Black Sky Thinking
Essays, investigation and opinion on today’s cultural landscape
Black Sky Thinking
Derelicte: Ricki Hall, Fashion, Homelessness & The Language Of Privilege
In a Sunday Times Magazine interview this weekend model Ricki Hall told a journalist that he takes his fashion cues from children and the homeless. Karl Smith considers why it might actually not be okay to transfer the aesthetics of necessity and marginalisation to a position of extreme privilege
Black Sky Thinking
The Utopia Of Records: Why Sound Archiving Is Important
Sound is not permanent, and much of the recorded recent history of humanity is currently disintegrating. Robert Barry reports from the British Library Sound Archive and Internet Archive to find out what's being done to preserve these audio records, and explains what you can do to help
Black Sky Thinking
A Fine Blend: The Quietus Writers’ Favourite DJ Mix Albums
Following yesterday's celebration of Coldcut's illustrious mix album 70 Minutes Of Madness, tQ writers have contributed a selection of their favourite DJ mixes, taking in sets from Surgeon, Carl Craig, Shackleton, Grouper, Perc and many more
Black Sky Thinking
Punch In The Corinthians: Why Simon Pegg Is Wrong About Geek Culture
Simon Pegg says that he wants to become a 'serious' actor and leave sci-fi behind. Mat Colegate takes him to task for parroting the tired old argument that geeks are infantile creature who refuse to leave their childhoods behind
Black Sky Thinking
Sing For Silenced Voices: Eurovision 2015 & The Armenian Genocide
On the centenary of the genocide that scattered them across the globe, members of the Armenian diaspora have united for the country's Eurovision Song Contest entry. With perpetrators Turkey refusing to accept responsibility (with the support of the UK and US), Alex Robert Ross argues that this political moment is timely
Black Sky Thinking
Is Labour The Albatross Around The Neck Of Progressive Politics?
With the Labour party reeling from last week's General Election defeat, Joe Kennedy asks if the party rested on its post war laurels just as it kowtowed to neoliberalism, that force he argues is responsible for the 'shittification' of everything
Black Sky Thinking
General Election 2015 & Why Parliament Deserves To Be Hung
If - or, more likely, when - today's vote reveals that no party has a majority, it won't be a reflection of voters being apathetic, rather the blasé attitude of those they're voting for. This, John Tatlock argues, doesn't necessarily have to be seen as a negative
Black Sky Thinking
EXCLUSIVE! Morrissey & Farage: The Flirty Faxes Found!
In the wake of Morrissey's declaration that he had toyed with voting UKIP, tQ's David Stubbs chanced upon a discarded stash of recent correspondence between the one-time Smiths singer and Nigel Farage outside the party's HQ. The exchange covered Morrissey lending his support to the party, British currency, Coronation Street, the Royals and farm animals
Black Sky Thinking
If You’re Going To San Francisco, Be Sure To Have Lots Of Cash
April Clare Welsh investigates the changing face of San Francisco, where minority groups and artists are being priced out of the city by the all-powerful tech dollar, and talks to activists and artists such as Erase Errata
Black Sky Thinking
The Verge Of Getting Down: Bill Brewster’s Funk Rock Rarities
We set crate digger extraordinaire, Bill Brewster another challenge. This week, make us a set culled from the less fashionable - mainly white, blue collar and European - backwaters of funk rock… he came up with some beauties
Black Sky Thinking
Nazi Rhetoric & The Dangerous Power Of The Waning Sun
Battered by Leveson and out of place in a swiftly-changing era of British politics, The Sun is arguably a lesser force than once it was. Yet, argues Joe Kennedy, Katie Hopkins' reprehensible comments on immigration and the complicity of newspaper staff who employ her suggest that as it declines the tabloid is lashing out with increasingly dangerous views
Black Sky Thinking
Join The Chant? Pop’s Endlessly Problematic Relationship With Politics
As senior columnists and musicians complain that younger generations are no longer both musically and politically engaged, David Stubbs argues that rock and pop have never been the defiantly countercultural revolutionary corps that many claim
Black Sky Thinking
A Pressing Business: tQ Goes Inside A Czech Vinyl Plant
The success of Record Store Day has come at the price of manufacturing backlogs at the US and Europe's few remaining pressing plants. Lauren Martin visits GZ Media in the Czech Republic and speaks to UK company Keyproduction to look at the manufacturing process of vinyl and find out how they work to meet increasing demand
Black Sky Thinking
Sonic Sabotage: The Noisy History Of Auto-Destructive Music
Sub Pop recently issued a deluxe version of Father John Misty's album featuring a "bulging thickness" in the packaging that warped the vinyl beyond repair. But, says Robert Barry, this is just the latest in a rich history of self-destroying art
Black Sky Thinking
This Is A Low: Blur, Asia & Cultural Appropriation
In claiming their new album The Magic Whip to be 'Asia-inspired', Blur have become the latest in a line of Western musicians to boil down the diverse cultures of the most populated region in the world into one nonsensical mishmash, says Sandra Song
Black Sky Thinking
Laughing In The Face Of Death: On Paris & The Charlie Hebdo Attack
Reporting back from last night's vigil for the victims of yesterday's atrocity, our Paris correspondent Jeremy Allen asks how it will affect French society and, optimistically, if it will galvanise the nation's left
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