Obituary: Jaki Liebezeit – Can’s human drum machine 1938 – 2017
Jake Leibezeit will be best remembered for his work with German avant-garde band Can. He played on some of their most memorable albums, such as ‘Ege Bamyasi’ and ‘Monster Movie’, and brought a steady motorik beat, relentless and minimalistic, yet unmistakeably human. His rhythmic repetoire however had infinite depth beyond the bare-bones pulse of Krautrock, …
Album Review: analogue creatures living on an island – Immersion
The ambient project of Wire’s Colin Newman (along with his partner Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact) has been in existence since 1994, and after a hiatus of seventeen years, Immersion is back. Pre-album release track ‘Fireflys’ is a beautiful, hypnotic vortex of arpeggios and repetitive synth loops, rising and falling and washing over the listener. …
Past lives: 1959 – 2016. Pete Burns – A Tribute
Liverpool singer Pete Burns died of a heart attack on Sunday. He was 57. I first encountered Pete Burns around 1978. Me and my schoolmates would catch the bus to Liverpool every Saturday and blow our pocket money on 7” singles in Probe Records. Pete Burns served behind the counter; an explosion of black crimped …
Album Review: The Wedding Present – Going, Going…
In 1994, my irrepressible* psychedelic band (*back then, rip-off promoters, total lack of press or record company interest, and poor quality drugs were seen as challenges, compared to today’s climate, where the literal end of the world is a “no” from Simon Cowell) landed a management/publishing deal with Brian Hallin, the long-time manager of The …
News: Prince Buster, An Obituary 1938 – 2016
Ska and Rocksteady pioneer Prince Buster died on the 8th of September, at his home in Miami at the age of 78. Cited as creating the ska sound when he told his band to play on the off-beat, his influence on Jamaican music was vast. Buster (real name Cecil Campbell), a street boxer, teamed up …
Les Ardentes Festival, Liege, Belgium. 2016 Edition
Belgium’s Les Ardentes Festival is now over ten years old, so this year it added an extra day, making it a five-day extravaganza. I’ve been to every one, and my role for most of them as onstage announcer has given me fly-on-the-wall access to it and how it operates. Unlike in the U.K., where the …
Not Forgotten: Bill Nelson – ‘Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam’
Guitarist Bill Nelson’s trajectory has been eclectic and multi faceted – singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter, video artist, writer to name but a few. After folding his 70s band ‘Be-Bop Deluxe’, he created ‘Red Noise’ (which the Harvest label insisted on calling ‘Bill Nelson’s Red Noise’) and released the excellent ‘Sound on Sound’ in 1979. When it came …
Track: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
Between the death of and the general dearth of Rock n’ Roll icons, we should be thankful for the existence of Nick Cave. In his career he’s managed to summon the primal energy of Iggy, the seminal throb of The Cramps, and the tortured cool of Johnny Cash. As an artist his authenticity and integrity …
New Music: Rafi Bookstaber – We Can Find a Way
Rafi Bookstaber is part of the US folk/psyche scene, on NY label Woodsist (who have their own festival in Big Sur) and part of the LA P.R. roster Force Field (Ariel Pink). He’s got an album coming out on the first of July – ‘Late Summer’, and this is the first available track. It’s a …
Track: The Orange Kyte – Inside Out n’ Upside Down
Vancouver’s Stevie Moonboots is on a freak-out mission, via his project The Orange Kyte. It’s an umbrella of shifting collaborators from the Canadian psych scene, which since the start of this year, has released a single a month, this being the latest offering. Orange sunshine fuzz guitars and lysergic hammond organs compliment his Dylan-esque rasp, …