by Ed Biggs Although they hailed from the comparatively affluent neighbourhood of Hollis in Queens, the trio Run-D.M.C., consisting of rappers Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels and music Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell were arguably the most respected and authentic voices back in the mid-1980s of the then-embryonic genre now known as hip-hop.
by John Tindale Way back in November 2000 – which, from the point of view of 2016, is so long ago it may as well be ancient history: before 9/11, and when Napster was still a thing and iPods weren’t – Australian music collective The Avalanches released their first full-length LP Since I Left You, which was one of the most creative and original albums of the decade. Constructed with painstaking
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by Ed Biggs As the prime mover behind riot-grrl poster band Bikini Kill in the ‘90s and then the electro-pop influenced cult heroes Le Tigre, Kathleen Hanna’s status as an alternative music legend has long since been secured. Having spent many years in the late noughties off the grid, recovering gradually from the debilitating condition Lyme disease, Hanna was musically reinvigorated with the release of 2013’s album Run Fast with her
by Ed Biggs Just like English buses, you wait for what seems like forever for new Aphex Twin material to be released, and suddenly loads come along at the same time. Having dropped the impressive album Syro, his first original material in 13 years, in September 2014, the quixotic and imcomparable Richard James has now released his second EP in 18 months.
by John Tindale When Bat For Lashes released a collaborative single with Toy, a cover of Iranian psychedelic cult hero Amir Rassaei’s ‘Aroos Khanom’ back in 2013, a track that translates as ‘The Bride’, not many people will have realised this was the beginning of a new album cycle for Natasha Khan. But from the odd early formation The Bride, the fourth LP from the Londoner is perhaps her most effervescent
by Ollie Rankine Although a significant degree of social progress has been achieved since the mid-20th century civil rights movement for black Americans, 2016 still bears witness to countless acts of unthinkable and unthinking prejudice and discrimination. It seems fitting that Devonté Hynes’ racially charged third record under the name Blood Orange follows up his 2015 track, ‘Do You See My Skin Through The Flames’, which was incidentally released during the height
by Ed Biggs Ten years after the wider world took notice of them for the first time, TV On The Radio have long since cemented their place at the top table of indie acts, consistently releasing albums of outstanding quality and building up an impeccable reputation. With their own, distinctive vision for the ‘rock anthem’ that they’ve re-shaped and re-formulated many times over the years, most recently with 2014’s explicitly danceable
by John Tindale In the summer of 2008, everything was just beginning to blossom for Joseph Mount, the figurehead of Metronomy. After hinting at an eclectic greatness in debut effort Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe) it was in 2008 where Mount was able to establish his bedroom Metronomy project as one of the most needed acts in the UK with Nights Out an album equal parts chaos and pop
by Ed Biggs The world basically seemed to fall apart in June 2016. Brexit, the day many assumed would never come, actually did, and now everybody’s wondering what the actual fuck? Anybody could be forgiven for wanting to give up on the world and retreat to a place where things made more sense.
by Ed Biggs Back in 2003, while the music world was still feeling the reverberations of the Strokes and Stripes reigniting popular interest in all things guitar, came what should have been one of the epochal indie hits of the decade. ‘Bandages’, a giddy, intoxicating whirlwind of angular guitars and new-wave keyboard riffing by Canadian bright young things Hot Hot Heat, would surely have become a huge Top Ten hit for
