DJ: Guest: 038: Autonomy – 01-August 2009
The first half of a barking weekend that saw me at Sonisphere the following day…
Memory of a Festival: 007: Sonisphere 2009
After a night DJing at Autonomy, my girlfriend couldn’t make the next day, so one of my best friends joined me to head south to Sonisphere instead. I’d declined the recently-won tickets earlier in the week, but much to my surprise they arrived on the Saturday, and the decision was taken that we should go […]
Tuesday Ten: 080: Swearing
Ideas for future Tuesday Tens are coming thick and fast at the moment, and indeed I have the core of two more already completed too, and this week’s was a late change of plan, mainly after I realised just how many songs could be included. So the other two I have planned will be held […]
/Tuesday Ten/079/Space
A perhaps predictable subject for this week’s Tuesday Ten: it’s all about space, what with it being the 40th anniversary of the first moon landings this week. I’ve always thought of songs written to be about space travel, or related subjects, to be a very common theme, but in the event it actually turned out […]
But Listen: 085: Psychic Space Invasion – Transitions
It’s hard indeed to describe, or review, what would be termed ‘dark ambient’ in its purest form such as this. It ebbs, it ebbs some more, and doesn’t really flow anywhere except at a glacial pace. It starts out inaudibly, takes nearly two minutes to be heard… But then, when you have forty-one minutes for […]
Into the Pit: 079: KMFDM – Live at Islington – 18-July 2009
The early start – doors at 1800 – meant that Leech Woman played to a half-empty room, which was a damned shame seeing as this was billed as their last gig in the UK for some time – main man Alex is moving abroad. There was no room for sentiment, though, as LW roared through […]
Into the Pit: 078: Nine Inch Nails – Live at Arena Manchester – 14-July 2009
It took bloody ages to get there – two hours from Sheffield to Manchester, via Woodhead, thanks to Snake being closed and awful traffic in Manchester city centre, and I managed my first longer distance drive without any problems – but last night’s gig was worth every single minute and then some.
Tuesday Ten: 078: 90s Industrial Metal
The 90s were a heyday for industrial metal – let’s be honest, few bands have been able to continue a high quality output of this style into this decade, and fewer more recent bands still have been able to keep the flame alive (with notable exceptions being the likes of Interlock and Cyanotic). To confirm […]
Tuesday Ten: 077: Tracks of the Month (June 2009)
It’s time for my run-down of ten of the best tracks I’ve heard in the past month.
But Listen: 084: Samarkande – 3 Synapses
Samarkande are introduced on their website as an apparently experimental group that create by way of improvisation, and to “break the rigidity of electro-acoustic and electronic music”. Quite what the latter point means in practice is a difficult one to answer, it seems.
But Listen: 083: Coreline – Bone And Blood As Stone And Mud
It’s sometimes been hard to reconcile the two facets of Chris McCall’s output. The seemingly ultra-serious music with the joyously insane (and whisper it, *fun*) live shows, but here, somehow, we may have the missing link at last. Like some kind of mad scientist (or inventor?) anything that may work is hurled into the mix […]
Talk Show Host: 003: Alter der Ruine
A bit of a chance one, this – after exchanging a few e-mails with Mike T. from ADR over an album review, and getting some interesting responses to my first question or two, this was turned into something of a fully-fledged e-mail interview. So here goes…
Tuesday Ten: 076: The Best of 2009 So Far (Tracks)
And now individual tracks..
Tuesday Ten: 075: The Best of 2009 So Far (Albums)
I don’t usually do this, but as I’ve remembered – and there has been a fair amount of stuff to recommend – I’m taking a break from the usual Tuesday Ten subjects to do a rundown of ten albums and ten songs worth hearing from 2009 so far, as we reach the halfway point of […]
/DJ /tcf /v3 /183 /23-June 2009
Almost five years to the day since I began tcf in Sheffield, I brought the curtain down on the night alongside two DJs that had been along for the ride for much of that time. There were two reasons for ending it – one, I was preparing to move to London (which in the event […]
/Tuesday Ten/074/Music, My Dad and Me
It was, of course, Father’s Day this Sunday just gone, and for this week’s /Tuesday Ten I thought it appropriate to use this theme. I think my voracious appetite for music comes from my dad – ever since I can remember there has been a steady flow of “new” music into the house, in a […]
Tuesday Ten: 073: Crimes
A list that seemed to grow every time I even thought about it, this one – songs about crime. Perhaps I wasn’t specific enough in my initial criteria, but hell, I’ve got so many I’m going to be covering more than ten this week.
/Tuesday Ten /072 /Lust
This week was going to be a run-through of songs involving one or more of the seven deadly sins, which many of you may remember me asking about a few weeks back. But finding a selection I was happy with has been very hard indeed, so this week I’m concentrating on just one of the […]
DJ: Guest: 037: Autonomy – 06-June 2009
Last night’s Autonomy/Redeemer was exhausting, immense fun. In a change to the usual I was DJing alongside Berrega, and I reckon we did pretty well – a good and enthusiastic crowd were in and they responded best to some really surprising stuff.
Tuesday Ten: 071: Tracks of the Month (May 2009)
Another new month (where is this year going?!?), so time for my usual monthly roundup of ten tracks you should hear. If there are other things I should hear, please tell me…