Soft Cell: Cell Shock

byNeil Kulkarni
December 7, 2023

With ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, their hugely influential 1981 debut album, Soft Cell brought sleazy lyrics and shady but infectious synth anthems to the mainstream. Marc Almond and Dave Ball reflect on art-school aesthetics, punk electronics, and the controversies that fuelled their speedy rise

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Neil Kulkarni

Suicide: A Punk Mass

byKris Needs

Alan Vega and Martin Rev talk through the earliest days of Suicide and offer hints of what we can expect from the pioneering synthpunk duo’s “Punk Mass” show at the Barbican in London

LLong Reads

5 minute read

Memorials: Monumentally Good

byJeremy Allen

Heirs apparent to the likes of Stereolab and Broadcast, Canterbury duo Memorials craft surrealist psych-pop and tape experiments into gloriously wayward grooves

LLong Reads

10 minute read

Alexander Tucker: Rebel With A Cause

byMat Smith

Alexander Tucker’s latest work is a posthumous collaboration with Keith Collins, Derek Jarman’s former partner. The result is a touching homage to the iconic filmmaker and the inspiring landscape around Dungeness nuclear power station in Kent, where Jarman famously lived during the final years of his life

LLong Reads

7 minute read

Berlin after Bowie: David Bowie

byMark Roland

Forty years ago, on Friday 18 May 1979, David Bowie released his 13th album, ‘Lodger’, 18 months after its lauded predecessor, ‘Heroes’.

LLong Reads

9 minute read

African Head Charge: True Dub Ways

byAnton Spice

For more than four decades, African Head Charge have pushed the outer limits of dub, concocting an intoxicating brew of electronic exploration and live percussion. Their latest long-player continues to confound expectations – from Accra to Ramsgate and back again

LLong Reads