In no particular order, here are some of my favourite albums of the last decade. Albums which have inspired me, thrilled me and I’ve always come back to again and again:

Why? – Elephant Eyelash (2005)

Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)

Son Lux – At War with Walls and Mazes (2008)

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (2009)

St. Vincent – Marry Me (2007)

Menomena – Friend and Foe (2007)

Modest Mouse – The Moon & Antartica (2000)

Battles – Mirrored (2007)

Volcano! – Beautiful Seizure (2005)

Calexico – Hot Rail (2000)

Amon Tobin – Out from Out Where (2002)

Deerhoof – The Runners Four (2005)

I took delivery of the new Origin Live Upgrade platter mat a couple of days ago, at a bargain introductory price of £29.

I had read the press release email about this mat but I was a bit unsure whether it would offer any benefits with my turntable as it has an acrylic platter but Mark Baker (the man behind Origin Live) told me, “the mat is at its best on acrylic” so I couldn’t resist the opportunity.

Fitting the mat on top of the platter requires an adjustment of the tonearm’s VTA as it is about 1mm thick. The mat isn’t soft and squidgy like I expected – instead it looks a bit like dark granite with an amalgam of materials.

I wasn’t expecting a huge improvement but was fairly astonished by the difference the mat makes. My previous upgrades such as the Vertex AQ really allowed the music to define a sense of space and depth around each instrument, which is what I was half expecting to be further improved upon with this mat.

Instead, the Origin Live Upgrade platter mat doesn’t seem to increase space, but unclutters the music right down to the smallest detail. You can suddenly hear many, many more details and tonal textures which had not been apparent before, the nuances of instruments become far more apparent.

Listening to the fantastic Buena Vista Social Club DMM pressing it was so easy to clearly hear the instruments and, for the first time, I could clearly hear three male voices on one particular track.

The other obvious improvement is that the low end is further extended, with the same clarity heard higher up the frequency range. It’s a delight to hear all the textures and tones of the instruments so clearly.

I’m extremely impressed with this Origin Live Upgrade platter mat, it’s a huge upgrade for the asking price!

(Apologies for the poor photo, I am between cameras.)

So here are the first two gig posters I was asked to create, for Tom Williams and the Boat, Jose Vanders and others. I am pleased with them but I think it’s just a start and I have much more to come. I’m hoping to screen print at least one of these posters.

In the meantime, I’m still looking for more gig posters and album artworks, t-shirts…any music related artwork. Still undertaken for FREE, so get in contact!

It’s been occurring to me more and more recently that I should actively seek to combine my love of music with my illustration and design work.

Maybe I should get a creative job in the music industry but what I’d really love to do is run a record label with someone, because it combines a great mix of disciplines: publishing, design, marketing, music, organising gigs.

In the meantime, however, I would like to continue to push my print design by undertaking creative work for bands in the form of gig posters, album artwork etc. So I’m after any commissions for bands for FREE (for the time being).

I am able to create all manner of special packaging for CDs and LPs, custom shaped cutters, special inks and finishes (my day job has been packaging design for the last 16 months) plus I use illustration, photography, 3D and type. Plus I’m doing screen printing now. I have created a set of covers/illustrations/printing on Flickr to give an idea of what I’ve done so far.

So get in contact and let me know what you need!

Ok, this is what I’ve been up to – music, music and more music! Going to the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festivals, buying great new music and making some changes to my listening room (i.e. loft).

First of all, All Tomorrow’s Parties. This year the festivals were held on concurrent weekends at the start of May, in Minehead, Somerset. I’d got tickets to go to both and my lovely wife was coming to the second one, which would be a first for both of us!

ATP vs the Fans Part II

The first weekend was ATP vs The Fans (Part II), so half the bands were voted for by the fans, half by ATP. The idea, for us at least, is not to see the bands we like but to try and see as many bands as possible including the ones we like.

So we saw M83, Devo, The Acorn, Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Shearwater, Future of the Left, Parts & Labor, Andrew WK, Fuck Buttons, Nico Muhly, Retribution Gospel Choir, Qui, Harvey Milk, The Jesus Lizard, Hush Arbors, School of Seven Bells, The Jesus Lizard (again), Pink Mountaintops, Lords, Marnie Stern and The Mae Shi. We didn’t see all of every one of these bands’ sets but we saw at least 15 minutes of each of them and whole sets for ones we liked.

Highlights for me were Shearwater, Parts & Labor, The Jesus Lizard, Pink Mountaintops, Marnie Stern and Lords. Lords played an absolutely storming set and were really enjoying themselves! Phew!

To see more of my photos from ATP vs The Fans Part II click here.

ATP Curated by The Breeders

The second weekend was ATP curated by The Breeders, so yes, we left on Monday morning and on Friday afternoon we were back at Butlins – it seemed like we had not even been away!

Bands we saw included Bon Iver, Blood Red Shoes, The Breeders (of course), Heartless Bastards, Deerhunter (only a little bit), Foals, Yann Tiersen, Buffalo Killers, The Whispertown 2000, Th’ Faith Healers, Shellac, Mariachi el Bronx, Holy Fuck, Dianogah, Melt Banana, Kimya Dawson, Shellac (again), Mr Lif and Styrofoam.

Highlights were The Breeders, who were obviously going to be very popular, and played the most beautiful set, really superb, Yann Tiersen, Buffalo Killers (who were superb, excellent harmonies), The Whispertown 2000 (um, gorgeous!), Shellac (really on top form both nights), Mariachi el Bronx, Dianogah and Kimya Dawson.

I walked away with quite a lot of vinyl from both weekends and took photos, going to the front as much as possible for some of the performances to get the shots I wanted. There has been a lot of great new music around so my next post will cover some of these recent finds.

To see more of my photos from ATP Curated by The Breeders, click here.