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new music reviews, news & interviews
Kieron Tyler |

“My Lost One”, Materia’s second track, is remarkable. Exemplifying the Julia Holter ethos to the max, it begins wispily with interweaving rippling electric piano figures, a whispered, echoey vocal and slippery acoustic bass. Gradually, grandeur is assumed: a sonic architecture soaring into and beyond the clouds, and outwards into the wider cosmos.

Peter Culshaw |

The latest in Peter Culshaw’s occasional radio shows with a global music bent is a post-WOMAD chat with one of its originators, who suggested the idea to his pal Peter Gabriel at the bar at a Talking Heads gig. The chat starts with WOMAD - Mark relies on recommendations of what to see from younger family m

Thomas H. Green
Like electronica, metal is an umbrella term that contains multitudes of micro-genres. How do you fancy sludge, blackened crust or funeral doom? And…
Jonathan Geddes
Just over 24 hours before Idlewild stepped out at the Kelvingrove Bandstand, the much ballyhooed solar eclipse had proved a damp squib for much of…
Kieron Tyler
The Adverts’ debut single was released by Stiff Records in late April 1977. The top side of the “One Chord Wonders” / “Quick Step” pairing was a dry…

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