Out today, Grasscut‘s third album (fourth if you count the shadow version of ‘Unearth’), on vinyl, CD and download via Lo Recordings rather than Ninja Tune. Beautiful cover photography by Pedr Browne who is making films for each track. Still not heard it all but I’ve caught them live playing selections and it is sublime. They play an instore at Rough Trade East this Wednesday too.
I made time to actually visit the Keith Haynes ‘Art Pop’ show at Gallery Different in London last week after posting photos friends had taken on the opening night. I really wanted to see the cut up Bowie and Beatles sleeves and I wasn’t disappointed, they are beautifully executed and what becomes apparent when you view them up close is that Keith has selected covers with differing print qualities so as to make the contrast between the same sections more apparent. The same covers printed 20 years apart can be quite noticeable, especially in this digital age where the original films or photos might have been lost and an inferior scan used in their place. This is especially noticeable on the ‘Hunky Dory’ image below, try and check them out before the show ends on May 30th and there’s another surprise in the basement of the gallery that I knew nothing about.
Roger Miles has installed his version of a 70’s record shop underneath the gallery entitled, ‘Resonate – Generate’, complete with vinyl, 8-Track machines, vintage posters and more. Having just read Roger Perry’s ‘The Writing On The Wall’ it was a timely coincidence that evoked memories of the same era. His jogroglog blog is full of fascinating artifacts and information on his various art projects (one was in a local dump where he could use anything that was bought in – including a speed boat on a trailer!). Anything one best viewed in the flesh.
Currently sitting at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes – Mad Max: Fury Road – believe the hype, it’s everything that the trailers promised and more. From the start the pedal is down and it doesn’t let up for the first 30 minutes as characters and chases are thrown at you relentlessly with little or no knowledge of who or why. Not that it’s hard to work out but it’s refreshing that there’s no pandering to the audience and little dialogue so keep up at the back there or become road kill.
The film looks stunning, worn, gritty, dirty, it would probably smell of sweat, piss and engine oil too if it was in smell-o-vision. The vehicle and character design is out of this world, taking its cues from British artist and co-writer Brendan McCarthy‘s early concepts and superbly translating them onto the screen. Imagine the 2nd and 3rd Mad Max films with bigger budgets and the colour saturation turned up. The yellow, rust and orange palette of the posters radiates out of the screen, forget those sepia-toned initial press shots that were photo-shopped to within an inch of their life and made it look cold and windy, the film blazes as hot as fire.
The vehicles, machines and stunts are said to be 90% real with little cgi and it shows. You’re more aware of what was taken out than what was added – the safety ropes on the multiple stuntmen flying through the air in most scenes and half of Charlize Theron‘s arm as she sports a stump with robotic arm. Not that it’s ever explained or even matters how this came to be, like most of the look of the film, it simply looks cool and adds to several different moments that would have played differently had she been fully able-bodied.
Theron is actually the star of the film, a physical match for Max, a better shot and a she saves his arse at least as many times as he does hers. She’s the Tank Girl we never got 20 years back and thankfully there’s no unnecessary romance, more a grudging respect, the Future may belong to the Mad as the posters proclaim but the film belongs to her. Tom Hardy is decent as Max but with maybe a pages worth of dialogue he doesn’t have the impact he could have had and when he does speak his accent wavers from Aussie to.. I’m not entirely sure, he doesn’t seem to make up his mind. It’s a small gripe as he looks the part and certainly kicks enough arse to make Mel Gibson look like a wimp although it’s not in comparison I’d want to make, Hardy plays Max differently that’s all.
Other small gripes, the music is uneven, either overplayed in the few sentimental scenes or not rawk-ous enough in some of the chases where a blind guitarist swings on bungee ropes whilst thrashing out riffs to motivate the War Boys into battle. I had visions of Marilyn Manson‘s ‘The Beautiful People’ as being the perfect soundtrack for some of the scenes, short, sharp shocks metered out to a marching band glam beat. Again though, small gripes.
As exhilarating rides go the first and last acts are flawless examples of fast-paced, relentlessly brutal roller coasters that will take some beating. There’s a fragmented and slightly baggy middle to the film including night scenes in blacks and blues that contrast nicely with the oranges and yellows of the day. I’m hoping that the film will inspire a whole new generation of artists, film-makers and writers in the same way that the originals did, spawning a host of copycats as well as pushing some of Hollywood to follow suit and back away from heavy CGIwork.
I saw it at the IMAX in 3D (thankfully used sparingly here) and enjoyed it’s use far more than in The Avengers where it felt forced in every scene. I ducked at least once as things flew at the screen and only one scene gratuitously played to the effect, tellingly one of the only obvious CGI moments it must be noted. Go and see it, it’s worth every penny, ‘More Please’ Mr George Miller.
On the 23rd anniversary of The KLF retiring from the music industry, deleting all their back catalogue (and later vowing 23 years of silence), comes this new mix from United States of Audio. He’s assembled a chronological trip through the band’s history from underground bedroom samplers to Stadium House pop overlords.
As ever with USofA’s mixes it’s perfectly threaded together with interview snippets that tell the tale (listen out for how they build ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ sample by sample at one point). If you don’t know their story then jump in and if you do then all hail the Mu Mu, The Timelords and the Kings of Low Frequency and wonder where that 23 years went.
An easy one this, my own entry from the limited edition ‘comic book’ edition of ‘The Search Engine’ album package. I always wanted to do a flexi disc with my own music on but they stopped manufacturing them right around the time I was getting round to it. Wind forward a decade and I have an album and a reason to make one just as they are coming back into circulation. It seems fitting that this track’s title was pinched from another flexi disc in the first place, a happy coincidence rather than forward planning. I felt that the track didn’t fit on the album but wanted to include it somehow, especially with its reference to “a little short playing record like one of these”.
This little short playing record is transparent with silver print and was stapled inside the book version of the album with a serrated edge which could be torn to remove the disc. I don’t recall exactly how many there are but they appeared in the first batch of books and once they were gone that was it so some copies won’t have flexi’s.
Seeing as they originally came in sealed bags it’s hard to tell if buying a new copy. The track did actually appear on the ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ EP in exactly the same form so it is available but, truth be told, it’s a bit of a mess, far too much going on, a very confused arrangement. Some kind soul has put it up on YouTube and gone to the trouble to edit a video to it with a few NSFW moments too!
Arriving the morning after the recent UK election result, finally holding the reprinted, expanded edition of Roger Perry‘s ‘The Writing On The Wall’ was a bittersweet experience. In George Melly‘s original introduction he says; “With the ballot box effective why spray walls?” a statement a fair few people would most likely have a bone to pick with right now. Looking through the beautifully printed pages at the replica version I cherry-picked a few shots that struck a chord and prove that not much changes when it comes to public opinion of those in charge.
It’s not all socio-political commentary though, there are oddities, messages of love, the inevitable football allegiances and more bizarre offerings. Often there are some poignant juxtapositions on either side of a spread, the ‘God Is Love’ / ‘Clapton is God’ example below being just one of them. New forewards by Bill Drummond and George Stewart-Lockheart (who organised the whole project via Kickstarter last year) bring context via hindsight to the photos. and while Drummond is the name you’ll recognise, Stewart-Lockheart’s essay is a fascinating, expertly-researched history of much of the content, something the original book lacked.
Expertly laid out by Pearce Marchbank – the original designer and Time Out art director in the 70s – the reprinted facsimile of the book has a yellowed, off-white tint to the pages which distinguishes it from the clean white of the new material. The end section features profiles of those involved in the making of the original volume as well as a host of newly discovered images and negatives from the archives which expand on and reveal how the book came together. It’s a lovingly put together edition with its cloth-bound, foil-blocked front cover and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in seeing 70s London and the marks made by ordinary people in the days before the art of Hip Hop graffiti writing came to these shores. More info about where you can obtain a copy is here at the rogerperrybook site or you can buy it direct.
The month of May features some modern flexi discs, several made since manufacturing restarted on them just a few years ago over in North America. Since Eva-tone stopped production in 2001 it seemed virtually impossible to find anyone with the resources to press up flexi discs but they are now readily available through some pressing plants.
As a resurgence in flexi’s started a German record label was sadly coming to an end as Equinox closed its doors in 2013, bowing out with a huge compilation complete with a free soundsheet. And what a beauty it is too, a pure white disc which is housed in a colour, semi-transparent sleeve with the graphic touches that the label always employed courtesy of boss and designer Gunter Stoppel aka DJ Scientist.
Gunter was one of the first people to contact me when I found a place to press my own flexi disc the year before and our paths had crossed a few times on the subject over the years as he’d been the first person I’d seen to produce playable postcards, something I indulged in too. Not only was a (friendly) competition to see who could find the rarest records, now it was who could make the rarest format!
The disc contained a Geste remix of an obscure track by Philip P.I.N.N. – originally issued on DJ Vadim’s short-living Electro Caramel label, an off-shoot of Jazz Fudge. There’s a long explanation as to why this was chosen to be immortalised on flexible plastic here and you can hear the track below, a feisty, low end electro number and definitely one of the best looking new flexi discs I’ve seen. RIP Equinox Records.
Ridiculously funky, lascivious tune that I still play any chance I can get. RIP Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate.
Seeing as how it’s just barely still May the Fourth, I should drop this in. Follow @Rebel X on Twitter for forthcoming events info …
This weeks entry is another special guest post, this time by Markey Funk and Ofer “Schoolmaster” Tal with not one but two picks…
‘Hashem Tamid’ / ‘Sex Mashmin’ (1986, “Monitin” magazine, Israel)
Despite having a well-developed music industry since the early 1950’s, Israel has a very tiny flexi heritage. None of the major record-pressing plants had a proper technology for production of flexi discs. Working with factories abroad made the process slightly expensive for a record that was supposed to be a free bonus. Nonetheless, the 80’s saw quite a few well-known flexi releases in Israel, including an Agfa-sponsored single by Ofra Haza in 1984, a famous Burger Ranch (local fast-food chain) “menu song” lottery, and this special oddity. The story of this weird record goes like Ariadne’s thread through the very labyrinth of the Israeli 80’s popular culture, connecting its distant corners:
In 1984, Yair Nitzani, a keyboard player and songwriter for the extremely popular nonsense pop-rock band T-Slam, joined the cast of “Ma Yesh” – one of the most popular entertainment radio-shows of the decade. He impersonated an eccentric and slightly controversial character – Hashem Tamid (a word play on arab name Hashem, and common Jewish phrase “God is always with you”; check out Coen Brothers‘ “A Serious Man” for a clearer reference) – an arab that tries so hard to assimilate in the higher levels of the Jewish Israeli society, that in the end converts to Judaism. As a side-kick for the radio-show, Nitzani released a few songs by his character. His first song – “Hashem Tamid” – a humoresque “Celebration Rap”-style tune, became, in fact, the first rap song in Hebrew. The music video for the song was broadcast on Israeli Channel 1 in prime-time, which quickly turned it into a major hit, which was even voted a song of the year!
The song was released in minor quantity as a promo 12″ for local radio stations, but became available to public only on this flexi disc, which came as a bonus with the monthly lifestyle magazine “Monitin” (“Reputation”) – a sort of “light” take-off on Penthouse.
The title translates for “Hashem isn’t ours, Hashem is not alone, and is surely not anybody’s sucker.” Actually, this wasn’t even the original version of the song, but a remix!
The single was backed by even weirder B-side: a crazy Hebrew take on James Brown‘s “Sex Machine” – “Sex Mashmin” (“Sex Makes You Fat”), with sloppy and sleazy lyrics and a heavy oriental accent:
The label says “not for broadcast”, I guess that’s because of the content of the song, but the song never had any radio play for a different reason. Both tunes from this flexi, with an addition of some more songs and sketches were collected on a cassette. However, except for a minor run of promo copies of the title song, none of the rest of this material, saw a proper vinyl or CD release. “Sex Mashmin” got pretty much lost between the pages of the magazine, leaving it a “joke that never shot”.
Here’s also a poster from the same issue of Monitin, which says “Not for broadcast. The song that’s forbidden to play on the radio”
Photo by Beit haTaklit, Ramat Gan
Later, Yair Nitzani became a CEO of the major recording company – Hed Artzi. Among his achievements was Ofra Haza‘s major international breakthrough with a mixture of Yemenite songs and modern beat. The first real hip hop record came out in Israel only in the early 90’s…
As a special bonus – and because Avengers 2 just opened and it’s Free Comic Book Day this weekend – Markey has dug out another weird treasure from his collection: the ‘Scream Along With Marvel’ flexi by the Merry Marching Marvel Society which features the theme song for the 1960’s cartoon ‘The Marvel Super Heroes’.
I’d say it’s merits lie in the cover art more than the music but who am I to judge?
Markey is about to embark on a European tour, starting with The Apples in London on May 4th, and then going solo later in the month, catch all the details on his Facebook page.
Still ridiculously excited about this
Mocked up MM4 VHS cover by Chris Weston.
The Moomin 7″ from Finders Keepers was certainly one of the most popular releases of RSD 2015 in the UK and it’s an item of beauty, both musically and sleeve-wise. The cover is made of felt, hand-stitched and colour printed, I’ve never seen anything like it (there are also two different cover images to collect). The music is pure analogue electronics, being the UK-specific soundtrack by Graeme Miller and Steve Shill.
Happily for those that didn’t score a copy on RSD and now that the fuss has died down, Finders Keepers are allowed to sell it on their site. So don’t feed the flippers on eBay, pay the label direct. Whilst you’re there you could do worse than also pick up Bruce Ditmas‘ ‘Yellow Dust’ album – I did, he plays a Moog Drum and it’s mental in the best possible way.
I don’t often feature tech stuff but I have to share these headphones as much for the packaging as the hardware. Beautifully presented in a box that seals itself with two indented buttons these AIAIAI TM-2 headphones come as a modular system that you build and can easily change to suit your needs. They even have a very nice ‘configurator’ on their site to build your own virtually.
I started using the TM-1s in the studio a couple of years back after having Sennheiser‘s for an age and the difference is stark. I’m using the S03 drivers in mine – titled ‘Warm’ – and the sound is indeed rich, warm and deep, lots of clarity, kind of like bathing your ears in molten chocolate. The headphone cup is perfect on the ear for long hours too, the tension on the headband just enough not to get uncomfortable and you can forget you have them on (my studio is next door to my kids’ bedroom so I work a lot in headphones in the evenings).
The new modular range consists of 18 different parts (not all contained in the box) including four different drivers, five different ear pads, six cable and three headbands variations. There are studio and DJ set ups and they have a neat locking action on the mini jacks that can be set to pull out if the cable is snagged so that you don’t damage the lead or connection. Any additions or upgrades to the line will presumably be compatible and any damaged parts can easily be exchanged. They’re not cheap but my god they are worth it and beautifully thought out.
Who’s got tickets then? All Killer, no filler…
The ‘Art’ Pop show by Keith Haynes just opened at Gallery Different, 14 Percy Street, W1, just off Tottenham Court Road. The North American map above, entitled ‘Hitsville USA’, in made up of vinyl records, all laser cut and named after each of the states. Likewise the ‘Going Undeground’ maps all have relevant records associated with the stops they represent, a simple idea presented immaculately. In a subtle touch Haynes has used various colours from Factory Road’s extensive 45 adapter range to compliment the 7″ centres. I predict we’ll be seeing this ripped off for years to come.
Musical icons such as the smiley and the target are rendered in coloured badges that remind me of the work of Ian Wright or Jimmy Cauty. ‘Cover Versions’ of Bowie & Beatles sleeves are cut up and modified, looking like physical manifestations of Photoshop filters. The mutated sleeves work well (the ‘Heroes’ one above is even preferable to Jonathon Barnbrook‘s reworking of same for Bowie’s ‘The Next Day’ last year) because he’s remixing the original physical media to form a new work, in the same way Christian Marclay has in the past. Where I find it less successful is when he’s recreated existing designs in vinyl – the Sex Pistols, Velvets (not shown) and Dylan covers for example. They’re beautifully done but they’re Reid, Warhol and Glaser designs, not Haynes’ and it irks me when I see artists reappropriating the iconic work of others. I feel the same way about the portraits of singers like Amy Winehouse, Blondie, Bolan and more in used copies of their old vinyl records.
It renders him as more craftsman than artist, reproducing and recontextualising the work of others, relying on the audience’s familiarity and love of the original subject matter to sell ‘his’ work. The same could be said for the smiley and underground map of course but these are now accepted cultural icons, as part of the public visual consciousness as Coca Cola or Apple. I love the look of his show but I’m conflicted because of some of its artistic origins. It’s on until May 30th, so still a month to check it out and make your own mind up. Photos courtesy of Leigh Adams
Finally, FINALLY!, I’ve secured a copy of Kevin O’Neill‘s legendary ‘Mek Memoirs’ fanzine/mini comic from 1976. It’s only taken me 14 years since first signing up to eBay and creating a search for it, having been outbid on the only two other copies to have come up in that time. 12 pages of self-published, prime pre-2000AD O’Neill robot business, no one can draw bots like Kev.
His hyper-detailed style is still forming into the unique presence he would add to the comic a year later here, first as art director and occasional spot illustrator and then as fully-fledged art droid. For a thorough overview on Kev’s early career including his stint on Horror Classics, take a look at Lew Stringer’s excellent blog piece here.
Details and excerpts from Jason De Haan‘s ‘Nowhere Bodily Is Everywhere Ghostly’ exhibition at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in 2010 – incredible collage work. Above and below: ‘New Jerusalem’, 2010 (detail) “A floating city/landscape collaged from the deconstructed covers of over 1000 1950’s-80’s science-fiction paperbacks.”
Spotted by Imaginary Cities on Twitter – follow them for daily image dumps of, well… imaginary cities.
We have a brand new Solid Steel website, built for us by antipattern, which finally does all the things we wanted it to do with the vast archive of mixes we’ve accumulated from the last 27 years. We’re very pleased with the results as the site is full of easy to navigate touches that leave plenty of room for a gallery of artwork and photography to grace your desktop, tablet or phone whilst you listen.
Here’s a quick walk through: (above) Main landing page with Featured mixes bar on the right – just tap Featured to close it. (Below) Once a mix is selected just hit play on the Solid Steel logo on the left, you can jump through the mix once it’s loaded or pause by tapping the logo again. Click Tracklist to open a side bar with a scrollable tracklist.
(Above) Click the Synopsis tab to bring up details of the mix plus a link to Soundcloud where you can find the mixes and leave a comment or download. (Below) If you fancy finding an old mix there are several ways of accessing them: the good old Search button in the middle of the three top left circles or the Timeline button next to it which brings up a new graphic showing the decades from 1988 to the present.
(Above) Click the Year you want and a side bar will appear with a scrollable list of all the shows from that date. You can also then scroll vertically through the years too. (Below) Finally there’s an A-Z directory down at the bottom left so that you can see if an artist you love has contributed a mix to the show, hit the name and all their mixes will appear in a scrollable side bar.
Big thanks again to Suki and Paul at antipattern, go visit their new site, DK for producing the whole project and Tom and James at Ninja for the behind the scenes help.
The start of the new Solid Steel site was the creation of a new logo for the show, from which we determined where we were going design-wise. A clean, modern look was wanted that also had to work alongside an image of the mix artist featured each week. I decided on a very thin, san-serif font that would leave plenty of space for an image, show date and artist name, all within a circle or square that would work at thumbnail size.
(Above) I started off with variants of the existing single ‘S’ logo which looked OK but lacked that certain something.
(Below) I won’t bore you with all the endless font and weight placements but there were many and I ended up with a central ‘o’ which aped a record or CD appearance from a distance and a very thin font on which I did a lot of work kerning and re-sculpting letters to sit at different weights. There were many subtle variations on the ‘S’s and by extending the ‘L’s and ‘T’ the text was suddenly no longer floating and a unique, eye-catching logo had been formed.
(Above) Variations in a heavier weight as well as an off-centre ‘O’ were needed for use at smaller sizes.
(Below) I then started experimenting with different ways to unify the weekly artist images – toning or tinting the images and discarding an oblong title card inside a square as it looked too much like existing mix show graphics.
(Below) A brief flirtation with breaking the circle which was discarded because it would cause too much trouble when placed onto a coloured background or image.
(Above) Different weights of type for readability. (Below) By moving the artist name out of the centre circle we freed up space and gave ourselves room for longer names. I have to be creative with the image placement each week but the date is readable and there’s plenty of room for the artist names in the top right section.
Just saw Avengers: Age of Ultron which was excellent fun. Then this got posted to my Facebook page – an alphabetical run down of Marvel characters to the instrumental of Blackalicous‘ ‘ Alphabet Aerobics’ by Tribe One. The man has skills.