Sparks: Firestarters
Ever since their extraordinary debut on UK TV in 1974, Sparks have pushed the boundaries of pop and electronic music. Their latest album suggests that the future still belongs to them
Tiny Magnetic Pets: Pet Sounds
With friends in high places and a new album set to make waves, Irish synthpoppers Tiny Magnetic Pets look ready for the limelight
Gary Numan: Global Warning
A desert earth, marauding tribes of murderous religious zealots, and a vengeful father called Ruin, Gary Numan’s new album is a riot of misery, anxiety and epic synth hooks…
Hannah Peel: Kicking Brass
Donning her Mary Casio alter ego, Hannah Peel pairs up analogue synths with a full brass band and plots an interplanetary musical adventure to the stars
Trevor Key: Key Works
Featuring iconic record sleeves by the late Hull-born photographer, a new exhibition, ‘Trevor Key’s Top 40’, opens at the city’s art school, where he studied, later this month. We doff our cap to the great man
Bark Psychosis: Let’s Talk About ‘Hex’, Baby
They might have launched a thousand post-rock ships, but who the heck were Bark Psychosis? As their seminal 1994 ‘Hex’ album gets a welcome reissue, frontman Graham Sutton tells all…
Baxter Dury
Sharing some of the influences that shaped the sound and the attitude of his new album, enter the fascinating world of Baxter Dury
Mike Oldfield ‘Blue Peter’
The theme to BBC children’s show ‘Blue Peter’ is instantly recognisable, but did you know the version used from 1979 to 1989 was recorded by prog godhead Mike Oldfield?
Steve Hovington ‘Remembrance Day’
B-Movie frontman Steve Hovington recounts the whirlwind tale of ‘Remembrance Day’, which took them from their local pub to topping the Some Bizarre festival in London in the space of just two months
Leila ‘Like Weather’ (Rephlex, 1998)
Leila Arab was born in Iran, but moved to Britain at an early age, her family forced to flee the country’s Islamic Revolution because of her father’s ties with the ousted Shah