...written and compiled by spank.

Flyers Dance kids have been collecting flyers for years but it is only recently that they are beginning to be recognised as an art form. Now huge amounts of money are invested into the humble flyer as clubs fight to outdo one another. A good collection of finer flyers can be found in ‘Fly - The Art Of The Club Flyer’ published by Thames & Hudson. Included is the work of Mark Farrow Design whose unique style is best shown in their creation of the corporate image for Cream.

Graffiti Like breakdancing, graffiti has close links with hip-hop. James Lavelle’s Mo’Wax label had probably done most to support the scene sprawling the works of the likes of Futura 2000 and 3D (Massive Attack) over numerous covers. Goldie and Roger Sanchez are also known for being a bit nifty with a spray can and both Howie B and Death In Vegas featured spray can art on the covers of their recent long players.

Comics Always ones to go against the grain those rood boyz at Wall of Sound have thought hard how to best target their audience. After extensive market research to gauge our social demographic groupings it was discovered that dance fans fell in the lowly group ‘E’ (funny that). All that could possibly appeal to our primitive learning was the comic. Sponsored by Diesel ‘Wallpaper’ is sent to all those on WOS’s mailing list allowing us to read about other suitably primitive beings such as Derek Dahlarge and Jon Carter. Ninja Tune releases a similar magazine ‘Blow Your Pipe’ but I have no idea what that is all about!

Magazines The traditional stable diet of the sound-bite generation. Many sleepless Sunday nights can be spent flicking through magazines whilst you wait for the effects of Saturday night to wear off. Sometimes I even amaze and infuriate myself about just how many times you can read the same article. Sometimes I even amaze and infuriate myself about just how many times you can...... ‘Muzik’, after pinching Frank Tope from Mixmag and replacing the Art Editor, has been given a bit of an overhaul. Nonetheless still the market leader and deservedly so. For something a bit different ‘Jockey Slut’ and ‘Herb Garden’ share similar warped views. Serious music readers should be checking out ‘Jazid’, ‘Straight No Chaser’ and best of all ‘Dazed & Confused’.

Poetry Herald the return of the beat-poet for Mike Benson is here. Signed to Howie B’s Pussyfoot label his first outing ‘Battery Acid Kiss’ mixes the randomness of Underworld’s lyrics with the beatnikability of Jack Kerouac. Limited copies were given away free in mags such as ‘Dazed & Confused’ in the fall but do not panic! Further information about Pussy Foot Press can be obtained by contacting them @ 43/44 Hoxton Square, London NI 6PD.

CD-Roms More and more CD-ROMs incorporate themselves into society and the dance community has been proud to support them from their conception. Loud released the first enhanced hip-hop CD with Xzibit’s album ‘At The Speed Of Life’. Subsequent CDs from Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang have also seen the inclusion of video clips. More recently Coldcut, in conjunction with their Hex Media offshoot, have released the ‘Let Us Play’ album in which you can have all manner of fun remixing and other types of shenanigans.

Theatre “The ideology I’m dealing with is a hip-hop ideology, the urban youth, and I’m putting it into the theatre, an arena which isn’t usually seen as for us. But we can go anywhere the fuck we want. We just have to interpret it our way”. Wise words from Jonzi D whose 1995 ‘Lyrikal Fearta’ production has just made its ‘Requel’ tour. Encompassing politics of race, mime, poetry, break dancing, body popping and the scratching skills of DJ Pogo and Bizness, ‘Lyrikal Fearta’ has shocked and amazed audiences alike. Most surprising of all is the constitution of the audience. As well as bringing in younger audiences that would not usually venture into theatres, amazingly the majority of the audience is made up of the middle-aged and middle class - no small feat indeed. ‘Lyrikal Fearta’ will tour again in late February 1998.

Fashion So much of today’s fashion has its sources in club and street culture. Trying to encapsulate fashion is useless. Once defined, fashion is by definition out of date. Rather than follow fashion it is far better to create your own style. Style will always rule over fashion and has the added bonus of never ageing! For the unimaginative amongst us (me included) a trusty pair of combats, a T-shirt with an obscure record label emblazoned on the front and a pair of space age trainers will suffice. Big fashion boys have been seen getting in on the act with Diesel sponsoring a 3K sound-system and skateboard half pipe at V97 and setting up their own speed garage rig at Notting Hill Carnival.

Music Videos Music videos have seen the jump from simply marketing ploy to what some would argue is now an art form. Although the Prodigy’s heavily censored ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ video is currently courting the media attention it is groups such as the Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys, Massive Attack and ultimately Daft Punk that are really leading the fore. Take Daft Punk’s first three videos that reflect their view that their music is more important than their identity. ‘Da Funk’ directed by Spike Jonze (Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’, Chemical Brothers ‘Electrolyte’) has the music almost secondary to the video as traffic, dialogue and positioning of the camera take priority. The lead character, a human body with a dog’s head, broken leg and a walkbox (from which the ‘Da Funk’ tune emanates), makes his way through a crowded US city by night. As well as being deeply surreal there are sly comments aplenty directed towards American movies/culture. Second up comes the brilliance and avant-garde dance of ‘Around The World’ directed by Michael Gondry. Taking seven days to choreograph, it featured an array of sequenced swimmers, jangling skeletons, body-popping breakdancers, mechanical robots, and jiving mummies. Each character represents and moves in time to different parts of the tune, mesmerising and astounding. Most recently, Daft Punk lay the Seb Janiak directed ‘Burnin’’ upon us. A parody of ‘Towering Inferno’, and featuring cameos performances from the likes of DJ Sneak and Roger Sanchez, the video interchanges between a small boy and his fire engine and a raging party at the top of an extremely tall office block. Similar to ‘Around The World’ the ‘Burnin’’ video superbly complements the pace and tempo of the original track. The future will be measured in three-minute segments. The future is MTV.