Listen to any ska, skinhead, reggae, rocksteady or 2-Tone compilation worth its salt and there he, or she, is. ‘Rudy got soul’, ‘Rudie Gets Plenty’, ‘Beware of the Rude Boys’, ‘Rude Girl’, ‘Rudie’s all Round’, ‘Rudie Bam Bam, ‘Rudy, a Message to You’ (originally by Dandy Livingstone, later revived by The Specials); the list goes… Read more »
The lilting, spoken songs of poet-performer Sinead O’Brien are meditative in both senses of the word. Simultaneously hypnotic and pensive, to listen to O’Brien’s musical offerings is to be immersed in her malleable vocabulary of Irish inflections and swelling instrumentation (courtesy of Julian Hanson and Oscar Robertson.) With a work ethic centred around fluctuation and… Read more »
The first instalment in our series investigating overlooked or obscured figures in musical history examines the enigmatic Su Tissue of LA post-punkers Suburban Lawns. Often lamented as the pinnacle of post-punk amnesia; the incendiary absurdity of Suburban Lawns was all but neglected were it not for an enduring curiosity concerning the “disappearance” of Su Tissue,… Read more »
She’s been heralded as the ruler of ‘slacker pop’, but Lauran Hibberd is by no means work-shy; a self-imposed exercise of creating daily lockdown songs has resulted in a lengthy tracklist from which to make a debut album. Unashamedly confessional, Lauran’s lyrical narratives are as relatable as they are witty, and may have left some… Read more »
An amalgamation from three corners of the world uniting in a frenzy of sonic fuzz and rock glitches, Calva Louise are as diverse as their far-flung birthplaces. Citing absurdist literature and the experimental films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Calva Louise continually absorb influences, assembling songs layered in inspiration, looping riffs and spirited vocals. Harnessing the lockdown… Read more »
Brought up on a parental influence of punk, the Bentham brothers have kept musical vitriol in the family in the form of Strange Bones. Sounding as if hardcore punk was pummelled through a warped lens of distorted vocals and acid drum and bass, Strange Bones converge The Cramps and The Prodigy in a heady experimentation…. Read more »
Rene Matić’s first solo show may have recently closed at Bermondsey’s Vitrine Gallery, but the Peterborough-born artist has made their ephemeral exhibition permanent; its title ‘Born British, Die British’ is indelibly etched on Matić’s skin, reclaiming a phrase to fit their own experience of the Black British diaspora. Investigating Skinhead culture as a means to… Read more »
In the autumnal gloom of 2020, Scottish six-piece Walt Disco presented a longed-for EP of contemporary New Romanticism clad in celestial synths and brocade corsetry. A decadent debut, “Young Hard and Handsome” was a jubilant statement of intent in a four-song cadence of thunderous theatricals. Now, in the equally gloomy winter of 2021, Walt Disco… Read more »
The Red Stains have only been a band for a year but they are leaving their mark more indelibly than their lipstick graffiti around Manchester’s bars. Their songs may have a Poly Styrene-like predilection with capitalism and artificiality (their song ‘Mannequin’ speaks of plastic and objectification.) Yet to categorise The Red Stains with a bygone… Read more »
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