In 1984, The New York Times reported on the release of a set of recordings which by any standards were historic. Away from MTV, stadium rock tours, 12″ remixes and Band Aid, seventeen tracks made their way into the public realm, having previously existed scattered across classical collections of choral music, stamped on brittle shellac […]
When choosing a musical instrument to learn to play when the opportunity comes around at school, there are several factors which may influence a child. Primarily, this will be, “What are my mates choosing?” – leading to gaggles of violinists, much to the chagrin of their families. Others may be swayed by the flashy gleam […]
I recently watched ‘Evil Dead Rise‘, a film so bad that I believe I may be the only person outside of cartoons to have had random punctuation spill out of their mouth. Amongst the inexplicable awfulness was a particularly bad score by Stephen McKeon, one so lazy and bereft of invention that I’m amazed anyone […]
Two handy guides for you if you happen to have an interest in being a werewolf. Relatively straightforward, I’d say, indeed with a certain amount of ejaculating in public required, some of you may well be ahead of the game. Lycanthropy: A Handbook of Werewolfism by Frater D. Preliminary Exercises Before we get into the […]
The Mad, Sad World of the Boutique Blu-Ray There’s a recently released study which suggests 50% of US vinyl buyers don’t have a turntable to play them on. This study is wheeled out every year, but it’s a fun one that causes much teeth-grinding from many record-playing purists, and a nervous defence from those practising […]
It has been just under 25 years since the band Tad split up. Their final single, ‘Oppenheimer’s Pretty Nightmare‘, was released in 1999, and a collection of latter-day recordings and errant stray tracks, ‘Quick and Dirty‘ appeared in 2018. Since then, Tad (the man) formed the band Hog Molly, releasing one album, ‘Kung-Fu Cocktail Grip‘ […]
By any standards, the last band that you would expect to be still releasing new material in 2023 is Pere Ubu, yet here is their nineteenth long-player, ‘Trouble on Big Beat Street’. Angular, difficult, and not just apathetic to the mainstream but appalled by it, David Thomas and the six musicians accompanying him on these […]
David Rappaport was unquestionably one of Britain’s greatest actors of the 70s and 80s. Intelligent, witty, debonair and at home playing both good guys and bad, that there isn’t a physical tribute to him is scandalous. From the stage to hit television shows on both sides of the Atlantic to blockbuster movies, it was impossible […]
For some time now, my phone’s ringtone has been “Be a Clown” performed by Verne Langdon. There has never been an occasion when my phone has rung and the tune it plays has been appropriate. Not at the doctor’s, at work, at funerals, whilst shopping… it’s guaranteed to provoke weird looks and, for some reason, […]
Such is the reverence now given to Les Baxter and Martin Denny, it’s easy to forget that in many ways it was Arthur Lyman who defined the sound of exotica. Who else but a man born in Hawaii would introduce the sounds of distressed parrots and aroused frogs to a distinctly gentle form of jazz […]
