The gorgeous t-shirts I once wore

My favourite t-shirt when I was younger was an 808 State 'Gorgeous' t-shirt, mainly because I got to walk around with 'gorgeous' written on my chest.

The picture you see here is from the 808 State website, but there's a pretty neat photo of me online somewhere sporting the tee in my early 20s, gurning and looking very young.

I also had a t-shirt for their 'Don Solaris' album which said, emblazoned on the front, "there is no love stronger than that between a man and his cock". I never wore it because of any braggadocio - it was just, y'know, cock, hur hur.

Sigh.

You can see that t-shirt design here (from the Attic Raider blog) - click to see it bigger. I believe this was a design by music journalist Paul Morley, who had signed 808 State to the ZTT label.

It's been so long since I wore band t-shirts. I had a great Smashing Pumpkins "ZERO" long-sleeve, a spacey-looking System 7 shirt, and no doubt a few Orbital ones here and there. I also had a couple with flashing LED lights because they looked great at raves.

It's the 'Gorgeous' one I think of most.

That is, if I ever sit gazing into the distance reminiscing on the t-shirts I loved, which I flipping DON'T.

But if I could get back together with one of them... ah, Gorgeous, we were good together.

Wait.

Hold on.

Found it!

Watch Plaid soundtracking a slow-motion Leonardo DiCaprio

Someone set Plaid's haunting track Host to this clip from Inception.

If you look too closely at this clip, you'll fall inside your screen and you'll be inside the video and everything will be half the speed or twice the speed or however the heck it worked in the film.

Anyway, despite the low YouTube resolution, I thought this was nice.

Soaking up the rays with Way Out West

The Bristol underground scene spawned some big hitters that were heavy in sound and in influence: Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Timmy Mallett. Wait. No, not Timmy Mallett.

Way Out West came from that scene too, but their sound was lighter. A music meringue. They straddled trance and drum 'n' bass, and I think they hit a particularly sweet spot on their 1996 singles The Gift and Domination. The latter sampled three different John F Kennedy speeches, all for just three words: "madness, power, domination". Not that we have any of that kind of nonsense in today's political climate. Ahem.

I had a chat with the Way Out West chaps today. We talked about the old days, when all this was just fields. They both mentioned their love for LTJ Bukem, and their recollection of playing on Top Of The Pops was particularly amusing - although you'll have to wait for a future edition of Electronic Sound for that story.

Just like Timmy Mallett, they're still going. Unlike Timmy Mallett, they haven't taken up fine art. (Seriously: check out Mallett's Palette.) Way Out West's latest work has a distinctly Balearic feel, which is probably a reflection of soaking up all that sun on their international DJing schedule. I live in Manchester so I have to ask Timmy Mallett to paint my suns. He really brings out those yellows.

Have listen to recent track Oceans and old track Domination below.

EVENT: Mother's Bloomers at the Royal Exchange

Mother's Ruin: Hey Fats, would you like to compere this event at the Royal Exchange?

Me: I AMM SELLOTAPING A HROSE

Mother's Ruin: That's fine, but would you like to compere Mother's Bloomers in November?

Me: I CANNOTE LISTEN TO YOU BCAUSE I AM PUTTING SELLOTAP ALL AROUNDD THIS HORSE

Mother's Ruin: It's the best event to see bold, brave new queer performance, and as Manchester's leading gay spoken word cartoon prop comedian, we think that--

Me: I HAV RUN OUTOF SELLOTAPE BECAUSE HORSES ARE VERRY BIG OMG

Mother's Ruin: We'll take that as a yes, then.

Buy tickets for Mother's Bloomers at the Royal Exchange on November 14th here.

No more harrumphs: Kiasmos are back

I've been feeling a little fragile of late. An ongoing medical niggle mixed with danker evenings, I guess. My head's full of an American Beauty style turmoil, which is why I've been turning up in your bed scattered with roses.

I woke up miserable this morning. Just now, I saw the bin lorry collecting my paper recycling, and I harrumphed. Who harrumphs at a bin lorry? Bin lorries only do good in this world. I really need to get this head-funk sorted out.

And then I saw something telling me Kiasmos are releasing a new EP today.

I remember Kiasmos, I thought as I scowled at the bin lorry's compacter winch mechanism. Their astonishing 2014 debut on Erased Tapes was one of my bestest albums of that year. I wonder what they sound like now. Oh my. Have a listen below to Blurred, taken from the Blurred EP.

It never fails to astonish me how music lets light into the darkness. Props due to Erased Tapes who, alongside bringing back Kiasmos, also release an album from Gus Gus chap Högni this month. That's a corker too - I can't help thinking of him, somewhat reductively, as a male Björk. Have a listen to the evocative and eccentric Crash below.

Things feel brighter. Now... do roses go in the paper recycling or what?

Make your ugly gaff nicer with these Electronic Sound prints

One of the best things about working for Electronic Sound is their design aesthetic. Holding the physical magazine in your hands literally makes your hands look better.

This is despite my regular attempts to sabotage the magazine with my ugly words. Oh boy, they're ugly. When I'm in draft mode, I have to put bags over the letters' heads. Especially the g's. I write very ugly g's.

Electronic Sound makes everything beautiful. If you have an ugly home - and I'm sure you do - you can introduce a bit of Electronic Sound style with some luvverly cover prints.

Have a browse here. I'm in all of these issues, so it will be just like having a bit of Fat Roland in your home but without breaking the restraining order.

Daphni, the house music stripper with a heart of gold

You remember Daphni from Neighbours, right?

There was Kylie Minogue the curly-haired mechanic, there was Mrs Mangel and her invisible husband, and there was the amiable couple Des and Daphni.

Turns out Daphni has just released her second album Joli Mai, which is made up of a bunch of rejigged tracks from her recent Fabriclive appearance. From what I've heard so far, there's a nice loose feel to the house tracks here, although what Bouncer the dog makes of it, I have no idea.

What? Pardon? Daphni is nothing to do with the Neighbours soap character Daphne Clarke, the "saucy stripper with a heart of gold"? Dammit.

Listen to Daphni's Carry On here. You'll know him better as Caribou.