
Blur announced some massive Wembley gigs and that was that, right? Wrong. They have surprised everyone by announcing a new album! It’s called The Ballad of Darren and is out July 21 via Parlophone. Their first since ‘The Magic Whip’. And there’s a new song too, called ‘The Narcissist.’ Damon Albarn: “This is an aftershock record, reflection and…

Donald Trump’s use of ‘YMCA’ (and to a lesser degree, ‘Macho Man’) by the Village People has been a curious thing. For someone who is, and represents everything virulently homophobic and a whole other bunch of phobics in the US, it’s particularly strange that he’d plump for a song that is not only very camp,…

You’ve invariably picked up a Beatle LP, seen that famous green apple, got an emorous sense of well-being, and got on with your day (unless you’re one of those terrible hipsters who think it’s fashionable to hate The Beatles – you do you, boo). Anyway, the famous split apple across two sides of a Beatle…

The late Japanese composer and Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Ryuichi Sakamoto’s management have shared the last playlist compiled by the late, great musician. Calling it ‘Ryuichi’s Last Playlist’, they wrote: “We would like to share the playlist that Ryuichi had been privately compiling to be played at his own funeral to accompany his passing. He…

When SBTRKT were around last time, they were known for their forward thinking dancefloor chuggers, designed for those kids who weren’t necessarily into dance music and a bit frightened of Techno Lads on pills, but still wanted to scuff their sneakers up on the dirty dancefloors. ‘Pharaohs’ and ‘Wildlife’ were solid gold bangers, but in…

Honey Gentry has featured on these pages before and we’re very into the baroque, creeped out pastoral Americana she’s producing. And so to her take on the Queens of the Stone Age song, ‘Go With The Flow’. Bands don’t normally veer too far from the source material (which is a shame), but on this, the…

Aphex Twin and Warp Records were teasing stuff, and eagle-eyed fans spotted pretty quickly that it was something to do with ‘Selected Ambient Works Vol II’, and as it’s the 30th anniversary imminent, it was obvious there was a new version of it coming out. That’s still good news though, for electronic music heads! This…

In British English, the word ‘duff’ is pretty common parlance. In dictionary jargon, it’s something like ‘adjective INFORMAL: BRITISH 1. of very poor quality’ – you know the score. Outside of Britain, the word may or may not be used – we’ve not checked, but we’re going to assume that at least in the States,…

Compton’s very own, Channel Tres, is back with another slice of sophisticated party house, and in addition to that, there’s going to be a debut LP too, released on a major label because he’s talented like that. The album is called ‘Head Rush’ and you’ll be able to get it on June 28th on RCA,…
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