Here’s the new Robert Leiner album I designed for De:tuned which also happens to be their 50th release!
Up for pre-order now and released on Nov 8th on black or bottle green vinyl.
Here’s an audio preview of the whole album
Flexi Disc
OK, so here’s a little story I’d like to tell as it’s led to some frustration over recent months.
*UPDATE – if you read this before, scroll to the bottom
Readers of this blog will be very familiar with my weekly Mixcloud Select posts each Friday where I digitally encoded a cassette from my archive of old Solid Steel radio shows. This lockdown project ended up lasting four years and led to over 200 sets being posted online for a monthly subscription, ending earlier this year when the cassettes, DATs and CDRs were at last exhausted. My mix archive was digitized at last, hooray! There are some of them above, the red stickers denote ‘done’.
But what to do with the old media filling up my drawers? I put the word out that if anyone wanted to make me an offer for the original tapes or discs then I’d rather they go to a fan than landfill. The first person to ask was Greg from Germany, we struck a deal for 55 cassettes and I duly boxed them up and off they went this summer via courier to Germany. There they are below, two layers tucked into a well- packed and sealed box.
A few weeks later and Greg still hadn’t received the package, tracking was consulted and it seems it never made it to DPD’s processing centre after it was picked up from my doorstep by the courier, Transglobal Express, who acted as a broker in the process. Never even made it out of the UK. After contacting them and a lot of back and forth for a few weeks they agreed that they had lost the package and reimbursed me for the amount Greg had paid me as the value of the contents. I in turn repaid Greg so we were quits, I’d lost some money on postage costs and I had no tapes – not the end of the world but annoying. I should add, I’ve used TE for years and this has never happened and I’ve never had a problem with them.
Fast forward to last Friday when someone contacted me via Facebook asking for info on this tape that he’d found pictured on my blog
I told him the tale above and he replied, “I buy from an auction site that deals with lost parcels and returns” adding that, “They are mixed up in a lot with some other rare dvd’s that I wanted but this seems important to you so I’ll just send you the link”.
Well, that’s where the parcel went then, no disputing that those are my tapes. After a further bit of chat the informant agree they wouldn’t stand in the way of me trying to get my tapes back so wouldn’t bid on the lot. Weirdly Facebook would then not let me message them anymore and a look at his profile reveals only two photos and no posts – maybe they’d blocked me or something? Weird, anyway…
I contacted the auction house, bearing in mind that this is a Friday night and their office hours are Mon to Fri and the auction ends Sunday, saying that this was my property, offering proof, dates, photos etc. No reply of course, I’ll be ringing them Monday.
So, against my better judgement, I put in a cursory bid for the lot on Sunday but was outbid and it eventually went for £60. This would have incurred a further 50% buyers premium, VAT and delivery charges, at least £90 to get my own property back, fuck that.
Here’s the final lot URL, not sure how long it’ll be up but I can’t see or message the winner in any way. Who are these John Pye Auctions? How did they get my parcel? A parcel I should add with a return address on it. Isn’t it illegal to sell other people’s post? Apparently not it seems. Lost or not, it’s certainly illegal to open someone else’s post without consent. A look at the rest of the auctions reveals all sorts of items including a lot of electrical goods and even some brand new vinyl (box loads of Taylor Swift albums anyone?). This all looks dodgy as hell so I’m not expecting much comeback but how is this legal?
I’m putting this out there in the hope that whoever got them will do some research, see this and contact me so I can get my stolen property back. If anyone sees these tapes for sale elsewhere can they please get in touch because this is bullshit.
UPDATE:
So, what’s happend since I posted this? Sunday I lost the auction to someone else, Monday I rang John Pye Auctions and explained my predicament to a very helpful member of staff who advised me to put a paper trail together proving I was the original owner. She also stopped any further movement on the auction, and I submitted my evidence the same afternoon. Shortly after I’d posted my story I was also contacted by a very helpful gent named James who was also in the auction business and offered to speak to John Pye personally to outline the case. Within two days and a couple more phone calls from the auction house I was informed that they would be sending the tapes back and paying postage. And here they are, I have to say a big thanks to James, John Pye (who were very professional in all of this) and everyone who messaged or commented. Now I just need to find a reputable courier to send them to Greg in Germany…
PS: If you’re new here and wondering about the contents of all these, it’s all on my Mixcloud – 200 uploads, all tracklisted and notated, 4 years of work, you just need to subscribe for access
https://www.mixcloud.com/strictlykev/
1968 poster for the Robert Markham aka Kingsley Amis’ novel ‘Colonel Sun’
Worlds Fair for Youth poster, 1969, art by Kim Whitesides
Poster for Raymond Bertrand‘s Studio 69 book – image also used on the cover of Suck magazine issue #1.
LSD poster, 1969, artist unknown – originally from Acid covers
Nam June Paik exhibition poster, 1965
Martin Sharp – Art For Mart’s Sake gallery show invite, 1966 (upscaled)
The Velvet Underground at the Retinal Circus poster, 1968.
I wrote a huge piece for Dust & Grooves about joining Alex Paterson of the Orb to go through a couple of old DJ boxes he used to use in live sets. This took place two years ago to the day it’s been published and we’ve just finished it off as it didn’t make the forthcoming book in time for publication, mainly due to space. But on the web you can have all the space you want and space is most definitely the place for this feature. If you ever wanted to know where that sample was from or what record was used where then this feature goes some way to pulling back the curtain.
D&G creator and photographer, Eilon Paz beautifully captured the results of the momentous occasion which was situated first at the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood and later at Alex’s home nearby. I’m proud of all my work with Dust & Grooves (and there’s a fair bit more to come) but this was quite the fanboy’s dream as I’d probably first seen the Orb close to thirty years before. You can read the full piece here. The huge 650 page Dust & Grooves 2 arrives in a month’s time and can be ordered here along with its sister publication, Portables, all about, you guessed it – portable turntables. Enjoy…
WIth Dust and Grooves ramping up the pressure over the next 5 weeks when Vol.2 and the Portables books are released, today sees the launch of their online newsletter You Dig? A guest-curated monthly round up of all things vinyl associated with the people connected with the book (and believe me, there are a LOT in the new volume) It sports a cover collage by Morgan Jesse Lappin of Brooklyn Collage Collective (spot my cameo) and curation by Rich Headland of Record Shop Stories fame. You can read the first issue and subscribe here and pre-order both new books plus a refreshed vol.1 if you missed it a decade ago here.
Continuing the D&G love, I was the subject of their From Me To You feature recently where they looked by over my original interview on the site a decade ago and cherry-picked some vinyl highlights. You can read it here, with cover collage again from Morgan Jesse Lappin and if you want the full deep dive interview (probably the best one done yet) including an exclusive influences mix then you can read that here.
I’ve been doing this every month for two years now and the flood of great music never falters. Beats galore from the Pete Sasqwax Beat Cult, Markey Funk and Cheeba Cheeba Records, a new library music series from the 2 Headed Deer label plus a library re-edit from Tom Central. Lush electronica from Jo Johnson, summer psych from the Soundcarriers and a new acid cranker from Posthuman among others.
My new ROVR radio show featuring some of these was aired yesterday, Friday Aug 30th and should be available to listen back to now via the ROVR live app APPLE or ANDROID
The second show this month with a load of new music sprinkled with some older selections. Friday 30th Aug, 2pm wherever the you are in the world (the station is time-stamped by region).
Listen at ROVR radio, download the app to get archive access. APPLE or ANDROID
Show #6 Aug 2024 2
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #6
Beastie Boys – Jimmy James (Bsidewinsagain remix)
Jem Stone – Everyone’s Hugging The Horse
Larry Manteca – Bank´s Layout Reconnaissance
Myrth – Myrthiolate (edit)
Bob Dorough – Little TwelveToes (AI instrumental)
Jem Stone – Island Of The Snake People
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #46
The New Library Sound – Diving in Deep Sea pt. 1
Prefuse 73 – Raja
Markey Funk – Chronoscope
Pete Sasqwax Beat Cult – Initiation Ritual Part 11
Pete Sasqwax Beat Cult – Initiation Ritual Part 18
Handyman – The Clapping Song (DJ Food Re-Edit)
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #16
Ruby My Dear – PnT2
Sculpture – Max Ax
akufen – U
Sculpture – Cross Processor
Fluctuosa – Cobwebby
Pete Sasqwax Beat Cult – Initiation Ritual Part 04
Santaka – Burning Head
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #26
Broadcast – I Want To Be Fine
The New Library Sound – Seagrass
Group Modular – Lonely Pylon
The New Library Sound – Underwater Lounge
The South Coast Synth Ensemble – Electronic Counterpoint III
Felbm – Cycli Infini (excerpt)
Jo Johnson – It just is the love it feels
Sean Ono Lennon – Asterisms
I found a copy of this at the local carboot at the weekend (with Martin Sharp cover illustration) and had been collecting up other psychedelic book covers around the web, coincidentally most with a Tim Leary connection.
I’ll chuck in this one as it’s in the style of too although not from the 60s or 70s.
Gotta give it up for Jason Galea – just churning out work for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard constantly. Record sleeves, videos, merch and posters like these, almost for every gig they do. Results vary of course but here’s the pick of the bunch from about the last year.
He’s also put together a book of all his work, due out this Winter with over a decade’s worth of designs and other material. You can order it here.
Beautiful poster by Victor Hubinon from Spirou magazine in 1968
A Bryan Talbot cover for Zig Zag in 1976
Ian Wright does the Damned for Zig Zag in 1981
Unknown artist for another Zig Zag cover of the Stones from 1977
One of Andy DOG Johnson’s first commissions – think I’ve shown this before but this is possibly better quality – Kraftwerk for Record Mirror in 1978
Savage Pencil covering Sun Dial, this poster was from 1995 I believe
Robert Crumb illustrates the Whole Earth Catalog’s Last Supplement – see what he did there?
It’s that time of year again, my annual mix debuts tonight on the 45 Live radio show, hosted as ever by the divine Greg Belson on Dublab. You know the drill, all 45s, no other sizes but 7″ vinyl, I’ve dug deep as ever for this, some of these tracks were only bought a week before I made the mix. I’m mining the vintage dance pool once again from the heyday of the late 80s and early 90s and this is probably my most housey entry ever, drawing heavily on the Champion label (Raze get three entries and no, one of them isn’t ‘Jack The Groove’) and beyond. It’s also the most tracks I’ve fitted into an hour for the show, 32 in total, trying to speed up my mixes to make it interesting. I really had fun bashing through this and plenty of the tracks still stand up. I decided to bookend the mix with two spoken samples from the same flexi disc, we start with love and end with sex – enjoy. As usual Greg bookends the show with his own unique selections – you can tune in live at 4am GMT (Aug 17th UK time) as the show goes out 8pm-10pm PST on the west coast tonight. https://www.dublab.com/shows/45-live-radio-show
Track listing – Early House / Hip House mix ’86-91 – Aug 2024
Dee-Lite – What Is Love? (Holographic Goatee Mix) 1990
E-Zee Posse – Breathing Is E-Zee (Instrumental) 1991
Turntable Orchestra – Gonna Miss Me (Vocal) 1988
Pulse – Shut Up Already (Fierce Mix) 1987
Frankie Knuckles – Your Love 1989
Wally Jump Junior & The Criminal Element – Cut Me Loose 1986
D.L. Kool – Get On Up 1989
Criminal Element Orchestra – Put The Needle On The Record 1987
Emilio – Do It Again Emilio 1988
D.J. Lelewel – Amgic Atto II (The Deep Edit) 1989
Tingo Tango – It Is Jazz 1990
The Funky Worm – Hustle! (To The Music) 1988
Plus+One feat. Siren – It’s Happenin’ 1990
Frank K. feat. Wiston Office – Everybody Lets Somebody Love 1991
Raze – Let The Music Move U 1987
Sterling Void – Set Me Free (Music Mix) 1988
Liquid Oxygen – The Planet Dance (Move Ya Body) 1990
Musto & Bones – All I Want Is To Get Away (Bones Beats) 1990
Raze – Bass Power (Power Bass remix) 1991
Bootleggers – Hot Mix 3 1988
Jazzi P – Feel The Rhythm 1990
The Beatmasters – Warm Love (The Field Hippy Mix) 1989
Toni Scott – That’s How I’m Living 1989
101 – Just As Long As I Got You (House Mix) 1989
Mr Lee – I Can’t Forget 1987
Raze feat. Lady J – All 4 Love (Break 4 Love 1990)
Doo Lally ‘D’ – Floorshaker (Dynamite edit) 1991
True Faith w. Final Cut – You Can’t Deny the Bass (Dub) 1989
Hi Tek 3 feat Shamrock – Come On and Dance (Radio Mix)1990
Reese & Santonio – Truth of Self Evidence 1988
Frankie Knuckles – Baby Wants To Ride 1989
Lee Lewis – French Kiss (The Remix) 1989
The August recommends list is out: here’s nine records that have been floating my boat recently, quite a few hip hop bits this month from The Allergies feat. Ohmega Watts, DJ Krash Slaughter feat. Phil Most Chill, Kid Acne and Bsidewinsagain’s cut ups. Markey Funk and Jem Stone bring the downtempo funk beats and Sculpture’s new LP and Earth Leakage Trip’s reissued debut bring the electronic weirdness. The new physical issue of Moonbuilding mag is also with us, containing an exclusive unreleased Polypors album of ambient bliss. For more ambient bliss, not pictured is the Floating World Pictures meets Ocean Moon album – get on that this summer for sure.
My new ROVR radio show featuring some of these was aired yesterday, Friday Aug 2nd and should be available to listen back to now via the ROVR live app APPLE or ANDROID
The new episode streams today at 2pm-4pm, Friday August 2nd, wherever you are in the world.
Listen at ROVR radio, download the app to get archive access. APPLE or ANDROID
Show #5 tracklist Aug 2024
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #25
The Allergies – No Flash (feat. Ohmega Watts)
Beastie Boys – So What’cha Want (Bsidewinsagain remix)
Long Distance Dan – Keep Your Back Straight
Prefuse 73 – Holy Water
Concretism – 39 Furnival Street
Pye Corner Audio – Deeptime
Manuel Göttsching – E2-E4 (MARIUS Rework)
Language Field – Plume
Steve Reich – 2×5: Movement 3 Fast (Vakula mix)
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #20
Underground Housing Authority – Here I Am (DJ Food Edit)
Jem Stone – Cardiac Cadillac
Bsidewinsagain – Top Rock Plate Spin
Disco Experience – Special Disco Mix by Ben & Benny (DJ Food Edit)
Bsidewinsagain – B-Boy Break (feat. Bobby Corridor)
Lone Bison – Origin Story (Paul Cousins Mix)
Floating Points – Del Oro
Suzi Analogue – Can We! [Acid Techno Uziflip]
Reso – Henk
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #11
Prefuse 73 – Empath Lords
OSCOB – Дажьбо́г
Santaka – No Rivers Here
Broadcast – Colour In The Numbers
Jem Stone – Kaptain Karnival is Alive
Deadchannel9000 – Commuter Dub
2econd Class Citizen – Just Live
I’ve been following custom robot kit builder and designer Kallamity for some years now and he has recently taken on the enormous task of building and painting the legendary Five Star Stories Jagd Mirage Twin Towers figure. This is a design like no other, impossibly complex and gravitationally impractical, the top-heavy bot features a huge rocket pack with two towers (hence the name) protruding from the top that double its height.
Unbelieveably there were several different scales of this kit made and I was lucky enough to see one fully built and painted in a toy shop in Osaka once as well as pick up several books featuring the kit whilst on tour in Japan around 2000. The one Kallamity is building is the huge 1/100 scale version with over 500 pieces, all which have to be glued rather than snapped together like regular kits. As someone said in the comments: Difficulty Level: Insanity. Kallamity is a master builder who creates custom robots from scratch though and his method is to assemble the kit whilst adapting and strengthening the pieces as he goes, fleshing out parts that don’t fit with filler and sanding down rough edges.
Additional details are added to areas that don’t feature them on the kit so that it most closely resembles the original drawings and designs from the books. He then disassembles the kit and painstakingly paints each piece, masking out layer upon layer of detail, lastly adding deep line work in the gutters around the hundreds of parts. Watching just one huge piece being shorn of its masking layers takes minutes despite being sped up and edited. The levels of detail are mind-boggling, each piece is an abstract sculpture in its own right. Here are the three parts so far, the unboxing and showing of parts, the initial build and the painting of the rocket pack. Part four should be the main figure and I think he finished the kit three days ago, I’ll add it here once it goes up.
UPDATE: Part 4 – just one more to go, this is a stunning piece of work!
Just announced by Castles In Space – Jo Johnson – Let Go Your Fear – a beautiful album of mesmerising minimalist modular in an equally striking sleeve. When paired with the vinyl it just ticks all the boxes for me. I know some people have a problem with coloured/splatter/whatever vinyl but when the disc fits the artwork it creates a unison unlike any other, something we always try to do with the releases I work on for De:tuned, especially as the process is always random for each disc.
Jo was part of 90s band Huggy Bear and has been ploughing the electronic minimalism furrow for the last decade. During the long, 20 minute final track ‘Unfolding and folding’ there are points where the music seems to stumble, different tangents are tried in real time and the flow is temporarily lost. This is something you rarely hear on studio albums, these ‘mistakes’ would be edited out but Jo states that she wanted to ‘drop the perfection’ and left them in. It’s released August 9th and there’s loads of music to discover on her Bandcamp page if you enjoy this.
Another great example is the recently released Nick Taylor-designed Lone Bison 12″.
It’s fair to say that Peter Max put his mark all over popular commerce and culture in the 70s. One of the few commercial artists to fully embrace merchandising and recognise that he had a valueable brand, he was arguably better at it than Warhol and had ranges of stationary, puzzles, book, posters and clothing for sale all with his name emblazoned on them at one point. Here’s a selection of stuff I dug up on the web including magazine covers, cookery books, puzzles and a poster for Mary Quant.
The in store mix that Hannah Brown and I did last Saturday at Upside Down Records in Deptford is now up on their new Mixcloud – give them a follow.
Two sets from me, one from Hannah (her first slamming set didn’t record sadly) – all fully trackmarked.
There’s still a crate of my records for sale at the shop, with more joining them soon… Pay them a visit, one stop from London Bridge on the overground.
Track list:
Strictly Kev mix 1
David Essex – Rock On
Jack Wilkins – Red Tribe
Santaka – No Rivers Here
Spacetime Continuum – Flurescense
Special Request – That Wisnae A Microdose / Melon Farmer / Epsilon
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia – Obsidian (Organically Decomposed)
John Heckle – The 4th Dimension
Spiral Deluxe – The Cosmos
Caustic Window – Cordialatron
Murcof – Maiz
Akufen – Late Night Munchies
Luke Vibert – Everybody
Radio Slave – Dedication
Lalo Schifrin – Quiet Village
DJ Format & The Simonsound – Holy Thursday
Hannah Brown
Lonnie Liston-Smith – Expansions
Another Taste – Time Is On Our Side
Nu Genea – Disco Sole
Mildlife – Magnificent Moon
Phantom Handclap Band – Judge Not (Ray Mang remix)
Vivian Vee – Alright
Pleasure Pool – Ask Your Body
The Units – High Pressure Days (Todd Terje remix)
Talking Heads – Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
Brother Resistance – Dancin’ Shoes Rapso
Surprise Chef – Crayfish Caper (Nuyorican Broken mix)
Strictly Kev mix 2
Martina Topley-Bird – Soul Food (Charles Webster’s Bangin’ House Dub)
Dream 2 Science – My Love Turns To Liquid (Beat Foundation Liquid Lustre mix)
Tin Man – Flip
Dream 2 Science – My Love Turns To Liquid (Padappella)
Four Tet – Peace For Earth
Sam Clarence – Sextant Daktari
Unknown – Beam Me Up (Creative Use)
Bon Voyage – Ils Disent Que L’orient Est Rouge
Chicago Housing Committee – Six Million Dollar Acid
Rockers Revenge – Rockin’ On Sunshine
D Train – You’re The One For Me (Dub)
Renegade Soundwave – The Phantom
Marshall Jefferson present Truth – Open Our Eyes
Baby Ford – Fordtrax
Cabaret Voltaire – Easy Life
Mr Lee – I Can’t Forget
S’Express – Mantra System
Frank K (feat. Wiston Office) – Everybody Lets Somebody Love
Sueno Latino – Sueno Latino
I turned up a really interesting load of tapes at Revolution Records in Penge, South East London the other week – pay them a visit, really good shop, only open a couple of years now. The collection was obviously from someone who worked in the dance music industry in the 80s and 90s and received a lot of promos. I think I’ve worked out who it was but not had confirmation yet.
In amongst the haul was an early DJ Rolando mix, a Trax sampler with forthcoming tunes like Can You Feel It, We’re Rocking Down the House and No Way Back plus a megamix that I’m not sure was ever released.
UPDATE: I saw Rolando had found a copy of his tape via his Instagram but the wrong tape was in the case, he’d done a call out for anyone with a copy so I sent it to him. Here’s the full mix on his Mixcloud, ripped from my cassette copy.
A sealed De La Soul Stakes is High sampler, a Disco Mix Club previews tape from early ’83 that’s not on Discogs and a Sugar Hill compilation of early 80s street soul that I can’t find either.
At one point in the Megamixers tape it cuts into two Beastie Boys demos from Licensed to Ill – the acoustic version of I’m Down and a version of Time To Get Ill that’s different to any of the other demos on the web, also a hissy recording of Run DMC’s original version of Slow & Low – nice. I might put some of these up on my Mixcloud Select at some point seeing as there’s still quite a few subscribers.
There’s early house music comps, an official Streetwave tape and some recordings of Rick Davis playing at Regals in Uxbridge and the Theatre, Wandsworth from the 80s and 90s complete with some very of-it’s-time on the mic shout outs, dedications and such.
You can now contact Wow And Flutter and order one of the remaining unique New Obsolescents albums via the web rather than going into the shop in person.
Contact them if you’re interested in a copy, wherever you are in the world and they can calculate postage and payment, link above or email at the bottom of the image.
More photos found on an old disc; from that time I played at the Supersonic festival in Birmingham alongside The Bug, Coil, LCD Soundsystem, Kid Acne, Req, V/Vm and more. Above, a young Kid Acne, below, Edna soundchecking with Req-1 and Remark (I think?). Req live-painting 12″ sleeves outside and Lucy McLauchlan‘s Beat 13 plane installation. Lastly, The Green Man sculpture by Tawney Gray, just outside the main square where the festival was held.
This year’s Supersonic, now 21 years old, happens at the end of August over 3 days
