I’m lost for words, there’s so much to say here and I just don’t have it in me to write how much Andy’s work means to me, sitting alongside his brother Matt’s music and helping shape me as a teenager. Gutted.
Some great late 90s footage of Req One, She One and Jase (Jason Brashill) aka The Dusty Knights painting in Brighton in this new Mongrels release by Kid Acne & Benjamin. You can pick up a copy of the limited six track 10″ here, complete with signed, numbered screen-printed covers.
I found the record above at a carboot sale around 1987 in a muddy sports ground in South Park, Reigate. It was shortly after I had started to ‘dig for breaks’, inspired by hip hop and sampling, in as much as a skint 17 year old could ‘dig’ in a small town 30 miles south of London with only an Our Price, a Woolworths and one other indie record shop to excavate. I had no idea what this was but, with a cover like that and on a label called Weird World, I wasn’t about to leave it in the box.
There were no track titles and for good reason; ‘Shake Your Ass’, ‘Bad Fuck’, ‘Suck It’ and ‘Spread Your Cheeks’ were some of the delights contained within. But I knew the signs were good: black artist, 70s release, the word ‘Disco’ put me off a bit but there were all those other LPs on the back too. Who was Blow Fly? The dude in the mask and home made super hero (villain?) suit presumably, and why were all these women naked around him? The ‘For Mature Adults Only’ sticker needn’t have been on there, it was pretty obvious that this wasn’t for kids.
I got it, probably cost 50p, and never showed my parents that particular cover. It contained enough profanity to sink a ship as Blow Fly took established songs and changed the lyrics to suit his dirty mind. The classic ‘What A Difference’ took ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’ and turned it into ‘… A Lay Makes’ while ‘Suck it’ paraphrased ‘Do It ‘Til You’re Satisfied’. Purile stuff for sure and the blueprint for every Blow Fly album I’ve ever heard since but hilarious stuff to a teenage boy. With no internet it was impossible to find out more about the masked man and it wasn’t until I started touring the States in the late 90s, buying from a wider range of records, that I found out who he was and picked up the other albums on the back cover.
The Fly was the alter-ego of Clarence Reid, record producer and songwriter since the 60s, who had started changing the lyrics to hit records for a laugh at parties. Recording an album of them, he created the Blow Fly persona to protect his respectable career name and the rest is history. ‘Disco’ isn’t his best album (and he got sued good and proper for that ‘What A Difference…’ cover) but I’ll remember it with the most affection as it was the first one I found and for introducing me to his weird world. RIP Clarence Reid aka Blow Fly.
If you haven’t seen this video, which is going viral fast, then don’t delay – hilarious. The one below is pretty good too.
I’m extremely late to this particular party but have to flag them up for the care and attention that’s gone into the presentation and back story of these releases. There are now three volumes of ‘Kosmischer Läufer’ (Cosmic Runner) released on Scottish label, Unknown Capability Recordings. Subtitled ‘The Secret Cosmic Music of the East German Olympic Program 1972-83’ and packaged in beautifully designed 70s-era psychedelic sports graphics on black, red and yellow coloured vinyl (see what they did there?), with a biography that gives a new twist on the ‘unearthed private tapes from unknown Krautrock-inspired musician who rates Kraftwerk, Cluster and Neu! as influences’ story.
This particular angle concerns a certain Martin Zeichnete who was working as a sound engineer in Dresden with his ear to the sounds of the emerging West German underground in the early 70s. Martin, a runner who had the idea to make music for athletes to train to, is spirited away to Berlin by the authorities to work in secret on just such a project for the ‘Nationales Olympisches Komitee’ to help strengthen their team for the next Olympic bid. The music is a perfect distillation of the motorik, synth-driven grooves you’d expect when thinking of the above influences and I don’t believe the story for one minute as the sounds are too clean and knowing.
But that doesn’t matter because the music contained therein is good and, coupled with the entertaining setting, you want to believe it. Sometimes music is all about the mindset and these releases set you up and frame the work perfectly. I’ve lost count of the amount of music I’ve listened to in the wrong mood or place and initially dismissed only to hear the same thing again later and be knocked out by it simply because the circumstances and setting were different. Had I heard this dry, without the illusion (or is it? – yes it probably is) of the liner notes and cover art, then maybe I’d have reacted differently to it – I’ll never know.
Some of the best music is made by artists making their own myths – Boards of Canada, Kraftwerk and yes, Bowie while we’re still all on that page – and these releases do it with love and care. Now, has anyone got a copy of vol. 2 at a decent price please? Buy vinyl and digital from here.
I’ve been spending a bit of time updating my Openmindesign portfolio website this week as well as making art for the new daily ‘Kosmischer Debris’ series on Instagram, hence the minimal activity on here. The portfolio is now way easier to get around, I’ve taken a lot out and stripped it back to the bare essentials, although there’s still 20+ years of work on there.
There’s a new format series that I’ve been meaning to start on here but I’ve been too busy to implement it and also, The Vinyl Factory made a return visit this week for a second round of the ‘Freaky Formats’ series which should be up shortly. I’m editing a huge 28,000 word interview I did with Mr Scruff for Dust & Grooves and have finished a 45s mix for the 45/7 Vinyl Club which will debut in March. There’s more but I don’t want to shout about it right now…
Back in the basement today, I pulled these out as examples of possibly regrettable cover choices.
32 years ago today…
Woke up still thinking about Bowie this morning. Watched a bit of the BBC coverage in the wake of his death last night and was struck by a vintage interview clip which ended with the reporter saying that he wasn’t your average rock star. Bowie countered that he was wrong and that he wasn’t a rock star at all.
Elsewhere some pundit they’d wheeled in seemed to want to press home the title ‘The Picasso of Pop’ in relation to him and repeated it in a couple of instances. Personally I found the analogy tacky, Bowie wasn’t like anyone else, more like parts of many people and comparing him to Picasso is a limiting comparison. As someone else pointed out yesterday, no one is ever proclaimed as ‘the new David Bowie’.
In the lyrics to ‘Blackstar’ he states what he is and he isn’t;
I can’t answer why (I’m a blackstar)
Just go with me (I’m not a filmstar)
I’m-a take you home (I’m a blackstar)
Take your passport and shoes (I’m not a popstar)
And your sedatives, boo (I’m a blackstar)
You’re a flash in the pan (I’m not a marvel star)
I’m the great I am (I’m a blackstar)
I’m a blackstar, way up, oh honey, I’ve got game
I see right so white, so open-heart it’s pain
I want eagles in my daydreams, diamonds in my eyes
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a star star, I’m a blackstar)
I can’t answer why (I’m not a gangster)
But I can tell you how (I’m not a film star)
We were born upside-down (I’m a star star)
Born the wrong way ‘round (I’m not a white star)
(I’m a blackstar, I’m not a gangster
I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar
I’m not a pornstar, I’m not a wandering star
I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)
What a Blackstar is I have no idea but it seems he wanted to be remembered as something or someone unique and unclassifiable rather than a ‘pop’ version of someone else.
The top image is included for no reason other than it’s the combination of two iconic designs, the Ziggy Stardust flash now seemingly becoming the main graphic identifier for Bowie. I don’t know who did the image but it’s fun.
In shock, see the post before last, the new album was on since Friday, I’d revisited ‘The Next Day’ as a result. Bowie has been in my life since my first memories of radio and Top Of The Pops and now he’s gone. A huge loss for music and another legend taken from us by cancer. Watching the video for new album track ‘Lazarus’ over the weekend I now realise the significance of the final scene. What an exit, a career orchestrated down to the last days. RIP David Bowie
UPDATE: There have been some lovely tributes cropping up in my social media feed today, this one from Christian Ward is beautiful. “Been thinking about what to say. Figured art would say it better. See you Star-man. Thanks for the music”.
Sophie Harrington did this via Twitter which says it all
Continuing the Ziggy Stardust theme, Shindig magazine posted this…
Rough Trade are donating all profits from sales of the artist to Cancer Research for the whole of January.
PS. Just remembered that there’s a little nod to Bowie in the text of ‘The Search Engine’, see if you can find it.
With the new Bowie ‘Blackstar’ LP just out and the world (quite rightly) going gaga over it, I thought I’d revisit the original version ‘Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)’ from the ‘Nothing Has Changed’ compilation of last Xmas. This version is different to the one on the new LP, being way more jazz-orientated than the newer LP one which adds guitars to stunning effect. What I’d not seen before was the video that accompanied the original release and is quite beautiful, taking all sorts of visual cues from Carol Reed‘s ‘The Third Man’ tunnel scenes with added projected lyrics. This is also an edit of the original near eight minute track so try and check that out if you’re liking this.
If you’ve still not seen the ten minute video to lead LP track ‘Blackstar’ then it’s a must too. Equally beautiful, disturbing and fascinating it’s a mini epic that reveals more with each viewing. Any video featuring a skeleton in a spacesuit is OK with me and Bowie’s cheeky moves to camera in the second half are delightful.
Brian Kesinger works for Disney‘s animation studio among other things, I don’t know if this Chewie & Han from a few years ago was also him but it fits the mould. *UPDATE: The Chewie & Han illustration below is by Chris Wahl – which he did about 3-4 years ago. http://chriswahlart.blogspot.com/
Check Brian’s Twitter for more…
Incredible. By Pablo Carlos Budassi via IFLScience – read more about it here.
A cross-over album from the end of 2015, delayed until 2016 – these records always get lost in the Xmas rush and so I’m secretly glad that the original release date of mid December was pushed back to the new year for Markey Funk‘s second solo album, ‘Instinct: A Study In Tension, Fear and Anxiety’. A dark, brooding imaginary soundtrack of a record full of swirling synths, ghostly voices and taut, brittle beats. Out now on LP and DL via his Bandcamp page (there’s also an LP/CD bundle that includes his rare first album (Forgot the Word) too). You can preview the album in full and also find several of his other releases there. An early package that came with a screen print of Asfe‘s excellent cover image has long sold out and we have a Solid Steel mix from him being lined up soon…
I went to see Jimmy Cauty’s ‘New Bedford Rising’ model installation today down near London Bridge. Huge in scale, an incredible amount of detail and took nine months to make. A kind of dystopian diorama where only police are left to deal with some inexplicable carnage. Billboards, graffiti and chain logos are everywhere and what it’s commenting on is up to the individual. The police seem to be building a huge Tower of Babel at one end, packed with gold bullion and fueled by fast food. It’s on until Jan 28th at 7 America St. London, SE1, nearest tube is probably London Bridge, £4 to view plus the ‘Riot in a Jam Jar’ pieces and some Riot Shields are there too, highly recommended.
A rough idea of the scale with these tools left on one section
There’s a wall around most of it with spy holes cut at different intervals to view specific events
A little nod to ‘The White Room’ album cover
Lots of the police are intrigued by the edge of the model
McDonalds Drive Thru – literally
