Lucifer Over Lanarkshire: Rocky Horror Sucks

Every year at the Samhain, or Halloween, season, musical theatre lovers break out their basques, fishnets and eyeliner and strut to theatres to see ‘The Rocky Horror Show’. Created by Richard O’Brien in the seventies, it fused glam rock with kitsch horror and has become a staple of repeated stage and screen experiences worldwide. ButContinue reading “Lucifer Over Lanarkshire: Rocky Horror Sucks”

Album Review: Zombina and the Skeletones- The Call of Zombina

Liverpool garage horror fiends Zombina and The Skeletones have been doing their own creepy, kooky-ooky -ooky thing since 1998, and this new album, just out in time for The Witching Season, is a nice mix of ghoulish Hammer Horror and itchy riffage. It should sate fans of Death Valley Girls, The Cramps and Pebbles compilationsContinue reading “Album Review: Zombina and the Skeletones- The Call of Zombina”

Lost In Music:The Very Things – The Bushes Scream While My Daddy Prunes

Happy Samhain, kitty cats and sewer rats. Here’s one from the crypt to chill your blod (sic). The Very Things were a band very much beloved by the late great DJ John Peel. This is their timeless classic, like ‘The Monster Mash’ on LSD. Enjoy, but don’t have nightmares…

Overlooked Classics: Rachel’s – Music For Egon Schiele

I’ve always hated that apostrophe in the chamber music band – it’s as though the band were running a diner or something.I suspect it was due to the band being the brainchild of pianist and composer Rachel Grimes. Regardless of dubious punctuation marks, though, the Kentucky band were always makers of exquisite music, drawing asContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Rachel’s – Music For Egon Schiele”

Album Review: Yoo Doo Right -From The Heights Of Our Pastureland

The third album from the enigmatic Montreal trio is, in their own words, a rumination about “the storm of colonialism, the collapse of capitalism and the massive undertaking it is to rebuild with past mistakes taken into deep consideration”. The enormity of such thematic concerns is encapsulated by the band’s glorious instrumentation. The title track,Continue reading “Album Review: Yoo Doo Right -From The Heights Of Our Pastureland”

Talking To A About Electro

I’m talking to A about electro. I quite like A. She’s looking at me the way you indulge a child who’s learned a new word, and with a slight superiority. She’s smiling in a half grimace, head tilted slightly. She means well, though. I’m going on about Frankie Knuckles. I do not know if AContinue reading “Talking To A About Electro”

The Last Piece I Will Write About You

The last time I saw you, you brushed past me on the subway like we were strangers. It was your eyes that struck me. It was your eyes but they weren’t your eyes anymore. They were dulled, glassy, like dirty window panes where no light gets in. I wondered where you had been, but IContinue reading “The Last Piece I Will Write About You”

Overlooked Classics: Bad Education (2004)

Pedro Almodovar’s dark drama is a brilliant character study, taking on themes of desire, abuse, blackmail, cinema, and the sins of the Catholic church. Gorgeously shot by Jose Luis Alcaine , it’s part fever dream, part Hitchcockian thriller, and the cast- from Gael Garcia Bernal as Angel, to Fele Martinez as Enrique, and Daniel GimenezContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Bad Education (2004)”

Album Review: Geordie Greep- The New Sound

Trust Geordie Greep , former lead singer of the endlessly inventive Black Midi, to blend a huge cocktail of genres for this, his debut solo album. Much of his work is all about pulling together genres to create something unique and wilfully bonkers. Take the first single to be lifted from the album, ‘Holy Holy’.Continue reading “Album Review: Geordie Greep- The New Sound”

Album Review: Nubya Garcia – Odyssey

It’s hard to believe that this is only the second studio album from tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, such is her effortless sounding, voluptuous playing and compositional skill. The range of moods here, too, often takes others a lifetime to perfect. ‘Clarity’ for example, is a slow-burning dreamscape with a hypnotic melody line. The shimmering ‘Solstice’Continue reading “Album Review: Nubya Garcia – Odyssey”