Sun Ra - Pink Elephants

I've been playing this to my little girl and she absolutely loves this. Woke up this morning and she wanted to hear it so I played it for her. She also really likes Sun Ra's song that goes "If you find earth boring, just the same old same thing, come on sign up with outer spaceways incorperated". Sounds like she is slowly becoming a Sun-Ra fan :-)

I can't remember how I first got to hear 'Pink Elephants on Parade' but probably just from researching. It is definitely one of my favourite Sun Ra tunes. A while back I brought a couple of his albums, one of them was 'The Heliocentric Worlds vol 1'. I did enjoy some of the tracks but did find it difficult to really feel it and connect with it. However after listening to Pink Elephants it helped me to connect with his music when I went back and listened to those albums. I watched the Sun Ra film 'Space is the Place' and the documentary 'Brother From Another Planet' which was produced by Don Letts. Both films are well worth a watch and you can find them easily.

The more I listen to Sun Ra's music, the more I enjoy it. If you like 'Pink Elephants' then definitely check out his and the Arkestra's stuff - do some research around it.

Sun Ra's music feels free. When I hear it, I feel free. There's no limits to it at all.

Sleeve Art: Ken Ishii - Jelly Tones LP

Last night at home I looked through my record collection to find a record that had really nice artwork on the sleeves and I came across Ken Ishii's 'Jelly Tones'. I took some pictures on my phone and also took one from the R&S website (they released the album). As you can see the artwork is very Manga inspired and is really impressive. It was created by artist and animator Kouji Morimonto of Akira fame. The artwork is brilliant, I have never seen anything similar to it either. If you like the artwork, then you may like the video for the track 'Extra':

Project Thirty-Three

I just came across this website: http://www.projectthirtythree.com/ while having a browse. They've got some really interesting vinyl record sleeves. Here's what it says on their website:

"The seemingly infinite number of vintage album covers that convey their message with only simple shapes and typography never cease to amaze us. Project Thirty-Three is our shrine to circles and dots, squares and rectangles, and triangles, and the designers that make them come to life."

There are some really nice covers on their website. I feel like collecting records just for the record sleeves :)

This emphasises the need to have a good visual side to any vinyl or other music related release. I think I will hunt out some record sleeves I like and post them up later (whenever that is :-).

Walsall New Art Gallery: Fiona Rae, etc...

Was hanging around with my family in Walsall town and wanted to check out the art gallery. I was in for a total shock! They had Soca band playing, but they had some work in from Fiona Rae - she has a piece at Birmingham art gallery called 'Darkstar' which is the shit.

Anyway, she had some paintings up and it was called: 'Maybe you can live on the moon in the next century'. I wasn't connecting with all of them but I was in love with one called 'Angel', the picture is above. Check her site: http://www.fiona-rae.com

They also had stuff from Damien Hurst, Jodie Carey and Harminder Judge. I sneaked a recording of a Harminder Judge piece but going to find some music to go with it and then i'll post it up. Nice surprises from Walsall New Art Gallery! Go and visit if you can.

Steve Alexander - Float

For anyone that doesn't know Steve Alexander is a drummer that has played around with a lot of the big groups from the 80's (Duran Duran) and some other people. I'm not sure how he got around to releasing this on the legendary Reinforced Records... There is some info on the www, he has got his own website. Also if you like this and can't get hold of the tracks, you can buy them from his bandcamp page: http://stevealexander.bandcamp.com

Interestingly on his bandcamp the EP/mini album comes with 7 tracks, whereas the CD that I have got comes with 5 tracks - so when I get some extra cash I might have to pay the £5 and check out the 7 track mini album.

I chose 'Float' to put up on here because it's one of the stand out tracks on the CD (the other track is 'Colour of Memory' which is also excellent). Lots of TR808 sounds. I would describe this track as Sci-Fi Blues type music. All the tracks on the CD feel like they would sound great in a film like Bladerunner.

When I originally got the CD I have to admit I did not dig the tracks, they just felt like a load of drums with some wishy washy sounds, but when I listened to it again yesterday it felt different - I don't know whether it's because it's Autumn or what? I was thinking that of all the Jungle/D&B labels at the time, this CD could only come out on Reinforced Records, they were the only ones that were exploring ALL the boundaries of the music.

Boymerang - Urban Space

This was the b-side to Boymerang's release on Grooverider's Prototype recordings. A lot of people got it for the A-side which was 'Still', an excellent track - but when you play 'Urban Space' the b-side track, it is just something else entirely. I'm not sure what format the beats are in or what speed it is at? I don't even know if it's meant to be played at 33 or 45?!? I play it at 45 and it's damn good.

When some says the words 'Future Beats' this is the record that comes to mind - not the other stuff that I've seen knocking around the tag Future Beats (a lot of that stuff is just not futuristic at all, the beats are exactly the same as they were from 1994-1999 so tell me what the **** is futuristic about that????!???!)

'Urban Space' is some next level business - if you are ready for the next level then check it out :)

Terror Danjah - Limbo

Couldn't find this on YouTube so I'll have another look later. An amazing tune though, is it Grime, is it Techno, what is it??? The way I see it (hear it even!), it is straight up Street Music. It's so hardcore and rough. I could go on about this tune all day long. It's actually available as a free download though - a couple of Christmas's ago he gave away a whole album of tracks (because of one reason or another) linked to his Aftershock label I think. I really want to check the instrumental album he released on Planet Mu or whatever label it was. But yeah, 'Limbo' is the one for me, very infectious.

Martyn - Viper

An artist I have never checked out much, I really like the remix he did a while back of some Steve Spacek tune, it had a nice garage flavour to it. I came across Viper when I downloaded the Brainfeeder album that was free. This track totally grabbed me - some of the sounds remind of Rufige Krew's track 'Manslaughter' that Grooverider remixed.

Gemmy - Maroon Chant

Reminds me of Transformers. To me it sounds futuristic, and I love banging this tune out in my car. I get possessed by music like this...

Walsall Street Stencil

Nice Stencil I saw in Walsall a while back, not sure who gets the credit for it though.

DJ Mayhem - Cold Acid

A track with a certain energy and frequency that I have not heard in 'new' music for a while. Breakbeats were always seen as dirty and untouchable things, then it became fashionable, and I think it's gone back to being dirty and untouchable. Long live jungle-techno or whatever you want to call it :)