This album is about vampires, as ‘The Great Undressing’ glibly admits. Blood Bitch, however, is really an “investigation of blood” and the myths surrounding it; why is it easier to speak of vampires than it is of menstruation? What makes one type of blood-myth less taboo than another? The vampiric conceit speaks to fantasy, but […]
Album Review: ANOHNI – HOPELESSNESS
A NOHNI’s HOPELESSNESS is blistering and elemental. In eleven tracks Anohni, formerly Antony Hegarty (of Antony & the Johnsons), wrestles with some of the most pressing issues facing the planet today. The album takes on drone warfare, ecocide and surveillance. This is Anohni at her most angry; HOPELESSNESS heaves in the same way I Am […]
Rewire, NL Festival Review
Characterised by tight curation and excellent sound quality, the Netherlands really know how to put on city festivals. Rewire, 1st- 3rd April, epitomises this fact in a weekend held across venues in the Hague, pulling in impressive acts from all over the shop. The whole weekend started a little sour, which what I can only […]
Album Review: Hinds – Leave Me Alone
Hinds Leave Me Alone 8 January 2016; Lucky Number The fact of the matter is that women are grossly under-represented in the ‘indie’ rock/pop scene. Hinds, previously Deers, fiercely stand out in this veritable cock-fest. Their debut Leave Me Alone was a riotously fun cry that insists on being heard in its very resistance […]
Think NL, not NY: Notes from a flat place and its music scene
As I blurted out to Mica Levi (“Micachu”) after catching her “and the Shapes” in Amsterdam, Utrecht is “kinda pastoral Dutch.” I was (existentially) flustered and this is in no way true – I’ve only come across one windmill in town, and no clogs. I think what I was getting at it perhaps that Utrecht is […]
Album Review: Deradoorian – The Expanding Flower Planet
Deardoorian The Expanding Flower Planet anticon., 21st August 2015 Deradoorian’s debut full length album has been a long time coming. The work of the bassist of Avery Tare’s Slasher Flicks and ex-Dirty Projectors member, The Expanding Flower Planet couldn’t really be anything short of cerebral folk-pop. Angel Deradoorian, by way of a CV, has […]