Essays on topics musical, personal, political – anything.
Essay
Seamless Dreams: Joanna Newsom’s The Milk-Eyed Mender at 20
In the early to mid-2000s, the flag of the freak folk scene was flying. Like — gale force,...
Futurismus, or: Songs of the Body, the Blood, the Machine.
2023 saw the climactic release of a number of albums from groups with diverse backgrounds and histories, united in the interest for a new, mechanical sound that abandons generic conventions...
This has led to the need to imagine a new (sub)genre terminology
In Memoriam: Brian McBride of Stars of the Lid
When Stars of the Lid released their final studio album, 2007’s And Their Refinement of the Decline, Ivo...
A Trail Of Blood and Amens: Revisiting Tori Amos’ Scarlet’s Walk at 20
Two decades after its release, Jasper Willems takes a look back at Tori Amos’ seventh album Scarlet’s Walk, her cross-country navigation of post-911 America. Disguised as a lush, wide-eyed road trip, it is actually one of the acclaimed songwriter’s most affecting and politically-charged chapters
Far Away and Hazy Like a Dream: Regina Spektor’s 11:11 at 21
“Shake it up.” Those were the first words that most people in the general public heard from singer-songwriter...
The West’s Asleep: PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake and Hope Six Demolition Project and Their Demos
In the latest of his series of explorations into PJ Harvey’s recent reissues and demos, Matthew Barton dives into...
Remembering Klaus Schulze
It was the metallic melancholy of Cyborg that first drew me into the world of Klaus Schulze. I...
Something is Missing: The Furious Genius of Betty Davis
“They say I’m different ’cause I’m a piece of sugar cane, sweet to the core, that’s why I...
When Bowie became Bowie: Hunky Dory at 50
Before Ziggy announced the end of the world in five years’ time, a hand reached down from a...
