Art Rock and avant-garde
730 articles
The Who: Miles Interviews Pete Townshend
Interview by Miles, International Times, 13 February 1967
WHO? Pete Townshend, that's Who. Lead guitarist, song-writer, destructivist for this off-number-oned-pop group. He walks, he talks, he smashes. The WHO is the most popular ...
Spontaneous Music Ensemble: John Stevens: A Sadder But Wiser Avant Gardist
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 18 February 1967
JOHN STEVENS has come back a sadder but wiser man from the so-called "avant garde scene" in Copenhagen. Stevens, drummer-organiser of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, ...
The Doors: Jim Morrison is Sex Symbol
Profile by Mike Jahn, Pop Scene Service, 6 April 1968
MORRISON STOOD at the microphone, left foot firmly planted on its base, both hands holding it to his lips like a 7-year-old gnawing a Baby ...
Nico, The Velvet Underground: Andy Warhol: A Mirror Of American Death
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, New Society, 13 June 1968
2012 note: Cometh the hour... Paul Barker, the second and last editor of the UK weekly journal New Society, was once asked to speak on ...
The United States of America: The United States of America (Columbia CS 9614)
Review by Miles, International Times, 28 June 1968
THE UNITED States of America are an electronic rock group and represent the greatest advance yet made in this field. ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: The enigmatic Yoko
Interview by Ray Connolly, The Evening Standard, 26 October 1968
In her first interview: talking about love, loneliness and Lennon ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Two Virgins (Track)
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 21 December 1968
MOST AMUSING part of this entertaining family album is the line on the label which states all the "compositions" are published by Northern Songs Ltd. ...
Essay by Richard Cromelin, UCLA Daily Bruin, 29 January 1969
IT'S GETTING toward the end. It's building and building and building. The intensity he is projecting is communicated to the whole crowd. He is not ...
Ron Geesin: It can't be long before Ron Geesin takes over the world
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 8 March 1969
"A RAVING bloody loony" he may be, but there is no call for the Scots Jimi Hendrix of the banjo to be accused of being ...
Wild Man Fischer: An Evening With Wild Man Fischer (Bizarre 6332)
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 5 May 1969
A RATHER unusual album froze me between my loudspeakers one late night last week and, though I am not sure it is entertainment and would ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Life With The Lions (Apple)
Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 17 May 1969
JOHN AND YOKO DO THEIR OWN THING (Part 2) ...
The Mothers of Invention: Uncle Meat (Bizarre)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, June 1969
(Most of the music is from the Mothers' movie of the same name which they haven't got enough money to finish yet.) ...
George Harrison: Electronic Sound (Zapple)
Review by Loyd Grossman, Fusion, 8 August 1969
THIS ALBUM... phlurp phlurp phlurp... is on Zapple (grauughh! *'&'%%!) the Beatles personal label /--perhaps no other company wapwapwapwapwapwap uuuhwweeoques—would record it-++++++++++++ ...
Captain Beefheart is Alive in Hollywood
Interview by Miles, ZigZag, October 1969
IT’S THE BLIMP, IT’S THE BLIMP ...
Ed Sanders, The Fugs: Ed Sanders: We Reach The Moon
Interview by Nick Tosches, Fusion, 17 October 1969
This interview between Ed Sanders and Nick Tosches took place on Labor Day evening, 1969 at Ed Sanders' Lower East Side apartment in New York ...
Terry Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air (Columbia 7315)
Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 24 December 1969
THE WONDERFUL San Franciscan with the strange sounds, Terry Riley, has a second LP out, A Rainbow in Curved Air (Columbia 7315). ...
Sandy Bull, Victoria: Matrix, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 26 February 1970
Talented Sandy Bull Back In His Old Musical Niche ...
Sonny Sharrock: Like No Other Guitarist Ever Born
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 27 June 1970
WARREN "Sonny" Sharrock created one of 1969's most extraordinary musical moments, during a track called 'Chain Of Fools' on Herbie Mann's big-selling Memphis Underground album. ...
Wild Man Fischer: An Evening With Wild Man Fischer (Reprise)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 11 July 1970
Frank Zappa's "It had to be done" experiment finally released after some 18 months. Many will already have heard import copies of this two album ...
Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt: The Softs, the Proms and drummer Wyatt
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 5 September 1970
IT'S NOT long since Robert Wyatt announced that he was vacating the drum stool with Soft Machine in order to pursue a career with Kevin ...
Roxy Music: Roxy in the Rock Stakes
Profile by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 August 1971
A CURIOUS FEATURE of modern rock music is the way it's taken potential artists away from other spheres. Men who might have become poets, painters, ...
Press Release by uncredited writer, RCA Records, November 1971
THE SUMMER IS probably the best time to go down there, to the far reaches of the west West village. It's really calm, quiet and ...
Profile by Lester Bangs, Fusion, 12 November 1971
NICO IS ONE of the true enigmas of our time. Austere, elusive, a tall ghostly woman with an aura of utter loneliness and distance so ...
Yoko Ono: Fly (Apple SAPTU 101/102 £4.30)
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 18 December 1971
ELECTRIC YOKO MISSES OUT ON MUSIC ...
Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972
COMPOSER, MYSTIC, visionary, a prophet for the Age of Aquarius. There he sits in the portrait gallery on the front sleeve of the Sgt. Pepper ...
Yoko Ono: Rocking Chair: Oh! Yoko
Column by Michael Lydon, Fusion, April 1972
YOKO ONO smiles from her recent album cover (fly) with great compassion. Her face is heavy, peasant-like. She is looking out through a sheet of ...
Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 15 April 1972
Masterly musical mixture ...
Walter/Wendy Carlos: The Walter Carlos Sonic Boom
Interview by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 23 September 1972
"There's music in the sighing of a reed; There's music in the gushing of a rill; There's music in all things, if man had ears; The Earth is ...
Matching Mole: Cosmic Music and a Weird Fripp Trip...
Report by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 30 September 1972
INSIDE THE control-room of CBS Number One, Whitfield Street, producer Robert Fripp leans forward in his swivel chair and addresses the studio in general: "This is ...
Roxy Music: All This and Eno Too… How Can They Fail?
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 18 November 1972
T.S. ELIOT, MUSING upon a takeaway Chinese meal once asked "Is true art dead?", while over at the pinball machine Little Richard picked his nose ...
Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe (Apple)
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 20 January 1973
IN AS MUCH AS the Lennons have spent four years trying to turn self-dramatisation into an art-form, the criticism of indulgence so often aimed at ...
Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe (Apple SVBB-3399)
Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 15 March 1973
Then suddenly we realized that this time we were both drifting out in a cosmos somewhere together, like God's two little dandruffs floating in the ...
Henry Cow: Just Happy Playing Their Music
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 April 1973
HENRY COW, a quintet formed at Cambridge University five years ago, are probably best known — though the group themselves would rather forget it — ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Of Launderettes And Lizard Girls
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 28 July 1973
...and things that go bump in Ladbroke Grove. Nick Kent stakes out Eno's closet ...
Faust, Slapp Happy: Faust: Machine Heads
Report and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 6 October 1973
THE MACHINES are taking over. My cassette recorder has started talking back at me and a minute ago my typewriter savaged my left hand. And ...
Faust, Henry Cow: Faust: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 27 October 1973
I SENSED something weird was in the offing the moment I was met in the foyer of the Rainbow by a lady dressed as a ...
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp: Fripp and Eno: No Pussyfooting (HELP)
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 27 October 1973
Sex of one, Eno of the other ...
Yoko Ono: The Whole World Is My Mother-In-Law
Profile and Interview by Caroline Coon, unpublished, 1974
2012 NOTE: Tidying through my papers some days ago I found, at last, an interview I did with Yoko Ono at home in New York ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Blank Frank — the Messenger of Doom
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 2 February 1974
The initials B.F. spell... think about it. Words by Caroline Boucher ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets (Island ILPS 9628)
Review by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 16 February 1974
Iron Bean's nut cracker ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets (Island ILPS 9268, £2.30) ****
Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 23 February 1974
I WAS BEGINNING to wonder if the Mad Mekon Of The Moog would ever justify the acres of coverage he's had since he left Roxy ...
Brian Eno, The Winkies: Eno & the Winkies: Civic Hall, Guildford
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 March 1974
BEFORE HIS Guildford concert with the Winkies last Wednesday, Eno told me: "I've tried rearranging the running order of the songs in all sorts of ...
Brian Eno, The Winkies: Eno, the Winkies: Greyhound, Croydon, London
Live Review by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 2 March 1974
IN THE CAR travelling back to London, Eno was making some excuses. The acoustics of the hall were terrible, he said, and the heat put ...
Brian Eno, The Winkies: Eno: "I'm a Born Thief"
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 March 1974
... or "Eno helps digest other people's music". Fox-Cumming gets on earful of warm jets. ...
John Cale, Brian Eno: Eno and John Cale: The Wild Bunch
Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 18 May 1974
Martin Hayman jumps into the Tardis, goes into the future with typewriter over his shoulder and ends up on the beach with Eno, Phil Manzanera and ...
Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno, Nico: Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974
Ayers puts the A in ACNE ...
Robert Wyatt: Join The Professionals, Form A Rock Band…
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 27 July 1974
YEAH, WELL – Robert Wyatt (fact) drummed with Soft Machine, led Matching Mole, and fell from a fourth-storey window in Maida Vale early last year, ...
Henry Cow: Gerroff An' Milk It
Profile and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 31 August 1974
CHARLES SHAAR MURRAY wanted to call it 'How I listened to HENRY COW – and lived' ...
Annette Peacock: Primitive Bird Tries New Thing
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 7 September 1974
ANNETTE PEACOCK, erstwhile prisoner in the Bowie/DeFries camp, reveals big plans for what you've all been waiting for... Yes folks, it's THE NEW MUSIC. Here ...
Robert Wyatt: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 14 September 1974
EVEN THOUGH the gig was due to start at 8.30, Drury Lane had started to clog up with earnest-looking hippies nearly two hours before the ...
Robert Fripp: Something Is Stirring Down At Wimbourne
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 5 October 1974
IT'S NOTHING to do with egos, you know, this final dissolving of King Crimson. No, there's something of a much grander design — somewhat rather ...
Profile by Lenny Kaye, Hit Parader, January 1975
GIVEN THE commercial restrictions of the business we call music, it is the rare record company that is willing to lay itself on the line ...
Lady June: Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy
Review by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
FILE THIS ONE under Everybody Is A Star. ...
John Cale, Brian Eno, Nico: Eno: The Monkey Wrench Of Rock Creates Happy Accidents On Tiger Mt.
Profile and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, April 1975
One day Eno is going to formulate a theory that will make music melt out of the North Pole (maybe he'll do it with mirrors), ...
Carla Bley: Arrangements for the Death Dance
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 April 1975
The socio-musical thoughts of Carla Bley ...
David Bedford: A Non-Rock Rocker Takes A Star Trip
Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, May 1975
HERE IN 1975 it's become rather fashionable for those who make individualistic, eccentric music to be not only lauded by the critics, but adored by ...
Review by Colman Andrews, Creem, May 1975
NICO'S LAST album, Desertshore — her strongest, most varied, most emotionally effective work, was released over four years ago. In the meantime, some of us have been ...
Henry Cow: In Praise of Learning
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975
IT HAS been said that rock has lost its vision. It has also been suggested that the current drought of spectacular things to behold in ...
John Fahey: Hunter College, New York NY
Live Review by Paul Nelson, The Village Voice, 9 June 1975
John Fahey Is a Tough Guy ...
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp: Fripp & Eno: Palladium, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975
"IT'S NOT just an ordinary loop system. In fact, it's very complex. I invented it. Why don't you come and see me tomorrow and I'll ...
Gong, Henry Cow, Robert Wyatt: Robert Wyatt and Henry Cow, Gong: Piazza Farnese, Rome
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 19 July 1975
The Roman Spring Of Mr. Wyatt Thrill to the chariot racing. Dice with death in the streets of the Italian capital. Listen to the music. Special ...
Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music (RCA CPL 2-1101)
Review by James Wolcott, Rolling Stone, 14 August 1975
LOU REED'S new set, a two-record electronic composition, is an act of provocation, a jab of contempt, but the timing is all wrong. In its ...
Henry Cow, Slapp Happy: Henry Cow/Slapp Happy: In Praise of Learning (Virgin V2027)
Review by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, September 1975
IN THE PAST, Henry Cow have tended to be slotted into a critical compartment reserved for 'English Avant-Garde, jazzy/ eccentric', alongside Hatfield and the North, ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Another Green World (Island)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, November 1975
UP UNTIL THE moment the temporary editor of this august journal telephoned to apprise me that he'd just been in a terrible automobile accident in ...
Ron Geesin: Cockpit Theatre, London
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 31 January 1976
DRESSED IN RED shorts and jersey with white sneakers, Ron Geesin looks like a combination of Elton John and Alexander Solzhenitsyn but has the crazed ...
Henry Cow: London School of Economics, London
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 7 February 1976
SOMEHOW HENRY Cow all seem slightly amused to be on stage. This is one of the many communications going on between them, but mostly they ...
Henry Cow: North London Polytechnic
Live Review by Dave Laing, Sounds, 7 February 1976
Moo-sic to revolve to ...
Julie Tippetts, Isaac Guillory: Kings College, London
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 6 March 1976
"I'M NERVOUS." ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Discreet Music (Obscure); Another Green World (Island)
Review by James Wolcott, Creem, April 1976
NEARER MY ENO TO THEE ...
Henry Cow: Concerts (Caroline CAD 30002 103 mlns) ****
Review by Dave Laing, Sounds, 19 June 1976
THIS IS as good a place as any for new listeners to get into the music of Henry Cow. In purely economic terms this double ...
Philip Glass: Music In Twelve Parts. Parts One And Two (Caroline CA2010 36 mins) ***
Review by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 19 June 1976
THE TWELVE parts of Mr Glass' music have already been played in one six-hour session in New York two years ago but the first two ...
Robert Wyatt: The Wild Spume of His Hair Broke Over My Bowsprit
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 June 1976
...and I felt the tape line tauten on my cassette recorder as ROBERT WYATT plunged forward into the waves. ...
Penguin Café Orchestra: an English Art Ensemble of Chicago
Profile and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 16 October 1976
ONE OF the constant pleasures of hearing new music for the first time is the range of emotions it can evoke: surprise, euphoria, disgust, enlightenment, ...
Lol Coxhill, Henry Cow: Henry Cow, Lol Coxhill: Lindisfarne Centre, Southend
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 13 November 1976
THIS WAS only the fourth concert that Cow have done in this country all year — they have been touring Europe all through the summer. ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 11 December 1976
THIS ALBUM is neither Bizarre nor DiscReet, but that's neither here nor there. ...
Steve Reich: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 12 February 1977
OSTENSIBLY, the two Steve Reich concerts at London's Roundhouse last Sunday and the Sunday before reversed the natural order of things, starting with a complete ...
This Heat: Chelsea College Of Art, London
Live Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 16 July 1977
THERE ARE weird gigs, and there are weird gigs, but this one stands as the weirdest I've attended since the memorable time Faust caused a ...
Brian Eno, Roxy Music: Eno Part 1: Before and After Science — Accidents Will Happen
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 26 November 1977
Thinking about music with BRIAN ENO. Some monologues recorded and compiled by IAN MacDONALD. ...
Brian Eno, David Bowie: Eno Part 2: Another False World — How to Make A Modern Record
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 3 December 1977
Thinking about music with BRIAN ENO. Some more monologues recorded and compiled by IAN MacDONALD. ...
Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 7 January 1978
THEY SAY ENVIRONMENT determines character, and when it comes to American music, they're probably right. ...
Brian Eno: Before and after Science (Polydor 2302 071)
Review by Paul Rambali, Trouser Press, February 1978
IT APPEARS the grandiosely titled Before and After Science did not come easy to the erudite Mr. Eno. It was first scheduled some 10 months ...
The Residents: Meet the Legendary Residents, Alias the Cryptic Corporation
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 18 February 1978
...alias Pore-No-Graphics, alias Pale Pachyderm Publishing, alias Ralph Records. Maybe. Or maybe not. Some people think they're The Beatles. Hell, anybody who makes Ku Klux ...
Interview by Lester Bangs, New Musical Express, 8 April 1978
THE KOOK WHO FEEL TO EARTH. ON THE 8th DAY HE BOMBED OUT. ON THE 9th HE WAS RESURRECTED. ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Something strange is going on in Sheffield tonight
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 April 1978
INSIDE THE HOUSE, an hour to kill before going into town. Hungover. Sit on the sofa and watch TV with the sound off. A tape ...
Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 29 April 1978
THE INTERVIEW took place in a neat flat high on Hampstead Hill. Nico looked much as she always has, dressed in short crushed velvet jacket ...
John Cage: National Theatre, London
Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 24 June 1978
THE LIGHTS went down in London's National Theatre and a bearded, slightly stooped guy in blue denims came on, sat at a lecture table and ...
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 22 July 1978
WITH HER first album for six years, Annette Peacock softens the fabric. Glancing curiously and greedily at the rhythms and advantages at the tip of ...
The Clash, Suicide: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 29 July 1978
NO TWO ways about it. All I can do is echo and re-emphasise Chris Brazier's sentiments in MM of two issues ago: the Clash are ...
Annette Peacock: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 12 August 1978
ONE OF THOSE musical experiences devised as a tape-loop for the Pavlov Institute, Pekin, the oddly assorted fare at the Lyceum drew a deservedly tiny ...
Annette Peacock: A Rock & Role Alternative
Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 23 September 1978
"I THINK what happened was, after I left New York all the anger and the toughness and the hostility seemed to dissipate – and in ...
David Toop: Gorilla Noises & Mains Hum
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 23 September 1978
Free musician DAVID TOOP fingers the West while Lol Coxhill unleashes a gorilla tape in the toilet. ...
801, Phil Manzanera: Phil Manzanera/801: Listen Now (Polydor)
Review by Stephen Demorest, Rock Scene, October 1978
PHIL MANZANERA is one of those talented guitarists who speak much more eloquently with their hands than with their mouths. His "message" lyrics bemoaning the ...
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
"I'M NOT really interested in the quality of the film, what they furnish is an excuse to do some music...they're areas where I can experiment ...
Robert Fripp: The Untold Story
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, Creem, November 1978
WHEN ROBERT FRIPP finally retired King Crimson to the home for aging mellotrons back in late 1974, he let out a string of Jeane Dixon-style ...
Steve Reich: Music For 18 Musicians
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
A MAJOR new work by Steve Reich, a 42-year-old composer and performer from New York. Music For 18 Musicians was conceived in May 1974 and ...
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
MORE SO than anything else they've done, when Not Available's weirdness wears off, its "merry tunes" become an indelible stain on one's day-to-day existence. After ...
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 11 November 1978
EVEN BEFORE slotting the stylus into the grooves, you're aware that this is one of the most bizarre albums ever to make it a: far ...
Flying Lizards: Penseur in Patchy Light: David Cunningham…
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978
is either a 3-time loser looking for a way out, OR......An entrepreneurial polymath looking for a way in. ...
National Health: Of Queues And Cures (Charly CRL 5010) ***½
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 2 December 1978
CHURN, GRIND, hubble-bubble. Merde alors. I ask my brain to supply me with words to describe the instrumental music of National Health and that's all ...
Metabolist, This Heat: This Heat, Office, Metabolist: Institute Of Education, London
Live Review by Maureen Paton, Melody Maker, 16 December 1978
IF THE people won't come to the laboratory, the laboratory must come to the people. ...
Devo: Where the Rubber met the Road
Report by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, January 1979
"Louis bided his time, isolating Spain diplomatically, and acquainting his fellow rulers with the term devolution." — Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. VI, p. 1093 ...
Report and Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 6 January 1979
SANDY ROBERTSON ON THE TUMESCENCE OF THROBBING GRISTLE ...
Chrome: Half Machine Lip Moves
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 17 March 1979
THE TITLE OF Chrome's second album Alien Soundtracks perfectly describes one level on which their music can be taken: the evocation of a fantasy world ...
Robert Fripp: Exposure (Polydor)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 28 April 1979
A LESSON IN priorities might have been as apt a title. For this, the first record bearing his own name, the idiosyncratic Mr. Fripp has ...
Theoretical Girls: Jeffrey Lohn: Thoughts of a Theoretical Girl
Interview by Tim Page, New York Rocker, July 1979
"GOD, I HATE fashion! It destroys everything!" We're sitting in the Spring Street Bar, Jeffrey Lohn and I, on a polluted spring day. The boomtown ...
Philip Glass: Phillip Glass: Einstein On the Beach (Tomato)
Review by Tim Page, New York Rocker, July 1979
IN MY opinion, Philip Glass is one of the two or three most interesting musicians alive today. Along with fellow composer Steve Reich, he has ...
The Residents: Nibbles! (Virgin)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 21 July 1979
MEET THE Residents!!! ...
Robert Fripp's Public Exposure
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1979
The return to 'an intelligent way of living' ...
Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt: Oblique Strategies
Review by Howard Wuelfing, New York Rocker, August 1979
DON'T BE AFRAID OF CLICHÉS ...
Robert Fripp: A Most Delightful Discourse With One Small, Mobile Intelligent Unit
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Sweet Potato, August 1979
THE USUAL ways to write about most rock artists are, I'm afraid, inadequate when one's subject is Robert Fripp. Generally, the writer's task is to ...
This Heat: This Heat (Piano Records)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 1 September 1979
THIS Heat takes you to ten movies in the space of a one-year-old album. ...
This Heat: This Heat (Piano Records This 1)****
Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 8 September 1979
Metallic, but not nocturnal. Knoworrimean? Probably not ...
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 8 September 1979
FOR MUCH of This Heat's album, it's difficult and at times impossible to decipher which instrument is playing what. This is some indication of their ...
Steve Beresford: Murdering the popular song
Interview by Brian Case, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979
Urban guerilla or urbane gorilla? As Lol Coxhill says, you can hardly ignore Steve Beresford. If he's not getting up other people's noses by playing ...
Snakefinger: Boarding House, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, November 1979
PHILIP "SNAKEFINGER" Lithman is probably best known as a member of the Resident family. As such, he adheres to what seems to be one of ...
Annette Peacock: The Perfect Release (Aura)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 3 November 1979
ANNETTE PEACOCK is, I am reliably informed, very well thought of in bohemian circles. This is unsurprising, the surprise being only that her work is ...
Annette Peacock: A British Rail Breakfast With The Artbreak Kid
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 1 December 1979
TIMING: a while ago someone asked Bob Geldof — famous vocalist and composer with the extremely well-known Boomtown Rats pop group — for his definition ...
Guide by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980
"Progress in the physical and mechanical sciences determines a progress in art." — Carlos Chavez, 1957 ...
Brian Eno, Talking Heads: Brian Eno: Energy Fails The Magician
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 January 1980
After spending the last decade redefining rock music, all Brian Eno wants now is an honest job of work and a place to lay his ...
Overview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 12 January 1980
POMP THE trouble with synthesisers is actually playing them, accepting their status as sound-generators and starting from scratch. Mechanical keyboards were included in early synth ...
Sector 27, This Heat: This Heat, Sector 27: Ritzy Cinema, Brixton, London
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 12 January 1980
I DONT KNOW what This Heat's vision of an ideal setting for their singular brand of music would be but I'd guess the Brixton Ritzy ...
Annette Peacock: The Venue, London
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 2 February 1980
ANNETTE PEACOCK is a lovely enigma. Once in a while she emerges from obscurity to titillate her panting public with her possibilities and her perversities... ...
The Flying Lizards: The Flying Lizards (Virgin)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 2 February 1980
CHEWING ON a typically hilarious John Cage memoir, digesting the Formalist perfection, the Formalist splendour, I realise that absolutely nothing is demonstrated beyond the demonstration ...
Flying Lizards: The Flying Lizards: The Flying Lizards (Virgin) **½
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 2 February 1980
SOME TIME ago, American journalist and alliterator Tom Wolfe wrote an essay, 'The Painted Word', on the world of post-war American painting. ...
John Cale, The Velvet Underground: John Cale: Conversation With A Saboteur
Interview by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, March 1980
NY Rocker: You've been around the industry for a while, doing A&R, producing, performing and whatnot. I was wondering if you had any theories on ...
Robert Wyatt: Up from rock bottom
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 15 March 1980
Writing letters to political prisoners, listening to Radio Havana, thinking about music... Robert Wyatt hasn't been inactive during his five-year absence from the studios. VIVIEN ...
8-Eyed Spy, Albert Ayler, James Chance & the Contortions, Miles Davis: Free Jazz/Punk Rock
Essay by Lester Bangs, Musician, April 1980
IN A New York City nightclub, a skinny little Caucasian whose waterfall hairstyle and set of snout and lips make him look like a sullen ...
Robert Fripp: God Save The Queen/Under Heavy Manners (Polydor)
Review by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, July 1980
I. Last year, Bob Fripp announced his "Drive to 1981". As I understood it, The Drive was to consist of three albums: the first, a ...
Brian Eno: Into The Spirit World
Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 26 July 1980
The White Man's Grave Look to Africa ...
The Residents, Snakefinger: Ralph Records: Surrealism a Go Go
Retrospective and Interview by Jim Green, Trouser Press, September 1980
Waiting for art talent scouts? There are no art talent scouts. Face it, no one will seek you out. No one gives a shit. — ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Only The Small Survive
Interview by Dave Rimmer, The Face, October 1980
One of the vital musical innovators of the Seventies, Brian Eno now inhabits a curious world. He lives in 'medieval' Manhattan, where he gambles on ...
Profile and Interview by Lester Bangs, The Village Voice, 1 October 1980
He's Alive, But So Is Paint. Are You? ...
Derek Bailey, Evan Parker: Derek Bailey and Evan Parker: Playhouse, Century City CA
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 18 October 1980
GUITARIST DEREK Bailey and saxophonist Evan Parker's sold-out performance at the Century City Playhouse Wednesday night drew a diverse crowd that included jazzman Vinny Golia ...
Live Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 14 February 1981
A FETISH night out! A visit to the new school of modern music — art, avant garde and all those words. No doubt fancy terms ...
Material: When Is A Band Not A Band?
Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 4 April 1981
When it's Material, who are sort of several New York bands who are always sort of coming and going in all sorts of wonderful ways. ...
Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom / Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (Virgin)
Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 18 April 1981
THE REAPPEARANCE of Robert Wyatt's two Virgin albums (1974-5 vintage), now in a double package, is as welcome as a spring day after a relentless ...
John Cale: A Study in Contradiction
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 11 May 1981
ONSTAGE AND OFF, contradiction comes naturally to singer and songwriter John Cale. Within his music, forays into dissonance and contemplative mellifluousness have long been integral, ...
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 11 May 1981
THE PAIRING of the guitarist, Robert Fripp's newest venture Discipline with the New York group the Lounge Lizards — offered two examples of radical sensibilities ...
Robert Fripp, The Lounge Lizards: Discipline, Lounge Lizards: Her Majesty's Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 16 May 1981
IN THE LOBBY OF THE LIZARD KINGS ...
David Byrne, Brian Eno: Brian Eno, David Byrne: My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Sire)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, June 1981
"You see, the problem is that people, particularly people who write, assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1981
WHEN IS A guitarist not a guitarist? What distinguishes pop music from avant-garde or classical? Why is most cerebral music purely instrumental? Can you dance ...
The Residents: Mark Of The Mole (Ralph RZ 8152)
Review by Mick Sinclair, Sounds, 26 September 1981
SOME THREE or four years back I stalked the streets of suburbia besuited in an eclectic and vast selection of safety pins, verily enough of ...
Laurie Anderson: Ian Birch Investigates Wonderwoman
Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, 15 October 1981
EVERY SO often a single snaps out of nowhere and startles everyone. You've probably never heard of the singer before (and few of them survive ...
Laurie Anderson: Riverside Studio, London
Live Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 17 October 1981
PERFORMANCE HEART... ...
Laurie Anderson: Dizzying, Dazzling Action
Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 7 November 1981
Laurie Anderson: All This and Humor, Too ...
Suicide: Punk Rockers Who Don't Self-Destruct
Interview by Michael Goldberg, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 November 1981
A group "dripping blood and spit" ...
Glenn Branca: The Ascension (99 Records 990011p — Import)*****
Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 2 January 1982
GLENN BRANCA has accomplished with this debut release what others often strive in vain for over many years, that is, to catch the listener entirely ...
Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 9 January 1982
Small American journalists and stout American singers... we confront the issue most music papers shy away from. In the shadows of the city of Meatloaf, ...
Live Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 30 January 1982
UNLIMITED COMPANY ...
Yellow Magic Orchestra: No More Hiros
Interview by Betty Page, Sounds, 6 February 1982
BEFORE MAKING the obvious comments on such an album title as Neuromantic and collapsing into sarcastic guffaws, consider for a moment the man who coined ...
Laurie Anderson: Market Street Cinema, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Musician, March 1982
LAURIE ANDERSON looked like some kind of punk mystic as she stood on the stage of the Market Street Cinema in San Francisco. Her brown ...
Laurie Anderson: William Burroughs, John Giorno, Laurie Anderson: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, March 1982
AH YES, culture. Not rock — two-thirds of this bill wasn't even music. But my doubts that a novelist, a poet and a multimedia performance ...
Brian Eno, Talking Heads: Eno: The Soul Inside The Shades
Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 24 April 1982
Richard Grabel practises the pussyfoot with Brian Eno, the father of electronic pop. ...
Diamanda Galás: Heart Of Galás
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 5 June 1982
Is DIAMANDA GALÁS a devil woman? Lynden Barber finds out when he meets the golden-throated satanic majesty. ...
This Heat: King's College, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
TRAGICALLY snubbed by both press and public in this country, This Heat may have played their final gig. ...
Laurie Anderson: Looney Spoons and Merrie Melodies
Interview by Mick Sinclair, Sounds, 26 June 1982
The Super Adventures of Laurie Anderson ...
Laurie Anderson: Big Science (Warner Bros.)
Review by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, July 1982
THIS IS THE avant-garde art music album for folks who generally hate the stuff. Anderson captures the rarely realized potential of modern art music and ...
Interview by Lesley White, The Face, August 1982
According to Joe Bowie, only his trombone and his funk-jazz band Defunkt stand between him and the imminent nuclear apocalypse. LESLEY WHITE talks to the ...
Steve Beresford: Everywhere Man: Steve Beresford
Profile and Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 25 September 1982
You name it, Beresford had done it. He'd played bass, played piano, played trumpet...he'd composed music, improvised music, organised music, he'd written about the damn ...
Brian Eno: Only The Small Survive
Interview by Dave Rimmer, The Face, October 1982
One of the vital musical innovators of the Seventies, Brian Eno now inhabits a curious world. He lives in 'medieval' Manhattan, where he gambles on ...
Philip Glass: Sadler's Wells, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 26 October 1982
IT IS EASY to see why Phil Glass, long recognised as being in the vanguard of American avant-garde composers should have suddenly found himself lionised ...
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, November 1982
IN A BUSINESS where women singers are a dime a dozen these days (and trite women singers the norm), Lydia Lunch can be proud of ...
The Residents' Mole Show: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 13 November 1982
Mountains out of Molehills ...
Philip Glass: Through A Glass Darkly
Interview by Mark Dery, High Performance, 1983
Composer Philip Glass has leapt to national prominence in music with his synthesized symphonies and his collaborations with artists and filmmakers. His systems-oriented work provided ...
Transcript of audio interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 31 January 1983
This is a transcript of John's audio interview with John Cale. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Steve Reich: 9th Street Crossing Festival, Pension Building, Washington DC
Live Review by Paul Yamada, Washington Review, February 1983
FOR SEVERAL years now Steve Reich has been labeled one of the three "minimalists" to name drop, listen to, and even to take seriously. ...
Frank Chickens: Ain't No One Here But Frank Chickens
Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 5 February 1983
Kasuko, Kasumi and Noriko cabaret's Japanese Mafia. ...
Frank Chickens: First Bites: Frank Chickens
Interview by Mick Sinclair, Sounds, 12 February 1983
ONE OF the most unusual and likeable entertainments currently intruding upon the gig circuit are Frank Chickens. As the name inscrutably doesn't indicate, they are ...
Material: One Down (Elektra 60206)
Review by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, March 1983
CHARACTERIZING MATERIAL'S work as "new music" could be somewhat misleading, since synthetic pop proponents have recently begun to use the term in lieu of "new ...
Laurie Anderson: Anderson Brings Everyday Life And Humor To Performance Art
Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 27 March 1983
IT WAS a strange kind of love song. The singer wore a shiny black jacket over a black shirt and black tie. Her blond hair ...
John Cage: Tributes to John Cage: The Kennedy Center Concert and Ninth Street Crossings
Report by Paul Yamada, Washington Review, June 1983
WHAT CAN you say about a 70-year-old wiseacre, whose public persona exudes sensitivity and dogma, insight and fatuousness? And what can you say when that ...
Robert Wyatt: When The Boat Comes In
Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 4 June 1983
Well, Robert Wyatt's boat has certainly come in with the surprise success of his single 'Shipbuilding' on its re-release. In this interview Richard Cook talks ...
The Residents: All the Residents' Men
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 18 June 1983
Beyond the valley of a day in the life of a mole: The Residents struggle overground in their first formal public performance. Is the Mole ...
Glenn Branca: Riverside Studios, London
Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 18 June 1983
ACCORDING TO his UK press release, Glenn Branca's work "demands (and always receives) superlatives". Hyperbole would be more accurate, but given the avalanche of attention ...
Nick Cave, Exene Cervenka, Lydia Lunch: Lydia Lunch: Listen with Lydia
Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 18 June 1983
Settle back in your couch and listen to Lydia Lunch — former New York No Wave sewer queen, would-be agony aunt, chanteuse, the Bette Midler ...
The Residents: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 9 July 1983
EPIC MOLES ...
Suicide, Alan Vega: Alan Vega: '77 Suicide Strip
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 10 September 1983
A VEGA PERSPECTIVE ON GHOST RIDERS, KUNG-FU COWBOYS, AYLER WAILERS AND LIFE AFTER SUICIDE. ...
Art Of Noise: a Spanner in the Works
Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 8 October 1983
ART OF NOISE IS THE FIRST RELEASE ON TREVOR HORN'S AND PAUL MORLEY'S ZANG TUUM TUMB LABEL. NOT DISCO. NOT POP. YET NOT UNTUNEFUL. CHRIS ...
Interview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 5 November 1983
ANDY GILL talks to avant composer, soundtrack svengali and arty type PHILIP GLASS, and finds that life as one of the most pervasive musical influences ...
Laurie Anderson Goes For The Throat
Interview by Mark Dery, High Performance, 1984
FORGET the Pippi Longstocking coyness that led Newsweek to dub her "a cybernetic Lily Tomlin." Forget the dimples and the I-had-an-argument-with-10,000-volts-and-lost hairstyle. When Laurie Anderson ...
Steve Reich: "As if I were writing directly before God"
Interview by Mark Dery, High Performance, 1984
His latest and largest, Steve Reich's The Desert Music at BAM is also his most lush to date ...
Einsturzende Neubauten: Driller Thriller
Report by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984
METAL MARAUDERS IN THE MALL ...
Laurie Anderson: Mister Heartbreak (WEA)
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 3 March 1984
Somewhere Over Gravity's Rainbow ...
Scott Walker: The Original God-Like Genius
Profile and Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 17 March 1984
"I LIKE to watch people throw darts." ...
David Sylvian: The Art Of Noise: David Sylvian
Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, May 1984
What's David Sylvian been doing since Japan broke up? Taking Polaroids, traveling, organizing an exhibition – oh, and making a new record. "Art is my ...
Richard H. Kirk: Sound Tracked
Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 5 May 1984
IT DOESN'T take too long to suss that Richard Kirk's medium is The Image – here's a man who's ill at ease with The Word. ...
Holger Czukay: The Lunatic Has Taken Over The Asylum
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 12 May 1984
"WHEN I WAS 39 it was a very special year for me," reminisces Holger Czukay. ...
Wild Man Fischer's One-of-a-Kind Mind
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 1 June 1984
LOS ANGELES — "Mark!" Larry "Wild Man" Fischer's voice crackles over the telephone. "I'm depressed. The music business is hard... I might be doing some ...
Laurie Anderson, she slipped back in
Interview by Mick Sinclair, ZigZag, July 1984
THE ARTICULATED LAURIE. OUR SUPERMAN, MICK SINCLAIR, TRACKS DOWN THE ENIGMATIC LAURIE ANDERSON ...
Psychic TV: Holloway Road, London
Live Review by Julian Henry, Melody Maker, 18 August 1984
TONIGHT'S UNPUBLICISED appearance of Psychic TV at an old disused music hall off the Holloway Road was some "event". ...
Fred Maher, Robert Quine: Robert Quine and Fred Maher: Basic (Editions EG)
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 25 August 1984
NOT LONG ago, someone asked me if the 'EG' in EG Records stood for Egghead and I foolishly told them no. Now Egghead Records have ...
The Flying Lizards: Flying Lizards: The Final Battle Starts Here
Interview by Mick Sinclair, ZigZag, September 1984
They came from outer town. They claimed to be our friends. But Mick Sinclair kept his hamsters home regardless. ...
Brian Eno, U2: The Life of Brian
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984
Helen FitzGerald, the Emerald Isle's most astonishing export, gets all mysterious with ambient whizz-kid BRIAN ENO, who talks about life after the bush of ghosts, ...
Derek Bailey: The Guy Who Found The Lost Chord
Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 13 October 1984
The guitarist DEREK BAILEY has been one of the leaders of improvised music for 20 years. As a generation of guitar heroes has come and ...
Laurie Anderson: Missus Heartbreak
Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 27 October 1984
CYNTHIA ROSE lends an ear to a jetlagged LAURIE ANDERSON and hears the call of the riled from a multi-media star whose fame has induced ...
Frank Chickens: Pierced Nippon
Interview by Mick Sinclair, ZigZag, November 1984
Mickimono Sinclair and the delightful Frank Chickens ...
Diamanda Galás: Diamanda Galás (Metalanguage)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 1 December 1984
PEOPLE KEEP bursting in looking pained, which must have something to do with this record. Admittedly at a distance it could be mistaken for a ...
Laurie Anderson: Home Of The Brave
Review by Mark Dery, International Musician & Recording World, 1985
A GARBAGE disposal with indigestion, glub-glubbing on a smooshed Jiffy Pop foil bubble or a gluish wad of Captain Crunch, is not a pretty sight. ...
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 5 January 1985
HOT TOWN, it's summer in the city. Basing Street, West London to be exact, the pleasure dome of ZTT records. The Art Of Noise have ...
Frank Chickens: Why did the chickens cross the globe
Interview by Cath Carroll, New Musical Express, 26 January 1985
To get to Milton Keynes! Cath Carroll finds out that fact is stranger than fiction and how canaries relate to chickens. ...
Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, U2: Brian Eno: Music Without Compromise
Interview by John Hutchinson, Mix, February 1985
BRIAN ENO IS something of a paradox. He is at once associated with the avant-garde and an artist/producer who has actually had his share of ...
Andy Warhol: The Face Interview
Interview by Fiona Russell Powell, The Face, March 1985
"I HAVE NOTHING to say – read my books" is Andy Warhol's standard riposte to most would-be interviewers. ...
Boyd Rice, Frank Tovey, Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth/Frank Tovey & Boyd Rice
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, New Musical Express, 30 March 1985
AAAAH! CATHARSIS time again! ...
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 4 May 1985
"HEY! LOOK at this weird architecture," enthuses Peter Principle, surveying the sight he's just stumbled across by opening the curtain in my hotel bedroom. I ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1985
MORE CURIOUS CONNECTIONS: NEW ORLEANS BRASS MEETS SPOKEN WORD ...
Eugene Chadbourne: Chadbourne Country: A Rake 'N' Roll Hybrid
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 20 June 1985
"PEOPLE HAVE said to me, 'You could be as good on guitar as Al Di Meola if you quit screwing around,'" says Eugene Chadbourne. "Well, ...
Penguin Cafe Orchestra: Penguin Served Here
Profile and Interview by Jon Young, Creem, July 1985
NEW YORK — To partake of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, you first need to find the Penguin Cafe. Cross the barren tundra of Eno's ambient ...
John Cage, Brian Eno: John Cage & Brian Eno: A Meeting of Sound Minds
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, September 1985
BRIAN ENO is waiting in the calm, green courtyard between his apartment and studio, just a short distance from London's trend-setting King's Road. Under the ...
Suicide, Alan Vega: Alan Vega: Journey Through America 1985 — Part One
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 23 November 1985
During the '70s ALAN VEGA switched New York on to a different wavelength. Ten years on, and he's seemingly blown a fuse with a 'commercial' ...
Glenn Branca: "Sometimes I Wished My Fist Was A Sledgehammer"
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, High Performance, Spring 1985
Can a microtonal man from Harrisburg, Pa., find happiness in the '80s when his music sounds like a well-tempered band saw? ...
Philip Glass: Classical Gas: Philip Glass's Super Session
Report and Interview by Mark Dery, Record, January 1986
IF CLASSICAL music makes you think of some character in a periwig sawing away on a Stradivarius, then you've never heard Philip Glass' music. On ...
Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, January 1986
PICK UP a record with James Burton's guitar on it — any record from Ricky Nelson to Emmylou Harris — and drop it onto your ...
The Residents: Part Four of the Mole Trilogy (Ralph)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, January 1986
PART THREE of the Residents' Mole Trilogy doesn't exist, but we can't let that keep us from utter confusion. It all comes down to the ...
Profile by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 9 January 1986
The Swans' concept of rock & roll ain't pretty. ...
Michael Nyman: Time Waits For Nyman
Interview by Martin Aston, Melody Maker, 18 January 1986
Boffin, composer, systems musician, egghead and man with boring trousers MICHAEL NYMAN performed his soundtrack for A Zed And Two Noughts at the ICA last ...
The Residents: The Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 8 February 1986
CHANCES ARE that if you know the Residents at all, you know them by their eyeballs, not their music. Avant-garde to the max, the San ...
Annette Peacock: Colour Tails: Annette Peacock: I Have No Feelings (Ironic)
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 20 February 1986
NOTHING YOU CAN pin down here. Nothing you safely stick a label on and file for easy access. ...
Laurie Anderson: Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 10 March 1986
ANDERSON OFFERS UNINSPIRED GOODS ...
Velvet Underground: Oh God, Not The Bloody Velvets Again!
Report by Jane Solanas, New Musical Express, 26 April 1986
Fingers on the "Record" button… Rock's most name-dropped group, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND have finally arrived in the high brow world of The South Bank Show. ...
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, May 1986
Horse Platitudes ...
The Residents: Eyeball To Eyeball
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986
The Residents: The Ritz, New York, Jan. 16, 1986 ...
Brian Eno: More Blank Than Frank (Jem)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
AFTER BRIAN Eno left Roxy Music in 1973, he made four prophetic rock albums that incorporated unbalanced rhythms, random synthesizer noises, minimalist drones and whimsical, ...
Laurie Anderson: A Voice From Outer Space
Interview by Jon Wilde, Sounds, 7 June 1986
LAURIE ANDERSON has never ever had breakfast with William Burroughs, but she likes to talk about language, symbols and images. JONH WILDE likes to listen and wonder what ...
Laurie Anderson: More Blank Than Frank
Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 7 June 1986
AS SHE confides to us in her live show, Laurie Anderson was a bird in a previous incarnation. ...
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 7 June 1986
Defender of the Filth. Talking dirty or sex therapy? JACK BARRON gets his beret unscrewed by New York's first lady of sleaze, LYDIA LUNCH. ...
Special Feature by Mark Dery, Guitar Player, August 1986
LINK WRAY — whose 1958 hit 'Rumble' sounded an early tremor of what was to become rock and roll guitar — once divulged his jerry-rigged ...
Live Review by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 2 August 1986
THE LITTLE audience gathers. Fred Frith, veteran ferryman between rock and the avant-garde has rolled up to perform a few odd jobs in the improvisation ...
Material: Secret Life (Jungle)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 23 August 1986
STRANGE TIMING for this double album retrospective, considering how totally the alternative scene has renounced the ambitions of 1979-82, all the rhetoric about Eurofunkactivism, Sex, ...
Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 13 September 1986
From his bizarre explanation of tattoos to his obsessive faith in causes, PSYCHIC TV's Genesis P-Orridge is the very definition of complexity. As willing disciple ...
Dinosaur L, Arthur Russell, T La Rock: Sleeping Bag Records #2: Sleeping Around
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 27 September 1986
Last week Frank Owen unearthed the warped machismo of JUST ICE. Now, in the second part of his investigation into SLEEPING BAG RECORDS, he corners ...
The Residents: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 8 November 1986
IF YOU often wondered what fate befalls ex-members of that most teenage of teenage groups, Menudo, don't. Their hearts are left in San Francisco where ...
The Residents: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 8 November 1986
VAUDE-VILE ...
Holger Hiller: Oben Im Eck (Mute)
Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 29 November 1986
A SAMPLER IS always back-to-back with an array of possibilities. At her/his index finger. The choices: to either steal in an indiscriminate manner without discretion ...
The Fall Play Hey! Luciani: Riverside Studios, London
Live Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, December 1986
THERE'S A PLAY in every one of us, even Ernie Wise. And perhaps Mark E. Smith. In fact, most of the ingredients are here, maybe ...
Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, 1987
Herr Czukay talks about his friend Jah Wobble; Damo Suzuki's life after Can; using exisiting music; what he listens to, and his hatred of political music; his LP Movies and the similarity between his music and film; on the German soul; Rome Remains Rome, and music journalism.
File format: mp3; file size: 23mb; Interview length: 23' 57"; sound quality: ***
Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt: The Things You Should Know About Robert Wyatt
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, January 1987
IT'S DIFFICULT to call it more than coincidence. ...
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 17 January 1987
No other group creates such extreme reactions as SWANS. For some, they are a bunch of American charlatans making the worst noise in the world; ...
Overview by Ian MacDonald, The Face, March 1987
WHAT IS THE USE OF MINIMALISM? ...
Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, April 1987
BILL FRISELL'S eerily haunting voice on guitar has combined with his acute sensitivity and thorough training to make him one of the most in-demand of ...
Profile and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 11 April 1987
YOU MAY KNOW ARTHUR RUSSELL FOR HIS WORLD OF ECHO ALBUM. THEN AGAIN, YOU MAY REMEMBER DINOSAUR L OR THE NECESSARIES OR... WELL. FRANK OWEN TAKES US ON A TRIP ...
Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, May 1987
SMALL RECORD labels usually concentrate on one particular musical style, or a related set of styles. Not Celluloid Records, which has sought from the beginning ...
Arthur Russell: The Kitchen, New York NY
Live Review by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 9 May 1987
RUSSELL, A fiery chameleon of a man, a nervous splutter of contradictions and paranoia, seems available to all interpretations and answerable to none. World Of ...
Interview by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 30 May 1987
STILL AVOIDING CATEGORISATION YEARS AFTER HER 'O SUPERMAN' HIT, LAURIE ANDERSON TELLS JONH WILDE ALL ABOUT HER MOVIE, HOME OF THE BRAVE. ...
The Lounge Lizards: No Pain For Cakes (Antilles)
Review by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 30 May 1987
AT THE ICA last year, I was disappointed by the Lounge Lizards. The pianist's fringe, the languid horns, the bath of cigarette smoke, I could ...
The Lounge Lizards: No Pain For Cakes (Antllles)
Review by Mark Sinker, New Musical Express, 30 May 1987
LURIE SAYS he's got stuff to make Tom Waits weep. And this collection, has a verve and nerve to justify his sly pride. Something to ...
Eugene Chadbourne: The Lovably Low-Tech Eugene Chadbourne
Interview by Mark Dery, Guitar Player, February 1988
"There's no type of music I don't like; it's important to be able to make fun of all types." ...
David Byrne, Talking Heads: David Byrne: Heads and Tales
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 18 March 1988
With Naked, Talking Heads' tenth album, David Byrne is still asking "How did I get here?" Mark Cooper examines a stranger in paradise. ...
Henry Threadgill: Into another world
Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, April 1988
Reedman/composer Henry Threadgill rips down the barriers of jazz with uncompromising, challenging music. ...
John Zorn: Quick-Change Artist Makes Good
Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, April 1988
"WHAT'S COMING out of this scene down here is definitely hybrid music: it's the result of people growing up through the '60s and '70s, listening ...
Overview by Mark Dery, L.A. Weekly, 21 April 1988
THE CHAIN linking performance art and pop music is 75 years long this March. It's a tangled, meandering chain, stretching all the way from Italian ...
Bill Frisell Quartet: Look Out For Hope (ECM)
Review by Gene Santoro, Spin, May 1988
BILL FRISELL IS the Clark Kent of the electric guitar. Soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, he apparently breathes in lungfuls of raw fire when he ...
The Residents, Snakefinger: The Residents: The eyes of the Lord are upon us
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 30 July 1988
From eyeball lashing to Bible bashing THE RESIDENTS are back and inviting you to come spend a fright night at the opera with them. Their ...
Pere Ubu: The Long, Strange Trip Of Pere Ubu
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 16 September 1988
DAVID THOMAS, lead singer-lyricist of Pere Ubu, on his group's long, strange trip: "The original Pere Ubu had been very much like piling in a ...
Interview by Mark Dery, Elle, October 1988
WHEN DIAMANDA Galás opens her mouth, dark things come flapping out in a pandemonium of caws, screeches, and beating wings. "I feel as if I'm ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, October 1988
Stylists have thrown in the towel, promotional persons have blanched, record execs have shed real tears as, over six years, Talk Talk have been increasingly ...
Michael Nyman: Drowning By Numbers (Virgin/Venture LP/ Cassette/CD)
Review by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 8 October 1988
WE DON'T want to know about Michael Nyman, they said. We want to hear about genuinely talented people like Kylie Minogue and the Godfathers. Well ...
Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 22 October 1988
LET'S NOT mince words; most of these ambienceurs are a fraud, trying to sell us insubstantial ideas that aren't worth listening to by simply turning ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, International Musician & Recording World, November 1988
The Spirit of Eden LP is both a logical step and a radical departure for TALK TALK. Andrew Smith thinks it may prove controversial... ...
John Zorn: The master of mixture
Interview by David Toop, The Times, 5 November 1988
John Zorn, whose group Naked City makes a rare appearance in London tomorrow, has turned sheer eclecticism into an art form. David Toop did some ...
Kip Hanrahan, Hal Willner: Kip Hanrahan and Hal Willner: Rock's renegade producers
Profile and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988
Kip Hanrahan and Hal Willner make records that challenge the traditional notion of a producer's role ...
Sandy Bull: Jukebox School of Music (ROM Records)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, December 1988
IN THE decade and a half since his last release, the rumor circulated that Sandy Bull had died. After a string of generally brilliant albums ...
Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1988
La Galás talks about the impact of the AIDS crisis on her work; her latest album You Must Be Certain Of The Devil; the motivation for her work; how it informs the format of her current show; her concern for mortality. She also talks about her voice, on training it to become "the perfect machine"; her admiration for Gore Vidal; her fear of plane crashes; English free improvisers like Derek Bailey and Evan Parker; on San Diego and Berlin, and a whole lot more.
File format: mp3; file size: 130.8mb, interview length: 2h 16' 15" sound quality: *** (background noise)
Diamanda Galás: The Demon Diva
Interview by Mark Sinker, Melody Maker, 7 January 1989
As the AIDS epidemic spreads and all pop can do is turn a blind eye, Diamanda Galas is the only singer left to stand and ...
Diamanda Galás: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 January 1989
DIAMANDA GALAS' AIDS trilogy Masque Of The Red Death draws a mixed bunch to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on New Year's Day — 50 per ...
Diamanda Galás: Sometimes Words Are Not Enough: Diamanda Galás: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 14 January 1989
SELF-CENSORSHIP destroys our richest dreams before they're executed. Just as redneck hysteria is the last refuge of the foul-mouthed scoundrel, so does restraint cast doubts ...
Harold Budd, Brian Eno: Brian Eno: Musical Revolutionary
Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, March 1989
Stellar producer; influential recording artist; pioneering shaper of sound: BRIAN ENO is all of those things and more. ...
Danielle Dax: Dark Adapted Eye (Sire)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1989
WILDLY VARIED and unpredictable, Danielle Dax's Dark Adapted Eye finally delivers this accessibly eccentric veteran of the British independent-label scene to America. ...
Brian Eno: Man Out Of Time: Brian Eno
Interview by Don Watson, Spin, May 1989
"IS THIS 1962 OR 20 YEARS ON?" asked the sleeve notes of the first Roxy Music LP, the record that introduced Brian Eno to the ...
Danielle Dax: Danielle In The Lions' Den
Interview by Robin Gibson, Sounds, 6 May 1989
Though branded flippant and eccentric, Danielle Dax refuses to knuckle under to labels. Uncovering her music's mix of malice and humour, Robin Gibson hears why ...
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 20 May 1989
On their new album The Burning World the SWANS have discovered their volume control goes down as well as up and have left the harsh ...
Overview by Mark Dery, Elle, September 1989
MAYBE IT all began in 1917 with the harmless-looking urinal "R. Mutt" entered in the Society of Independent Artists New York show. ...
Holger Czukay, David Sylvian: David Sylvian: Words of the Shaman
Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 16 September 1989
THE LAST TWO YEARS HAVE BEEN A PERIOD OF TRANSITION FOR DAVID SYLVIAN, BUT HE'S NOW IN A NEW COLLABORATION WITH HOLGER CZUKAY AND A ...
Lydia Lunch: Scream Until You Like It
Interview by Keith Cameron, Sounds, 23 September 1989
After 13 years of howling into the void, Lydia Lunch is still going strong. Keith Cameron finds out what fuels her anger. ...
Laurie Anderson: On The Jagged Edge
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Elle, October 1989
"I'LL BET you think I'm making this up," says Laurie Anderson, her voice taut, edgy. A dramatic pause, then a grave shake of the head. ...
Chris & Cosey: Chris and Cosey: Trust (Capitol)
Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 12 October 1989
IT'S A beautiful world, where Chris and Cosey can inhabit the same record store as, say, Slim Whitman. Frigid and anti-human, and at the same ...
David Sylvian: Life in the Beehive
Report and Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, November 1989
DAVID SYLVIAN sits back and thinks about the work. "There are evident failures and occasional successes, but my opinion of the work doesn't change much. ...
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, November 1989
THERE'S PREJUDICE and there's prejudice, but answer me this — what kind of a narrow soundworld do you have to be living in for the ...
John Zorn: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by David Toop, The Times, 30 November 1989
Art of musical autopsy in reverse ...
Lydia Lunch (1989) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages transcripts, Winter 1989
This is a transcript of Martin's interview with Lydia. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, 1990
The Slapp Happy man (right channel), with help from younger brother Kristoffer (left channel) looks back at his pioneering Kraut/Art rock combo, its merger with Henry Cow and subsequent bust-up, and his subsequent musical adventures including bonding with XTC's Andy Partridge.
File format: mp3; file size: 44.7mb, interview length: 48' 47" sound quality: ***
Michael Nyman: The Nyman/Greenaway Soundtracks (Virgin Venture LP/Cassette/CD)
Review by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 20 January 1990
NYMAN'S LANDSCAPES ...
The Residents Keep an Eye on Their Secret Identities
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 26 January 1990
San Francisco's visionary underground musicians will surface tonight with a unique take on Elvis. ...
The Residents Keep an Eye on Their Secret Identities
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 26 January 1990
Pop music: SanFrancisco's visionary underground musicians will surface tonight with a unique take on Elvis. ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, New Musical Express, 27 January 1990
IF THE Who were Prince's band at the apocalypse, they would make this noise. It's an almost psychedelic, thumping mash. The drummer is driven by ...
John Cale, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground: Velvet Memories of Andy Warhol
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 22 April 1990
Simon Reynolds on Lou Reed's reunion with John Cale. ...
Marc Ribot: Rootless Cosmopolitans (Antilles AN 8749/CD)
Review by Damon Wise, Sounds, 28 April 1990
MARC RIBOT expands upon the blues the way only the very best "white" rock musicians can and do, he has that singularity of vision that ...
Curlew, Marc Ribot: Marc Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans, Curlew: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Damon Wise, Sounds, 28 April 1990
MARC RIBOT'S fretwork was perhaps the most startling feature of the Lounge Lizards. Almost buried beneath the brass-heavy bursts of occasional melody it worked against ...
Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 May 1990
THE KNITTING FACTORY is downtown New York's hip crucible of new music, where improvisers like John Zorn and Fred Frith play on the same bill ...
The KLF: KLF: Tales From The White Room
Interview by John McCready, The Face, September 1990
SINISTER. That's the word. The KLF are sinister. With their pervy mail-order black-hooded packamacks, their propaganda and their perfect assimilation of rave culture they are ...
Brian Eno: Back to the Future: Brian Eno
Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, November 1990
The teenage keyboard pioneer with the left-field dress sense evolved into the amiable egghead in the "gardening clothes". And in between – via the avant-garde, ...
Electronica: Electronics Anonymous
Report by Johnny Black, Q, December 1990
Swatched in dry ice, tucked behind towering banks of keyboards, they are the spiritual descendents of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, prescribing "psycho-active music to bring ...
Interview by Mark Dery, Mondo 2000, 1991
GLENN BRANCA and Elliott Sharp philosophize with a hammer. And an anvil. And a stirrup. The two New York composers take Friedrich Nietzsche, who subtitled ...
Christian Marclay, MC 900-foot Jesus, Urban Dance Squad: Now Turning the Tables... the D.J. as Star
Overview by Mark Dery, The New York Times, 14 April 1991
Disk jockeys want nothing less than the acceptance of the lowly turntable as a legitimate musical instrument. ...
John Zorn: There's John Zorn Every Minute
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 18 May 1991
Zorn to boogie! From his New York avant-garde garret, JOHN ZORN is busy invigorating the slumbering corpse of jazz with hardcore shock therapy. STEVEN WELLS ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Spin, July 1991
Pere Ubu remains one of the most influential, innovative groups to emerge from the mid-'70s American punk-new wave movement. JON SAVAGE listens to some pearls ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1991
The venerable Wyatt talks about his new album Dondestan, setting his partner Alfie's poems to music and his singing voice. He also talks about sampling, his appreciation of hip hop, and his pleasure listening to Pete Tong's Radio 1 show. He then talks about leaving the Communist Party, which leads on to an extensive discussion of politics...
File format: mp3; file size: 73.1mb, interview length: 1h 16' 05" sound quality: ****
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1991
OH. EVERYTHING hasn't quite changed, after all. Frith's excellent retrospective last year, Step Across The Border, seemed to demonstrate how much more New York and ...
Harold Budd: By The Dawn's Early Light (Opal/Warner Bros/All formats)
Review by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 7 September 1991
TAKE A REST from the rigours of following popular music — those who rave, chill; those who contemplate their shoes, do it to your navel ...
Robert Wyatt: Dondestan (Rough Trade/All formats)
Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 14 September 1991
IT'S BEEN six years since Robert Wyatt last made a record, the wayward and twisty Old Rotten Hat. Before that, Wyatt spent a decade making ...
Interview by Betty Page, Vox, November 1991
Mark Hollis takes minimalism to its limit with a one-note solo on Talk Talk's new album, Laughing Stock. Still, a solo, like life, is what ...
Glenn Branca's Guitar Symphonies
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Guitar Player, February 1992
"THERE'S not one hardcore band in this country — I don't care how good it is — that can touch Mozart for hardcore," growls Glenn ...
Robert Wyatt: Dondestan (Gramavision)
Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1992
THROUGHOUT A career as singular and honest as his expressive voice, Robert Wyatt has remained a true progressive. From his days in the Soft Machine, ...
Jim O'Rourke's Roaring Silence
Interview by Mark Dery, Guitar Player, April 1992
IN JIM O'ROURKE'S music, deafening silences explode, whiting out all sound for clock-tick eternities. The languorous tempos he favors are reminiscent of Japanese gagaku or ...
Diamanda Galás: Palace Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 20 April 1992
Intensity, Thy Name Is Diamanda Galás ...
Glenn Phillips' Voices In The Night
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Guitar Player, May 1992
THE POET CHARLES Bukowski believes that greatness is born of ordinary madness. Glenn Phillips would probably agree. In the liner notes for Echoes (1975-1985), a ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson, Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock: Bill Laswell: Mad Maxim
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 16 May 1992
Laughing in the face of musical categories, Manhattan's AXIOM label smashes through Techno stomp, space bass boogie, classical gas, Islamic rap'n'thrash, ferocious free-form jazz and ...
Michael Brook: Zoo Aquarium, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 13 June 1992
MICHAEL BROOK is a Canadian music theorist with an impressive list of past collaborators. He's worked with Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, U2 and Sinead O'Connor, ...
The Mothers Of Invention, Frank Zappa: Frank Zappa: Frank's Wild Years
Retrospective and Interview by Neil Slaven, Record Hunter, July 1992
AFTER 25 YEARS of unique musical anarchy and as many confrontational albums, Frank Zappa is facing his greatest adversary – prostate cancer. Undulled, he relates ...
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 20 July 1992
Suicide casts a deep, dark spell ...
Diamanda Galas: Hymns Of Empathy
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Keyboard, August 1992
IF MARIA Calas had sizzled at the stake, she might have sung 'The Litanies of Satan', by Diamanda Galas, as her final, fiery aria. ...
Bill Nelson, Robert Wyatt: Robert Wyatt & Bill Nelson: Tough Guys Don't Dance
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, August 1992
Bill Nelson meets Robert Wyatt. For 20 years they've bucked the system and made music at the edge of rock. Two vets discuss the never-ending ...
John Cage, Brian Eno, Keith LeBlanc, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ultramarine: Ambient: The Chill-Out Zone
Essay by David Toop, Mixmag, October 1992
Ambient music: not just a soundtrack for the chill-out room, more a sound of the future. David Toop gets deep. Very deep. ...
Brian Eno: Taking Modern Culture By Strategy: Brian Eno
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, October 1992
2005 note: It’s not a sensible criticism of a conjuror that his craft does not involve actual real magical powers. Eno is fascinated by the ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono (1992)
Interview by Mark Kemp, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1992
On the release of career-spanning compilation album Onobox, Yoko looks back at her Japanese musical roots; coming to New York and becoming part of its musical avant garde; using her voice as a musical instrument; meeting John Lennon, the resistance to what they did together, and its subsequent influence; surviving life's vicissitudes, and dealing with John’s death; allowing 'Instant Karma' to be used in a Nike ad; the possibility of making new music, and continuing to make art.
File format: mp3; file size:90.9mb, interview length: 1h 34' 43" sound quality: ****
Brian Eno, Roxy Music: Brian Eno (1992)
Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1992
Pop's intellectual-in-chief on youth and cultural identity; the value of pretence and pretension; useful irony, contingency, and the accident of joining Roxy Music; problems of language; minimalism and the value of the recording studio; what "culture" means; deadlines; contributing to the cultural conversation; the importance of topicality; false impositions of cultural values; reading and hearing; criticism and empathy.
File format: mp3; file size: 86.9mb, interview length: 1h 30' 28" sound quality: ***
The Brodsky Quartet, Elvis Costello: Elvis Costello: The Other Side of Elvis
Interview by Chris Heath, Details, April 1993
Two years ago, Elvis Costello was a celebrated songwriter with a bad beard and a sharp tongue. His Latest record is The Juliet Letters. He's ...
Robert Wyatt: Mid-Eighties (Rough Trade R2952 CD)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, April 1993
AT TIMES during the last ten years you might have wondered why Robert Wyatt didn't simply junk music and park outside supermarkets; his solemn Spartist ...
Moose, Stereolab: Stereolab, Moose: Conway Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 29 May 1993
TONIGHT'S A Nicaraguan Solidarity Benefit and the vibe is definitively mid-Eighties. I haven't stood beneath a poster of Che Guevara while eating falafel out of ...
David Sylvian, Robert Fripp: Robert Fripp, David Sylvian: Double Edge
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 30 June 1993
Guitar hero meets cool synth dude on The First Day, a new album by Robert Fripp and David Sylvian. They should go together like a ...
Live Review by Ngaire Ruth, Melody Maker, 10 July 1993
MY TASK is to review two absolutely legendary figures (growing to four by the evening's end) who have laughed in the face of mainstream music ...
Bill Laswell: Super Barrier Brother
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, New Musical Express, 4 September 1993
Respect and admiration this week go out to AXIOM label boss BILL LASWELL, breaking down multi-cultural barriers and making perfect musical marriages. ...
Diamanda Galás: Apocalypse Now
Profile and Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, The Rocket, October 1993
THE WITCH has long symbolized the end result of female power left unchecked, a power that can grow into a rage capable of challenging, and ...
Review by Ian Christe, Alternative Press, November 1993
INSIDE AN artful cardboard CD holder, liner notes for Collusion explain that Zoviet France refused to participate in compilations for many years for two reasons: ...
Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 26 November 1993
Brian Eno used to wear leopard skin and make the synthesised squeaks and honks for Roxy Music. Now he's the venerable intellectual of pop ...
Captain Beefheart: "Yeah, I'm Happy. Happy as a clam."
Retrospective by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, December 1993
He is alive. A recluse. Painting in seclusion up near the Oregon border. There have been weird signals through the ether since he stopped making ...
Dead Can Dance: Into the Labyrinth (4AD 45384-2; CD and cassette)
Review by Amy Linden, The New York Times, 12 December 1993
OVER THE course of 12 years and six albums, the Anglo-Irish duo Dead Can Dance has created music that gives new meaning to the word ...
Guide by Tim Page, Details, January 1994
Modern minimalist composers find an audience beyond academia ...
Material: Hallucination Engine (Axiom/Island)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 1994
BE READY to take a passive role listening to this album, unless you're good enough to recognize Vikku Vinayakram playing the ghatam when you hear ...
The Fugs: F*** Art, Let's Levitate The Pentagon
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, March 1994
DECEMBER 16, 1965. A press conference is under way at Columbia Studios, Los Angeles. Bob Dylan is holding court. One reporter throws a question: "What ...
Aphex Twin: 'Phex And Drugs And Rock'N'Roll
Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 12 March 1994
APHEX TWIN is the first superstar of ambient, the crossover King of innovative pop. Which is why Seefeel, Saint Etienne, The Boo Radleys, Curve, hell, ...
Harold Budd, Cocteau Twins, Andy Partridge: Harold Budd: Sonic archaeologist
Profile and Interview by David Toop, The Wire, June 1994
What unearthly music is Harold Budd exhuming now? ...
Laurie Anderson: The Nerve Of Her
Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1994
THE GENERAL PUBLIC MAY HAVE heard little from performance artist Laurie Anderson in recent years. But that's certain to change in 1994, a hectic year ...
Laurie Anderson Media Manipulator
Interview by Frank Broughton, i-D, August 1994
SHE’S A MULTI-MEDIA story-teller, spinning yarns around the flickering campfire of technology. Her songs are swathes of hypnotic synthesised tones, with eerie voice filters focussing ...
Peter Gabriel: Electric Disneyland
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, MOJO, October 1994
Peter Gabriel is developing an interactive self-therapy device. He talks of machines that can interface with plants. He sees himself not as a musician, more ...
Diamanda Galás, John Paul Jones: Diamanda Galás and John Paul Jones: Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Live Review by David Toop, The Times, 4 November 1994
Monster mosh ...
John Oswald: The Man Who Stole Michael Jackson's Face
Profile and Interview by David Gans, Wired, February 1995
John Oswald creates new works from existing sonic materials. His Plunderphonic got him in trouble with the copyright police. (It also got him gigs with ...
Retrospective by David Toop, The Wire, April 1995
This New York composer, who died in obscurity of AIDS in 1992, was a true visionary, traversing dub, disco and minimalism and anticipating the '90s ...
Interview by Andrew Smith, Ray Gun, May 1995
HER HOUSE IS set back from the street, on a wide avenue in Maida Vale. A pair of imposing, wrought iron security gates shield it ...
Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, May 1995
Scott Walker, perhaps the most enigmatic singer in recent times, has returned with his first recording since 1984. But is it a work of experimental ...
Elvis Costello: Rebuilt to Last: Elvis Costello's Meltdown
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Times, 11 June 1995
Music cannot be divided into the old artificial groups. Elvis Costello has always known this, and now he is paving the way to a more ...
Laurie Anderson: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 8 July 1995
PATRON SAINT of art zombies everywhere, Laurie Anderson's come a long way from playing her violin while standing on blocks of ice on street corners ...
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 5 August 1995
IT'S BEEN THREE years since he last toured, and about 15 years since he burst onto the post-punk, avant-garde rock scene: an outré Australian singer-songwriter ...
Stereolab: Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2) (Duophonic D-UHF-CD09 13tks/65mins/FP)
Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 9 September 1995
WEIRD SCIENCE: By now, Stereolab's Marxis elevator music ('Ping Pong') and francophone Krautrock should have flirted with your consciousness. So here's your chance to catch up with their ultra-sexy ...
Interview by Chris Roberts, Ikon, October 1995
David Bowie is enjoying another renaissance – hyperactive, philosophical, and buoyant. The century may be expiring, he figures, but his cup runneth over. Chris Roberts ...
David Bowie: Inside The Outsider: The Postmodern Panorama of David Bowie
Interview by Gerrie Lim, BigO, October 1995
HE'S BEEN a lot of things to a lot of people, sometimes even too many things to too many people, and the only certainty has ...
David Bowie (1995) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 4 October 1995
This is a transcript of Simon's audio interview with David. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Unmen: Music In Motion (Vinyl Japan LEBCD34 CD)
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1995
UNMEN MIX up field recordings with programmed grooves, guitar, piano, brass — anything that sounds right. This approach is not so strange, considering that leader ...
Grateful Dead, John Oswald: John Oswald: Rites of the Living Dead
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, December 1995
Following the death of Jerry Garcia, John Oswald's Grayfolded, a digital reworking of the Grateful Dead's 'Dark Star', has assumed new, ghostly qualities. ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 1995
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, 1996
"You are about to have probably the most unusual musical experience of your life. The music will enter areas of your mind never before opened ...
Suicide: Teardrop Explodes Again
Interview by Craig McLean, The Face, January 1996
On the late Seventies Alan Vega and Suicide invented an anti-rock electronica that paved the way for Depeche Mode and Soft Cell. Now it's a ...
Tortoise: Millions Now Living Will Never Die (City Slang EFA 04972)
Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 26 January 1996
THE "POST-rock" conceptualist ensemble from Chicago, Tortoise, do not travel on the fast track. Exhibiting a lofty disregard for conventional song structures, their wholly instrumental ...
Tortoise: Carapace at the gates of dawn
Interview by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 26 January 1996
Tortoise don't write tunes or sing songs. Instead, they make me cry ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 27 January 1996
For 25 years, DAVID TOOP has been writing about making music that breaches all musical boundaries. Now he's compiled a CD that sets out to ...
Add N To (X): On The Wires Of Our Nerves (Satellite/CD/LP)
Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 31 January 1996
ADD N TO (X) have heard the future, and it sounds old. These three merry pranksters inhabit a dimension dedicated solely to unearthing the most ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 3 February 1996
The new TORTOISE album, with its radical approach to rock, dub, trip hop and avant-Techno, will blow your mind. SIMON REYNOLDS heralds the future ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, March 1996
Depending on your point of view, American group Tortoise are either cutting edge avant rock, or ponderous Prog revivalists. Either way, the buzz generated by ...
Stereolab: It's The Sugarcubists!
Report by Siân Pattenden, Select, April 1996
OK, it isn't really. Only Stereolab would concoct a promo video set at a fictional 1930s surrealists' drug convention ...
Profile and Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 13 April 1996
Like Michaelangelo and his Ninja mates, they're mutant crossover crazies in a half shell! They are Chicago's TORTOISE and, supporting ver 'Lab on their British ...
Brian Eno: A Year with Swollen Appendices (Faber & Faber)
Book Review by John L. Walters, The Wire, June 1996
NOTE: This is a "director's cut" version of John's review of Eno's book. ...
Flying Saucer Attack, Tortoise: Tortoise, Flying Saucer Attack: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 21 September 1996
SOMEWHERE IN the paranoid corners of your mind, there are scientists trying to claim this music as their own. They erect cages of solemn reason ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1996
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Steve Reich: Electronic meditations
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1996
In his sixtieth year, composer Steve Reich is still looking to the future, incorporating sampling, environmental sound and video art into the fabric of recent ...
Interview by Richie Unterberger, Perfect Sound Forever, 18 November 1996
RICHIE UNTERBERGER interviewed Robert Wyatt on November 18, 1996 for his book Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll, which profiles 60 of the most interesting cult acts ...
Harold Budd: Invisible Jukebox: Harold Budd
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, January 1997
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Retrospective and Interview by Howard Wuelfing, Addicted To Noise, 6 January 1997
Michael Gira, leader of the influential but little-known band Swans, isn't just floating along with the current. He's controlling it. ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 1997
WHERE MOST folk in this business work on instinct, rarely pondering how to maximise their talent, supposing they have any, Eno is one of a ...
Silver Apples: Oscillate Wildly
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 1997
After 30 years of universal neglect, New York's Silver Apples are finally getting recognition for their pioneering electronic rock. ...
Brian Eno: We Have Ways Of Making You Talk: Brian Eno
Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, September 1997
...on Russia, Roxy and tennis players' bottoms ...
Negativland: Siedpsip (Seeland Records)
Review by Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly, 11 September 1997
If the Medium is the Mess, thank the maker of Negativland. ...
Spring Heel Jack: Why Does Everybody Hate Spring Heel Jack?
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Mixmag, October 1997
Is it because they produced for Everything But The Girl? Toured with ambient rockers Spiritualized rather than Goldie? Or because they're seen as the epitome ...
Stereolab's Lætitia Sadier (1997)
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages, 5 November 1997
Ms. Sadier talks about the difference between what Elektra releases and what Stereolab issue on their own Duophonic label; about their latest album Emperor Tomato Ketchup; the band's development and their exploration of multiple genres; their oblique lyrics; resisting commercial pressures and the nature of Stereolab's audience.
File format: mp3; file size: 16.1mb, interview length: 16' 45" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Mark Hollis, Talk Talk: Return from Eden: Mark Hollis
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, January 1998
As the prime mover behind Talk Talk, Mark Hollis threw off the shackles of a pop existence to create the bleakest, yet most lyrical orchestral ...
Robert Wyatt: Deep Shleep: Robert Wyatt Gets Personal
Interview by Mac Randall, The Boston Phoenix, 20 January 1998
"THE BIG PROBLEM I have with rock and roll is the rock end of it," says Robert Wyatt. "But I love the rolling. I'm into ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, 22 January 1998
After a brief chat about touring with the Clash, Alan Vega and Martin Rev go back to how they first joined forces; Martin's jazz roots; their electronic predecessors the Silver Apples; being "punk" before Punk; their relationship with New York City's music scene and not being druggies; the name Suicide; their music as confrontational; their use of electronic instruments; their lyrical concerns; their second album, produced by the Cars' Ric Ocasek; their innate futurism; DIY and the future of recording and distribution.
File format: mp3; file size: 43mb, interview length: 38' 29" sound quality: ****
Mark Hollis: Composing Himself
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Sunday Times, 25 January 1998
ANDREW SMITH meets the former Talk Talk singer whose haunting new album marks the next stage in an intriguing musical odyssey. ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 1998
Whether upfront on his own projects or undercover in groups like Naked City guitarist FRED FRITH has sought ever more imaginative ways to keep the ...
Review by David Bennun, The Guardian, February 1998
FROM 1980S synth-pop with Talk Talk, Mark Hollis is now a solo artist of rare contemplation… It's all gone quiet over here. Mark Hollis has ...
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 1998
IN 1997 THE toilers on rock's margins buffed their edges, dubbed in some breathing space and inserted enough kitsch samples to bring their experiments closer ...
Ryuichi Sakamoto Goes Avant-Classical
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 8 February 1998
THE LAST TIME I saw Ryuichi Sakamoto he was jumping about on the stage of the Paradise, tweaking and twiddling synthesizer knobs, wearing a Devo-esque, ...
Holger Czukay: No Borders Here: Holger Czukay’s Movies and On The Way To Peak Of Normal
Review and Interview by Rob Chapman, MOJO, March 1998
Mute’s admirable disinterring of the entire Can-related catalogue reaches Holger The Bassman’s first two solo albums. ...
Review by Stevie Chick, Melody Maker, 7 March 1998
THE PROBLEM with prog rock was that it didn't actually progress anywhere; musical frontierism was merely a smokescreen for some of the most wanky follies ...
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, April 1998
Test card music for the Gods. Band at vanguard of American 'post-rock' developments ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, May 1998
Before the Chemical Brothers, before Ministry, before even Soft Cell, there was SUICIDE, the original electro-duo. DAVID STUBBS meets the synth-terrorists whose noise still provokes ...
Diamanda Galás: Malediction And Prayer (Mute) **½
Review by Ben Myers, Melody Maker, 2 May 1998
WITH A voice akin to Ella Fitzgerald, Edith Piaf and Shirley Bassey, yet with a distinctly goth-baroque slant, Galás is something of a unique entity. ...
Gary Lucas: Guitars and Monsters
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, June 1998
Former Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas might not have fulfilled his childhood ambition to become a vampire, but in wielding his avant-roots-noise music like a stiletto, ...
Richie Hawtin: Immaculate consumption
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, June 1998
In his Plastikman guise, Richie Hawtin used to bomb the dancefloor with bullet-hard Techno. Now he seeks solace and inspiration in the minimal artwork of ...
Walter/Wendy Carlos: A huge, ever pulsating brain
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, July 1998
Mark Sinker reopens the music vs technology debate with Robert Moog, who invented the portable modular synthesizer to give the world an ever expanding index ...
David Bowie: A Rock 'n' Roll Suicide: A live art event by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard: ICA London
Report by Nick Coleman, The Independent, July 1998
"OF ALL THE SHOWS on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest. Not only is it the last show of the ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, July 1998
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom/Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, July 1998
Overdue CD reissue of Seventies English avant-rock classics ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 17 July 1998
Windy force is hard to pin down ...
John Fahey: Blood on the Frets
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 1998
The original American Primitive, John Fahey's raw mixes of blues, folk and musique concrete embody the spirit of American alternative music. But during the 60s ...
Marc Ribot: Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans) (Atlantic)
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, October 1998
THE LAST time I saw Marc Ribot he was screaming into a microphone as his amplifier bled feedback, veins popping from his neck like battleship ...
DAF: Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft: Reissues
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, December 1998
Overdue reissue of Eighties German minimalist synth duo's electronic pop albums ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 1 December 1998
This lengthy interview roams back and forth from Wyatt's childhood to the present day, taking in politics, Jimi Hendrix, Soft Machine, his voice and his music. Fascinating stuff.
File format: mp3; file size: 95.8mb, interview length: 1h 44' 35" sound quality: ***
Book Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, February 1999
OF THE alliance at the heart of the original Velvet Underground, John Cale writes: "We hated everybody and everything. Other musicians were viewed as competition. ...
Book Review by Don Watson, The Wire, March 1999
JG BALLARD once said that rock journalism at its best was a medium for the "real news", a means of conveying what he called the ...
Vinicius Cantuária, Arto Lindsay: Arto Lindsay and Vinicius Cantuária: Songs for modern lovers
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, April 1999
Arto Lindsay transformed himself from extreme noise guitarist into the age's most intimate lover through his archaeology of Brazilian modernism. Now working in tandem with ...
Spring Heel Jack: Treader (Tugboat)
Review by Carl Loben, Melody Maker, 5 June 1999
NOW UP to their fourth d'n'b album, Spring Heel Jack's John Coxon and Ashley Wales are nothing if not prolific. The orchestral artcore of There ...
David Toop: Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes In A Real World
Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, July 1999
IF EXOTICA is, to quote a much used definition, nostalgia for places you've never visited, then the term has potentially universal application. Bearing in mind ...
Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, July 1999
Since unburdening himself of Swans' legacy of extreme body music, Michael Gira has aspired to a state of grace with his new group, Angels Of ...
Retrospective by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, July 1999
In the latest in our series uncovering the hidden wiring of 20th century music, Edwin Pouncey shows how rock 'n' roll's face was changed forever ...
Stereolab: Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night (Duophonic)
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 25 September 1999
GANE OVER ...
David Bowie: Portrait of the Artist: David Bowie
Interview by Steffan Chirazi, SOMA, October 1999
He makes music. He acts. He paints. He makes sculptures. David Bowie sits and talks for 'hours...' with Stefan Chirazi about how it all comes ...
Laurie Anderson: Outside the Whale: Laurie Anderson plays Moby
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 13 October 1999
Songs and Stories From Moby Dick, BAM Opera House, Through October 16 ...
The Chemical Brothers: Warhol: The Herald Of Sampling
Comment by Tony Scherman, The New York Times, 7 November 1999
MENTION ANDY Warhol's relationship to pop music, and the first name to crop up will be that of the Velvet Underground, the band Warhol championed ...
Captain Beefheart: Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)
Essay by Tim Page, The Washington Post, 12 December 1999
BACK IN THE early 1970s, when Captain Beefheart was at the decidedly sub-stratospheric pinnacle of his fame, there was no faster way to clear out ...
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica
Book Excerpt by Mike Barnes, 'Captain Beefheart: The Biography' (Quartet), 2000
"If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people ...
Live Review by Rob Young, The Wire, March 2000
ZORN'S BACK: that part of his anatomy, clad in a casual red pullover above yellow-flecked combat slacks, is, in fact, what is presented to the ...
Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, March 2000
23 years after their art attack first outpaced punk audiences, Wire have sprung back into action. Ian Penman meets the group in rehearsal and finds ...
Stereolab: The Forum, Melbourne
Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 15 March 2000
IT'S RARE TO SEE pop music treated with such intelligence. ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Penman, The Wire, April 2000
Now living by the sea, Coil tap the tidal flows and lunar tugs shaping England's occult history for their visionary nocturnal music. ...
Laurie Anderson: Epiphanies: Laurie Anderson
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2000
Laurie Anderson tells Rob Young how a great white whale lured her towards her latest revelations ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2000
Fusing traditional musics and puppet displays, Heri Dono's extraordinary installations and sculptures satirise the trashed landscape of Indonesia. ...
Evan Parker: Invisible Jukebox: Evan Parker
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, May 2000
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Ash Ra Tempel, Coil, Julian Cope: Julian Cope's Cornucopea: South Bank Centre, London
Live Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
BILLED AS "a festival of plenty" by its curator Julian Cope, the two nights spent in the company of his various label mates, old mates ...
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, May 2000
ON THE FACE of it, Stefan Betke is producing a very samey, so-what? music; compared to some modern millenarians, the bunker dub he releases under ...
Chet Baker, Terry Riley: Terry Riley: The Gift (Organ of Corti)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
TO DATE, Organ of Corti's important release programme of rare and previously released material from master minimalist Terry Riley has been a somewhat frustrating exercise ...
Tisziji Muñoz: Alpha-Nebula — The Prophecies (Anami Music)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, May 2000
FOR MANY, the name of New York born, Puerto Rican guitarist Tisziji Muñoz will be unfamiliar, so perhaps a brief summary of his career is ...
David Toop: Tokyo without a map
Report by David Toop, The Wire, May 2000
Sonic Boom curator David Toop visits the Japanese capital to network with a gaggle of young electronic sound artists, and finds the megalopolis as perplexing ...
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, June 2000
Pole music combines glitch electronics with the cyclonic eddies of dub. In London, Rob Young meets its creator, Stefan Betke, to uncover a secret life ...
Matmos: Where Art Worlds Collide
Profile by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 14 June 2000
I MUST HAVE misplugged my phone adapter before interviewing Drew Daniels and Martin Schmidt of Matmos, because all I hear on the tape are my ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 2000
DEVO'S FIRST single, 'Jock Homo', was released in 1977. An instant hit, it expounded the group's theory of de-evolution, that mankind is regressing, rather than ...
Scott Walker: Scott/Scott 2/Scott 3/Scott 4/Boychild: 1967-1970
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 2000
The Arctic explorer's '60s solo oeuvre remastered with new pix and full lyrix. ...
Jimi Tenor: Out Of Nowhere (Warp)
Review by Ian Penman, The Wire, September 2000
SOMETIMES YOU just need a Song: one that makes you feel electric angels are sitting on your shoulder and whispering arcane formulae of timeless Passion ...
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, October 2000
ANOTHER SUPERLATIVE ambient/techno album from former Bjork collaborator ...
wire200.net/minehost: Brainwashed.com
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, October 2000
Webmaster Jon Whitney controls Brainwashed.com, a central hub for music's outsider tendency, hosting sites for World Serpent, Tortoise, Kid606 and more. ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, November 2000
FEW MUSICIANS have fully understood how to make effective use of feedback in improvised music. If anybody can crank up their output and return part ...
HIM, Doug Scharin: HIM: Our Point of Departure
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 2000
DOUG SCHARIN certainly has the alchemists touch in assembling and directing groups of excellent musicians. ...
Add N to (X): Invisible Jukebox: Add N to (X)
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, November 2000
Every month we play a musician or group a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, November 2000
WITH THEIR FOURTH album Kid A, Oxford quintet Radiohead have caused a tsunami-sized wave of confusion by breaking with stadium rock orthodoxy to exhibit an ...
HIM, Doug Scharin: Doug Scharin: His Imperial Majesty
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2000
Doug Scharin's masterful polyrhythms provide the pulsing backbone for groups such as Rex, Codeine and Out In Worship, as well as his own outfit HIM. ...
Otomo Yoshihide: Invisible Jukebox: Otomo Yoshihide
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2000
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Evan Parker, Keith Rowe: Keith Rowe: Harsh, Guitar Solo; Evan Parker/Keith Rowe: Dark Rags
Review by David Toop, The Wire, December 2000
"AFTER SEVERAL years of bizarre playing in a sort of anti-jazz style that always ill-suited his supposed role of rhythm guitarist, Rowe now seems on ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Dominic Aitchisin, aka Demonic, b. Glasgow, Scotland; Stuart Braithwaite, aka pLasmatroN, b. Glasgow; Martin Bulloch, aka Bionic, b. Glasgow; Barry Burns, b. Lanarkshire, Scotland; John ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 17 January 1952, Tokyo, Japan ...
Sigur Rós: Desolation Angels: Icelandic music
Report and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, January 2001
Spearheaded by Sigur Rós, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and the Kitchen Motors collective, Iceland’s hardy children of nature are proving stubbornly resistant to the World Rock ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band/Double Fantasy
Review by Ian Penman, Uncut, February 2001
The dream is over… ...
The Residents: The Primer: The Residents
Discography by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 2001
A bi-monthly series in which we offer a user's guide to recordings of some of our favourite musicians. This month, Edwin Pouncey takes a duck ...
Review and Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, March 2001
This time with added tunes! Album number four heralds a return to form for the chameleonic Chicago instrumental collective. ...
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Surface, April 2001
WHEN, IN 1987, David Sylvian sang the words, "I wrestle with an outlook on life, that shifts between darkness and shadowy light," he spoke of ...
Current 93: Invisible Jukebox: Current 93
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, May 2001
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, May 2001
For 20 years, Mike Harding and Jon Wozencraft's audiovisual Touch label has refused to dumb down its message of complexity in jouissance ...
Radiohead: Walking on Thin Ice
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, July 2001
Radiohead may be one of the biggest groups on the planet, but their dissenting voice and exploratory studio techniques conflict with the commercial pressure to ...
Plaid, Prefuse 73, Squarepusher: Warp Records: Various Reviews
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, July 2001
Don't all rush at once, alt.country fans – a triple-whammy of Warp techno Plaid - Double Figure Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies And Uprock Narratives Squarepusher - Go ...
Laurie Anderson: Invisible Jukebox: Laurie Anderson
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2001
MOST PEOPLE first heard about Laurie Anderson when her 1980 single, 'O Superman', an eight minute voiceloop and vocoder incantation, reached number two in the ...
John Oswald: Plunderphonics 69/96 (Fony)****
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 2001
Sample Minded… Sampladelia run rampant from the USA ...
Pauline Oliveros: No Mo (Pogus)
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, August 2001
MADE AT Mills Tape Music Centre in California and the University of Toronto, Pauline Oliveros's 1965–67 electronic work includes I-V Of lV, Bye Bye Butterfly, ...
Björk: The Last Great Pop Star
Interview by Nick Coleman, The Independent, 9 August 2001
She thumps reporters, wears funny clothes and thinks she was born in the wrong century. Now she's made an album about her kitchen. Nick Coleman ...
Björk: Alone in the Dark: Björk on Vespertine
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, September 2001
Björk's eerie night songs are infused with the mythological landscapes of her native Iceland and the concrete fjords of Manhattan. She tells David Toop about ...
Bill Laswell, Carlos Santana: Bill Laswell/Carlos Santana: Divine Light (Columbia Legacy)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
IN 1997, PRODUCER Bill Laswell was granted access to Columbia's tape vaults where, using the original masters, he put together Panthalassa, his devoted reconstruction of ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
THE RESURGENCE of Destroy All Monsters, the Detroit artists' collective group made up of founder members Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Cary Loren, owes much ...
Lester Bangs: Loud Bangs and Bestial Noises
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 2001
In the 20 years since Lester Bangs wrote his 'Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise', the multi-mediated world has largely assimilated the hostile sounds he espoused. ...
Taku Sugimoto: Italia (A Bruit Secret)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, September 2001
David Toop praises guitarist Taku Sugimoto's clerical era ...
The Residents: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by John Aizlewood, The Guardian, 18 September 2001
"YOU'RE NOT the real Residents!" shouts a heckler. He may or may not have a point – there is no way of telling. Since 1972, ...
Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble: Jah Wobble's Solaris: Ocean, London
Live Review by John Aizlewood, The Guardian, 23 October 2001
NEVER AFRAID of embracing the cerebral, Jah Wobble's latest group project, Solaris, is inspired by Stanislaw Lem's 1961 science fiction novel and, especially, Andrei Tarkovsky's ...
Yoko Ono: Just imagine: Yoko Ono
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Observer, 4 November 2001
In the '60s, Yoko Ono married John Lennon and campaigned for peace in Vietnam. More than 30 years on, she's still irrevocably linked to her ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Various Compilations
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
From post-punk to dance crossover: Sheffield pioneers' mid-Eighties revisited The Original Sound Of Sheffield — The Best Of The Virgin/EMI Years Conform To Deform — The Virgin/EMI ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, January 2002
Born gritty "THE MANY and varied musical backgrounds of the current Sand line-up lead the group to argue violently at length about compositional and performance ideas, ...
Norma Jean Bell, No-Neck Blues Band: The Fringe: Rackjobbing
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, February 2002
American music you can believe in ...
Joan Jeanrenaud: No strings: Joan Jeanrenaud
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 28 February 2002
Joan Jeanrenaud had the classical world at her feet as cellist with the Kronos Quartet. She tells Adam Sweeting how she finds life on her ...
Jim O'Rourke: The Art Of Noise
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, March 2002
HEAR AN EXPERIMENTAL, ELECTRONIC RECORD THESE DAYS AND CHANCES ARE IT WILL HAVE CHICAGOAN JIM O'ROURKE'S NAME ON IT. ROB HUGHES MEETS THE 21ST CENTURY ...
Sonic Youth: All Tomorrow's Parties: A Festival That Pops With Edge
Report and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 13 March 2002
UCLA's ambitious All Tomorrow's Parties fest, curated by avant-rockers Sonic Youth, embraces the underground. ...
Review by David Hemingway, The Guardian, April 2002
NOEL GALLAGHER may attribute Oasis's success to having simply written unpretentious, uncomplicated songs on his guitar, but not everyone shares this fascination with six strings. ...
Maher Shalal Hash Baz: Mad in Japan
Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 12 April 2002
They're Japanese; their group's name is in Hebrew; their music defies definition. Ben Thompson meets the exotic Maher Shalal Hash Baz ...
Sigur Ros & Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson: Odin's Raven Magic
Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 21 April 2002
• Sigur Ros, Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson and Steindor Andersen with the London Sinfonietta and members of The Sixteen Choir • Music composed by Sigur Ros and ...
Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, July 2002
IT'S TAKEN 30 years for Alan Vega to make the transition from surly street punk and art world agitator to New York institution. Better known ...
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, New Musical Express, 13 July 2002
EYE YAMANTAKA, founder and creative visionary of Japan's Boredoms, is one of rock's great eccentrics. His band churn out a cosmic slop for kids with ...
The Boredoms: Drilled to Infinity
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2002
Over 15 years, Osaka's Boredoms have mutated from a splatterpunk avant noise group to the streamlined ferocity of their current mantric percussion barrage. In London, ...
Epiphanies: Mr. Jazz and 'Coarse Fish'
Memoir by Byron Coley, The Wire, October 2002
In 1974, TV's 'Mr Jazz' threw a switch that scrambled Byron Coley's brain with the DIY cut-ups of Orchid Spangiafora. ...
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Yanqui UXO (Constellation)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, November 2002
Veering between swarming guitar symphonies and Messiaenic tranquillity, Canadian refuseniks Godspeed You! Black Emperor are learning to love the bomb... not. ...
Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, November 2002
Byron Coley appraises more archive treasures of free jazz and Improv unearthed in Atavistic's ongoing Unheard Music Series. ...
Retrospective by Yancey Strickler, Neumu, 31 December 2002
In terms of great music, 2002 is as good a year as I can remember. It says a lot that when making this list, and ...
John Sinclair: Invisible Jukebox: John Sinclair
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, January 2003
John Sinclair — poet, journalist and former manager of 60s revolutionary rockers The MC5 — was born in Flint, Michigan in 1941. His father worked ...
Pere Ubu, David Thomas: David Thomas brings Disastodrome! to UCLA
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Harp, February 2003
IT'S LATE NIGHT in a Los Angeles motel room and a dog-tired, barefoot David Thomas is dining on broccoli and cognac. "There's plenty more where ...
Review by Mike Barnes, MOJO, February 2003
Eight years down the line, the Chicago four-piece — three of whom are also visual artists — may well have produced their masterpiece. ...
Robin Guthrie: Out of the Shadows
Interview by David Sinclair, The Times, 21 March 2003
Why has the limelight-shy former Cocteau twin Robin Guthrie gone solo? ...
Colin Newman, Wire: Invisible Jukebox: Colin Newman
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, April 2003
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Frank Zappa: Kevin Courrier: Dangerous Kitchen – The Subversive World of Frank Zappa
Book Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, April 2003
SINCE HIS death from prostate cancer in 1993, Frank Zappa's history and collective improvisations have been celebrated and picked over by a horde of musicologists ...
Captain Beefheart: The Captain's Conjurors: The Magic Band
Retrospective and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, April 2003
With the 1982 LP Ice Cream For Crow, the legendary Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, laid the final incarnation of his Magic Band back ...
Autechre: The Futurologists: Autechre
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, April 2003
The world of electronica might have become overcrowded since their first releases a decade ago, but Autechre are still burrowing through microscopic cracks into the ...
Review by David Toop, The Wire, June 2003
With contributions from Derek Bailey and Christian Fennesz, David Sylvian's new record is his most adventurous departure yet. ...
David Thomas: Man in the Mirror
Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Harp, June 2003
Pere Ubu’s David Thomas stages the latest incarnation of his rock opera/performing arts festival 'Disastodrome!' ...
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, July 2003
"I LOVE HIM, I love him, I love him, I love him/ This time, I'm gonna keep it to myself." Björk is swaying as she ...
Kraftwerk: Return of the Robots of Rock
Comment by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 July 2003
Kraftwerk are about to release their first album in a decade — probably. Stephen Dalton examines the mythical status of the men from Düsseldorf. ...
Profile and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, September 2003
"Ron Geesin, composer for all media, live performer and one-man record company, works from his own studio both writing for musicians and working with complex ...
Jim O'Rourke: I'm Happy And I'm Singing And A 1, 2, 3, 4
Review by Todd L. Burns, Stylus, 1 September 2003
CLAIMING TO HAVE been hugely into minimalism and avant garde music by the time he hit high school, Jim O'Rourke's stock took a blow in ...
Review by Emma Warren, Observer Music Monthly, October 2003
Up on their uppers: Art-school project? Situationist prank? Fashion statement? Emma Warren celebrates the star-studded, ultra-hip and über-exuberant electropunk of Berlin's all-girl wonders. ...
David Sylvian: Brilliant Trees/Alchemy/Gone To Earth/Secret Of The Beehive (Virgin)
Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, October 2003
IN 1989, VIRGIN released Weatherbox, one of the most coveted box sets ever. It underlined the first phase of David Sylvian's solo career; indeed, it ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, October 2003
The Radiohead axeman discusses writing and recording the soundtrack to Simon Pummell's Bodysong: the way he used tape to record it; the musicians he collaborated with, including jazzman Gerard Presencer; the process of working to pictures and the arcane instruments he used, including the Ondes Martenot. Along the way he talks about playing Viola, and about being colourblind.
File format: mp3; file size: 48.1mb, interview length: 50' 09" sound quality: ****
Review and Interview by Mike Barnes, Jim Irvin, MOJO, October 2003
Wyatt's first album for six years features guest appearances by Annie Whitehead, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, David Gilmour and Paul Weller. By Jim Irvin. ...
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, November 2003
It's been a long trip for Richard D James, the notorious and misunderstood figure behind the Aphex Twin and co-founder of the Rephlex label. As ...
Devo: Jade Dellinger & David Giffels: Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!
Book Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, December 2003
DEPENDING ON which side of the critical fence you were standing at the time, '70s art rock group Devo from Akron, Ohio were either "the ...
Arthur Russell: The Flying Heart
Retrospective by David Toop, The Wire, January 2004
Arthur Russell is the great enigma of New York's music scene. A cellist, Buddhist and former music director at the legendary Kitchen, he was seduced ...
Frank Zappa: Shhhh… Genius At Work
Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, January 2004
Zappa spent much of his final 10 years slaving over a hot mixing desk. Sylvie Simmons met him in the studio as he tried to ...
Hal Willner and the Creation of the Modern Tribute Album
Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, LA CityBeat, January 2004
"SORRY," Hal Willner says, sheepishly. He has just been complimented — or so this writer intended — for being the father of pop culture's rampant ...
Yoko Ono: The Outsider Peeks Inside
Profile and Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Global Rhythm, January 2004
THE WOMAN'S clothing is being snipped from her body. Systematically, one by one, 200 scissors-wielding strangers – and the woman's son – silently have a ...
Arthur Russell: The World of Arthur Russell (Soul Jazz) *****
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, February 2004
IT'S AN UNLIKELY STORY: avant-garde cellist sees the light in a disco glitterball at New York gay club The Gallery and decides disco is the ...
Talking Heads: Sheer Art Attack
Retrospective by Toby Manning, Jockey Slut, February 2004
Talking Heads were the everymen who weren't. They may have worn the uniform of suburbia but, at heart, Byrne's unit were dysfunctional white-funkers whose angular, ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2004
Played last year's 24-hour marathon box set to death? Worry not. Here's another 10 hours' worth of in-concert industrial uproar. Tense? Nervous? Headache? Read on... ...
Arthur Brown, Mick Farren, The Move, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Tomorrow: We Have Lift Off!
Retrospective by Johnny Black, MOJO, February 2004
In less than one year, London's UFO (pronounced "you-foe") club became the nocturnal haunt of the '60s counterculture, gathering place for the Beatles, Stones and ...
Retrospective by David Dalton, MOJO, March 2004
When innocent English teens David and Sarah Dalton met Andy Warhol in 1961 their eyes were opened to a whole new world of pop culture ...
Review by Johnny Black, MOJO, March 2004
Four originals by Japan's oft-overlooked electronic trail-blazers, re-mastered and repackaged with some extra material but no supporting information. ...
Interview by Steven R Rosen, Harp, April 2004
David Byrne – whose funk-rock-art band Talking Heads brought New Wave into the mainstream a generation ago, and who has pursued his interests in rhythm-based ...
Review and Interview by Andy Gill, Uncut, April 2004
New wave god turned worldbeat evangelist gets opera bug ...
Dean Roberts: Lost City Rambler
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, April 2004
"I LIKE TO get songs to find their place in the air and sort of float there," says Dean Roberts, who began his career in ...
Barry Adamson & Russell Maliphant Company: Barbican, London
Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 8 April 2004
Featuring Barry Adamson Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra Russell Maliphant Company – Anna Williams, Marie Goudot, Flora Bourderon, Michael Pomero and Miquel de ...
Jem Finer, The Pogues: Cross Platform: Jem Finer
Interview by David Toop, The Wire, May 2004
Sound in other media. This month: David Toop talks to Jem Finer about his transition from banjo plucking with The Pogues to computer-decomposed improvisations and ...
Moondog: Ain't Nothin' But A Moondog
Retrospective by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 2004
DURING APRIL, 1953, US DJ Sid Gross was in England attempting to arrange for a British band to visit the States in exchange for an ...
Eric Dolphy: Squeaks and scronks: Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch
Retrospective by Mal Peachey, The Independent, June 2004
Song for the man who went out to lunch ...
Throbbing Gristle: The Taste Of TG – A Beginner's Guide To The Music Of Throbbing Gristle
Review and Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, June 2004
Introduction to the work of recently reformed art/industrial/electronics collective. ...
Can, Damo Suzuki: Damo Suzuki: The Accidental Anarchist
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, July 2004
Damo Suzuki is the legendary vocalist with German group Can, but he has been perfecting his unique mode of 'instant composition' all his life. Having ...
The United States Of America: The United States Of America (Sundazed)
Review by Pete Paphides, MOJO, August 2004
James Coburn dug their insurrectionary space rock; Paul Simon hated it; no one else cared until decades later. An era-defining underground album resurfaces with 10 extra ...
Joanna Newsom: Daydream Believer
Profile and Interview by Frances Morgan, Plan B, September 2004
Joanna Newsom is a new kind of folk heroine, plucking out spells and lullabies on 46 thrumming strings. ...
Björk, Todd Rundgren: Déjà Entendu: Björk
Comment by Marc Weingarten, Slate, 14 September 2004
BJÖRK HAS A KNACK for making records that don't sound like anyone else's. With each new offering—from 1993's Debut, an album that roamed freely through ...
Christian Marclay: djTRIO (Asphodel)
Review by Rob Young, The Wire, January 2005
CHRISTIAN MARCLAY's djTRIO is a changeable turntablist threesome with himself as the constant. The seven tracks here document seven different improvisations in as many locations. ...
Obituary by David Toop, The Wire, February 2005
David Toop laments the passing of a meticulous British improvisor and instrument builder ...
Ron Geesin, Hamilton Yarns: Friends Meeting House, Brighton
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, February 2005
THIS RARE live appearance by multi-instrumentalist, composer and poet Ron Geesin — only his second in seven years or so — took place in the ...
Lydia Lunch: The Bottom Line: Everett True meets Lydia Lunch
Interview by Everett True, Plan B, February 2005
"I ALWAYS BRING my prophylactic along on touragainst other people's germs — the mic cover. If you smell mics, you know why. They're raunchy. When ...
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2005
RICHTER 858 begins explosively with guitar, violin, viola and cello producing an atonal storm akin to George Crumb's Black Angels. This cedes to slow guitar ...
David Sylvian: The Good Son vs the Only Daughter: The Blemish Remixes (Samadhisound)
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, March 2005
2003's BLEMISH was a significant improvement on David Sylvian's previous album, the far from mediocre Dead Bees On A Cake. ...
The Residents: Four-legged trends: The Residents: Animal Lover (Mute) ****
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, March 2005
Latest concept album from cryptic Americans ...
Steve Reich: Barbican Hall, London
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2005
ANTICIPATION WAS high at Ensemble Modern's UK premiere of Steve Reich's new piece, You Are (Variations), which earned enthusiastic press when first performed in the ...
Joanna Newsom: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2005
STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY past her Celtic harp and adjacent grand piano, Joanna Newsom opened her concert in typically forthright fashion. You either love her vocal mannerism ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, May 2005
Listen up limeys! From the Velvets to The Raven, Lou Reed has remained pure, "professional" and the scourge of "asshole journalists". And he's still here. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Electric-Convulsive Therapy
Report and Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, May 2005
ONE OF THE most intense and extreme groups of the '70s progressive era, Van Der Graaf Generator were ever on the verge of collapse. ...
Ornette Coleman: Barbican, London
Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 2 May 2005
Programme notes for Barbican Hall performance of Ornette Coleman — Alto sax Denardo Coleman — Drums Greg Cohen — Bass Tony Falanga — Bass ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: In Prog They Trust
Retrospective and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 29 May 2005
Van Der Graaf Generator are back – albeit after an excessive pause. Never mind the length, feel the quality, says ROBIN EGGAR. ...
Animal Collective, Ariel Pink: Animal Collective and Ariel Pink: Faun fables
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, July 2005
Drawing on psychedelia's childlike bliss and Techno's electronic transmutations, Animal Collective have developed a uniquely woozy soundworld, winning over audiences with their shamanistic live presence. ...
This Heat and Cold Storage: Once upon a time in Brixton
Retrospective by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2005
"A former meat storage room that became This Heat's rehearsal room then an 8-track studio then a 16-track studio then a 24-track studio then a ...
Diamanda Galás Prepares To Perform A New Defixiones
Profile and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 2 September 2005
DIAMANDA GALÁS has had a talent for plucking beauty from the maw of horror for more than 20 years – right from her first solo ...
Boards Of Canada: Protect and Survive
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, October 2005
In a rare face to face interview at their Scottish retreat, Boards Of Canada break their self-imposed isolation to scotch the myths that have coalesced ...
Terry Riley: Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles
Live Review by Steven R Rosen, Harp, 1 October 2005
TO CELEBRATE the 70th birthday of California-born minimalist composer Terry Riley, the UCLA Live series put together a program even stranger than Riley's landmark In ...
Phish: Trey Anastacio, 40, Manhattan
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, December 2005
A YEAR after dismantling Phish, one of the jam scene's most beloved institutions, Trey Anastasio continues to receive hate mail from bereft fans. ...
Can: Monster Movie/Soundtracks/Tago Mago/Ege Bamyasi
Review by Mike Barnes, bbc.co.uk, Winter 2005
Can's forays into rock music were ego-free, expressionistic and pared down to the bone... ...
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2006
"ONE AVANT GARDE child prodigy, two indie guitar nerds and one hard rock borderline metal drummer thrown together in a filthy basement studio in Brooklyn," ...
Town and Country: Up Above (Thrilljockey)
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, February 2006
FEATURING, AS EVER, an impressively antique array of instrumentation, including harmonium, cello, viola, handbells and string bass, Up Above is Town And Country's sixth release, ...
Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 10 February 2006
"THEY LOOKED LIKE three angels," the singer and composer Caetano Veloso wrote of his first sight of the members of Os Mutantes, a young rock ...
Interview by Graham Reid, Rock's Backpages, May 2006
NO ONE COULD accuse reclusive songwriter and singer Scott Walker of haste. In the time between Walker's last album Tilt and his latest The Drift, ...
Scott Walker: Not Easy on Himself
Interview by Robert Webb, The Independent, 5 May 2006
IN 1995, SCOTT Walker, the moody, boy-band pinup turned existential cult-figure, broke a 12-year silence with the album Tilt. Stark and uncompromising, as brittle as ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, June 2006
The most extraordinary changeling in pop's 11-year-itch is more twisted, tormented and thrilling than ever. ...
John Fahey: Two Tributes to Guitarist John Fahey
Review by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, June 2006
WITH HOLLYWOOD having a thing about artists who walk the thin line between genius and insanity, the life of guitarist John Fahey seems ripe for ...
Scritti Politti: Green Gartside
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2006
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside has returned with a new album buzzing with ideas and pop hooks, writes Adam Sweeting ...
Essay by Michel Faber, The Guardian, 10 July 2006
GLEAMING METAL DOORS slide open noiselessly at the touch of a button, and I step into the secret subterranean studio of Brian Eno. The atmosphere ...
Brian Eno: Containing Spontaneity
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, October 2006
NOT JUST a few otherwise sophisticated human beings would likely feel less uneasy naked and unarmed in Northern Afghanistan than present in a room when ...
Joanna Newsom: It's a Thin Line…
Profile and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, December 2006
From Bush to Bjork, pop's greatest women have always divided audiences. Joanna Newsom knows it – and she doesn't care. ...
Lily Greenham, Daphne Oram: Daphne Oram: Oramics/Lily Greenham: Lingual Music (Paradigm Discs)
Review by David Toop, The Wire, March 2007
David Toop recovers past visions of the future from the audio fragments of two English women in experimental music ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2007
"I DIDN'T HAVE white tunnels, but I did have the feeling that if I got too tired, which at a certain point might have been ...
Philip Glass' Satyagraha at the ENO
Report and Interview by John Lewis, The Times, March 2007
A MAN DRESSED as Gandhi, in a loin-cloth and Alf Garnett specs, is curled up on the floor as twenty men brandish chairs and throw ...
Nico: From the Velvets to the void
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 16 March 2007
Nico was the original model/actor/singer. Unlike her successors she was absurdly talented, but she was also a violent racist, with an awful darkness at her ...
Review by Pat Long, New Musical Express, 21 April 2007
Picture perfect: South London romantics mine their childhood memories for art-rock gold ...
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, June 2007
Eddie Argos and Jasper Future from Art Brut talk about poetry, heavy metal, the Travelling Wilburys, tribute bands and their unusual relationship with hip hop. ...
John Cale, LCD Soundsystem: John Cale meets LCD Soundsystem
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 15 June 2007
They are both stars of New York's music scene – pioneers of the coolest pop, separated by 30 years. James Murphy and John Cale get ...
Albert Ayler: My Name Is Albert Ayler (dir. Kasper Collin)
Film/DVD/TV Review by John Lewis, Sight & Sound, November 2007
Synopsis Feature-length documentary about the African-American saxophonist Albert Ayler (1936–1970), told through archive footage and new interviews with friends, family and musicians, including his brother and ...
David Byrne: The Importance Of Being David Byrne
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, November 2007
I WAS IN ZURICH recently and found myself at the rather legendary Cabaret Voltaire. It was in that very same place, all the way back ...
George Pringle: The Social, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 November 2007
"JUST WAIT till my husband gets out of prison," sulks the skinny girl, poking a pinky into her mound of frothed hair. The audience titter ...
Patrick Wolf: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 22 December 2007
SOMEHOW, WHILE NOBODY WAS LOOKING, Patrick Wolf has become a singular pop star. In his dreams, this gangly 24-year-old is a dazzling, chart-friendly hybrid of ...
Interview by Luke Turner, Dazed & Confused, February 2008
"WE FOUND them in the woods," laughs Stephen O'Malley, refusing to divulge where Sunn O))) wove the monastic robes that, along with cranium-crushing waves of ...
Interview by Luke Turner, Dazed & Confused, March 2008
Diamanda Galás has been shouting down society's hypocritical moralists for over 30 years. Here, she explains how HIV/Aids, Catholicism and injustice inspired a lifelong crusade ...
Guide by Mike Diver, Drowned in Sound, 24 April 2008
BACK IN FEBRUARY, one DiS messageboarder was moved to say to the masses: "I challenge you to prove to me that math-rock is real". Responses ...
Kieran Hebden: Close-Up: Kieran Hebden
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Independent on Sunday, 13 July 2008
IF ONE WERE to draw a Venn diagram illustrating London's myriad music scenes – with circles depicting, say, rock, folk, jazz and techno – then ...
BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Delia Derbyshire: In Praise of Delia Derbyshire
Profile by Jude Rogers, Guardian Unlimited, 20 July 2008
Last week's news that lots of Derbyshire tapes had been found and digitised marked the latest stage in her recovery as a musical, and feminist, ...
Blacksand: Black Widow Russian Submarine, Medway River (near Strood), UK
Live Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, August 2008
LIFE ON A U475 Hunter-Killer submarine must have been tough, even during the Cold War. ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, August 2008
IN NEW YORK CITY this summer, David Byrne is everywhere. His installation titled Playing the Building transformed the Battery Maritime Building into a giant musical ...
Mars: Complete Studio Recordings, NYC 1977-1978
Review by Ned Raggett, The Quietus, 11 August 2008
IF EVERY INNOVATION becomes a hidebound reference point then theoretically the work of Mars should be nothing but boring classic rock at this point. ...
Stereolab: Chemical Chords (Duophonic/4AD)
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 15 August 2008
STEREOLAB HAVE made no fewer than 11 albums, many more than indie titans like Blur, Oasis, the Smiths and New Order, and far outstripping the ...
Bill Drummond: Pop's prankster heads for destruction
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2008
WITH BILL Drummond now, you feel, it's very much a case of "cometh the time, cometh the man". ...
Bill Drummond: Recorded Music Has Run Its Course
Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 28 August 2008
...
Kevin Ayers: Exile On Mean Street
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, October 2008
Rumpled romantic, booze-fuelled philanderer, gifted golden boy of art-rock, Kevin Ayers fled abroad 40 years ago and now lives a strange, impecunious life wrestling with ...
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 9 November 2008
In the sixties, he was part of the celebrated pop group the Walker Brothers – known as America's Beatles – but he rebelled against stardom ...
Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 14 November 2008
IN LINE WITH his progress from '60s teen heartthrob to reclusive disciple of the avant garde, Scott Walker has long since given up performing in ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, March 2009
He was Roxy Music's synth-basher and the architect of ambient. Now outside-the-box boffin Brian Eno is working with U2 and Coldplay. "Producing is the best paid form ...
The Who: Sell Out: Deluxe Edition (Polydor)
Review by David Hepworth, The Word, April 2009
The Who Sell Out was muddled enough with all those fake ads getting in the way. It's certainly not made "deluxe" by such additions as ...
Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions
Review by John Doran, Drowned in Sound, 21 May 2009
DURING SHELLAC'S excellent track 'The End Of Radio', about the nature of recording and broadcasting electronically amplified rock music, there's a line (when performed live ...
Bill Laswell: Bass. How Low Can You Go?
Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, July 2009
Prior to his appearance at Montreux Jazz Festival, John Doran caught up with Bill Laswell in New York and uncovered some surprising information about Def ...
Robert Wyatt: Orchestra National De Jazz & Robert Wyatt: Around Robert Wyatt (Bee Jazz)
Review by David Stubbs, The Wire, July 2009
ROBERT WYATT has become more and more an object of attention and devotion with the passing of time, as if taking on the status of ...
David Byrne: Speaking in Tongues
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 August 2009
THE SUN HAS just melted into the distant purple mountains on a sweltering Italian night when David Byrne starts speaking in tongues, throwing his arms ...
William Basinski: Invisible Jukebox: William Basinski
Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, September 2009
Each month we play a musician a series of records which they are asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of ...
No Fun Festival: Music Hall of Williamsburg, New York City
Live Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, September 2009
THE SIXTH New York instalment of the No Fun Festival was probably the last one in the US for a while. "Although," advises organiser Carlos ...
Yoko Ono: Still Walking On Thin Ice
Retrospective and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 September 2009
After 40 years of being unfairly accused of breaking up the Beatles and harshly mocked for her avant garde art and pop music, Yoko Ono ...
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band: Between My Head And The Sky
Review by David Quantick, Uncut, October 2009
Violent, but tender, Sean Lennon's mum is back! ...
Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, October 2009
THERE'S SOMETHING to be said for delayed gratification. There's no small amount of tortoise versus hare enjoyment to listening to Yoko Ono's new album. ...
Gavin Bryars Ensemble: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by John Lewis, The Guardian, 19 October 2009
THIS OPENS a series of concerts raising money for Margins, a charity for London's homeless, and there's something grimly appropriate about tonight's choice of material. ...
Sufjan Stevens's symphony for New York
Report and Interview by Andrew Purcell, The Guardian, 27 October 2009
THE BROOKLYN-QUEENS EXPRESSWAY is a miserable stretch of road. The BQE, as New Yorkers call it, has narrow lanes, no hard shoulder, countless potholes, and ...
Annette Peacock: Buried Treasure: Annette Peacock's I'm The One
Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, November 2009
"IN THE '60s," Annette Peacock vouches, "everyone was an individual. Hendrix, Sly Stone, Dylan, Joplin… If you were of your time, you had to find ...
Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, December 2009
DESCRIBED BY Sylvian as "a completely modern kind of chamber music; intimate, dynamic, emotive, democratic, economical", Manafon picks up where 2003's Blemish concluded. Working with ...
David McAlmont, Michael Nyman: This Just In: David McAlmont and Michael Nyman
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, December 2009
A bizarre collaboration between David McAlmont and Michael Nyman revives the dying art of the topical news story in song. ...
Review by Mike Barnes, bbc.co.uk, 2010
Even on this, their finest album, Galaxie 500's music is secretive and subtle. ...
Jenny Hval, rockettothesky: Jenny & the Jets: The Musical Universe of Rockettothesky
Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 12 January 2010
Rockettothesky's Jenny Hval may have made little impact outside of Scandinavia, but that needs to change. According to Wyndham Wallace, she's one of the most ...
Retrospective by Kris Needs, Clash, April 2010
IN 1975, LOU Reed was the most dangerously fascinating figure in rock 'n' roll. With his old associates Bowie and Iggy having turned respectively into ...
Obituary by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 9 April 2010
THE IMPRESARIO and iconoclast Malcolm McLaren, who has died aged 64 from the cancer mesothelioma, was one of the pivotal, yet most divisive influences on ...
Lou Reed: Back On The Road At 68
Interview by Mark Paytress, The Times, 10 April 2010
In a rare interview, the rock icon is as challenging as the album he is re-releasing. ...
Lady Gaga: Aladdin Sane Called, He Wants His Lightning Bolt Back: On Lady Gaga
Essay by Mark Dery, True/Slant, 20 April 2010
"HOW NOT DUMB is Gaga?" asked the New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, in the first flush of Gagamania. Almost exactly a year later, his ...
Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth: Byron Coley: An Interview
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, June 2010
SITTING ON A back porch in bucolic Western Massachusetts on a gorgeous summer's day, my friend’s adorable little daughter coyly asked, "Wanna see a picture ...
The Feelies, The Golden Palominos: Anton Fier Profiled (1988): A new career in a new town
Profile by Graham Reid, Elsewhere, 7 June 2010
ANTON FIER was, until recently, a star without a bank account — or manager come to that — and yet at the nucleus of the ...
The Fugs: For The Benefit Of Tuli Kupferberg
Report by Michael Simmons, Huffington Post, 15 June 2010
For those who trot out the tired cliché of hippies morphing into stockbrokers, check out the Fugs. No sell-out here. ...
Laurie Anderson: Electronic Expressions in the Service of the Soul
Profile and Interview by Will Hermes, The New York Times, 25 June 2010
LAURIE ANDERSON was home for a few hours last month — a rare occurrence. This musician and multi-media artist had returned from Poland, where she ...
Interview by Luke Turner, Into Magazine (Sound & Music), 30 June 2010
Chris Watson talks to Luke Turner about the connections between his work as a documentary sound recordist, musician and artist, as his latest installation, Whispering ...
Review by David Hepworth, The Word, July 2010
HEY, THIS IS a first. I'm reviewing this record on an InterCity train. I've accessed it via Spotify and been able to put it — ...
Devo: You Say You Want A De-Evolution
Retrospective and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2010
Well, you know, Devo changed the world. Uncut hears the story of Ohio's plantpot-hatted chroniclers of human absurdity. Or: how five snarky art-rockers consorted with ...
The Flying Lizards: The Fourth Wall (RPM)
Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, RPM Records, September 2010
THE PUNK BOOM opened doors and ears, allowing the off the wall, the experimental and the challenging a platform. Much of what leaked out has ...
Gong: The Gong Remains The Same
Retrospective and Interview by Jack Barron, Record Collector, October 2010
Jack Barron celebrates the 40-year celestial trip of "Europe's Grateful Dead". ...
Jimi Hendrix, Silver Apples: Silver Apples: Early Electronica
Retrospective and Interview by Tom Doyle, Sound on Sound, October 2010
Silver Apples jammed with Jimi Hendrix, counted John Lennon as a fan, and produced extraordinary electronic music — with nothing but a drum kit and a pile of ...
Brian Eno: 'Lady Gaga's Meat Dress? I Did It First'
Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 22 November 2010
Fashion disasters, electronic music, even the Lib-Con coalition...The super-producer and former Roxy Music wizard saw it all coming ...
Obituary by Caroline Boucher, The Guardian, 18 December 2010
DON VAN VLIET, better known as Captain Beefheart, who has died aged 69 of complications from multiple sclerosis, was one of the most influential American ...
Captain Beefheart: Rock's Father of Invention
Obituary by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 19 December 2010
BACK IN 1969, a self-confessed "teenage weirdo" from Portland, Oregon, fell under the spell of a newly-released double album called Trout Mask Replica by Captain ...
Captain Beefheart: A Surreal Singer in Pursuit of an Audience
Comment by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 20 December 2010
DON VAN VLIET, aka Captain Beefheart, who died last Friday, could be a difficult man. His idiosyncratic recordings – a bizarre goulash of delta blues, ...
Captain Beefheart: A tour through Captain Beefheart's back catalogue
Retrospective by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 22 December 2010
Don Van Vliet shouldn't be seen as a "weirdo" – he had pop tricks up his sleeve and his most difficult music entered the top ...
Laurie Anderson: All her own invention
Report and Interview by John L. Walters, Eye, Summer 2010
Graphic design's recent concerns have for decades been at the heart of Laurie Anderson's practice. ...
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 3 February 2011
Cardiacs singer Tim Smith suffered a heart attack and a paralysing stroke two years ago, and musicians are now flocking to cover his strange, unique ...
Talk Talk: How Talk Talk Spoke To Today's Artists
Retrospective by Ben Myers, The Guardian, 28 February 2011
IN HIS WEIGHTY 2010 TOME Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music, Rob Young charted a century's worth of musicians who helped define British folk. In ...
David Bedford: Albion's Astronaut
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2011
Trained by the European avant garde, British composer David Bedford helped launch Mike Oldfield and Kevin Ayers's pastoral rock into orbit with his cosmically aligned ...
Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields: Strange Powers
Film/DVD/TV Review by Graeme Thomson, Uncut, March 2011
The quixotic songwriter, profiled in relentless close-up. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, April 2011
SUMMER 1971. The five members of Can are huddled around a bottle of wine and a stereo suitcase Revox A77 tape recorder, listening to the ...
Chris & Cosey, Nico, Throbbing Gristle: Chris & Cosey Talk Plans To Finish TG's Desertshore
Report and Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 19 April 2011
LATE LAST WEEK, observant souls on the internet had a look at Chris & Cosey's website and noticed that their Event Horizon page of planned ...
Steve Reich: Musicians, Composers and Artists pay tribute
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Guardian, 5 May 2011
STEVE REICH is a major influence on today's musicians, artists and film-makers. As the Barbican pays tribute, we ask some of them why – and ...
The Plastic People of the Universe
Retrospective and Interview by Archie Patterson, Eurock, 10 June 2011
"When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them." (Plato) ...
Review by Rob Young, The Word, July 2011
After the world's greatest break-up album, Bon Iver has pulled himself out of the quagmire of regret — with invigorating results. ...
Brian Eno/Rick Holland: Drums Between The Bells
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, July 2011
IT'S HARD TO know what's more surprising: the fact a man approaching his mid-60s continues to release groundbreaking music in such quantities that this is ...
Björk: Manchester International Festival
Live Review by Rob Hughes, The Word, September 2011
Björk's new live show: sci-fi, gothic soundtrack and head-scrambling visuals. Each song comes with an interactive app. ...
Kid Koala: "I always wanted to work on The Muppet Show"
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 16 September 2011
Musician, cartoonist, graphic novelist, DJ, primary school teacher… Metro meets the many sides of Canadian polymath Kid Koala. ...
Merzbow, Richard Pinhas: Richard Pinhas & Merzbow: Paris 2008 and Rhizome (Cuneiform)
Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, October 2011
THE CONCEPT of French avant Prog guitarist Richard Pinhas and Japanese Noise king Merzbow playing together may not seem like the most natural pairing. But ...
Björk Brings Her Biophilia Concert Extravaganza to Iceland
Live Review by Kieron Tyler, Billboard, 13 October 2011
REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Two days after the release of Biophilia, her new multi-platform project, Iceland's foremost sonic auteur Björk took the stage in her hometown ...
Björk: A New Map to Björk's Music
Report and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 18 October 2011
IT'S A SAD IRONY: The digitization of music has impoverished the average listening experience. Not only do compressed files sound meagre compared to the sonic ...
Andrew Bird's sonic arboretum reminds me of the natural music we are losing
Report and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 24 November 2011
IN CHICAGO'S MUSEUM of Contemporary Art this December, there will sprout up a peculiar kind of forest: 50 horned speakers, each standing between 19 and ...
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, Fall 2011
WITH THE CRITICAL mass now in her favour, a commercial breakthrough seems inevitable for St. Vincent, known otherwise as Annie Clark, poster girl for indie ...
Review by Luke Turner, bbc.co.uk, 2012
Their dark echoes are still to be heard resonating through music's further reaches. ...
Sunn O))): Black Gold Of The Sunn O))): Earth's Loudest Band
Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 23 January 2012
Wyndham Wallace talks to Stephen O'Malley about volume, improvisation, the reissue of Sunn O)))'s debut album ØØ Void and Sunn O))) action figures… ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 17 March 2012
Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood tells Adam Sweeting about his new collaboration with his classical hero Krysztof Penderecki. ...
David Sylvian: Laughter & Forgetting: The Strange & Frightening World Of David Sylvian
Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 19 March 2012
A new compilation, A Victim Of Stars 1982-2012, celebrates thirty years of solo work by David Sylvian, who guides Wyndham Wallace through some of its ...
The Pop Group, Mark Stewart: Bristol Fashion: Mark Stewart of the Pop Group's 13 Favourite Albums
Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 22 March 2012
Julian Marszalek talks to post-punk agitator Mark Stewart about his 13 favourite albums. ...
Talk Talk: The Party's Over/It's My Life/The Colour Of Spring/Spirit Of Eden
Review by Stuart Maconie, The Word, April 2012
It was only when Talk Talk dropped the pop and headed into the ether that they created the template for serious modern rock. ...
Yann Tiersen: Irving Plaza, New York
Live Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 30 April 2012
Better than: Most of the Philip Glass and Stephin Merritt music I've heard. ...
Robert Wyatt: The End of an Ear
Review by David Stubbs, bbc.co.uk, 28 May 2012
Wyatt's sometimes overlooked solo debut shows off his multi-instrumentalist chops. ...
Van der Graaf Generator: LIVE @ Metropolis Studios, London
Film/DVD/TV Review by Archie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, 29 July 2012
OF ALL THE original UK progressive bands, VDGG was perhaps the least pop-conscious of the lot. No matter how out-there most prog bands got, they ...
Bill Nelson & the Gentlemen Rockateers: Recorded live at Metropolis Studios, London
Film/DVD/TV Review by Archie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, 4 August 2012
I MAINLY REMEMBER Bill Nelson from the Be-Bop Deluxe days of Axe Victim, Futurama and Sunburst Finish back in the mid 1970s. During that period, ...
Retrospective by Archie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, 12 August 2012
ROCK BEGAN in opposition to mainstream culture. The metamorphosis from (black) race music into white rock 'n' roll shook the very foundations of society. It ...
Review by Martin Aston, bbc.co.uk, 20 August 2012
A second helping of Cyrk, accentuating the dreamier haunts of part one. ...
Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 22 August 2012
THROUGHOUT THE 17th century, witch-hunt fever was spreading virulently through the UK. Remote communities, once infected, turned in upon themselves and burned up. ...
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, September 2012
WHILE A MUSICIAN'S ability to overcome the temporary loss of a thumb certainly doesn't match the achievements of the Paralympians last summer, there's something similarly ...
Press Release by Rob Young, 4AD Records, September 2012
Bish (n. sl.), bitchBosch, Hieronymous (c. 1450–1516), Dutch painterBish bosh (sl.), job done, sorted* ...
Laurie Spiegel: Resident Visitor: Laurie Spiegel's Machine Music
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2012
The experimental pioneer's groundbreaking work with computers in the '70s and '80s helped lay the foundation for many of today's electronic noise makers. ...
John Cale: Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, Fall 2012
IT'S UNFAIR THAT, almost half a century since their formation, John Cale remains best known for his role as co-founder of the Velvet Underground. ...
Interview by David Toop, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 2012
Scott talks about his new album Bish Bosch and explains why it took so long; discusses the nature of his voice on the record; how he wrote and prepared its track; the centrality of his lyrics to his music; his musicians and arrangements; the album's darkness and its demands on his voice; how he always felt more European than American; opera and other projects... and growing old as an artist.
File format: mp3; file size: 79.9mb, interview length: 1h 23' 13" sound quality: *****
Book Excerpt by Dave Thompson, 'June 1st, 1974', 2013
Excerpt from the book June 1st, 1974: Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno, Mike Oldfield and Robert Wyatt – The Greatest Supergroup Of The Seventies ...
Björk: Thrall of Sound: An Elemental Conversation With Björk
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, 7 January 2013
"They only live who dare." ...
Review by Jude Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 14 January 2013
If magic in music exists, it is here, and never-ending. ...
John Fahey: Commemorating one of the New Weird America's founding fathers
Comment by Byron Coley, The Wire, February 2013
THE TERM New Weird America (NWA) was used by The Wire's David Keenan to describe the music at the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival in 2003. ...
David Bowie: Who is David Bowie? A Guide to the V&A retrospective
Report by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 16 February 2013
As a blockbuster exhibition, David Bowie is, gets under way at the V&A, Sean O'Hagan dissects the pop icon's influences – and reveals the ideas ...
David Bowie: The Singer Who Fell to Earth
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 6 March 2013
ON 'THE STARS (ARE OUT TONIGHT)', the new single from David Bowie's comeback album, The Next Day, one line jumps out: "We will never be ...
Marianne Faithfull: Landestheater, Linz, Austria
Live Review by Paul Trynka, MOJO, April 2013
NO SINGLE generation has a monopoly on decadence. Still, Marianne Faithfull's Swinging London and Kurt Weill's Weimar Berlin have a better claim than most. Even ...
The Flaming Lips: The MOJO Interview: Wayne Coyne
Interview by Tom Doyle, MOJO, April 2013
He sang of giraffes and jelly while wreaking freaky panto mayhem. But at 52 has reality bitten the Flaming Lips' ringmaster? "This is the first ...
Van Dyke Parks: "I was victimised by Brian Wilson's buffoonery"
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 9 May 2013
He co-wrote the Beach Boys' Smile and now works with everyone from Rufus Wainwright to Skrillex. But don't dare to call him quirky, says Van ...
Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 28 June 2013
IN MANY WAYS, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet come from very different worlds, and not just because they're based on different sides of the ...
John Zorn: Zorn@60: John Zorn and guests including Mike Patton and Marc Ribot
Preview by John Lewis, Barbican show programme, 12 July 2013
FOR THOSE OF US who've grown up listening to his music, it seems remarkable that John Zorn is celebrating his 60th birthday. ...
Zola Jesus: A Zola Jesus Baker's Dozen: 13 LPs By Women Who Inspired Me To Sing
Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 27 August 2013
Zola Jesus (Nika Rosa Danilova) gives us a special Baker's Dozen — 13 albums by female singers who inspired her to find her own voice ...
Björk: Still underestimated after all these years
Comment by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 3 September 2013
Ben Thompson salutes the maverick Icelander's cunning, as she prepares to play her most recent album, Biophilia, in London for the first time. ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 28 October 2013
Velvet Underground frontman and solo artist whose hymns to transgressive behaviour created an audience of outsiders. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, November 2013
A new book, Martin Aston's Facing The Other Way, tells the story of a label that scored just a single number one hit during the ...
Talk Talk: Classic Album: Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden
Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, November 2013
Twenty five years ago, Talk Talk's fourth album was spurned upon its release, lasted only five weeks in the British charts and led the band ...
Sparks Are Getting Their Revenge on North America
Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, 6 November 2013
NOTE: A different version of this story appeared at http://www.blurtonline.com. ...
St. Vincent: The Totally Original Sound of St. Vincent
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Smithsonian , December 2013
TO UNDERSTAND Annie Clark's inventiveness as a composer, it helps to listen more closely to the first single off her latest solo album, Strange Mercy. ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Justified Fascination: Richard H Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire Interviewed
Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 9 December 2013
Did Cabaret Voltaire lose their way when they lost Chris Watson? Far from it, they entered their imperial period... John Doran talks to Richard H ...
Sunn O))) & Ulver: Terrestrials /Ulver: Messe I.X – VI.X
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, February 2014
THE LAST TIME American drone lords Sunn O))) and Norwegian lycanthropes Ulver came together in the studio was in 2003 for 'CutWOODED' on the cowled ...
Keiji Haino: Experimental Mixture (Black Smoker)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, March 2014
HAINO'S FIRST DJ mix album slipped out late in 2013 on Japanese label Black Smoker, followed by a further three CD set of mixes, In ...
Comment by Frances Morgan, The Wire, May 2014
Compiling by gender can expand rather than reduce sonic horizons. ...
John Cage: David Grubbs: Records Ruin The Landscape – John Cage, The Sixties And Sound Recording
Book Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2014
JOHN CAGE can always be relied upon for a good quote. Here an apparently lighthearted comment, in which the composer compares sound recordings to postcards ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, June 2014
FOLLOWING AN album as monumental as 2012's triple-disc behemoth The Seer would be a tall order for just about any band. ...
Annette Peacock: She's The One: Annette Peacock Interviewed
Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 3 June 2014
Annette Peacock is a stone cold original — an innovator, an outlier, authentically sui generis. John Doran talks to her about the timely reissue of ...
Daniel Patrick Quinn: Acting The Rubber Pig
Review by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 25 July 2014
WHERE HAVE ALL the awkward bastards gone, the square pegs in round holes, those who wilfully follow difficult paths, to their own detriment, in a ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: "I'm a very difficult person to work with"
Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 October 2014
Guitarist Robert Fripp influenced David Bowie and Peter Gabriel, but it's only the latest revival of his band King Crimson that has brought out his ...
Cut Hands: Festival Of The Dead (Blackest Ever Black)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, November 2014
THE SHOCK WAVES generated by Cut Hands' 2011 album Afro-Noise (Volume 1) have long dissipated. Ritualistic electronic music built around African drum rhythms is now ...
Semibreve festival: Braga, Portugal
Report by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 3 November 2014
Wyndham Wallace reports from Braga on a weekend of eye-opening, ear-bending, mind-broadening performances at Portugal's premier digital arts festival. ...
Marc Ribot Considered: Cosmopolitan guitarist without portfolio
Profile by Graham Reid, Elsewhere, 25 February 2015
IF THERE IS a distinguishing feature of American guitarist Marc Ribot's style, it is that you'd be unwise to attempt to attribute a distinguishing feature ...
The Pop Group: Have the Pop Group finally become a pop group?
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 26 February 2015
Bristol's post-punk provocateurs have released Citizen Zombie, their first album for 35 years. In 1975, they drew on dub, free-jazz and Baudrillard; 2015 finds singer ...
Björk: Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, March 2015
The grand drama of the latest Björk album reveals command of texture and mood as her survival mechanism. ...
Björk: Manchester International Festival
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2015
Despite basing her show around heartbreak, Björk was clearly having fun, says Rob Hughes. ...
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2015
Freak-folk Cinderella follows acclaimed 2010 triple with an album of erudite pop and deepening moods. Mark Paytress takes the plunge. ...
Joanna Newsom: Eventim Apollo, W6
Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 12 November 2015
IT WOULD make sense to assume that it's because Joanna Newsom plays harp that audiences sit and watch her in silence. Her music may be ...
Patti Smith's Journey to Horses: A Timeline
Retrospective by Caryn Rose, Vulture, 13 November 2015
PATTI SMITH'S Horses, which turned 40 this week, is such a perfectly formed rock-and-roll artifact that it's difficult to imagine that Patti didn't just wake up ...
This Heat: Head Birth In The Year Zero
Retrospective and Interview by Byron Coley, Rock's Backpages, December 2015
"IN MY MIND, the linearity is that we did Dolphin Logic. Then Gareth joined Dolphin Logic and we became This Heat. That's my version," says ...
Mica Levi: The exceptional composer who obliterates boundaries with brilliance
Interview by Laura Barton, The Gentlewoman, Fall 2015
Mica Levi is a rebel with a cause: to smash up the divisions between musical genres, from three-note punk to the finest classical score. This ...
Hot Chip, Thurston Moore, This Heat: This Is Not This Heat: Cafe Oto, London
Live Review by Luke Turner, The Guardian, 14 February 2016
Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore joined the experimental lineup for a night of fresh and focussed sounds ...
Book Review by Byron Coley, The Wire, March 2016
THE LATE Bob Cobbing was an extraordinary individual. People, especially Americans such as myself, tend to be familiar with just one aspect of his long ...
Lydia Lunch: Lexington, London
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 22 March 2016
Lunch unites with Gallon Drunk's James Johnston and Ian White for the most joyfully bawdy music of her career. ...
Klara Lewis: Happy Accidents: Klara Lewis
Interview by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2016
The open canvases of Klara Lewis explore a landscape of found sounds, re-recordings, pop songs and audio byproducts. By Frances Morgan. ...
Suicide, Alan Vega: Alan Vega, 1938-2016
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 July 2016
Co-founder and frontman of the confrontational electronic band Suicide ...
Brian Eno: "When he sang, David Bowie became a different person"
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2016
BRIAN ENO is Britain's favourite cultural polymath. He contributed a chime for a clock that will ring once every 10,000 years. He wrote a soundtrack ...
Björk: In Björk Digital, you become the singer's ex-lover – and there's no looking away
Report by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 9 September 2016
Björk's new experiment takes music of claustrophobic unhappiness and shifts it into a relentless, dynamic world. ...
Björk: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 22 September 2016
The Icelandic star's electrifying voice and sense of fun transcend the conventional setting. ...
Interview by Kieron Tyler, The Arts Desk, 15 October 2016
The Danish singer-songwriter opens up about her third album Citizen of Glass ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 October 2016
From the Residents' freakish Beatles sendups, to Spinal Tap's meta-metal escapades, to the gastronomic goofs of "Weird Al", a chronicle of those who have turned ...
John Cage: Laura Kuhn (ed.): The Selected Letters of John Cage
Book Review by Tim Page, New York Review of Books, 27 October 2016
THERE ARE CERTAIN creative figures whose mature works are almost tangential to their enduring artistic influence. Marcel Duchamp falls into this group, as does Andy ...
Psychic TV's Genesis P-Orridge (2016)
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Rock/Talk, 22 November 2016
The Psychic TV mainperson talks about the sonic evolution of PTV; collaboration and connectivity, fear and totalitarianism; the 1992 police raid and exile; the changing personnel, and about S/he, Lady Jaye and Pandrogeny.
File format: mp3; file size: 29mb, interview length: 31' 41" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Dagmar Krause: Invisible Jukebox: Dagmar Krause
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2016
Each month we play a musician or group a series of records which they are asked to comment on — with no prior knowledge of ...
Philip Glass: The Complete Sony Recordings
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 29 December 2016
PHILIP GLASS'S career is testament to the values of hard work, diversity and talent, not to mention being in the right place at the right ...
Report and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Cincinnati CityBeat, 7 June 2017
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge has had a long career on the cutting edge of creative thought and confrontational art. ...
Captain Beefheart: The night Captain Beefheart drove me into the hills in a red Corvette
Memoir by Caroline Boucher, The Observer, 20 August 2017
It's 1974, and a young Caroline Boucher is in Los Angeles to meet scary legend Don Van Vliet… ...
The KLF: KLF's Welcome to the Dark Ages: What time is chaos?
Report and Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 26 August 2017
Twenty-three years ago, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty topped off a bizarre, brilliant pop career by burning £1m. Now they're back to commemorate it with ...
The Residents: Q&A: Homer Flynn, spokesman for The Residents
Interview by Kieron Tyler, The Arts Desk, 28 October 2017
A revealing face-to-face conversation with the man closest to the eyeball-headed musical outsiders ...
St. Vincent: Catching St. Vincent at the Anthem? Expect to see two acts, like a play.
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 24 November 2017
THE LAST SONG that Annie Clark wrote for Masseduction, the new St. Vincent album, was the title tune. The track begins with a stuttering percussion ...
Live Review by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times, 23 January 2018
MARC RIBOT is best known for his work for other musicians. That's Ribot's off-centre, jagged guitar on Rain Dogs, Tom Waits's 1985 album, the start ...
Book Excerpt by Rob Young, 'All Gates Open: The Story of Can' (Faber), May 2018
ONE OF THE many resonances of Can's name is the canister housing reels of celluloid film, a precious container protecting that most flammable and crumply ...
Interview by Rob Hughes, Prog, May 2018
Elusive, experimental, eye-associated avant-garde art collective The Residents have long captivated and confounded music fans around the globe. Their spokesperson and manager, Homer Flynn, invites ...
Brian Eno: In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc: Brian Eno, musician, artist, producer, thinker
Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Celebrity Access, July 2018
IT IS APPARENT that there's no measure in contemporary culture to absolutely gauge Brian Eno. His staggering command of several creative disciplines places him alongside ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 September 2018
An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher's 'Believe' to Kanye West to Migos ...
Meg Baird, Mary Lattimore: Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore: Ghost Forests
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 13 November 2018
Experimental music that's warm and inviting. ...
The Residents — American dreams turned to grotesque nightmares
Live Review by Luke Turner, The Guardian, 5 February 2019
The anonymous, long-serving denizens of the post-hippy underground are joined by Mother Teresa and John Wayne for a bizarre take on vaudeville ...
Scott Walker: From the sun lounger to the electric chair: Scott Walker's experimental genius
Comment by Rob Young, The Guardian, 26 March 2019
Fired up by Noam Chomsky in the late 1970s, the musician's "late style" became a forbidding avant-garde zone that fearlessly engaged the modern world. ...
Black Midi: One to Watch: Black Midi
Profile by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 22 June 2019
This enigmatic young London four-piece are the most exciting new guitar band in Britain. ...
Pere Ubu: An interview with David Thomas
Interview by David Stubbs, Record Collector, October 2019
"I'VE DIED TWICE in the last two years," says David Thomas, co-founder and lead singer of Pere Ubu, in the living room of his Brighton ...
Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure
Retrospective by Rob Tannenbaum, Pitchfork, 13 October 2019
Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we ...
Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 20 November 2019
IS IT A concert, theatre or an avant-garde work of art? A futuristic, flute lovers' nature show, perhaps, with heavenly Icelandic choir, multiple environmental warnings ...
Mark Hollis, Talk Talk: Mark Hollis: A life in music
Retrospective by Chris Roberts, Prog, 4 January 2020
A look at the career of the late Talk Talk frontman who died in 2019... ...
These New Puritans: "We're the last cult band"
Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 11 February 2020
As These New Puritans prepare for a major Barbican concert, twin brothers Jack and George Barnett speak to Luke Turner about their grand plans and ...
Retrospective by Richard Gehr, Los Angeles Times, 5 March 2020
How Frank Zappa busted up his band, moved to L.A. and helped invent jazz-rock. ...
Sparks: Ron Mael discusses new Sparks album A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip…
Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, 15 May 2020
… and reveals details of two upcoming movies involving the duo – an unusual musical and a long-awaited documentary. ...
Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa: Don Van Vliet and Frank Zappa: Two Peas In A Misshapen Pod
Retrospective by Gary Lucas, Please Kill Me!, 14 January 2021
Guitarist Gary Lucas found himself smack dab in the middle of two of America's musical geniuses, Don 'n' Frank. Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa were ...
Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom (Fridman Gallery)
Review by John Lewis, The Guardian, 15 January 2021
The composer’s two new works, exploring slavery and homophobia, are like immersive non-visual films ...
Vivian Stanshall: Beyond The Bonzo Dog Band
Memoir by Gary Lucas, Please Kill Me!, 26 May 2021
Vivian Stanshall was the strikingly eccentric ringleader of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, often described as the UK's version of the Mothers of Invention. ...
Lydia Lunch's Infinite Rebellion
Profile and Interview by Jim Farber, The New York Times, 28 June 2021
FOR NEARLY two hours on a recent afternoon, Lydia Lunch sat in her bright Brooklyn apartment and spoke with bracing speed, and at an alarming ...
The Residents: Aaron Tanner: The Residents – A Sight For Sore Eyes Vol. 1
Book Review by Irina Shtreis, Louder Than War, 3 February 2022
A Sight For Sore Eyes Vol. 1 celebrates the story of the Residents – extreme art propagators and underground musicians who influenced the likes of ...
The Drone Abides: Bagpipes in Experimental Music
Guide by Stewart Smith, Bandcamp Daily, 9 February 2022
BAGPIPES can get a bad rap. All that wheezing, shrieking and droning; all that militaristic pomp. Pay it no mind: The bagpipes are magic, elemental. ...
Report by Chris Campion, Los Angeles Times, 31 December 2022
IN THE EARLY 1980s, New York artist Rammellzee made two trips to Los Angeles with his friend Jean-Michel Basquiat. The second, in March 1983, inspired ...
The Beatles: You say you don't want a 'Revolution 9'
Book Excerpt by Michel Faber, 'Listen: On Music, Sound and Us' (Canongate), November 2023
In this excerpt from "The siren call of horrible din", the eighth section of his Listen: On Music, Sound and Us (Canongate), Michel explains why ...
Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2023
New projects involving Quiet Sun alumni Charles Hayward and Phil Manzanera keep the art rock flag flying ...
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