It’s no real wonder that practically every band putting out records in America right now seems hyper-politicised to the hilt, regardless of how blind cuddly their last offering was. Living under a near-totalitarian regime in denial does that kind of thing to a country’s liberally creative subjects. Radio 4 are already no strangers to such a movement, their 2002 breakthrough came in the form of a ridiculously danceable protest against NY mayor Rudy Giuliani’s zero-tolerance policy on various forms of Continue Reading

The crazy magic realism of Chris Cunningham’s work on Aphex Twin’s brutally antagonistic ‘Windowlicker’ video just about says it all really. Funny, disturbing, sexy, malicious, edgy, surreal, groovy, artistic, post-modern and beautifully, beautifully shot. Welcome indeed to the world of Warp – a label always teetering precariously on the edges of taste and decency and always at the proverbial cutting-edge of dance-music. This DVD compilation is a mind-blowing testament to all that shit and more. With two stunning, rarely seen Continue Reading

In case you were wondering, country music isn’t all about crusty old men in cowboy boots and style-challenged middle-aged women with theme parks named after them (sorry Dolly, we love you, but really…) It’s one of the most honest, powerful and provocative genres of music, and with young whippersnappers like Siobhan Parr making it all their own, it’s set to stick around for a long time after the likes of electro-clash and screamo have been lost in the dismal vaults Continue Reading

“An extra 3 inches or your money back guaranteed!”, “cheapest Vi@gra on the www!”, “give her everything she desires!”, “notice results immediately”! Having an e-mail account these days is no better than hanging around at the back of the Glastonbury dance tent shortly after GLC have exited the stage. You’ve been approached, I’ve been approached and it would seem that even ageing archduke of the shadowlands Nick Cave isn’t safe in his private sanctum of pianos and pathos.  Or so Continue Reading

Afrika Bambaataa may be a legend in his own underpants, and his name dropped more times (and no less inexpertly) than a US missile on an Iraqi wedding reception but the fact that his career was launched over two decades ago might suggest his Zulu brand of heavily percussive hip-hop is on the wane. Not so. Experimental and genre-defying, Bambaataa has inspired thousands of imitators (Damon Albarn included) and has managed to build an impressive canopy of hope for everything Continue Reading

Brooks has come along way since the eerie and perverse wisdom of ‘The Stalker Song’ and Jo Wiley endorsed debut album, ‘Ming Star’. He’s come off the nimble and rather exclusive Beggars offshoot Mantra and arrived at the smaller, but no less eclectic Lo-Recordings – home to a curious breed of electronic phantasmagoria that ranges from Red Snapper, Barry 7s, Luke Vibert as well as dishing up collaborations with Squarepusher and Four Tet besides. Like much of the material on Continue Reading

What stops a sub-culture becoming the culture itself? Limited appeal? Snobbery? Ineptitude? As New Rock ‘N’ Roll, whatever that is exactly, continues to gatecrash Top Of The Pops and pose for untold Smash Hits centrefolds, an undercurrent of electro japery has formed, kids pulling similar shapes to those towering above them, making comparable noises with alternative instruments and naively acting like the knife’s edge is still more theirs 20 years after Depeche Mode took the same thing mainstream. Some, like Continue Reading

Straddling the uneasy divide between The Pogues, The Levellers, The Chieftans and the Dropkick Murphys is Los Angeles’ Flogging Molly. And whilst not as frenetically punky as their press release suggests, they do have the kind of raw and boundless energy traditionally asscociated with a bar-room brawl. Which is appropriate, as this is the perfect music by which to brawl (or music to watch brawls by, if you’re any kind of coward like me). Dissolute, merry, frisky, feverish and stampeding, Continue Reading

If you don’t know the movie already, Layer Cake (based upon JJ Connelly’s novel of the same name) is another of those nutty, brutal British gangster flicks glamorising the seedy underbelly of our deteriorating British culture. Not directed by Guy Ritchie this time, but by Ritchie’s producer pal, Matthew Vaughn. And who better to spearhead the ultraviolence campaign than ‘Our Friends In The North’ actor, Daniel Craig – regional anti-hero for hire. So there you have it. A crime thriller, Continue Reading

Jazz, funk, rap, hip-hop. Say this enough times and it begins to sound less and less like a recipe for disaster. Listen it enough times though and your initial impression was right. This is as awkward and as self-satisfied a record as you’re going to get – not falling bravely into either of the above camps, but instead teetering unhappily between cocktail schmaltz and over privileged urban muzak. ‘Questions’ is the fourth time out for Us3 debuting in 1992 not Continue Reading