
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…

Sinéad O’Connor has died aged 56. It’s strange to write about her passing as, like many music fans, we’ve spent a good amount of time worrying about. While O’Connor showed incredible strength for much of her life, it was obvious there were breaking points and, to be perfectly honest, much of the music press that…

The comeback of country music has been fun and all, but we’ve found ourselves wishing someone would remember the weirder, louder, garage punk elements of it – think of all those old, fantastic, sleazy records that lie between rockabilly, early rock ‘n’ roll, and booty shakers. Well, Manchester group HONK remember, and they have an…

South Korean group, Silica Gel (great band name, that) have teamed up with Michelle Zauner aka Japanese Breakfast for a new track called ‘南宮FEFERE’. Zauner says: “This was the first time I’ve ever written lyrics in Korean. Anyone who’s familiar with my work knows how much my Korean heritage has come to mean to me,…

TOPS are a great little band – they’re awesome in a live setting too – and they’ve been putting some of their best work out this year, and their latest single is one of their best yet. Taken from their imminent album ‘Bury The Key’, new song ‘Annihilation’ is a slinky, synthy, almost Yacht Pop…

Leftfield pop can too often mean that an artist is making something fun, but wilfully awkward, so rock fans can assuage themselves from feelings of selling out. However, when you apply the term properly, you have pure pop and all that comes with it, just a smidge left of centre to make it feel more…
THERE’S NO MONEY IN THIS GAME ANYMORE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR THE POP CORPS, YOU ARE WELCOME TO GET IN TOUCH. HAPPY HUNTING.
POP CULTURE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT.
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