 – Cheney Lane
Afu Ra – Poisonous Taoist
Kid Sublime – This Way feat. U Gene
Harmonic 33 – Long Shadow
Elmore Judd – There’s A War Going On
One Self – Blue Bird (The Bees version)
Harmonic 33 – Paranoia
The Herbaliser – Geddim!
Prefuse 73 – Just The Thought feat. GZA & Masta Killa
Perceptionists – Career Finders feat Humpty Hump
Roisin Murphy – Ramalama (Bang Bang)
Rubin Steiner – Turn Off The Lights
Break Reform – Cut A Map In The Soles Of My Feet
Andy Votel has an exhibition of record sleeves containing architecture at The Modernist in Manchester. Taking inspiration from his sleeve for Jane Weaver‘s ‘The Architect’ he has created a poster and book to accompany the show. The book features records from his own collection including plenty of his own designs with intimate details that will have most running to Discogs or Google to find out more. Both the book and poster are available from The Modernist and the exhibition runs until September.
Below is my copy of a super rare hand made copy of Jane’s ‘The Architect’ which features an alternate version of the original cover.
Another bucket list item ticked: I’m featured in the 2000adcomic Comic Rock Sci-fi Special this year as it has a music theme. Alongside some esteemed company like Mark Moore, Riz (Neotropic) Maslen, Geoff Barrow, Scott Ian and William Potter (looking forward to his Geezer comic soon). Been a fan since I was 8 years old, still read it every week, they missed a trick by not having the cover tagline ‘Prog Rock’ though.
Here’s a couple of early 1998 sets strung together from a Solid Steel show I did with Oscar The Golden Child aka Oscar Wilson. I knew Oscar from the early days of the Sunday Best club, run by Rob Da Bank before he started Bestival. Oscar was/still is a super-talented illustrator and graphic artist as well as a DJ so we hit it off easily and I invited him in to play on the show a few times. We took turns in doing a half hour each and here I’ve strung my two sets together, check out his work here
Kicking off the mix with good old Boards of Canada, I think this might be the original Skam 7” mix of Aquarius, itself now an eye-watering average price of around £170 to find. Sliding messily into Skylab, and I do know the title, it’s actually ‘?’ but I don’t know whether this is part 1,2 or 3 as I can’t find my 12” of it. Over to the French connection for DJ Vadim’s remix of DJ Cam’s ‘Innervisions’ next featuring A-Cyde and Air’s still exquisite ‘All I Need’ classic. I’d forgotten the madness of Clifford Gilberto’s Timber remix, wow, how crazy is that? Probably doesn’t help that I’m playing the Balanese Monkey Chant over parts of it. This might have been before he’d actually released anything on Ninja aside from a track on the Funkungfusion compilation too, nothing like a new artist wanting to impress. The madness continues with AFX’s ‘Bummy’ from the Mealtime compilation on Planet Mu, complete with its odd speed up/slow down programming.
After an intrusive KISS jingle we’re into the second set, kicking off a brief electronic section with Lowish from the debut dual release with Solvent on Canada’s Suction Records and Phoenicia’s debut on Warp. Food fans may recognise the odd sample cropping up in the coming selection but it would be remiss of me to give the game away, it was a different time and library, electronic jazz and easy listening was being hoovered up and turning up all sorts of great tunes. Apologies for the chunky mixing, those tricky time signatures. Jasper van’t Hof’s amazing ’T.E.E. Again’ sounds like Boards before Boards and I always thought the early On-U Sound project Missing Brazilians sounded like a template for some of The Orb’s dub workouts. The distortion on that is actually on the record, crazed dub from 1984 on their sole release, Warzone which was reissued back in 2015.
I have to say, I don’t remember these really full on KISS FM jingles that crop up now and again, they point to the change the station was undergoing, getting more commercial and we’d be leaving in a year or so.
Track list:
Boards Of Canada – Aquarius
Skylab – ? (Part ?)
DJ Cam – Innervisions (DJ Vadim remix)
Air – All I Need
Coldcut – Timber (Clifford Gilberto mix 2)
AFX – Bummy
Lowfish – ESP (edit)
Phoenecia – Y-intercpnkt
George Duke – Nigerian Numberuma
Piero Umiliani – Topless Party
Hugo Montenegro – Stutterology
Jasper van’t Hof – T.E.E. Again
Missing Brazillians – Savanna Prance
I discovered this mural by Scottish artist John McColl in a book – Painting The Town by Cooper & Sargant – last week. Researching John and any more of his work reveals scant info, he appears to have been part of the Glasgow League of Artists co-operative in the 70s and this image is possibly enlarged from a canvas. It was part of four works commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council for the Gables End Mural scheme in the city, the others being ‘Hex’ by Stanley Bell, ‘Celtic Knot’ by James Torrance and ‘Boy on Dog Back’ by John Byrne.
‘Klapa II’ though is something else, I’d love to see the original and any more work from this period by McColl but there’s nothing out there it seems. Anyone with any more info please let me know.
A black and white version of the bottom image, taken from the book, ‘Cultural Devolution – Art in Britain in the late 20th century’
The mural featured in Eric Watt‘s ‘Coming Into View’ book of photos of Glasgow.
A few images of Stanley Bell’s ‘Hex’ (two versions it seems) are here
and more info on UK murals at the amazing For Wall With Tongues website.
I’m doing something different this week by putting this hour up for all seeing as it’s half by Coldcut and half by myself. Subscribers who have last week’s 2nd hour can complete the full 3 hr show if you head over to Coldcut’s Solid Steel Mixcloud page where they will upload the first hour by Matt Black. The 3rd hour is below and open to all.
In a mirror of my set in last week’s upload I start with a Ken Nordine then an Orb track and into a pivotal tune that holds a special place for me in how things evolved in the 90s musically. I first heard Coldcut’s ‘Eine Kleine Hed Musik’ on their incredible Coldcut meets the Orb show of New Years Eve, 1991/92. At the time it was unreleased and when I first met Matt Black at one of our Telepathic Fish parties in 1993 I asked him what it was as there was no track list and no clue as to where it came from. He told me it was a Coldcut track but others weren’t sure about releasing it, to which I told him in no uncertain terms that it was amazing and perfectly timed with what was happening at the moment (elements of what would become trip hop bubbling up through the ambient scene).
This propelled him to include it on the vinyl version of Coldcut’s ‘Philosophy’ LP when Ninja Tune released it (the majors not seeing the point in vinyl at that point, how things change). This was at a point when (I think) Coldcut were still signed to A&M but breaking away and trying to get their name back to use on Ninja Tune as the label seemed to be losing interest and they were keen to be their own bosses, hence Ninja and the DJ Food alias. By the time of this show I had a solid vinyl copy of the track at last after having it on tape for 2.5 years, it gave Matt and I a connection from our first meeting and it represents a key point in my career as a DJ.
The Ballistic Brothers vs Eccentric Afros 12”s got so much action back in the mid 90s, seminal trip hop blueprints, probably never to be repressed due to huge samples I’d wager. The unknown ambient sax track up next was from a tape I bought in Ambient Soho, long since lost in the mists of time and the sax loop I’ve just discovered (via the power of Shazam) is the intro to Dionne Warwick’s ‘A House Is Not A Home’. Such a beautiful track made from a simple idea. Mike Oldfield meeting the Orb was always an idea waiting to be ticked off the list and their overhaul of his Sentinel track is one of their best remixes IMO. Swimming out of this come the Cocteau Twins with ‘Whales Tails’, I played a fair bit of 4AD stuff in chill out sets around this time, lots of This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance too.
I think Matt takes over for this last section so I can’t comment too much although the Autechre tracks might be me but I can’t be sure. This 3rd hour concludes the set – I’ve sent Matt’s 1st hour to him to put up on the Coldcut Mixcloud – and has a similar feel to the Alien Sphinx shows we used to do something on Solid Steel where we’d forego the ads and sometimes have an extra hour for one reason or another (British Summer Time ending was always one).
Tracklist:
Ken Nordine – You’re Getting Better
The Orb – Back Side Of The Moon (Underwater Deep Space)
Coldcut – Eine Kleine Hed Musik
The Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afros – Anti-Gun Movement
Unknown – Ambient sax track
Mike Oldfield Vs The Orb – Sentinel (Orbular Bells)
Cocteau Twins – Whales Tails
The Ink Spots – Do I Worry?
Coldcut – Sign
Drome – Hinterland, Kassler Kessel
Unknown – Unknown
Autechre – The Eggshell
Autechre – Flutter (on 33rpm)
Deep Space Network – Om
Tonoto’s Expanding Headband – Jetsex
The first issue of Moonbuilding is here! Put together by Neil Mason (ex of Electronic Sound magazine) and published quarterly by Castles In Space, it features guest design work from Nick Taylor, a column by Alex Paterson of The Orb and the return of Steven Appleby’s Captain Star comic strip. Also comes with a 13 track CD
Order via the Castles In Space Bandcamp page
This is a very cool little clip by Manalishi – “My good friend Matt Ford kindly lent me a shoebox full of his grandad’s 1940’s jazz magazines. I was so impressed by their condition and also the quality of the designs that I decided to animate my favourite bits.”
Matt Ford you may know by another name – DJ Format, here’s what he had to say about the clip. “I only recently discovered that my grandad used to run a jazz club in the Southampton area where I grew up. He was a massive hoarder and kept all his jazz magazines, records & gramophones until his death in 1983. My gran then kept all of these lovely items for the next 39 years and passed them on to me. It’s interesting to think that some of my weird/obsessive record collecting ways were inherited from my jazz-loving grandad!”
See more on Matt’s Instagram
Robin The Fog – not content with releasing a collaborative cassette with Ken Hollings (The Howling via The Tape Worm), creating episodes for MSCTY about tape music (see earlier post), gigging or holding workshops virtually every week as well as holding down a full time job – is also releasing a new album with the Buried Treasure label. For those paying attention over the last few years, a couple of limited lathe cut singles with BT have pointed the way, La Fog has been moving towards the heavier, noisier end of things of late. Pounding, industrial 4/4 beats are the order of the day in part on Trepass and Welfare with various phase-shifting motifs moving through the repetition to form new rhythms and patterns. This is very successful on opener, ‘Sonicjob Horsfunk’ where a buried vocal seems to intone different phrases as it’s filtered around the sound spectrum.
The album is out on CD & DL on July 29th and you can pre-order it here
Below is a short video made by the excellent Cinema Iloobia for the album closer, ‘Frosi’
And the week after release is the inaugural occurrence of Fogfest at Iklectik, another thing that’s eating up Robin’s time to organise. I’ll be joining the bill of Sculpture, Steve Davis, Franziska Lantz and Robin himself for music, drink and chat in Waterloo. Tickets available here https://iklectikartlab.com/fogfest/
Something that’s been sitting on my desktop for weeks, the artist is called Hamish, who I’ve never heard of but he’s doing a nice Rick Griffin impersonation. Can’t remember where I found it on the web, possibly The Rock Poster Society group on Facebook.
Andrew Weatherall once had a late night, weekday show on KISS FM back in the 90’s, running – I think – between 1993 and 1994. Coldcut were asked to sit in for him a few times and I got to play one of these during August 1994. I can’t remember if we did it live, I doubt it being that it was 1-4am on a Wednesday night, we probably pre-recorded it.
This particular set is Matt Black and myself using multiple decks and CD players, I think I even bought a cassette in to play one particular piece from and it’s a good example of Solid Steel from around that time, quite ambient, downtempo with an uptempo electronic ending. Of the three hours, Matt did the first, I did the 2nd and most if not all of the 3rd, it’s hard to tell until I have a full track list.
Kicking off with Ken Nordine, then a recent find on a Rhino best of CD via Mixmaster Morris who introduced me to him in 1993 and blew my mind. The Orb we all know, hard to believe it’s 30 years this summer that this came out on the UFOrb album. Early Ninja beats from Up, Bustle & Out into Sounds From The Ground – a lesser heralded act from around this time which included Elliot Morgan Jones who was also Path who appear later. One of the first vinyl design jobs I ever did was for him under the Path alias on his own Sound Information label – lovely guy.
There’s been a lot of talk on the internet about trip hop this week and here are a brace of beats from older 80s cuts by the likes of Depth Charge and Tackhead with a couple of tracks from Aphex’s then newly-released Selected Ambient Works II and the Psychic Warriors of Gaia sandwiched in between. A brief dash of the Orb’s mix of KLF’s 3AM and another snatch of Ken from the Sound Museum, one of my absolute favourites by the man.
Things get multi-layered from here and I can’t identify all the tracks going on as many of them bleed into one another or run in the background, ducking and diving in and out of the mix. Steve Hillage’s ‘Rainbow Dome Musick’ is one of them and must play for at least 10 minutes or more. Global Communication’s ‘9.25’ I can definitely hear, the Path vs Spacehead is another and Tounesol’s ‘Holy Cow’ but there’s lots more going on in there. Once we reach Hillage there’s a slow build into quite a raucous section of pounding acid techno with a Beaumont Hannant track from the vinyl version of his Texturology album that I can’t find the name of. Out of this comes one of my favourite UK acid tracks – Sulphuric’s ‘Acid Chamber’ on Infonet – a sole release under this name being the work of Pete (The Hypnotist/MLO and may more) Smith and Kris Needs and it’s incredible. Hillage is still in the mix and then we get another Aphex track to play out, the pounding but mysterious ‘D-Scape’ from his ‘On’ release.
Tracklist:
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum
The Orb – O.O.B.E.
Up, Bustle & Out – Lazy Daze
Sounds From The Ground – Triangle
Depth Charge – Bounty Killers (Measly 1000 Bucks version)
Aphex Twin – Untitled (Flute SAW II)
P.W.O.G – Linkage
Aphex Twin – Untitled (Industrial Beats SAW II)
Tackhead – What’s My Mission Now?
KLF – 3AM (Blue Danube Orbital)
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum
Global Communiation – 9.25
Unknown – Unknown
Path vs Spacehead – Neptune
Tounesol – Holy Cow
Steve Hillage – Rainbow Dome Musick
Beaumont Hannant – unknown
Sulphuric – Acid Chamber
Aphex Twin – D-Scape
The DJ Shadow Reconstructed website has just published the second of two very indepth interviews with Yasushi Takayama – an old friend who worked for the Toys Factory record label in Japan in the 90s. Toys Factory manufactured and distributed both Ninja Tune and Mo Wax back in the day and did some beautiful releases with bonus tracks as well as bring acts from the labels to Japan for tours and concerts. Yasushi was instrumental in dealing with the labels and would be on hand to help and hang out with us when we visited the country.
Above is a shot of a much younger Yasushi and I during my first visit to Japan in 1996 and I have many fond memories of meals, record shopping and special visits to secret stores with him during our times out there. I put him in touch with Jon at the website who is diving deep into the people and places around Shadow’s career and supplied some personal photos from the time. Whilst the interviews are mostly Mo Wax-related they also give a behind the scenes look at the times and Ninja Tune is mentioned in relation to Yasushi’s role at the label. For collectors and music history fans these interviews are full of rare flyers, previously unpublished photos and show how unique the Japanese versions of these releases were.
Yasushi with DJ Vadim at the Vaccuum Record shop, Tokyo in 1997.
I’m mildly fascinated by these rock illustrations from Record Mirror magazines circa 1978-1981 when artists were asked to interpret pop idols of the day for covers and the odd poster. This was back when Record Mirror was a newspaper of the same size as NME, Melody Maker and Sounds before downsizing to magazine format.
They LOVED Blondie, she was constantly on the cover, probably because a beautiful woman sold copies. Not sure what to make of the suggestive poster at the top!
Ivor Sexton, Alan Alder, David Street, Bob Zammarchi, Bush Hollyhead, Peter Watson, Mark (Zodiac Mindwarp) Manning, Conny Jude, Chris Chaisty, Chris Preistley and Graham Stevens are just some of the names I can see credited, some are familiar, some not.
There was a trend for this kind of caricature around this time with a whole raft of posters released in similar styles (one of which – the Siouxsie centre spread – is featured here). I’ve posted about them before and there’s more to come…
This was a last half hour in early 2005, we’d traditionally save selections like this for the last slot, material that was a bit more esoteric and unusual, something to wind down with rather than kick off the show and risk people turning off. It’s a game of two halves but both are played for laughs with the former being country cover versions of hip hop classics and the latter being George Bush cut ups, mainly focused on the War in Iraq.
Ricky V Valentine’s ‘Ghetto Classics’ (split into two halves here) first appeared on the Souvenirs EP via the Leeds-based C Side Trax label and is – as far as I know – the only thing released under that name by whoever was behind it. It’s a brilliantly observed take off of Grandmaster Flash, NWA, Outcaste and Jay Z and more of a skit than a song. Nina Gordon was in mid 90’s band Veruca Salt, an indie/grungy pop band who the UK press loved for a minute which is why it’s so odd to hear her cover NWA in such a delicate way, brilliantly absurd. I probably got it from the internet but it turned up on what looks like a bootleg 45 years later in 2010 with a Richard Cheese cover on the flip which makes an appearance next with his take on Snoop Dogg’s ‘Gin & Juice’.
Through the power of Discogs I’ve finally discovered who did the cover of ‘Boyz In (N) The Hood’ – it was alt rock band Dynamite Hack (no, me neither) – there’s a cheesy frat boy golfing video on YouTube to go with it too. Then we have tales from Boris ‘the hip hop roadie’ from Pitman’s second LP, according to Boris he was the catalyst for most of hip hop’s founding moments. No idea where I found the ‘Ace of Spades’ cover (probably online, it was the file-sharing 00’s) but the vocal is a dead ringer for Lemmy or they found the multi-tracks somewhere.
Now comes the George Bush half of the set with the bizarre George Bush Singers shadowing lines cut from Bush speeches. This comes from a whole album entitled ‘Songs In The Key of W’ which I’m now keen to hear and has sent me down a YouTube/Discogs wormhole. Big City Orchestra have been making cut ups in the tradition of Negativland for decades and they have a special take on George, the origin of which I’ve no idea as their discography is so huge. After another blast of the GWB Singers we finish with ‘Bushwhacked 2’ – a collaboration by Chris Morris and Osymyso released on Warp records with this being a remix by Jonathan Whitehead. Dubya was the subject of many cut ups over the years with his speeches an easy target for re-editing, these weren’t the first or the last to be featured on Solid Steel.
PS: As you can see my KLF mix was also archived on this disc although it wasn’t broadcast on this show, to hear it you can go here https://www.mixcloud.com/strictlykev/the-sound-of-music/
Track list:
Ricky V Valentine – Ghetto Classics Pt.1
Nina Gordon – Straight Outta Compton
Richard Cheese – Gin & Juice
Ricky V Valentine – Ghetto Classics Pt.2
Dynamite Hack – Boyz In the Hood
Pitman – Boris
Twistin Tarantulas – Ace Of Spades
The George W. Bush Singers – 4,000 Hours
Big City Orchestra – F The Leader
The George W. Bush Singers – War in Iraq
10NN – Bushwhacked 2 (Gim Ponavesspa conclusion)
I posted part 1 of this last May, here’s the latest episode from Robin The Fog – a 10 minute meditation on the art of feedback in composing. Episode 2 below as well…