Oddities: What lies beneath

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The reason there haven’t been as many posts here recently is because my time has been taken up with renovating a new home that I’ll be moving into soon. The whole place is in need of modernising and I’ve been peeling back layers upon layers of paper and paint, revealing some quite beautiful reminders of yesteryear. I’ve taken to documenting the best bits before it’s all gone forever, there’s lots of wallpaper hidden behind plug sockets and trunking plus the hidden spaces behind radiators and an extremely faded carpet.

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Posted in Oddities, Photography. | 1 Comment |

The Colourscape on Clapham Common

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Back in 1999 I went to Colourscape on Clapham Common and took a ton of photos, some of which ended up on the cover of the ‘Kaleidoscope’ album. 18 years later, with my two children in tow, I revisited it and was as wowed as I was nearly two decades before. If you get the chance, it’s a beautiful environment to wander around in for an hour, there’s contemporary classical music in the centre chamber and these photos don’t do it justice because it’s impossible to photograph and sends camera phones into convulsions. For more info where Colourscape is going to be next ,check them out on Facebook.

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East London street art

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A recent trip to East London to see the British Underground Press exhibition (see previous post) yielded a wealth of great street art including the new Banksy homage to Basquiat at the Barbican (the former street artist’s show was booked up but you could see the Banksy for free – just how it should be)

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Down the road on Coin Street there was a huge installation that was a companion to another in a park near Spitalfields market, unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the artist.

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Over in Brick Lane there was almost too much to see and it’s hard to process the good from the bad. A huge Shok 1 I’d not seen before covered an entrance gate and there are plenty of paste ups of strange animals.

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Hasworld, who’s work I’ve been enjoying for about a year, had been busy with some new posters too.

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A Space Invader cemented to a wall on Brick Lane and, for no apparent reason, a stencil of Adam Ant.

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British Underground Press of the Sixties at the A22 Gallery

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Just opened at the A22 Gallery in Clerkenwell is an exhibition supporting the British Underground Press of the Sixties book by Barry Miles and James Birch that collects the covers to all (big claim I know) the major magazines of the late 60s and 70s together. The exhibition features much more than just the magazines though with archive posters, badges, promo material and memorabilia collected together in a mass of psychedelic colour and badly registered print.

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Oz, International Times, Frendz, Gandalf’s Garden, Black Dwarf, Ink, cOzmic Comics and more all feature and it’s a wonder to behold. Some of the covers verge on pornographic and serve to remind of more anarchic and sometimes unsavoury times. The book is spectacular, highly recommended at £35 from Rocket 88 and is also available at the gallery with a deluxe edition containing vintage copies of original undergrounds for a silly money price too.

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Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner IMAX *SPOILER-FREE*  I saw this a couple of days ago and I’m still thinking about it. The film is a triumph, something I never thought would or even needed to happen. The perfect film that didn’t need a sequel now has one and it’s incredible.

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Dennis Villeneuve and his team have done the impossible, taken the essence of the original and created something that expands on the world Ridley Scott, Syd Mead and Doug Trumbull made in 1982.

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Blade-Runner-2049-with-Ryan-GoslingThe look and grit of the original are all there and more, the sound of Vangelis‘ score is in there with a contemporary twist, and any worries about Hans Zimmer‘s late involvement should be put aside, he and Benjamin Wallfisch have crafted something beautiful and gripping that I immediately had to buy afterwards. The design and visuals… oh my god, where to begin, there is so much I need to watch it on slow mo when the Blu Ray comes out and there’s plenty of fan service paid but I only thought one particular scene was unnecessary.

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Gosling is good, Leto as the main villain, Wallace, is good if a lot hammier than his predecessor, Tyrell and Ford acquits himself of his last two franchise returns. Villeneuve’s pacing is perfect, the film clocks in at over 2.5 hrs but it didn’t feel like that to me, the director takes his time with every scene and nothing felt rushed, and the ending, oh the ending is just sublime.

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Go and see it, go to the biggest screen you can find with the best sound, make sure you go to the toilet beforehand and just sit back and bathe in the glory of it all. Also, try to watch the three prequel shorts before you do, they will help flesh out some of the backstory.
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FourFromFoodFriday #17.36

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Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things I’ve been loving in the last seven days. Old or new, whatever’s been on in the studio. From top left:

Blackash – Black Witch EP (Swordfish Records) 12″ – Freaky psych rock with meditational ambient tracks straight out of Birmingham

The Belbury Circle – Outward Journeys (Ghost Box) LP – Jim Jupp and Jon Brooks join forces with John Foxx again to whip up an album of early 80s inspired tracks.

Misha Panfilov – Kallaste Elektrooniline Muusika (aina lomala) 7″ – Superb hauntological / radiophonic / electronic 45 from prolific Estonian producer Panfilov

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard live session in the KEXP studio (YouTube) – I have to watch this about once a week, such fantastic timing and musicianship

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Pink Floyd at the V&A Museum

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It’s taken me an age to post these because life is currently getting in the way in the form of moving and renovating a new home. The Pink Floyd exhibition, ‘Their Mortal Remains’ at the V&A Museum, is very much worth seeing even if, like me, Pink Floyd don’t mean much to you. I swore off them for a long while due to ‘Another Brick In The Wall Pt.2’ being no.1 for so many weeks as a child and finding myself utterly sick of it.

But the fickleness of youth only lasts so long and I found myself gradually checking back through their back catalogue, picking up the odd cheap LP here and there and finally realising why everyone raves about ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’. This exhibition highlights exactly what a forward-thinking, visually aware band they were, adapting as their fame and venue sizes increased, their sleeve concepts becoming ever more outlandish as budgets made pre-photoshop surrealist montage possible. The amount of artwork and props present attest to a group with a very strong concept behind each album, courtesy of the Hipgnosis team of course.

Starting at the beginning and travelling chronologically through their career we enter a time tunnel and emerge inside a version of the UFO club circa ’67 complete with pulsating liquid light ceiling, psychedelic poster gallery and films. Rooms concentrating of Syd Barratt, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon and more eventually give way to a stunning display of Animals and The Wall-era stage props and art. The 80s side of things were less my bag but the concepts were now reaching gigantic proportion and are impressive as last bastions of the sort of excess that just doesn’t happen any more now that we can do all these things digitally. The final room with a surround performance of their reunion at Live8 was very moving and a perfect way to end this retrospective. Go and see if before it ends on October 15th!

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Pierre Henry, Montreux Jazz festival, Switzerland 1998

Pierre Henry Montreux Jazz festival 1998

I finally found my Pierre Henry photos. Back in 1998 I was playing with various assorted Ninjas at the Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland. Pierre Henry was also on the bill so we went along but were late and had to sit near the back as they were the only seats left.
Pierre came out and was introduced but there was nothing on stage, just black curtains. He promptly strode to the back of the room and played the gig from the mixing desk just behind us.
The gig was both terrifying and sublime- at one point i was so relaxed I think I nodded off. Right at the end, as he was receiving a huge round of applause, I turned round and snapped these two shots of him.
RIP Pierre Henry

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FourFromFoodFridays #17.35

FourFromFoodFridays 17.35Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things I’ve been loving in the last seven days. Old or new, whatever’s been on in the studio. From top left:

Clocolan – Nothing Left To Abandon (BauSatz) 2xLP – Timely reissue of Clocolan’s debut album from January – then digital only – on two blue vinyl discs with extra tracks

Andy Votel’s Typewriter Jazz (Worldwide FM) Radio – Guesting on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide radio station, Andy plays songs that feature the original journalist’s analogue keyboard of choice as musical instrument.

Annabel (lee) – The Cleansing (Youngbloods) LP – The follow up to their timeless debut, ‘By the Sea… and Other Solitary Places’, this is just as good, out today!

Yves Hayat – Conversation Between the East and the West (Timing) LP – Finally found a copy of this at a decent price, from the man himself, it’s not all on the web but you can sample some of its delights. Someone reissue this please.

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Under the Radar – Underground Zines & Self-Publications 1965–1975

unterdemradar_de_object_0I was sent a copy of this fantastic book a few months ago and now i’ve seen it appearing in a few of the better books shops over here (Magma has them I believe).

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Designed in collaboration with students of the HfK Bremen it’s a 368 page B&W and colour publication from Leipzig, edited by Jan-Frederik Bandel, Annette Gilbert, Tania Prill and Prill Vieceli Cremers

unterdemradar_de_4_0unterdemradar_de_5_0Packed full of underground press magazines, fanzines and comics from West Germany, showing them in the context from which they emerged. A collection like this is priceless, you would never track down some of these publications even if you knew they existed.

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Editor Tania Prill will talk about the project at Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair this Saturday, September 23rd at 12:00 am, at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101

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Further goes to Spiritland

With great pride and a lot of effort Pete Williams and I played one of our Further sets last Sunday evening at Spiritland, complete with multiple projections. Thanks to everyone who came by despite the bad weather. We had a great time and are in talks to bring it back there. You can hear our 4 hour set below and sample some of the projections we discreetly added to the sumptuous surroundings.

The next Further excursion is in 9 days at the SYNthesis festival in South Norwood, we’ll be playing either side of The Heliocentrics at Stanley Halls preceded by an afternoon of street art painting, food stalls and a talk by designer, Swifty at 6pm.
Tickets here

(Video nicked from Spiritland’s Instagram, photos © Martin LeSanto-Smith)

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Posted in Art, Comics, Event, Gigs, Music, Oddities. | 1 Comment | Tags: ,

Electronic Sound issue 33

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The latest issue of Electronic Sound magazine is a cracker, a huge interview with Gary Numan, an appraisal of Trevor Key’s artwork and an opening page by me, showing the final Rite of Mu with The JAMs that happened in Liverpool recently. You can also get a great remix of Numan’s ‘My Name Is Ruin’ by Meat Beat Manifesto on 7″ if you buy the bundle direct from their website.

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FourFromFoodFridays #17.34

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Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things I’ve been loving in the last seven days. Old or new, whatever’s been on in the studio. From top left:

Quaeschning & Schnauss – Synthwaves (Azure Vista Recordings) LP – Very Tangerine Dream-flavoured synth errrr… waves in this 3rd release from the new ambient off-shoot of El Paraiso.

Gary Numan – My Name Is Ruin (Meat Beat Manifesto Poison remix) (Electronic Sound) 7″ – Only available as a special bundle online with the latest issue of Electronic Sound magazine – the beaty B side is a thing of beauty.

David Sylvian – Camphor (Virgin) CD – Inspired by revisiting Sylvian and Czukay’s work after Holger’s recent death I dug this out, a compilation of David’s ambient work with remixes of ‘Plight & Premonition’ on the second disc.

Rodinia – Ex Anima (Now Again) CD/LP – J.J.Whitefield is back with a follow up to last year’s ‘Drumscape/Dreamscape’ with more in the ambient/krautrock vein.

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RIP Virgil Howe

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I was stunned to learn of the sudden death of Virgil Howe today, a lovely, funny, mega-talented man who I had the pleasure to know for a few years. As a drummer he could straddle the funk, rock and psychedelic genres with ease and was also a mean keyboardist and producer in his own right. Anyone who followed him on Facebook was regaled weekly with anecdotes of his DJing adventures and battles with punters who didn’t want their envelopes pushed in the direction that ‘The Verge’ wanted to go.

His Sunday Hidden Level radio show on Soho Radio was always a smogasbord of funk, soul, rock, psych and everything in between and I’m very proud to have been a guest way back when. I only knew him for a while and can’t say I knew him well but we had loads in common the few times we did meet and I send my condolences out to his family for this awful loss. I feel so gutted for the members of Little Barrie too, on the cusp of a tour, a new album out and finally making it after all these years – I hope they find a way to get over this and carry on but Virgil’s drum stool won’t be an easy one to fill.

From his solo work (the Drums Series on Breakin’ Bread featuring other drummers like Malcolm Catto and Shawn Lee) to his material with The Killer Meters, The Amorphous Androgynous, The Dirty Feel to Little Barrie he was a versatile powerhouse of a drummer. He played drums on one of the greatest remixes ever, ‘The Amorphous Androgynous Exploding Psychedelic Bubble Mix’ of Oasis’ ‘Falling Down’ and recorded a ton of drums for me to use on my next record, which I still have – waiting to be chopped up and sampled – something that will take on a different meaning when I finally use them.
He was also a total dude, not in a corny way either, he just oozed warmth and cool. RIP Virgil Howe

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More (animated) covers by Henning M. Lederer

More Covers from Henning M. Lederer on Vimeo.

More of these faboulous animated covers by Henning M. Lederer – Sourced from the excellent Julian Montague Projects instagram account

Also check out his mesmerizing video for OMD‘s track, ‘Isotype’– properly hypnotizing

OMD – Isotype from Henning M. Lederer on Vimeo.

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FourFromFoodFridays #17.33

FourFromFoodFridays 17.33Four From Food Fridays – a weekly look at four things I’ve been loving in the last seven days. Old or new, whatever’s been on in the studio. From top left:

David Sylvian & Holger Czukay – Plight & Premonition (Virgin) – One of my favourite ambient albums ever, RIP Holger

Acidalius – Acidalius (Acid Waxa) Cassette – Fantastic modern acid from 2014 on Newcastle label Acid Waxa

Videodrones – Nattens Haevn (El Paraiso) LP – Second album of 80s-inspired synth workouts from the Danish duo.

Various – DJ Food at Emotion Wave (Mixcloud) Mix – Live improv on two turntables, sampler and FX, an alternate ‘Chill Out’ if you will

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Pierre Henry, Montreux, 1998

Pierre Henry Montreux Jazz festival 1998I finally found my Pierre Henry photos. Back in 1998 I was playing with various assorted Ninjas at the Montreux jazz festival in Switzerland. Henry was also on the bill so we went along but were late and had to sit near the back as they were the only seats left.
Pierre came out and was introduced but there was nothing on stage, just black curtains. He promptly strode to the back of the room and played the gig from the mixing desk just behind us.
The gig was both terrifying and sublime – at one point i was so relaxed I think I nodded off. Right at the end, as he was receiving a huge round of applause, i turned round and snapped these two shots of him.
RIP Pierre Henry

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