From reggae, ska, rock steady and dub, Trojan Records logos’ endurance is a testament to the music and culture. We haven’t included the complete list of all the artists that appeared under Trojan Records, but hope we’ve caught a few of everybody’s favourites.
Growing up in a house full of reggae records has made the Trojan logo as recognisable to me as the Nike swoosh. It’s no coincidence that the typeface Trojan Records uses is a robust and solid one. Like them, Rockwell Bold evokes strength and stability. They chose well.
A limited edition set of artists proofs, screen printed in metallic gold and dark green and available on black and white fine art papers. Each screen print is unique with different variations of the gold ink mix. As with the previous Star Wars screen print, some have been printed with pure metallic gold and some have been mixed with a orange ink. This is especially apparent on the white Somerset Satin papers. These prints have lot more orange than metallic gold.
Signed and numbered.
Star Wars vs Bristol - An uchi clothing collaboration with IX Tshirts
After a fierce dog fight with the Millennium Falcon and a vicious ground assault along the Avon Gorge, a TIE Fighter surveys the aftermath and finds a downed AT-AT Walker against the backdrop of Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge.
A limited edition of 13 two colour hand pulled screen prints for IX T shirts. Each print is unique as varying levels of metallic gold ink where used and some have gold mixed with orange producing a richer colour.
So, after a long wait for sunflower yellow T shirts, the Trojan T shirt reprints are done. I had created an ‘artist’s impression’ of the new yellow T shirts, thinking red and green print on yellow would not only look great, it’d be perfect for a reggae based T shirt. However, the mock-up posted on the product page suggested otherwise. I dismissed this and put it down to it being a mock-up and not a picture of an actual real printed T shirt! I was confident that when actually printed, the colours “will look dope on that colour T shirt!”.
They didn’t. It did remind me of having an eye test. On the yellow T shirts, the depth of the red and green colours was two close. The whole print was too dark to show the Trojan emblem prominently enough through the text – the opposite of what I wanted. The mock-up turned out to be accurate after all.
Trojan men’s T shirt – Red Gold and Green?
I was a little disappointed, but (and you have to stay on your feet in this game), I remembered that the last yellow uchi T shirt was printed using a dark golden yellow and the same green we were using, so…
We overprinted the poorly chosen red with the dark yellow and this is what we got.
Trojan men’s T shirt – Sunflower Yellow
They say hindsight is a beautiful thing. And with further hindsight, or, by paying attention to the rules of colour instead of getting sentimental about red, gold and green combos, maybe even these current colour ways could be better? If instead, green and gold were printed on the cream and the yellow T shirt had the green/orange combo. Perhaps? It is a very limited run, so the next cream and yellow Trojan T shirts will probably see a reversal of colours… maybe clear and red inks?
Feel free to let me know what colour combo you’d like to see on a future uchi Trojan T shirt.
It’s the end of the sixth uchi album of T shirts. All but two of the designs on this as yet untitled album are music related. I am pleased that these last two designs follow the music theme, with a particular focus on vinyl.
There are a couple of new designs that were going to be included, but were not finished in time. On reflection it worked out fine. The two unfinished pieces are very illustrative and more like designs in the pipeline than the ones recently done. So, maybe the next album will be all illustration? We’ll see.
Here are the latest two uchi vinyl-related T shirts and the stories behind them…
Founded in 1968, the British founded Trojan Records has one of the most iconic and recognisable logos and a host of equally iconic and renowned artists under its belt.
From reggae, ska, rock steady and dub, its endurance is a testament to the music and culture. We haven’t included the complete list of all the artists that appeared under Trojan Records, but hope we’ve caught a few of everybody’s favourites.
For me, growing up in a house full of reggae records has made the Trojan logo as recognisable as the Nike swoosh, but with a ton of more meaning. It’s no coincidence that they also use a heavy robust and solid typeface like Rockwell Extra Bold.
Although a reggae specialist Payback Records have a great selection of non-reggae vinyl. Their HipHop section is featured on The Big Payback T shirt. Coincidentally, the record store is named after the 1989 EPMD track of the same name; perfect uchi. I was unaware of this connection before I added the type. The Big Payback is one of my favourite EPMD tracks and is somewhere in the stack of old school vinyl in the image. In the shot, I’m actually standing in Payback Records.
Here’s some old and new. A look back at the original uchi classic T shirt No 18 – Now We May Begin and the 2016 remix, Now We May Begin Again.
Although the original T shirt design uses four overlaid images and the remix only three, there were originally 36 photographs shot in sequence documenting the vinyl selection process (Natural Selection), to the needle dropping on the record, as shown on Always Use Clean Needles. The remix is more subtle – the “sample” – the first verse from Randy Crawford’s song of the same name has been removed and the lines redrawn for a bigger print.
Fallback or ‘alternate’ content goes here.This content will only be visible if the SWF fails to load.
If you’re a fan of the late legendary Hip Hop/neo soul producer J Dilla, you’ll know how much he is loved around the world as a prolific producer, beat maker and musician. He has produced tracks for the likes of Slum Village, The Roots, Janet Jackson, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, The Roots, The Pharcyde… The list is as huge as his respect from fans and artists alike.
Many of my favourite Hip Hop joints have been produced by J Dilla, aka Jay Dee, despite not always being aware at the time he was the producer. Recently, I dug out some of my Erykah Badu and D’angelo albums (amongst others), just to listen closer to that ‘Dilla’ sound, the smooth breaks with that organic feel that made me instantly like them so much. That’s the beauty of true authentic art. You’re not meant to notice the technicalities or the cracks and imperfections, but it’s those things that make them so special and stand shoulders above the rest.
Legendary J Dilla
J Dilla first made his mark as a producer for Slum Village, in his home town of Detroit and in the early 2000s went on to have a solo career and collaborations. Anyone will tell you that this only skims the surface of his catalogue. I won’t go into details, I would suggest you listen to anything he was involved in and go from there. You’ll discover the enormous amount of praise and respect he receives and recognise it was all well deserved. Needless to say, his status amongst artist, fans, beat makers, vinyl seekers, musicians and those that ‘know’ is that close to a deity.
Upon his untimely death in 2006, he had already amassed a huge collection of production credits on a variety of diverse projects. He is widely regarded as “one of the most influential Hip Hop artists” and a “producers favourite producer”.
Sadly, after suffering for a long time with the blood disease thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpuran, in February 2006, J Dilla died at 32 years old. His legacy lives on. His dedication to his craft is legendary. Stories about his beat making methods, his mastery of equipment and rolling up to gigs in his wheelchair have given him cult status and inspired musicians worldwide. J Dilla underground beat tapes have being circulated and bootlegged, tribute albums have been produced and his work has been translated for a 60-piece orchestra.
Timeless – Suite for Ma Dukes
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (Mochilla Presents): Timeless: Suite For Ma Dukes (The Music Of James “Dilla” Yancey)
This orchestrated homage to J Dilla’s work, brings me to why I’m writing this.
Timeless – Suite for Ma Dukes – composed and arranged by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson in 2009, pays tribute to Dilla, interpreting his work into sublime orchestral pieces. It features artists such as Bilal, Common, Dwele, Karriem Riggins, Posdnuos, Talib Kweli and more. Timeless – Suite for Ma Dukes is, as well as everything else Dilla put his hand to, well a worth a listen.
Here is a work in progress. My own version of the Timeless – Suite for Ma Dukes album cover.
I wanted to capture Dilla’s intricate style, the classical elements, his layered loops and samples. I wanted to create something that looked elegant, intricate and, well, “timeless”.
Videos:
The Pharcyde – Drop (1995)
Raekwon – House of Flying Daggers (2009)
Janet Jackson – Got ‘Til It’s Gone (Ummah Jay Dee’s Revenge Mix) (1997)
Suite For Ma Dukes Orchestra – Untitled / Fantastic (A Tribute To J Dilla) (2009)
&url=https://uchi.co.uk/shop/mens-t-shirts/ix-t-shirt-dogfight-over-avon-gorge-colour/&media=https://uchi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IX-TShirt-MillenniumColor-0ff-white-1024x1024.jpg){kind=link}
&url=https://uchi.co.uk/shop/mens-t-shirts/ix-t-shirt-dogfight-over-avon-gorge-light/&media=https://uchi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IX-TShirt-Millennium-offwhite-1024x1024.jpg){kind=link}
&url=https://uchi.co.uk/shop/mens-t-shirts/ix-t-shirt-incident-at-tower-bridge-colour/&media=https://uchi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IX-TShirt-Tower-Bridge-colour-grey-1024x1024.jpg){kind=link}
