MEKON
‘PIECE OF WORK’ (ALBUM)
WALL OF SOUND
RELEASED 25 FEBRUARY
Pre-order on iTunes

Mekon, aka John Gosling, has worked with some of the most influential cultural innovators of the last 25 years including Genesis P.Orridge, Goldie, Marc Almond, Schoolly D, William Orbit, Afrika Bambaataa and Alexander McQueen. He’s also been an integral artist for the pioneering Wall Of Sound Records (Royksopp, Grace Jones, Jacques Lu Cont, Aeroplane, The Bees, I Am Kloot, Felix Da Housecat et al) run by lovable eccentric music mogul, Mark Jones. ‘Piece Of Work’ is Mekon’s fourth album for the label.

‘Piece Of Work’ features a roll call of likeminded collaborators including Schoolly D, Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV’s Peter Christopherson, Marco Pirroni from Adam & The Ants, PIG and more, with the album’s 12 tracks ranging from electro rap, industrial techno and balearic to ambient and neo-classical.

Beginning with the South East’s post-punk scene through early electronic music, graffiti culture and acid house, proto-jungle/drum & bass with Goldie (who provided the nickname, Mekon), big beat and then the Noughties fashion/music crossover soundtracking catwalk shows for McQueen, Mekon has brought his influence to bear on numerous key moments in British alternative music culture. The first artist signed to Wall Of Sound, this album follows ‘Welcome To Tackletown’, ‘Relax With Mekon’, and ‘Some Thing Came Up’.

A personal history this rich (and an evergreen set of ears) gives Mekon his unique musical edge. ‘Piece Of Work’ begins with the breathy industrial electro-pop of ‘When I Was Walt Whitman’, featuring cult NYC fashion icon Leslie Winer. After an ambient interlude, ‘Atlantis’, eases into ‘No Business I Know’, a great angelic, shimmery Balearic anthem. ‘Sleazy Says’ features the late Peter Christopherson, one of the original members of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, a neo-classical choral piece paying homage to the post-industrial artist.

A robo vox kicks off Schoolly D’s electro-rap re-work of ‘Saturday Night’, leading into the sleazy new-wave of ‘Wasted Mind’ with Celo Torrez from Agent Provocateur. ‘Disco Bloodbath’ features Psycho-style violins and shuffly hi-hats, then the grinding industrial techno of forthcoming single, ‘Bin Therre’, with Pig. Schoolly D returns alongside Marco Pirroni from Adam & the Ants on the punk funk of ‘Hardcore’. The lilting piano of ‘Be Like Me Intro’ provides a brief pause before the riotous closer, ‘Ravagable’ featuring Rita Brown.

For further information on Mekon and Wall Of Sound please contact:
Matt Learmouth @ Alchemy PR on: 020 8996 1520 or email matt@alchemypr.com

An instrumental version of Jump The Gun, the vocal version of which is on No One Gets Out Of Her Alive. Written by Raymond Watts and Steve White.

Way back on another version of The Swining, we made some remixes available that Raymond did for legendary, terrifying force of nature JUDDA. We’ve done some rooting and now you can get your trotters on these rare tracks again, in case you missed them or lost them.

Thanks to Peter E. for reminding us that they exist.

Alexander McQueen Menswear Fall/Winter 2013
John Gosling used Raymond’s Analgesia and a couple of other piggy bits for this one. Also, the clothes.

Groan.

Okay, devotees of the forums will have noticed a couple of new tracks from El Scaballero. One is his Pork Talk Remix of Drugzilla, which, personally speaking, is my fave PIG track in about a decade. (I know, I know, hush up now.)

And of course, Dominator, from Raymond Watts soundtrack for the forthcoming motion picture, Plato’s Reality Machine.

But what you have yet to see, my merry piglets, is this: http://raymondpigwatts.bandcamp.com/album/platos-reality-machine-original-soundtrack-2

What is that? Why, it’s a Bandcamp listing of the entire soundtrack which features 12 new pieces and which also contains Transceration by request of the filmmaker, I hear tell. Check out a songwriting collaboration with John Gosling and Mike Watts as well as Raymond’s solo originals.

The film is still in post-production, but you can getcher hot pork soundtrack right (t)here, right now. There’s a suggested price of $8 – bargain – but if you want, you can pitch in a little extra. Think of it as an excellent way to tip the house for all those free downloads of the out of print stuff, eh? Eh? (The money goes straight to Raymond, by the way. The Swining is just pointing the way.)

How’s that for a Merry fuckin’ Crimbo?

PS: Greasy totally spotted the album before it was announced, linked it on the forums, and was totally cool about us going err hold fire, greasepig. This is what you miss when you don’t haunt the forums. Also, a lot of silence, we’ll admit.

PPS: Raymond kind of hates the cover which I threw together from a little piece of PRM’s website graphic, so don’t blame him. No budget, brothers and sisters. Hoo-ah! Still, he didn’t make me take it back, so he’s clearly loving on you people.

As promised, the shirts are on sale at last. They’re top quality American Apparel super soft shirts with that worn-in feeling, printed with traditional PIG-approved ultra thick ink in great armorish layers – absolutely top quality, no disappointing crap. Each is triple printed. At least.

This is official merchandise. All proceeds after printing/shirt costs and a handling fee for us packaging and posting peons goes to Raymond directly. We like giving him money. It keeps him in groceries and fresh pens.

The astute among you will have twigged a change in the layout. Behold, the simpler, sleek, streamlined version of The Swining. We’re edging into more of a straight up propaganda service rather than a regular artist site. Feel free to get in touch and let us know if you have any lurking wallpapers you made, or fan art, or an interview with or article about Raymond.

We’ll be slowly expanding our offerings in anticipation of that new album. We all know very well that it’s months off, but we have faith.

Hog Love.
Johnny, the admin

Slated for a 2013 release, Plato’s Reality Machine is an independent film that Raymond’s soundtracking. Here’s the info:

PLATO’S REALITY MACHINE is an ensemble portrait of the modern relationship, as it currently exists in the wilds of New York. Three men: Charles, Josie and Scott, and three women: Maggie, Kim, and Zoe, crash into each other in a tangled web of late nights, painful mornings, hurt feelings and one ill-advised trip to a strip club. It’s a story of ex-girlfriends and brand new boyfriends, of one night stands and single men getting cats. It’s a story of the timeless quest for a real human connection, however short-lived.

An animated Machinima video-game adventure interweaves with reality-television inspired confessionals and traditional narrative stories to offer a fresh and modern twist on the “relationship movie” . Get ready to get lost. Lost in the game, lost in love, lost in Plato’s Reality Machine.

IndieWIRE “Project of the Week” winner

Starring Trieste Kelly Dunn, Heather Shisler, Doug Roland, Carolina Bartczak, Ed Renninger & Nathan Spiteri
Directed By Myles Sorensen
Written By Myles Sorensen
Produced By Owen Cooper, Clifford Fields, Padmini Narumanchi, Christopher Vitale

Like it on Facebook to keep up with developments: Plato’s Reality Machine

In a few days, we’ll have the product of a whole lot of labour and even more waiting for green lights.

The old style sans-serif logo is back – by popular kvetch:

Nice, thick inks in the right colours, great quality American Apparel shirts – all made in-house so wait times are significantly shorter for pre-orders.

This is just the first of several shirts – getting old ones remade and some great new ones in true PIG style.

Stay tuned for more info!

 

For those of you not on the PIG social media train, or indeed on the forum, you may have missed the two track previews we have from Raymond Watts’s work with Marc Heal (Cubanate) for the new PIG album. Yes, yes, we know he’s been working on songs for absolutely ages, but this time, Marc has pried permission from the Lord of Lard to put up some rough mix action. And we know you like it rough.

Shake (Rough Mix)

Drugzilla (Rough As A Hog’s Arse Mix)

and in the lull during which Raymond wandered off for a while, Marc let this beast out of its cage:

It’s long been true that Marc Heal can kick our PIG into action like no other, and we’re glad he’s back on board.

You can hear soundtrack, see video images and still images on the page created for the stunning McQueen exhibit with music by Watts.

http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/about/

FRIDAY,APRIL 15TH & SATURDAY, APRIL 16TH:
WAX TRAX! RECORDS RETROSPECTACLE: 33 1/3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
METRO, CHICAGO
featuring

FRONT 242
MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT
LUC VAN ACKER, PAUL BARKER, CHRIS CONNELLY plus guests performing selections of THE REVOLTING COCKS
EN ESCH, GUENTER SCHULZ & RAYMOND WATTS performing selections of KMFDM (with Mona Mur!)
RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED
SPECIAL GUESTS & DJs
$60 2-Day Passes – $500 VIP Tables (4 tickets/4 seats/4 limited screen print posters) / 18 & Over / Doors: 7PM / Show: 8PM
Proceeds to benefit Center On Halsted

TICKETS ON SALE THIS SATURDAY 2/19 @ NOON::
at Metro Box Office

We’ve unearthed some rare beauties and have made them available in the shop with a scrawl from the Lord of Lard. Please remember when you order that they’ve got to go to him for scrawling and then back to us for shipping. If you need them super fast, make that known and we’ll invoice you for an express shipping method add-on. All proceeds, as usual, go to Raymond’s new release fund.

Gems include the German pressing of Sick City / Shit For Brains which includes Peoria and the proper version of the artwork by the late Mike Matthews.

Also, Baltimore’s Nasty Byte got in touch and let us know she’s moved her video from the 2006 tour to Vimeo. You can check it out here:

Pig “The Sick” from Nasty Byte on Vimeo.