‘I Can’t Stay Away’
Freewheeling through time and space, Kris Needs continues his adventures in sound. This month: ‘I Can’t Stay Away’ by Ragtyme Featuring Byron Stingily
Lucrecia Dalt: Space Invader
Lucrecia Dalt’s latest album is a sumptuous and radiant sci-fi meditation in which the bolero, salsa, mambo and merengue influences she absorbed throughout her childhood are refracted through “machinic distortions”. But an alien presence is lurking…
Simple Minds: Natural High
Simple Minds have just put out a new album… and it’s their best since the band’s heyday in the 1980s. From the striking cover to the upbeat tunes and sometimes dark lyrics, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill explain how ‘Direction Of The Heart’ came together, as well as reflecting on their enduring friendship and the 40th anniversary of their 1982 classic, ‘New Gold Dream’
The Umlauts: Umming and Ahhing
A self-proclaimed “uber-group/circus troupe”, London quartet The Umlauts dabble in wonky minimal synths, art-punk and industrial vibes. Thrillingly visceral it all is too, as their ‘Another Fact’ EP vividly attests
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan: North by Northwest
Concrete dreams and brutalist ideals… Gordon Chapman-Fox is Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan. His third album, ‘Districts, Roads, Open Space’, has just been released and he’s here to talk about it. What’s more, he’s brought sandwiches
Plaid ‘Feorm Falorx’ (Warp)
Space Odyssey
Richard Barratt ‘Testone’
Sweet Exorcist’s Richard Barratt – aka DJ Parrot/Crooked Man – recalls the making of 1990’s essential bleep techno cut, ‘Testone’, with Richard H Kirk
Podcasts
This month, our intrepid columnist gets to grips with podcasts – or not
Helen Ganya
Songwriter extraordinaire Helen Ganya tackles our quick-fire questions
Damsel Elysium
Fashion-conscious multi-instrumentalist