The Fall were starting to implode. Martin and Karl were out, replaced by the Scanlon brothers, Craig and Steve, pals of Marc Riley. It’s this line-up that’s the secret to their brilliant, often overlooked second album, Dragnet. Dragnet is excellent, a brooding, murky record, albeit with MES’ typically esoteric lyricism. He had already proved whatContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: The Fall- Dragnet (1979)”
Category Archives: Pop culture
Lost In Music: Takako Minekawa- Fantastic Cat
Despite being a moody old goth, I do have a love of really, really ridiculously kitsch art. This extends to music, and nobody makes better kitsch music than the Japanese. Takako Minekawa released this oddity in the mid-90s and it is much more imaginative than the J pop that followed in her wake. Part hoedown,Continue reading “Lost In Music: Takako Minekawa- Fantastic Cat”
Watch With Mother?
I recently reviewed a gorgeous show at Tramway for Fjord Review, a lovely dance website I’ve been writing for since 2015. The show carried a trigger warning, which is fine by me. People have different sensitivities, and if you have kids, some material could be inappropriate or even offensive. Now, I’m not a pearl clutcherContinue reading “Watch With Mother?”
Lost In Music: Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch- Death Valley ’69
I’m not a huge admirer of Richard Kern. To me, he’s just a dirty old man who keeps on- inexplicably- getting art funds. Okay, Submit To Me was kinda sexy, in a ridiculous way. But his video for Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch ‘s Death Valley ’69 is brilliant, co-directed by Judith Barry. Indeed, someContinue reading “Lost In Music: Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch- Death Valley ’69”
Album Review: Anna Secret Poet- Shoutin’ Into The Void
“You can learn a lot from dead things “, Anna Secret Poet sings in ‘Dead Things’, “including how to live”. This is a very Anna line: seemingly throwaway, but really profound. The canny Scots singer-songwriter, drag performer and weaver of pithy tales returns with an album that meditates on the darkest corners of our psyche,Continue reading “Album Review: Anna Secret Poet- Shoutin’ Into The Void”
“God Bless You, Mr Cutler! “
Take Scottish institution The Broons, put something in their tea, and you’re halfway to understanding the genius of Ivor Cutler. I’m a wee bit late to the table here, but January the 15th marked what would have been the great Ivor Cutler ‘s 100th birthday. Born into a Scots Jewish family, his dour, sweetly subversiveContinue reading ““God Bless You, Mr Cutler! “”
Hey! Wednesday! Leave the normies alone…
When singer, actor and activist Olivia Newton- John passed away in August last year, it felt like a piece of our collective childhood had also gone. Despite being thirty something when she portrayed Sandy in ‘Grease’, archetypal virgin given sexy makeover, stitched into those satin leggings and wank banks of many, she’ll forever be thatContinue reading “Hey! Wednesday! Leave the normies alone…”
Lost In Music: Christeene- Midnite Fukk Train
Louisiana -raised Paul Soileau, aka Christeene, is normally best experienced live, as the live artist is wilfully provocative. She’ll krump on punters, pull things from out of her ass and push you into the void. So her music often gets sidelinedJ. Not so with her third album, Midnite Fukk Train. It stands on its ownContinue reading “Lost In Music: Christeene- Midnite Fukk Train”
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Angela Carter… So much to answer for. I first read The Bloody Chamber in 1987 as a young teen, exactly the right time to discover her voluptuous, gory, evocative prose. Her descriptions of sex, death, circuses, films, literature and the theatre were vivid and lucid, patently original. Without het, I question if Guillermo del Toro,Continue reading “The Company of Wolves (1984)”
Why Shoegazing Endures
It’s funny, but shoegazing in the late eighties and early nineties was supposed to be a fad in British music, something that lasted as long as a teen crush. Taking as its sonic template sixties psychedelia, Goth, Cocteau Twins dreaminess and the melding of noise and beauty you could find in Sonic Youth’s ground-breaking midContinue reading “Why Shoegazing Endures”
Hit The North 