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Simon Reynolds

Simon Reynolds

Born in London in 1963, Simon Reynolds started out writing about music as a founding member of Monitor, an Oxford-based pop journal, which lasted six issues before expiring in 1986. By then he had joined Melody Maker as a staff writer. Thinkpieces and interviews drawn from his late '80s writing for MM were collected in Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock (Serpent's Tail, 1990). In October 1990 Reynolds went freelance and started dividing his time between London and New York. Since then he has contributed to The New York Times, Village Voice, Spin, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Observer, Artforum, New Statesman, The Wire, Mojo, Uncut, and other magazines. The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion & Rock'n'Roll, co-written with Joy Press, was published in 1995 (Serpent's Tail in the UK and Europe; Harvard University Press in America).

From 1991 onwards Simon became increasingly involved in rave culture and obsessed with electronic music, ultimately resulting in Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture (Picador, 1998), published in North America as Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (Little, Brown). The American version of the book was nominated as a finalist for the 1999 Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Awards.

For the duration of 1998, he worked as a Senior Editor at Spin before quitting to return to freelance life. Subsequent books include Rip It Up and Start Again, a history of postpunk; Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its own Past; and Shock and Awe, his book about glam rock. Reynolds posts regular commentary on Blissblog. He lives in South Pasadena, California, with his wife Joy Press and their children.

Simon's Blissblog

Simon on the RBP podcast

355 articles

List of articles in the library

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Shriekback: Funk's Fictional Threat

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Monitor, March 1985

1985, AND A GAGGLE of groups plough a well-furrowed, increasingly barren field. ...

The Redskins: Central Polytechnic, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986

THE ONLY soul we got tonight was the pre-gig tape, sublime Seventies slices of Billy Paul, Fontella Bass, Womack... Personally, I was grateful — I ...

Kurtis Blow: America (Mercury)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 11 January 1986

BLOWING OUT ...

Husker Du: Candy Apple Grey

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 March 1986

LISTENING TO THIS vast, volatile music, up in its power and space, I suddenly realised that these attributes are the precise opposite of the experiences ...

Ivor Cutler: Bloomsbury Theatre, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 May 1986

FUNNY PECULIAR ...

Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth: University Of London Union

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 7 June 1986

HUMBLE PIE time. Just when I'd neatly dismissed them from my mind as Grand Funk Railroad with a degree in Modern Art and a copy ...

The Replacements: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 7 June 1986

A SECRET shame, this weakness of mine for The Replacements. Their beery rowdyism and refusal to take nuthin' serious represents everything I abhor and their ...

Fad Gadget, Frank Tovey: Cult Heroics: Frank Tovey

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 June 1986

No longer Fad Gadget, his sights firmly focused on Saturday Superstore, FRANK TOVEY tells a skeptical Simon Reynolds that he’s out to corrupt the youth ...

Younger Than Yesterday

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 June 1986

All this talk about indiepop, about the death and resurgence of an underground, an alternative to chart pap. But is there really life beyond the ...

Zapp: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 July 1986

ZAPP LIVE were perhaps the most extreme spectacle I have ever witnessed, with both band and audience abandoning inhibitions more extensively than at any rock ...

Hip Hop: Nasty Boys

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 July 1986

Simon Reynolds ventures down hip hop's mean streets and finds something nasty lurking in the shadows — something that guilt-ridden white liberals might prefer to ...

Trouble Funk: Town & Country, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 August 1986

TROUBLESHOOTERS ...

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, ...

Schoolly D: Schoolly D (Schoolly D Records)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 23 August 1986

SCHOOLLY D is from Philadelphia and appears to be some kind of hoodlum, with an unhealthy interest in the status trinkets of high life, drugs ...

Talulah Gosh: Ladybirds & Start-Rite Kids

Report by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 September 1986

Is there more to jumble-sale chic than saving precious pennies? Simon Reynolds thinks so and spots an asexual revolution unfolding within the indie scene. So ...

This Mortal Coil: Shadow Play

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 4 October 1986

THIS MORTAL COIL have been called everything from post-punk pioneers to precious studio purists. Simon Reynolds meets IVO, the man behind the whole thing, and ...

Big Audio Dynamite, Schoolly D: Big Audio Dynamite/Schoolly D: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 November 1986

BEAT ROOTS ...

What's Missing: On Pop's Eternal Dilemma

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Monitor, Summer 1986

SOMETHING'S WRONG. Everyone knows this, acknowledges it, but it's still hard to point out, precisely, what's supposed to have slipped into abeyance, eluded us in ...

Nick Cave: Of Misogyny, Murder and Melancholy: Meeting Nick Cave

Interview by Simon Reynolds, National Student , 1987

TALKING TO NICK CAVE is a bit of a trial. He’s not really a proper person. Like many artists, what makes him a genius also ...

The Style Council: The Cost Of Loving (Polydor)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 7 February 1987

A REMARKABLE fellow, this Paul Weller. It's a strange journey he's made over the last decade, but stranger still is that he's managed to take ...

U2: The Joshua Tree (Island)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 March 1987

WHEN I THINK of U2, I don't think of America, I don't think of stadia, sweat, pumping fists, auxiliary hair. I think of fresh air, ...

Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One, The Skinny Boys: Hip Hop Wig Out '87 #2: The Big Chill — Skinny Boys and Scott La Rock

Interview by Frank Owen, Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 March 1987

IN THE SECOND REPORT FROM NEW YORK ON HIP-HOP'S LATEST ULTRA-NOW TALENTS, SIMON REYNOLDS SURVEYS THE MONSTROUS AND MIND-BLOWING TALENT OF THE SKINNY BOYS WHILE ...

Curiosity Killed The Cat: Keep Your Distance (Phonogram)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 May 1987

101 USES FOR A DEAD CAT ...

Happy Mondays: The Rock Garden, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 May 1987

HAPPY MONDAYS is where the repetition-repetition-repetition of post-Velvets jangle-drone meets the repetition-repetition-repetition of '70s funk. Imagine a cross between the Blue Orchids and Hamilton Bohannon, ...

Wire: The Ideal Copy

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 May 1987

WIRE are pure luxury. Here are a bunch of superior sound technicians with an immaculate grasp of the sculptural and architectural possibilities of rock, who ...

Bad Brains, The Bambi Slam, The Stupids: Bad Brains/Bambi Slam/The Stupids: Clarendon, Hammersmith, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 May 1987

SLAM DANCE ...

The Replacements: The Rebel Yell

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 May 1987

Describing their relationship to pop as being like 'a dirt road through an emerald city', The Replacements get Simon Reynolds all hot under the collar ...

Sonic Youth: Sister (Blast First)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 30 May 1987

SONIC YOUTH is the itching, striving sound of a literate rock group struggling to assassinate their own intelligence, to unseat the mind's mastery, and achieve ...

The Young Gods: The Young Gods

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 20 June 1987

ONE OF THE LITTLE MYTHS about Pop 1987 is that "there's nothing happening, is there?" For me, 1987 has consisted of a deluge of brilliance ...

Yo! Bum Rush Foucault!

Special Feature by Simon Reynolds, David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 20 June 1987

B-BOYS, Yo-Boys, listen up good, cos a new sound's rappin' up the neighbourhood! Yo, it's the Maker's very own rappin' post-structuralist, the chin-scratchin' semiotician about to ...

Husker Du: Why Aren’t They Massive?

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 June 1987

IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, the Replacements play me a tape of Husker Du’s live appearance on The Joan Rivers Show. It’s more than a little mindblowing. ...

AR KANE — an interview

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 July 1987

EACH WEEK we hurl a batch of New Names at you. Perhaps it's not surprising that you wilt under this constant attrition, cease to believe ...

Anthrax, Bon Jovi, Ronnie James Dio, Metallica, W.A.S.P.: Bon Jovi/Dio/Metallica/Anthrax/W.A.S.P.: Monsters Of Rock, Castle Donington

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 29 August 1987

MATALLIC KO ...

Primal Scream: No More Yesterday

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 29 August 1987

Primal Scream look back to look forward. Simon Reynolds retracts a few statements but still argues the toss. ...

Anthrax: Whoops Apocalypse

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 September 1987

ANTHRAX ARE ANTI-VIOLENCE, ANTI-NUKE, ANTI-DESTRUCTION. BUT THEIR MUSIC IS VIOLENT, LOUD, AGGRESSIVE AND BRUTAL. SIMON REYNOLDS ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE THESE CONTRADITIONS. ...

Trouble Funk: Trouble Over Here (Island)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 September 1987

GO-GO limps on. Go go has flopped so many times now (the movie was a disaster, the Pepe jeans tie-in a farce) and each time ...

R.E.M.: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 September 1987

A LAPSED believer is born again. ...

The Smiths: How Soon Is Now

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 September 1987

Simon Reynolds, long-time fan of the Smiths, sheds a tear at their sudden demise and examines the successes and failures of one of the most ...

Public Enemy: Strength to Strength

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 October 1987

PUBLIC ENEMY PLAY BRITAIN IN NOVEMBER AND SIMON REYNOLDS TAKES A LONG HARD LOOK AT THE SURVIVALIST PHILOSOPHY BEHIND SOME OF THE TOUGHEST NOISE OF ...

Dinosaur Jr: Shock Treatment

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 December 1987

DINOSAUR ARE AT THE VANGUARD OF THE NEW GUITAR NOISE THREATENING TO RUPTURE THE CONVENTIONAL FABRIC OF ROCK. SIMON REYNOLDS MEETS THE RELUCTANT VOICES BEHIND ...

Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy: Public Enemy/Eric B And Rakim: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 December 1987

PUBLIC NUISANCE ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus And Mary Chain: In Never-never Pop Land.

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1988

In their promo videos the Jesus and Mary Chain aim to be as disorientating to the eye as they are to the ear. Look again ...

Sinead O'Connor: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 January 1988

SO, NINA SIMONE'S 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' – the clubland secret, the cult trophy – went High Street provincial, Top Ten Top Shop. ...

The Sugarcubes: Town & Country Club, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 January 1988

LIKE EVERYONE else. I expressly came to worship, to be defeated, to drench their names in a prolix of hopelessly imprecise euphoria. Unhappily, though, it ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Dingwalls, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 January 1988

SOMETIMES there are concerts that leave your mind so thoroughly evacuated, that the only way to galvanise your diminished sense of being is to work ...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chilli Peppers: The Clarendon, Hammersmith, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1988

SO THE Clarendon faces closure, and yes it's a sad day for rock, another step in the drawn-out death of the London gig circuit, and ...

Scritti Politti: Enigma Variation

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1988

Break out the dictionaries and Post-Structuralist text books, pop's most perfect intellect, GREEN GARTSIDE, is back with a new SCRITTI POLITTI single ready for release ...

Morrissey: Songs Of Love And Hate

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 March 1988

I THINK I'VE MET THEM ALL NOW. For me, there are no more heroes left. And no new ones coming along, by the look of ...

Morrissey: Songs of Love and Hate, Part 2

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988

"Did that swift eclipse torture you?/A star at 18 and then – suddenly gone/down to a few lines in the back page/of a teenage annual/oh ...

The Pixies: Speaking In Tongues

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988

THE HOLLERING IS ALL. The Pixies are what's left when all the frustrations and absences that once prompted rock'n'roll into being have faded away or ...

Salt 'n' Pepa: Look Ma Top Of The World

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 March 1988

SALT 'N' PEPA WILL DO ANYTHING TO HAVE EVERYTHING. WITH THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'PUSH IT', ACCELERATING UP THE AMERICAN CHARTS IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THEIR ...

Roger Troutman, Zapp: Roger Troutman: Empires & Dance

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 May 1988

SIMON REYNOLDS WAGS CHINS WITH ROGER TROUTMAN, THE MANDARIN OF SURREAL FUNKSTERS ZAPP, AND DISCOVERS WHY SCRITTI'S GREEN WAS SO DESPERATE TO RECORD WITH THE ...

Band of Susans: Repeat & Frayed

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 May 1988

AT THEIR UTMOST Band of Susans make one of the most spiritual and uplifting rock sounds around. ...

Metallica: ...And Justice For All (Phonogram)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 September 1988

THE KILLING MACHINE ...

Avo-8, The Darling Buds: The Darling Buds, Avo-8: Fulham Greyhound, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 September 1988

BLOOMS BURIED ...

Anthrax: Thrash Landings

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 September 1988

WITH THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'MAKE ME LAUGH', ANTHRAX CONTINUE TO LEAD THE HARDCORE CHARGE AGAINST TRADITIONAL HEAVY METAL. SIMON REYNOLDS HITCHES A RIDE ON THE ...

My Bloody Valentine: Suicide Kisses

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 October 1988

A YEAR AGO, MY BLOODY VALENTINE WERE LINGERING IN SECOND DIVISION INDIE ANONYMITY. THEN THEY RELEASED THEIR EXTRAORDINARY YOU MAKE ME REALISE LP AND SUDDENLY ...

Loop: Preying Mantras

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 November 1988

Loop's free-falling acid rock is now a luring black hole, sucking in a host of trance disciples. Their new single, 'Black Sun', and forthcoming tour ...

Ciccone Youth: The Whitey Album (Blast First)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 14 January 1989

NEXT to the brittle plangency and luminous, labyrinthine depths of Daydream Nation, the first (and last?) Ciccone Youth album is an irrelevance. ...

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 ...

Throwing Muses: Hunkpapa

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 January 1989

"I HAVE two heads." Kristin Hersh starts Hunkpapa with these words. ...

Loop: More Music: Loop

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 22 January 1989

SIMON REYNOLDS on mind-blowing Loop, the most disorienting group of the day ...

Suicide

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 19 February 1989

"NEW YORK IS getting dull," says Suicide's Alan Vega. "The downtown New York of the Seventies has gone. But there's still something here, an electricity, ...

Mary Margaret O'Hara: Discreet Enquiries

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 11 March 1989

MARY'S MISS AMERICA WAS LAUDED AS ONE OF THE MOST STARTLING AND FRESH ALBUMS OF '88, SHE MESSED UP HER LIP-SYNCH ON THE 'BODY'S IN ...

American Music Club: Psycho Thriller

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 March 1989

MARK EITZEL, OF American Music Club, a self proclaimed 'fuckin mess', a man who's spoken before of being 'doomed to sing' and living in terror ...

Cowboy Junkies: Lone Rangers on the Country Landscape

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 26 March 1989

SIMON REYNOLDS rides with the Cowboy Junkies ...

Half Japanese, Moe Tucker: Moe Tucker/Half Japanese: Powerhaus, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 8 April 1989

THEY’RE ALL HERE tonight, convened in a spirit of slackwitted sentimentally: Morrissey (summoned, rumour has it, by the "great lady" herself, who admires his work), ...

The Telescopes: The Falcon, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 6 May 1989

IN THIS HUMID HELL-HOLE of a venue, snuck bizarrely in the back of the tavern's toilets, my glasses mist up repeatedly, and I'm forced to ...

The Stone Roses: Shooting From The Lip

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 3 June 1989

THE STONE ROSES are the latest instalment in the resurrection insurrection. ...

Prince, Mavis Staples: Mavis Staples: Time Waits For No One (Paisley Park)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 June 1989

NINETEEN EIGHTY nine has been a year for bumping into old friends, what with the spate of reissues, relaunched careers, and general rehabilitation. Back in ...

Godflesh: Streetcleaner

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, October 1989

IT'S a superb name. Perhaps only Blind Idiot God is more emblematic of the late Eighties state of anti-consciousness. Not so much because of the ...

Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, 1990

In the U.K., the last few years have seen the original sequence of '60s rock replayed – in reverse. Nineteen eighty-eight was the year of ...

The Creatures: Demon Hunters

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1990

From her punk beginnings as style terrorist through her early Eighties reign as godmother of 'Goth' to the almost motherly figure she now presents, Siouxsie's ...

The Pixies: Ditties Of Pixilated Reasoning

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1990

A year ago, the Pixies were considered the last word in rock bacchanalia. The Boston-based band's three albums – Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa and ...

Loop: A Gilded Eternity (Situation Two)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 20 January 1990

IT'S CLEAR now that Loop peaked with their magnificent brace of EPs in 1988, Collision/Thief Of Fire and Black Sun/Mother Sky. Last year's Fade Out ...

Lloyd Cole: Cool-cut

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, February 1990

Two years ago, Lloyd Cole folded his band, The Commotions, after six years, a bunch of hit singles and three solidly successful albums (Rattlesnakes, Easy ...

The Associates: Wild and Lonely

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 March 1990

THE FIRST TIME I heard the Associates was when I saw 'Party Fears Two' on Top Of The Pops. It was one of those moments ...

Public Enemy: Fear of A Black Planet

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 April 1990

BACK IN BLACK ...

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. ...

Bosho, Curlew, Miracle Room, Marc Ribot, Sonny Sharrock: Marc Ribot, Sonny Sharrock, Curlew, Bosho, Miracle Room: The Knitting Factory Tour, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

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 ...

Bark Psychosis: Cube, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 26 May 1990

DOGS IN SPACE ...

S'Express: Altered States

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1 September 1990

MARK MOORE, the man behind chart terrorists S'Express, is a man of mystery, a svengali with scarcely any profile. SIMON REYNOLDS tracks him down to discover ...

Deee-Lite: Accentuating the Positive

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 September 1990

Simon Reynolds on '90s Zeitgeist with love from NY. ...

Adamski: Spaced cadet

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 September 1990

EVERYONE WANTS A PIECE of Adamski's skinny ass right now. So crammed is his schedule, I'm eventually made to feel very lucky indeed to be ...

Adamski: The Adamant Alchemist

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 September 1990

CHAOS IS a word with special resonance for Adam Tinley, better known as Adamski. He even named his canine companion Dis after Discordia, the goddess ...

The Grid: Mellow sonic boom

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 30 September 1990

THIS SUMMER, The Grid released 'Floatation', a single that perfectly captured the New Age mood that has pervaded club culture in 1990. 'Floatation' combined deep ...

The Replacements

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 November 1990

This year, singer, downtrodden writer and all-round wasted boozer PAUL WESTERBERG has given up drinking, abandoned his band and is trying to look on the ...

Butthole Surfers: The Butthole Surfers: Deeper & Down

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 8 December 1990

AFTER OVER A YEAR OF SILENCE, the Butthole Surfers have re-emerged only to suffer the indignity of being topical. With uncanny punctuality, their cover of ...

Ocean Colour Scene: Fowler’s Mod English Usage

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 December 1990

If 1989 was the year Manchester proclaimed itself pop capital of Britain, 1990 was when reality caught up with the rhetoric. ...

Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans: Glory Days

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 December 1990

1990 could well go down in the rock almanac as the year The Charlatans stole the initiative from The Stone Rose. While the figureheads of ...

The Fall: "You Can't Knock It, Can You?"

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 December 1990

GIVEN HIS curmudgeonly image, you might expect Mark E. Smith to regard Christmas as a time to endure rather than enjoy. ...

Primal Scream

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1991

The story of Primal Scream, whose second hit single entered the charts this week, encapsulates the last 14 years of British rock history. Bobby Gillespie, ...

Cop Shoot Cop: The Falcon, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 January 1991

BANG TO RIGHTS ...

Soho: Single-Minded Success

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 6 January 1991

Simon Reynolds finds Soho down in the East End. ...

Dinosaur Jr.

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 January 1991

After a year of rumours about Dinosaur splitting and retiring from music altogether, J Mascis finally returns with a major label contract, a new single, ...

The Associates: Popera

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 January 1991

ONCE UPON A time (the early '80s), there was something called "new pop". For about a year Morley's pipedream of a chartbusting music that combined ...

Crazy Horse, Neil Young, Sonic Youth: Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Sonic Youth: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 February 1991

THE WILD FRONTIER ...

Cop Shoot Cop: Consumer Revolt

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 19 February 1991

'BURN YOUR BRIDGES' is where Cop Shoot Cop proclaim their oblique intentions most plainly – their "anthem," if you will. "Know what you like/Like what ...

Morrissey: Kill Uncle (Sire)

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 2 April 1991

"OH MANCHESTER, so much to answer for..." Contradiction has always been at the heart of Morrissey's mythologization of his hometown: this was nostalgia for a ...

The KLF: Off The Orbitals

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 7 April 1991

Simon Reynolds profiles the anarchic duo The KLF ...

The Doors: Jim Morrison: The Anatomy Of Madness

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 13 April 1991

This year's superstar is a bloated, bearded would-be poet who died 20 years ago. SIMON REYNOLDS investigates the dark influence and deep fascination JIM MORRISON ...

Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1991

FOR SOME OF US, the Throwing Muses' 1986 debut was one of those records, the kind that leaves you feeling your life has been changed ...

Paul Simon: Simon Reports Back To Base

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 5 May 1991

PAUL SIMON'S management company has one client: Paul Simon. Based in Broadway's legendary Brill Building (where Simon and Garfunkel first attempted to sell their songs ...

Happy Mondays, Jane's Addiction: Jane's Addiction/Happy Mondays: Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 11 May 1991

IT MUST HAVE seemed an inspired notion to pair these unabashed champions of drug culture, but inside sources tell me that it's turned out to ...

Paula Abdul's State-of-the-Art Dance Pop

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 12 May 1991

JUST AS THERE are those who worry about additive-riddled junk food, so too there's an unofficial "campaign for real music." ...

De La Soul: Malice In Wonderland

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 May 1991

With their new album, De La Soul Is Dead, the founders of the hippy hop movement have turned their back on peace, love and positivity. ...

Primal Scream

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1 June 1991

BOBBY GILLESPIE reckons that his new single, 'Higher Than The Sun', will revolutionise pop in the Nineties in the same way as the Pistols' 'Anarchy ...

James Brown: Startime

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 June 1991

THIS FOUR-CD mega-anthology reveals that there are actually two James Browns. The first is JB the patrician and patriarch: the disciplinarian who fined his musicians ...

Mercury Rev: Mean Fiddler, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 June 1991

IT SEEMS LIKE A SMALL ETERNITY since indie America last puked up a truly ear-boggling band. The innovators of the late Eighties have become a ...

David Byrne: From Ur to L.A. and back again

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 June 1991

In performance, and as the 'compere' in his film True Stories, David Byrne comes across as the epitome of Wasp uptightness, nervy and ill at ...

EMF: E.M.F.: A New Band That's All the Rave

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 30 June 1991

LONDON — The trance-dance rhythms and euphoric aura of acid house music have drastically altered the outlook and aspirations of most British rock groups. ...

The Pixies: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 30 June 1991

Ungodly and oh so grungy ...

How MTV Plays Around the World

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 July 1991

THE FACTS SPEAK for themselves. MTV Europe, the fastest-growing cable and satellite channel on the continent, is available in 24 million households in 27 countries, ...

Consolidated

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 13 July 1991

CONSOLIDATED ARE the new militants of American rock. Their debut album, The Myth Of Rock, agitated against rock’s regressive impotence, its spurious rebellion and disengagement ...

Manic Street Preachers: Rock'n'Roll Suicide

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 20 July 1991

CAN YOU FEEL IT? A creeping paralysis accompanying every advance in the obese accumulation of "good music", a seeping slide into the mire of eclecticism. ...

Julian Cope: Blonde on Peggy Suicide Blonde

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, August 1991

One of pop's most eccentrically self-important extremists, Julian Cope drops drugs, gets centered and creates his first brilliant album ...

Jane's Addiction: Jane’s Addiction and Lollapalooza: A Woodstock For The Lost Generation

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 4 August 1991

There’s no contest: this summer's biggest tour is the aptly titled Lollapalooza, a mobile rock festival featuring a bill of premier alternative bands – Siouxsie ...

Bomb The Bass: Unknown Territory (Rhythm King)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 August 1991

WE NEED a new category – something like "progressive dance", or prog funk – to describe the new post-aciieed groups like 808 Slate, Bass-O-Matic and ...

The KLF, Massive Attack: The K.L.F. and Massive Attack: Psychedelic Rock Enters the Progressive Phase

Overview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 18 August 1991

SO VOLATILE is the club scene that few artists have been able to make a career out of dance music, which is released mostly as ...

Mercury Rev

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 August 1991

MERCURY REV's debut album has been hailed as one of the albums of the year. SIMON REYNOLDS talks to the band in New York about ...

Guns N' Roses: Guns N’ Roses: Danger Lurks Beyond The Doors

Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 25 August 1991

No other rock band today provokes such polarised opinions as Guns N' Roses. For some, they are 'the most dangerous band in the world', heirs ...

Jane's Addiction: Lollapalooza

Report by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 29 August 1991

LOLLAPALOOZA means a bizarre happening. ...

Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion I (Geffen)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 September 1991

THERE'S TWO schools of thought about Guns N'Roses. For some they're "the most dangerous band in the world"; for others, their brand of "danger" is ...

Pavement: CBGB'S, New York NY

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 September 1991

CURRENTLY THE focus of much cultish enthusiasm, Pavement exemplify all that's groovy and all that's grievous about American underground rock right now. ...

The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Magicians followed but not chaste

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 29 September 1991

One of the most hyperactive rock scenes in the United States is a genre called 'funk-metal' or 'funk 'n' roll'. Groups like Faith No More, ...

Public Enemy

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 October 1991

What’s the bond between rap and metal? What’s the ‘black holocaust’? Why are Public Enemy angrier than ever? SIMON REYNOLDS meets CHUCK D to discover ...

The House Of Love's Guy Chadwick

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 October 1991

If there was ever any doubt that it’s tough at the top, one need only look at what happened to GUY CHADWICK. Feted, eulogized, deified ...

Saint Etienne: St Etienne: Debut That's Alpha Oscar Kilo

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 20 October 1991

ON THEIR delightful debut album, Foxbase Alpha, St Etienne mix contemporary house rhythms with the string-swept melodrama of Sixties pop. Amazingly, the creators of this ...

The Pixies: Trompe le Monde

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 27 October 1991

THERE WAS A time when the Boston group the Pixies was the last word in rock-and-roll bacchanalia. ...

Primal Scream: Screamadelica (Sire/Warner Bros.)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, November 1991

WHAT A LONG strange trip it's been for Primal Scream. When the Primals emerged in 1984, their pallid psychopop was draped in the unworldly innocence ...

My Bloody Valentine: Loveless (Creation)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 November 1991

VALENTINE DAZE ...

Manic Street Preachers: Righteous Hate 4 Real

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 10 November 1991

When Malcolm McLaren rewrote the Sex Pistols story as The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, he invented a new genre – rock bands who come ...

Nirvana: Nevermind (Geffen)

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 24 November 1991

NIRVANA'S VERTIGINOUS ascent to stardom has to be the year’s most surprising success story. The single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has been in heavy rotation ...

Nirvana: Kilburn National, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, December 1991

THE ONLY EXPLANATION is that a lot of people didn't realise how angry and alienated they really were. Once in a blue moon, a group ...

Chapterhouse, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Swervedriver: "Dream-Pop" Bands Define the Times in Britain

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1 December 1991

THIS YEAR, THE most popular phenomenon in British alternative rock is a wave of hazy neo-psychedelic guitar groups. ...

Teenage Fanclub: The Glitz And The Grunge

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1 December 1991

WITH THEIR first single, 'Everything Flows', last year, Teenage Fanclub's grinding raunch and bluesy solos announced that here at last was a British group unafraid ...

Teenage Fanclub: Teenage Fan Club: Bandwagonesque (DGC)

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 3 December 1991

AS A BRIT who spends a lot of time in the U.S., I could hardly fail to notice the scathing scepticism of American hipsters when ...

Nirvana: Smells Like A Sensation

Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 8 December 1991

NIRVANA ARE THE sensation of 1991. Their single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ shot straight into the UK Top Ten and is now number seven after ...

Nirvana: The indie alternative

Report by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 19 December 1991

This year saw groups like Nirvana breaking into the mainstream,. Simon Reynolds reports on the changing face of the charts ...

Elvis Costello and Martin Amis: Prophets of Doom

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Arena, Summer 1991

The highbrow hysteria of Elvis Costello and Martin Amis ...

Lou Reed: Alchemical Engineering

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 1992

Lou Reed is one of the few 60s figures who has kept up any serious exploration of rock's sounds and words. In this exclusive New ...

Lou Reed: Mourning Glory

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, February 1992

On Lou Reed's touching elegy to two recently departed friends, Magic and Loss, he grapples with the age-old question: What is the meaning of death? ...

Lush: Hazy Daze For The Scenesters

Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 2 February 1992

Just about the only thing happening in British indie music last year was a rash of blurry, neo-psychedelic bands known as 'shoegazers' or The Scene ...

Hole: Belting Out That Most Unfeminine Emotion

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 9 February 1992

SUSAN FALUDI, the author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, said recently in a magazine interview that "anger is not something that's an ...

The Nymphs: Nymphs: The Asylum Siren

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 February 1992

When singer Inger Lorre first heard Patti Smith, she knew she had to become a rock'n'roll star. When she heard the Velvet's 'Heroin'. She got ...

Primal Scream: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 29 February 1992

Days Of Future Past ...

Laurie Anderson: Clarity’s Angel

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, March 1992

First, Laurie Anderson chronicled the United States of America. What’s next for the leading performance-person of our day? ...

Babes in Toyland, Daisy Chainsaw, Hole, The Nymphs: Scream with the She-Rebels

Overview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 15 March 1992

WHILE ROCK'N'ROLL abounds with angry young men, female rage has always been a scarce commodity. There's been the gleeful anarchy of the Slits, Patti Smith's ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus and Mary Chain: A Spectacle Of Eclectic Rock

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 29 March 1992

For a while it looked like The Jesus and Mary Chain had slipped into the ‘where are they now? file. "We’re lazy bastards," says William ...

Lush: Spooky (4AD/Reprise) ***

Review by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992

FOR THE past few years, British indie rock has been dominated by bands known as shoegazers (because they're shy onstage), purveying a style of music ...

Saint Etienne

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 April 1992

THE PRODUCT ...

Faith No More: Angel Dust (Slash)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 30 May 1992

AND "DUST" IS FOR ALL ...

The Cure: Robert Smith: Dr. Robert Explains It All

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, June 1992

In a rare solo interview, Cure leader Robert Smith dissects his cult, defines his own private punk and pursues his Wish. ...

Gathering of the Tribes

Report by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 6 June 1992

Castlemorton was the site of the biggest illegal rave to date. But, as SIMON REYNOLDS discovered, it was only a prelude to what's to come ...

Faith No More: God, The Devil And All The Rest

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 7 June 1992

Despite starting out as an anti-people band, Faith No More's last album, 1989's The Real Thing, has sold millions, even though its baroque, doom-laden fusion ...

Suede: Roll Over, Jimmy Dean

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 June 1992

"WHEN WE STARTED the group, we felt that people were starved for music which allowed them to let themselves go," says Brett Anderson, Suede's 24-year-old ...

Altern-8, Derrick May, Orbital, Spiral Tribe: The Techno Revolution

Report by Simon Reynolds, Details, July 1992

Four years after its invention in a Detroit bedroom, techno is now dominating dance floors from London to L.A. Is it the next musical insurrection ...

Moose: XYZ

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 July 1992

YOU KNOW, MAYBE the Scene wasn’t so bad after all. Sure, it churned out rapture by rote, but grunge has similarly turned rage into a ...

Pavement: Some Enchanted Evenings

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 18 July 1992

The post-Nirvana deluge of grunge guitar bands is threatening to stifle rock. Only a handful of genuine mavericks and freaks are holding out against the ...

The Verve: Richard Ashcroft: Having The Verve To Become Unashamedly Epic

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 26 July 1992

"When you live in a place like Wigan, your senses aren't exactly bombarded with stimuli," says Richard Ashcroft, lead singer of Verve. "So when you ...

Happy Mondays: Yes Please! (Factory)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 September 1992

NO THANKS ...

The Cure: The Boy Who Won't Grow Up

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 15 November 1992

THE CURE are probably the world's biggest cult band. Alone of all the British bands born of punk, they've attained huge success without drastically watering ...

Big Black: Steve Albini: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 November 1992

Big Black (1981-1987) were one of the most influential bands of the Eighties. Industrial music, 'skronk' rock, New York noisecore, British indiepop, Nirvana, Ministry, Suede, ...

Medicine, Mercury Rev: Mercury Rev and Medicine: Fuzzy Daydreams Replace the Grimness of Grunge

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 November 1992

AFTER THE EXPLOSIVE success of Nirvana last year, and the ensuing breakthrough by Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, alternative rock is now ...

The Cure: Robert Smith's Wish List

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 December 1992

FIFTEEN years on, THE CURE are post-punk's hardy perennial. Of all their peers, they're virtually alone in making it to stadium level without pandering or ...

Dinosaur Jr.: Dinosaur Jr: Where You Been (Blanco Y Negro)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 23 January 1993

TYRANNOSAURUS WRECKS ...

Dinosaur Jr: Lazy Doing Something

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 31 January 1993

IN NORTH America, "slackers" have entered mainstream consciousness, with the success of Richard Linklater's Slacker movie, Doug Coupland's book Generation X and, above all, Nirvana's ...

Butthole Surfers, Cell, Dinosaur Jr., Th' Faith Healers, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: Noise rock forsakes grunge for art and experimentation

Overview by Simon Reynolds, Details, March 1993

IT'S YEAR two of the post-Nirvana era, and the deluge of Seattle soundalike grunge flows on and on. These days, most hapless record buyers find ...

Donald Fagen: Steely Don is no fly-by-night

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 9 May 1993

With their jazz-tinged soft-rock and mordant lyrics, Steely Dan were critics' favourites and a staple of FM radio throughout the Seventies. ...

Suede in the U.S.A.

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1993

Britain’s new white-hot hope brings its liberated sexual stance to the States. Are you ready to get Suede? ...

Suede: The Best New Band In America?

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 June 1993

SUEDE have already proved themselves in the UK, both critically and commercially. The next step is for the fab four to cross the Atlantic and ...

Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey: PJ Harvey: The Academy, New York NY

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 July 1993

FROM GRUNGE'S "castration blues" to the glutinous gloom of Come/Red House Painters/Mazzy Star to tonight's support band Gallon Drunk (with their cliché-encrusted homage to Nick ...

The Fall: The Infotainment Scan (Matador)

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 11 July 1993

THE FALL is one of England’s enduring cult bands. Formed in 1976 by the singer and lyricist Mark E. Smith, it evolved into one of ...

Björk: Björk: Debut

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 August 1993

The singer Björk has gone solo, as some devotees always felt she should. ...

The Auteurs, Morrissey, Suede: British Rockers Trot Out the Flag

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 September 1993

LONDON — In rock-and-roll just as in politics, the United States and England have a special relationship. Together, they have dominated global pop. Over the decades, ...

Moby: In Trance As Mission

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 11 September 1993

By now, you must all know about Moby, the techno nutter who's a Christian vegan, doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs. And you'll have heard ...

MTV Times

Comment by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 October 1993

SIMON REYNOLDS casts a critical eye over MTV and what it stands for and comes to some surprising conclusions ...

PJ Harvey: What Makes Polly Scream?

Interview by Simon Reynolds, i-D, November 1993

PJ Harvey — the singer and the band — is the pop phenomenon of the year. Her emotional, bluesy primal screaming is the most challenging ...

Kate Bush: Heaven’s Kate: Kate Bush

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 6 November 1993

ENGLAND MY LION HEART KATE BUSH AN ENGLISH original. In 1978, that wavering, starburst voice seemed to come out of nowhere, but only because it's ...

Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 14 November 1993

THIS MAJOR-LABEL debut by the Smashing Pumpkins recently shot straight onto the Billboard chart at No. 10, partially justifying the industry hype about the Chicago ...

Aphex Twin

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 November 1993

Aphex Twin is unusual. He likes tanks. He hates sleeping. And he pours tea on his cereal. SIMON REYNOLDS meets the rave-age Mozart in a ...

Nirvana: The Coliseum, New York City

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 November 1993

IF THERE WERE any doubts that Nirvana had truly connected with America's rock heartland, the sight of the crowd tonight dispels them. It's a sea ...

Kate Bush

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, December 1993

Kate Bush is very... unlikely· A teen prodigy, she rocketed to the pinnacle of the British charts with her 1987 debut, ‘Wuthering Heights’, a very... ...

Blind Melon, Guns N' Roses, Lenny Kravitz, Pavement, Stereolab, Urge Overkill: Pop View: The Perils of Loving Old Records Too Much

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 December 1993

TODAY'S ALTERNATIVE rock suffers from a strange kind of nostalgia — a yearning for a golden age that one never personally experienced. There's a term ...

Nirvana, Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam Versus Nirvana: The Final Countdown

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 December 1993

IF NUMBERS COUNT for anything, Pearl Jam wiped the floor with Nirvana. In its first week of release, Vs sold five times as many copies ...

Morrissey: Vauxhall and I (Sire)

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1994

IF TWO WORDS come close to encapsulating Morrissey's sensibility, they are isolation and insularity. ...

Robert Wyatt: Going Back A Bit - A Little History of Robert Wyatt (Virgin)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1994

AT LAST, a long-overdue anthology of stuff and nonsense by one of the great eccentrics of English art-rock, Robert Wyatt. A miscellany of bits and ...

The Stooges: Stooges Reissues

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1994

The Stooges (Elektra)Fun House (Elektra) FUN HOUSE is, no contest, the greatest rock'n'roll album of all time. And its prequel, The Stooges, is the tremor ...

Wire Reissues

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1994

Pink Flag (Harvest/EMI)Chairs Missing (Harvest/EMI)154 (Harvest/EMI) ...

Goldie: Welcome To The Jungle

Overview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994

What is JUNGLE? And where does it fit into the new dance scheme? SIMON REYNOLDS reports ...

Kristin Hersh: Hips and Makers

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, February 1994

THROWING MUSES' last album, Red Heaven, was a murky, tired- sounding affair, and it bombed. For her first solo record. Kristin Hersh sheds the rockist ...

Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Part II (Sire/Warner Bros.)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, March 1994

BY NOW YOU may have heard of Richard James, the British techno whiz-kid who sleeps two hours a night and who is so prolific he ...

Bark Psychosis: Hex

Review by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, March 1994

THESE DAYS, ALTERNATIVE = ANTIQUATED. Almost all alternative rockers pay homage to a bygone golden age (although they disagree about which is the genre that ...

The Beastie Boys: Cult of the Beasties

Interview by Simon Reynolds, i-D, March 1994

The Beastie Boys have gone from pop stardom to obscurity to being the biggest cult band in the world. Their last LP sold a million ...

Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Warp)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1994

The prodigious, prolific and increasingly eccentric Richard James brings us two and a half hours of his unique muse. SIMON REYNOLDS is bewitched on our ...

Aphex Twin: Techno Wars: A House Divided Over Beats

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 13 March 1994

ONLY A FEW years ago, it was easy to define techno as a fast-paced dance music based on electronic textures. ...

Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie: Prophet Or Dead Loss?

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 2 April 1994

Primal Scream’s new LP, Give Out But Don’t Give Up, has split the voters. Some think it’s retro-rockist rubbish, others believe it’s the ultimate good-time ...

Bark Psychosis, The Levellers, Loop Guru, My Bloody Valentine, Transglobal Underground: Your Culture Under Siege: Criminal Injustice

Report and Interview by Carl Loben, Simon Reynolds, Ngaire Ruth, Melody Maker, 30 April 1994

For decades, squatting, free festivals and illegal parties have played a vital role in alternative pop culture. The Criminal Justice Bill — which has been ...

Seefeel: Quique (Caroline)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1994

WHATEVER happened to "dream pop"? Well, the smartest of those bands have turned on to techno, and are mixing their lustrous guitar stuff with sampled ...

Stereolab: Separation Terrorists

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 July 1994

Subversive MOR may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it’s the best available description of Stereolab’s new single, ‘Ping Pong’, the most brilliant example ...

The Prodigy: Touched By The Hand Of Prod

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 16 July 1994

"So I've decided to take my work back underground... to stop it falling into the wrong hands." ...

Seal: A Conjurer Of Lush Grooves

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 14 August 1994

What to call Seal’s blend of symphonic dance music and mystical lyrics? New Age funk? Progressive disco? Seal belongs to that strain of maverick, slightly ...

Massive Attack, Portishead: Trip Hop Don't Stop: Massive Attack and Portishead

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 September 1994

Imagine a cross between ambient and hip-hop. Imagine a Brit version of Cypress Hill or Gravediggaz's spooky Gothic Hop. Imagine the sound of 'bombs exploding ...

Stereolab: Marx on the Moon

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 18 September 1994

Muzak is hip: Simon Reynolds meets Stereolab, easy-listening revolutionaries ...

A Guy Called Gerald: Jungle Heritage

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 8 October 1994

SIMON REYNOLDS reports on the cyber-black world of A GUY CALLED GERALD. ...

A Guy Called Gerald, LTJ Bukem, Dillinja, DJ Hype, General Levy, MC Navigator, Roni Size and Reprazent: It's a Jungle Out There...

Overview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 15 October 1994

Ask yer proverbial suburban kid on the street, and chances are they won't be into Blur, Suede, Nirvana or Oasis — they'll be hardcore JUNGLE ...

Goldie: Tales From The Dark Side

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 October 1994

Simon Reynolds meets Goldie, pioneering king of ambient jungle ...

Suede: The London Suede: Dog Man Star

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 27 November 1994

A SUPERGROUP IN Britain, Suede failed to sway America last year with its heady blend of raunch guitar and flamboyant androgyny. ...

Flying Saucer Attack: Further

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 1995

  SOME THINGS you should know about Flying Saucer Attack. They're the Bristol based duo of David Pearce and Rachel Brook, and their records are released ...

Joe Meek: Various Artists: It's Hard to Believe It - the Amazing World of Joe Meek (Razor & Tie)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, 1995

WHO WAS Joe Meek? A cut-price Spector crafting pocket symphonies in his North London studio for a stable of dodgy pre-Beatles combos? Yes, but the ...

Meat Puppets: When Kurt Met Curt: Meat Puppets

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, January 1995

IF YOU WANT TO know why Meat Puppets touched Kurt Cobain so deeply that he covered not one but three of their songs for Unplugged ...

Combustible Edison, Esquivel, Stereolab: Incredibly Strange Music: The Revenge of the Un-Hip

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 February 1995

IT'S OFFICIAL: IT'S HIP TO BE square. Collectors are paying top dollar for original albums from such '50s and '60s easy-listening fare as LP's designed ...

A Guy Called Gerald: Black Secret Technology (Juke Box JB2 13tks/70mins/FP)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 18 February 1995

Freaked out by the photocopier? Frightened of the fax machine? Fascinated by both? Don't worry, our relationship with technology is necessarily double-edged – and it's ...

Royal Trux

Interview by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, March 1995

Chicago’s infamous Royal Trux have finally made the major-label album of "low-down Sticky-Fingered raunch ‘n’ roll" they’ve always threatened to. Does the big time beckon? ...

Various Artists: Law of the Jungle (Moonshine Music);Various Artists: Speed Limit 140 BPM Plus Five (Moonshine Music)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Vibe, March 1995

AFTER YEARS of lamely aping U.S. rap, Britain has finally come up with not one but two responses to hip hop. There's trip hop, also ...

Fleetwood Mac: Tusk

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 4 March 1995

IF ANYONE remembers Fleetwood Mac's Tusk at all, it's as the surprise flop sequel to 1977 Rumours. A soft-rock masterpiece (gorgeous melodicism charged with the ...

Foul Play, Goldie, My Bloody Valentine, Omni Trio: Goldie et al: Jungle Boogie

Report by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1995

Get down, get down: The U.K. moves to underground groove ...

A Guy Called Gerald: Wicked Guy!

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995

A GUY CALLED GERALD is at the forefront of junglist innovation and future-shock technological experimentation. A guy called SIMON REYNOLDS joins him in virtual space. ...

Elastica: Twang Twang, You're Cred!

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995

This week, ELASTICA’s debut album has achieved the greatest double whammy of critical and commercial success since Parklife and Definitely Maybe, final proof that Britpop’s ...

The Stone Roses: The Morning After

Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1995

"I guess you had to be there – probably Manchester, definitely England – to understand how the Stone Roses came to matter so much in ...

Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky: Trip Hop: Another City, Another New Sound

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 28 May 1995

POP GROUPS hate being identified as part of a scene centred on a city. But if there's one thing bands resent even more, it is ...

The Auteurs, µ-ziq: μ-Ziq: μ-Ziq vs. the Auteurs (AstralWerks/Caroline)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, June 1995

WITH ITS jungle rhythms and uncouth passion, rock'n'roll used to be the enemy of civilization and refinement. So I'm amused that it is rock fans ...

Tricky

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 24 June 1995

"I had this psychic drawing done," says Tricky, sucking greedily on the first of the four joints he's to consume in the next hour. Behind ...

2 Bad Mice, 4 Hero, Dillinja, DJ Hype, Foul Play, Omni Trio, Roni Size and Reprazent: Will Jungle Be the Next Craze From Britain?

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 6 August 1995

JUNGLE – A FRENETIC, fiercely percussive dance sound made using samples and computers – is the most exciting musical movement to emerge from Britain since ...

Stephin Merritt: The Pocket Symphonist: Stephin Merritt

Interview by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, September 1995

Stephin Merritt is the standard-bearer for a new pop aesthetic. "Music isn’t about performing out your soul," he avers. "It’s about making pretty objects you ...

The Young Gods: Only Heaven

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1995

SAMPLER-WIELDING CYBER-STOOGES, The Young Gods have been the world's first 21st Century rock band for nearly a decade now. But being ahead of your time ...

My Bloody Valentine: When You Wake You're Still In A Nightmare: My Bloody Valentine

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Alternative Press, October 1995

In 1991 My Bloody Valentine released Loveless, one of rock's most innovative albums. Then... silence What on earth have they been doing the last four ...

Blur, Oasis: Battle of the Bands — Old Turf, New Combatants

Overview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 October 1995

RIGHT NOW, the British music scene is convulsed with patriotic fervor. For the first time in over a decade, young British guitar bands are penetrating ...

Pulp: Working-Class Heroes: Pulp: Different Class (Island)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 28 October 1995

Jarvis Cocker, sexual outlaw, professional eccentric, godlike television personality and master of idiosyncratic dance steps you already know and adore. SIMON REYNOLDS heralds the entrance ...

The Sea and Cake

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 16 November 1995

THE SEA and Cake are crammed into a van parked on a busy side street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. They're here as opposed to ...

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. ...

Julian Cope: Krautrocksampler: One Head’s Guide To The Great Kosmiche Musik - 1968 Onwards

Review by Simon Reynolds, MOJO, December 1995

Since it deals with that most fetishised of genres, Krautrocksampler is appropriately enough an intensely fetishisable object. Purportedly the first of a whole line of ...

Flying Saucer Attack

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, Fall 1995

THE SETTING is spot on — a pretty Putney park near the Thames, on a gorgeously sunny day in almost-September. White clouds scud across oceans ...

Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Artforum, February 1996

WHEN Rock And The Pop Narcotic was first published in 1990, it incited a fair bit of controversy, startling many by the sheer aggression with ...

Tortoise: Shell On Earth

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 ...

Stereolab: Simple Minds

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Rolling Stone, 4 April 1996

"Repetition in the music and we're never gonna lose it," sang Mark E. Smith of the English post-punk legends the Fall in the aptly titled ...

The Prodigy: Prodigy: The Fat of the Land

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 8 July 1997

SOME SAY the Prodigy have betrayed the bright promise of the "electronica revolution", resulting in a techno-rock hybrid that's not so much kick-ass as half-assed. ...

The Verve: Urban Hymns

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 18 November 1997

Damn and blast the Verve. I'd sworn never to fall again for that classic-rock godstar-savior-shaman shtick, that it was gonna be dance music's desiring-machines and ...

The Slits: Cut

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 1997

I remember very clearly the first time I heard Cut – it was the summer of '79, I was staying at my aunt's in the ...

Gangsta House

Report by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1998

Speed garage, a hybrid of house and jungle, has conquered British clubland. ...

Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk: Trance: New Invader on the Dance Floor

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 29 November 1998

THE ESPERANTO of electronic dance music, trance is probably the most popular rave sound in the world. Although this kinetic, hypnotic music has maintained a ...

Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk: Trance: New Invader on the Dance Floor

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 29 November 1998

THE ESPERANTO of electronic dance music, trance is probably the most popular rave sound in the world. Although this kinetic, hypnotic music has maintained a ...

Fatboy Slim: You've Come A Long Way, Baby

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 1998

Former Housemartin turns Big Beat pioneer ...

Timbaland: Tim's Bio – Life from da Bassment (Blackground)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, January 1999

MAYBE YOU'VE heard of the Jamaican tradition of "version" albums: a dozen or so tracks all built on top of the same bass-and-drum undercarriage. Different ...

Fatboy Slim, Lo Fidelity Allstars: Big Beat: Dance Music From England With a Dark Side

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 March 1999

BIG BEAT, a boisterous hybrid of hip-hop and house music, is currently the most popular dance style in Britain. ...

Basement Jaxx: House That Jaxx Built

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, May 1999

WITHOUT FANFARE, House has crept forward to become the leading edge of dance culture again — just like it was over a decade ago. It's ...

The Prodigy: Prodigy: Smack My Mix Up

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 1999

EVER SINCE 'Firestarter' and 'Breathe' transformed Prodigy into rave'n'roll superstars, Liam Howlett, the band's leader and musical brain, has taken pains to distance Prodigy from ...

Fatboy Slim: Electronica Goes Straight To Ubiquity

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 6 June 1999

THE USUAL trajectory for a new form of pop music is from underground sound to mainstream omnipresence, followed by eventual banalization as the style filters ...

The Chemical Brothers: Back To The Lab

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, July 1999

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE BLOCK-ROCKIN' SOUND YOU INVENTED HAS BECOME THE SOUNDTRACK TO LAME TEEN FLICKS AND TAMPON COMMERCIALS? IF YOU'RE THE CHEMICAL ...

Missy Elliott, Timbaland: Timbaland and Missy Elliott: Partners in the Engine Room of Rap

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1 August 1999

POP-MUSIC history tends to focus on glamorous vocalists and visionary songwriters, but the evolution of black pop is another story: it's as much about changes ...

Roxy Music: Roxy Music/For Your Pleasure/Stranded/Country Life/Siren

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 1999

Their first five LPs lovingly remastered for your pleasure In 1969's Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboorn, Nik Cohn simultaneously celebrated and mourned the mythic era of "Superpop, the ...

Armand Van Helden: 2 Future 4 U (Armed)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999

A YEAR AGO, Armand Van Helden was signed to Ruffhouse/Columbia. Now the DJ/producer is releasing 2 Future 4 U through Armed, his own fledgling indie ...

Death In Vegas: The Dead Boys

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999

COMING OUT OF THE ART-ROCK CLOSET, DEATH IN VEGAS SHED DANCE BEATS FOR SINISTER, TRIPPED-OUT PSYCHEDELIA. BUT THEIR SNEAKERS REMAIN THE SAME ...

Dot Allison, One Dove: Dot Allison: When Doves Sigh

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 1999

FORMER ONE DOVE SINGER DOT ALLISON MAKES HER SOLO DEBUT ...

Puff Daddy: It Isn't Easy Being a Superman

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 10 October 1999

A FEW SONGS into Forever, the recently released second album by the rapper-producer-entrepreneur Puff Daddy, there is a skit about people phoning the Player-Haters Anonymous ...

Goodie Mob: World Party (Laface/Orista)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, January 2000

WHEN A BAND with something to say wants to communicate to the largest number of people, it generally resorts to what's known as "sweetening the ...

DMX, Eve: Family Values in the Rap Business: Ruff Ryders, Cash Money and co.

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 12 March 2000

WHEN THE RAPPER DMX accepted a trophy for best R&B album at the Billboard Music Awards last year, he took the stage flanked by a ...

DMX, Jay Z, Juvenile, The Lox: Jay-Z, DMX, Juvenile and The Lox Albums

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2000

Huge over there, ignored over here – the state of the rap art, US-style: Jay-Z: Volume 3...Life And Times Of S Carter; ...

Ian Dury: The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury 1942 — 2000

Obituary by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, June 2000

At the peak of his late '70s success, Ian Dury was one of this country’s most beloved entertainers. He kept busy in his post-stardom years ...

Jimi Hendrix: Black Secret Technology

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, July 2000

Hendrix wasn't just the original firestarter, all flash and dazzle. He was a scientist of sound. ...

Tim Buckley: Starsailor

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, July 2000

Driven to despair by commercial neglect, his visionary genius unrecognised, TIM BUCKLEY died of a heroin overdose at the age of 28. On the 25th ...

Beenie Man: Bennie Man: Art & Life

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2000

Flava floods out of dancehall ubermensch ...

Garage: Pure Garage: Mixed Live By E-Z; Underground Explosion: The Real Garage Mix

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2000

Garage — the sound of the UK underground goes mainstream ...

The Associates: Reissues

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2000

Legendary Scottish duo — featuring late, great Billy MacKenzie — issue best work and pre-fame material ...

The Clash, King Tubby, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Lee "Scratch" Perry: Reggae: Back to the Roots

Essay by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, September 2000

According to the remixologists' gospel, the dub virus was so successful, it took out the word and eradicated its reggae song hosts. Simon Reynolds rediscovers ...

Radiohead's Kid A: Revolution In The Head

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2000

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE STATE OF BRITISH ROCK, AND HOW COME RADIOHEAD'S KID A HAS GOT IT SO RIGHT? ...

Roni Size and Reprazent: Roni Size & Reprazent: In The Mode

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2000

FOLLOW-UP to 1997's New Forms ...

Fatboy Slim: Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 15 November 2000

FEATURING SAMPLES from a bootleg album of the Lizard King's poetry, Fatboy Slim's new single 'Sunset (Bird of Prey)' isn't the first time Jim Morrison's ...

U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2000

Corn without authenticity. Bono and Co rediscover the importance of being earnest ...

Big Youth: Natty Universal Dread; and, Various Aritists: A Jamaican Story

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001

IN JAMAICA, the DJ isn't the guy who spins the records (that's the selector), it's the bloke who chats over the music. As misnomers go, ...

Matmos: A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure (Matador)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 2001

MATMOS' FOURTH ALBUM sheds new light on the notion of body music. This San Francisco glitch-techno duo-Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt — have made a ...

Neu!: Reissues

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001

Krautrock revisited and remastered: Bowie, Eno, Thorn Yorke, Damon Albarn, Stereolab and Sonic Youth pay sleevenote homage to the Lennon And McCartney of Teutonic boogaloo ...

The Avalanches: Since I Left You

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001

YOU SHOULD HEAR the things people say about The Avalanches: "Basement Jaxx meets The Beta Band," "Stardust crossed with Stereolab," sample-based music with the freshness ...

Scritti Politti: Epiphanies: Scritti Politti

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, June 2001

Simon Reynolds swoons to the sound of Scritti Politti's seditious soul music ...

OutKast: Stankonia

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, June 2001

IN A RECENT diatribe, American theorist Joe Carducci blamed digital studio techniques for extinguishing rock's vital spark. And he lambasted contemporary black music, "an 'R&B' ...

Matthew Herbert: Herbert: Bodily Functions

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, July 2001

IS THIS a trend or what? Following Matmos' cosmetic surgery-sampling A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure, here's British producer Matthew Herbert with ...

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 ...

Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2001

Hot from the States: hip hop meets electronica ...

Destiny's Child, Missy Elliott: Destiny's Child: Survivor (Columbia)***; Missy Elliott: Miss E…So Addictive (Elektra)*****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2001

Two blasts of future freak-funk ...

The Beta Band: Hot Shots II

Readers' Letters by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2001

Both Barrels Blazing - Follow-up to 1999's notoriously disowned eponymous debut ...

N.E.R.D.: N*E*R*D": In Search Of...

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 2001

R&B production team turn out politically-infused black rock'n'soul album ...

Björk: Super Fairy Animal

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, October 2001

SHE'S NOT A bit how you'd think she'd be. From the public persona of song and video, you might reasonably expect effervescence, an explosive extravagance ...

The Avalanches: Since I Left You

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, October 2001

IN MUSIC, misery's got a monopoly on credibility — just ask Thom and Trent. A furrowed brow and a tormented soul are essential if you ...

John's Children: Various Artists: Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire & Beyond (Rhino) ****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, October 2001

Golden Wonders: Latest instalment in renowned mid-Sixties rock anthology incorporates long-lost Brits ...

Cannibal Ox: The Anti-Bling Kings: Cannibal Ox

Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 2 October 2001

Wormholed futurism with a mouthful of parables ...

23 Skidoo: Seven Songs, Urban Gamelan

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2001

Audacious avant-funksters re-released ...

Pulp: We Love Life (Island) *****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, November 2001

After scrapped sessions and a delayed release date, Cocker & Co follow up 1998's This Is Hardcore, with Scott Walker at the controls ...

Black Sabbath: The Complete '70s Replica CD Collection 1970-78

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001

THE MYSTERY OF THE RIFF – so crucial to rock, so oddly neglected by critics. ...

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 ...

Hood: Cold House

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, December 2001

HOOD MAKE mope rock for the laptop era. This British quartet are survivors of a brief early-'90s moment of mingling between U.K. indie rock and ...

Jay Z: Jay-Z: The Blueprint (Roc-A-Fella)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001

Sixth album from Brooklyn rap don ...

A Certain Ratio, Alternative TV, Cabaret Voltaire, Gang of Four, The Pop Group, Public Image Ltd, Scritti Politti, This Heat: Post-Punk: Lubricate Your Living Room

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001

FORGET ABOUT THE NOSTALGIA-MONGERING AND KITSCH REVIVALISM – THE POST-PUNK PERIOD OF 1979-81 WAS AN ASTONISHINGLY FERTILE TIME FOR BRITISH MUSIC, WHEN INDIE LABELS FLOURISHED ...

So Solid Crew: They Don't Know (Independiente/Relentless)****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, January 2002

Distinctive debut from UKG crew with colourful personal lives ...

The Chemical Brothers: Come With Us (Astralwerks)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, February 2002

No surrender: With dance music in a funk, the Chemical Brothers return to Big Beats ...

Boards Of Canada, Takagi Masakatsu: Boards Of Canada: Geogaddi/Takagi Masakatsu: Pia

Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 2002

GENREPHOBES HAVE had it easy lately. It's been a while since electronica coughed up any New Sounds of note. ...

The Specials: Reissues

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2002

Digitally remastered and enhanced with two videos per disc, the Sound Of Young Coventry before The Streets ...

Adult, Fischerspooner: The '70s are so '90's: The '80s are the thing now

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 May 2002

AND NOW, the '80s. It was probably inevitable. The pop music and fashion industries depend on recycling their own history, and the retro styles of ...

Liars: They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 2002

Sweet deceivers ...

Ms Dynamite, So Solid Crew, The Streets: The Streets: The British Can't Rap, Haven't You Heard?

Overview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 20 October 2002

THE BRITISH have always had a flair for taking black American music, giving it a twist and then exporting it back, stylishly repackaged. Blues, R&B, ...

More Fire Crew: More Fire Crew C.V.

Review and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, April 2003

SOMEONE'S GOTTA COIN a snappy name for the genre represented by So Solid and the hordes of MC crews who came in their wake. UK ...

Dizzee Rascal: Street Smarts: Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner (Dirtee Stank/XL) *****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, September 2003

Eighteen-year-old London MC — and recovering victim of a recent stabbing incident in Ayia Napa — forges the freshest urban sound of 2003 ...

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 ...

The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk: The Turn Away from the Turntable: Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers

Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 23 January 2005

IN THE FIRST months of 2005, two of electronic dance music's biggest bands will release what are generally referred to as long-awaited albums. ...

Scritti Politti: The Sweetest Boy

Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, April 2005

From the post-punk squat-crusties to pristine '80s pop-funkers, Scritti Politti underwent one of the most radical transformations in rock history. Uncut meets the band's mastermind, ...

Patti Smith: 'Even As A Child, I Felt Like An Alien'

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Observer Music Monthly, 22 May 2005

PATTI SMITH today looks as striking as the 28-year-old instant icon who defiantly out-stared the viewer from the cover of Horses. With her strong nose ...

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. ...

Kanye West: Street Smarts: Kanye West: Late Registration (Roc-A-Fella) ****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, August 2005

Second enthralling album from hip hop's new multi-faceted main man ...

Fire Engines: Codex Teenage Premonition

Review and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, October 2005

Unreleased treasure trove from Sound Of Young Scotland's prickly outriders. ...

Scritti Politti: Hearts and Flowers: Scritti Politti

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 26 May 2006

It's seven years since Green from Scritti Politti released an album – time spent boozing away in self-doubt. So what brought him back to his ...

Burial: Burial

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 18 June 2006

Dubstep has finally thrown up an album that will work in your living room. Simon Reynolds soaks up the ambience. ...

The C86 Indie Scene Is Back!

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Time Out, 23 October 2006

Dig out your grandad cardigans, your old-school anoraks and your infant-school plimsolls — the shambling indie scene that was C86 is back. Simon Reynolds, who ...

Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis (Rough Trade) ***

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2006

Everyone's favourite Britpop idol returns with uneven, ultimately transcendent solo debut ...

Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth/Collected Works

Sleeve notes by Simon Reynolds, Domino Records, 2007

POSTPUNK AND "perfection" rarely went together. This was an era of experimental over-reach, of bands catalysed by the punk do-it-yourself principle attempting to expand the ...

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 ...

Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino) ****

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2007

Whatever you think they are... They're better! The triumphant, funky return of Alex Turner's troupe ...

Joy Division: Music to Brood by, Desolate and Stark

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 October 2007

THE MYSTIQUE surrounding Joy Division has always been way out of proportion to its record sales. Far bigger bands, like the Clash and Pink Floyd, ...

Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt: Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt

Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 24 October 2007

"I COULD HARDLY recognise him at first," says Kevin Ayers. "But there, under that great beard, was Robert and he hadn't changed a bit." The ...

Public Image Ltd: PiL: Heavy Metal

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Frieze, November 2007

As a new book on Public Image Ltd shows, the influence of their 1979 album Metal Box stretches far and wide ...

The Good Bad & The Queen: The Good, the Bad & The Queen: The Good, the Bad & The Queen

Comment by Simon Reynolds, Observer Music Monthly, 9 December 2007

Observer Music Monthly's album of the year 2007 IN RECENT YEARS, Damon Albarn has cut a David Byrne-like figure. With his own label that excavates worthy ...

My Bloody Valentine: "It's The Opposite Of Rock 'N' Roll"

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Spin, August 2008

In 1991, My Bloody Valentine released one of modern rock's most influential albums, then mysteriously imploded trying to surpass it. On the eve of their ...

How The Fanzine Refused To Die

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 2 February 2009

Blogs are the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to get your music writing out there — but that hasn't stopped a new generation of writers picking ...

Island Records: The Secret Of Its Success

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 23 March 2009

The legendary label, which celebrates its 50th birthday in May, managed in its heyday to achieve that rare feat: combining commercial success with artistic integrity ...

Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Ultravox: One Nation Under a Moog: How Britain Went Synthpop

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 10 October 2009

As new BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia shows, the synthesizer first dehumanised then re-humanised British pop, fulfilled the DIY promise of punk, and changed how bands ...

Simon Reynolds's Notes On The Noughties: Clearing Up The Indie Landfill

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 4 January 2010

At the start of the noughties, indie was seen as the rubbish dump of contemporary music. But by the end of the decade, it had ...

Oneohtrix Point Never: Brooklyn's Noise Scene Catches Up to Oneohtrix Point Never

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 6 July 2010

DANIEL LOPATIN, the young man behind the spacey and spacious mindscapes of Oneohtrix Point Never, operates out of a cramped bedroom in Bushwick, mostly taken ...

Toro y Moi: Underneath The Pine (Carpark)

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 2011

HAVE YOU noticed? Pop music sounds shit these days.  ...

Black Eyed Peas, Taio Cruz: Never Mind The Balearics: The Ibiza-ification Of Pop

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 14 April 2011

From Black Eyed Peas to Taio Cruz, much recent pop looks to Ibiza for inspiration. And yet for all the hands-in-the-air moments, this music is ...

Not Not Fun label: New Age Outlaws

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, May 2011

Britt and Amanda Brown are the husband and wife team behind LA's Not Not Fun label, focal point of a networked international underground that includes ...

Björk: Is Björk the last great pop innovator?

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 4 July 2011

EARLIER THIS YEAR I interviewed Amanda Brown of cult band LA Vampires and was surprised when she announced that "every day I wake up and ...

The Songs of Now Sound a Lot Like Then

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 15 July 2011

ONCE POP MUSIC was something by which you could tell the decade, or even the year. But listening to the radio nowadays is disorienting, if ...

"Retromania"

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 12 August 2011

1: 'NOW' POP WILL REPEAT ITSELF Museums, Reunions, Rock Docs, Re-enactments ...

Grimes, Laurel Halo, Maria Minerva, Stellar OM Source: Breaking Through the Synth Barrier

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 October 2011

SUDDENLY IT SEEMS there are a lot more women twiddling those knobs than ever before. ...

Rustie: Maximal Nation

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2011

Electronic music's evolution toward the thrilling excess of digital maximalism. ...

Greil Marcus: A Life In Writing

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 17 February 2012

GREIL MARCUS lives in a newly built, cedar-shingled house on the border between Oakland and Berkeley. ...

Deadmau5, Skrillex: EDM: How Rave Music Conquered America

Profile by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 2 August 2012

After 20 years, electronic dance music has made it big in the US. And big means big. With Las Vegas's Electric Daisy Carnival grossing $40m, ...

Ke$ha: Dancing Up a Storm but Dying to Rock

Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 23 November 2012

LOS ANGELES – At the Third Encore rehearsal studio in North Hollywood, there's a wall decorated with photographs of clients who've prepared there for tours, ...

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. ...

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 ...

Daft Punk: Almost Human

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 19 May 2013

THOMAS BANGALTER, half of the influential French dance-music act Daft Punk, has a house high in the Hollywood Hills here. He and his musical partner, ...

Worth Their Wait: The UK Music Press in the late '70s/early '80s

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 2 September 2014

Originally published in the first edition of our print quarterly The Pitchfork Review last winter, this story finds author Simon Reynolds looking back on his ...

Kanye West: The Life Of Pablo (GOOD Music/Def Jam)

Review by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, April 2016

The seventh album by Kanye West dismantles the traditional concept of the album while laying bare its author's inner conflicts. ...

Prince: How Prince's Androgynous Genius Changed the Way We Think About Music and Gender

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 22 April 2016

His clothes, songwriting, and production prowess all played a part in breaking through any and every type of convention. ...

Drake: How Drake became the all-pervading master of hyper-reality rap

Comment by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 28 April 2016

The Canadian artist's success at spreading both his sound and self far and wide owes much to his desire to be everything to everybody – ...

Various Artists: Close To the Noise Floor – Formative UK Electronica 1975–1984

Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 May 2016

THIS 4XCD BOX draws on electro-punk, industrial, synthpop, dark ambient, and more, including key early tracks from the Human League, Throbbing Gristle, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in ...

Pulp: Different Class

Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 July 2016

On 1995's Different Class, Pulp and Jarvis Cocker were arty outsiders worming their way into the lives of ordinary folk, and they became pop in its most ...

Alan Vega: Infinity Punk: A Career-Spanning Interview With Suicide's Alan Vega

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 July 2016

Following the musical iconoclast's death at age 78 – an in-depth conversation from 2002 that includes tales of dangerous old New York, what it meant ...

10cc, Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, The Beatles, Bongwater, Bonzo Dog Band, David Bowie, Culturcide, The Darkness, The Detergents, Hannah Diamond, The Dukes of Stratosphear, James Ferraro, The First Class, Morgan Fisher, The Flying Lizards, Gary Glitter, Laibach, Little Pain, Nick Lowe, The Mothers Of Invention, The Move, John Oswald, QT, Redd Kross, The Residents, Roxy Music, Todd Rundgren, The Rutles, Shockabilly, Spinal Tap, Alvin Stardust, The Tubes, The Turtles, Utopia, Wizzard, Weird Al Yankovic, Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction: Killer Riffs: A Guide to Parody in Popular Music

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 ...

Public Image Ltd's Metal Box

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 1 November 2016

PIL'S SECOND ALBUM, Metal Box, is a near-perfect record that reinvents and renews rock in a manner that fulfilled post-punk's promise(s) to a degree rivalled only ...

Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer: Song from the Future: The Story of Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's 'I Feel Love'

Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 29 June 2017

Forty years after its release, the ingenious studio gurus behind the robot-funk masterpiece talk about how it came to be. ...

Morrissey, The Smiths: The Smiths: The Queen is Dead

Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 22 October 2017

Newly reissued as a boxed set, the Smiths' 1986 masterpiece still stands as an enduring testament to England in the '80s, the complex relationship between ...

Burial: Why Burial's Untrue Is the Most Important Electronic Album of the Century So Far

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 26 October 2017

Delving into the politics, emotion, and musical history behind the disquieting masterwork a decade after its release. ...

Boards Of Canada: Why Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children Is the Greatest Psychedelic Album of the '90s

Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 April 2018

Unlocking the mysteries behind the Scottish electronic duo's hallucinatory classic, which turns 20 this month ...

Bon Iver, Cher, Jay-Z, Ke$ha, Migos, Travis Scott, Britney Spears, T-Pain, Kanye West: How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music

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 ...

Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Between Fun House & 'Funtime': Iggy Pop in the '70s

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, TIDAL, 7 July 2020

Brilliantly out of step, the rock provocateur architected revolutionary sounds with the Stooges and Bowie. ...

Dry Cleaning: It's Spoken Rock 'n' Roll, but We Like It

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 14 October 2022

The British rock band's distinctive sound comes from the vocalist Florence Shaw's carefully delivered observations that float somewhere between stand-up, poetry and comedy. ...

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