UHM! ZINES PRESENTS: TRELLICK TOWER - A BRUTALIST ICON IN NORTHWEST LONDON

TITLE - UHM! ZINES PRESENTS: TRELLICK TOWER - A BRUTALIST ICON IN NORTHWEST LONDON 

CREATED BY - STEPPP (STEFANO SAMA) 

GENRE - BRITISH BRUTALIST ARCHITCTURE/TRELLICK TOWER 

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - UNITED KINGDOM 

A5/24 PAGES/BLACK & WHITE/PAMPHLET/CARD COVERS/LIMITED TO 50 COPIES 

PRICE - £10.00 + SHIPPING FROM UHMZINES ETSY STORE

In a departure from his usual publications, "Steppp", the prolific photographer and creator behind the brutalist zine "BRUTAL", has produced a special package focusing on just one building: that icon of British Brutalism, Trellick Tower in London. The zine ties in with Trellick's 50th anniversary and is the first in a new series of zines dedicated to notable Brutalist buildings.

Not quite as old as me, (I was born a year earlier in 1971) Trellick Tower was built by architect Erno Goldfinger and opened in 1972. The zine includes an introduction by EG himself in which he talks of "spatial order" and the sensations that can be experienced in buildings and is typical of the pretension often displayed by architects talking about their work. Such themes about the "sense of space" etc are important to Brutalism, and Trellick Tower is definitely an icon of the movement, but sadly it became more famous for its crime and lawlessness, before being gentrified, with the flats becoming highly desirable. The zine also includes a brief history of the tower, which is a welcome feature.

Steppp's photography is, as usual, starkly excellent. With its iconic separate lift-shaft, connecting walkways and monolithic appearance, Trellick Tower is shot from the ground up (bar a couple of long-shots) emphasising its size (98 metres) and geometric otherworldliness. The photos are crisp and detailed, unflinchingly capturing the graffiti and rubbish bins. Not quite as futuristic as some Brutalist buildings, Trellick emphasises function over form but remains a classic. 

In the deluxe package, you get the zine itself in black card covers, a "50th birthday card" containing a 7x5 monochrome photograph and a pop-art Trellick postcard. The whole package is very classy with high production values, and well worth the higher than usual price tag.

STRANGE DAYS VOLUME #10

TITLE - STRANGE DAYS VOLUME #10 | SUMMER 2022

CREATED BY - ANDREW JUHL

GENRE - FORTEANA/UFOs/CRYPTIDS/PARANORMAL PHENOMENA/HIGH STRANGENESS/WEIRD SH*T

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - USA 

7"x5"/BLACK & WHITE/44 PAGES/PERFECT-BOUND 

PRICE - £9.18 + SHIPPING FROM STRANGE DAYS ETSY STORE

Born during the lockdown/quarantine of 2020, "Strange Days" came into being when creator Andrew Juhl started telling friends, quite rightly as it turned out, that they were living in “strange days”. Upon realising that, in fact, the planet Earth has always been strange, and full of strange events, he sat down to collate some of the weirdest stories he could find and created the first issue of this zine in a single afternoon while sitting on his couch. Now on issue 10, aptly featuring a big X on the cover, “Strange Days” the zine, like the high strangeness the world has lived through the past couple of years, shows no signs of stopping.

Still in its surprisingly tactile pocket-sized format, volume 10 kicks off with a classic UFO story from the United Kingdom which was the source of an infamous photograph of an alleged alien craft which has been dubbed the "best UFO photo ever taken". The story involves government cover-ups, secret projects and high-level shenanigans. There's a heart-warming but no less strange story about a lady who received postcards from her deceased mother 60 years after they were posted, and tantalising videos of one of the hot topics of the moment, UAPs, shadowing planes at air shows in the US and UK. Elsewhere, the sighting of a bizarre werewolf-like creature in Amarillo echoes the appearance of a similar beastie in Texas in 1971, the sight of which caused one man to have a heart-attack (he survived though). Amongst the other stories, guest writer Jon McEdward's piece explores how randomising your research can often lead to serendipitous discoveries in the rabbit holes of the internet, a scary story about a sleep paralysis encounter (which I can relate to), a brief history of the mysterious Georgia Guidestones, which were recently significantly damaged and are now pretty much gone, studies of cryptids and Native American mythology and the Tarot card is the 3 of Cups.

One welcome aspect of "Strange Days" is that creator Andrew Juhl rarely makes firm judgements on the stories he features, preferring instead to encourage the reader to seek them out and decide for themselves. The content is varied and engaging, and the print and photography is clear throughout. "Strange Days" offers a condensed dose of weirdness and will appeal to fans of the Fortean Times and the paranormal.