Fan service in The Mandalorian

imperialtrooptransport-w-boxOne thing I’m loving about The Mandalorian (the new Star Wars spin-off series on Disney+); the fan service coupled with some extra touches to existing designs. The Imperial trooper transport – that was never in the films but existed as a toy in the 70s – makes an appearance in episode 7. Also the TIE fighter landing with foldable wings in the next scene was a nice touch.

Screen Shot 2019-12-24 at 00.08.38 Screen Shot 2019-12-24 at 00.09.52 Screen Shot 2019-12-24 at 00.10.07 Screen Shot 2019-12-24 at 00.10.22
P.S. – Yes I have seen The Rise of Skywalker and there’s a lot to say about it, some of which I will be attempting on the Big Mouth podcast in the second week of January 2020.

Sculpture – Projected Music ‘Tom Richards – Comma and’ remix video

Sculpture: Projected Music (‘Tom Richards – Comma and’ remix) from Sculpture on Vimeo.

From the video write up:
Tom Richards‘ remix of Sculpture‘s ‘Projected Music’ (plasticinfinite.bandcamp.com/album/projected-music) uses his own invented synthesiser modules to control the motors of three modified turntables with syncopated voltage control.

Projected Music is a 5-inch zoetrope picture disc containing 26 locked grooves. Each loop is 1.33 seconds in duration cut at 45rpm reaching a total playing time of 34.58 seconds although the loops are intended to be played at any speed. In the possession of two or more disks, the listener can interact with a modular album whereby the source material is open to interpretation. Despite its minimalist size and composition, this release is intended as an LP. With the expansive nature of the turntable, there are almost limitless possibilities.

‘Projected Reworks’ is eight commissioned tracks by artists who use the turntable as an instrument. Using only physical copies of Sculpture’s 5-inch locked groove animated picture disc ‘Projected Music’, sonic materials contained within the 26 loops are transfigured into new imaginings by some of the most prominent and inventive artists working in the field.”

Philip Jeck – Projected Mix 1
Janek Schaefer – Languishing Under a Larynx of Lies
Me, Claudius – Sifonn-ed 4
Graham Dunning – Grill
Philip Jeck – Projected Mix 2
Maria Chavez – Berceuse5
Mariam Rezaei – Improvisation I
Tom Richards – Comma and

Posted in Film, Music. | 1 Comment | Tags:

45 Live radio show episode 100

show 100 instagram

What a way to end the decade, the 100th edition of the 45 Live radio show, hosted by DJ Greg Belson on Dublab, features the 20 strong crew of DJs given 5 minutes each to do whatever they want. As long as they use vinyl 7″s of course. I chose to mash parts of 48 different tracks together to form a classic house and acid megamix – hear it and the others on Dec 20th from 8pm-10pm PST via Dublab or the archive on Mixcloud.

45 Live Radio Show - offical mixcloud figures

Vote!

A7FCCB38-DE5B-46B6-BB81-9DC1D6509ECE

There are a lot of good memes, slogans and piss takes surrounding this election, here are some that have caught my eye. The slogan above, using the same fonts at the mastheads of the right wing press, is by spellingmistakescostlives.com aka Darren Cullen. He has a pop up Museum of Neo-liberalism in Lewisham right now that’s worth a visit to find out the origins and architects of how the UK is in the state it is now.

I’m not sure where the Tories Over if you want it originates but the Heavenly Social posted it and I thought I’d Photoshop it into a picture of John and Yoko to bring the reference full circle.
The Monopoly box rearranged to No More Tory is by Andy Votel and I’m unsure about the rest but the sentiments either ring true for me or make me laugh. Please remember to vote on Thursday, unless it’s for the Tories.

79089343_10156286606735378_172890193353768960_n IMG_4109 71523657_10159278120502729_1874181908154286080_nScreen Shot 2019-12-05 at 22.54.02 ELbQ-CDWoAEMbG0

De:tuned DE.10.10 Bleep exclusive 12″, poster & tote

DE 10.10 front
DE 10.10 side A
DE 10.10 side BDE 10.10 back
I’m super-pleased to round out the year with these designs for both De:tuned and Bleep on the first day of their advent calendar countdown to Xmas. For those unfamiliar with my work for Belgian label De:tuned’s tenth year anniversary, there have been nine 12″s released monthly in 2019 which can be seen below.

IMG_3425

We’ve reached the 10th and final release and saved the best for last; Lone, Plaid, Steven Rutter, Erik Van Den Broek and Humanoid feature musically, which should be enough to have you hitting the ‘buy’ button alone. But we’ve pushed the boat out on the sleeve for this one with extra silver ink and foil on top of the full colour process.

DE 10.10 detail 3
DE 10.10 detail 4DE 10.10 detail 2
DE 10.10 detail
This one nearly broke me as version after version was sent to the printer only to be returned with changes to the artwork files before they were happy to run it on the press due to the nature of the inks and foil. The Bleep website have the absolute exclusive on it, De:tuned have pressed it on silver vinyl in an edition of 300 and there’s a tote bag and print to go with it, only from Bleep.

DE 10 Tote
DE tote 1 DE tote 2
DE 10 Poster

The print is something I’m immensely proud of, an A2 five colour images featuring the full modular from the covers, designed to showcase all the artists in the series, screen printed by the exceptionally talented Jonas Ranson at Blacklist Editions London in an edition of 100. This also took a lot of trial and error to achieve with Jonas running many tests with inks, paper samples and screen densities to achieve the print quality we desired. See the detailed photos below for the quality, this is not your regular promo poster, this is suitable for framing, the silver is hard to show in these photos. Everyone has worked so hard to pull all this together with the posters being hand-delivered to Bleep on Friday, thanks to Jonas for the fantastic job and for De:tuned for being patient and trusting me to do things a bit differently.

DE.10 poster 1 DE.10 poster 2 DE.10 poster 3 DE.10 poster 4

The items here are available individually or as a bundle with a free Bleep X tote bag – BUY HERE (Bundle)
(Also the posters are an absolute steal at £12.99 each, other prints of this kind would be more).
Poster link
Tote link
12″ link

Eno’s web

fullsizeoutput_1304
I’ve been on a bit of an Eno kick of late and was pleasantly surprised to find mention of our Telepathic Fish ambient parties in David Toop‘s essay for the Eno Box I booklet. Lamenting the fact that the definition of ambient seems to have got a bit confused with the new generation of artists practising and playing music under this banner, David highlights some of the people and parties of the early 90s who had caused such a resurgence of interest in the music.
In our defence, we were just kids in our early twenties, still learning about this music along with all the other exciting things that were happening at the time too (techno, rave, grunge, dub, hip hop and it’s offshoots into white rock in the US and the aftermath of the baggy/madchester filtering into the UK indie scene). The early 90s were one of the most musically-fertile times I can remember with new styles and cross breeds emerging constantly. It was the dawn of the internet but still a few years away from email and a decade from Napster’s free-for-all tidal wave, arriving in London we had soaked up information as fast as possible from every available source. The weekly music papers provided a running soap opera of indie comings and goings with a smattering of dance music thrown in, record shops held an unaffordable stock to be cherry-picked with our student grants and older DJs like Mixmaster Morris, Matt Black and Rockit Ron were treasure troves of information, which they thankfully shared with us new jacks.

Every generation will reinterpret what’s gone before in its own way, influenced by the goings on around them which weren’t present in the previous incarnation, location or time frame. Hip hop and rock today sound nothing like they did even a decade ago, being twisted to suit the current age by people fresh to the scene who want it to reflect their times. It’s testament to a genre’s longevity that it still has something to say and give after several decades and ambient music’s third resurgence in recent years proves that there’s still plenty of life in the genre. Eno continues to intrigue and produce interesting music, music, apps and thoughts, even if he is producing some questionable acts now and then, something he’s always done in hindsight.

Sculpture, Projected Music release party

Projected Music poster
A huge night coming up on November the 29th in East London, Psyché Tropes celebrate the release of the 5″ picture disc of locked grooves Sculpture have done with them by putting on a gig of avant garde turntablism. Janek Schaefer, Mariam Rezaei and Sculpture themselves will be headlining and interspersed will be a 26 turntable ensemble made up of: A’Bear, Arran Bolders, Ben Rodgers, Billy Pleasant, Bjorn Hatleskog, Blanca Regina, Chloe Frieda, Chris Thomas Allen (The Light Surgeons), Dan Hayhurst (Sculpture), Daniel WJ MacKenzie, DJ Food, Graham Dunning, Hems, Horton Jupiter, Janek Schaefer, Lia Mice, Mariam Rezaei, Merkaba Macabre, Odd Lust, Pierre Bouvier Patron, Rado Bogasch, Reuben Sutherland (Sculpture),  Robin The Fog (Howlround), Spatial, Tida Bradshaw, Tom Richards.

I doubt the same people will ever be in the same place on 26 turntables ever again – should be a riot!
The record is great and available here and tickets for the event are available here for the absolute steal of £5.

The making of the new Lapalux album cover

Lapalux_Amnioverse_Packshot
Lapalux released his new album, ‘Amnioverse’, last week on Brainfeeder and the cover and packaging is superb. As soon as I saw it I was trying to work out how photographer Dan Medhurst and set builder Owen Gildersleeve did it and now you can find out. Over on the Eye On Design website they have a feature on how it was done with process shots – go here to check it out

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 23.08.14Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 23.08.26
There’s some lovely, sympathetic packaging to go with it (inc. a 28 page booklet not shown) and you can buy the record here.

BF086_LAPALUX_MOCKUP

Damien Hirst – Mandalas at the White Cube

Gallery

A few days after seeing Damien Hirst’s new body of work, Mandalas, at the White Cube gallery in Piccadilly, I still can’t get them or their means of construction out of my head.

White 1 White 2 White 3 White 4Firstly, they are incredibly beautiful, huge, immaculately constructed and for the most part a blazing set of complimentary colours that burst out at you like the best Op-Art. Whilst these hark less towards the obvious stained-glass window effects of his previous collection, Kaleidoscope, they still retain a religious edge in the use of the mandala and several spiritually-aligned titles.

Red 1 Red 2 Red 3
The printed bumf from the gallery talks this angle up, pointing to the ‘highly patterned religious images that represent the cosmos or universe in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Shinto traditions’. They also refer to the works as ‘paintings’ when, really, the only paint used is the household kind used as a base in which thousands of real butterfly wings have been precisely placed. This is collage – not to want to split hairs – but when the body parts of thousands of dead insects make up the bulk of the show, realising this gives the works a second dimension that is hard to reconcile with their majesty. The skill with which these were constructed is mind-boggling (most probably without Hirst’s hand involved I’d wager) and as objects of precision, symmetry and craftsmanship they are hugely impressive.

Blue 2Blue 1
The largest of the collection, The Creator, is a predominantly black triptych that achieves the opposite of the others in that, instead of radiating outwards, it seemingly sucks you into its star field or black hole-like mass.

Creator 1 Creator 2 Creator 3 Creator 4

The butterflies are of course mentioned in the blurb but no information is forthcoming about how or where they were sourced and one can only assume, in this day and age, that there was little ethical about their collection otherwise this would have been explicitly stated. Comments on a previous post I made during Hirst’s retrospective at the Tate Modern some years ago suggest that they are bred in Asia and then imported for this purpose but there is no info out there to substantiate this that I could find online. This poses a real problem when viewing the works, knowing that certain butterflies are becoming scarcer by the year, their importance in our declining ecosystem and the fact that they will now be sold for millions to collectors who will prize them in much the same way as a big game hunter would the pelt of a slaughtered animal.

IMG_3633 IMG_3634 IMG_3640 IMG_3647

Whilst I wasn’t personally physically repulsed by viewing them in the same way as I was by seeing Marcus Harvey‘s painting of Myra Hindley made from the prints of a child’s hand at the Sensations exhibition over 20 years ago, the mixture of beauty from so much death leaves a guilt that sours the experience. The wings are isolated, no bodies remain, which detracts from the reality of their source slightly but there is no denying that they are real as some flash almost holographically in the light as you move past them. Only nature and light can reproduce such vivid colours (which, ironically, will fade in time under UV light I’m told) – I wonder how they will stand up over time and whether those who have bought them know this and will display them accordingly.

IMG_3648IMG_3652

If the best art should not only dazzle you with its beauty, skill, scope and technical ability but also make you think then, begrudgingly, I have to admit that Hirst has achieved all these in one way or another. While he has no doubt also made himself and the gallery a lot more money, he’s also made himself seem more like a dinosaur, out of step with our current ecologically caring times.

Detuned – DE:10.09 released today

DE09 front

We’re almost there… Out today: #9 of 10 projected releases I’ve designed for the De:tuned label as they celebrate their first 10 years. One release a month, multiple combinations of great artists across nine 12″s whose covers fit together to form a larger image, with a tenth remix 12″ to finish things off although there are going to be some special things to go with that release.

DE10 09B

Listen:

DE10 09A

Order:
Phonica: http://bit.ly/2Jis5Af
Bleep: http://bit.ly/2pNoEus
Juno: http://bit.ly/2N7J6Ow
Clone: http://bit.ly/2PcxCfo
Rush Hour: http://bit.ly/2pUKv2T
Deejay: http://bit.ly/32Kpnet
Decks: http://bit.ly/2Pnh2tr
HHV: http://bit.ly/2JjHhwS

DE09 back

Print ads from Scientific American magazine

Industrial TectonicsI was recently sorting out a small book collection for someone and ran across a stash of Scientific American magazines from the 60s. Some of the adverts are just beautiful examples of design, from typewriters to paper, electric and gas suppliers and general engineering companies. The standard is very high, considered and fun, attempting to make the banal interesting. Here are some of my favourite examples.

Celanese 2 Celanese 3 Celanese 5 Cornell Aeronautical Lab

The three ads below for Fairchild Semiconductor are double pagers – look at that font!

Fairchild Semiconductor 1 Fairchild Semiconductor 2 Fairchild Semiconductor 3 Los Alamos 1 Los Alamos 2 Los Alamos 3

The Olivetti ones below are just stunning, there seems to have been so many of these ads throughout the years, enough to make a huge coffee table book easily. I’ve found them in Graphis annuals and architectural magazines before, there must be hundreds, all seemingly different.

Olivetti 2 Olivetti 3 Olivetti 4 Olivetti equation Public Service Gas & Electric RCA flower I love the little illustrations at the bottom of these Riegel papers ads, they are small sidebar ads near the back of the magazine so I’ve lumped them together in one image.

Riegel Tech Paper 5 UpJohn

New mix for Mostly Sounds

I was asked to do a mix of soul, funk and jazz for Mostly Sounds who run the Mostly Jazz Funk & Soul festival in Birmingham which was one of the most fun gigs party-wise for me this summer. There’s an amazing amount of great music around at the moment that roughly falls into this category so this was the perfect place to get all that down in one mix.

Silke Schwinger & Fatty George – WeiBer Sand (Digatone)
The Relations – She Only Wanted To Be With You (Spun Out Of Control)
Ghost Funk Orchestra – Seven Eight (Karma Chief)
Coastal County – The Drop (Lomas)
The Karminsky Experience Inc. – Summer Storm (Patterns of Behaviour)
Vanishing Twin – Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life (Fire Records)
Coastal County – The Landing (Lomas)
Serge Gainsbourg & Jean Claude Vannier – Les Chemins De Katmandou (opening titles) (Finders Keepers)
Jane Weaver – Mission Desire (Fire Records)
Jorge Navarro – Repartamos El Funky (Mukatsuku)
Popera Cosmic – Batman (Finders Keepers)
Ghost Funk Orchestra – Skin I’m In (Karma Chief)
The Karminsky Experience Inc. – Gemini Calling (Patterns of Behaviour)
Serge Gainsbourg & Jean Claude Vannier – Le Roi Des Phlébotomes (Finders Keepers)
Planet Battagon – Moon Of Dysnomia (On The Corner Records)
Silke Schwinger & Fatty George – StraBenfahrt durch Wien (Digatone)
Vanishing Twin – Backstroke (Fire Records)
Ebony Steel Band – Spacelab (Om Swagger)
Ghost Funk Orchestra – A Conversation (Karma Chief)

Sculpture 5″ zoetrope picture disc of locked grooves

Sculpture: Projected Music from psyché tropes on Vimeo.

“Sculpture meets Psyché Tropes for a post-transitory broadcast in reductionist methodology, exploring the non-standard definitions in a petri dish from the other side”. (it says on the press release)

Projected Music is a 5-inch zoetrope picture disc containing 26 locked grooves. Each loop is 1.33 seconds in duration cut at 45rpm reaching a total playing time of 34.58 seconds although the loops are intended to be played at any speed. In the possession of two or more disks, the listener can interact with a modular album whereby the source material is open to interpretation. Despite its minimalist size and composition, this release is intended as an LP. With the expansive nature of the turntable, there are almost limitless possibilities.

Remixes by Maria Chavez, Philip Jeck, Janek Schaefer, Mariam Rezaei, Me, Claudius, Graham Dunning and Tom Richards will accompany the 5-inch as a free download. The official release will be on 29th November at The Old Baths in Hackney Wick with live performances by Sculpture, Janek Schaefer and Mariam Rezaei. An ensemble of 26 turntables for 26 locked grooves (including myself) will improvise throughout the intervals.
Event info: https://www.residentadvisor.net/events/1327194

5” Vinyl Pre-order. Releases 29 November 2019 via Bandcamp
https://plasticinfinite.bandcamp.com/album/projected-music

f98a49e5-1bd6-4ef0-904f-c3032ba0463a dd8863c0-c477-4671-8d94-fb1d462996d9

Who are this generation’s psychedelic poster artists?

Black Amgels poster(above poster by Rob Fitzpatrick / @_rf82)

When discussing psychedelic poster art from the 60s and 70s you often read about ‘The Big Five’, namely Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley. Of course there were many more; Martin Sharp, Nigel Weymouth, Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, Bonnie MacLean, Peter Max… all and many more can lay claim to have contributed to a new movement in poster art that took from Art Nouveau, Op Art and Surrealism.

With a new wave of psychedelia in music prevalent for a good decade now, who working today is pushing the envelope in the same way as these graphic giants? There are plenty of illustrators and designers creating very passable versions of the 60s style across record sleeves, posters, T-shirts and videos but, rather than rehashing the past glories of the 60’s greats, who is approaching the psych era in the 10’s with a fresh eye? Here’s my stab at calling who will be remembered for their work in this arena in decades to come.

It’s fairly evenly divided between Brits and Americans (with the exception of Sweden’s Robert Gnista and South Africa’s Simon Berndt) and the UK brings more photo collage and attempts to convey the analogue process’ of print to the table whilst elsewhere designers adopt a more illustrative approach, slavish to the original 60s ethos.

Luke Insect (UK) www.lukeinsect.com

ACID_MOTHERS_COL_2_591 COSMIC_591ALFOS_787 LI-Todmordenx4 OUTER_SPACE_1_COL_591 YUCATAN_591

Nate Duval (US) www.nateduval.com

Nate Duval Al sh Nate Duval lucius Nate Duval tameweb

Mishka Westell (US) www.mishkawestell.com

ark Mishka Westell Austin-Psych-Fest Mishka Westell Brian Wilson Mishka Westell ceaseless-colours-015-copy Mishka Westell cream2 Mishka Westell LEV-TyPC-final-small Mishka Westell Melvins__Austin_TX_2013-Mishka_Westell-Screenprint-trampt-110255o rokycircuitred01 Mishka Westell

Rob Fitzpatrick & Christian Bland (US – Levitation Festival)

austin-psych-fest-2010-triptych_36654275095_o Dum Dum Girls Rob FitzpatrickAPF2012-friday:Sat:Sun Rob Fitzpatrick

Andy Votel (UK – Finders Keepers label owner / designer, formerly Twisted Nerve records)

650857e109330051c35c53f95f18ddac All WIll Be Set Right 2 Cinefamily-FK CPdXqQ-W8AQIKvi JW-Ritz-poster_large db912dc551bf9b4ff408cb522c8c6ef3 Neotantrik Mass France Neotantrik Mass Stockport

Robin Gnista (Sweden) www.robgnista.com

Robin Gnista KVB-LF-2017 robingnista_barcelonapsychfest_2019 robingnista_brianjonestownmassacre robingnista_goldendawnarkestra_lp robingnista_gypsysunrevival robingnista_melodysechochamber_levitation_2016 robingnista_melted_announceposter robingnista_nebula robingnista_saturnalia robingnista_sonicdawn_freakvalley robingnista_thewildcentury_raw Swedish designer Robin Gnista_BJM_LF_Version_1-1LEVITATION-2018-commemorative-poster-by-Robin-Gnista_grande

Simon Berndt/One Horse Town (South Africa) www.onehorsetownillustration

NIGHT OWL 2017 02 Allah Las Poster Print Black Lips SA FIN 02

Weird Beard (US) www.wb72.bigcartel.com

Weird Beard 72 black-mountain_35819350194_o-685x1030 Weird Beard 72 BLACKANGELSPSY1S Weird Beard 72 DMROSE1SMALL Weird Beard 72 LEVITATION-2018-ELECTRIC-WIZARD-by-DAVID-MEDEL-1-687x1030CLDFINAL1SMALL

TURKUAZTNMSSMALLFINAL1

Julian House (UK – Ghost Box label owner, designer at Intro)

Gods Waiting Room JaccoLeGuessWhoposter poster white thumb 21-entropicalia

Fez Moreno (US – artist for The Electric Church) @fezmoreno

Fez Morena ShiveryShakes Fez Morena Sundazed Fez Morena Modular sun Fez Morena Kay Odyssey Fez Morena 2 year Anniv Fez Morena Golden Dawn Arkestra

Nick Taylorwww.SpectralStudio.co.uk

Screen-Shot-2017-12-08-at-19.28.33_670 CosmicDead_poster_3508_670 TS_PRINTAD_6700017066724_10