Shoplifter Records

Summer In The City

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Just about. Berlin is offering such beautiful weather this week, not too hot!... sunny, like a dream. I really appreciate it after that brutal-icka winter we had this year. Its June 19th, and I'm having my first week off this year! Started in Cape Town, South Africa recording The Plastics excellent first album "Shark", then hit London to work with Modernless, Then home to Berlin werking with Daviddson, The Gulden Rule (Sarah Maguire's new band) Lillienthal, Sparrow (from Stockholm) and mixes for The Tellers, Alin Coen and London's The Dash. Over to Seattle to see my folks, family and friends-- was s'posed to be a break but then I found Stormy and her spoken word project Girl, and a new artist named Audrey Bochsler::: and spent a great day at Bear Creek Studios recording them both. Still my top favorite place to make music! Everything is absolutely gorgeous there.

From there I went to Hollywood and produced Love Darling- 6 songs, which was really fun and I have never worked as a producer before in California, so that was very cool. Next up was Calendar in Buenos Aires, Argentina where we co-created a really groundbreaking record that was full of suprises and ultra-energy. We made songs with 30 tracks of vocals and 60 tracks of music , but in a GOOD way! and mixed that thing all in 7 days... probably a world record for making such an elaborate production in short time... the gods were definitely with us! (and the US Embassy and the press too!!) Got delayed in paradise by the Icelandic volcano clouds and had time for shopping. eating great food, cutting my hair off and turning it orange and black... fun!!

I just returned from Brussels where I had the pleasure to work with The Tellers on their album. No, I did not enjoy that city (except for the Hieronymous Bosch painting The Temptation of St. Anthony and the Pieter Brueghel The Elder's "The Fall Of Icarus", and Jean Delville's "Les Tresors des Satan" which they had in one museum there) The Tellers truly rocked tho, and we made a fabulous record.

SO 99 songs that i worked on so far this year-- and more to come in Oslo (Pirate Love) Leipzig (Safi), London (Pull In Emergency record release party, I'm Dj'ing!) Antwerp with A Brand, and then..... Pluto to get a new Germanium Fuzz Pedal.

Incidentally, I just got 2 of my own albums back from Sterling Sound Mastering, and I want to release them this year.. Space Rocker, and Dangling Between the Essentials and The Decorations. Watch out for that ok?? x Gordon (PS soon to come : Gordotronic.com) as I promised 6 years ago!!! better late than "bad sounding!!" x

Rekording in London

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

with Johnny Love. looking at paintings by Ksenia Hovden. I watched Pull In Emergency last night, on Faith's birthday, and even escorted (chaperoned?) 5 young people into the club-- as it was an "all ages event". Now things are looking rose and light purple.. thats for sure. with sparks of glitter and whole-foods as well. Big Up to The Plastics in South Africa for showing me some great music and a fabulous time last month (and getting me outta the Berlin Ice Freeze Age. PS My band Analog Poodle is playing March 5th in Berlin at an abandoned old German swimming-hall.! killer diller.....

The Strokes "Is This It" #1 on NME and 2 in Rollin

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

From Fact Magazine Online:
With their debut album The Strokes caused a sea change in mainstream pop music in the US, but particularly in the UK. Suddenly three minute garage rock jams were the pinnacle of cool, and indie landfill ruled Britain's charts for the next nine years. But what the copyists could never match was the attention to detail and the hoarse, heartfelt emotion that The Strokes brought to their music. When Julian Casablancas begins this album with "Can't you see I'm trying / I don't even like it", it conjures up a hundred images - of forced fun, of relationships resigned to mutual antipathy - and it follows one of the greatest opening samples of any record. The perfect three-and-a-half minute pop songs on Is This It might seem casual, but they're constructed with craftmanship and care: check the rhythmic scrapes of fingers on guitar string that punctuate 'Trying Your Luck.' Not for nothing did these songs become the stuff of universal consciousness. So as the decade fades, and mainstream indie rock continues to nauseate and bore in equal measures, do me a favour. Forget The Killers, forget T4, forget The View, forget Colin fucking Murray, and just listen to this album, contextless. Is This It's status as the decade's most influential guitar record may be a double-edged sword, but its status as the decade's best pop album shouldn't be in doubt. [Tam Gunn]

RESULT!!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Thank you ever so much for making Is This It the number one record of the decade!! That means a hell of alot to me, and I have been walking around with my head in the clouds for days now! xx G Raph


http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/17/britain.nme.strokes.album/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/17/nme-top-albums-decade-noughties

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8363726.stm

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/11/17/strokes-top-nmes-decade-list-vote-in-rolling-stones-poll-now/

Berlin, Germany

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I have been fielding requests for lots of interesting production and mixing things this month-- Frederick from Ox Eagle Lion Man, a band I recorded in London several years ago- came to visit me here and we worked on 3 very cool songs for his new project called Club Royale. I just mixed some songs for The Gecko, and also a loal band called Human Elephant. 2 weeks ago I met and had dinner with Eddie Kramer; this individual recorded most of the Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin material in the world, and as such his work has inspired and blown me away for many many years. He gave a lecture presentation about his career, and showed alot of original photos from the actual sessions. he even recorded The Beatles - All You Need Is Love! Sehr Kool! PS I just watched The Beatles Anthology DVD collection for the first time- and I feel a bit more educated about their career path and history. They could really play and sing great, and it wasn't just studio magic from Mr. George Martin! x

Gordotronic.com

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

At last: www.gordotronic.com is up. Soon it will be stuffed full of music and songs and noises for you to enjoy and adopt as your own...xx sweet news.

Sarah Maguire- New Tracks

Sun, 10 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

chack out www.myspace.com/sassymaguire for the latest, coolest and ....

Gordon's Art Show in Berlin

Sun, 10 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Beyond Music - the first art exhibiton of musician and music producer Gordon Raphael who produced amongst others The Strokes and Skin.

Born in Bronx (New York) as the son of a jazz musican and scientist, Gordon Raphael encountered music and art very early in his life. At the age of seven he won an art contest in painting at thirteen he played shows is his first band.

As well as playing in lots of bands, and producing innumerable others, he always did little paintings and drawing on paper- since his childhood. Later he started to document the musicscene of his surroundings with the foto- and videocamera. The creative influences of his producing comes from a very wide scope. He was inspired by Flemish painters (H.Bosch and Brueghel) and surrealists like Salvador Dali, as well as from the style of comics and films by Stanley Kubrik and Charlie Chaplin. The result of this mixture of sources of inspiration are paintings, in which appear trance and dream images as well as Christian motives contrasted with neoncolors and glitter. Over years he produced hours of unshown videomaterial and thousands of fotos. From this collection of multifaceted works, will now be presented a selection of 66 paintings and drawings, over 160 fotos and several videos.

******June 14th- the 28th*******

Curated by Theresa Lunau

The Beyond Music official website: http://grbeyondmusic.wordpress.com

Gordotronic

Sun, 10 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hello, and greetings from Berlin. It often takes a while for Spring to jump out here, the winter white skies had been particularly oppressive this year, but the recent warm beautiful weather gives us a hint of good times to come. I thank you all for visiting this site, and keeping it going! Vielen Dank! I have been scrambling to make a new label and put more artists out lately.Here is an example site but its kind of just a hint of what"s to come! http://gordotronic.laserlaser

All about it.

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Nothing going on at all. Two quantum trillion atoms spinning, trembling round their funny little nucleus, while art-supplies go on special offer this Saturday, downtown at K-Mart. That quirky phenomenon called LIFE was officially over in 2002, brougt to you by the Bible and several grey-haired political scandals, in sandals. So now they're trying to CLONE it, imitate it and sell it a s aplug-in for Facebook, a commercial for Mouse Space. Space Pilot Raphael polishes his silver wings and turns another knob in Sunny Southern Spain. An La-2a compresses the bass reality just enough to allow it to marry the loud guitars, and a sweet hit of rock and roll is reborn, ciao for now!!--, x-Auto

out and about/summer sounds

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

after Madrid, I was back in Berlin partying night and day with Sarah Maguire and the spotted one (Dalmatina) Tiva. She moved to Prenzlaer Berg and is having a blast there except for the sneaky secret DOG-police who don't want Tiva to run free at all... what a pile of legalistic dogma crap!! Well, I recorded FCKSCHSSE at Nalpa Strasse Studio East with Fabien Leseure, and boy that was fun. I learned about POST rock, and enjoyed recording some German singing. Look out for Cobra, its gonna be huge!

I was in Laussane, Switzerland to attend For Noise Festival with The Mondrians, who I am recording today in South of Spain at Gizmo 7, a killer studio with little apartments, palm trees and a swimming pool. Now thats the way, and we even have a lovely chef who cooks out meals after we make a tremendous amount of noise and music. I had never been to Switzerland before and was well impressed by the town Laussane, and Montreux as well with the super-sexy lakes and huge skies... I go for that stuff really, having grown up near Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Mountains and Snoqualmie Pass. Even The Olympic Rain Forest, La Push and The Wonderland Trail all inspired me to make the crazy outer space, high in Nature sounds that manifest in my productions.

Well untill next time, be well and breathe.

x Gordon