All Latest
Catch up on our latest writing.
Black Sky Thinking
Spotify Wrapped & Apple Music Replay Vie To Be The “John Lewis Ad” Of Streaming
The streaming services have become locked into an arms race to see who can own the end of year reveal, says Eamonn Forde. It's just that the artists who are, arguably, being badly treated and the listeners who foot the bill are the ones doing all of the heavy lifting when it comes to branding and marketing
Reissue of the Week
Reissue Of The Week: Khanate’s Things Viral
At the beginning of the millennium, Khanate created a twisted and challenging new form of sonic torment. Dan Franklin revisits the band’s reissued back catalogue and explores the harrowing context of their existence. CW: contains graphic discussion of torture and war crimes
Reissue of the Week
Earthly Delights: Unpacking Donovan’s A Gift From A Flower To A Garden Boxset
As the state51 Conspiracy reissue Donovan's double-album box set on mono vinyl, Ben Graham looks back at the artist's most ambitious statement and finds a post-psychedelic message that's still relevant today
Album of the Week
Memories Of Sound: Esz Kodesz By Cut The Sky
Now based in Kraków, the new trio from MultiTraction Orchestra’s Alex Roth, with clarinettist Wacław Zimpel and drummer Hubert Zemler, proves a heady blast of electronics, field recording and wild collective improvisation summoning a rich seam of emotion and solidarity
New Weird Britain
New Weird Britain In Review For November By Noel Gardner
The return of Creation Rebel, the long-awaited full release of a 90s video game soundtrack classic, a pleasingly non-literal tribute to The Wicker Man and more all feature in your latest guide to the world of New Weird Britain
Black Sky Thinking
An Ungraspable Intelligence: Bird Song In The Time Of Collapse
Referencing two new albums, the compilation Synthetic Bird Music and Kate Carr's A Field Guide To Phantasmic Birds, plus Daphne du Maurier's avian horror and one of England's oldest documented songs, Summer Is Icumen In, Daryl Worthington asks how the rich interlinked history of bird song and human music has changed over the centuries and what it now means in a time of climate crisis
Low Culture Essay
Richard Milward On France Gall’s 1968 & The Death Of Yé-Yé
In this month's subscriber essay, novelist Richard Milward travels back 55 years to the cobblestone-strewn streets of Paris, the release of France Gall's album 1968, and discovers how a time of political upheaval had a profound impact on the happy-go-lucky genre of yé-yé
Baker's Dozen
Straight Dubplate Business: Slimzee’s Favourite Tracks
The godfather of grime takes Manu Ekanayake through thirteen favourite tracks, that soundtracked his journey through his part in the birth of grime, scaling tower blocks to set up pirate radio aerials, his hiatus following a mental breakdown, and helming chaotic raves from Milton Keynes to Ayia Napa
Black Sky Thinking
Shadowplay: The Case For Regulating Online Ticket Touting
The online ticket resale industry is still exploitative and worryingly unregulated. Professor Guy Osborn of Westminster Law School and Professor Mark James of Manchester Law School present their latest research on this controversial practice and make a case for a new Labour government bringing in legislation to deal with it
