Some figure studies in pencil.
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Author Archives: Harley R
Mesdames of the Marker Pen 3
Another collection of attention grabbing pin-ups from the pen of Harley R. LIMITED EDITION OF 25.
ADULTS ONLY. Order your copy now from our Etsy shop.
The third in this collectable series of art books is packed with marker pen pin-ups from the House of Harley archives.
Published January 2025. Limited edition of 25. A5 perfect bound paperback. 40 pages.
£4.50 plus postage. ADULTS ONLY. Order now from our Etsy shop.
Own a House of Harley marker pen pinup
All the original drawings featured in Mesdames of the Marker Pen are available for purchase for very reasonable prices. See the growing range of pinups in our Etsy shop or enquire here about a specific drawing you’re interested in.
Also available
Pestrepeller’s Isle of Dark Magick
Free improvised noise from the deep UK Underground, enriched with dark pagan folky vibe and horror/supernatural elements. Dedicated to HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Austin Osman Spare.
For this 2001 recording, the core Pesterepeller trio of Savage Pencil, Ed Pinsent and Harley R were joined by vocal artiste Rob Brown and Peter Hope-Evans of Medicine Head.
“…an oppressively dark slab of freestyle Improv recorded in a single session… the epic sprawl and sustained impact of the music retain an undiluted potency.”
– Tom Ridge, The Wire
About Pestrepeller
Pestrepeller (or Attack Wave Pestepeller, to give them their full moniker) specialise in a unique brand of detailed and noisy improvised music inspired by the occult.
The core of the band is a trio of Ed Pinsent – cartoonist (Illegal Batman, Windy Wilberforce, Drake Ullingsworth), Sound Projector radio show and magazine – Harley R – publisher and editor of Ugly Mug comic – and Savage Pencil – punk cartoonist (Sounds, NME, The Wire) and designer of album covers and t-shirts for bands such as Sonic Youth, The Fall, Sunn O))) and Rocket from the Crypt. The core trio are sometimes joined by honorary pests such as Sharon Gal, Peter Hope Evans, Rob Brown and Gary Ramon.
Pestrepeller have performed at the ICA and the Equinox ‘Festival of Scientific Illumination’. Recordings include Insect and Rodent Eliminator (Sympathy for the Devil records), Nug Yar (Prescription), The Cruel Sea (a collaboration with the Chelsea Magrigal Group), Isle of Dark Magic (Important Records), As Wolf (a split release picture disc with My Cat Is An Alien), Noises for the Leg, Alphabet of Daggers and Rough on Rats.
About this release
Track listing
1. Mold With a Mind (15:13)
2. No Screeches and Snakes And Deep Dark Menaces (07:15)
3. My Gun Scatters, My Gun Kills (20:18)
4. Dismembered Dead Things (14:54)
5. The Smell of Wet Fur in the Rain (06:05)
6. Teaching the Clouds to be Inverted Flames (12:35)
Recorded at LMC Sound. Released in 2005 on Important Records.
Engineered by Xentos and Lepke B, former members of cult bands The Homosexuals and Milk from Cheltenham. Cover image was supplied by Martin Stone, guitarist with Mighty Baby and Chili Willi and the Red Hot Peppers.
Listen to this excerpt…
Celophrane-wrapped jewel case CD. Long out of print, but the House of Harley has a very small number of copies on sale for £15+ p&p each from our Etsy shop. While stocks last!
Some 21st century pop classics
This list was compiled while I was preparing to speak at the Battle of Ideas discussion, Is Modern Music Rubbish? Although I was critical about the modern pop industry, I wanted to acknolwedge some songs which prove, to my ears at least, that commercial pop can still come up with the goods now and then.
Click on the links to listen to the songs or immerse yourself in the whole set on this YouTube playlist.
- Victoria Aitken – Weekend Lover
- Alizée – A Contre-Courant
- Basement Jaxx – Romeo, Where’s Your Head At?
- Beyonce – Halo, Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
- Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
- Cascada – Evacuate the Dancefloor
- Chris Brown – Beautiful People
- Taio Cruz – Dynamite
- Daphne and Celeste – Alarms, A.L.T.O.
- Electric Six – Gay Bar
- Five – Keep on Moving
- Fuse ODG – Dangerous Love, Antenna, Ye Play
- Poli Genova – If Love Was A Crime
- Girls Aloud – Love Machine, Biology
- The Go! Team – Semicircle Song
- David Guetta feat Kelly Rowland – When Love Takes Over
- Hearsay – Everybody
- Hoku – Another Dumb Blonde, In the First Place, How Do I Feel? (The Burrito Song)
- Holiday Sidewinder – Leo, Baby Oil
- Enrique Inglesias – I Like It
- Jamelia – Superstar, See It In a Boy’s Eyes
- Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
- JLS – The Club is Alive
- Jojo – Leave (Get Out), Baby It’s You
- Lady Gaga – Alejandro, Paparazzi
- L.M.F.A.O. – Party Rock Anthem
- Pixie Lott – All About Tonight, Boys and Girls
- Las Ketchup – The Ketchup Song (Asereje)
- Madonna – Beautiful Stranger
- Marina – Man’s World
- Declan McKenna – The Key to Life on Earth, Daniel, You’re Still a Child
- M.I.A. – Paper Planes
- Milky – Just The Way You Are
- Nicki Minaj – Starships, Super Bass
- Kylie Minogue – Get Outta My Way
- N.E.R.D. – She Wants To Move
- Outkast – Hey Ya!
- Nerina Pallot – I Don’t Want To Go Out
- Peaking Lights – Bad With The Good
- Katy Perry – California Gurls, Teenage Dream, Roar
- Eric Prydz – Call On Me
- Puffy AmiYumi – Love So Pure
- Flo Rida – Club Can’t Handle
- Robyn with Kleenup – With Every Heartbeat
- Royksopp – Eple
- Nicole Scherzinger – Don’t Hold Your Breath
- Sigala feat. Paloma Faith – Lullaby
- Sugababes – Overload, Freak Like Me
- Taylor Swift – Shake It Off, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
- Justin Timberlake – Rock Your Body
- The Ting-Tings – That’s Not My Name, Great DJ
- Tulisa – We Are Young
- Usher – OMG
- Charli XCX – SuperLove
Is modern music rubbish?
“The Taylor Swifts and Beyonce’s of this world may be able to top the streaming playlists, fill stadiums, generate headlines, hold court to politicians and even awaken dormant economies when their circus comes to town. But outside of their admittedly considerable number of fans, how many of us could name or hum more than one or two of their songs? Or maybe, any of their songs?”
In October I took part in a panel discussion about modern music at the Battle of Ideas festival in London, along with Aaqil Ahmed, Rushabh Haria, Lysia Leal, Leo Villa and chair Andrew Calcutt. You can watch a video of the discussion below.
You can also watch other debates from the Battle of Ideas festival on the Academy of Ideas YouTube channel.
And, for anyone interested in the list I mentioned of great 21st century pop songs, I’ve posted it here.
It’s a Voodoo Christmas
Look for an exclusive two page House of Harley comic strip, ‘It’s a Voodoo Christmas’, in the OCCULTZ Weird Christmas Special. This festively fungal A5 zine was created by Owen Michael Johnson and Satanic Mojo’s Jason Atomic as a souvenir for visitors to the OCCULTZ Weird Christmas Market, which took place in Oxford on, yes, Friday 13th of this month.
Other highlights include Mutartis Boswell’s Horrific Holidays and ‘The Sinister Siberian Shamic Psychedelic Roots of Santa Claus’ by Jason Atomic.
There’s a few copies left so contact the Occultz guys if you’d like to bag one before Santa lays his mitts on them.
Flying Away 1
Walk confidently into the breeze of the light indigo unknown. Flying Away 1 is the first in a series of limited edition House of Harley art books collecting vibrantly coloured sketchbook drawings inspired by the fabulous, frivolous and flyaway world of fashion.
These upscale selections from the House of Harley archive were drawn sometime during the 21st century and first published, with digital colour added, on the House of Harley blog from 2021 to 2023.
Published November 2024. Limited and numbered edition of 40. Full colour A6 booklet. 44 pages.
£4.00 + postage.
Order now from our Etsy shop.
Also available…
Ugly Mug 8
The HOUSE OF HARLEY presents its latest INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH comics compendium.
ADULTS ONLY. Order your copy now from our Etsy shop.
IN THIS ISSUE: vinyl mania – whirling microphones – stuffed tigers – cable inspections – terrible mistakes – old mining railways – time travel on the cheap – floating ziggurats – tree portals – strange clouds – hand-cranked cars – mating season orgies – smoking spoil-heaps – a Tunnock’s shortage
Featuring modern machinery invented by returning Ugly Mug contributors:
- Bearskin – travel the worlds and pass through the portals with Denny Derbyshire
- RSD Lang – Ed Pinsent‘s record collecting hero travels back in time to get a rare LP
- Jungle Ruck – cross(species)-dressing, courtesy mayhem-maker Julian Geek
- Big backsides – depicted with relish by Brazilian guest Alberto Monteiro
- Windy Wilberforce – our hero imperilled under the scalpel of Dr Fengele, in chapter 8 of Ed Pinsent‘s The Saga of the Scroll
And precision-engineered parts supplied by the House of Harley:
- Jack of All Trades – explains how to deal with a wasps nest in your bedroom
- Life with Freda Nipple – onesies, hybrid working and urban birding
- Mark E Smith Music Teacher – more life lessons from The Fall’s late lead singer
- Sound of the Underground – an earth-shaking collision of politics and music
Alll wrapped in injection-molded covers designed by Northern powerhouse John Bagnall.
“Ugly Mug is a really, really interesting anthology out of the UK… doesn’t seem to be engaged in anything ‘on trend’, instead we have stark black and white cartooning with blunt, human stories. Magnetic stuff, not like the rest!”
– Austin English, Domino Books
Published Sept 2024. A4, 56 pages.
“You want something different in cartooning and storytelling? Get this! Wild, unhindered creativity on display.” – Talking Small Press Comics
“Wild fun and the epitome of sheer creativity perfection… here is more racy fare than any British X-mas Annual of yore. These cunning creations teem with turbulent narrative force and visual clout, and come packed to the gills with wry and witty visual oomph…” – Win Wiacek, Now Read This!
“…things can get a little mad and sometimes leave you thinking ‘what have I just read?’ but it’s that eccentricity and flair that means you can’t stop reading and admiring what’s been put together.” – Comic Book News UK
“Ugly Mug continues to occupy a space in our indie scene that no other small press anthology series comes close to visiting. An unrepentant oddity, it’s that very outsider ambience that makes it such a continued draw in the UK self-publishing world.” – Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier
“A British ZAP-esque feel to it… nothing in this comic is normal, in a brilliant way.” – Tony Esmond, Awesome Comics Podcast
£8.95 + postage. ADULTS ONLY.
Order now direct from our Etsy shop.
Or pick up a copy from these online and real world retailers:
– Gosh! Comics, London
– Domino Books, US
– Partners and Son, Philadelphia, US
Also available…
Hands Up 1
The first in a new series of limited edition art books featuring the male figure in all its gory glory. From the sketchbooks of the House of Harley.
Published September 2024. Limited edition of 40. A6, 24 pages.
£2.00 + postage.
Order now from our Etsy shop.
Also available…
The Hot-Damn Pram Scam
From the archives…
