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Spotlighting the impact of cultural landmarks
The legacy of Michael Jackson looked to be assured when he died a decade ago, but further shocking allegations have left him in danger of being “cancelled”. Can all the King of Pop’s horses and all the King’s men put MJ back together again? And, asks Jeremy Allen, to what extent is his legacy worth saving anyway?
Revisiting the work of the American futurist and self-described agnostic mystic, Robert Anton Wilson, forty years since the publication of his Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy, Sean Kitching finds the author’s questing vision more vital and necessary today than it has ever been
Michael Hann talks to Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Cronos of Venom, Biff Byford of Saxon and more about the grassroots movement termed the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal which revitalised the genre and laid the foundations for extreme metal as we know it today
Sean Kitching talks to Olivia Tremor Control co-founder, Will Cullen Hart, about re-injecting the psychedelic into 60s psych pop and the less immediately apparent influences that inspired The Olivia Tremor Control’s 1999 magnum opus, Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One
From ignorant farmers to making one of 2018’s most revered records, Low and producer Kramer talk to Daniel Dylan Wray about the making of I Could Live In Hope, the album that started it all off, ahead of their appearance at this year's Rewire festival in The Hague
In February 1994, Darkthrone and Emperor released albums that are regarded as some of the most influential and important black metal ever created. Both acts also became enmeshed in controversies that would likely end a career if they happened today. Ben Handelman examines these albums and how we've distinguished youthful missteps from unacceptable and dangerous behaviors in this community over the years
With a back catalogue of over 50 challenging albums, it might look like there's no particularly easy way of cracking the enigma of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago. Not so, says Eden Tizard, looking back at the group's first ECM album, Nice Guys, which was released 40 years ago this month
The Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle plus manager Richard Boon speak to Patrick Clarke about the unintentional genius of their landmark debut (this feature was republished on 7th December 2018 to mark the sad passing of Pete Shelley)
Sean Kitching argues that 1978s two most idiosyncratic releases, the Residents’ Duck Stab/Buster & Glen and Pere Ubu’s Dub Housing, both released on November 30 of that year, represent a pinnacle of individualism at the outer periphery of American art rock
American animating legend Ralph Bakshi attempted to bring J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel to the big screen over two decades before Peter Jackson. On its fortieth anniversary, our man in San Francisco, Ned Raggett, takes a closer look at both the film as well as the numerous other attempts to present Tolkien, onscreen and off, in those years
Mark E Smith shared an artistic vision with William Blake, says Alex Weston-Noond and The Annotated Fall online resource of the group's (oft overlooked) tenth album, but its real power lies in the way it deals with more standard themes of politics and breakup
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