April 21, 2016Surprised there’s not been more kicking around about this; photographer James Barnor will be doing a Q&A at Westminster Reference Library next month, discussing his life’s work and his first monograph Ever Young which was published last year. Born in Ghana on the tail end of the 1920’s, Barnor opened his first studio in Accra in 1950. As a photojournalist…
January 10, 2016More lists and a chance to shout out all the goodness that buzzed us. Nice to reconnect with London crew this year, if only for one night. The biggest change is buying habits again. If the previous two years represented cassettes as a novelty, 2015’s when it became essential to own a walkman to do the show we wanted. It…
January 8, 2016We’re pretty late on these but they’ll be trickling through the nest few days. Cracking year for Jimmy Monsta Funk, who, as well as unearthing a field recorded mix from his residency at Snugg, delivered six hours worth of live wax from 2014, which you can check out here. Here’s his lists of 2015. 5 Documentaries Of 2015 ‘A Syrian…
December 17, 2015Apologies for delay on action lately, been travelling as usual. Pleased to announce however, that I’ve found my newest addiction last week in the form of Nintendo cartridge figurines from Squid Kids Ink. Squid Kids Ink is in fact primarily one person, real name Nate Mitchell who’s been sculpting since he was 19 and designing toys full time since graduating…
November 4, 2015While we’re on the photo book tip it’s worth shouting at the latest Cafe Royal Books publication that we got sent from crew in London. Running Riots and the Days After is a photo zine collecting work from well known independent photographer Homer Sykes, based around riots in the UK / EIRE. Focussing on events in the late ’70s to early ’80s…
November 3, 2015It’s ten years since Ewen Spencer’s Open Mic Vol. 1, the photographic collection documenting grime’s early years in the nineties to the ’00s of the book’s release. Even a decade on it’s not hard to note what a revelation the book was, especially for those outside of London. Ten years ago youtube was just being founded, Facebook was barely a…
October 29, 2015Is Ai Weiwei ever not on? With his level of exposure and following across the internet it’s hard to imagine a cooling off time where his presence isn’t constantly felt in the background. But between requests for Lego and the hype in London over his new show spanning the last two decades, at the moment he seems particularly important. This…
October 17, 2015We love our books, exhibitions and collections of all kind, but sometimes one photo and some captivating words is more than enough to put you in the space. Legendary London music photographer Dennis Morris did exactly that this week regarding the above shot of the Admiral Ken Sound System. Arguably best known for his published an exhibited works photographing The…
October 16, 2015One for the digital diggers here; someone’s just brought our attention to the Qatar Digital Library, and the thousand or so hours of material they’ve uploaded for free access via Soundcloud. Qatar Digital Library (QDL) is an ever-growing resource featuring the cultural and historical heritage of the Gulf and wider region freely available online for the first time. Part of…
May 11, 2015Stoked to have picked this up before they sold out, a very cool zine from the Creation camp. Nowadays Creation aka Creation Rebel are known equally for their t-shirt designs as much as the style and carefully curated aesthetic of their blog. It’s got to be one of the best looking sites out there, the lo-fi online equivalent of a dusty…