A new 13 track album mixed and produced by YAGE, all sounds created using the legendary EMS Synthi AKS.
MP3 / Flac / Wav / CD. Released 4th March 2016. Available from FSOLdigital.com / BLEEP.com
Synth and FSOL fans unite! a very Hieronymous Bosch-esque cover as well.
Here’s the last selection of the daily Kosmischer Debris image experiments from my Instagram. These were all made using various sections of different circuit boards and I’d like to return to them at some point but I’m working on multiples of nine for now before moving on so as not to get stuck on one thing. They point the way towards something I’m trying to develop that updates the original psychedelic practices and brings them into the electronic present without slavishly copying what went before.
Lovely bit of Richard Powers‘ art there
Victor Vasarely used above
Given to me by Stephen Coates recently upon returning from a trip to Russia recently, this 8″ picture flexi probably originates from the 1950s or early 60s. It plays on 78rpm and the tune on it is an uptempo love song in a cha-cha-type style, barely 2 minutes long and bubbling with surface noise.
This Sisters of Transistors LP had passed me by when it was released in 2009 although I remember hearing a remix of one of the tracks by Hot Chip that really floated my boat. It was a project featuring Graham Massey and four female organists if the sleeve notes be believed and there a fair few of them, weaving a tale of lost music and organ quartets that goes back to the second world war. It comes encased in a white plastic sleeve with sealing sticker and silver logo screened on the front. The design is by ehquestionmark who you might know from all the amazing work he’s done for the Skam and Lex labels and the attention to detail, as with all his work, is second to none.
Inside we have a sleeve with a front cover like some vintage classical performance document and a back showing a the band setup with Graham at the center and the four organists circling him in a sea of swirling wires. The real treat is the large insert which comes with it though, loose leaves with punched out ring binder holes, library stamps and the cheesiest set of band photos ever. Straight out of some 70s accountancy firm or teachers end of year book, the players – all given aliases – couldn’t be more convincing with muted green/brown tones and outfits and hair to match.
The music is a real mix, almost uncategorisable, of course organs feature heavily but it’s more complicated than that. There’s distorted grooves, fuzz, female chants and harmonies, lots of live drums and the whole thing has the air of a mass or seance about it. The pieces are all reputedly from different eras of the 20th century so styles flip constantly. All in all I think this will become one of those overlooked curios, collected and coveted by those in the know in the future. You can buy it digitally from iTunes as the label seems to have no obvious shop, or Discogs is a good bet for physical copies. See the covers being assembled in the video below, including the special undies randomly inserted into some copies
From one fundraiser for an independent radio station (Resonance FM) to another. This time it’s the turn of WFMU from New Jersey to appeal to the public, starting March 6th until the 20th. One of the items you can receive if you pledge money is a T-shirt with this ‘Space Vinyl’ illustration by Derek Yaniger on it. I love Derek’s work, in the traditions of artists like The Pizz, Shag or, of course, the originator – Jim Flora, painting that Tiki / Beatnik / Hot Rod / Rock n Roll thing with style.
Found on the web, anyone know who did it? Drawing a blank so far
UPDATE: thanks to M in the comments who seems to have identified Nemons (Gary Hall) as the culprit – thanks!
A new map, designed by Peter Trotman, that displays journey times on the London Underground from each location, try it out HERE (not mobile-friendly apparently)
I know I’ve written about this before but I’ve finally finished reading Stephen Coates‘ ‘X-Ray Audio’ book, about how underground bootleggers from the Soviet Union used to cut forbidden music onto old X-Rays. It’s a fascinating read in a time when we have pretty much any media we desire at our fingertips. It tells of a time where just possessing certain records could get you in serious trouble or even thrown in prison. Having to buy forbidden songs for huge amounts of money that were sometimes not even on the disc or of a fidelity so bad that they were virtually unlistenable.
But what it highlights most of all is the power of music, what lengths people will go to to hear it and when they do, the effect it can have. This quote from an interview with Kolya Vasin really stood out, he became known as ‘The Beatles Guy’ and he recounts first hearing ‘All My Loving’.
“When I heard them I felt something so phenomenal, even the great Little Richard whom I had adored faded for me. They enlightened me, it was insane. Little Richard was atomic happiness but The Beatles were insanity, something else, the limit, something unexplainable. And I understood everything… I felt in them a holiness. It was freedom.”
The Vinyl Factory also recently premiered a new short film about the phenomenon that they’d made with Stephen
Photographer Tim Walker has channeled Hieronymus Bosch for this new shoot for Love Magazine‘s Spring issue. These are the more ‘safe for work’ images but there are loads more here.
Bosch is back in the news at the moment as there is a major exhibition of his work at the Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands at the moment with paintings and drawings assembled from across the globe to mark 500 years since his birth.
Thanks to Mr Primate for pointing this new trailer out for the restored version of Belladonna of Sadness. Incredible animated psychedelia from Japan with an additional 8 minutes of restored footage. It’s getting a US cinema release this May and will hopefully make it’s way overseas too. Finders Keepers recently reissued the soundtrack by Masahiko Sato with an unheard track and have promised more in the future. Here’s the original trailer too, both are a bit NSFW but incredibly beautiful
This is a really well researched and put together piece by Matt Anniss (and I’m not just saying that because I’m featured) with all the major players present. It’s nice that sometimes, with hindsight, someone writes a history of a movement and gets it right. It can never be complete of course but this is a very accurate account of how it played out.
I put this pile of 45s down in a mix last week, possibly the world’s first all 7″, all-Acid mix? I’ve been collecting acid tracks on 7″ for a while now and, when Josh from I Love Acid asked me to do a mix for his I Love Acid Radio slot, I thought this would be the perfect slot to showcase them. The mix is due to debut on March 10th, I’ll post a link here when it does. Pete Isaac from 45 Live is also a big acid 45 collector and we’ll be doing something in that vein later this year…
Acid on 45 is a pretty niche area, a lot of the releases are UK pressings as several tracks made the charts at the end of the 80s and record labels were still pressing 7″s alongside the 12s to get radio play. There are also a lot of european singles from around that time too, tracks that were big in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain but won’t maybe be known elsewhere. In the 90s a lot of acid on 45 is confined to the more uptempo almost gabba-techno kind and there are slim pickings to be had until the 00s when the sound made a resurgence back into techno.
Another round of Kosmischer Debris entries – these were from a series of experiments and tests I did for a Ninja Tune thing last summer that didn’t get used. A couple work for me and elements of them have since led down a different path – I recently created 60 different images from them in one day, yet to find a home. You see my daily postings from the hard drive on my Instagram along with other images shot whilst out and about, record finds, art and more.
The second part of Robin The Fog & Hannah Brown‘s ‘Neat Mint’ show for Resonance FM just aired tonight with the continuation of their peek into the odder end of my record collection. Hear what these records sound like below.
Also we’ll all be playing at The Book & Record Bar in West Norwood on Friday alongside the landlord Micheal (not listed below) and Zoe ‘Lucky Cat’ Baxter who, I just found out, is the daughter of Glen Baxter! Come down, the shop is less than a minute’s walk from the West Norwood train station. £5 entry in aid of Resonance FM who have their annual fundraising drive on at the moment to keep them on the air for another year. Some very unique prizes to be auctioned off in a very good cause, truly independent radio with no playlist.
Always nice to see a refreshing take on the usual sci-fi tropes of aliens, robots, vehicles and weapons. This lot is by Darren Bartley and you can see loads more on his FightPunch tumblr.
Went to the British Library yesterday to see the Alice In Wonderland exhibition, a collection of many vintage books illustrated by various artists over the last 150 years as well as puzzles, cards, posters and ephemera featuring the characters. Also present were some of Lewis Carroll‘s original notebooks, letters and photos plus printing blocks of John Tenniel‘s original illustrations, used for the first edition.
Interesting as all that was though, it was the design of the exhibition that wowed the most, with playful typography riffing off quotes from the book and that fantastic logo hanging from a balcony on a giant tag. I would have got more of it if there hadn’t be an over-zealous security guard warning people from taking photos. Nevertheless, it’s free as it’s in the foyer and it’s worth your time if you’re in the Kings Cross area plus there’s a pop up shop separate from the main one with about 20 different Alice book versions, loads of merchandise and the swirly floor seen in the last photo.
I really like what this guy does. Comics and collage, two of my favourite things combined, especially when it’s this out there. He’s doing a similar thing to what Cyriak does with film in some instances but the subject matter that’s being used also makes some of his work reminiscent of Robert Williams‘ paintings too. There is a ton of this and much more to view on the Samplerman tumblr
Records about plants, flora and fauna
NASA has created Space Tourism posters for various planets and moons in our solar system – see and download them here plus there are all sorts of activities like planetary makeovers and trip planners to do as well.
