They have painted over the swastika on the wall outside the cafe – a single coat of white emulsion shrouds it like a veil. A double mobility scooter hums slowly by followed soon after by a woman in dark...
There are two small boxes of china outside on a table. You know the type: chipped plates and cups with badly superglued handles, a piece of paper with ’50p each’ scrawled in felt tip pen. This is the only thing that...
I have compiled a selection of some of my favourite R & B, jump up, mambo, jive, and blues tracks of all time. They all happen to have been recorded by women and were all released in a glorious ten year period between 1953...
I am taking out the rubbish. It is not a task I enjoy. There are several reasons for this. I do not like that moment when you jostle the contents of the bin bag so you can tie it and in so doing force a guff of rotten air up into...
It echoes around the concrete, bubbles up like a witch’s brew in a cauldron, spits out into the night like sausage fat. It is cruel. But it is genuine. The skater lies on the cold ground, holding his ankles. He is...
In 2014, I got to see bands that I thought I would never ever see live – McLusky, Neutral Milk Hotel, Violent Femmes, Neil Young as well as various other acts that I have sang along to in various bedrooms in various houses...
The following are a selection of the EPs, mini-albums and mixes that impressed in 2014. L.D.C.N – Summer Rain “L.D.C.N’s electronic soundscapes are subtly woven from found sounds and samples. Louie is a cyber...
Image Jonwayne by Gangster Doodles It’s near impossible to keep up with new music these days. The democratising force of the Internet, the availability, prevalence and affordability of recording technology and the...
2014 has been a strange year for music. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was precisely about the last 12 months that I found strange. In the main, I struggled to connect with many of the albums. There...
Some time ago, I was in a different place, far away from where I am now. I was in the far North East of the High Tibetan plateau in the back of a jeep with two of my best friends, a monk and a driver who sang when his heart...