This coming Thursday, the 22nd of March.
Cyril Duval (NKOTB/The Impossible Night)
and PMKFA (Aluminium 2 Platinum/
The Impossible Night) is taking over the comand
at Le Baron in Aoyama to greet Kim Jones
welcome to Tokyo. Later that night Andre, the
boss of Le Baron, will play too I think.
Cyril Duval (NKOTB) is also running the evening
The Impossible Night at the same venue and when
the first night blew off last week no one could
stop smiling. I don’t think that Le Baron have ever
felt so lively. It was great and I cannot wait for the
next dance. The date is April 5th and I will play
alongside Cyril, Ega, Hikari and the big boy of the
night Michel Gaubert. The first night none less
Towa Tei played and I think we all were sweating
as much as he did.
More PMKFA and Impossible Night collabs might
appear soon. I need to update this site soon but
so little time at the moment.
A film-clip shot by Yosuke Kurita of the CBC-net.com
fame. The tour goes from the street all the way to the
decks at the night of the opening of the “Green Winter”
exhibition.
This coming Saturday will be the day of the
opening of my exhibition “Green Winter”.
It’s truly “PMKFA in show” as the flyer-graphic says.
On display will be a handful of new t-shirts from
mine and Sweatshop Unions clothing-label
It’s Our Thing, a few posters showing brand new
work together with some older work from the fourth
quarter of 2006. There will also be a walldrawing
and a few built three-dimensional pieces.
It will show all what I’m about and also where I’m
heading and were I used to be.
The doors open at Tokyo’s Kamata Studio at 6pm
on Saturday the 20th of January and over the night
we will make sure that the ¥500 you pay at the door
will be well worth it. Live in concert will be
Green & Ilpo. The Japanese/Finnish duo have
especially for this evening made a bunch of new
tracks and it will be performed in a way I don’t
think anyone have tried before.
Further Jason aka 6955 will play live on his Nintendo
Famicom machine and I can’t wait to hear that as
he recently updated his software for it so I guess
he’s got a few surprices up his sleeve.
I will DJ some over the night alongside a couple
of friends and we go on until it’s time to catch the
last train to go back to the city centre.
For a press-release in English click here.
For a press-release in Japanese click here.
It’s about time I go public about my love for grime.
It’s been kinda slow and boring days for us that
like this music. Nothing very exciting happening
except for the stuff JME and Skepta is releasing.
Other than that people like Ghetto have got way
too much attention representing that consious stuff
that I never felt.
But on Sunday things really got hit by some kind
of tornado. Wiley went on Rinse and just went
BERZERK, never heard anything like it, he was
even too mad to spit and just talked on the mic and
even attacked Logan Sama for being a covard as
he refused to play Wileys war-dub calling for his
(ex-)friend God’s Gift. But that didn’t stop Wiley,
he spent his time on Rinse to severely attack Gift.
It all got to another level when Gift and Mucky
Wolfpack came to the station and rushed Wiley.
Not a very nice thing unfolded and I hope that
people who say it’s just a publicity stunt are right.
If it is it really worked, no doubt about that.
Anyway it actually felt like it kicked some life into
this scene that is more or less as dependent on
adrenaline as a baby is for milk.
… Have listened through the set from Sunday again
and it’s really with a concern for Wiley’s mental
health. It’s really insane what he’s saying, so bitter
and angry after putting the work in for the scene.
His friends texting him and asking him to calm
down but without any effect. Probably the most
insane moment in the quite short history of grime.
There have been many moments of madness over
the years but this take the price. East London
must have been boiling between 3-5pm last
Sunday. Oh my diddy. Wiley’s always been
walking his own path but boy, this…
The past weekend I, Megumi and my good
friend Sune, north Copenhagen’s answer to
Walt Disney, went down southwest to Naoshima,
Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto.
We stopped by and hung out with Sweatshop
Union’s Matthias and his family. It was really
nice and we left SU with a bag of limited
sweatshirts. The sweater seen below is printed
exclusively for a couple of friends in Sweden
so we only print four copies of this and that’s it.
It uses glow in the dark ink and it work very
well, it look like candy when you see it for
real. That color scheme will probably be used
for another future design though.
You can also see the films for one of the future
It’s Our Thing designs below this will be sampled
shortly and be for sale as soon as possible.
A webshop is also under construction and will
hopefully be up in December.
Another sweatshirt sample arrived this morning.
This is a color scheme that I’ve been thinking of
for a while and when I told Matthias yesterday
it took about half an hour! and he had a package
ready for me and here it is.
Nothing clear what whill happen with this one but
I think it will make it to the next line in one way or
another. Soon all our sweaters will be available
for everyone but this one might be limited.
Much heavier style of sweater than the ones
we’ve used so far and as you can see this one
has got pockets.
A couple of samples arrived in the mail last night.
The first one is for… don’t know yet actually.
Probably a future It’s Our Thing design, not
decided yet.
Just wanna send out a shout to my friend Jonas
Dahlstrom that right now is attending the Red Bull
Music Academy in Melbourne.
Jonas is from Falun (not to mix up with our
common friend and DJ JonasFromFalun) and
he’s a great music producer and DJ. If I knew
how to post audio on the site I would upload one
of his classics. Lately he have started calling
himself Sleepless, watch out for that…
Hope you enjoy yourself over there Jonas, looks
like it on the photo.
Right now I’m working on the visual identity and
art-direction for all the graphic material for a new
high-end furniture copany called Vujj™.
It’s run by my friends Jonas Nordgren, Artur
Moustafa and owned by Mexican Selther Group.
The project has got tentacles all over the world
already stretching from Malmö to Mexico City,
London, Tokyo and Sydney.
The big launch of Vujj™ will take place in London
21-24 f September. For more info check out the
Vujj™ teaser website at www.vujj.se
A interview/profile made by Yosuke at CBC-net: www.cbc-net.com
A interview (in Swedish) made by Arthur at Edmund: edmund.se
Not been able to update very much lately as I’ve
been going back and forth in Europe to work with
the newly started furniture company Vujj™.
More info on that soon.
Went to Smaland i southeast Sweden and also
to Kulleberg in southwest to research for a photo
shoot and it’s so beautiful. Adding some photos to
this post showing what it looks like.
Starting to miss Tokyo a bit though, miss crossing
Meguro river on my way home. Will spend a month
in London from next week so I’m not complaining
because it’s gonna be a exciting month.
A bit late on this but I wanna promote this months
Japan tour of 6955. 6955 aka Jason have been
mentioned here in the news section before.
His music machine that is made out of old
Nintendo Famicoms is now more or less finished
and the result was to be seen July the 14th at
GaMuSo in Asagaya. I liked his project from the
very first time I heard about it but I must say that
the concert a little more than a week ago was
fantastic, really magic. Lately he updated his
machine using a Famicom Basic system that
let him program software and through that he
can play more live and spontaneous than before
when it was all about programmed patterns.
I warmed up playing some records and it was
great fun to mix again, miss my turntables.
Two days ago 6955 started a Japan tour
together with I Am Robot And Proud and you
can catch them here:
July
23 Tokyo (O-Nest)
26 Osaka (Bar Contort)
27 Kyoto (Urbanguild)
28 Nagoya (K*D Japon)
29 Tokyo (Crusing Iris) SOLD OUT
Have been very bad at updating the site lately,
the graphic design section for example have
been suffering quite severely cause of this.
Haven’t really had time to update in the past
weeks but there’s soon new stuff to be uploaded,
just have to photograph them properly.
Very exciting stuff is about to happen and I will
show stuff as soon as it unfold.
Working on a huge project and also It’s Our Thing
is taking some big steps. Soon the t-shirts will be
available on a much bigger scale and a small
exhibition for them last week showed that they
seem to be way more popular than I could ever
imagine. Sorry to all you that have to wait for
me to sort out your orders, we’re working on a
much easier way to place orders and a website
is very soon to come.
By the way, the good guys from Lo-Fi-Fnk and
La Vida Locash is now letting you get the
fantastic Lo-Fi-Fnk album “Boylife” for the great
summer-price of more than 99 Swedish kroner
(less than 11 Euros) and you can buy it if you
click here.
Another sweatshirt sample landed in the
postbox the other day and I feel very happy
about this one. At the moment this one is
sold at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro where we
have a small It’s Our Thing showcase at the
moment. itsourthing@pmkfa.com
is the email address to write to if you want
to know more, hear about prices etc.
As it look now this one wont be out on a
bigger scale until late summer but you can
always order over email if you have Paypal.
The other day I recieved a sample copy of
a sweatshirt planned to be released later this
summer. It’s a great one and even if the size
was a little bigger than I usually wear I really
liked it as the sweater was a bit thinner than
usual. Great for midsummer evenings.
As we don’t carry stock of this one yet we
cannot deliver straight away but if you are
interested in some preview copies just email itsourthing@pmkfa.com as we can print on
demand. Size-guide is supplied if needed.
There’s a webshop for It’s Our Thing under
construction. As the coding etc is outsourced
it may take some time. In the meantime we’re
working on getting the shirts out as much as
possible so that they’re available for all you
people that have shown interest from all over
the world. Updates on retailers coming soon.
Note that it’s still possible to order through itsourthing@pmkfa.com as long as you have
a Paypal-account.
Big thanks to all the people that have ordered
t-shirts so far and we hope that they have met
your expectations.
Yesterday a celebrity got a PMKFA t-shirt.
It was none less than Cornelius that got to lay
his fingers on the last copy of the PMKFA
official t-shirt. The copy was thought to be kept
by myself but when a friend of mine was going
to meet up with him in his studio I gave in.
He liked it very much, so much he covered his
face with it. So I guess that it might look a bit
suspicious that he is not visible, I guess it could
be anyone under the t-shirt but it’s not, it’s the
“star fruit surf rider”.
It’s Our Thing have made a collaboration with
Paper Sky/Knee High Media in Tokyo. For the
next issue of Paper Sky It’s Our Thing/PMKFA
have designed a special t-shirt on the same
theme as the issue.
Knee High Media are the people who started
Tokion back in the mid-nineties. Since many years
they are not involved in Tokion and is now
publishing the mentioned Paper Sky but also
Mammoth and Baby Mammoth.
The t-shirt will be out in a month or so, you
will be able to view it here and also get info
about how to ger your hands on it.
The boys in Lo-Fi-Fnk and La Vida Locash is
never resting and last month they obviously did
some low-budget advertising in central Stockholm.
Found this picture at lavidalocash.com and
thought is would be a good idea to spread it as
I heard that the banners was cut down quite soon
after they had put them up.
So finally Lo-Fi-Fnk’s debut album is out on the
infamous La Vida Locash label. It’s great and have
got some major recognition in Europe and Sweden
in particular.
Leo, August and Tobias club running every two
weeks at “Landet” in Stockholm is a total success
too and I visited it a couple of weeks ago and
played some grime that made the crowd leave.
Sweden is not ready for Slew Dem crew it seems
like. It was a great night and the crowd came back
after I left the decks. Thanks Tobias, Leo, August
and Nova for the great photo and a some very
nice days in Stockholm.
A little more than a week ago Lo-Fi-Fnk was
featured on Swedish national TV network SVT
channel 1. Interview with the boys about how they
want to be seen and is seen and the importance of
the first impression when you’re a band on the way
up. The clip ended with a art-director at some
major ad/design company in Stockholm had his say
on Lo-Fi-Fnk’s CD-artwork. It went down very well.
Also clips of the rare video for the tune “Change
Channel” was shown. The video was made by me
and Sune Christiansen early 2005.
The CD-artwork shown was the cover for the EP
released in January 2005. Their debut-album is
out April 18th in Scandinavia and you can see the
artwork for that one posted on this site very soon.
The first images of the samples from the
collaboration between PMKFA and Sweatshop
Union in Osaka. Haven’t seen these myself yet
as they where printed yesterday but I really
look forward to get them. Will post more on
these in the t-shirt/sweatshirt section soon.
Thanks to Matthias at Sweatshop Union for
the photographs.
In order: “Logo”, “Raptor”, “ODB King”,
“Electric Kong”, “Letter Soup/It’s My Thing”.
The end of the coming summer will unveil a
collaboration between PMKFA and Uarm.
A line of PMKFA designs will be produced by the
label that so far have brought out t-shirt from
people like Mark Gonzales, Ryan McGinness,
Reas and Neckface.
I look forward to get started with this.
We took a day of (bank holiday) and went for a
needed trip to the countryside. More precise Chiba,
The peninsula southeast of Tokyo. Went up a
mountain with a cable-car, rested on the top
surrounded by the sea and endless green mountains.
Then walked down using a windey narrow path and
stairs carved out several hundred years ago.
Then we hung out by the sea until the sun went
down over the almost abandoned coastal town
Hota, a very sad and sleepy little place.
Now the Cherryblossoms make everything white,
like the snow that is falling in Sweden at the
moment, just a little bit warmer.
Today the mailman came with a box of brand
new PMKFA t-shirts straight from Sweatshop
Union in Osaka. Bigger print, nice t-shirt, better
quality of the print (the old ones was printed by
myself in only 5 copies) using a good ink etc.
Will post more about these soon and how to
purchase them. Limited to 25 copies. Two I will
keep for myself so 23 is up for graps.
Big thanks to Matthias at Sweatshop Union.
Yesterday we were a bunch of people that ended
up at a karaoke place. The room looked quite
standard but when we grabbed the mic it showed
that this was not the standard place. As soon as
we sang in the microphone the regular light
automatically faded and UV-light turned on.
On the wall galaxies, dolphins, princesses and
stars appeared and made this session epic.
Swedens finest duo Lo-Fi-Fnk is soon out with
their debut-album “Boylife”. The album is big
and is packed with great tracks.
It’s out through La Vida Locash and
distributed by Dotshop in Scandinavia next
month so start saving your money for it.
Artwork and art-direction by PMKFA and
photography by the great Anders Neuman.
The 32nd issue of LA-based legendary magazine
Arkitip is finally out now. Some hours ago a copy
landed at the house in a very rainy Tokyo.
The PMKFA section is looking fine in print, I
didn’t expect it to be anything else as they use a
great quality printer obviously. Will post my
whole contribution in the graphic design section
very soon. Go get your copy now!
I made the flyer and played records at Grandbase
Inc. second party last Friday. It was a nice event
and people seemed to like the bass sounds of
south and east London.
I also made the flyer for the event as you can see
below. Next party is in about four weeks.
This is a wall-drawing I made in the beginning
of the year. I only have poor quality photographs
of the wall, but is waiting for high-res images
to be taken very soon. When I recieve better
images I will post it in the wall-drawing section
straight away, hold tight.
It’s dead cold still, but once in a while the last
couple of weeks there have been sunny and warm.
Sunday last week was one of them days. It was also
one of them rare occasions that I actually get to go
outside away from the computer. This picture is
from the hills by the coast in Shizouka.
Can’t wait to have the window open in the office.
This is a site made by my friend Jason aka 6955.
He came up with a way of getting a high-score on
a game called Baitohell for the Sony PSP.
The game is actually a collection of junk games
and in the one Jason chose you put on caps on
roll-ball pens.
You can upload you high-score and also write
a comment to it. Jason left this URL as comment:
Not really any news anymore. This is a image
from the small exhibition I had from Dec 10 last
year to Jan 10 this year. It was held at Osaka’s
finest t-shirt printing place Sweatshop Union.
I made graphics for some boards that was fixed
in the shop/printing facility and also made some
t-shirt designs that was printed live at the opening.
You can see a selection of the six designs in the
t-shirt section. Thanks goes out to Matthias and
Miyuki with family.
Straight from the press this t-shirt just got
printed in Los Angeles this morning and is
my contribution to Ubiquity records t-shirt line.
Originally made for a series of three designs
called “Quotes From The Crates”. Quotes from
soul artists from 60’s and 70’s illustrated
through especially made typography.
The quality looks very tight and I can’t wait
to lay my hands on these. More images
coming soon in the t-shirt section.
In the latest issue (#32) there is a profile on me.
One page info and nine pages of graphic material.
Showcasing my quite recent airbrush style, some
psychadelic monster I found in the garden last
year and last but not least some illustrated
letters on a quite huge panorama setup.
Panorama format is usually a format I can’t
and don’t want to handle but this time I think it
worked out quite allright. Check your nearest
Arkitip dealer for ten pages I hope you will enjoy.
They will soon be posted in the graphic design
category.
I spent my last days of 2005 and first of 2006
in a snowy landscape in the deep Swedish forest.
Half a meter of snow and -10 degrees outside.
The light landscape lit up everyones minds even
stronger than the midsummer sun.
Frost making thin tree branches swell into thick
white sticks and spruces turned into huge
snowmen. A mist making everything even whiter.
This is better than the most beautiful summer.
This is probably the only time you will see me
hyping a sneaker on this site but this is really a
nice one. A new Nike model with a one-piece
leather construction. The “seams” are all laser-cut
and I think this one is one of the nicest models I’ve
seen in a long long time. Like a fake computer
game Air Dunk. It’s a shame they charge ¥19500
for it so I will never be able to bless my feet with
them. Nice model, rotten price.
The latest project from the brilliant Game Boy music
innovator/quality junk collector/electronics magician
6955 (aka Jason DeGroot) is a fantastic one.
Jason is making music using hardware that is not
made for music-making. In this case he’s using
a Roland TR-606 drum machine to control eight
Nintendo Famicoms. The 606 is used as a sequenzer
and is triggering sounds from hidden sound menus
found in old Famicom games. It sounds fantastic.
This is so great I fall of my chair when I think
about it. If you’re in Holland December 10th, make
sure to drop by the Impakt festival for the world
premiere show of this machine.
For more info and audio clips click here.
Today I picked up a free-paper in a record-shop.
The name of it is “Specialoose” (yes only on L) and
there is some nice drawings in there. Alot of text
that I don’t understand cause it’s all in japanese
but the articles seem to be interesting.
The nicest thing with this freepaper is it’s weight,
it’s so light I can’t believe it. It measures
105 x 175 x 5 mm and unfortunately I don’t have
a scale but it weights about as much as 30 gram
bag of black pepper so, eh, I guess it weights
around 30 gram. If you see a copy, pick it up.
I’m in Osaka to meet up with Tatsuki and
Matthias. Matthias is running a t-shirt printer
place/gallery space and I can’t wait to meet them
and check out the place. Have been keeping an
eye open for quality t-shirt printers the recent
months and it seems like Matthias and his
Sweat Shop Union is bringing the quality.
Osaka seems to be a nice place even though I
haven’t seen that much yet, there is network
in every corner of the place it seems like.
Yesterday was my birthday, a very quiet and
peaceful one, working as always, graftin.
I liked it, the day ended sitting in the grass of
our garden, having some wine and resisting to
confess that the summer is over.
However I got this wonderful machine from my
girlfriend, a “handy copy machine”. The brand is
called PLUS and the model is Copy-Jack 40 SE.
What it does is to copy whatever you move it over
onto heat-sensetive rolls of paper, the kind of
paper you find in cash registers. That means that
the little genius doesn’t need any ink.
It’s from 1986 and I have never seen anything
like it before. Unfortunately it doesn’s work at
the moment but I could cut of my left arm to
see it in action. How did I manage to survive
26 years without a Copy-Jack 40 SE???
If you like the music Lo-Fi-FNK make, like my
artwork for them or like both I can tell you that
big tings is lurking at the horizon.
In a month or so new material will be out and
the distribution of that will without any doubt be
different. Exactly how it will shape up I will
update you on as it unfolds.
Lo-Fi-FNK recently did the Icelandic festival
Airwaves, Junior Senior was there too.
News section is up as you might see.
I am doing a bunch of projects right now that
I’m very excited about and look forward to post
on the site. Mainly for US right now but also some
European stuff is in the pipeline.
Check out the sneak preview of the cover from
next issue of southern Sweden’s finest freepaper
Brus. You find it in the illustration section.
I won’t post stuff before it’s out but this
is an exception.
Tokyo is so cold these days big socks needed, brrr.
