Fred Deakin is best-known as half of the playfully eclectic downtempo duo Lemon Jelly, as well as one of the founders of the enormously successful and innovative design studio, Airside.
Airside's client base included Coca-Cola, D&AD, EMI, Greenpeace, Live Earth, Mastercard, MTV, Nike, Panasonic, Sony, Visa, Vodafone, the Pet Shop Boys and The Beatles and their iconic style is instantly recognizable.
Deakin also founded Impotent Fury, Lemon Jelly's own label, (which was also the name of an infamous club night run by Fred where the music genre was chosen by the spin of a wheel.) The label issued 46 official releases plus a few non-label deluxe custom-packaged boots due to uncleared samples issued with Fred's telltale typeface. These boots have since become highly-sought-after collectibles among Jellyheads.
The first was 2001's
Soft/Rock, a 7" blue vinyl single in a screenprinted modified denim sleeve constructed from pairs of jeans with a flavored condom in the pocket. The single was limited to 1,000 copies, 15 of which featured hand embroidery by Laura Lees. The singles contained uncleared samples by Chicago and Black Crowes, hence the private release.
Then in August of 2003, another self-release surfaced titled
Rolled/Oats. The single was spray painted gold and screenprinted once again with the classic Jelly font and housed in a hessian (burlap) sleeve. "Rolled" samples "Feel Like Making Love" by Bad Company and is based on "The Curse Of Ka'zar" from their
Lost Horizons double LP. "Oats" uses elements of "Closer" with a sample of George Michael's "Heal The Pain".
Lemon Jelly initially issued three EPs, later collected on the beautifully-packaged
lemonjelly.ky double LP in 2000.
This was followed by their debut full-length LP,
Lost Horizons in 2002. Each album featured striking packaging design named among countless “greatest album art” lists as well as being featured in Grant Scott's book,
The Greatest Album Covers of All Time. Both of these releases showcased the duo's spirited, whimsical, and ultra-chilled downtempo style.
In 2005 a box set of four 10" LPs was issued titled
'64-'95, with each track prefixed with the year of the sample incorporated into the single. The album is rather different from their previous two releases in that it has a darker sound and is influenced by more modern sounding music. To avoid confusion over the matter, the band included a sticker on the sleeve stating, "This is our new album, it's not like our old album." The album closer, "Go" featured vocals by William Shatner.
Fred also produced over one hundred mixes and DJ sessions during and after his time with Lemon Jelly, many of which were featured by BBC 6 Music and the Breezeblock. Each set seamlessly wove together deep cuts and musical oddities of Balearica, funk, hip hop, soul, dub, reggae, swing, and an array of leftfield oddities which always kept the listener engaged and guessing as to what was around the next sonic corner.
An official release of this nature was eventually issued in 2007 by Impotent Fury -
Fred Deakin Presents: The Triptych, a three-CD set of everything from folk rock to break/broken beat, jazzdance, country, deep and Euro house, neo-soul, gospel, and more.
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