This week’s wrap of new and upcoming music… This post is a roundup of (relevant to this site) new and upcoming music, a nod to upcoming events and livestreams both from this website and others, and also a catchup of what I’ve posted recently. Thanks to everyone who sends me new music and events, keeps […]
Now the majority of the moving-in rigmarole is finally done – we have a couple of small side tables to build and that’s about it – not to mention our fibre broadband finally installed and live, I can begin to return to some kind of normality on /amodelofcontrol.com. That should mean a return to weekly […]
Last Friday was the nineteenth anniversary of the September 11th (or 9/11) attacks, four near-simultaneous aircraft hijackings by terrorists in the US that resulted in an enormous loss of life, and has since stood as a marker of our age, and that has influenced US foreign and domestic policy ever since.
Continuing the process of wrapping up the last decade before it disappears too far into the rearview mirror, this is the second part of the best albums of the 2010s.
Some statistics: over 2017, I saw 114 live sets, across 45 days-worth of events (I count festivals by the day, so Infest covers three days-worth of events). Remarkably, by the way, my wife Daisy saw 18 days-worth of the 45 with me (perhaps a larger number than usual!).
Back around to another Friday already, hurtling deep into Autumn here in the UK, with Christmas already looming on the horizon. But enough of distant holidays, let us talk about the music that is around right now, and there is a lot of it this week.
This was an interview I’ve wanted for amodelofcontrol.com for as long as I’ve been doing interviews. I’ve followed, and listened to Bill Leeb’s work in Front Line Assembly (and to a lesser extent in his other projects) for well beyond two decades, and have long been curious about a number of things.
The announcement of a European Skinny Puppy tour earlier in the year (“Down the Sociopath Too Euro 2017“) was, I have to say, a bit of a surprise. It has been seven years since their last UK appearances at least, and in the meantime they’ve released the excellent Weapon – but that was four years […]
This is part two of my look back at 1996, where I continue what I started in Tuesday Ten: 250 by looking at releases that were broadly in February/March of that year.
Thanks to doing some planning in advance for my DJ sets at the GVWI Hallowe’en Party on Saturday, the inspiration hit me quite quickly to consider a Ten based upon the spooky goings-on around Hallowe’en. Some are directly relevant, some are on themes appropriate for the subject. Either way, consider it a relation to previous […]
I actually started this 80s rundown a couple of years back, but life and other things have rather got in the way. So, a little bit of spare time has allowed me to get this finished. Without further ado, then, let’s get on with it.
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.
Part four of my 2013 rundown – and this was a difficult list to do. Very difficult. And for the first time in a number of years, it took until the last week to finally decide once and for all on the top five in particular.
2013 has been a really, really strong year for music.
Nearly ten years since comeback album The Greater Wrong of the Right, and thirteen years since their return from the hiatus/collapse with the legendary Doomsday show, Skinny Puppy are back with their fourth album since the reformation, and after a string of ultimately disappointing albums that have seen them, at best treading water or even […]
So…I’ve looked at the best gigs, live venues, and gigs at the London Astoria, bands at Infest, bands I’ve *not* seen live…but I’ve never had a look at live albums, somehow, as my girlfriend pointed out last week.
In quite fabulous timing for this review, there was an intriguing article in the Guardian’s music section yesterday entitled When Bands Fall Off Cliffs. Ostensibly about how some bands find massive success and then the next release sees their fanbase simply fall away – and there were some pretty sobering and unexpected examples in the […]
Another bit of a retrospective this week, as I finally get ’round to covering the fact that MTV turned 30 years old on 01-August. As the NME noted a few months ago, whatever happened to the MTV of old? For all its faults – not least seemingly moving away from what was the whole point […]
The use of sampling in music has been around for some time now, and at points the use of it has approached levels of extraordinary musicality and ingenuity. At other points, of course, it’s been used in obvious, unsubtle ways – and as a result frequently becomes something of a monster hook. And why not? […]
