Frootful Graphics on Freestyle Records

My good friend Danny showed me this rather fine example of quality graphic design the other day, simple and memorable..

Its a (very) limited edition sleeve for the new release on the ever excellent Freestyle Records by a band that goes by the name of Frootful. The 3 tracks on the record are all pretty excellent too, full of latin, funk and soul flavours with the Lack of Afro remix of the main tune Slowtime being the one that stands out for me…

We actually saw Frootful play live back in April at their album launch party in Denmark Street. I didn’t realise it at the time but Nick Radford, the driving force behind the band, is obviously also a very talented graphic designer, as not only is this delightful sleeve by him, but also the flier for the launch event, which is shown below, along with some more of his work that I’ve borrowed from his site here.

I must say, the disconnect between what I’m listening too and who it is that’s made it does sadden me a little… Downloads, mp3′s and Spotify are obviously all amazing things, and I listen to more and varied music now than I ever have, but I did used to love reading everything printed on a record sleeve. Knowing who the guest musician playing the triangle on track 3 was, or reading that the whole album was recorded in a cold corrdior in Prague or that the drummers brother painted the cover artwork, always seemed really important things to me…

Still, that’s what this blog is for… finding out about brilliant stuff like Freestyle and Frootful, and then making the connections anyway…

Stealth @ The Blue Note

Quite by chance, I recently came across this excellent post on The Quietus.com. It’s triggered a huge bout of reminiscing and taken me on a real trip down memory lane…

I had the great fortune to be in the right place at the right time back in the mid 1990′s. My good friend Danny Kudos had a key role in distributing the Ninja Tune label throughout the world at the time, which meant that we got to go to one of London’s legendary clubs on a regular basis and almost always on the guest list.

My own personal memories of the club are now somewhat faded….

I remember Mr Scruff in the upstairs bar playing Bad Manners and Chas & Dave; I remember unbelievable six deck mixing action from Coldcut, all pre digital, all live, all done to perfection; I remember having my drink continually knocked as the downstairs room was effectively a corridor leading from the staircase at one end of the space to the other, and people always seemed to be on the move; I remember one night when a bright light suddenly shone out from behind me. As I turned around I was looking straight into a film camera, with the flash light reflecting from the very low ceiling. Christ knows what I looked like, but I later found out that my aunt and uncle had seen the footage (and recognised me) on local Nottingham TV news, a feature about ecstasy use in clubs would you believe… I remember quiet Japanese people standing against the walls never dancing, never smiling just being there, and I remember being so wasted one night at chucking out time that I very selfishly knocked on a friends door in nearby Haberdasher Street at 3.30am asking if I could stay the night as I couldn’t possibly make it home (she probably still hasn’t forgiven me, sorry Anna). And I vaguely remember crashing on the cushions up in the top room, talking bollocks and smiling a lot…

But most of all I remember having some of the best times it was possible to have on a Thursday night. The Blue Note was an amazing place, far too small really for what went on there, but excellent non the less. We also went to LTJ Bukem’s Logical Progression night there before he moved it to Turnmills, and Talvin Singh’s Anokha on a Monday night was a pretty amazing experience, although I think we only did that once or twice..

And all right Stealth finished too soon etc. etc.. but isn’t that what helps makes things great in hindsight…

Many thanks to Danny and The Ninja Tune crew for the few memories that I still have of those heady days in a pre-trendy Hoxton…

DJ Food has collected what looks like all the Stealth fliers on his brilliant site here, and they are all well worth a look (as is his whole site to be honest)

Rough Fields

It’s always exciting when you discover that people you know for one thing, are also very adept at other things. Take my friends Jim and Sarah for example….

By day they are a record company director and a translator respectively, but by night (and probably at weekends too) they take on different guises.

I’ve known Jim for about 6 years or so, and he’s always been a dedicated muso, with a number of electronica based tracks under his belt. Recently though, under his Rough Fields moniker, he seems to be mining a very rich seam of sound indeed.

A previous release “Manilla” can be found on his website (link above) and his beautifully lush new track “Watery Fable”, constructed as he describes it from “found sound, rescued instruments and electronics” is embedded below. Apparently the songs were recorded “indoors and outdoors, usually during the night, sometimes drunk, sometimes less drunk” …

Marvellous, so if you have a moment, give your ears a treat…..

The accompanying photos by the way were all taken by Jim’s lovely wife Sarah, who I had no idea was a budding photographer…

All very impressive and I wish both of them all the best in all their endeavours… Looking forward to that lovely gatefold sleeve Long Player Jim, with lots of space for all of Sarah’s artwork..