January 2018 - Paul Hillery

January 26, 2018

Bill Ogden

A while back I purchased an album, of the vinyl persuasion, it was called Pretty Darlin’ by Eric Relph ‎– a lovely Private Press affair on the obscure Evy Pollen label.

When it arrived the music blew me away but so did the album sleeve.

A hand drawn illustration of a native girl emerging from cool waters, sparkling eyes and oozing dreamy tales of life living by the ocean, and there, in the bottom right hand corner, was the name Ogden.

…I was trying to show the feeling of being a surfer on the beach, living that free life and all of the stuff I did that wasn’t direct surf art, in that I did beach art: the seaweed, the seashells, the view, the waves, the sand, the rocks, the view looking up the coast…

explains Ogden.

I decided to find out more…

Bill Ogden, Godfather of surf realism, nouveau inspired style, was uber-influential and extremely imitated. His artwork dominated the surf community in the sixties and seventies creating ads for companies like Hobie Surfboards, and Jantzen Inc., his illustrations a ubiquitous feature in most surfing publications. Some of the more well-known pieces of this period include illustrations for Timothy Leary in the L.A. Free Press, a series of calendars for the The Sound Spectrum in Laguna Beach, and the art for the classic surf film The Forgotten Island of Santosha.

Ogden’s art continues to hold up many of the artist’s ideals; harmony, balance, hope. His style is a unique blend of fantasy and realism. He is still a big name in the surfing world and his artwork still adorns the like of Burton, Volcom, and Quiksilver.

There is also a book of Bill Ogden’s artwork. It’s called OGDEN: The Visionary Art of Bill Ogden.

Google it. This is what it looks like…

Please check out Bill’s website at billogdenartwork.com

All artwork on this page are owned by Bill Ogden © No copyright infringement is intended

January 19, 2018

01 2018 : Overtones

I have been asked to become one of Balearic Social Radio residents over 2018. That will mean a mix for them from me every month of this year.

Never heard of Balearic Social Radio? It’s run by Andy Pye and has featured some fantastic mixes over the years. Check out the links at the bottom of this page.

Balearic Social Radio is run by Andy Pye. He hosts the Balearic Social Radio Show; bringing together dj’s and record collectors from across the world. A lifelong and passionate music collector Andy started his career as a music buyer at HMV and has carried on collecting music ever since.

01 2018 : Overtones

1 Lux Aeterna Introit – William Sheller

First came across this record on the Dirty Diamonds compilation series. Then realised Deltron 3030 had sampled it too.

Composed in 1970 I think I read somewhere it was originally to mark the occasion of the marriage of friends.

2 Tears in Rain – Blade Runner Monologue

Sampled monologue of Rutger Hauer from Blade Runner. I choose the cover of this mix before I did the mix and had the idea of doing something resembling a soundtrack to a film about synthetic humans. I’d re-watched A.I. a few days previously and it was obviously in my subconscious.

3 Glittering Circles – Neil Ardley

From the 1979 album Harmony Of The Spheres released on Decca. The album features the John Martyn but I’m not actually sure if this track does?… The artwork for the LP was done by the legendary Storm Thorgerson

4 Valley of Temples – The Spins

Much sort after B side of a split 45 on Derby out of Italy 1978.

5 Natural Selection – Pulsar

From the experimental Infrasonic Waves Volume IV on Ochre Records. From 1999 I used to really enjoy playing these sorts of oddities at the Interwaffle Café in my hometown when I played there on curry night. I would sometimes just play the records backwards pushing them round with my hand at various speeds. I think I may have enjoyed them sets more than the customers…

6 Fragment Of Fear – Sight & Sound

From the soundtrack of the film of the same name from 1970 – this can be found on a charity shop special Movie Themes Of Today on Contour.

7 Adrift – The Robert Mellin Orchestra

The part of the imaginary journey where the replicants run away to an island – from the The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe a dubbed into English TV series I remember watching as kid.

8 Overtones – Jurriaan Andriessen

From the 1977 synth ambient album by Jurriaan Andriessen ‎– The Awakening Dream.

9 What You Are – Pete Brandt’s Method

B isde of the 7″ on Fried Egg Records this is Pete Brandt’s Method ‎–Positive Thinking. Always reminds me of Edwyn Collins from Orange Juice.

10 (I Don’t Believe) God Is An Anachist – Steve Harley

From the cockney rebel himself and his first album Hobo With A Grin from 1978. Probably just skip past this in a bunch of records wouldn’t you?

11 E. Boogie – Jack Bruce

Yes it’s that Jack Bruce.

From the electronic tinged album Automatic 1986. I have the terrible UK cover art with the washing machine on the front, try and track down the German release as the cover is a bit cooler.

12 Transvesuvian – Desert

From the 1979 self title album and also re-issued by Strut a few years ago.

13 Window Across The Street – Fay Lovsky

From 1983 album Origami this Netherlands pop release can be picked up very cheaply.

14 Drömmare – Mia Sandberg

She was a Swedish pop star you know. 45 on Sonnet.

15 Photosynthesis – Walkie Talkies

New wave band suprisingly from the UK as this always sounds more European to me. Pick up the LP Surveillance.

16 Iles Dans L’Espace – Mandré

Long before Daft Punk were donning their robot heads, futuristic Mandré ‎was signed to Motown. This is from 1978 and his second LP Mandré Two.

17 Ah Q – Björn JSon Lindh

From the Jazz flutists LP Bike Voyage II which can also be found with the alternative title A Day At The Surface.

18 Underwater Adventure – Gerhard Narholz (Conroy Music Library)

From the Conroy Music Library release entitled Wildlife.

19 Bikini – Frank Ricotti

The wonderfil Frank Ricotti turns up on the Bruton Music ‎library release Souled Out released in 1981.

Andy Pye’s Balearic Social radio can be found at these places

Soundcloud

Purple Radio

We Are All Weightless Under The Sun

Just click here to be magically whisked away to my Mixcloud profile

Comments always welcome.

Music Is Love

January 16, 2018

La Boca

Where to start? What to say?

La Boca.

My first encounter with this design agency was the record label D.C. Recordings, who were the output for Depth Charge a pseudonym for Jonathan Saul Kane. Depth Charge Recordings or D.C. Recordings started outputting as early as 1989 but I came across them when I stumbled in awe across The Emperor Machine and their 2004 long player Aimee Tallulah Is Hypnotised. A krautrock infused frazzled album composed on vintage analogue hardware and the brain child of Andy Meecham.

As Uncut called it a

…freewheeling soundtrack to a William Burroughs-penned lysergic head-movie helmed by John Carpenter. Meecham skilfully steers this enjoyably indulgent romp through disco, radiophonica and flute-fried psychedelia…

But enough about that I was talking about the La Boca you cry! Well it was La Boca who done the artwork to the sleeve weren’t it. The designers based in the Portobello neighbourhood in a space above the now-closed Intoxica Records.

So I get to mix my twin loves of music and design with this post.

La Boca was established in 2002, and specialises in illustration and image-making, with emotional connections. They’ve worked with a tonnes of people and have a very unique style, a leaning to retrofuturism, their vibrant use of colour with hyper saturation and added background noise. A nod to transport poster design of the past seen through a lysergic gaze. 20th century utopias, as of Huxley or Orwell, interspersed with the emerging oil wheel infused 1960s. But all very now, symbolic and poetic.

So here are a just few of my favourite La Boca creative births.

I hope the work of La Boca inspires you as much as it excites me? Please do check out their work on their webiste laboca.co.uk

You can buy work by La Boca here

All work owned by La Boca © No copyright infringement is intended

January 15, 2018

Windows Of New York

So feast your eyes on these beauties. Window of New York is an art project by an absolutely super illustrator, José Guizar, who, in his own words, is a Mexican designer in New York.

He spends part of my time making super secret things at Google Creative Lab, and part running illustration and design projects.

The project is an illustrative project called “Windows of New York”. The illustration style is clean with an almost overlooked, at first glance, layer of detail. The flat colour pallette gives it a very modern feel.

José himself says:

The Windows of New York project is a illustrated fix for an obsession that grew in me when I first moved to this city. A product of countless steps of journey through the city streets, this is a collection of windows that somehow have caught my restless eye out from the never-ending buzz of the streets. This project is part an ode to architecture and part a self-challenge to never stop looking up.

Here are a few samples from the project, there is a link at the bottom of the post to see the whole thing, and also a link to his website.

Please go and check out the work of José Guizar by visiting windowsofnewyork.com

You can also see more of José Guizar work at joseguizar.com

All artwork on this page are owned by the artist who created them © No copyright infringement is intended

January 11, 2018

Gerald Holtom’s Peace Sign

On the Easter weekend of 1958 it got to be seen for the first time. It was during a march from London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston. The demonstration was organized by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC), eventually it would merge with other groups and the name would change to form CND. Out of all the banners held aloft that day it was Gerald Holtom’s that stood out. He was a designer and graduate of the Royal College of Art.

Holtom was responsible for designing the banners and placards. He showed his preliminary sketches to a DAC meeting in February 1958 at the Peace News offices in North London.

Although the symbol Holtom had designed showed the semaphore for the letters N (both flags held down and angled out from the body) and D (one flag pointing up, the other pointing down), standing for Nuclear Disarmament, the designer explained some years later, 1973 to be precise, that he had adopted a much more personal approach.

I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle round it. It was ridiculous at first and such a puny thing.

Holtom had toyed with the idea of using the Christian cross but realized that to Eastern eyes the Christian Cross was a reminder of the tyranny of the crusades. The dove was also rejected, Stalins regime had used the dove to no less than bless their H-bomb manufacture.

The designer turned his drawing of an individual in despair, with hands outstretched outwards and downwards in a manner of similar to Goya’s peasant before the firing squad, into a badge, pinned it on to the lapel of my jacket and forgot about it until he went to the post office later. The girl behind the counter enquired about his badge, ‘Oh, that is the new peace symbol’ Holtom replied.

The symbol was updated as it became more widespread. The earliest versions of Holtom’s design show the submissive individual in despair more clearly.

But later on, the designer Ken Garland used a bolder incarnation.

This 1962 poster, used photograph of Ken Garland’s daughter, Ruth, looking out of a window, and the bolder stylised version of the logo.

The symbol continues to be used as shorthand for peace and hope.

Find out more by visiting cnduk.org

You can read more about the design process in the book TM: The Untold Stories Behind 29 Classic Logos published by Lawrence King. Buy a copy here

January 11, 2018

Like Ice In The Sunshine

This inspiration work is by Simone Rosenbauer. A professional photographer originally from Southern Germany, who is currently based in Sydney, Australia.

Like Ice in the Sunshine conjures up childlike summer simplicity and also the frailty of changing identities, the changing form animated by the sun and captured in a frozen sliver of time. These Quintessentially summertime images nevertheless capture a melancholy reality: bitter or sweet, all memories eventually melt into the flow of life.

Originally from Germany, internationally acclaimed artist Simone is currently based in Sydney. She has won and been selected for numerous national and international awards. Her work has been showcased in USA, Europe, Australia, Russia, Asia and Africa.

See more of the artists work by visiting simonerosenbauer.com

You can also see images from the exhibition at the M Contemporary, Woollahra, Sydney, NSW by clicking on the following link mcontemp.com/events/simone-rosenbauer-solo-exhibition

January 11, 2018

Wonderplants Art Project

Sarah Illenberger is a Berlin-based artist, illustrator and designer. Her visual language is defined by giving common things a new meaning. She creates installations using various materials and techniques, which are then photographed or presented in public places. Her work appears in books, magazines, digital media and window displays. She also produces limited editions and design objects.

In this Series “Wonderplants” the artist collected leaves in the botanical gardens of Porto and then decorated them with colored tapes.

The series has a real balearic feel to my sensibilities.

Available as a series of limited edition prints.

See more of the artists work by visiting her website sarahillenberger.com

January 11, 2018

Le journal du Mornet

A post featuring the photography of Ardila. An extremely talented fotógrafo based out of Barcelona, Spain, Ardila.

The beautiful images here were inspired by the work of the illustrator Pierre Mornet. Mornet’s beautiful paintings combine vintage-inspired realism with bold, flat colors.

Ardila explained to me the finished artwork named ‘Le journal du Mornet’ was achieved part make up, very large light sources, and post production to lift the blacks.

The results, I think you’ll agree, are truly breathtaking.

Style: Ellinor Lindqvist
Model: Andrea Tivadar
MUAH: Maria Lastochka
Photo Assistant: Kristine Visnape

The full beautiful results of the shoot can be found on the photographers website aardila.com

January 8, 2018

Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours 62

So the new year is upon us and the weather is turning a little colder. The skies are wish-washy gray here at Folk Funk Towers so I thought I’d rock out a little with the first FFTT of the year.

Humble Pie is dedicated to Tony, a truly beautiful man. The instru-mental Title One from Ron Wood & Ronnie Lane , Glass Harp and a 12 min epic version of Smokestack Lightning. Plus the folk funk standard rocked up in Tommy Broman’s Morning Dew.

folk funk and trippy troubadours 62

Games by Graham Nash / David Crosby
Sad-Eyed Queen Of The Mountains by Don Cooper
Earth And Water Song by Humble Pie
Sleeping On The Way by Brewer & Shipley
Karen by Sweet Toothe
Title One by Ron Wood & Ronnie Lane
Whatever Life Demands by Glass Harp
On The Road by Priscilla
Time Is Tight by 52nd Precinct
(Oh, No! Not!) The Beast Day by Marsha Hunt’s 22<
Smokestack Lightningby Mike Harrison
Morning Dew by Tommy Broman
Poszłabym Za Tobą by Breakout

Music Is Love

January 6, 2018

C90 6

So installment 6 of this series. I hope you have enjoyed something in a new direction from me. I will upload C90 1 as it was broadcast last night by Mark Gardner on his show at www.strangecargo.listen2myshow.com.

Do jump over to Bandcamp and check out some of the new music featured in this series !!! This is the end of this series but I will be throwing random new music mixes up over the next few months.

Waves by Beach Vacation
So Easy by Paul Cherry with the Lemons
One More Love Song by Mac DeMarco
Memories by Pastel Dream
Breeze by Horsebeach
Face on the Wall by CASTLEBEAT
Road Head by Japanese Breakfast
Sun’s Out by Hoops
Always Shines by Tape Waves
Waver by VIM
Sun On My Back by Arbes
Peach Boy by Jay Som
Cosmic Realignment by Subsonic Eye

Namaste

Music Is Love

CONNECT:

Bill Ogden

explains Ogden.

01 2018 : Overtones

1 Lux Aeterna Introit – William Sheller

2 Tears in Rain – Blade Runner Monologue

3 Glittering Circles – Neil Ardley

4 Valley of Temples – The Spins

5 Natural Selection – Pulsar

6 Fragment Of Fear – Sight & Sound

7 Adrift – The Robert Mellin Orchestra

8 Overtones – Jurriaan Andriessen

9 What You Are – Pete Brandt’s Method

10 (I Don’t Believe) God Is An Anachist – Steve Harley

11 E. Boogie – Jack Bruce

12 Transvesuvian – Desert

13 Window Across The Street – Fay Lovsky

14 Drömmare – Mia Sandberg

15 Photosynthesis – Walkie Talkies

16 Iles Dans L’Espace – Mandré

17 Ah Q – Björn JSon Lindh

18 Underwater Adventure – Gerhard Narholz (Conroy Music Library)

19 Bikini – Frank Ricotti

La Boca

Windows Of New York

Gerald Holtom’s Peace Sign

Like Ice In The Sunshine

Wonderplants Art Project

Le journal du Mornet

Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours 62

Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours 62

C90 6

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