by Ed Biggs The astonishing and quite unexpected success of Let England Shake, arguably the finest album of the decade so far, not only brought PJ Harvey back to her core fanbase after a number of years but also allowed her to access a hitherto unheard-of level of international publicity for an indie star. Suddenly, the modest, thoughtful and resolutely un-rockstar-like Polly Jean, used to lapping up the critical praise but
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by Ed Biggs Few bands from the indie explosion in Britain during the 1980s were, and remain, as iconic and impenetrably mysterious as Cocteau Twins. Formed in Grangemouth in Scotland in the early 1980s, the three-piece of singer Liz Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bassist Will Heggie (replaced by Simon Raymonde in 1983) sounded quite unlike anything else on the indie scene during the fertile ‘80s, and the curious magic they
by Ed Biggs Canadian experimental artist Tim Hecker has, by degrees over the course of 15 years, got to a point where his albums are being anticipated by a wider circle of listeners than simply ‘those who bought the last one’. After all, a man with a PhD in ‘urban noise’ (!) and who used to be a university lecturer in ‘sound culture’ is almost bound to be pigeonholed as an
by Ed Biggs Having spent the entirety of the noughties dwelling in the musical hinterlands, sculpting critically acclaimed but modest-selling albums under the name of M83, Anthony Gonzalez unexpectedly found massive exposure with ‘Midnight City’ five years ago, a transcendent piece of retro/electro pop that got used as the soundtrack for the BBC’s Olympic Games coverage, ‘Made In Chelsea’, and countless adverts on top. Trust me, you know that song.
by Ed Biggs Having recently passed twin milestones – the release of their thirteenth studio album Super and the 30th anniversary of their first, Please – it seems like the ideal time to take stock of the Pet Shop Boys’ career and their impact on pop music. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have adapted to keep themselves on or ahead of the curve for three decades, and still retain that sense
by Ed Biggs 25 years after its release, it’s difficult to conceive of how different British urban music might sound if it wasn’t for Massive Attack. The Bristol trip-hop collective’s debut album Blue Lines did an enormous amount to broaden the horizons for the fledgling British urban music scene. Chief producer Andy ‘Mushroom’ Vowles adopted the sampling and production culture of American hip-hop and filtered it through the aesthetics of the
by Ed Biggs As lead singer and creative fountainhead of Weezer, Rivers Cuomo has overseen one of the most bizarre career arcs ever. Creating twin masterpieces in the mid ‘90s with their first self-titled record ‘The Blue Album’ and then Pinkerton, which sprawled across the dividing lines between pop, rock, indie and emo, Cuomo’s form gradually went completely off the rails with the turn of the millennium.
by Ed Biggs After three glorious decades, 13 studio albums and a vast arsenal of hit singles that have irrevocably altered the landscape of British pop music, it’s well past time that Pet Shop Boys were recognised as one of the greatest bands this country has ever produced. As a former Smash Hits writer and assistant editor, Neil Tennant always argued strongly for pop to be recognised as equal to, or
by Ed Biggs Marking pretty much the precise point at which dance music became epic, Alex Paterson turned an on-off DJing gig into a fully-fledged project with The Orb’s first studio album after years of EPs and singles. Sprawling over nearly two hours, The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld certainly doesn’t short change on the promise of its title.
by Ed Biggs The story of The Monks would surely have been written for a movie script if it hadn’t actually happened in real life. You can picture it on the big screen: five American GIs stationed in Germany during the ‘60s pop revolution and the outbreak of the Vietnam War, form their own group out of frustration and boredom. Honing their basic garage rock sound into guttural, twisted but undeniably
