Logo and design by Fergadelic (Fergus Purcell).
Fergadlic has work on other projects with Will Bankhead such as Palace Skateboards.
Tom Of England
The next cassette tape mix on Will Bankhead’s label comes from Tom Of England (Thomas Bullock).
Logo and design by Fergadelic (Fergus Purcell).
Fergadlic has work on other projects with Will Bankhead such as Palace Skateboards.
Logo and design by Fergadelic (Fergus Purcell).
Fergadlic has work on other projects with Will Bankhead such as Palace Skateboards.
Enemies Closer: Will Bankhead
EC: You had been doing the Park Walk line a number of years ago, then were involved in Answer with Emmet Keane and now your new line The Trilogy Tapes. Can you explain the evolution a bit and the different ideas behind each range?
WB: As far as the ideas behind the different ranges, they’ve all had a similar approach – make clothes we would wear. Park Walk was a short lived project that I did in Japan, unfortunately communication failed due to my Japanese and their English! So it didn’t last. Answer is an ongoing line that I do with Emmet. The new ones, including artwork from Skatething, Fergadelic & Paul Simonon, are looking great. The Trilogy Tapes is my personal project that will involve more record releases etc. The idea is to make very short runs so we can keep making stuff all the time and keep it fresh.
EC: How have you been deciding who to bring into The Trilogy Tapes fold? I assume Ben Drury and Fergadelic are friends, but what about your connection to John Olson and Wolf Eyes?
WB: Ben and Ferg are good friends and their vaults of great/original work are bottomless. I’m just a fan of Olson’s vast output of cassettes, records, tapes, zines and artwork (his American Tapes label has more than 700 releases!!), along with artists like Aaron Dilloway, Sick Llama etc the underground noise scene is a real inspiration, particularly the DO IT YOURSELF aspect. It’s a very creative scene, musically (or non-musically) and visually.
EC: You’ve recently done a fair amount of design for Honest Jon’s Records as well as photography for Wiley and Dizzee Rascal releases. Are there any other outside projects you’ve been working on?
WB: All sorts of things in the pipeline…I’m working with Paul Simonon on some new Clash merchandise, doing a South Rakkas Crew mix cd/t-shirt package for Goodlife in Glasgow, more stuff for Surrender…Honest Jon’s is keeping me really busy on the whole, it’s one of the most interesting record labels around and working with them is amazing.They’re about to release a series of great compilations that dig deep into the EMI 78s archive.
Give Me Love – Songs Of The Brokenhearted — Baghdad, 1925-1929.
Living Is Hard – West African Music In Britain, 1927-1929 (it’s not easy listening!).
Sprigs Of Time – 78s from the EMI archive.
All killer. Get ‘em!
EC: Experimental/noise music seems to be a substantial influence on The Trilogy Tapes as well as a lot of found images like those you’ve posted on the blog. What’s the appeal for you of these kind of obscure, somewhat subterranean references?
WB: I’m a fan of all sorts of music – techno, house, garage, reggae, dancehall, r&b, hip hop, folk, death metal, black metal, noise, experimental music – blah. All the imagery associated with all these things as well as skateboarding, graphics and art in general inspire the range of images you’ll see with The Trilogy Tapes. The rise of this crap they call ‘street art’ is a big disappointment. I like anything that has nothing to do with it.
EC: Can you tell us what else is in the works for The Trilogy Tapes?
WB: Lots of vinyl, cassettes, t-shirts, sweats, zines & books by all sorts of artists/designers/musicians/skaters.
Greg Cash
Recent Greg Cash record released on Honest Jons, designed by Will Bankhead.
Heavily inspired by Thrasher Skateboard Magazine.
Heavily inspired by Thrasher Skateboard Magazine.
The Green Series
A collaborative project between Bleep.com, GiveUpArt and photographer Shaun Bloodworth.
A series of limited edition vinyl releases, exploring techno music, coming soon to your local independent record store...
A series of limited edition vinyl releases, exploring techno music, coming soon to your local independent record store...
Surus
Surus is home to the official stores of some the best electronic music record labels.
Surus links labels and artists closer to their audiences than ever before. Surus enables artists to concentrate on their art and gives fans easy, reliable and direct access to the music and the artists they love.
Buying direct from labels on the Surus platform fans are putting more directly into the labels' and artists' pockets.
Logo design by Give Up Art.
Tempa.
London based record label exclusively releasing dubstep. Founded by Neil Jolliffe.
Identity, website, artwork and sleeves designed by Give Up Art.
Identity, website, artwork and sleeves designed by Give Up Art.
Rinse FM
London based community radio station playing uk-centric dance music.
Art Design and Direction by Give Up Art.
Photography by Shaun Bloodworth.
Art Design and Direction by Give Up Art.
Photography by Shaun Bloodworth.
Hinge Finger
UK house/bass producer Joy Orbison and designer Will Bankhead have made limited details available regarding a new imprint called Hinge Finger.
Bankhead and Orbison have worked together previously, with the former designing the sleeves for the latter's Doldrums imprint.
Although details surrounding Hinge Finger are limited at this stage, FACT has stated that Honest Jon's will be behind its distribution. One thing we do know, however, is that this mix of heavily swung house and garage Orbison has dropped to mark the inception of the imprint is excellent.
Bankhead and Orbison have worked together previously, with the former designing the sleeves for the latter's Doldrums imprint.
Although details surrounding Hinge Finger are limited at this stage, FACT has stated that Honest Jon's will be behind its distribution. One thing we do know, however, is that this mix of heavily swung house and garage Orbison has dropped to mark the inception of the imprint is excellent.
Under the covers: Will Bankhead
Article on Will Bankhead taken from Resident Advisor:
One of the designers behind Honest Jon's and Mo Wax's iconic sleeves takes us on a tour of his career thus far.
Many designers come out fully formed, a distinct style already developed through years of work. Not so for Will Bankhead, who has constantly refined and rethought his approach. Starting out as one of the main visual directors behind the Mo Wax imprint, alongside Ben Drury, Swifty and Futura 2000 he crafted some of the most memorable packages of mid-'90s dance music. As you might expect with someone so closely identified with the trip-hop label, his initial inspiration came from skate magazines like Transworld Skateboarding and Thrasher.
Bankhead's major label affiliation since has been Honest Jon's. His simple, clean designing of archival material from far-off lands and modern work of far-out experimentalists contrasts sharply with the busy designs of the Mo Wax years, but you can see that an off-kilter sensibility remains. Just check the Shangaan Electro or recent Shackleton covers for proof. Lately, he's also been embraced by the UK bass community as well. Joy Orbison's Doldrums label bears his handiwork, as well as the recent Hessle Audio 116 & Rising compilation. All of this, and he maintains a blog, label and store of his own—Trilogy Tapes—which brings together his many interests into one sprawling package. We caught up with Bankhead recently to talk about his past design work, as well as his poster for our upcoming RA X party in Rome.
Global Communication was one of the first sleeves that I did, but I did most of my work for Mo Wax starting out. James [Lavelle] is obviously a total madman. He wanted everything to come with a toy. The first full cover I think we did was by Sam Sever. It was called What's That Sound? It's got a photo of a portable turntable that's a bit out of focus. That was my thing. Well, it still is really. These sleeves were done without computers, a lot of the work we did we used to do in the darkroom. We just loved making graphics with enlargers, and we'd make sort of type acetates and stick them into the enlarger and mess around with the paper. Mo Wax kept me really busy.
I was happy to be able to work on something that Torsten had done for Honest Jon's. I remember he used to do this thing called Traktor, and I bought it in FatCat, and it was just so intriguing. Like, what is this record from Berlin? My God, it sounds insane, it's got this obscure graphic. As a fiend for this stuff, I get excited to go to a record shop and say, "What is that? It looks weird." That's my main goal really. People always ask me what designers I like, but really it's those things that aren't designed that I like. To be honest…well…I look back at sleeves that I did last week, and I don't like them really. With Actress, for example, though he told me he was into geometric shapes. That was a really nice brief to work with. I was pleased with how that turned out.
Trilogy Tapes is a blog and a shop. I was definitely inspired by labels like Hanson, the Michigan noise scene. I'm into all sorts of music, though, so there will be a noise thing, and then the next release will be a Kassem Mosse tape. [laughs] It's just for fun really, a labour of love. We do have a few records too—a Dro Carey vinyl for example. I found him by looking for juke/footwork videos on YouTube, and there were these interesting clips that went with the tracks that weren't just stills of the DJ, so I got in touch to see what he was up to with his music.
I remember meeting Joy Orbison at Berghain at an Honest Jon's party, and he was like, "Oh, you do that Trilogy Tapes thing," and I'm kind of like, "What?! How come you know that?" He was like, "Yeah, no, I'm really into it. Would you like to get some graphics done if you're into it?" I probably met the Hessle guys through him. Ben is a fucking mad DJ. So sick. It was tough to design for them. I struggled to get something together in my mind that they would all like. I'm really grateful that they asked me to do it, that younger people are into what I do and I was really pleased with it, but I don't know what the hell they're on about with the BPM thing. As an older person [laughs], I've noticed that people are so obsessed with BPMs these days. I don't remember it being such a thing before.
I almost thought the poster I made for the RA X party in Italy was too simple. I made it on a turntable: I took it into a darkroom, and I exposed light onto the paper as it was turning consistently. I've done other stuff where I draw on paper as the turntable spins, but this was the first time I've done anything like this.
One of the designers behind Honest Jon's and Mo Wax's iconic sleeves takes us on a tour of his career thus far.
Many designers come out fully formed, a distinct style already developed through years of work. Not so for Will Bankhead, who has constantly refined and rethought his approach. Starting out as one of the main visual directors behind the Mo Wax imprint, alongside Ben Drury, Swifty and Futura 2000 he crafted some of the most memorable packages of mid-'90s dance music. As you might expect with someone so closely identified with the trip-hop label, his initial inspiration came from skate magazines like Transworld Skateboarding and Thrasher.
Bankhead's major label affiliation since has been Honest Jon's. His simple, clean designing of archival material from far-off lands and modern work of far-out experimentalists contrasts sharply with the busy designs of the Mo Wax years, but you can see that an off-kilter sensibility remains. Just check the Shangaan Electro or recent Shackleton covers for proof. Lately, he's also been embraced by the UK bass community as well. Joy Orbison's Doldrums label bears his handiwork, as well as the recent Hessle Audio 116 & Rising compilation. All of this, and he maintains a blog, label and store of his own—Trilogy Tapes—which brings together his many interests into one sprawling package. We caught up with Bankhead recently to talk about his past design work, as well as his poster for our upcoming RA X party in Rome.
Global Communication was one of the first sleeves that I did, but I did most of my work for Mo Wax starting out. James [Lavelle] is obviously a total madman. He wanted everything to come with a toy. The first full cover I think we did was by Sam Sever. It was called What's That Sound? It's got a photo of a portable turntable that's a bit out of focus. That was my thing. Well, it still is really. These sleeves were done without computers, a lot of the work we did we used to do in the darkroom. We just loved making graphics with enlargers, and we'd make sort of type acetates and stick them into the enlarger and mess around with the paper. Mo Wax kept me really busy.
I was happy to be able to work on something that Torsten had done for Honest Jon's. I remember he used to do this thing called Traktor, and I bought it in FatCat, and it was just so intriguing. Like, what is this record from Berlin? My God, it sounds insane, it's got this obscure graphic. As a fiend for this stuff, I get excited to go to a record shop and say, "What is that? It looks weird." That's my main goal really. People always ask me what designers I like, but really it's those things that aren't designed that I like. To be honest…well…I look back at sleeves that I did last week, and I don't like them really. With Actress, for example, though he told me he was into geometric shapes. That was a really nice brief to work with. I was pleased with how that turned out.
Trilogy Tapes is a blog and a shop. I was definitely inspired by labels like Hanson, the Michigan noise scene. I'm into all sorts of music, though, so there will be a noise thing, and then the next release will be a Kassem Mosse tape. [laughs] It's just for fun really, a labour of love. We do have a few records too—a Dro Carey vinyl for example. I found him by looking for juke/footwork videos on YouTube, and there were these interesting clips that went with the tracks that weren't just stills of the DJ, so I got in touch to see what he was up to with his music.
I remember meeting Joy Orbison at Berghain at an Honest Jon's party, and he was like, "Oh, you do that Trilogy Tapes thing," and I'm kind of like, "What?! How come you know that?" He was like, "Yeah, no, I'm really into it. Would you like to get some graphics done if you're into it?" I probably met the Hessle guys through him. Ben is a fucking mad DJ. So sick. It was tough to design for them. I struggled to get something together in my mind that they would all like. I'm really grateful that they asked me to do it, that younger people are into what I do and I was really pleased with it, but I don't know what the hell they're on about with the BPM thing. As an older person [laughs], I've noticed that people are so obsessed with BPMs these days. I don't remember it being such a thing before.
I almost thought the poster I made for the RA X party in Italy was too simple. I made it on a turntable: I took it into a darkroom, and I exposed light onto the paper as it was turning consistently. I've done other stuff where I draw on paper as the turntable spins, but this was the first time I've done anything like this.
Numbers
Glasgow record label and club night Numbers was started by DJ and producer Jackmaster.
He works closely with fellow DJ Goodhand who now runs Numbers and also does all design work as Studio Remote.
http://remote-location.com/
He works closely with fellow DJ Goodhand who now runs Numbers and also does all design work as Studio Remote.
http://remote-location.com/
The Trilogy Tapes
The Trilogy Tapes is an online shop, blog and record label run by designer Will Bankhead.
http://www.thetrilogytapes.com/menu.html
Bankhead designs and releases music for some of the biggest acts in the underground electronic music scene such as Joy Orbison, Blawan and Madteo.
Bankhead shows support on his blog and is affiliated with a number of different companies such as Doldrum Recordings, Ben Drury, Palace Skateboards and Honest Jons Recordings.
http://www.thetrilogytapes.com/menu.html
Bankhead designs and releases music for some of the biggest acts in the underground electronic music scene such as Joy Orbison, Blawan and Madteo.
Bankhead shows support on his blog and is affiliated with a number of different companies such as Doldrum Recordings, Ben Drury, Palace Skateboards and Honest Jons Recordings.