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Genuine treasures unearthed
Violent Femmes’ self-titled debut is one of the most essential American indie rock records of the early 80s, but it’s not the only album by the band you must have in your collection, argues Cal Cashin, as he re-examines its unfairly overlooked follow-up Hallowed Ground 40 years on
Squarepusher once said he has no recollection of making Ultravisitor, his “spectacle of beauty and of terror”. As the record is reissued as an expanded edition for its 20th anniversary, Siobhán Kane returns to the record’s ambiguous beauty
50 years ago, John Cale found himself at Heartbreak Hotel, producing sweet and unhinged music from its rooms. Reassessing Fear, Slow Dazzle and Helen Of Troy, Darran Anderson explores the musician’s remarkable year-long burst of creativity for Island Records, half a century on
Kampire is universally regarded as one of East Africa's best contemporary DJs, so this compilation of pan-African pop from the 80s – featuring music that often irritated her as a child – is something of a handbrake turn. However, as Martin Guttridge-Hewitt points out, it's a glorious affair that only goes to further cement her reputation as a selector, musicologist and sonic historian
Outliers in the thriving Ukrainian underground during the last days of Soviet rule, a long overdue compilation surveying the career of Cukor Bila Smert provides a complex mosaic of anxiety, surrealism, cabaret, paranoia and darkness, says Jakub Knera
Back in 1974, Richard Pinhas’ Heldon took musical inspiration from Eno and Fripp in order to become France’s Buzzcocks and Throbbing Gristle all rolled into one. The country’s first modern DIY group laid the foundations for electronic music outside of the snobbery of academia and the restrictive practices of the French music industry, says Jeremy Allen
Beautifully intimate home recordings made by an Ethiopian nun reflecting on the idea of exile in the 1970s and 1980s, probably never intended to be heard by anyone but herself, have taken on an astounding universality in 2024, says Jakub Knera
Brilliant film director Peter Strickland has long flown the flag for psychedelic, eccentric and disconcerting European music but on latest film Flux Gourmet he put his money where his mouth was by including his own very curious group, The Sonic Catering Band. Will Salmon celebrates a singular soundtrack and vision
Luke Turner appraises Cherry Red's reissue of The Fall's Real New Fall LP, arguing that Mark E Smith's decision to remix the original version showed his judgement was correct as it paved the way for one of the best periods of the group's operation
In 1995, Polly Harvey reinvented herself as a pink catsuit-wearing vamp peddling an album of stormy gothic American blues. But was it really such a surprise? Ben Hewitt argues the transformation only put up in lights what Harvey had already shown: she was an actor as much as a singer
Because of the death of Ian Curtis and the nature of the band's last recordings, Joy Division's Closer is an album around which a stillness has settled. In truth, says Jonathan Wright as he talks to Peter Hook and Paul Morley, no band evolved so rapidly. All Joy Division portraits courtesy of Kevin Cummins
25 years ago The Boss played Brixton Academy as part of his least successful tour since his first but, says, Liam Inscoe-Jones, while he may have been underperforming catastrophically in financial terms, this was also a time of creative rebirth
Recently there has been much ado about Dark Side Of The Moon, but significantly less fuss made about The Final Cut. David Bennun examines how we got from one to the other in a single decade and how the current split at the heard of Pink Floyd represents the divide between crank leftism and centrist Dadism
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