Scott C. on arty stuff

"That's the exact book I have!" Scott Campbell enthused from over in New York. "Jon Klassen turned me onto them. And [Charlie] Harper."

I was in the midst of interviewing this seriously talented guy for a feature on his own art over at Fun in the Murky, and somehow the spotlight drifted and fell onto Alice and Martin Provensen's insanely adroit illustrations for an old book called Myths and Legends.

I think I was equally excited—Campbell is the only other person I've met who's known about this book, let alone the Provensens; their work here absolutely did my head in when I was a kid, and all my primary school Greek warriors and vikings ended up looking like pale imitations of theirs.

These days the ones I draw with my daughter Cocoa are looking marginally like Scott's.

You can check out some of the Provensens' much-vaunted tome here. And click here to head over to the interview I just did with Scott. Alternatively, hit his own website.

"Jon Klassen is my big inspirational dude right now," Scott adds as an addendum, referring me to the man's "water thing" that he did, right here.

Eat Tatoo Dead Tiger

Back in university, when I wasn't slaving over dusty history tomes at the Baillieu Library or down at the pub downing VBs with mates, I had a soft spot for industrial music—no, not the pretender for the genre from the 1980s and early '90s, pushed by bands like KMFDM and Leæther Strip, but the 1970s British movement of aural bowel movements, pushed through on spliced and bandaided tape-loops by Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, and later by Australian acts SPK and Orchestra of Skin and Bone.

So, obviously I'd also been an admirer of like-minded U.S. label Auricular Records for quite a sizeable chunk of their 20 year history, and more recently I got a reminder about them from my mate mAth Lewis, a.k.a. Noisepsalm, who released through Auricular in 2008.

Late last year, I got in touch with Alan Herrick, one of the founding people behind the imprint and also a member of Nux Vomica, and found an incredibly approachable and open-minded guy who was suddenly encouraging me to send through tracks.

I bundled together 19 tracks of some of the more expera/noizy/silly cut-up stuff I've rattled together under almost 20 different aliases, some of which were cut in 2008; others way back in 1998. Alan liked what he heard, and hey presto! ...we have the collection out on CD and digital download through Auricular as of Friday, 13th February.

Eat Tatoo Dead Tiger is the moniker I gave to the 19-tracker, and this isn't a case of misspelling, honestly—it's named after my favourite t-shirt, a sublimely bizarre tee I bought a few years back in a discount store in Kamata, in downtown Tokyo. That tee is also the cover art.

The music on this release is definitely not my Little Nobody style (as all over the place as that can get), but steers more back towards those aforementioned grand masters of industrial iconoclasm, mixed in equal bits with reverential nods towards (and rather desperate attempts to be like) Si Begg, Speedy J, Cassetteboy, Basic Channel and Tal—along with allusions to unrelated heroes of mine like George Sanders and Orson Welles, and old '50s sci-fi flicks.

Whether or not it gets anywhere near these far more talented people is open to conjecture. I'm also open to assignations of crap schlock, if that better captures the over all result here.

IF? Records now online @ Input-Output Inc.

We've bitten the digital bullet once again, and decided to expand the online minor-league evil empire... by one.

From January 2009, all upcoming IF? Records release will be available through the wunderbar types at Input-Output Inc., along with a percentage of our existing back-catalogue and ongoing releases through Addictech; also, look out for exclusives through both. And IF? will also continue to collaborate with Hypnotic Room back in Oz.

Upcoming?

Releases including stuff by Little Nobody, Alone Together, Bitch Shift, Enclave, Son Of Zev, Koda, E383, Biochip C, Paul Birken, Patrick Pulsinger, Jammin' Unit, Gene Farris, Funk Gadget, Kana Masaki, Veronica du Lac, Bill Youngman, Pat Stormont, Zen Paradox, ABiS, Tunng, DJ Hi-Shock, Eri Makino, and others.

We're not going to be available through Beatport.

You can also find out more about the benefits and schlock horrors of the digital download phenomenon at Fun in the Murky, with comments from Dave Tarrida, Si Begg, Shin Nishimura and Cem Oral (Jammin' Unit).