The Pop Corporation

FEMALE AFRICAN SUPERGROUP / LES AMAZONES D’AFRIQUE

If you haven’t heard of the ace supergroup made up of African women, you need to sort that out now. They’re called Les Amazones d’Afrique, and they have a new single out called ‘Kuma Fo (What They Say)’, and it’s ace electronics with trad African music sung in native languages from Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso,…
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GREAT LATE CAREER SONGS

It always feels like music is destined for the young, but sometimes, artists hit a late career high and have a hit long after a supposed imperial period. Artists of a certain vintage (and some not so old, obviously) find a new voice, often with a more mature sound or finding new creativity in age.…
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PORTABLE RADIO SPECIAL SHOW

In preparation for the release of the new Portable Radio LP ‘Counting To Three’ this Friday (pre-order and buy it here), on the back of an excellent review in Shindig! magazine, the gang have recorded a special FREE RANGE radio show, sharing some songs from the album as well as their influences and favourites. Tracklisting…
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WOMEN IN REVOLT: EXHIBIT + COMP

Trailblazing women, often undervalued and overlooked, are about to get their spotlight with a cool new compilation and an exhibition at the Tate. Called ‘Women in Revolt! Underground Rebellion in British Music 1977-1985’ will be a 14 track comp, available on vinyl and digitally of course. This is a partner piece to the imminent exhibition…
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LONG LIVE THE 45 KING

We’ve lost The 45 King, and we couldn’t let his passing go without paying tribute. Real name Mark James, The 45 King is a supremely influential producer and mover and shaker in hip hop and club music, even if he wasn’t a household name broadly. Influence and fame aren’t the same thing. James has produced…
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IS BRITNEY’S BOOK THE ALBUM DROP OF THE YEAR?

Whether you like it or not, Britney Spears is about to drop the biggest pop-cultural moment of 2023, and it’s not even new music. The fervour around her new memoir is bigger than, say, a new album from Rihanna or the imminent Beatles release. And why is that? Well, largely, it’s because Britney is still…
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BRAZIL’S PSYCH MASTERS, BIKE

Brazil has a wealth of incredible psychedelic music at the moment – a second wave of Tropicalia if you like – which we plan on writing about extensively (if it doesn’t appear in a magazine, pitch skills dependent). One of the best groups are BIKE who are fuzz forward and heavily cosmic and we love…
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HOUSEY TUB THUMPS FROM DAWN RICHARD

Dawn Richard is brilliant. Experimental R&B and related and always ahead of the curve for sure. We shared her fantastic ‘Bubblegum’ track a while back, but now there’s a three track EP and one of the songs of it needs you to update your playlists! ‘Babe Ruth’ is a cross between house and R&B and…
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CAROLINE POLACHEK GLITCHES WITH DANG

Caroline Polachek has been making big waves lately and even landed a primo slot on the Colbert show, which is no mean feat. With that, she’s got a new glitchy number which might be our favourite of hers yet. It’s called ‘Dang!’ too, and came from the same sessions as her last LP ‘Desire, I…
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BANDCAMP RIP?

It isn’t generally a good sign when a company takes over another company and promptly sacks half the staff, is it? Seen the absolute shambles at Twitter? Exactly. And so to Bandcamp, depressingly. Music licensing company Songtradr bought the platform – widely regarded to be the saviour of independent musicians getting any kind of income…
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