Essay | Beats Per Minute

Rats on Rafts’ Visions Of Chapter 3 transposes personal narratives into audiovisual splendor

Jasper WIllemsJuly 9, 2021

Cloaked shadows drift in and out of the celestial light. Prodding eyes peer inside a vaudevillian diorama. Gymnasts and interpretive dancers scurrying within t...

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Please Don’t Reproach Me for How Empty My Life Has Become: PJ Harvey’s White Chalk and its Demos

Matthew BartonJuly 8, 2021

In the latest of his series of explorations into PJ Harvey's recent reissues and demos, Matthew Barton investigates her evolutionary 2007 album White Chalk ...

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Tape the Broken Parts Together: PJ Harvey’s Uh Huh Her and Its Demos

Matthew BartonMay 17, 2021

Continuing in his series of explorations into PJ Harvey's recent reissues and demos, Matthew Barton investigates the songwriter's difficult 2004 album Uh Huh H...

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Illuminating the Void: EMA’s Past Life Martyred Saints at 10

Jasper WIllemsMay 10, 2021

'What’s the deal with this image of a man being tortured to death perpetuated ad infinitum to a point where people become completely desensitized by it?' I cau...

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The paradox of Janis Joplin’s Pearl

Ana LeorneApril 19, 2021

Fifty years on, Janis Joplin's posthumous album remains a striking testimony of her ability to create beautiful things out of the pain the outside world inflicted on her...

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Farewell to a King: Rest in Peace DMX

Chase McMullenApril 12, 2021

DMX is gone. As shitty as these words are to write, as shitty as they surely are to read, it’s a reality that feels at once both impossible and inevitable. ...

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I Am Connected: Loneliness, Depression, and Spencer Krug’s Take on the Tale of the Minotaur

Ray FinlaysonApril 9, 2021

I. On 2nd November 2018, Spencer Krug released his final album under his Moonface moniker. Clocking in at 84 minutes, This One’s For The Dancer & This O...

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This is love that I’m feeling:  PJ Harvey’s Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and its Demos

Matthew BartonMarch 17, 2021

Following the deep dives into the songwriter's early work and the dark Is This Desire?, Matthew Barton continues his exploration of PJ Harvey's reissues with a...

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Trouble Taking Place: Examining PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire? and Demos

Matthew BartonFebruary 4, 2021

Following on from last year's reissue of her early records and demos, PJ Harvey has just released an expanded version of her 1998 album Is This Desire? Matthew Barton revisits the record and its newly released demos, exploring the mind of a songwriter in artistic turmoil....

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BPM Team’s Personal 2020 Round-ups

Rob Hakimian, Chase McMullen, Kyle Kohner, Todd Dedman, Ray Finlayson, Tim Sentz, Jeremy J. Fisette, Gareth O'Malley, Ana Leorne, John Wohlmacher, Andy Johnston and Aleksandr SmirnovDecember 14, 2020

It's been a year of many endings, but Beats Per Minute's is one of re-birth. For those many of you who probably don't know our history, BPM was run as a passio...

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