'My Home is the Sea' Third Print

Typically of me this print is a week late due to screen-printing complications - exposing your image so close to the edge of the screen is always a bad move and yet I still seem to do it with alarming frequency in a bid to save time and squeeze as much onto a screen as possible. So some elaborate printing techniques later (and with surprising success I may add) I have the final batch of 30 prints. It changed somewhat from the initial painting - the one tentacle seemed a bit weak compared to the shark and the fisherman so I ended up doing an entire new painting.

So here it is - the collection will be going on sale this week and as I mentioned before there's no framing or anything like that involved thank goodness. 'Epic Octopus Attack' was just too much fiddly work...

In other news I've got some very exciting projects coming up providing illustrations for some record labels which for me as a self-confessed record nerd is going to be a lot of fun so watch this space. Oh and I have sunburn.

Bank Holiday Bike Fun

Sunshine on a bank holiday weekend? Who'd have thunk it...?

I've been thinking about giving my no-frills bike a make-over for a while now but never quite got round to it until this weekend when I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go at it. It was a lot of work though not helped by the fact we were staying at my mum's house and I'd not thought to bring any tools/bike lube/grease/anything... I rode down from Print Club in Dalston to Coulsdon (home of dub-step no less or so I'm told...) on Friday afternoon in about an hour and three-quarters which is none-too-shoddy for 23 miles.

We set up about dismantling/cleaning/sanding down the bike on Saturday and it was a total ball-ache but as soon as the first layer of grey primer went on I could tell it was gonna look much improved. Several coats of 'Ford Riviera Blue' and a protective finish later and I now have a good-looking bike to beat the shit out of - perfick.

Jeff Soto exhibition at Stolen Space

Jeff Soto's paintings are astonishingly good. Someone give me £5,000 please and I'll nip back down to Brick Lane and buy one. Cheques or cash are fine. If you want to paypal me it just make sure you account for the extra money those evil greedy bastards skim off the top - mr.naga@gmail.com - you know it makes sense. Ta!

Vinyl Vulture swap 2006

I just unearthed my contribution to the Vinyl Vulture cd swap from 2006 and it still holds up in my humble opinion. So here it is with words and everything. Not sure what happened to the sleeve illustration but it was rushed and shit anyway...

Caetano Veloso - De Cara
Given I'm technically retarded I recorded this comp in one take off my turntables and I don't know how to split the tracks - with this in mind I figured I better start with something incredible to at least get a few people listening. What better way than the most deranged fuzz-drenched Tropicalia song I've ever heard and the fruitful spoils of a trip to the dentist via some Carshalton charity shops. Fuck knows how but I stumbled on a small cache (is that the right word?) of Brazilian gold. The lp this comes from is actually pretty poor full of odd experimentation that's not even half as good as it sounds but this track is deranged as fuck with some immense drums throughout.

The Golden Cups - Hey Joe
Carrying on with the insane psychedelic geetaring this is my favourite Hendrix cover all the way from Tokyo - it's just plain bananas. It is however off a comp so shoot me but it's a fairly obscure Italian one all the same and I'm told the Golden Cups are rare as hens teeth on vinyl.

Edouard - Les Hallucinations D'Edouard
And yet more frazzled nonsense this time from those delightful French folk - a harmonica driven beat thing with a wailing and frighteningly hairy Frenchman singing about the joys of dried fruit over the top. Possibly.

Animal Collective - Who Could Win a Rabbit
No relenting on the madness with some contemporary sounds from the hit parade. Splendid off-the-wall rhythms throughout. I figured some of you needed to listen to a record made post 1975.

Aphrodite's Child - Air
I was torn as to whether to include this seeing as it's got a fair bit of Votel endorsed exposure (ooof - frightening) not least from the recent B Music fanzine thingy. Plus I figured it'd turn up on another swap but just in case - everyone needs to hear it. More tough drums and a catchy na na na chorus for the youths to enjoy. And once again it's nuts.

Caribou - Bees
More hip new sounds I'm afraid but this song sounds like it could've been made way back in the early 70's. Again super tuff drums and half a mug of bonkers go a long way with me. I do relent eventually...

The Buckinghams - And Our Love
Smashing pop from some ugly mods with building cinematic horns all in under three minutes.

Bobbie Gentry - Casket Vignette
A change of pace with this slightly off-kilter pop ditty with the delightful voice of miss Gentry featuring some very odd noises.

Gal Costa - Namorinho De Portao
Tropicalia meets Derek Griffith's Bod vocals uptown. On a rollercoaster. On speed. Or something. Probably played the fuck out too.

Dionne Warwick - You can Have Him
This is definitely a VV classic but from my extensive studies of past tracklists seems to be overlooked by some. Not anymore for the lucky four or five who actually play my contribution at last half the way through! Stop start big ol' drum action and potential floor filler. Course I wouldn't know 'cos I don't get asked to play out anymore. Not since an ungainly bass whooosh incident last year. Not forgetting the arm lever incident of the same night. Can't believe such a minor discretion could cause so much mayhem. And ten minutes of silence. Bah.

Mino Reitano - Per Un Uom Solo
I can't make up my mind if this is an undiscovered epic gem of Vannier style cinematic proportions or just some cheesy sounding Italian (?) crooner quando quandoing over a mildy diverting production. More than likely the latter but a 10p find I've become rather fond of anyway.

Steele Beauttah and the Limit - What's That Sound
Superb African Funk of which I know fuck all.

Fosters Sylvers - Misdemeanor
Yes it was on a comp but it's fucking great on some proto hip hop shiznit. Plus I found the 7" in Addiscombe so there. Up yours etc.

Chico Buarque - Construcao
John Barry sounding Brazilian pop with moody strings and horn section.

Akron/Family - Future Myth
God forbid more modern music though once again this sounds like some dodgy prog record from the mid seventies.

Mark Fry - Mandolin Man
This is some fucked up folk freakout that starts pretty innocently but goes all retarded on your ass. For eight minutes. It'll give small children nosebleeds. Aces but I must admit it's off one of those dodgy Akarma represses - think the original goes for more money than I earn in a month (which is about 500 quid in case anyones interested as to my unscrupulous record buying ways).

Voice of the Seven Woods - Heatwave
And finally a Heatwave for your winter swap. It does kinda makes sense follwing on from the acid drenched folk of Mark Fry so there. Big up to Rick and buy all his records. If they haven't already sold out. Which they have.

LINK.

'My Home is the Sea' second print

Here's the shark print from my new series of nautical screen-prints - same colours as the first print and two layers again. The complete print series will hopefully be available to buy in the next week or so.

Fabric interview

I got interviewed by some of the delightful people at the London club Fabric for their exclusive newsletter. Here are some words what I said. My mate Rick said I sound like a pretentious art cock.

Decide for yourself by clicking on the picture below to read it.

'My home is the Sea' first print

I've been skiving on the blogging front again - no excuses aside from hitting a low point sometime last week (rejection) and getting a cold (swine flu) but I'm back and feeling punchy.

On Thursday night I printed the first in a three part series entitled 'My Home is the Sea' - it's a two colour screen-print on heavy weight 10" x 10" paper in a limited run of 30. There are two more prints to do and then I will be selling them as a set of three in the next couple of weeks and because there's no frame or cutting out involved they will be nice and cheap.