Art: Spirit Of Ibiza ’89 / How Balearic Beats Liberated London

This is an exhibition starting this Thursday (well the private view is then) at The Printspace on Kingsland Road in London’s Shoreditch showcasing the work of photographer Dave Swindells, Nightlife Editor at Time Out Magazine for over 22 years, and someone we have (er) borrowed heavily from over the last few years of Test Pressing (hence feeling obliged to tell anyone within five square miles of the gallery to go take a look). We love what he did and everything he captured. The reason these pictures, and the articles and videos we post, are so invaluable in our opinion is that they capture exactly what was happening rather than someones dusty memories so this one comes recommended. Go check.

Here’s what the website says….

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In this exhibition, Swindells presents a series of images giving us a once in a lifetime view into the Second Summer of Love (a period in 1988-89 when electronic dance music exploded in Britain’s club scene). His images focus on how ‘Balearic Beats’ – a multifaceted and unique fusion of rock, funky reggae, Eurodisco and Chicago house – as well as the ecstasy-fuelled clubbing style of life experienced in Ibiza, gave DJs the inspiration to create a freer and unrestricted club scene in London.

These images show the nightlife of Ibiza in the late ‘80s, with its open-air dance floors for those hot Mediterranean nights, drawing an all-ages, polysexual crowd in an easy-going hippie-inspired atmosphere. This atmosphere was nonetheless self-consciously stylish (unlike many of the dressed-down Brits). The clubbing culture to this time was very different too. ‘In these photos you won’t see people texting or tweeting, videoing their mates or posting on Facebook,’ explains Swindells. ‘Nobody had mobile phones, and the only person likely to be taking pictures was the club’s own photographer. So there was nothing else to do but live in the moment, enjoy the parties or watch other people having fun while dancing the whole night’.

If you are interested in more of what club culture in Ibiza and London was like at this time you should visit ‘Spirit of Ibiza 89′ at theprintspace Gallery from Friday 29 April to Wednesday 18 May 2011. The opening times are from Monday to Friday 9am –7pm at theprintspace Gallery on 74 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London E2 8DL.

The opening night will be on Thursday 28 April from 7pm to 9.30pm. Admission is free and theprintspace hopes to see everyone there.

Afterward the exhibition will continue at the International Music Summit in Ibiza.

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So there you have it, get along if you are in the area.

[Apiento]

Mix: Cyril – Make A Bubble

Always nice to welcome a new (to us) face to Test Pressing and here’s a good one. Cyril is part of the Beauty and the Beat crew, who alongside our friend Cedric Woo, organises regular parties in London. They are all about lovely sound, great music from across the world (and the board) and good people getting into it. Cyril likes music with a psychedelic soul and I hope this one triggers a few daydreams…

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Just Because 022: It’s A Smiley Sort Of Day

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New Release: Todd Terje – Ragysh

More new music for you. From bonkers drum tracks to full on syncopated disco and a lovely beatless version excursion this one has it all. If we had a value for money rating Terje would get a hearty 9/10. Running Back now have a tumblr by the way so take a look here if you haven’t seen it yet. Anyway, back to the tracks. I always like the way Gerd of Running Back describes his music so here we go…

“Touched by the hand of Todd…Drumroll, please…New 12-Inch with original productions since…Ragysh, Bonysh and Snooze 4 Love…First edition comes in super nice recycling sleeves, second edition in not so nice sleeves… Trans dance from the Norwegian Chief inspector that is Todd Terje…Greatysh hypnotism, properysh beats and a lovelysh Terjerine dream to round it all off…Vinyl contains some hidden tracks and extra elements… Cannot stop listening to it… …Touched by the hand of Todd…”

Todd Terje: Ragysh (Excerpt)

Todd Terje: Snooze 4 Love (Excerpt)

Todd Terje: Bonysh (Excerpt)

Todd Terje: Snooze 4 Love (Version) (Excerpt)

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New Release: The Mythical Beasts ‘Communicate’ (Ft. Remixes By Brennan Green / Permanent Vacation / Alphabet City / Das Volt) (iFeel)

It’s a good day for new music. Just got this one and the new Todd Terje on Running Back (more on that later). The Mythical Beasts are Felix Dickinson and Toby Tobias who will be familiar to most of you. Felix has just done the last Originals compilation on Claremont and Toby Tobias has been doing stuff on Rekids amongst other things in recent times.

Both do it for the right reasons so we are happy to hear this one coming out sounding like a super super slow mo disco track in original form. It’s so slow you could almost push it over but it’s all the better for it. All the remixes add a different flavour so check them and make up your own mind. This one comes on 180g vinyl and in a nice sleeve to boot. Not sure when it’s out to be honest. I’ll try and find out.

The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Excerpt)

The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Alphabet City Remix) (Excerpt)

The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Permanent Vacation Remix) (Excerpt)

The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Brennan Green Remix) (Excerpt)

The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Das Volt Remix) (Excerpt)

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Design: Adesivo Del Vagabondo Con La Chitarra

Loads of nice stuff going on over at Ying Yangs. These images are of a character called Adesivo Del Vagabondo Con La Chitarra which apparently means vagabond with a guitar. They were associated with the cosmic scene in Italy in the early 80’s. Well hippie.

Thanks to Jiro at Ying Yangs.

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Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 012 / A Series Of Snakes

Once again it’s Savage Sunday, this time with the focus on snakes. As Savage says in the introduction, “They are very beautiful, they hide most of the time and they don’t attack unless you tread on their tails, which is not a bad rule in life”.

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Tune in weekly to ByteFM for the Savage Music shows.

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i-D: Body Beats / Acid Tracking

Release yourself… Photograph by Dave Swindells.

Thanks to Matthew J.
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TV: Arena / Brian Eno – Eno’s Favourite Productions

Great Arena last night on BBC4 covering the work and life of Brian Eno. Eno gave Arena access to observe him working in the studio and talking with friends and colleagues including Richard Dawkins, Malcolm Gladwell, David Whittaker and Steve Lillywhite. The program is available until Friday 29th January 2010.

Here he talks about his favourite productions.

Donna Summer: Sate of Independence

“Produced by Giorgio Moroder, it’s an amazing production. Putting the crudely mechanical, duugguder dugguder dugguder, this kind of Germanic robot thing, against the incredibly sexy emotional organic gospel singing. It sounded so far ahead of people who thought they were making modern music.”

The Beatles: Tomorrow Never Knows

“Again very important for me because it was very clear that song didn’t exist before it got to the studio (plays the song on a guitar). You know… It wouldn’t have been, well I am sure it wouldn’t have been as crappy as that (referencing version he just played) but that’s the kind of thing it would have been and yet it turned into this amazing jet stream psychedelic fantasy piece and entirely to do with electronics and with the use of the studio and with a lot of brilliant open minds.”

“Then the Velvet Underground – that’s production of restraint. You have to admire people who say the best thing I can do for this piece of music is defend it against the recording industry ’cause I am sure there were all sorts of people sitting around saying ‘ooh you should get a proper drummer, it’d be so much better with a proper drummer, instead of that woman who can only hit one drum at a time’.”

He then went on to talk about his life growing up in a small town in Suffolk which was surrounded by air bases (both American and British) and in turn had 17,000 GI’s within about 5 miles of the town.

“As the town was the closest place for them to go for entertainment there were lots of coffee houses in the town, which had jukeboxes, which mostly had American music on because the clientele were mostly Americans. So from an early age i was hearing really, really good doo wop and deep southern R&B. I’ve still got some of those records. ‘Life’s too short’ by The Lafayettes, which was not a doo wop song but a very mysterious single that meant a lot to me. The main rhythmic element in it is just someone playing rim shots, playing on the edge of the snare drum, there’s no big drums in it. So you have this very sparse background feeling and this urgent singing over the top.

I was always impressed by music I couldn’t penetrate the mystery of.”

Lovely stuff.

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The Face: We Generation – Life After Acid (December 1989)

Taken from The Face, December 1989, Sheryl Garratt, this time with Lindsay Baker in tow, nails the scene at the time. Rave is still on but the small parties are showing the way forward for those with discerning taste.







Thanks to Matthew J.
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i-D: Acid House & Club Listings (April 1988)

I like these pieces. Journalists caught up in a moment and London buzzing. Comparing the now to the then I am wondering – did we get old? Is Punk in Soho the new Wag club? Worrying thought. Young future media types moving in packs… Is house turning into Northern Soul? Old men reliving their youth? We’ll come back to that one with a Test Pressing poll soon. Anyway, here’s more ephemera from times gone by.




Thanks to Matthew J.
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i-D: Yo! B.U.M Rush The Show (British Club DJs) (March 1988)

Aside from the Brass Eye-style introduction (“British Underground Music. Bum for short, it’s growing up fast” ), this is a great piece from i-D in March 1988 on many of the key DJs across the scene.







Thanks to Matthew J.
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Mixmag: The Hacienda (September 1989)

It’s all been a bit London round here for a while so good to have an artice on somewhere out of town. Here, Dave Seaman, of the great Brothers In Rhythm, travels to The Hacienda to cover Mike Pickering and Graeme Park’s (Keith Haring) ‘Nude’ night for the September 1989 issue of Mixmag. Unfortunately we haven’t got the Lenny Henry ‘Crucial Guy’ article. Sorry ’bout that.

Thanks to Matthew J.
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Just Because 007

If you were wondering where we got our name… Happy new year people.

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i-D: The House Sound Of Chicago (September 1986)

Taken from i-D magazine September, 1986.





Thanks to Matthew J.
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Wally Badarou’s Back!!! ‘Fisherman’ Out Now!

If you’ve been following Test Pressing for a while then you would know we are massive fans of Wally Badarou – from his keyboards on many classic Compass Point recordings (from Grace Jones to Joe Cocker) through to his wonderful solo albums on Island Records. So, it’s been a while, but Badarou has returned from a brief hiatus (well a long one), with a new release ‘Fisherman’.

In Wally’s words, “Here is ‘Fisherman’, a 15 minute imaginary conversation between an african fisherman and the surrounding elements. What started as a tutorial test on a newly acquired synth, landed in this Fela Kuti meets Booker-T meets Herbie Hancock type of marathon; this clearly is ‘vintage’, entirely auto-produced as usual, with my trusty analog synths and drum-machines of the times past.”

The releases will be split into different parts for initial release before being collated into a ‘physical collector sets’. His reasons for doing this are explained thus, “I want each piece to be given proper attention. With conventional album releases, only 2 or 3 so-called ‘singles’ get focused on, most of the time; I have always felt for those many pieces that the industry deemed simple ‘album tracks’: there is never such thing for a genuine artist. By releasing the pieces in 3 distinct genres alternately, I hope I can depict best 3 worlds that still shape my life in music: classical, tropical and urban. The resulting trilogy – that “The Dachstein Angels”, “Hi-Life” and “Chief Inspector” respectively pioneered for example – will not be immune from cross-influences. Yet, I am longing to offer 3 views on a common subject, 3 different sets of experiences, fully identifiable in their style and their fabric.”

Fisherman is available here on digital release.

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i-D: Good Vibrations Reggae Piece

Taken from i-D June 1990. Great piece from Matthew Collins interviewing Paul Oakenfold (nice cap), 3D, Daddy G, Smith & Mighty and Joey Jay amongst others, on the influence of reggae and, in hindsight, why it all got slow in 1990.





Thanks to Emma Warren.
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Test Pressing FM – We’re On The Radio…

Monday at 5PM Test Pressing is live on Diesel Radio with co-hosts Steve Terry of ESP and Phil Mison from Reverso 68 and Cantoma. Expect Steve’s slow house vibes, some mellow sounds from Phil and some Island Records as it’s their 50th birthday. So, 5pm here if anyone fancies. We’ll try and upload the show soon.

[Apiento]