How many drugs are too many drugs? Well, many people may not know this, but lovable goofball Dee Dee Ramone, bass player for the legendary NY punks, had a brief side project as Dee Dee King in 1989. In a deleted scene from the Ramones biopic End Of The Century directed by Michael Gramagia andContinue reading “Just Step Sideways: Dee Dee Ramone’s Hip Hop Career”
Category Archives: Lorna Irvine
Album Review: Horace Andy-Midnight Rocker
Adrian Sherwood is a legendary producer, and Horace Andy a legendary reggae singer, so it makes sense for them to team up again. But don’t call it a comeback, he’s never really been away. The shivery sweet vibrato is pushed to the fore here, with reworkings and new tracks alike. Opener This Must Be HellContinue reading “Album Review: Horace Andy-Midnight Rocker”
EP Review: Jackson Hill- Rabbit Feather
What a strange and beguiling debut from the Raleigh- based ambient musician and producer. Rabbit Feather weaves in and out of speakers. Its trippy strangeness is both unsettling and comforting. There’s a lullaby like fragility to Figment and Whatever Helps You Sleep At Night makes you feel encased in some kind of space PID, untilContinue reading “EP Review: Jackson Hill- Rabbit Feather”
How John Waters Was Prescient
John Waters was completely ahead of his time. To so many people, he’s still the epitome of transgressive cinema, trashy and shocking for shock’s sake, but this is a reductive way of regarding his work.He was utterly prescient, a kind of prophet, if you like. Take 1970’s Female Trouble. Dawn Davenport, magnificently portrayed by DivineContinue reading “How John Waters Was Prescient”
Just Step Sideways: Gazelle Twin and NYX- Deep England
Gazelle Twin and NYX are fascinating artists in their own right. Together, they’re like matches and an effigy of Boris Johnson. Deep England is the flipside of welcoming Britain: the jingoistic, Union Jack waving, bigoted side where otherness isn’t just anathema – it’s enough to get you chased out of town. A companion piece toContinue reading “Just Step Sideways: Gazelle Twin and NYX- Deep England”
Disney’s Dream Debased: The Florida Project
Sean Baker’s brilliant film The Florida Project, released in 2018, focuses on the flip- side of Walt Disney – the “hidden homeless” subsisting on the other side of Disneyworld in Florida- families living in slum motels. The law states that these families, who are struggling to survive, aren’t allowed to take up residency, so canContinue reading “Disney’s Dream Debased: The Florida Project”
Preview: Oceanallover – The Self Assembled, Drygate
Oceanallover are a brilliant, eccentric and visceral company who fuse performance art, dance, songs and pagan poetry. They’re an endlessly shapeshifting unit formed by Alex Rigg, not quite of this earth, yet rooted in nature. Now they’re taking their unique retrospective to Drygate on April 1st. In their own words … ” The first majorContinue reading “Preview: Oceanallover – The Self Assembled, Drygate”
Lost In Music: Otoboke Beaver-Pardon?
Obfuscation helps no-one. As we appear to be mired in a world of confusion, what could be more apposite than Otoboke Beaver and their brand new single Pardon? The mighty Japanese quartet are back, and this is the first single to be lifted from the forthcoming album Super Champon. A worldwide tour starts in theContinue reading “Lost In Music: Otoboke Beaver-Pardon?”
Album Review: Hinako Omori- A Journey…
Inspired by the practice of forest bathing, Japanese artist Hinako Omori’s new album breathes like new buds bursting into life. Created using scientific binaural sounds and more organic processes of field recordings, the album pulses with transcendental shimmering beauty. Tracks like Levitation see Omori’s modular synth patterns resemble chirruping birds, while her voice soars onContinue reading “Album Review: Hinako Omori- A Journey…”
Overlooked Classics: Opal – Early Recordings
Emerging from the Paisley Underground, a neo- psychedelic scene from the 1980s, Opal predate Mazzy Star by a few years. Singer songwriter and musician Kendra Smith, also a founding member of The Dream Syndicate, made some EPs, left the band and was replaced by Hope Sandoval, but Opal’s beautiful collection Early Recordings should definitely beContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Opal – Early Recordings”
Hit The North 