2017: WTF was going on?

December 31, 2017January 4, 2018

The above photo was my brief from Bill Drummond for the set I was to play at the JAM‘s Welcome To The Dark Ages event in Liverpool. I stuck it above my mixer as I was preparing the set, it’s something to keep in mind as we go forward into 2018. I spent most of the year in limbo, waiting in a chain for a property to come through. When it finally did in mid September, I pretty much ate, drank and slept it in between jobs as it needed a lot of work doing, hence no posts for the past two odd months. I’m in now and can see the wood for the trees but it did mean I largely dipped out of social media for the latter quarter of the year (probably not a bad thing).

Seeing as 2016 was such a shitter, in 2017 I wrote down all the good things that happened as the year progressed:

Got implicated in the KLF/JAMMs/K2 comeback media scrum because of an innocent quote in my 2016 round up
Started Further with Pete Williams – a multimedia music & projection night playing non-dancefloor sounds with analogue-based visuals plus food and a record stall – and founded a studio/ HQ in S. London
Pete Isaac (45 Live) found me a perfect copy of a long time wants list staple, Bam Bam’s ‘Where’s Your Child’ on 7″ for free
Got asked to play as Further at The Orb‘s ambient evening at the Royal Festival Hall in April and lit up the 5th floor balcony with 20 projectors
Mixed a Death Waltz Originals CD which was given away free at Halloween with Mondo/DW orders
Appeared on the Big Mouth podcast and played at the opening of Orbital Comics‘ exhibition, both celebrating 40 years of 2000AD
Found a set of Thomas ‘Eclipse’ plates, cups and saucers for a bargain price from an eBay seller
Pete managed to find a broken 6k projector for free and fixed it for £50
My kids got into the secondary school we wanted them to go to and aced it in their first term
The first Further event at the Portico Gallery was sold out and a great success with Ghost Box and Howlround as guests
Played the first Big Fish Little Fish in Athens which promptly sold out
Played three different street food festivals in the summer, love those sort of gigs, more please
Found a huge Barbara Brown dinner service in the charity for £15 – find of the year
Played at The Delaware Road performance in July inside a nuclear bunker with a host of electronic artists – a very special night

Asked to play the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu happening in Liverpool, which turned out to be one of the events of the year – who’d have thought it? A career highlight that saw me playing many of the tracks they’d sampled in their career alongside acid house classics and ending at 3am with a version of ‘In The Ghetto’.
Further went to Spiritland and we supported The Heliocentrics as part of the SYNthesis festival, both very special occasions even though we worked our balls off to set them up
The return of The The in musical, film and live capacity
Scoring a long time wants list LP – Yves Hayat‘s ‘Conversations Between The East & The West’ – direct from the archive of the composer himself and meeting him in London to receive the record.
Blade Runner 2049 was actually amazing and a worthy follow up to the original
The second major Further gig at the Portico Gallery featured Simon James playing a Buchla set to bespoke visuals we made and Sculpture slaying the place with their AV act.
Asked to support the Art of Noise at the British Library next March
Further featured twice in Electronic Sound magazine and I had an opening spread printed of my end of night image of the funeral pyre from the JAMs event in Liverpool
Taking my boys to the Colourscape on Clapham Common
Finally moved in and moved on
Asked to play a very special run of shows in 2018 that I’ll reveal soon…

Music:
OK, so 2017 was the year of the Lizard for me, I listened to more hours of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s music than any other band, but considering they released 5 albums this year alone it ‘s not surprising. Each album was different and they steadily got better with each release as the year progressed (disclaimer: I can’t speak for album no. 5 ‘Gumboot Soup’ as it came out today but ‘Polygondwanaland is probably my album of the year)
Brian Eno – Reflection (Warp)
Cavern of Anti-Matter – Blood Drums (reissue) (Duophonic)
Clocolan – Nothing Left To Abandon (Enpeg)
Run The Jewels – RTJ3 (Mass Appeal)
Revbjelde – Revbjelde (Buried Treasure)
Thundercat – Them Changes (Brainfeeder)
Jamiroquai – Automaton (the single)
The Dandelion Set – A Thousand Strands (Buried Treasure) (technically 2016 but copies got held up by distribution and it was more widely available in 2017)
The Heliocentrics – A World Of Masks (Soundway)
The Heliocentrics – The Sunshine Makers (Soundway)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Flying Microtonal Banana (and still playing the hell out of Nonagon Infinity and It’s In My Mind Fuzz)
Klaus Weiss – Time Signals (reissue) (Trunk)
Vanishing Twin – Dream By Numbers EP (Soundway)
The Allergies – Entitled To That (Jalapeno)
Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology (Fire Records)
Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk – Passage (Azure Vista Records)
Ilia Gorovitz – Turmoil/Simmering With No End (Rassh Records)
John Brooks – Un Autre Directions (Clay Pipe Music)
King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard – Murder of the Universe (Flightless)
Markey Funk – Witch Doctor / The Brew (Delights)
Nevermen – Mr Minute (Boards of Canada remix) (Lex)
The The – Radio Cineola Trilogy (Lazarus)
Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch – Blade Runner 2049 OST
King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard – Sketches of Brunswick East (Flightless)
King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard – Polygondwanaland (Flightless)

Exhibitions:
Future Shock – 40 Years of 2000AD – Cartoon Museum (London) / Paolozzi at the Whitechapel Gallery (London), Will Barras at Sector 25 (London) / Barbara Brown and Lucienne Day at the Whitworth Gallery (Manchester) / Franco Grignani at Estorick Collection of Italian Art (London), We Are Watching: Oz Magazine – Chelsea Art Space (London) / Delta – Mima Museums (Brussels) / Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains at the V&A (London), British Underground Press of the 60s at the A22 Gallery (London) / Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? – Wellcome Collection (London) / Snub 23 at the Boz Boz Gallery (Brighton)

Books / Comics:
Out Of Time – Miranda Sawyer / Ian Helliwell – Tape Leaders (Sound On Sound) Book + CD / British Underground Press of the 60s (Rocket 88) / The Process Is The Inspiration – House Industries / B.P.R.D.: Hell On Earth (Dark Horse) / Barbarella (Dynamite) / Swifty – FunkyTypo Graphix (Gamma Proforma) / Boris Tellegen – 86/97 – a black book (A Paper Book) / Batman: White Knight (DC)

RIP: Jaki Liebezeit, David Axelrod, Alan Aldridge, Dick Bruna, Clyde Stubblefield, Larry Coryell, Toshio Nakanishi, Chuck Berry, Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Mika Vainio, Adam West, Brian Cant, Pierre Henry, Anne-Marie Bergeron, Glen Campbell, Bruce Forsyth, Holger Czukay, Virgil Howe, Sean Hughes, Christine Keeler, Keith Chegwin, Dennis Dragon, Jim Baikie

Posted in Art, Books, Comics, Design, DJ Food, Film, Gigs, Music, Uncategorized. | 7 Comments | Tags: 2017

Further is getting closer

November 7, 2017November 8, 2017

Not long now until the final Further of the year on Nov 18th at the Portico Gallery, West Norwood, London – here’s a trailer and some little excerpts from shorts we’ve made for Simon James‘ Buchla performance.

Come down from 7.30-midnight for food, drink, a record stall and lots of leftfield music and visuals – Tickets here

You should definitely check out Sculpture‘s amazing site too as it’s full of stuff like this

and this

Posted in DJ Food, Event, Film, Gigs, Music, Records. | No Comments | Tags: Further, portico gallery, Sculpture, Simon James

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Crumbling Castle

October 31, 2017November 1, 2017

How do they do it? They must just live and breath music. This is from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard‘s 4th album THIS YEAR (!) (they’ve said they’ll release 5). Not content with releasing ‘Flying Microtonal Banana’ containing the instant classic, ‘Rattlesnake’ they then released ‘Murder of the Universe’ with the astonishing prog-rock ‘Altered Beast’ and all sorts of references to existing King Giz records. Then just a couple of months back they collaborated with Mild High Club on ‘Sketches of Brunswick East’ which showcased a mellower jazz vibe and now this, apparently from an album called ‘~~PollyWollyGonnaWannaDoodleAllDayLand~~ EDIT: (never believe YouTube comments) ‘Polygonawanaland’. None of this is simple music, the time signatures are all over the place and it’s played ridiculously tight, if they don’t go down as this generation’s Hawkwind or Zeppelin it’ll be a crime. No idea when this one’s out but check out the previous album if nothing else as it’s been on repeat when I can get near a record player.

Posted in Film, Music. | No Comments | Tags: king gizzard

DJ Food vs Death Waltz Originals mix CD

October 30, 2017

Hi there, sorry for the lack of posts recently, the home renovation continues as does the 2 week (!) half term my kids have been bestowed with and many other things like preparation for the next Further at the Portico Gallery on Nov 18th. The mix that I made of material both released and unreleased from the Death Waltz Originals label run by Spencer Hickman has materialised as a free CD available with all orders of Death Waltz or Mondo releases while stocks last. It should also be available at selected independent record shops too and you can also listen to it here via Soundcloud. The spoken word throughout is from a private tape where my friend Steve Cook is interviewed by John Tomlinson about experiences he and his family experienced growing up in a haunted house.

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes / Podcast, Music. | No Comments | Tags: death waltz originals, mix cd

Further at the Portico Gallery – Nov 18th

October 19, 2017

The next Further at The Portico Gallery is on Sat Nov 18th. Pete Williams and I are very excited to be joined by Sculpture for one of their incredible live AV sets and Simon James (Simonsound / Black Channels /Akiha Den Den) will be performing a live set from his Buchla easel system. Early bird tickets on sale now

We’ll also have the Book & Record Bar stall with releases from both acts and a hand-picked selection to compliment plus delicious food and plenty of seating. See below for what to expect on the night.
Sculpture

Simon James

The last Further at the Portico Gallery

Posted in Design, DJ Food, Event, Film, Gigs, Music, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: Further, portico gallery, Sculpture, Simon James, simonsound

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool

October 13, 2017

This summer, during my visit to Liverpool to attend The JAM’s ‘Welcome To The Dark Ages’ event I found some time to visit a few landmarks around Liverpool. My first stop was the 50 year old Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King which has some of the most stunning architectural features and stained glass windows I think I’ve ever seen.

The photos speak for themselves but my camera just couldn’t capture the vividness of colour created by the sun lighting up the windows. For a building half a century old it’s an incredibly modern piece of art, right down to some of the imagery and sculptures they have installed.

Posted in Design. | 2 Comments | Tags: Liverpool, Metropolitan Cathedral

Star Wars: The Last Jedi new trailer and poster

October 11, 2017

New trailer is out, WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS! Looks good, tickets on sale now for December 14th in the UK, fans were quick to give the new poster a makeover too (see below)

Posted in Film, Poster / flyer, Star Wars. | No Comments | Tags: The Last Jedi

Further & The Heliocentrics at the SYNthesis festival

October 7, 2017October 8, 2017

Pete Williams and myself set up our Further environment in support of The Heliocentrics at the Synthesis festival at Stanley Halls in South Norwood at the end of September. The group were utterly spellbinding with their vocalist tying everything together with an incredible vocal range somewhere between Roisin Murphy and Shirley Bassey. They played for two hours with visuals by Innerstrings and for a Thursday evening in deepest South London (nearly Croydon if we’re honest) it was pretty mind blowing.

Following dates featured DJ Krush, Andrea Parker, Juice Aleem, Beak and more in a hugely ambitious three day event – all the brainchild of Rob Swain, owner of the Gamma Proforma label and the local Sector 25 bar/gallery. If you check out the streets of South Norwood now you’ll see all sorts of new murals and paintings adorning walls and hoardings by international artists like Mode 2, Delta, Kofie 1, SheOne, O-Two, Will Barras and more.

Posted in Design, DJ Food, Gigs, Music. | No Comments | Tags: Further, Heliocentrics, Synthesis

Oddities: What lies beneath

October 7, 2017

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.

Posted in Oddities, Photography. | 1 Comment |

The Colourscape on Clapham Common

October 7, 2017October 7, 2017

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.

Posted in Art, Event, Music. | No Comments | Tags: Colourscape

East London street art

October 7, 2017October 7, 2017

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)

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.

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.

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

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

Posted in Art, Design. | No Comments | Tags: Banksy, Barbican, clerkenwell, hasworld

British Underground Press of the Sixties at the A22 Gallery

October 7, 2017

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.

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.

Posted in Books, Comics, Design, Exhibition, Magazines, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags: A22 gallery, British Underground Publications, Rocket 88

Blade Runner 2049

October 7, 2017October 7, 2017

*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.

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.

The 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.

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.

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.
E.LDN_BladeRunner

Posted in Film. | 1 Comment | Tags: Blade Runner 2049

FourFromFoodFriday #17.36

October 6, 2017October 6, 2017

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

Posted in Music. | No Comments | Tags: FourFromFoodFridays

Blade Runner shorts

October 2, 2017

These short prequels to the new Blade Runner 2049 are excellent, I’m going to the IMAX on Thursday and can’t wait, reviews so far have been incredible…

Posted in Film. | No Comments | Tags: Blade Runner

Pink Floyd at the V&A Museum

October 1, 2017

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!

Posted in Art, Design, Exhibition, Film, Music, Poster / flyer, Records. | No Comments | Tags: Pink Floyd, V&A

Pierre Henry, Montreux Jazz festival, Switzerland 1998

October 1, 2017

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

Posted in Gigs, Music, Photography. | No Comments | Tags: Montreux Jazz festival, pierre henry

FourFromFoodFridays #17.35

September 22, 2017September 22, 2017

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:

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.

Posted in Music. | No Comments | Tags: FourFromFoodFridays

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

September 21, 2017

I 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).

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

Packed 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.

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

Posted in Books, Design, Event. | 1 Comment | Tags: Under The Radar

Jane Weaver European Tour poster

September 21, 2017

Blimey!!! Jane Weaver European Tour poster designed by Andy Votel, see also his cover for her new single, ‘The Architect’ on Fire Records. Make prints man, you’ll sell a bundle!

Posted in Design, Gigs, Music, Poster / flyer, Records. | No Comments | Tags: Andy Votel, Jane Weaver