Bonobo has a new EP out on Dec 1st with a lovely cover design by the ever-excellent Leif Podhajsky, someone who has really carved his own niché out over the past few years. Also responsible for ‘The North Borders’ artwork and the new live album covers as well as several others for Ninja (Kelis being just one). Check out the special website created for the release and you can download the title track if you use the Shazam app on it.
Here’s the unboxing of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Inside The Pleasuredome’ set I co-designed with Philip Marshall for Universal Music / ZTT. The 30th anniversary of its release is next week and these will ship out to pledgers on the 28th.
There is still time to pre-order one but they’re down to the last 30 of 2000 now it seems. A series of full, in-depth blog posts will follow soon detailing the various aspects of the designs which have been on-going since January this year.
Just announced: ‘Crate Expectations’ – a celebration of vinyl through music, film and record shopping at The Lantern in Bristol on February 7th, 2015. Myself, Cheeba and Moneyshot will be performing our newly AV’d up 3-Way Mix reconstruction of ‘Paul’s Boutique’ alongside DJ sets from DJ Format and John Stapleton. There will be the Colston Hall record fair in the day along with a showing of the Stones Throw documentary ‘My Vinyl Weighs A Ton’ and a record collecting Q&A featuring some of the guests playing. There’s also an after party at Start The Bus which could have a very special guest playing too…
Before that, this Thursday to be exact, I’ll be at the Watershed to take part in the BFI‘s Sci-Fi season by presenting a Future Shock AV set before a screening of Sun Ra’s 1974 film ‘Space Is The Space’. Expect lots of space funk, solar system synth work and more with Cheeba helping Lumin on the visuals. This set is free but you have to buy tickets for the film and ticket holders will be given priority if the place is full. Also look out for Cheeba and Ollie Teeba live-rescoring Plan 9 From Outer Space and War of The Worlds respectively over the coming weeks too.
A month later and I’ll be going back to back all night with Boca 45 for an all 7″ vinyl set at the Big Chill Bar on the 29th of November.
The Vinyl Factory published this extensive article last Friday about Kraftwerk‘s influence on electronic music and I was asked to contribute. Alongside 19 other artists including Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, OMD, Moire, Malcolm Catto, Goat and more we were asked to pick our favourite release and how it changed our lives. I chose ‘Autobahn’ which, by coincidence, is 40 years old next month apparently. Read the full piece here.
Bill Tavis ‘Fractal Thinking’ via Trippy Visions Daily We will control all that you see and hear…
Scarey as hell, voice reels and foley sounds from the film within a film from Berberian Sound Studio. 10″ via Death Waltz which is sadly sold out at source, but who have just begun reissuing their original back catalogue in remastered and expanded form. Cover by House from the outtake posters he designed for the original film.
The Discovering Scarfolk book arrived today and it’s a beautiful object, perfectly realised and presented. The dark humour that runs through the website of the same name is here in physical form, looking just like a government handbook from yesteryear as is the intention. Having not had time to fully digest it I can see that pieces from the website are reprinted but there’s possibly other new material too. Well worth a look and no doubt a read too. Perfect Xmas present fodder.
Following on from the insane God Hates Astronauts from last month it seems now is the season for really very silly / funny / un-PC comics as Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain bring you ‘Punks – The Comic’.
Essentially a series of scenarios involving four housemates – Skull, Abraham Lincoln, Fist and Dog – in various surreal episodes that recall the Young Ones mixed with the irreverence of Tank Girl more than anything else.
The difference here is that the artwork is all rendered in a beautiful sepia collage style which is what drew me to it in the first place. Skull seems intent on punching Dog in the balls but is thwarted by his protective Wunderpants, Dog is whacked through the ceiling and has to fight for his life after accidentally killing a roaming garden gnome.
There’s also a few pages of games with a cut out card game which ends with the winner getting a punch in the nuts and a page of puzzles which have no easy winners. Any comic that can include the lines “Your balls will be mine! For me to smash with my hands!… That came out wrong” is fine with me. Out now from Image, very silly and NSFW, my new favourite comic, can’t wait for issue 2.
I was Virgil Howe‘s guest on his Hidden Level radio show on Soho Radio last Saturday – we chatted and played music for 2 hours and swapped stories and tunes in the tiny studio in the heart of Soho. I’d not met Virgil face to face before but we’d been in contact and remixed each others material via The Amorphous Androgynous who he drums for. Virgil’s had his hands in loads of bands from the Killer Meters to Little Barrie to his own work on the Breaking Bread and Scenario labels. He’s the son of Steve Howe, guitarist for Yes and Asia and his brother Dylan also plays drums and has just released an album of jazz versions of Bowies‘s ‘Berlin’. He’s also DJed since the mid 90’s and can eat 12 cream crackers in 1 minute (I may have made this one up).
Virgil Howe’s Hidden Level Radio Show (11/10/2014) by Soho Radio on Mixcloud
Anyway, top bloke with skills and great taste in music and we chatted and played two hours away in no time, taking in recording stories, mutual friends, even comics and at one point Virgil told a tasty little anecdote about a recording session that his dad disrupted whilst Trevor Horn and co. were constructing Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s ‘Relax’. Yes, the world is that small. Anyway, here’s the podcast and look out for Virgil’s name, he’s everywhere and has a new solo album called ‘Hidden Level’ on the way soon which is excellent. Also check out his three Drum Series 7″s on Breaking Bread where he teams up with Malcolm Catto, Shawn Lee and Mark Claydon.
Very happy to be a part of this all-star line up for a 3 hour mix on Terminal Radio on Oct 24th. The Terminal Radio mixes were started by members of the FSOL board as curated sets of 15 minute duration and have slowly amassed a decent archive.
In the next one they go all out even have a contribution from Brian from FSOL alongside mixes from Youth, Mixmaster Morris, Neotropic and more. I’ve submitted a couple of sections from my Future Shock mix, it will be interesting to see which is used and how it fits into the overall set. More info and an event page can be found here with details on how to tune in.
This is out now and exceeding all my expectations – fantastic collection of tripped out space jazz and astral poetry. Truly a lysergic set out cosmic jams, every track is killer – buy it in regular forms or with extra instrumental discs here.
Yes, that is the original Bagpuss puppet and an original Clanger with what looks like a bootleg friend. All were at the Art of Smallfilms book launch I attended on Tuesday night, hosted by Jonny Trunk at the Raven Row gallery in Spitalfields.
The book is excellent, huge and heavy with chapters ranging from Bagpuss and the Clangers to Ivor The Engine and Pogles’ Wood and beyond. The photos are beautiful as you can see from some of the spreads below. Many of the props and puppets have survived and have been sympathetically photographed to show how they were animated as well as the skill with which they were made.
Peter Firmin, who made and designed most of the objects, was also in attendance along with the little girl, Emily, who featured at the start of each Bagpuss – now obviously a grown woman.
And here’s me with my friend Liz who I went to college with over 20 years ago, in the style of the old Bagpuss titles. Photo by David Vallade. The book should be out now, priced £25 for a 320 pg hardback from Four Corners Books – bargain.
You can now buy an actual vinyl copy of the Cut Chemist ‘Mix By Jimmy’ selection of acetates from Afrika Bamabaataa‘s collection. I posted about this the other week and it’s littered with amazing tracks or versions of old school wonders including Soul Sonic Force demos.
There’s also an 80 pg book / tour program featuring shots of some of the collection, slipmats, poster, facsimile photo and flyer, a tote bag and more. Go to Boo-Hooray to grab them but be prepared, they aren’t cheap!
No.6 in an occasional series…
Can’t say enough good things about Shindig! magazine, a decent blend of well-written articles and reviews on as much new as old music in the psyche, prog, rock and experimental vein.
Not as dry and repetitive as Record Collector and digging a bit further underground than Mojo. This month’s issue contains a Rocket Recordings mix CD by Cherrystones too.
A very odd combo arrived in the form of a Teeny Tiny Trunk 7″ the other day. An as yet unreleased duo of tracks by Anthony Newley with musical accompaniment from none other than Delia Derbyshire. The pair are an oddity and so are the recordings with Newley coming across as a bit of a perv as he comments on the passing of young girls in short skirts. The combination of clear vinyl and a Julian House sleeve design completes the package although these appear to be sold out now in the clear variant. Go to Trunk Records for black vinyl copies
These are the pencils for a Judge Dredd commission I’ve been waiting on for between 18 months and 2 years from one of the greats – Mike McMahon.
I asked for a full-on Cursed Earth scene, basically a recreation of either the cover or inside spread of Prog 61, the first issue of 2000ad I ever bought and he’s knocked it out the park.
I’ve enhanced the pencils in Photoshop here as Mick uses a very light grade – you can see the original plus many more commissions both penciled and inked on his excellent tugging your coat blog.
Now to wait for the inked version…
Cut Chemist has put together a new 30 minute mix with records pulled from Afrika Bamabaataa‘s collection that he and DJ Shadow are currently touring under the Renegades of Rhythm banner.
“I compiled ‘Mix By Jimmy’ to take you on a journey into the deepest part of the deepest music collection of our time. Featuring recordings Afrika Bambaataa had pressed to acetate for spinning live at shows in the late 70’s and early 80’s. This mix includes entirely unreleased demo versions of hits like “Looking For The Perfect Beat,” “Renegades of Funk” and “Planet Rock.”