Directed by Tyrone Lebon. The new Mount Kimbie album – Crooks and Lovers is out now.

MINDS LOCKED TOGETHER (Trailer) -A Film By Shaun Bloodworth from Bleep Bot on Vimeo.

This is an exclusive trailer presented to Bleep from Sheffield based photographer, Shaun Bloodworth.

The 12k label has been a vanguard of abstract and minimal-electronics that shift between the musical realms of gentle, pastoral ambience, dissonant noise collage and micro-techno. We are very happy to have this exclusive digital sampler curated by label-head Taylor Deupree. We also wanted the opportunity to speak to the man himself…

Bleep: Tell us about your formative musical years in the late 80’s, apparent sonic-worlds that are seemingly far removed from your output these days?

Taylor Deupree: The 80s were huge for me, and still are. bands like New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, Early OMD… electronic and then industrial music of all kinds. Music completely ruled my life since I was about 14 and there was so much exciting music and developments at that time. Factory Records and 4AD Records were big influences on my understanding of the presentation of music and, ultimately, on 12k.

B: We read that you are heavily involved with graphic design. Does this spread towards the aesthetic of 12k and which graphic artists/designers to you admire past, present, future?

TD: I’ve been working as a freelance designer in New York for the better part of 20 years and have done all of the design for 12k. With 12k, and my design in general, I’m very much into anti-design, as I call it. Design that is so simple that it doesn’t draw attention to itself. Trying for the most minimal of flourishes or accents. Pure and simple. The designers I discovered in the 80s are still my design heroes. I don’t know much about designers or the professional world of designers, I don’t pay attention. Peter Saville, Neville Brody are pretty much the only names that meant anything to me. Edward Tufte, though not strictly a designer, is a big influence as well.

TAYLOR DEUPREE PHOTOGRAPHY | (untitled, NYC) from the Holga Architecture Series

B: You are one of the most prolific, constantly changing artists on the experimental landscape, how do you mange to cram it (collaborations, solo-work, label duties) all in?

Passion, really. I mean, I love doing what I do. I live it and breathe it, I’m completely dedicated and I’m a workaholic. Somehow I manage to write and release the music, run 12k, have a family and house. As the saying goes… if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life…. and that pretty much is what I live by. I don’t know how I manage it all, but I do, and I do it all with equal passion.

B: Do you see your music as part of the minimalist canon in music, what’s your personal relationship with this form?

Minimalism sort of guides my whole lifestyle. I’m always conscious of it on the day-to-day… whether it’s with music, or my house, or cooking,.. anything. I have no problem being categorized as a minimalist musician although I think what’s considered minimal now doesn’t necessarily relate to the classic Reich/Glass minimalism. To me minimalism is about shaving away the excess and the drama and the decoration. I think music that is densely layered can still be minimalist, it’s not just about space or silence.

B: Your latest record, Shoals, features a selection of Javanese and Balinese gamelan instruments -albeit heavily processed- how did this come about?

I was asked to do an artist residency program at the University of York by Mark Fell and the Music Research Head Tony Myatt. I love these opportunities to go places and really concentrate on working, free from everyday distractions so I quickly accepted. The idea, however, was for me to find something to do there that I couldn’t do at home. I needed to make the experience unique.

Because I’ve been working acoustic instruments so much lately, the discovery of the University’s Gamelan collection was the perfect basis for the project for me. It’s quite an impressive collection and nothing I have access to here at home. The idea then was to develop a simple software simple (I used Kyma in this case) to record and manipulate the instruments. After some experimentation I settled on long, very repetitive looping structures and spent a week creating these long passages. I recorded many hours of material and then took it home and edited down into what became Shoals. That part was very difficult as I had a lot of material to go through. I could probably make another album with the remaining material. I probably will some day.

B: How do you divide composition between computer technologies, ‘real’ instruments and field recordings?

My practices are always changing and wandering… but lately I tend to do most of the *recording* in the analog domain. Acoustic instruments, hardware looping pedals, tape, pre-amps, all that fun stuff. My music is really about beds of sound that I like to humourously describe as “going nowhere”… a vertical approach to sound is more interesting to me than a horizontal or linear one. I want to try to take time out of the equation and concentrate on the moment. You can avoid time with music, but I try. When I’ve created sounds or loops these get put into the comptuer for editing, layering and mixing.

B: Does Brooklyn, New York City inspire your approach to making music?

I lived in Brooklyn for over 15 years and I think it definitely made me want to write quiet music… as a way to escape the over-stimulation of the city. Now that I’ve lived in the country for 5 years I find I’m equally as inspired to write quiet music but it’s taken a much more acoustic and organic turn. As has my photography as well. New York City has a strange electronic music scene. I’ve never really felt part of it, or accepted there. There are a lot of micro-scenes and not a lot of inter-scene support it seems. I think New York has so much going on and people from so many places that it no longer functions as a contained ecosystem.

B: How do you see the current state of electronic music on a worldwide macro-level?

I try not to think about these things really. The music is always changing, new genres splintering off, more and more people making music. ITunes and Beatport have changed things so much, illegal file-sharing, net labels, MP3s…it’s the Wild West.

Jonathon Cooke, of Village Green (and formerly of Love) is the man whose artwork who has been blu-tacked up on far too many walls to count. He is the man behind the iconic artwork for the Fabric nightclub. As Bleep are now selling the exclusive and limited Fabric t-shirt range, we decided to speak to the man himself…

How did you start working with Fabric?
JC: I have been working with them since 2000. I used to work for a company called Blue Source, and I worked on the pitch for the identity of Fabric…. But we didn’t get it.

About 6 months later, I went to go see a friend DJ at Scala and I bumped into Keith from Fabric. He told me that he was gutted that he never asked us to do the flyers as he was unhappy with the people they had hired.

I said I would do it BUT on one condition. I wanted it to have nothing to do with club culture. I wanted an open brief… he said I could do whatever I want…

B: So what was your thinking behind the art direction then?
JC: At the time, the club scene was dominated by the whole swanky club and super-star DJ thing which I assumed Fabric would be like… Of course, it wasn’t. That’s why I wanted to do it. It became a way of expressing anything that I was into at the time. I wanted the artwork to become a part of Fabric. Fabric was such a big thing when it launched…

B: Do you see a connection between the music and the design?
JC: Techno was considered a bit of a dirty word at that time and didn’t really have a place on a big stage. They kind of changed that and stuck with it. At the time, I was very into techno. I liked that attitude and I wanted the flyers to have the same attitude and confidence, rather than a flyer having a… I don’t know… a starship landing on a moon or something like that.

Ive always been into the idea of nature and history and I liked the idea of a kid coming out a club and going through a pack of flyers and him opening up a Fabric flyer and seeing a Victorian woman on a bike rather than the usual gear. That image is going to blow his mind more than an image of a girl with a fluffy bra on.

B: Do any of the artworks created stand out for you as your favourites?
JC: I did some black and white self-portraits years ago. I had some drill bits in my teeth and made a hat out of the Financial Times. They had a real 1920s modernist feel to them… I’ve always been fond of those.

B: How much of a part do you think you have played in making Fabric as successful as it is?
JC: I always wind them up and tell the Fabric guys that I put the “Fab” in “Fabric”! (he laughs). I don’t think it is important, Im just glad that the artwork has made as much of an impact as the club has. People talk about the artwork just as much as the music.

coming soon on Bleep…

Autechre – Oversteps is still available to buy HERE.

Remote Location was established in 2007 as a creative technology & communication studio by Adam Rodgers and Neil Morton. Both are from Glasgow, UK originally and worked together on a few projects, including stuff for Warp and Numbers, before starting Remote Location. They are now based in Spitalfield, in the east of London.

Focusing on fresh design, concept & production, they collaborate with their network of creative and technical specialists when approaching projects and realising ideas.

Recent stuff they’ve produced includes the Hudson Mo Butterstar Galactica game for Warp (collab with Thomas Traum and Mike Tucker), record art for Darkstar on Hyperdub and Neil Landstrumm on Planet Mu (Vice’s worst cover of the month), and an identity & website for blackmaps.

Forthcoming creations include a site and sleeves for their sister company Numbers, sleeve art for the new Fabric comp, new identity & online home for Rubadub, a site design for Samurai FM, working with Craig Armstrong, and of course further developments of Warp.net.

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Art direction + design for the latest Neil Landstrumm LP on Planet μ Records. Head-dress & breakfast vibes. Photography by Sam Robinson

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Butter Star Galactica. Produced in collaboration with Thomas Traum & Mike Tucker for the Hudson Mohawke LP ‘Butter’ on Warp Records.

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Marks for Rubadub Records & blackmaps

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New website for Warp’s Music, Films and Records companies. Created in collaboration with Universal Everything.

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Screen-printed & Lazer-etched graphics for various Rustie EPs on Stuffrecords & Wireblock. Bad Science EP designed in collaboration w/ Konx-Om-Pax.

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Numbers. Identity for Glasgow based events company / record label.

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Graphics for Darkstar’s EP on Hyperdub – inspired by the Monolith from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Destroy! Arcade style game to promote Flying Lotus and his LP ‘Los Angeles’.

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Some sketches

Pictured: North (Hudson Mohawke) / South (Skream) / East (Mike Slott) / West (Flying Lotus)

North / South / East / West is a collaborative art and music project between photographer Shaun Bloodworth, designer Stuart Hammersley (Give Up Art) and Bleep.com; focusing on the music of four different regions of the world — North and South UK and East and West coast USA. The project aims to showcase our pick of a handful of labels, artists and club nights from each.

The final product is a limited edition, deluxe package. With only 500 editions printed and compromising 14 high quality photo-prints and a 12 track CD (9 of which have never before been heard) – all of which will be beautifully enclosed in a special, custom made package.

Plus a further edition, limited to only 100 copies, comprising again of 14 exclusive photo-prints, 12 track CD in custom-made packaging. With the addition of an A2 poster, designed by Give Up Art and featuring previously unseen potraits and extra shots from the project. All of these items will be sold exclusively on Bleep.com

Partcipating artists on the compilation:
North: Hudson Mohawke / Rustie / Taz Buckfaster
South: Skream / Headhunter / Geeneus
East: Mike Slott / FaltyDL / Kotchy
West: Flying Lotus / Matthew David / Daedelus

The first tracks will be played tonight on BBC Radio 1 on the Mary Anne Hobb’s Experimental Show.

TOMORROW, we will be making an announcement of the full tracklisting and streaming more of the music. This item will be released on the 1st December… you can pre-order it HERE.