Category Archives: 2025

Latvia Were Robbed…

Gutted. Latvian entry for last night’s Eurovision Song Contest, Tautumeitas, barely scraped into the top ten, but I thought they were genuinely brilliant. They looked like sexy alien goddesses styled by HR Giger, the staging looked like a show by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and the gorgeous song, Bur Man Laimi, felt like a folkContinue reading “Latvia Were Robbed…”

Album Review: Ezra Furman- Goodbye Small Head

As the culture wars rage on, Ms Ezra Furman plays in the rubble, seeking diamonds. This is a return to form after the slightly disappointing previous album, All Of Us Flames, which seemed at times like she was coasting through a more commercial sound. There are no such problems here. As the transphobic laws wereContinue reading “Album Review: Ezra Furman- Goodbye Small Head”

The purity of the page

I’m such an overthinker, it’s ridiculous. I worry that my words aren’t ever enough. I worry that my neurosis will somehow spill out. I worry that my pain, past trauma and anxiety will smudge the purity of the page. I worry that it’s all part of the worry, that sharing is egotistical, that I’m notContinue reading “The purity of the page”

Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette

This simply has to be one of the best albums of the year. A mash up of so many exciting elements: the dancefloor burn of mid-noughties American artists like LCD Soundsystem; wild experimentation of no wave and sheer filth of glam at its sleaziest. It’s night time music for seduction or moving under neon lights.Continue reading “Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette”

Kidcore: The Aesthetic That Refuses To Grow Up

A clearly delighted model. Maybe we do become a facsimile of what we once were in our youth, but Helena Bonham -Carter, who frequently makes the “worst dressed” lists in style magazines, remains a style icon to me, a goth in the punky Victorian mode, or what came to be known as “steampunk”. I likeContinue reading “Kidcore: The Aesthetic That Refuses To Grow Up”

Bard In The Botanics 2025 Season

Bard in the Botanics announces the new programme for 2025 season. The endlessly gripping and inventive team return with more suspense, humour, grit, mystery and romance this Summer. Images: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Romeo and Juliet, Doctor Faustus, Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia Bard in the Botanics has today announced details of its 2025 season,Continue reading “Bard In The Botanics 2025 Season”

Pills, pills, pills

Pills, pills, pills: I never thought I would need so many to numb the pain. Gone are the nights of ecstasy tablets, replaced by painkillers for osteoarthritis. It’s like a preview of old age, time nudging me in the ribs, reminding me it’s all, after all, finite. I’ve got the sun in my eyes andContinue reading “Pills, pills, pills”

Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key

It seems that wonky pop, which emerged in the mid-noughties, is alive and thriving after all. Atlanta band Mamalarkey deal in this often underrated genre. It’s all of the unexpected sonic U -turns that make this new album such a delight. From the euphoric folk bounce of ‘#1 Best Of All Time’ to the sunny,Continue reading “Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key”

Album Review: MIEN- MIIEN

Austin band MIEN invoke the psychedelic sixties with this new album, which feels more like a homage than pushing the genre forward. It’s not clear why it exists really, but what it does, it does well. There’s a slice of Silver Apples in opener ‘Evil People’ and ‘Mirror’, but it’s more interesting when it goesContinue reading “Album Review: MIEN- MIIEN”