JFK

Anthony Di Franco is a British musician, producer, and sound designer. He has been making captivating noise music since the late ‘80s – nerds (and I use this term most affectionately) will recognize him for his solo work as JFK, Ax, or Ethnic Acid. Meanwhile, others will know him as a member of legendary UK power electronics/noise rock outfit Ramleh or former member of the mighty Skullflower. Much of his work is associated with such labels as Cold Spring, Broken Flag, Freek Records, or, more recently, Chondritic Sound and Fourth Dimension records. The latter is where his latest album came out a mere month ago. This bellicose LP is titled Weapon Design and offers a great demonstration of the JFK/Anthony Di Franco sound. His signature patient, slow-paced compositions, thick layers of lush, electric noise, built around effective, blunt rhythms are what this vivid noise album is all about. You can get it here, and that’s exactly what you should do, too.

In the records

JFK’s STM 266 is titled Divine Invasion Mix and was made entirely from records physically owned by Anthony. As such, it features a real mix of genres, eras, and ideas, going from Varg to Miles Davis or from Roland Kayn to Abdulla Rashim. Despite containing quite a lot of techno, rhythmic noise, and other abrasive sounds, the overall feel of JFK’s mix remains pensive and almost mellow throughout, softening the metallic turbulence through softer synth melodies, organic jazz passages, ambient soundscapes or spoken word excerpts – perhaps one reason why this invasion is divine. This is certainly one of the more diverse sonic journeys in our series – it’s structured as a collection of extraordinary vignettes, all with their own internal logic, but fitting neatly into the whole. I couldn’t help but smell the color blue when listening to it, thus naturally Yves Klein’s work came into the mind’s eye, particularly his 1960 Untitled anthropometry. Don’t miss this one – it will change you, if only slightly.