Black Sky Thinking
Essays, investigation and opinion on today’s cultural landscape
How Pet Shop Boys Sold City Glamour to Queer Suburban Kids
John Grindrod discovered his sexuality in the streets of Croydon, always looking up the tracks to London, and argues that no other artist articulate this tension between city, suburbia and LGBT+ lives quite so beautifully as did Messrs Tennant and Lowe. This BST comes with a Pet Shop Boys Suburbs vs City playlist exclusive to our Subscriber Plus supporters.
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Edith’s Diary: Drew Daniel on Creating Art under Fascism
Drew Daniel of Matmos has been creating dance music as The Soft Pink Truth for over 20 years, but recently he was forced to ask himself a difficult question: what utility does making music have while the world slides inexorably towards unmitigated disaster?
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Why Reports of the Death of UK Nightlife are Greatly Exaggerated
From venue closures to VAT, conversations around the UK’s beleaguered nightlife sector have struck a singularly gloomy tone for more than a decade. But has that pessimism become part of the problem? Ed Gillett asks whether our eulogies for the late-night scene have outlived their usefulness.
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From The Shout to Bait: Listening to the Sound of Movies about Sound
Darran Anderson relishes hearing Rupert Hine's soundtrack to Jerzy Skolimowski's 1978 psychological horror, The Shout and discovers a sonic gateway in the process. Contains mild spoilers for films The Shout, Berberian Sound Studio, Blow Out, and The Conversation
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25 Years of Infernal Weight: The Destructive Legacy of Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone
Dopethrone, says Dan 'The Doom' Franklin, is the greatest album ever recorded; so great in fact that it splintered the band that created it. But one person was standing in the wings, with resurrection on her mind. Jus Oborn and Liz Buckingham discuss the 25-year legacy of Electric Wizard's most notorious album
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Three Album Run: How Emo Never Bettered Jimmy Eat World’s Static Prevails, Clarity and Bleed American
As the world was changing irreversibly, from 1999 to 2001 Jimmy Eat World went from DIY band done good, to powerhouse name, to international phenomenon – the story of emo itself in microcosm. For Emma Garland, their encapsulation of the subculture's multi-generational range is emo's definitive three album run
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Confronting & Celebrating the Limits of the Body: Black Sabbath Live at Villa Park
Keith Kahn-Harris argues that the Back To The Beginning show highlighted the pivotal role that the imperfections of the body play in metal. Live photographs courtesy of Ross Halfin. With thanks to Jasmine Hazel Shadrack
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The Jonathan Swift of NYC: an Appreciation of Larry Cohen
Whether working in Blaxploitation, horror or sc-fi, auteur Larry Cohen was often battling against constraints created by money, time and his own skill set, says Mat Colegate, but ultimately he trained a satirical eye on America few could match
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O Superfan: How Rock & Pop’s Elite Screw their Loyal Supporters – and why it won’t Work
The mainstream music biz reckons that devoted fans are the golden geese that'll keep laying, and the streaming services are about to get in on the grift. Eamonn Forde explains why this makes no business sense
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Some Might Not Say: What a Glut of New Oasis Books is Leaving Unwritten
Oasis are back, and a publishing supernova of new biographies examines the Manchester band... but for most of their lifespan, they were appalling. Fergal Kinney asks how do writers confront Oasis after their peak
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How Women are Changing Greater Manchester’s Grassroots Music Scene
Perturbed by a study that found young women in the north of England are struggling to feel musical, Lottie Brazier set out to speak to the promoters, artists and managers who are helping shift the dial in the region
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Eternal Cities: How Underworld Embodied the Agony and Ecstasy of Urban Life
As Underworld's discography from 1994 to 2016 receives a 'perfect sound' reissue, Darran Anderson surveys how their frantic, beautiful music both embodied the overwhelm of city life and offered a rapturous escape from it
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The Countercultural Figures who Helped Give Birth to the Neo-Nazi Terrorist Networks of Today
The academic author and political analyst Spencer Sunshine has uncovered disturbing evidence that links musicians Boyd Rice and Nikolas Schreck, writer Michael Moynihan and publisher Adam Parfrey to the current explosion in neo-Nazi terrorism. CW: discussion of racism, anti-semitism, murder, violent assault & child sexual abuse
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Three Album Run: How Rock Music Never Bettered AC/DC’s Powerage, Highway To Hell & Back In Black
Zachary Lipez puts on his his tightest pants, casts "'n' Roll" to one side and hails the unbeatable trinity of 20th century rock music. All photographs by Maria Jefferis. Thanks to Matt Ducker
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The City Surreal: How Underground Rap in the 2010s Located Truth in the Bizarre
Liam Inscoe-Jones explores the psychedelia inherent in the music of Danny Brown, Earl Sweatshirt and others, arguing that it reflects the increasingly surreal reality of working class life far more effectively than rock’s outdated cliches
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How to Talk to your Son about Dangerous Extremist Influencers
With TV drama Adolescence and Andrew Tate currently in the news, author Craig Johnson asks how the toxic ideology extremist influencers became so widespread and offers practical advice to help young people affected. CW: Reference to sexual assault and violence against women. Contains mild spoilers for Adolescence. Stills courtesy of Netflix
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Three Album Run: How Krautrock Never Bettered Can’s Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi & Future Days
Darran Anderson sifts through all of the glorious rubble of German experimental music, psychedelic rock, avant funk and elektronische of the late 1960s onwards to hail an unbeatable trinity. All photographs by Maria Jefferis
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TikTokin’ in the Freed World: Social Media’s New Payola Scandal
The scandal of artists paying DJs for radio plays might seem a relic of the past but, says music biz expert Eamonn Forde, news that influencers might demand a percentage of artist royalties in return for exposure gives this corruption a grim contemporary twist
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