When mankind first had the perverse urge to create music he invented instruments with whatever came to hand. Hunters of the veldt made drums out of cowhide, the Tolmec’s made simple reed flutes. And the primitive tribe of Java, after a heavy da[…]

Beta Band Members One: I’ve written this really morose dull song.
Beta Band Member Two: I know why don’t we make it even worse by playing the worst theme tune to the worst science fiction film ever over it.
Beta Band Member Three: Ace. Gi[…]

Ah, German Pop. One of those implied oxymorons. And if there were ever a band of oxymorons, it would be Alphaville. Racism is an ugly label, but surely Big In Japan is almost as explicit as Siouxie and The Banshee’s “A race of people shor[…]

I notice elsewhere, in my absence, some young scamp over on NYLPM has started a concept piece, some say think piece entitled the Alphabet Of Pop. Now no-one knows more than myself the beauty of lists, as my Week Of Wank and Breakfast Of Banality prov[…]

WHEN BRANES COLLIDE!
OK so the Big Bang maybe happened when two M-Branes banged into one another: and there’s another brane-bang on the way some time soon maybe. And at CERN currently they’re building a particle-accelerator big enough th[…]

DOGVILLE One of the more baffling criticisms levelled at Danish enfant terrible, Lars Von Trier (alongside charlatan, bully, brat, misogynist’) is the one about manipulation. Not because it’s untrue, far from it. This is a man who clai[…]

R.I.P. Tony Thompson
I don’t suppose too many of us are able to say an awful lot about what makes one drummer better than another – I’m certainly not. Still, I wanted to mark that probably my second favourite drummer ever (behind th[…]

mario merz ‘s art was alive, in its use of the fibonacci sequnces, in the chaotic rigour of his installations, in how they crawled and galloped over gallery walls and cellings, how they were claimed from daily life.
he started, or was one who […]

Decide for yourself. ‘The Theory of Everything’, called ‘The Elegant Universe’, in the US is available to watch online at PBS’s Nova site.[…]

A Prince amongst men: I saw those Richard Prince paintings when they were at Sadie Coles HQ in London earlier this year. I’m pretty sure I liked them: I can remember enjoying being in the space, I think I even went to the show twice. I can also[…]