Reviewing music is sometimes an exceptionally difficult task. On some occasions, the words will flow immediately, and the whole review can be completed quickly (something that actually I find easier with bad albums). On others, it might sit on the back burner for a while while I listen again and again trying to find the […]
Whatever your opinion on Laibach, it is perhaps hard to disagree that even after over thirty years active, anything they release is at least worth talking about. Over their career they have cast their critical eye over mainstream pop music, covering fixtures in the pop canon with, er, surprising results, uncovered hitherto unnoticed totalitarian leanings […]
After a bit of a slow start to the year gig-wise, into February and all of a sudden there is a short spell of a number of gigs. Time constraints and other distractions have meant I've struggled to finish full reviews, so here is a roundup of the gigs I attended during February.
amodelofcontrol.com: So, Seeming, introduce yourselves…
The television appearance is an important part of the promotional armoury. Not a video (I’ve covered these in various posts before), but simply a live* rendition of a current song that maybe gets a band out to an audience that otherwise might not know about them. I’ve also excluded TV-aired festival appearances, too. One thing, […]
A new month, so a new ten tracks of things that I’m enjoying at the moment. To be honest, we seem to be in a bit of a lull at the moment, after the flurry of releases recently (Seabound, God Module, Laibach, seeming and Aesthetic Perfection will all be reviewed separately soon, by the way […]
Of all of the top echelon of industrial bands, none perhaps gain such polarised views as Skinny Puppy. Right from their early days in the eighties, they’ve pushed boundaries with their sound, avoiding the obvious routes of dancefloor approval, creating nightmarish musical visions densely packed with samples and a visual image almost as impressive. This […]
Having controversial opinions, of course, sells records, but can also be a catalyst for change. So, here are ten artists who to varying degrees, have made controversial opinions, music and imagery talking points – and selling points.
Once again, recently, I’ve been struggling with insomnia, something that judging on some mornings on social networks that quite a few of my friends suffer from too. I go through phases like this – like many, I’m sure, connected to stress or work, or both – and indeed during much of my student days I […]
This week marks ten years since I registered amodelofcontrol.com, and got to work promoting my music writing (the first permanent home I’d given it), and then over the coming months also promoting my then nascent DJing (tcf began in March 2004). I first began writing about music back at University in 1996, and my writing […]
I've been a big fan of Armalyte's output for some time, with a whole string of great bands to get excited about (Je$us Loves Amerika, Concrete Lung, i!, Paresis, not to mention Interlock once upon a time), so it's always good when I get contacted by them with another promo to check out.
Before I get started with the first new tracks roundup of 2014, let’s have a quick roundup of the frankly staggering set of new albums announced/confirmed in the past week, a few of which will no doubt end up on a future Tuesday Ten round-up like this:
Following last week’s awesome fun of submissions from many of my readers and friends, I thought I probably ought to suggest my own to this. So this is a postscript, of sorts, offering five albums that I celebrate as being my idea of perfect albums. I’ve been careful to ensure that I haven’t repeated any […]
My fellow partners in crime in this music blogging lark over at I Die: You Die have mentioned recently about the origins of their website name, so here is my tilt on the same idea, as my domain nears its tenth birthday (early in February). Theirs comes from Gary Numan, mine comes from…Dark Star.
Every year I seem to be starting my live gig attendance that little bit later. Last year I began with easily the best show of 2013 in mid-January, with a trip to Germany to see Kraftwerk, and this year we are into the last week of January before I attend a show. And this time, […]
This week, my Tuesday Ten series goes in a new direction – as I’ve not written it. A few weeks ago, I posted an innocent post on Facebook asking my friends what they considered their perfect albums…and got an avalanche of suggestions. Over 100 comments and 150 suggested albums later, I thought it might be […]
I noted in including 3TEETH’s NIHIL in my 2013 tracks of the year that I knew little about the band behind some of the most interesting industrial to be released in quite some time. So, with the new year up-and-running, I thought it time to to find out a little more, and I’m grateful to […]
Maybe I just listen to a lot of angry music, maybe it’s a side of me I prefer to let out in the music I listen to, either way, I’ve written a lot in the Tuesday Ten series about the darker side of human nature (related, previous posts are in the sidebar). So I was […]
To open each new year, I’ve for some years now posted a rundown of new music coming your way. This year is no exception, but it seems that there is less music coming that I might have expected. But then, I’m probably missing a few things! Anyway – this year, in addition to the full […]
After last year’s exhausting run of gigs, 2013 was even crazier. I saw 66 days of gigs – seeing nearly 160 live sets in the process, in three countries, six different cities and including three festivals. What was interesting, though, was that maybe I hit saturation point this year. While there were a handful of […]
