Film Review: Here To Be Heard (2017)

There was no one quite like The Slits, and there never will be again. It’s eleven years since lead singer and force of nature Ari Up passed away from cancer at just 48 William E Badgley’s documentary charts the first all-female punk band and their formation in 1976, featuring interviews with Kate Korris, the originalContinue reading “Film Review: Here To Be Heard (2017)”

Teleman- Simple Like Us

Teleman have always, in their own unassuming way, crafted perfect Day-glo pop since they formed from the ashes of Pete and the Pirates. As with other low- key UK indie bands like Metronomy, Field Music and Hot Chip, they seamlessly meld electronics with slightly playful, occasionally melancholic songwriting. The new single, Simple Like Us ,Continue reading “Teleman- Simple Like Us”

Overlooked Classics: Cutie and the Boxer

Why don’t more people know about Zachary Heinzerling’s remarkable, delicately moving documentary film from 2013? Cutie (Noriko ) met The Boxer (Ushio Shinohara) when he was forty one and she was just nineteen Shinohara was already an established presence in the New York avant-garde art scene of the sixties, with his action paintings, where heContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Cutie and the Boxer”

Book Review: Genesis P-Orridge- NON BINARY

For anyone interested in transgressive art, the name Genesis P-Orridge needs no introduction. An artist interested in pushing societal boundaries of gender, sex, religion and politics, their art always provoked. In the seventies, as part of the noise/visual collective COUM Transmissions, and industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, they were met with resistance from establishment figures, censored,Continue reading “Book Review: Genesis P-Orridge- NON BINARY”

Lost In Music: Nightmares On Wax ft OSHUN- Breathe In

Three years in the making, the new Nightmares On Wax album Shout Out! To Freedom is getting good and spiritual on your ass. Exactly what we need, methinks, when times are uncertain and fraught. And any projects including the wondrous Shabaka Hutchings and Greentea Peng has to be worthy of your time. The new single,Continue reading “Lost In Music: Nightmares On Wax ft OSHUN- Breathe In”

Theatre Review: Krapp’s Last Tape/Go On, Tron Theatre

Go On Linda McLean’s plays are all about humanity in all its messy, smudgy forms, so it’s a fine companion piece to Beckett. Jane (Maureen Beattie) is training an Artificial Intelligence prototype, Jayne. One appears on a screen on a glowing cube, glugging down red wine in a suburban kitchen. The other is in personContinue reading “Theatre Review: Krapp’s Last Tape/Go On, Tron Theatre”