Many bands fly under the radar somewhat. Perhaps they never make the mainstream – and maybe they never wanted to. Perhaps they’ve decided that a particular niche is for them, and they are happy as a band doing just that. I listen to a lot of bands like that, and have written about most of […]
It’s weird, but pretty much every single year, Infest (this year’s edition reviewed on /Memory of a Festival/033) has one breakout band that everyone talks about afterward. This isn’t a headliner, but a band further down the bill, and last year, Promenade Cinema (who later took /Countdown/2018/Albums/#1) were that band.
Somehow, despite the feeling I was just getting started, I’m already home, (mostly) unpacked and finishing this write-up of another great edition of Infest. It has long since become far more than just a music festival that I attend because I want to see a few bands – it’s an extended family.
In less than three weeks time, we’ll be on the train north to Bradford, for our annual pilgrimage to the city for the industrial festival that, since I began attending, I’ve never missed. I’ve lost count of how many friends I’ve made, how many new favourite bands I’ve heard, how many great memories (and the […]
Fifty years ago today, three NASA astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins) left the Earth on the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, and four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first men to step onto another body beyond Earth – pretty much the crowning moment of what became known as […]
A word of warning: in the future, if you see that I’m attending a show in June next year, just know that for the past three or four years now, I’ve been unlucky enough to be gig-bound on the hottest day of that month. Gigging indoors in the heat is never fun, of course – […]
Just a year ago, London was literally broiling in a weeks-on-end heatwave that left tempers flaring as we realised, once again, that this city really doesn’t do well in heat. This summer has been rather different so far, after a very wet June that has rather left us miserable.
Syd.31 are not your average punks. For a start they are punks by way of electronic music and industrial. But also they are punks by way of a political-based higher education (as explained three years ago when I talked to them on /Talk Show Host/027), and exposure to the music growing up far away from […]
A glorious picture article on the BBC website last week reminded me that 2019 sees the centenary of the Bauhaus movement, and inspired this week’s post. In terms of art and design, I’m very much a modernist at heart. While I appreciate older art, what really gets me interested is modern art, modern design, and […]
I don’t often go to Goth Festivals for music. There, I said it. Whitby, for me, long since became a social holiday, where I catch up with old friends and play football – I only occasionally see bands there. Most of the rest of the festivals I attend, of course, are broadly industrial or electronic […]
About this time last year, I attended my first BEAT:CANCER show, which was something of a voyage of discovery in what felt like a parallel scene, with a good number of people I rarely saw at other shows I attended, and a number of artists that I’d never come across before.
Five years ago, I began my occasional series The Rearview Mirror, with a look back at the Pitchshifter breakthrough www.pitchshifter.com, an album I’ve loved since release, from a band I’ve now (as I write this) been following for nearly a quarter of a century – but since they broadly had ceased releasing new material by […]
Another Friday, another round-up. As always this is a look at upcoming releases, relevant music news and upcoming events and gigs worth spending some of your time at. It is by no means an exhaustive list, and I’m always on the lookout for more to include.
Twenty years of a festival existing is nothing to be sniffed at. Sure, bigger festivals have existed much longer (Reading dates back into the sixties, while Glastonbury is a few years younger), but in the current crowded festival environment, a smaller festival lasting twenty years is an extraordinary achievement. Particularly when the twentieth edition is […]
In conjunction with my talk at Nine Worlds about music and geekery (Tuesday Ten: 341), I wanted to feature The Gothsicles. But rather than just talk about them, I wanted to find out a bit more about this group and their focus specifically on gaming and industrial music.
As we creep out of July and into August, it is usual that my thoughts begin to turn to two things – my birthday, and Infest. And as it happens this year, it is one of two important milestones. I turn 40, and then two weeks or so later, Infest turns 20.
The first time DJing in a while last night, where I joined Victoria Fenbane and Deathboy to DJ for my friend Poggs at his 40th birthday celebration. A raucous night that turned out to be a lot of fun to DJ.
This week is all about repetit… oh wait, that was last week on /333/Repetition, sorry. In a change from the originally planned programming (I will post the Tuesday Ten about Spies and Surveillance – that I’ve now pushed back four times – in the coming weeks, I promise), to link in with other posts and […]
My habit of writing lengthy gig reviews often means that I don’t have the time to do some shows that I attend justice, so, this new Click Click series will hopefully mean I get to write more about the gigs I attend.
Trying to do a series on British Industrial has actually proven a little more difficult than I perhaps expected, partly my own fault due to issues with time and other commitments. But, following on from Talk Show Host: 043 with ded.pixel, I’m now continuing the series with a band with a near-unpronounceable name for many.
