BLUR – “Music Is My Radar”
You can take the boys out of the art-school, but you can’t take the art-school out of the boys. Now often that isn’t a bad thing, but Blur let’s not forget had a gift as big as Gibraltar […]

Here’s Pitchfork talking about Plus 8 Classics, the 2CD compilation of Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva’s techno label’s greatest tracks. Having just bought it I can inform you that greatest in this context is no lie, though secretl[…]

Sir Cliff admits youth jabs: what is shocking about this is that Sir Cliff believes the media when it talks about his ‘ever-youthful image’. Cliff, man, wake up to yourself! Nobody thinks you’re young! At the very very most they mig[…]

I want Nick Mirov’s job: the most entertaining part of Pitchfork lately has been the reader mail, since the site has obviously hit that critical mass of readership where it gets flowery and indignant letters from people who secretly wish they w[…]

WHEATUS – Teenage Dirtbag
What if LFO had written “Creep”?[…]

There was something about Mary: also from the Guardian, this extract from Al Green’s upcoming autobiography, dealing with the ex-lover/hot grits/hurling/resultant suicide incident. A dramatic enough story without the slight over-writing that se[…]

Much amusement to be had from the unintentionally funny interview with Alan McGee, which finds him wildly enthusing about a lot of knackered old music. “Genius!” he says, of everyone, before rambling offensively about how Ian Curtis was &[…]

GRACE JONES – “Slave To The Rhythm” (12″)
“Ladies and Gentlemen….” What Eighties pop had more than anything before or since is a sense of scale. Long tracks previously tended to be messy jams, or primitivist […]

SLIMM CUTTA CALHOUN – “It’s OK”
Another day, another magnificent hip-hop single. It’s almost easy to take this year’s embarrassment of riches for granted: things are so good right now that you can almost lie back a[…]

Ally reviews a new Sarah Cracknell EP, so I thought I’d point out that Cracknell’s Saint Etienne bandmates have co-written most of the songs on the new Shampoo CD. Now, I’m not going to buy it any more than you are, but there is a c[…]