The mighty Madlib Medicine Show just toured Australia. Still mainly known for his hiphop productions - solo and with people like MF Doom and J Dilla, Madlib [pictured above with free jazz icon Sun Ra] really is addicted to any beat and melody you can possibly think of. He lives a crate diggers dream; rather than carefully planning his releases, he decided to throw out his Medicine Show volumes like he was selling donuts. No label boss would agree to such a stupid plan but that’s never been a problem for Madlib as he’s released all volumes of the Medicine Show through his very own Madlib Invazion inprint. “It’s great to work with someone who’s just very determined like that. Madlib just wants to put out a record every month so that’s what he does,” says manager, friend and former flatmate Eothen Alapatt aka Egon just after he steps into TITLE Surry Hills on the day before the Sydney show.

So what’s the series about? Well, it’s a number of things. This is what went out to press when it all begun early in 2010: “Madlib is launching Madlib Medicine Show, a 12-part music series (12 CDs, 6 LPs) on his own imprint, Madlib Invazion. Odd numbers, beginning with #1 in Jan. 2010, will be original hip-hop, remix, beat tape and jazz productions; even numbers will be mixtapes of funk, soul, Brazilian, psych, jazz and other undefined forms of music from the Beat Konducta’s 4-ton stack of vinyl.”

All volumes are still available from TITLE and here’s what we think are a few highlights:

Madlib Medicine Show #2: Flight to Brazil: this second volume is a mixtape stuffed with bossa, samba and tropicalia with artists like Gal Costa, Maria Bethania and others delivering the tunes. All of this is presented in a mind expanding way. This line on All Music sums it all up: “The entire thing is a wild head and heart trip, saturated in gorgeous melodies, killer, slippery rhythms, and sonics that are so spaced out, they could only occur on one of Madlibs recordings.”

We love all things trippy, hence the equally psychedelic nature of our second recommendation, Madlib Medicine Show #6. The Brainwreck Show. If this is what it feels like to have your brain wrecked, we’re OK with it. We’ve spotted ‘Touch’, a sublime ballad/upbeat song by Amsterdam’s 60s beat group The Outsiders, a lot of breaking glass and a very noisy flock of kookaburras.

With our third tip, Madlib Medicine Show #10: Black Soul, the man from Los Angeles returns to planet earth with a sublime selection of bass line heavy disco cuts most which we had never heard of before. And you don’t learn much with compilations like this, the tracklistings remain in Madlib’s brain.

So well done Madlib - you can’t be bothered setting up a proper promo campaign; we’ve just done it for you! - Chris de Wit, TITLE Surry Hills

Here’s a unique chance to complete your collection. Sign up for a TITLE 10 membership instore [free!] and get all volumes of Madlib Medicine Show for just $15 on CD!

When Warp Records signed Brian Eno in 2010, it was like an electronic music nerd’s wet dream came true. Numerous major artists on the British electronica label were influenced by Eno, most notably Richard D James aka Aphex Twin.   

While last year’s Drums Between the Bells was a funky-ish collaboration with a young poet called Rick Holland, with his new album Lux, Eno returns to his ambient roots - about the sound that Aphex Twin drew his inspiration from when he made the revolutionary cuts that appeared on Selected Ambient Works II. Lux is by no means a record you can even think of skipping through. Technically, the album feels like one big drone supplemented by scattered piano loops. Atmospherically, we can’t describe the record better in one sentence than Drowned In Sound: “There’s an overwhelming sense of calm here, and the album remains intriguing, though it never strays far from its sonic centre.” It’s a tranquil killer, we agree!

- Chris de Wit, TITLE, Surry Hills

Lux is available from TITLE now at $25. Also on the shelf are lots of older Eno releases including: Ambient1. Music for Airports [$20] and Drums Between the Bells [$25]. TITLE 10 members get a 10% discount. 

One of the musical visionaries of the 1970s, Terry Callier of Chicago - who passed away yesterday - managed to approach music in many different ways. Touches of soul, singer-songwriter and folk were all present on his albums and even within songs moods and styles would suddenly change. There’s also something that you might call a Callier renaissance. Part of that was Callier’s 2009 collaboration with Massive Attack on the Hidden Conversations album through Mr Bongo Records.

Classic 1970s Callier albums like What Color Is Love?, I Just Can’t Help Myself and Fire On Ice have all been reissued and most are still available through TITLE.

Here’s one beautiful Callier classic for you to enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Ufi80zi54&feature=related

Record labels: always a popular matter of discussion among crate diggers. What’s their vision on music? What’s their message to the outside world?  And what’s the common denominator between the various titles across the catalog? 

A very special imprint we’ve been stocking for a long time is California’s Now Again Records. Run passionately by Stones Throw’s A&R manager Eothen Alapatt aka Egon, the label releases a mix of old and new tunes. Most of the contemporary stuff falls into the instrumental hiphop and psychedelic funk categories – artists associated with the label include Dimlite, Paul White, The Natural Yoghurt band and The Whitefield Brothers.

An absolute Now Again favourite of ours is the most underrated wonky beatmaker on the planet: Dimlite from Switzerland. Breaks can’t get much more psychedelic than this.

Possibly even more exiting than Now Again’s contemporary releases are the label’s reissues and compilations of old stuff. Take Forge Your Own Chains. Heavy Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges 1968-1974, a collection of 15 songs made by adolescents who blew everything beautifully out of proportion - it’s the most sentimental record we’ve heard in about five years.

One of the compilation’s highlights is Top Drawer’s ‘Song of a Sinner’, a song about a young man who figures he’s probably had a little too much fun in life. That’s the impression we got from these lyrics anyway: “And yet I ask to be forgiven, knowing the life that I’ve been living and yet I know it’s too late cause on your judgement day you’re gonna close the gate on me. And I’ll be left here on my own to face hell all alone.”

Dimlite’s My Human Wears Acedia Shreds, the Forge Your Own Chains compilation and many other Now Again releases are readily available from TITLE stores across the nation.

Egon, Madlib and J Rocc are currently touring Australia. Click here for more info.

Folk-rockers Tully did not emerge from the banana fields around the little town in tropical Australia carrying the same name. Instead, they were a powerful Sydney band that’s now being rediscovered all across the globe. Sea of Joy is the first in a series of Tully albums to be reissued by Melbourne’s Chapter Music. TITLE Surry Hills’ Chris de Wit spoke to Colan Campbell, the band’s guitarist during 1971 and 1972.  

Why did you name yourselves after a banana picking town in North Queensland? 

Well, at the time, it seemed more appropriate than naming the band after a banjo-picking town in North Carolina.

Would you say there are distinctive surf music styles across the globe? I mean, there’s the Beach Boys in California and then there’s the Morning of the Earth soundtrack here and your Sea of Joy.

Surfing itself is different in different cultures and in the late 60s/early 70s there was no universal surfing culture. Has surfing become ‘globalised’ today after the hackneyed American model? I hope not. It’s a certainty that there are surfers/musicians all over the world who play variations on the surfing theme which have never been recorded and which probably mutate faster than they could be catalogued anyway. Sea of Joy was one such mutation. Catch them whilst ye may.

What’s the connection for you between Tully and surfing? I can kind of see that there’s a connection between the music on Sea of Joy and watching the surf but the dreamy sounds on the album seem to be less suitable to fire you up for some action at first sight.

Tully’s Sea of Joy surfing music was about as far from the surfing INDUSTRY music as it was possible to get. It paid attention to the surfers’ girls preparing their menfolk’s meal at the back of the beach and their kids playing their own games. That was the nature of Paul Witzig’s movie. Surfers were seen more as people back then and less as consumers. Tully were people too. If we’d have been asked to write a score which generated waves of adrenaline then we’d have turned the job down. We viewed competitive surfing as disharmonious and that’s how we attempted to depict it in the studio. We were more inclined towards the hush than we were towards the rush.  Anybody seen any competitive clouds lately? 

How was it for you guys to be the house band for the Australian production of the musical Hair?

The Tully which played Hair was an entirely different band to the one which created the Sea of Joy soundtrack, even though some of the personnel were the same. Hair  was a job for Tully and they did it extremely well until it bored them. Sea of Joy  was a personal expression. Hair was glamorous. Sea of Joy was creative work.

Sea of Joy came out shortly after you did the Hair tour. Is there a connection between the two projects? Did Hair inspire you or did Sea of Joy come about because you wanted to do something completely different?  

Hair tour? Perhaps you mean the Arts Council of Australia tour of bush townships?  There was no connection between Hair and Sea of Joy. Paul Witzig, the Sea of Joy film creator, wanted post-Hair Tully to provide his film score. He was fully attuned to the genuine surfing aesthetic and recognized the sincerity of Tully in its post-Hair form. The group had already abandoned the type of music which Hair-type productions entailed.  Tully 1 were giants of the Sydney rock culture.  John Sangster, I think it was, described them as the best band in the world at the time, or words to that effect. Those band members who turned to gentle musical forms and inclusive music did so because it was progressive. Anybody thinking that it was a retrograde step would be wrong.

Do members of the band still perform Tully songs at the moment?

Three of us, Tully 2 survivors, Shayna Stewart [vocals], Ken Firth [bass] and Colan Campbell [guitar] have recently reformed in order to perform new material, which we have written over the years.  Of all the original Tully material only the song ‘Loving is Hard’ remains in the repertoire - an acknowledgment of our previous work together.  Anybody wanting to hear the original Tully material should be listening to the original recordings. We’re not identified as Tully today, nor as Extradition either, although the spirit of both bands still permeates the music.

Sea of Joy was re-released five years ago by Japan’s Em records and now again by Chapter Music. It seems like your sound from back then is in demand at the moment. Is that the impression you get as well?

Yes, it is. It’s interesting for us, Chris, to ponder upon just who it is that finds that element desirable.  The children of those surfing contemporaries? Those surfers themselves? Musical historians?  We hope that it’s all of those and some entirely unconnected new listeners too.  The music had a charm, it was experimental, even devotional.  Nobody could ever be the worse-off for listening to it.  It’s regrettable that certain individuals who have darkly impressed the world didn’t respond to the messages of those times, Guantanamo George being a notable example in a long, long list of Nature’s despoilers. The world is in a critical condition today because of such deaf people.  It’s not really surprising that peace is still in demand and that’s still the primary objective of our little band and thousands of others.

Tully’s Sea of Joy is available from TITLE now on CD [$25] and vinyl [$30]. Becoming a member instore takes only a minute and gets you a $5 discount on the LP/CD.

TITLE and UMBRELLA Entertainment proudly present a FREE screening of the cult film classic HALLOWEEN. 

WHERE - TITLE Fitzroy, 183 Gertrude St (Melbourne)

WHEN - Wednesday Oct 31st 2012

Former construction worker and folk singer Rodriguez out of Detroit had a relatively short, but successful career between the late 1960s and mid 1970s. ‘With Sugar Man’ being his biggest hit but by no means his only great song, Rodriguez became an icon in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement without even being aware of that status himself; he only found out after he visited South Africa in 1998.

Over the past few years, Rodriguez has become a bit of a celebrity again, with talk show appearances and all. At TITLE, we think the documentary Searching for Sugar Man [showing from today in cinemas across Australia] will bring this protest singer back into the canon of rock music.

To celebrate the release of the amazing Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and the documentary, we are now giving away documentary double passes to the first six people in Sydney to tell us the name of the band who joined Rodriguez on his 1979 Australian tour. Don’t be shy and start yelling! 

p.s. Do you all recognize the man on the photo at TITLE Surry Hills some years ago?

Newcastle will be all about Sound Summit until Sunday. Heaps of great Aussie bands have found their way to the summit over the last few years and there’s a lot of old ones still going. Here’s just a few that we like at TITLE that play this year’s edition of Sound Summit: Royal Headache, Oren Ambarchi, Twerps, Cannanes and Primitive Calculators. 

More than just a gig-jammed festival, Sound Summit has always been about discussing the state and directions of the industry. One of the highlights this year will be a panel that’s very much Chapter Music-heavy. The label’s CEO Guy Blackman alongside Fran Gibson [Cannanes], Stuart Grant [Primitive Calculators] and newcomer Martin Frawley [The Twerps] will be more than happy to tell you what it’s like to stay relevant, keep the passion and to survive the challenges of the independent music scene in the 2012. Meet them at Newcastle’s Terrace Bar.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all up/down there!

Photo: The Twerps

For the first time in 8 years Madlib returns to Australia, this time with J Rocc and Egon in tow. Our good friends Niche Productions are bringing the three power house Stones Throw artists for a tour of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth at the end of October.

25th October – Coniston Lane – Brisbane
http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=59784&ref=moshtix&skin

26th October – The Metro – Sydney
http://www.metrotheatre.com.au/events/2012/10/26/madlib-medicine-show

27th October – The Bakery – Perth
http://nowbaking.com.au/ticketing/SessionCapture.aspx?SessionGuid=eb491193-5289-4df9-aace-e699c436bc9e

28th October – Prince Bandroom - Melbourne 
http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=59823&ref=moshtix&skin

All three artists are strictly on the DJ tip this time around so expect anything and everything as the musical knowledge amongst the collective runs deep. Kraut Rock, Psych, Soul, Funk, Reggae, Hip Hop, Beats and whatever else they feel like spinning to take you on a journey. Don’t sleep on this one, grab your tickets ASAP as you’ll be sorry to miss it.

Funk & Rock & Soul Mix by jrocc

The limited edition book Marc Newson. Works published by TASCHEN is quite simply one of the most inspiring books we have ever seen.

Works is a chronicle of the career and creative output of one of the world’s leading designers. Over the years, Newson has designed some of the most functional, visual and aesthetically pleasing pieces of work and this book beautifully captures his creativity in all it’s glory. Newson’s multidisciplinary approach to design as highlighted in the book will leave you inspired and at times in awe.

We are now stocking some of the 1000 limited edition signed copies. Each copy is individually numbered and includes encyclopedia style entries, extended in-depth case studies for a selection of Newson’s most important projects and a visual index cataloguing Newson’s complete works.

In addition to stocking the book we are presenting TITLE Ten members an exclusive offer for the ticketed event In Conversation with Marc Newson presented by FUSE Group, TASCHEN and The Art Gallery of NSW. 

TITLE Ten Members are invited to purchase tickets to the event at The Art Gallery of NSW member price of $25. Limited to 300 tickets, the talk will be held on Friday 21st September from 2-4pm in the Domain Theatre with refreshments. Marc Newson will be available to add personal dedications to the signed copies of the book.

To purchase tickets and for more information go to the Art Gallery Society of NSW site.

Marc Newson Works. Available now at TITLE RRP $1200.

- Thom Studdy, TITLE Crows Nest