November 25, 2015I was pretty late on to Sleaford Mods, but damn I’m glad I got there. Not a lot of groups at the moment that can court a substantial fan base and press while still managing to stand for change, or even say anything at all for that matter. Sleaford Mods are hopefully inspiring a few cats to join them here.…
November 5, 2015The weekend’s Awkward Movements show on NTS was a two-hour tribute to the man Ras G. Beatsmith originator, dimensional traveller, afrofuturist, vegan raw ambassador – we’ll stop there as there’s to much ground to cover with this man’s description. Heavily influenced by the cosmic teachings of Sun Ra (just check the his samples for proof), Ras G’s forged his own…
November 2, 2015The Dead Albatross season has once again come and gone, with Annabel (lee) being crowned the winner of 2015 for By The Sea…(And Other Solitary Places). And while we await the traditional winner’s circle photo there’s no reason not to grab a rewind of the finale in which Paul Ackroyd aka Kamikaze played all albums in contention and counted down…
October 31, 2015The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Australia is one of my favourite institutions. Archiving, preserving and curating the country’s visual and audio history, often far from the beaten track of what you’d expect to find, there’s a genuine love of archive from everyone I’ve come across there, which really comes through in what they do. Most importantly is…
October 29, 2015Is Ai Weiwei ever not on? With his level of exposure and following across the internet it’s hard to imagine a cooling off time where his presence isn’t constantly felt in the background. But between requests for Lego and the hype in London over his new show spanning the last two decades, at the moment he seems particularly important. This…
October 17, 2015We love our books, exhibitions and collections of all kind, but sometimes one photo and some captivating words is more than enough to put you in the space. Legendary London music photographer Dennis Morris did exactly that this week regarding the above shot of the Admiral Ken Sound System. Arguably best known for his published an exhibited works photographing The…
October 16, 2015One for the digital diggers here; someone’s just brought our attention to the Qatar Digital Library, and the thousand or so hours of material they’ve uploaded for free access via Soundcloud. Qatar Digital Library (QDL) is an ever-growing resource featuring the cultural and historical heritage of the Gulf and wider region freely available online for the first time. Part of…
October 6, 2015This might just be my favourite scripted film ever. It’s definitely cracked the top 5, sitting alongside Hackers, Tron, Scott Pilgrim vs The World and the original Star Wars trilogy (this counts as one), which should tell you what sort of ride you’re in for with Turbokid. Set in an apocalyptic future, and shot like eighties classic, you have to…
October 5, 2015Across the last three years of us doing Awkward Movements on NTS we’ve rinsed a lot of work from Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze. And pretty much every single week during that time there’s been talk around doing the Muslimgauze tribute show, a documentary of sorts to share some of our favourite records and why Jones’ music remains a cornerstone of…
September 18, 2015…and on the evening of nominations, Murdoc Niccals did speak unto to the Mercury crowd, and thusly said “Mercury award? Sounds a bit heavy, man! Y’know sorta like carrying a dead albatross round your neck for eternity” and the Dead Albatross was born… Yep, our favourite time of year again, Dead Albatross Music Prize 2015 is just around the corner. Stoked…