Yes, it’s that time again, more from Mr Prolific, Dan Lish, in his on-going quest to document the musical heroes and influences that orbit the Hip Hop world for his Egostrip project. (Above) Jazzy Jay, (below) AhmadJamal, Ultramagnetic MCs, Beastie Boys (colour and inks), Robert Glasper’s Dillalude, Gang Starr and a 4Hero / Reinforced label piece for a compilation. As ever, he has prints for sale here or you can see more from the project plus a whole lot more on his website.
This is the stunning new album from Jaga Jazzist, not only contender for cover design of 2015 by a very long margin but also heading for top 10 album of the year status too. It’s taken a while for me to fully appreciate Jaga but with each album they’ve crept further into my orbit so that now each release has to be checked out. ‘Starfire’, after only a few listens, I can quite confidently say, is my favourite so far and it sees a slightly more electronic mission statement than before whilst still retaining the uber-tight Zappa-like syncopation of previous work.
The design on the sleeve is magnificent here as well and really compliments the futuristic feel of the music perfectly. Browsing the new releases in Fopp the other day I was struck by how little of the current crop of album designs stood out, possessed any kind of classic iconography or would make me want to look at them twice. So much of the ‘style’ of the last few years of the kind of music that racks up kudos from the critics seems to be about minimal, safe, almost nonchalant anti-design, designers afraid to go all out and make a statement or content to reference past styles.
The Jaga sleeve, besides being striking yet minimal, has a clever trick up its sleeve – or should that be on it?. It comes in a screen printed transparent outer cover of evenly spaced vertical lines that animate keys graphics underneath on both front and back as you slowly pull the inner cover out. This effect is being billed as ‘anamorphic’ in the press releases but that’s more about stretching an image, this process is closer to the ‘moire effect’ that tricks the eye into believing that objects are moving as the black and white lines move past each other, much like a TV screen flicker.
Aside from the outer cover gimmick, the typography on it is stunning, look at those titles above, that must be a custom made face that works with just the right dose of sci-fi and heavy metal styling to make it unique. The labels and second inner sleeve work beautifully to counterpoint the blackness of the outer as well, as does the companion single, ‘Oban’.
Coming from the Bridget Riley school of Op-Art the single’s sleeve is right in your face, begging you to pick it up. I take my hat off to Martin Kvamme who is credited with the design just for the elegant graphic solution to the 33 rpm speed text on the label, so few designers would bother devising something different these days.
Both releases are out now on Ninja Tune – go and grab them, music that needs to be held as much as heard.
This bit of Star Wars fan fiction is doing the rounds on the web right now and with good cause as it’s visualised and told (wordlessly I might add) beautifully. From a short scene in Return of the Jedi, Daniel Warren Johnson has created an 11 page comic expanding outwards to before and after the event, imagining what led to and ultimately resulted from it.
The scene is the one where an A-Wing pilot, realising he’s hit and little can save him, turns kamikaze and crashes headlong into Darth Vader‘s Super Star Destroyer Executor causing a chain reaction that causes it to crash into the Death Star surface. Warren Johnson says “For some reason, this A wing pilot MOVED me. Everything about this part of Return of the Jedi made me want to DRAW and CREATE. This is a fan fiction comic I made in April, just because I love this scene and I love comics.”
It’s superbly realised and heartbreaking despite the huge rebel victory that resulted as he’s added a human element to the mix. Also check out his sci-fi web comic, Space Mullet, while you’re there.
Another bit of Star Wars fan fiction dealing with alternate viewpoints of the saga’s characters is the Tie Fighter animated short I featured a while back. I just noticed that there’s also a poster and extensive background character notes for the seven minute plus Manga-style film by Paul Johnson what has the Empire as the heroes (they always did have the best designs).
There’s some ridiculously good fan art appearing for Mad Max Fury Road at the moment, now that people have seen the film and got a sense of how it plays out we’re seeing more than a collection of reworked promotion stills. Some are even creating alternate OST covers or DVD/Blu-ray sleeves. A lot of it is in the form of poster art but there’s also concept images and more cartoonish comic book stuff too. A lot of this was found on Deviant Art and I’ve tried to credit all the artists correctly.
(above: by zenithuk, below: sivadigitalart)
(above: andyfairhurst, below: anakin022)
(above: anakin022, below: edwardjmoran)
(above: karcamo / journeyjaag, below: jouste)
(above/below: Greg Semkow – the lower one may not actually be Mad Max fan art but it easily could be)
(above: james bousema, below: gigicave)
(above: eduardo vieira, below: camw1n, bottom: travis-lacey)
I’m reliably informed – by curator Sean Phillips – that the sleeve of my last album,‘The Search Engine’, features in this forthcoming exhibition of 60 album sleeves drawn by 60 comic artists. Phono+Graphic opens at the Kendal Museum in, errr… Kendal this October. Check out Sean’s blog for more info nearer the time.
I’ll be in esteemed company on the morning of June 25th at 11.30am on BBC Radio 4 when Ken Hollings narrates ‘Cutting Up The Cut Up’ a 30 minute documentary that jumps off at Williams Burroughs and splices through to the present. Others featured include Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), Armando Iannucci, Cassetteboy, Coldcut and more.
The show explores the spoken word side of cut ups, satire and agitprop and has been put together by Dan Shepherd of Far Shoreline Productions who also has another doc. airing two days before, ‘The Fast & The Furioso’. It should be online for a month or so after transmission so I’ll post it here then.
I went to the Secret Cinema presentation of The Empire Strikes Back last night and all I can say is ‘GO!’ If you’re a fan of Star Wars then there is so much for you at this event besides the showing of ‘Empire…’. I’d advise going with friends rather than alone, getting dressed up and fully into the spirit of it rather than being an observer. When you buy tickets there’s a registration process to go through, do it and take note of the items they ask you to bring, you might need them.
No photos apart from my crew’s ID cards above, as none are allowed and that would spoil it anyway. It was actually nice to go somewhere where people weren’t constantly either looking at their phones of snapping away rather than taking in the experience (even though one of the first things you want to do is take photos!). It opened officially to the public today and runs until September so there’s time but weekend tickets are selling out fast. Kids from 8 years up are allowed and I’m definitely going back with mine…
This sampler, given away free with the NME in 1973, isn’t in here because it’s rare but because of the beautiful sleeve. A mini replica of Emerson, Lake & Palmer‘s ‘Brain Salad Surgery’ album cover, complete with HR Giger paintings and fold out, die cut cover, that’s some promo budget being blown there. 
The first track, the song ‘Brain Salad Surgery’, didn’t actually appear on the album of the same name but was first released on this flexi and later used as the B-side of the ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ single. Fun fact: the title phrase is apparently a euphemism for fellatio.
What’s hard to find is a good condition copy without any folds or tears as the cover is just paper rather than card. As for the music, I’ve got to say, I’m more a fan of the sleeve than the music inside it even though it has it’s moments. Here’s some more info about the making of the cover from HR Giger’s website.
The Mad Max love continues with several fascinating articles about the making of different elements of the film. The above clip comes from the VashiVisuals site and concerns the editing and shooting strategies of George Miller.
There’s also a lengthy but fascinating look at the VFX work on the film over at fxguide with lots of before and after shots like the ones above. And if you still can’t get enough there’s an interview with Eric Whipp who colour graded the film here.
I was honoured to play at both the Secret Cantina on Friday and the main site of the Secret Cinema presentation of The Empire Strikes Back yesterday. It opens this week on June 4th, a month after the launch at the Alexandra Palace and the Cantina Bar satellite venue at the weekends. At £75 a head it’s expensive but, having experienced what they’ve done, I can tell you it’s worth every penny and even the hardcore would be hard-pressed to nit-pick. You will never experience The Empire Strikes Back at a cinema like this, ever.
If you’re dithering over getting a ticket then don’t delay as the weekends are nearly all sold out going up to September when it ends its run. And if you’re going and not making an effort with your costume then you’re going to feel pretty under dressed on the day. I’d love to show you some photos of what’s in store but that would spoil it and if you’re going this summer I might just see you there…
For those of you who like their sci-fi cosmic with a huge dose of psychedelic (and stir in a portion of Greek mythology in this case) then there is no comic more suited than ODY-C by Matt Fraction & Christian Ward. Below are four of six prints that Christian will be debuting at Heroes con next month. For those not in the US (me), Christian will be signing at Gosh Comics on Friday 12th June when the trade collection of the first five issues of ODY-C is released.
By a group called Playback Collective who’ve also done a fun version for Guardians of the Galaxy too
Originally released with issue 2 of the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal magazine and later to be found on their ‘Sounds of Science’ Anthology compilation. The Biz stars on his own solo Grand Royal release, presumably backed by the Beasties, with the most rambling, drunken cover of Elton John‘s ‘Bennie & The Jets’ you’re ever likely to hear.
I once made the mistake of playing this version out in a club at the end of a night, thinking it was hilarious and everyone would get the joke. It didn’t go down as I expected. Here’s a live version of it being performed by Biz and the Beasties if you’re a glutton for punishment – warning: naked Biz-flesh!.
The Mad Max love continues to flow – fan art is cropping up all over the web as well as this tumblr with a playful feminist angle. But the winner of the super fan award goes to LEGO Will for his amazing vehicle creations of the Interceptor, War Rig- inspired ‘The Princess’, Doof Wagon, Gigahorse and more. See many more at his Flickr page here, original link via Kotaku.com
Very pleased to be headlining this great line up of Audio Visual artists for the re-scheduled Videocrash show (that was originally planned for last night). I’ll be debuting a new AV set called Future Shock, based around the similarly named mixes – lots of electronica, both new and old. Expect a lot of sci-fi imagery and weirdness… also expect Robin Hexstatic to reprise his incredible Acid set from the Solid Steel 20th anniversary party, complete with visuals and Cheeba and TomCentral to premiere new work. Tickets are on sale here
I visited the Peter Kennard exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London yesterday and was knocked out by his work. I’d seen pieces before but never put them together with a name and when my wife suggested we go because it was ending soon and we still hadn’t checked out the new, refurbished IWM it was a no-brainer. The new museum layout is very good, although they’ve crammed a lot in, the different levels take you from the first World War up to the present day with some chilling artifacts (the twisted wreckage of one of the Twin Towers’ windows is included).
Kennard’s exhibition is a treasure trove of posters, books, magazines and original art – tons of it. Seeing it all together you realise what an impact he had in the media and how much of his work pre-dates so many that came after him. Most fascinating for me is the original collage work with photos manipulated by hand rather than computer for the most part. The final room has an installation of many of his pieces, layered like fly posters but interspersed with business cards from various different companies which make for a chilling juxtaposition, “We never forget who we’re working for” – Lockheed Martin. It’s only on for one more week so try and find time to go, it’s free or you can donate to the museum as you go in.
I found this in an East London record store about a month back, it looks like Soulwax‘s ‘Any Minute Now’ but it doesn’t come with a 7″ record inside the sleeve. Designed by Trevor Jackson, and part of one of his most iconic series of designs, it’s a promo pack of four stickers with his striking op-art graphics from the campaign he designed around their album ‘Any Minute Now’.
Speaking of Trevor, he’s just released the regular vinyl and CD editions of his own album, ‘Format’ via The Vinyl Factory. There’s a great interview here where he speaks about his career and the new record with Gilles Peterson.
Looking forward to this: writer, artist and all round comics enfant terrible, Brandon Graham is set to return with several projects this year, one being ‘8house’ in June – a series of stories by him with different artists in the style of the Heavy Metal anthology. There’s also something else called ‘Island’ coming in July – 112 oversized pages with contained, one-off stories – and the long-delayed ‘Prophet: Earth War’ end to the saga at some point. More info and a lot more besides on his site.
Staying with Ninja Tune this week, here’s Kid Koala‘s entry and, as ever, he’s doing it his way. Not only is the flexi only 5″ in size but it comes with a construct-it-yourself hand-powered turntable! Free with early copies of his ’12 Bit Blues’ album this features a track, narration and scratch parts – possibly the shortest ‘battle record’ ever. There was also a competition on the album’s release to win a Rane TTM62 mixer with contestants asked to upload their best routines using the parts on the flexi. I’ve no idea who won but it’s the kind of thing only Eric San could dream up.
Here’s a short advert for the album with the turntable animatedly building itself…
…and here’s the full audio from the disc