Lex only dropped a handful of releases in the last year. That’s just the way it goes around here. The Norris McWhirter Foundation confirms the most albums released on Lex in any one year is four – this happened in 2003 and 2004. Interesting factoid. This year we didn’t get close to those stats but we still got some super nice discs out into the world, namely Boom Bip & Charlie White ‘Music For Sleeping Children’, Neon Neon ‘Praxis Makes Perfect‘ and the extended version of ‘KEYS TO THE KUFFS’ featuring DOOM’s collabs with Clams Casino, BBNG, and Beck.
We’ve put all those releases into one zip and you can buy it in our shop for the unsane price of £10 – for an unspecified time only.
[LEX 2013 Releases Bundle]
2014 PREVIEW >>>>>>
Everyone knows about Bishop Nehru and DOOM’s collab. We’re currently 4 tracks deep into the recording and it is sounding amazing.
They’ll be more Lex nights at Ace – starting on the 24th January, so check back for line ups and more dates.
In January we’ll have some very exciting news to share about a couple of projects that have been in the works for at least a year.
In addition to that we have a few new signings. But that’s all next year…
GREY DECADE
It’s been 10 years since Lex started working it’s ass off on the biggest album we could never sell. ‘The Grey Album’ arrived at the Lex desk at the Warp office in Kentish Town before Xmas 2003. Within a few weeks it was clear 2004 was going to be bonkers . It still sounds dope now . Check out the Grey Video here. Danger Mouse’s new album with James Mercer, Broken Bells ‘After The Disco‘ is out on Columbia Records in January.
2013 – Old Masters
Lex had the pleasure of working with some amazing visual artists over the last year on sleeves, videos and photography.
Kristian Hammerstad and Yu Sato continued to make dope label art for Lex, with Kristian handling the illustration and Yu handling the art. The screenprints of the poster for the Lex show at the Forum sold out in minutes. Their latest art is for the Lex party at Ace on Saturday.
Mitch Jenkins and Alan Moore continued to make films with Lex. A successful Kickstarter back in July funded the last short film in the current series. Set in small town England, where a sinister dreamworld exists behind the thin veneer of normality. The final short film, His Heavy Heart, shoots in January (a full detailed update on that coming very soon). HHH is the last short before Alan & Mitch embark on the development of a feature film set in the same universe. They’ve learned a lot from making the shorts and you can watch a short film with their top tips for collaborations here.
We continued to work with our hero Steve Powers (aka ESPO) who made the artwork for the bolt-on redux version of the ‘KEY TO THE KUFFS‘ album and directed a video for the track ‘BOOKHEAD‘
Director Rob Schroeder and Lodger Films made one of the best videos on Lex to date for Neon Neon’s track ‘Hammer & Sickle‘ – a concise and beautifully shot hommage to European cinema of the 60s and 70s with references to Bertolucci, Godard and Pasolini films. NSFW.
California based artist Charlie White and Lex’s Boom Bip released the Music for Sleeping Children art project that drew in spoken word, photography, music video and electronic pop. Rather than explain everything here, take a minute to read Mr White & Mr Bip explain it in their own words to the LA Times . Each track had it’s own video, you can consume all the photography, music and video online for free at the project website. Check out the Tom Kuntz video for ‘Georgia‘. He also makes those killer Old Spice Ads.
‘Georgiavania‘ finally came out on vinyl for Record Store Day, four years late (don’t ask why it took so long) with the beautiful illustration by James Jarvis. The artwork was designed specifically for the LP version and it came out real nice. The last few copies are in the Lex shop.
Photographer Klaus Thymann who has shot widely used DOOM and Neon Neon portraits for Lex, and recently shot Bishop Nehru won the Sony World Photography Award. It’s an incredible career landmark and we’re really happy that he still calls us back. Check out his Project Pressure website for a fascinating ongoing photographic study of glaciers around the work.
Milly Wright and DLT did a lot of the design work for the sleeves, working out ideas and formatting art. Between them they somehow managed to score Worst Sleeve Of The Week and #9 Sleeve Of The Year in the NME for ‘Praxis Makes Perfect’.
This year the most incredible series of shows in the history of the label were staged by Neon Neon and the National Theatre Wales in a massive collaboration around the album ‘Praxis Makes Perfect’. The project was a huge production involving elaborate stage sets, props, costumes, actors, projection and of course the band performing live. The first shows took place in a warehouse space in Cardiff, a run of shows followed in the Village Underground in London. The reviews did the shows some justice.
The show told a version the life story of Italian media magnate Giangiacomo Feltrinelli set to a live performance of Neon Neon’s ‘Praxis Makes Perfect’. Check out this clip of ‘Hoops With Fidel‘.
Across the handful of shows that Neon Neon played the band collaborated with some amazing artists including Stella Mozgawa, Cate Le Bon, Josh Klinghoffer, Sabrina Salerno, Asia Argento, H Hawkline, Meliyr Jones, Chris Walmsley and the all star NTW team.
In April Lex artists DOOM and Ghostface Killah shared a stage with then future Lex artist Bishop Nehru at London’s tiny 100 Club. Check out this clip of 16 year old Bishop Nehru on stage.
In July Lex headed on mass to the countryside at the invitation of Latitude Festival. Lex dragged down Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins who introduced their films and had a long in depth discussion on stage with documentary maker Adam Curtis. The cinema tent was packed out for the first screening of the shorts to date. Crook&Flail (aka OG Lex bruisers Adam Drucker and Andy Broder) who scored the films followed the screening with a reworking of the soundtrack.
Boom Bip & Charlie White’s ‘Music For Sleeping Children’ project was presented for the first time ever as a 20 minute short film in the cinema tent. The film was edited by Jeremiah Shuff and staged with the help of the East Coast Emeralds and Neon Neon took over the Theatre tent to perform their NTW production of Praxis Makes Perfect.
In November Lex began it’s monthly residency at the new Ace Hotel in Shoreditch. The first show was with Bishop Nehru and a surprise set by BADBADNOTGOOD. December sees the Super Villain take to the decks alongside The Invisible’s, Dave Okumu.
Lex’s big annual show took place at the Forum in November with DOOM, BADBADNOTGOOD and Bishop Nehru. This was also a rare opportunity to see live DOOM’s brand new live set with Drummer KWAKE.
FRIENDS, FANS, FAMILY, PLAYLISTS
Lastly, we wanted to say a massive thanks to all who supported us this year throughout our various projects. It’s been fun people.
DOWNLOAD THE LEX TRACKS OF THE YEAR FOR FREE
Clams Casino & DOOM ‘BOOKFIEND’
Music For Sleeping Children – Georgia
Neon Neon – Hammer & Sickle
Crook & Flail feat. Tunde Adebimpe
GUV’NOR – BADBADNOTGOOD VERSION
[Right click on each to save and download]
OFFICE PLAYLIST
BADBADNOTGOOD – BBNG 2
BBNG DOOM megamix
Bishop Nehru mixtapes
Boards Of Canada ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’
Caddy Bay Gucci Mane v BOC mix
Daniel Avery – Drone Logic
Darkstar – News From Nowhere
Dean Blunt ‘The Redeemer’ and ‘Каменный Oстров’
FKA Twigs – EP2
Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind
Ka – Nights Gambit
Kanye West ‘Yeezus’
Kurt Vile ‘Walkin On A Pretty Daze’
My Bloody Valentine ‘MBV’
Onehotrix Point Never – R Plus Seven
The Range – Non Fiction
Run The Jewels
Wriggly Scott’s mixes for Dazed
And since yesterday, Clams Casino’s Instrumentals vol 3
Listen to these releases on our Spotify 2013 playlist
Stay Classy Lex Fans. You’re kind of a big deal.