Le swoon! This album is still incredible, all these years later. The debut album, Ultra Vivid Scene, by the band with the same name, is often forgotten about in the usual indie legends slots. Not here,though. Forgive my little foray into self- indulgence, it’s my birthday tomorrow. It was 1988, and I was experiencing myContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Ultra Vivid Scene’s eponymous debut”
Category Archives: Lorna Irvine
New Release: Annie-Claude Deschenes- Phones
C’est bon. The new single from multi-disciplinary Montreal artist Annie-Claude Deschenes is the right side of retro, featuring teasing, retro-futurist music which is both 1984, and 2024. The second single from her forthcoming debut album Les !Manieres De Table, this enigmatic track captures modern overwhelm brilliantly, the need for constant communication and information at all times.Continue reading “New Release: Annie-Claude Deschenes- Phones”
Lost In Music: Man Of Moon- You And I
Whit a stoater, as we say in Scotland. That means, “banger”. If Krautrock and postrock could somehow procreate, this is what you would get. It’s taken from the Scottish band’s forthcoming album ‘Machinism’ Chris Bainbridge (guitar and vocals) and Ian Stewart (drums) who formed the band in Edinburgh, but are now based in Glasgow, areContinue reading “Lost In Music: Man Of Moon- You And I”
Documentary Review: Becoming Frida Kahlo
We all know Frida Kahlo: survivor of polio, and a terrible bus crash; flowers in her hair and autobiographical art, married to Communist and prolific artist Diego Rivera, twenty years her senior. These are merely outlines, bare sketches. Louise Lockwood’s exhaustive three part BBC documentary films fill in the colours. There are details from her great-nieceContinue reading “Documentary Review: Becoming Frida Kahlo”
Album Review: The Smile-Wall Of Eyes
Leave it to Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood to have a side project that’s also as extraordinary as the other. Along with legendary jazz drummer Tom Skinner, the trio’s second album proves they can still weave magic on their own terms. The reason Wall Of Eyes so beguiles is the capricious nature of theContinue reading “Album Review: The Smile-Wall Of Eyes”
A Secret Worth Sharing: Meet Anna Secret Poet
Anna Secret Poet is a genderfluid singer/songwriter,musician,poet and model based in Glasgow. Their influences range from The Ramones to Doctor Who, and you can find them performing in clubs,cabaret nights and at comedy shows.With new music on the horizon,I caught up with the delightful Anna Blair to find out what’s in store for 2024. IsContinue reading “A Secret Worth Sharing: Meet Anna Secret Poet”
The Peel Sessions- The Slits
“We were like a gang”, Viv Abertine said in her brilliant memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music,Music,Music,Boys,Boys,Boys. “We’d shout over to each other…OI!” It’s this uninhibited spirit that marks The Slits as unique, fearless and badass, even decades later. The sessions for John Peel reflect this. From the sarcastic sex kitten cries and faux orgasms ofContinue reading “The Peel Sessions- The Slits”
Album Review: The Pheromoans-Wyrd Psearch
Indie in 2024 is best when it’s DIY, raw and sung from the heart. Leave it to the peerless Upset The Rhythm, then, to bring more of the kind of gritty indie music that I like, the raw, unvarnished and honest stuff. It’s not made to fit curated playlists or banal daytime local radio, it’sContinue reading “Album Review: The Pheromoans-Wyrd Psearch”
One From the Archive: Forever Summertime
. FOREVER SUMMERTIMEJune 26, 2018 • Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Virgin Suicides’: essay by Lorna Irvine. All of my favourite films have an elusive quality to them: so it is with Sofia Coppola’s debut feature from 1999, ‘The Virgin Suicides.’ It deftly captures the nature of ephemeral youth. Air’s gorgeous electronic soundtrack is elegiac, with throbbingContinue reading “One From the Archive: Forever Summertime”
Why The Traitors Works
Warning: spoilers ahead… Farewell then, to the unmissable second series of The Traitors UK. Presented by everyone’s favourite glam auntie type, Claudia Winkleman, it’s the BBC’s biggest cash cow in years, and with good reason. It’s great fun, and very smart. Essentially, a game like Mafia or Cluedo, but framed as a reality show withContinue reading “Why The Traitors Works”
Hit The North 