Biba Kopf
The scribe formerly known as Chris Bohn, Kopf was leading feature writer on NME in the early ’80s and subsequently a pioneering explorer of European and Japanese avant-garde music for THE WIRE.
34 articles
List of articles in the library
Fad Gadget: Grok! Fad Gadget at the Lyceum, London
Live Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 1984
NOW THAT Martial Law has been declared in rock by such jail guitar banner-waving bores as U2, Big Country and The Alarm, Fad Gadget’s appropriation ...
Scott Walker: Climate Of Hunter
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 17 March 1984
So this is how he reappears... with a genuinely astonishing collection of the most terminal songs ever written. ...
Echo & The Bunnymen: Ocean Rain (Korova)
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 5 May 1984
IS IT possible to hear Echo And The Bunnymen anymore for all the noise? ...
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 5 May 1984
Suddenly it really is Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles. As the whole world turns Teuton, BIBA KOPF meets NENA, the queen of German high street pop. ...
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. ...
The Human League: Hysteria (Virgin)
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 12 May 1984
THIS IS what you've got when you haven't got style: no more masks to hide behind. ...
Dead Or Alive: Pete Burns: Confessions Of A Former Dickhead
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 26 May 1984
PETE BURNS bares flesh like he's got plenty to spare. Some claim he has, but far be it from me to say it. ...
Public Image Ltd.: This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get (Virgin)
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 4 August 1984
DEAR JOHN, the big kiss off: ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Hyaena (Wonderland/Polydor)
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 4 August 1984
THE NIGHT Siouxsie wore her hyaena suit and made mischief of one kind and another God called her "Wild Thing!" and she threatened to engulf ...
David Sylvian, Japan: David Sylvian: Journeys Into The Interior
Profile and Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 11 August 1984
FOR ONE who seems so still David Sylvian is constantly on the move. ...
Hüsker Dü: Zen Arcade (SST double — US import)
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 1 September 1984
ZEN AND THE ART OF GOING ULTRANOVA! ...
The Smiths: Morrissey A Suitable Case For Treatment
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 22 December 1984
THE RECORDING of the new Smiths LP has been one of the season's better kept secrets. ...
Malcolm McLaren: Fans (Charisma)
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 5 January 1985
THERE'S NO BIZET LIKE SHOW BIZET ...
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 9 February 1985
MINED LIKE A SEWER ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Jesus & Mary Chain: Chapter, Verse and Worse
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 16 February 1985
Nine months in the making, the far from immaculately conceived Jesus And Mary Chain, from Glasgow, have alternately been heralded as new messiahs or dismissed ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus and Mary Chain: Chapter, Verse And Worse
Profile and Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 16 February 1985
I: BLAST! ...
Coil: The Soil And Spoil Tactics Of Coil
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 20 April 1985
WHEN YOU'RE up to your nose in shit, goes the Spaghetti wisdom, keep your mouth shut. ...
Prince: Around the World in a Day
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 4 May 1985
The Return Of The Acid Reign ...
Crime & The City Solution: Crime Wave: Crime And The City Solution
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 6 July 1985
From the fragments of The Birthday Party comes a new resurrection called CRIME AND THE CITY SOLUTION. BIBA KOPF finds them in sore need of ...
Jack Kerouac: Hit The Road, Jack: A Man Called Kerouac
Retrospective by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 6 July 1985
AMERICAN RHAPSODISTS come thick and fast, frenziedly spurtspraying words across the broad continental canvas by way of leaving traces, eager to fill in every dingly ...
Bruce Springsteen: At Wembley Stadium
Live Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 13 July 1985
I HAVE seen the future cast as a rock'n'roll song. I do not much like what I see: Bruce Springsteen everywhere confirmed as the way ...
Mathilde Santing: Singing Against The Current
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 27 July 1985
Dutch vocalist MATHILDE SANTING's new LP Water Under The Bridge could bring her career into full flood but she's in no hurry as BIBA KOPF ...
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 12 October 1985
NICE PEOPLE wear their hearts on their sleeves. The soiled souls peopling Tom Waits' songs have theirs tattooed on their arms. His cast of characters ...
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 8 March 1986
"The ultimate manifestation of power and authority is torture and rape" – the SWANS take it from there, to the ear of BIBA KOPF ...
Test Dept.: Freedom is Frightening
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 19 April 1986
On the abandoned building sites of Britain, a new life is stirring. TEST DEPT. sound the charge on scrap metal and bugle, waging a war ...
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 5 July 1986
THEY PICK dreams like they were pockets, these market research trained thieves, respray them in glitter and, even before the paint's properly dry, they're selling ...
The Band Of Holy Joy: Joy Of Man’s Desiring
Report by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 12 July 1986
SOME DAY, absolutely nobody in Absolute Beginners said, there will rise up in Soho a band who will be coarse yet clear-sighted, hard but infinitely ...
RUN DMC: Raising Hell (Profile/London)
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 19 July 1986
A SEOUL diversion — RUN DMC coming up, fast food and sweet music ready to go. ...
The Band Of Holy Joy: The Ship Sails Into Soho
Report and Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 4 October 1986
JOHNY BROWN was a soldier until they discovered he couldn't march in step with the others. ...
Live Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 8 November 1986
IT BEGINS with a word that sounds like BOING! The BOING! Triggers a controlled BOOM!, blanketed by a downbeat TSCHAK! In case you didn't catch ...
Faust: Return of a Legend: Munic & Elsewhere
Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, January 1987
MEPHISTO CALLING. Good news – Faust are back. Released from a devil's pact with silence, they're noisily celebrating the repossession of their souls. A new ...
Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen: Lenny and Jenny Sings Lenny
Interview by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 14 March 1987
A LEONARD COHEN song is the dark disaster that brings on the light. A slow and irresistible force, the rich laval flow of his voice ...
Mick Harvey: Alta Marea & Vaterland (Mute IONIC 6 CD)
Review by Biba Kopf, The Wire, April 1993
A STRONG silent type, Mick Harvey is the unsung hero of The Birthday Party and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds. He also guided the neglected Crime ...
Can: Can Box: Book By Hildegard Schmidt & Wolf Kampmann (Medium Music Books PBK £16.99)
Book Review by Biba Kopf, The Wire, March 1999
IN ITS COMPLETE form, Can Box will contain a live double CD and a video concert, alongside the generically named Book. Amazingly, the live recording ...
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