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Psychedelic poster auction highlights

FD Presents R Griffin
Selections from the Jasper 52 auction of psychedelic posters which closes on March 9th. Above: rare Family Dog poster by Rick Griffin.

Mouse & Kelley FD-109
Above: Mouse & Kelley Family Dog poster, 1968, below: Randy Tuten Family Dog poster, 1968

Randy Tuten 1968 FD poster
Moscoso Jungle Juice comic
Above: Victor Moscoso Jungle Juice comic, below: Eye Ball poster and Ripped Van Winkle poster, 1988

Moscoso Eye Ball
Ripped Van Winkle

Jerry Garcia poster Mouse'Kelley
Above: Bob Fried Memorial Boogie by various artists, below: Wes Wilson, The New Mobilization March anti-war march in San Francisco, 1969.

Wes Wilson
East Totem West
Above: East Totem West head shop poster, below: Neon Park Family Dog poster, 1968.

Neon Park 1968 FD-108

Posted in Design, Poster / flyer. | No Comments | Tags:

Rice Is Nice


On Sunday Hannah Brown, Heena Song, Julian Hand and I visited Optikinetics co-founder Neil Rice at his home to pick up some of his old projectors and talk general light show shop.

While we were there he gave us an impromptu light show using a four-projector, colour wheel and vintage Optikinetics Solar System set up he’d made then let us all have a play. Here’s a clip of just some of what we achieved using the kit with a set of custom slides I’d made under his direction. This is all analogue, no digital FX, shot against the wall in his living room by Hannah using her phone then edited in Premiere later.

The song is an edit of ‘Through With You’ by The Lemon Pipers, one of Neil’s favourites, they also have a song called ‘Rice Is Nice’, hence the title of this post.

Posted in Film, Light Shows. | No Comments | Tags: ,

Electrik Collage show #12 Feb 2025


My latest radio show is streaming from 2pm today wherever you are in the world on ROVR radio. I’m constantly amazed at the amount of great new music that’s out there and this month features new tracks from Awkward, LF58, Create-A-Mess, Apta, the Cheeba Cheeba label and some great reworks by Disco Police. There’s a classic megamix in the form of Cuco‘s Disco Breaks re-edit of Martin Circus ‘Disco Circus’ and a little trio of versions of Malcolm McLaren‘s ‘World Famous’ classic, it’s quite beat-heavy this month and, dare I say it?, a little trip-hoppy in places (not a bad thing in my book).

Listen back here https://www.rovr.live/show/4699

Show #12 Feb 2025
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #7
Monastry – Origin
Type Raw, Alcynoos & Parental – Poetry
Create-A-Mess – Denmark Hill (DJ Food slight re-edit)
Dr.Doppler – Gardens in Spain
David Beast – Racial Riots
Awkward – The Shift
Monastry – In the Machine
Disco Police – Masterpiece (Bop Gun Slow Blow Mix)
E20 Trio – S950 Is a Verb
131 – I Cant Find My Way Home
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #44
Martin Circus – The Circus (Disco Breaks mix) (The Cuco re-edit remastered)
Disco Police – Caramel (Bop Gun Primordial DISKO Tech Mix)
Akufen – Play (Never Work Till Monday)
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #39
Chop – Oscillo
LF58 – Radials Part Two (excerpt 3)
Anne Dudley – Close (To The Edit) diverted with World’s Famous
DJ Koco – World’s Famous feat. 45trio
Malcolm McLaren – World’s Famous
Run DMC – Peter Piper (Brat mash-up DJ Food Re-edit)
Redman – Dont Wanna C Me Rich
Create-A-Mess – Fly Humans
Disco Police – God Make Me Funky (Bop Gun Cosmic Regroove)
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #18
Djrum – Frekm pt. 1
Chop – Rioflection
Lone Bison – Origin Story
Awkward – Last Fiend
ill-sugi – rah
Apta – Sink
Apta – Meniscus
LF58 – Radials Part Two (excerpt 4)

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Buy Music Club Feb 2025

Buy Music Club Feb 2025
After the longest month of the year we finally hit February, Bandcamp Friday is on the 7th so fill your baskets in readiness for that day when 100% of the profits go to the artists and labels. Hieroglypic Being has released three albums so far this past month, not a bad start for him and two from Inhmost feature in this list as they were a new discovery for me. Talking of older records I’d missed, the ‘Collage’ album by Monastry is a sample-filled trip hop winner from an Australian duo that dates from last summer, as does the (Mr) Chop album on Madlib Invasionz.

Anticipating the return of Little Barrie and Malcolm Catto‘s new album this April I was checking out the album Barrie had made with Shawn Lee under the name Ultrasonic Grand Prix last year – an intriguing mix of vintage guitars and drum machines. DJ Koco‘s take on the Malcolm McLaren classic, ‘World’s Famous’ was out late last year on a 45 and will endure all year whilst Jonny Cuba‘s first solo outing under the name Create-A-Mess is finally released after literally years in production limbo.

My next ROVR radio show featuring some of these will air on Friday Feb 14th and the shows are available to listen back to now via the ROVR live app AND the desktop player (at last!) APPLE or ANDROID

Posted in Music, Records. | 2 Comments | Tags:

5 hour set at Brvtvs in Marlow this Saturday

___Saturdays_DJFood
This Saturday I will be playing at Brvtvs in Marlow, a hi-fi listening bar/restaurant. Not only that, support will be from my old partner in crime, DK!
We’ve not played together on the same bill for over a decade but I’m really looking forward to hearing what he pulls out for a mini Solid Steel reunion. I think you have to book a table if you want to come before 10pm so maybe contact them to check availability if you’re planning to travel far.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs, Records. | 3 Comments | Tags: , ,

The expanded Raiding the 20th Century turns twenty

Raiding 20th expansion
Hard to believe, this is 20 years old today. My 59 minute extension of the history of the cut up, featuring Paul Morley‘s narration, largely adapted from his book, Words & Music. Between creating the original 40 minute version for The Remix’s guest spot on XFM in 2004 I’d read Paul’s book and there was so much crossover between the contents that it sparked an idea to rework the mix out of it’s original constraints into something more definitive. Part mix, part documentary, all copyright-infringement, so much so that I eventually received a cease and desist letter from Universal about a year later after the horse had bolted.

Raiding cover
The Delic Records label, a bastion of all things sample-based, cut up and collaged, released the original mix in a cassette edition a year ago and now they offer the expanded version on its 20th anniversary. Each cassette has been designed by yours truly with a QR code on the back that opens some exclusive material like a key to all the people on the inside image, the full tracklist (updated and corrected although I still managed to miss a couple of mistakes) and my original handwritten making-of notes. Sadly I couldn’t find the cease and desist letter…
Order a copy from here, also grab a copy of the MagicTouch 45 while you’re there.
UPDATE – these sold out super fast, they still have the earlier 40 minute edition if you want to pick up a copy, only 8 left I think.

Raiding inlay and tape
Raiding inside
Raiding spines

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music. | 2 Comments | Tags: , ,

Electrik Collage show #11 Jan 2025


My latest radio show is streaming from 2pm today wherever you are in the world on ROVR radio. Kicking off with another vintage megamix from the vaults and new music from Disco Police, Awkward, MagicTouch, Space Drum Meditation, the Cheeba Cheeba label and more.

Listen back at https://www.rovr.live/show/4589

Show #11 Jan 2025
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #42
MagicTouch – Kyousoku 3
Awkward – The Grand Deal
Dr.Doppler – 00.Ocimum
Kentorako – BarbedWireStew
Alcynoos & Parental – Chase
Beautify Junkyards – Sonora
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #21
Awkward – The Subway And Rammellzee (refix 24.6)
Disco Police – Disco Queen (Bubbling Minds DISCO Mix)
David Beast – Endurance Test
Nebulon Systems – Music Is (DJ Food Radio edit)
Silvia Sommer – Tinguely
LF58 – Radials Part Two (excerpt 1)
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #34
Crazy John – Electro 1984 (Hully Gully Mix)
Disco Police – Space Is The Place (Bubbling Minds Proto Detroit Techno Mix)
Midnight Heist – Shiny
Akufen – My Blue House
Paul Funk – Don’t Make Me Wait For Acid
Nebulon Systems – Orangutan (DJ Food Radio edit)
DJ Food – Electrik Collage #8
Lone Bison – Origin Story (Paul Cousins Remix)
Beautify Junkyards – Sister Moon
Kosmologic Research Society – Hippocampus
James Adrian Brown – Limbic System (Demo)
LF58 – Radials Part Two (excerpt 2)
Space Drum Meditation – False Dawn

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes / Podcast, Music, Radio. | 2 Comments | Tags: ,

Big Numbers #3 original art

Columbia, Al -BigNumbers print

This post was started back in 2022, during lockdown when we had more time on our hands, and it sat unfinished for various reasons until now.

I’ve become a bit obsessed by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz‘s unfinished Big Numbers of late – the projected twelve issue comic stalled at issue 2 when Sienkiewicz left the project due to the workload he’d imposed on himself. Young understudy Al Columbia was asked to continue for issue 4 and, depending on which version of events you believe, he either didn’t finish it, had a nervous breakdown or destroyed the work he did do. One of the only things to officially emerge was the print above, published by Mad Love/Tundra before his scheduled debut on the book.

BN3 pg3 painted
Issue 3 did actually get finished and surfaced some years back in the form of a photocopy of the lettered pages that was found on eBay and then uploaded to the web. The line work is devoid of most of the texture you’d associate with Sienkiewicz’s work but ten unlettered pages were also printed in a fanzine, presumably taken from the original art. Over the years original pages have surfaced on places like Comic Art Fans where you can see the painterly tones he was going for far better – see above and below.

BN 3 pg14
As with so many things on the web, a lot of the images are low quality and small in size but now we can rectify this. I’ve recently been playing with Topaz’s Gigapixel AI app which gives incredible results when upscaling digital images. Using this on low res scans gives the work a whole new clarity and fuzzy details come into focus like never before. I’ve managed to put together a readable cbz edition of issue 3, including the 40 pg photocopy version, 17 painted or toned pages, only minus the back cover and end papers. Back cover artwork exists for issues 4 and 6 and the cover for issue 6 was sold at Heritage Auctions some years back. I doubt we’ll ever see the finished book sadly as Moore isn’t interested.

Big Numbers website image
The nearest we may come is in the form of a website by James Harvey. This appeared in June 2020, outlining each of the 12 issues, each character and what happened to them in each issue, based on original plot notes and interview transcriptions with Alan Moore. A projected TV series that never happened also fills in some of the gaps as an extract of a 280 page interview transcript that the producers had with Moore is published in the side bar. It’s a mind-boggling collection and gives a glimpse at what could have been, put aside an afternoon to go through it. Also check out James’ own comic work as he’s an excellent artist, recently completing Pete Townsend‘s legendary Lifehouse project in comic form with David Hine.

Big Number website

Posted in Art, Comics. | 2 Comments | Tags: , ,

DJ Food – Genius and Soul Mix

Genius + Soul logo
Doing a bit more clearing out over the holiday…

I was asked to provide a mix for a new show that started in 2022 – Genius and Soul, run by Joseph who has featured me on both his Solipsistic Nation and Soundwave shows before. The rough brief for G&S was Jazz and Black Classical Music and the many styles that grow from those trees. I put together a 45 min mix and the tracklist below has buy links if you want to explore further. The first episode featured Brian Jackson and upcoming guests were to include Carlos Nino, King Britt and Matt Black amongst many more. This series seems to have faltered after four months so here’s the mix as it seems a shame for it just to sit on a hard drive. The Annabel (lee) track is now officially released.

Track list:
DJ Format – The Light (Project Blue Book)  https://djformat.bandcamp.com/
Annabel (lee) – Blackstar (unreleased)  https://annabel-lee.bandcamp.com/
Aver & Move 78 – Follow The Earworm (Village Live). https://villagelive.bandcamp.com/
Nevergrand – The Storm (Spun Out Sounds) https://bit.ly/3eKM6OW
dgoHn – Electryon (Love Love Records) https://dgohn-music.bandcamp.com/
clipping. – Say The Name (Sub Pop) https://clppng.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-bodies-being-burned
Planet Battagon – Hygiea (On The Corner Records) https://planetbattagon.bandcamp.com/
DNGDNGDNG – Atlantida (On The Corner Records) https://onthecornerrecords.bandcamp.com/music
Jazzuelle feat. Kirsten Adams – 48 Stay (CTEMF 2020) https://bit.ly/3eJvU0w
Laraaji – Illusion of Time (Ahead Of Our Time) https://coldcut.bandcamp.com/album/0

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The Real Tuesday Weld – Blood (CD edition)

Blood CD expanded front

Posting this today because I found it in my ‘drafts’ in WordPress and it’s now two years old. This was originally written Dec 2022, intended to be published back then but I must have missed it somehow. This was the CD version of the first part of an intended trilogy for The Real Tuesday Weld – Swan Songs – encapsulating ‘Blood’, ‘Dream’ and ‘Bone’ LPs plus additional cassette extras. Three years on and the first two are out but ‘Bone’ has been languishing unfinished for a while as the ever-manic Stephen Coates attends to his many distractions from the Bureau of Lost Culture podcast to the London Month of the Dead and Century Club programming. In between he’s also created two Clerkenwell Kid albums (‘Songs for Crow’ – Dec 2024 and the forthcoming ‘Junkshop Melodies’ as well as the ‘Winter Warmers’ 3″ CD of Xmas 2023. He assures me this will be the year we wrap things up for a project that started in 2019 and half the artwork for ‘Bone’ is done but we’ll see…

Another black and red sleeve, I swore I’d use less black in my designs in 2022 but it’s not working is it? To be fair though, both this and the Cinematic Orchestra covers are from 2021 and 2002 respectively. Today sees the release of the CD edition of The Real Tuesday Weld‘s ‘Blood‘ album on CD. The vinyl sold out quickly and people asked for a CD (not everyone wants vinyl) and Antique Beat listened.

Blood CD expanded back
We’ve shrunk the artwork and presented a CD version of the vinyl design, complete with reversible inner sleeve with die cut centre and vinyl groove effect on the black CD disc. Order here.
Blood CD back + inner reversed
Blood CD back + inner
Blood CD back
Blood CD disc
Blood CD expanded again
Blood CD expanded vert

Posted in Design, Music, Openmind designs. | No Comments | Tags: , , ,

Psychedelic Crunchie Bomb poster offer, 1969

Crunchie 3
A rare set of four “Crunchie Bomb” posters commissioned in 1969 by Frys Chocolate, measuring 20×15 inches. Two designed by graphic artist and Professor of Illustration at the RCA, Dan Fern, two by renowned designer Chris McEwan. They were available in exchange for 3 Crunchie wrappers – see the last photo of the original advert.

Crunchie 4
Crunchie 5
Crunchie 6
Crunchie offer-topaz-text-shapes-4x
Seems like Crunchie were really trying to tap into the youth market in the late sixties, check out this reworking of the Beach Boys‘ ‘Good Vibrations’ TV ad, complete with zany visual effects.

Posted in Art, Design, Poster / flyer. | 4 Comments | Tags: , , , ,

Steve Harradine posters and original art

Damo Suzuki Steve Harradine
The other day I ran across an eBay seller offering a whole load of Steve Harradine posters and originals. The name was new to me but this UK ex-pat now living in America has shades of Martin Sharp‘s poster genius in some of his work and appears to only have a sparse website. His subject matter seems to mainly be rock music from the 60s through to the 80s but with some contemporary bands too, drawn in pencil or biro and very much in the maximalist psychedelic style of old. All images here are cleaned up from the ebay account linked above.
Below: The original for a Dylan poster from 2001 and an unfinished version from 2002

Dylan original 2001 Steve Harradine 2002
Bob Dylan unfinished 2002
PF Steve Harradine 2005
Above: A reimaging of a 60s Pink Floyd poster from 2005 and
Below: a Paul McCartney print from 2015, Harradine has done the other three Beatles too.

PMC Steve Harradine 2015
Below: A Sky Saxon poster from 2005 with art resued from a withdrawn Widespread Panic poster design from 2002 by Harradine.
Sky Saxon poster-topaz-4x
Widespread Panic Steve Harradine
This fabulous Bowie poster is upscaled from the only tiny image on the web I can find.

Bowie-topaz-low resolution v2-4x

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Buy Music Club Recommends Jan 2025

BMC Jan 2025
And we don’t stop – Happy New Year! Here’s a bunch of music from the last month to get your teeth into for 2025. There’s a new Hieroglyphic Being album – one of his best for a while, an old Akufen I discovered recently through Bandcamp – absolutely stunning. The new Arcadia library compilation on Buried Treasure is full of treats as is the Kosmologic Research Society – the return of an old project featuring Markey Funk. Space is the place for that one, both inner and outer as is the latet LF58 album on Astral Industries who I’d slept on in recent years but hoovered up several titles from during their Xmas sale. For the beat heads look no further than a new album by Awkward which collects various beats and pieces together and the MagicTouch ‘Lessons’-style 45 on Delic Records, out this month. The new Special Request album wasn’t totally my bag if I’m honest except for the track ‘Don’t Hold Back’ which is dancefloor destruction and will get you from 140-160 bpm with ease during a set.

My next ROVR radio show featuring some of these will air on Friday Jan 17th and this year’s ten shows should be available to listen back to now via the ROVR live app APPLE or ANDROID

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2024

Abear web
It’s that time again, time to wrap things up and turn over a new leaf – or just carry on as normal. As is tradition on this blog, here’s some of what’s been floating my boat in 2024, in no particular order. It’s been a good one, very busy but not too busy on the DJ front, that needs some rectifying in 2025, but extremely satisfying on the work and home front. There are still projects that have been in the pipeline that haven’t seen the light of day including a couple of releases I designed in 2023 that are still not out in the wild, at least two audio treats in production and a few things I can’t announce officially yet. I really would like to get some longform music out there in some form in 2025 as I currently have roughly three albums-worth of material sitting on hard drives waiting for some form to be made of them.

Best Music 2024
Music:
Patrick Carpenter – Electric Envelope (Bandcamp)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse (Sonos Radio)
Reso – Nut Damage EP (Bandcamp)
Sean Ono Lennon – Asterisms LP (Chimera Music)
Prefuse 73 – New Strategies for Modern Crime (Lex)
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredone (Steven Wilson megamix) (Universal)
The New Library Sound – Library Music Series 02 – Oceanography LP (2 Headed Deer)
Beautify Junkyards – Nova LP (Ghost Box)
Jem Stone – The Legend of Kaptain Karnival (Finger Lickin’/Velocity Press)
Paul Cousins – Oxide Manifesto LP (Castles In Space)
Dave Lombardo – Rites of Percussion LP (Ipecac)
DJ Primecuts feat. MC Conrad – Together / Our Time Is Now 12″ (Self Release)
Magictouch – Kyousoku 2/3 7″ (Delic Records)
LF58 – Radials LP (Astral Industries)

Best podcasts 2024
Podcasts:
DjHistory (Bill Brewster)
Oh God, What Now? (Podmasters)
We Buy Records (Tim Scullion / Paul Field)
What Goes Around? (Eamon Murtagh / Deb Grant)
Paper Cuts (Podmasters)
Sound Collage (Achillefs Sourlas)
Not a Diving Podcast with Scuba
Bureau of Lost Culture (Stephen Coates)
Quiet Riot (Alex Andreou / Naomi Smith)
Tales from a Disappearing City (Controlled Weirdness)
The Fanzine Podcast (Tony Fletcher)

Records shops I went to for the first time in 2024 and would recommend:
Tenpin Records, Purley
Rook Records, Hackney
Perfect Lives, Deptford
KillaCutz, Amsterdam
Platypus Records, Amsterdam
Zap Records, Amsterdam
Friendly Records, Bristol
Kingsland Records, Dalston
Crazy Beat Records, Upminster
Bananarama, Antwerp
Grey Records, Antwerp
Decktronix, Rochester
Klang Tone (at their new address), Stroud
Pressing Matters, Hastings
Bear Tree Records, Sheffield
Rob’s Records, Nottingham
FAC1968, Nottingham
B.B.E. Store, Hackney
Off The Record, Haringey
Recycle Vinyl, Dalston

Events Gigs 2024
Gigs / Events / Exhibitions:
DEYA Brewery, Cheltenham with Tom Ravenscroft
Light Surgeons’ Takeover @iklectik, London
Baba Yaga’s Hut Takover @iklectik, London
Screenprint24, @Centrespace Gallery, Bristol
Repainting Subway Art @New Walk Gallery, Leicester
Upside Down Records launch, Deptford, London
The New Obsolescents in-store @Wow & Flutter, Hastings
Anne Desmet @guildhall, London
Deliaphonic @Coventry University, Coventry
The Straat Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Seeing the Tulip gardens in the Netherlands
Yoko Ono @ Tate Modern, London
Enzo Mari @ The Design Museum, London
Rise of the Vandals show, York
Grace Jones, Crystal Palace Park, London
Peter Kennard @The Whitechapel Gallery, London
Dele Sosimi Wah Wah 45s 25th anniversary @Village Underground, London
The The @Brixton Academy, London
Taking one of my sons to his first record fairs
Seeing my other son start art college
Levitation’24 – Bedford Esquires, Bedford
The Groovy Record Fayre, @ The Mildmay Club, London
Dust & Grooves Book 2 launch @BBE Store, London
Paul Cousins – Atomized Listening @Stone Nest, London
Prime Cuts, Rival Self and Aroe @Rook Records, London
Electric Dreams @Tate Modern, London

Packaging Design 2024
Packaging / Design:
Pye Corner Audio – LP (Ghost Box)
Woo – Robot X LP (Independent Project Records)
Various Artists – Cheeba Issue.1 7″ and Dan Lish comic (Cheeba Cheeba Records)
Drumetrics 10″ record box
Listening Center – Sight and Scene LP (Castles In Space)
Lone Bison – Talk About It / Origin Story 12″ (Castles In Space)
Sculpture – Max Ax 2×10″(LtR Records/Psyche Tropes)
Jo Johnson – Let Go Your Fear LP (Castles In Space)
Beautify Junkyards – Nova LP (Ghost Box)
His Name Is Alive – How Ghosts Affect Relationships 6xLP box set (4AD)
Organic Pulse Ensemble – A Thousand Hands LP (2 Headed Deer)
Jamie XX – In Waves 3xLP (Young)
John Lennon – Mind Games Meditation mixes 3xLP (Universal)
John Lennon – Mind Games Super deluxe box set (Universal)
SD_OA – alla prima cassette (Detroit Underground)
Eilon Paz – Dust & Grooves v1&2 Deluxe Slipcase set

Artists 2024
Artists:
Cordula Kagemann
0010×0010
iloobia
Ruben Sutherland
Alex Klim
Lovepusher
MZ Optics
Soda
Ian Bertram
Alex Eckman-Lawn
James Harren

Comics books 2024
Books / Magazines / Comics:
Judge Dredd: A Better World – Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt, Henry Flint (2000AD/Rebellion)
Petrol Head book 1 – Rob Williams / Pye Parr (Image)
Bioripple – Nir Levie
Moonray books 1+2 – Brandon Graham / Xurxo G. Penalta
A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging – Time Released Sound
Write Lines – Steve Emery (Velocity Books)
Strange Things Are Happening – Richard Norris (White Rabbit)
Blotter – Erik Davis
Dawn Runner – Ram V / Evan Cagle (Dark Horse)
Precious Metal – Darcy Van Poelgeest / Ian Bertram (Image)
Grommets – Rick Remender / Brett Parson (Image)
Lore Remastered #1 – T.P. Louise / Ashley Wood (Image)
The Sacrificers – Rick Remender / Max Fiumara (Image/Giant Generator)
Ultra Mega – James Harren (Image)
Zerox Machine – Matthew Worley (Reaktion Books)
Dust & Grooves vol.2 – Eilon Paz

Film:
Scala!!!
Dune
Tramps
Furiosa: A Mad Max saga
Eno (version 3.10 + the V&A showing)
Sculpture – ‘Cross Processor’

What Have I Done 2024
Another year over and what have I done?
Published a huge piece with Ian Peel about the 40th anniversary ZTT releases
Had my Bonobo zoetrope featured in the Turn On exhibition in Luxembourg
Had a remix of Slim Vic locked grooves featured on the Because We Love Music 24 compilation from Lamour Records
Released a 20th anniversary cassette & T-shirt of my Raiding The 20th Century mix with Delic Records
Contributed to the 45 Live 200 episode with a 7 minute mix plus my annual 1 hr mix
Played the 2nd Candlemas event at the Royal Foundation of St Katherine
Made a CD version of the Future Sound of London’s ‘Pulse Five’ EP for FSOLdigital
Designed the A’bear LP for Castles In Space – out in 2025 hopefully
Designed the Morphology ‘Fractures’ LP, David Morley ‘Fashion’ 12″, Robert Leiner’s ‘Analog Days’ LP, AsOne’s ‘Requiem’ LP and Dan Curtin’s forthcoming LP for De:tuned
Wrote pieces on Andy Votel, Kid Koala, Alex Paterson, Zoe Baxter, DJ Format and Peel Acres for the Dust & Grooves 2 book and website, played at the book launch in London and curated the December You Dig? newsletter
Gave a talk on creative practice at the Confetti industry week in Nottingham
Started a new 2 hr monthly radio show: Electrik Collage on ROVR Radio
Had an in-store performance and LP cover display with The New Obsolescents at Wow & Flutter in Hastings
Played at the Deliaphonic event in Coventry with PuttyRubber and The New Obsolescents
Played in-store with Hannah Brown @ Upside Down, Deptford
Designed the Inside Outside EP and band logo for Dave Barbarossa’s new band, Third House
Contributed to the 40th anniversary release of something that will be announced in 2025…
Played at Levitation’24 alongside Graham Dunning for the Castles In Space all-dayer
Made a 30 min mix for Forsaj’s show on Subtle Radio
Co-compiled an album of early 90s electronica under the Telepathic Fish banner for Fundamental Frequencies, due in 2025
Designed two zoetrope discs for US band, Nile’s ‘Annihilation of the Wicked’ album – out in 2025
Put together The Clerkenwell Kid’s ‘Songs For Crow’ double 3″ CD
Designed an 8″ zoetrope for Acid Lathe featuring two Quadraphon tracks that will be out in 2025

RIP:
John M. Burns, Les McCann, David Soul, Annie Nightingale, Silent Servant, Marlena Shaw, Brian Griffin, Damo Suzuki, Wayne Kramer, Steve Wright, Dan Hillier, Joan Hills, Marian Zazeela, Ed Piskor, Keith LeBlanc, Patti Astor, Trina Robbins, Peter Ceresole, Roger Johnson, MC Duke, MC Conrad, Paul DJ Regal Eve, Duane Eddy, Steve Albini, Roger Corman, Chuck Roberts, James Chance, Donald Sutherland, Bill Viola, Herbie Flowers, James Earl Jones, Larry Todd, Lillian Schwartz, Dave Watts, Quincy Jones, J Saul Kane, Lennie D. Ice, DJ Alfredo, Jimmy Carter.

Granny tat Nigel Waymouth reworking of 1966 orig

Looking forward to:
Raiding the 20th Century Expanded version 20th anniversary cassette release 18/01/25
Reactivating my Infinite Iklectik label for some releases
Leigh Bowery exhibition at the Tate Modern
Paul Gorman’s ‘Granny Takes A Trip’ book
The opening of the V&A East Museum
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s ‘Sensual Laboratories’ book
Concluding the Swan Songs trilogy ?

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Revolution Tapes No.5 – House Music Composite – Jay B. Ross & Associates, 1980s

House Music Composite tape
More from the stash of record industry cassettes I found at Revolution Records in Penge this summer:

Bearing the name and address, Jay B. Ross & Associates, 100 N. La Salle, Suite 815, Chicago Ill. 60602 plus a phone and telex number (which really dates it) plus the title ‘House Music Composite’, typed onto a paper label on one side of the tape, this cassette has no other info. A quick web search reveals that a Jay B. Ross still operates in Chicago (albeit at a different address now) and is a ‘Royalty Retrieval Agency’. Elsewhere an official entry for their activities states: “Jay B. Ross Royalty Retrieval Service provides legal services for creators in the entertainment industries. We specialize in music publishing, contractual agreements, royalty retrieval, Will & Estate, and copyright law.”

Founded in 1969, Ross was a legend in the law profession and the music industry who worked with the likes of James Brown, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie among many more and once negotiated the largest advance ever paid to a music entertainer for a pay-per-view performance for James Brown. He also had a TV show where he would interview celebrities (mostly his clients) and give tips on negotiation – there’s even a YouTube channel to view clips. His involvement in the early Chicago house music scene was large as an article here explains as well as fleshing out Jay B’s history. He received a Lifetime Achievement at the Chicago Music Awards in 2008 and died in 2018 but his company still operates.

I’d imagine this tape was an in-house publishing/licensing showreel sent out to prospective labels and I’m guessing the timeframe, from the tracks I can identify, was around 1986-87. My house music history is spotty so I’m using Shazam and Discogs to try to find info on this. Artists seem to get two tracks a piece and it’s likely that there are unreleased bits here as some of the songs are godawful (I’m warning you in advance for the second half) and could even be demos. Saying that, I’m putting this up as a piece of history as it’s not on Discogs and I’d like to know more about it if anyone recognises anything.

First pair of tracks I can’t find anything on but the male vocalist is begging you for ‘Nocturnal Passion’, the second pair are Andre Wade’s ‘The Flight of Jacking Your Body’ on Play House Records (or Kool Kat in the UK) in two versions but I can’t identify which mixes they are. This track seems to have a checkered history, some sources credit it as Mike Macharello featuring Andre Wade and simply call it ‘The Flight’ but there are later remixes of the same track under the name The Fascination in 1989. Anyone care to elaborate please?

The third pair are male vocal led songs in the Prince mode with only a rudimentary grasp of pitch. Adonis’ classics ‘Now Way Back’ and ‘We’re Rocking Down The House’ follow, no mistaking them. The next pair are mostly instrumental in the Kevin Saunderson / Ten City mode with ‘Close Your Eyes’ repeated in the second cut. Hold on to your hats for the next three tracks as it gets rocky from here; cheesy female-led tracks in need of some serious autotune (if such a thing existed), and the final, ‘Jack My Body’ is excruciating. Things get only marginally better with a trio of male vocal tracks to finish, horrendously out of tune but so buried in the mix it’s hard to hear what’s being ’sung’. The first seems to take ‘Pump Up The Volume’s bass line as a starting point, the second is painful and the third sounds familiar but I can’t place the bass line. Any info appreciated!

Track list:
Unknown – Nocturnal Passion
Unknown (Same artist) – unknown
Andre Wade – The Flight of Jacking Your Body
Andre Wade – The Flight of… (unknown mix)
? – Bop Never Stops
? (Same artist) – Jack Tonight
Adonis – No Way Back
Adonis – We’re Rocking Down The House
Unknown – Untitled
Unknown – Close Your Eyes
Uncredited – I Got To Have Your Love
Uncredited (Same artist) – I Can Make You Feel Good
Uncredited (Same artist) – Jack My Body
Unlisted – Untitled
Unlisted (Same artist) – Untitled
Unlisted – Untitled

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Raiding The 20th Century Expanded version 20th anniversary release

Raiding 20th expansion
Available for pre-oder now via the Delic Records website in Japan, the ‘Words & Music Expansion’ version of my Raiding The 20th Century mix with additional spoken word by Paul Morley. This turns 20 years old in January 2025 so we’ve put it onto cassette, split perfectly in half over each side and there is a QR code on the inlay that takes you to a multi-page extra booklet of bonus material. Released January 18th, pre-order here

Raiding 2

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music. | 2 Comments | Tags: , ,

Rock Circus’

Amsterdam Rock Circus 1972-topaz-cgi-4x
A rare poster for a festival in Amsterdam at the Olympic stadium in 1972. Note Sgt. Pepper’s Band – was there a Beatles tribute band that early on?

Rock Circus advert
Even though there was no actual circus involved in the above concert there’s a link between that festival and Chipperfield’s Circus that took place in the UK around Christmas that year. Joe’s Lights – a legendary light show crew that evolved out of the Joshua Light Show – performed at both the Dutch gig and an actual circus at the Rainbow Theatre in London. Thanks to the ever-diligent Neil Rice for the poster image on this one.

Chipperfields Circus poster web
Circus imagery was popular in the sixties, most obivously from the inspiration John Lennon took from Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal poster for the lyrics to ‘Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite’.

Benefit of Mr Kite poster
razz revue cover Rare 1972 RAZZ REVUE Magazine (Phoenix AZ Underground Press) V.1 #1
The Rolling Stones also got on the bandwagon with their ill-fated Rock n Roll Circus which was recorded for a TV special but remained unofficially released until the mid 90s. Above and below; the front and back cover of Razz Revue magazine featuring Jagger in ringmaster garb from 1972. The Revue originated from Phoenix, Arizona, ran for 16 issues and took a satirical look at pop and rock culture, via interviews and comics. The cover image is probably by Bob Boze Bell, the mag’s resident cartoonist, and the redneck character attacking Jagger is the Roper-Doper, his regular strip in the mag.
Razz Revue back
Rolling Stones 3D 1967
While we’re talking about the Stones here’s two adverts I found on my travels round the web too. The first advertising their ‘3D’ (actually lenticular) Their Satanic Majesties Request album and the second plugging a 1990 Steel Wheels concert broadcast in actual 3D.

Rolling Stones 3D 1990

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