Random selections
Tallinn Music Week embraced new voices subverting the pop music form
The stand-out point from this year’s Tallinn Music Week was its promotion of new voices. Artists that are using their uniqueness to subvert the...
Interview: Diet Cig
We’re sat in the upper floors of the labyrinthine Hare and Hounds in King’s Heath and ‘slop pop’ duo Diet Cig are enthusing about...
Interview: Unqualified Nurse Band
When bands talk about the different ‘eras’ of their existence it usually spans many years or even decades, but Derby rock trio Unqualified Nurse...
The fabric of: BRUIT
Expectation is a killer of creativity, it is the undoing of many bands. Delivering under the pressures of commercial interests or hit-chasing isn’t healthy,...
Bloop list – new music undercurrents – 20/04/2021
There appears to be inherent dumbness amongst “real” music fans. You know the ones, the guys who pine for whatever time they were 17...
Plato, politics and seismic shifts – G_ds Pee AT STATE’S END!...
Godspeed You Black Emperor’s latest album G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! finds optimism in the darkness of our age. For James Thornhill, the Montreal...
Bloop list – new music undercurrents – 22/03/2021
If we consider 2020 a write-off, it's only been a few months since we did one of these new music columns! Yes, let's go...
Offside, Underground
Football and music have been forever intertwined. Two of Britain’s most mythologised and beloved cultural exports, each intrinsically inclusive national passions which hold in...
Essential new acts witnessed at MENT 2020
Showcase festivals! There’s at least one a month these days. A network of music industry types networking and hyping a steady stream of bands....
Essential new acts witnessed at Rockaway Beach 2020
A stark contrast to the stereotypical blazing sunshine and beer-in-fields impression of music festivals, Rockaway Beach occurs in the first few weeks of January,...
Portishead’s Dummy at 25: culture-shifting genius
In 1994, in the midst of the Britpop knees-up and the explosion of Oasis, painting a picture of Britain full of swagger, optimism and...
Free Fall rock: The birth of Imperial Wax
At birth, Imperial Wax was overshadowed equally by a blessing and a
curse. Despite being very much their own entity, they were never going to...
Dad’s Lunch Box – Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2019 review
Food is often overlooked as the very core to so many of our relationships. What, how and when we eat shapes many of our...
Thicker That Water – Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2019 review
Building on the brilliant monthly Satori Screen showings, Quad Derby welcomed the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme for another year to showcase 11 Japanese...
Duelling identities: A conversation with Kayla Painter
The best art draws on heritage, a sense of identity. Work that tries to discover the artist’s place in the world through their creativity.
Cannibals...
Life has surface noise: A conversation with Copper Sounds
Experimental DJs Copper Sounds talk about their part on an innovative new tour.
Sound is a powerful thing, it has the power to ignite, manipulate...
Exploring sites that connect Tallinn’s oppressed past with its glimmering, creative...
Stepping away from the fairytale streets of the Old Town opens up the collision of ideals that make up the city's modern history. We...
Gum Takes Tooth @ Soundhouse, Leicester – 24/01/2019 – Live review
Everywhere you look there are passionate pockets of promoters bringing brilliant and unexpected music to their locales. And so, I made the trip to...
Penumbra: An interview with Rashid Khalifa
Rashid Khalifa’s show ‘Penumbra: Textured Shadow, Coloured Light’, currently on display at Saatchi, is not only metaphorically immersive but physically, involving sculptures which dominate...
Companion Pieces: An interview with Robert Fitzmaurice
In ‘Companion Pieces’, Robert Fitzmaurice’s solo show at no format Gallery, abstracted figures recur in many of the artworks, presented with a varying mix...
Bloop list – new music undercurrents – 05/10/2018
Time’s a funny thing! Loads of it has elapsed since we did one of these new music lists. Where have we been? Kidnapped by...
Boom: An interview with Roger Holtom
Featuring a collection of playful, experimental and abstract artworks by Roger Holtom, ‘Boom’ is now open at Fiumano Clase.
The artist, who’s been friends with...
Album review: Haiku Salut – There Is No Elsewhere
Evoking narrative, and a sense of place, through sound is a skill often most recognised in the worlds of jazz and classical music –...
Haiku Salut unveil ‘metaphysical performance event’ to launch new album
Fresh from collaborating with robots, Haiku Salut has concocted another event that explores technology and thought to launch third album There Is No Elsewhere.
The...
Bloop’s must-see list for Indietracks 2018
Indietracks 2018 is now just days away. We’ve checked out all the bands, downloaded the excellent 40-track compilation and started packing for a weekend...
Indie pop Mecca: An interview with Indietracks organiser Andy Hudson
Nestled away in the Derbyshire hills, on the site of a steam railway museum, Indietracks has forged an existence as one of the UK’s...
The fabric of: Thud
Hong Kong based Thud are a shoegaze connoisseurs’ wet-dream. The five-piece take the best elements of classic bands like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and...
Le Pop playlist – discover the seductive modern sound of French...
Since 2002, German label Le Pop Musick, coming out of Cologne, has been putting out their Le Pop compilation, highlighting the best new music from the French...
The fabric of: Brunch
Our new feature series, ‘The fabric of’ looks at the inspiration behind some of our favourite new acts. What influenced their sound, their outlook...
Bloop list – new music undercurrents – 08/06/2018
Good things come to those who wait! We’ve been off discovering new music at festivals and the like, and this is the first new...
Artfully Dressed: An interview with Carla van de Puttelaar
Since the opening of ‘Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World’ – a new exhibition of Carla van de Puttelaar’s work at Weiss Gallery...
New sounds of the global underground – our picks from The...
Each year, Brighton, becomes the nucleus of the global music underground for The Great Escape, attracting the most beautiful budding talent to spaces in...
The Endless – Derby Film Festival review
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are an indie-cinema dream-team, and with The Endless have created a movie taking on the big studio efforts created...
That Good Night – Derby Film Festival review
“I don’t want anyone to think that is what John was like, he wasn’t. He’s just that good an actor,” explained Sir John Hurt’s...
Borley Rectory – Derby Film Festival review
Borley Rectory is a documentary like no other.
Director Ashley Thorpe explained his fascination with the ‘most haunted house in Britain’ at Borley Rectory as...
The Glamorous Life Of Sachiko Hanai – Derby Film Festival review
To say that The Glamorous Life Of Sachiko Hanai is a “good” movie would be to over-play its hand. Even to suggest it is...
Images of Apartheid: Filmmaking on the Fringe in the Old South...
Derby Film Festival’s ‘ParaCinema’ programme set about shining a light into the dark corners of the cinematic universe. It was inevitable that Calum Waddell’s...
Art exhibition review – Takefumi Hori – 円熟 (Enjuku) @ Fiumano...
With high-quality artworks, welcoming owners and an adorable gallery dog, Fiumano Clase is a joy to visit. Their current show, 円熟 (Enjuku), is Takefumi...
Attack of The Adult Babies – Derby Film Festival review
The short version of this review is that Attack of The Adult Babies is the most unexpected, disgusting, brilliant, hilarious and through-provoking film you...
Leon Must Die – Derby Film Festival review
When you learn that a movie has been made on a budget of 100euros it is safe to say expectations are low, especially when...
Jason Impey and Rob Ulitski discuss their creations for new horror...
The human mind is a tricky place, smashing our rationality with irrational thoughts. That is where phobias come into play, taking us on a...
Lisa Ronaghan and Joseph Baker talk about scientific research horror, Bodies...
The potential horror of our relationship to scientific advancement and technology has long been a rich source of information for the fright-inducing genre. Bodies...
Darrell Buxton and Steve Hardy, screenwriters of Ouijageist – Derby Film...
Ouija boards unleashing the powers of darkness with horrific effects is not a new idea in horror, but the British twist thrust on to...
Lonely Holiday is the genre-busting, alt hip hop gem that we...
Three years ago, at a record store in France, I came across what was possibly the greatest album artwork I’d ever seen. The album...
Leon Must Die director Lars Kokemüller explains his genre-subverting time travel...
Derby Film Festival is launching the first edition of ParaCinema this weekend – an event that delves into the outer reaches of cinema and...
Chernobyl – Desolate wasteland retaken by nature
Few places in the modern world come attached with as much folklore and mythology as Chernobyl.
The radiation only recently subsided enough for humans to...
Locust Fudge release the 90s revival album you didn’t know you...
If you are a UK resident, chances are you haven’t heard of German 90’s alternative band, Locust Fudge.
Although signed to Sub Pop’s Euro division,...
Tallinn Music Week embraced new voices subverting the pop music form
The stand-out point from this year’s Tallinn Music Week was its promotion of new voices. Artists that are using their uniqueness to subvert the...
Bloop list – new music undercurrents – 14/04/2018
This time last week Bloop was at Tallinn Music Week being exposed to new music from around the world. As if this wasn’t enough...
A music lovers guide to Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya has long musical heritage connecting the traditions of the past with the ever changing social and political climates. Its forays into the world...
Beyond the Opposite Sex: A conversation with documentary maker Bruce Hensel
We live in a moment of profound change in attitudes and understanding of transgender issues. Much as moved on since Emmy Award winner Bruce...
“Our potential is enormous and beautiful” – sculptor Josie Spencer discusses...
Representing a world of people who are “out for themselves”, Josie Spencer’s upcoming exhibition ‘Murmuration’ at The Playground Theatre, London, will have nine life-size...
Bloop List – new music undercurrents – 04/04/2018
Many things have been getting in the way of getting this latest Bloop list published. Easter’s chocolate overdose being one.
Also, the majority of our...