Lucy – Lucy Plays Wanton Witch Stroboscopic Artefacts Bangkok-resident Malaysian artist Wanton Witch has already radically redefined industrial techno / electronica aesthetics with her 2021 self-titled debut album. Now the sounds are turned on their head again as Stroboscopic Artefacts founder Lucy, not so much remixes the record as builds a whole new one from […]
There aren’t many UK bands in the Punk genre that have had the lasting impact that Crass have. The collective have received an equal amount of love and hate over the decades and all without having any mainstream success. There was no crossover hit, no jeans commercial “sell-out” mega-hit and most folks in the street […]
Ayanna Witter-Johnson – throwing out the rule book In 2016, Ayanna Witter-Johnson performed her stunning interpretation of Roxanne at the Mobo Awards pre-show. It wasn’t just the song that she was interpreting, she was also interpreting the cello itself, revealing the true scope of how this sumptuous instrument can tell stories that flicker with fragile […]
“I could be anything that I want, boy” Smoking Out, from Homecoming April 2021 Du Blonde’s third and latest album, Homecoming, feels just like that. Consistently dealing with subjects that are personal, bruising and heartbreaking, this record feels like those subjects are now being faced off with more of a spirit of defiance, resilience and […]
War – The World Is A Ghetto When I was 14 in Thornton Heath visiting the record store by the station, a cover caught my eye. It was so different, and in many ways years ahead of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti album cover. What was inside the album was even greater than that brilliant cover, […]
Steve Beresford: ‘Pianos, Toys, Music and Noise: Conversations with Steve Beresford’, by Andy Hamilton published in 2021 by Bloomsbury publishing. Georgina Brett – So finally a year or so after the rather expensive hardback first edition, the paperback is now available at a more realistic price. Steve Beresford – Bloomsbury are an academic publisher so […]
“What about Elvis? He give you anything for ‘Hound Dog’?” “I never got a dime.” “Did he tip his hat, or something?” “Well, he refused to play with me when he first come out and got famous. They wanted a big thing for Big Mama Thornton and Elvis Presley. He refused. And I’m so glad […]
It’s 1992 and it’s the Reading Festival. The now legendary Reading festival, I should say. Nirvana, Public Enemy, The Wonderstuff, Nick Cave, Rollins Band, Teenage Fanclub, L7, PJ Harvey, PIL, Beastie Boys, The Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers, Ride, Pavement, Melvins, Mudhoney, Smashing Pumpkins, The Farm… Anything stand out…? L7 seemed to be bulletproof in the […]
Some bands make you feel included. That you are part of their being. A Certain Ratio are one of those bands and they are producing the best music of their 40 year pioneering, genre breaking career. Resplendent from their life affirming appearances at a series of festivals, including Wideawake and We Out Here and an […]
It’s a sunny day in old London town, and I’m due to meet Jarvis Cocker at the offices of Rough Trade, his record company, which are on Golborne Road in west London, in the shadow of Ernö Goldfinger’s 1972 modernist block of flats, Trellick Tower, and near the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal. […]
