Dubstar: May The North Be With You
Reunited with producer Stephen Hague, Dubstar are back with a cracking album of “full-spectrum megapop” and “acutely observed kitchen-sink dramas”. Normal service resumes, then…
ABC: Suits You
Four decades on from its release, ABC’s ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ is still one of the most luxurious and glorious widescreen pop albums of all time. Frontman Martin Fry takes a break from rehearsals for a 40th anniversary tour to tell the inside story of this enduring classic, starting in a toilet in a Tokyo hotel room…
Kelly Lee Owens: ‘LP.8’ (Smalltown Supersound)
Recorded in a wintery Oslo amid the ongoing disruption of Covid, this is the “eighth album” from Kelly……
LoneLady ‘Former Things’ (Warp)
As LoneLady, Julie Campbell’s 2010 debut ‘Nerve Up’ was a paean to the long-demolished Factory Records – tower-block……
Roger Eno
Ambient composer Roger Eno, who has recently released a new album, ‘The Turning Year’, talks about cultural awakenings, blissful pottering and the beauty of stillness
Rodney Cromwell: Warts And All
Adam Cresswell is Rodney Cromwell. Previously, he’s been Arthur from Arthur And Martha, a founder member of Saloon, and a man whose life was changed by a shattered jar of pickled onions
xPropaganda: Duel Purpose
After years of band tensions and failed reunions, Propaganda’s Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag have resurfaced as xPropaganda with a shimmering new album, ‘The Heart Is Strange’. Here, they talk ZTT, camaraderie and the fear of following up 1985’s defining ‘A Secret Wish’
Plastikman and Chilly Gonzales: Minimal To The Max
As Plastikman, Richie Hawtin is the king of reduction. But ‘Consumed In Key’, a collaboration with piano maestro Chilly Gonzales, is a radically different take on minimal techno, a step into uncharted territory that pushes both artists way beyond their comfort zones. The result is simply stunning
Rupert Thomas
Erasers’ Rupert Thomas on the first and last records he bought, and his go-to album
Craig Palmer ‘Industrial – Volume 26’ (Network Production Music, 1983)
At some point, the entertainment industry will have to relax its choke-hold on 1980s nostalgia. They’ll finally realise that video arcades aren’t coming back