
If you’ve been reading the music press this week, there was some alarm or peevish glee (depending on where you were doing your reading) that vinyl sales had dropped. A Billboard piece stated that vinyl sales dropped by 33%, which is not insignificant. That’s selling 34.9 million units, down to 23.3 million in 2024. Are…

At the country music awards, they didn’t nominate Beyonce for anything despite her all-conquering country LP and while many shrugged, many were irritated by the whole thing. The irritation came from all sides, but more importantly, so did the shrugs – apart from something for the shelf in the spare toilet or a sticker to…

There’s something about golden era rap that just loves a fancy action figure, to place on your shelves next to your collected essays from hip hop journalism, tchotchkes, rap comics and high-end record middles and the like. It’s very wholesome, honestly. Well, Doom’s ‘Mm… Food’ is getting a reissue for its anniversary on November 15th,…

Once upon a time, music retreated away from the bombast of Britpop and US rap-rock, and all over the place, more introspective bedroom producers were making tricky electronic music and singer-songwriters gravitated toward the acid-folk of the ’70s, focusing more on cottage industries and community. Tunng managed to straddle both worlds, with critics dubbing their…

Look, most bands put a song out to let you know new things are coming, but not 2nd Grade. The power poppers from Philadelphia have chucked THREE whole songs at our ears and mercifully, they’re all really fun and filled with skuzzy pop hooks and jangly guitars. The revival of power pop is very welcome…

Today is John Lennon’s birthday – he would have been 84 – and to celebrate this, we’ve been treated to something rather surprising. While a lot of repackaged music from musicians can feel a little exploitative at times, churning out old stuff without much new going on, that’s not the case with this latest Lennon…

The excellent GULP are having a party for the 8th instalment of their broadsheet counter-culture magazine, which features all the wonderful words, tidbits, diatribes and cool design we’ve come to expect from them now. The issue drops on Friday 11th October and you can get down in person at The New Cross in Manchester’s Northern…

If you’re not following Mystery Discs on YouTube, you’re denying yourself one of the most brilliant and unusual record collections on the planet. With the tagline ‘obscure records are fun’, you’ll find high school bands and amateur outfits performing shaky, gorgeous heartfelt music, Steely Dan covers, big jazz, wonkiness and loads of magic treasure that…

It’s poor form to liken a new artist to a legend straight off the bat, but there’s a wriggling, unescapable something about Ava Rocha that reminds us of Gal Costa. Gal, is of course, one of the most legendary artists to come out of Brazil and the Tropicalia movement, so no pressure Ava. However, while…

Aphex Twin, we’re happy to say, is at it again. Even though he’s not been especially prolific with sensible, mainstreamish releases, he’s been quite busy with a number of lung busting, eye frying shows around the world. Of course, there’s a been a slew of things released for the ultra-dedicated. Like what? Well, devotees will…

Hiroshi Nagai is the man who you may have seen the work of on a number of City Pop releases – for the uninitiated, that’s the cool ’70s and ’80s Japanese pop music that’s impossibly sophisticated; a bit like Yacht Rock with a smidge of disco and jazz fusion. Nagai’s work is synonymous with Japanese…
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