It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »
Maybe it's a coincidence that three fabulous and endlessly eclectic DJ mix-CDs - John Peel's FabricLive 07, 2 Many DJ's As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2, and DJ /rupture's Minesweeper Suite - all came out in 2002. But it sure didn't feel that way at the time. Of course, eclectic DJ mixes were nothing new; they'd been a standard from at least 1995, when Coldcut released 70 Minutes of Madness. But 2002 was a… more »
Roughly 75 people have been members of the Fall over the last three decades or so, but only one of them has been in every lineup: inimitable vocalist/lyricist/ranter Mark E. Smith, whose singular and monomaniacal vision drives the band. Smith's a bristling, hyperliterate, deeply eccentric presence, with a thick Manchester accent and a permanent scowl directed at a world that can't keep up with him; he's also got an ear for a riff like nobody's… more »
Imagine this scenario. You're in a club somewhere in Germany, watching the crudest, funniest garage-rock band you've ever seen. They're wearing monastic robes and nooses around their necks; they've shaved their heads into tonsures. One of them is playing a banjo, with which the PA system is ill-equipped to deal. The drummer's technique is pleasingly caveman-like. The guitar player is blitzing the crowd with feedback. The singer is gibbering like a lunatic, screaming "DO YOU… more »
