Black Sky Thinking
Essays, investigation and opinion on today’s cultural landscape
Black Sky Thinking
Sleepwalking Into Censorship: How Internet Freedom Is Under Threat
With the news that net neutrality has come under threat in the US, Ian Maleney explores the worrying consequences of censorship and restrictive legislation for internet users, from David Cameron's proposed 'anti-porn' filter to ISPs blocking torrent sites
Black Sky Thinking
Mr Agreeable A Quietus Makes: Sour Sot Reviews Our Favourite Bands
The Quietus staff are fully occupied moving office today, so we left the website in the capable hands of Mr Agreeable, and suggested he might like to review music from East India Youth, Factory Floor, Sunn O))) and Fat White Family
Black Sky Thinking
Burn Up The Floor: Pop & Politics In 2013 Dance Music
At the end of an exhausting year in club music, Rory Gibb reflects back upon 2013 on and off the dancefloor, and considers some of the political, social and technological issues facing the dance music community in the near future
Black Sky Thinking
Governance By Algorithm: Big Data, The NSA & A Sinister Future
One of the biggest stories of the year has been the perhaps-not-shocking revelation that the American NSA and our own GCHQ have been snooping on our everyday communications. Becky Hogge writes about how we're struggling to grasp the consequences of this erosion of our rights, and asks what we might do to counter it
Black Sky Thinking
Terror In The Terroir: Resisting The Rebranding Of The Countryside
Resisting ideological efforts to brand the countryside as a place of safe, reassuring conservativism, argues Joe Kennedy, a host of art and music in 2013 powerfully emphasised the uncanny and traumatic aspects of rural Britain. Photograph by Luke Turner.
Black Sky Thinking
A World Of Dreaded Fear: Revisiting Band Aid’s Lyrical Crime Scene
Band Aid raised awareness of a disastrous famine, as well as huge sums of money to try ease it but, one year ahead of its 30th anniversary, Wyndham Wallace begs us to condemn, not celebrate, a song whose lyrics are uglier than Rupert Murdoch’s ballsack
Black Sky Thinking
Gary Glitter, Re-Writing Musical History & The Danger Of Censorship
Gary Glitter has been omitted from a recent major compilation about glam. Johnny Sharp argues that such censorship and re-writing of musical history is dangerous, no matter how heinous the artist's crime. Photo from Shutterstock.
Black Sky Thinking
Song To The Siren: Pop Culture & The Warning Klaxon
Robert Barry explores the growing ubiquity of the warning siren in popular culture, all the way from When Worlds Collide to Jason Derulo's 'Don't Wanna Go Home', via hip hop, the rave explosion, sonic weaponry and the panic sonics of contemporary pop
Black Sky Thinking
Cooked To Perfection: Why You Have To Watch Breaking Bad
With its final installment about to arrive, David Stubbs casts an eye back over the exquisitely bleak, hyperreal vista of one of the most unique TV shows in history and asks - why haven't you watched Breaking Bad yet? (contains mild spoilers)
