In Depth
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Festival Review
Latitude 2009: The DiS Review
To paraphrase Billy Piper, Latitude is pretty much honey to the b for the middle class legions of the DiS writing team, and thus it was in considerable numbers that we fell upon this year's edition of the idyllic Suffolk festival. Here are our reviewers' highlights. »
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DiScover
DiScover Truck Special: New Bands Preview
Truck Festival takes place this weekend (July 25th-26th) in a field in Steventon, near Oxford. We asked its founders to take over our DiScover column and tell us not only about the new bands on the bill, but also how they were... »
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Festival Review
Manchester International Festival: the DiS review
The biennial Manchester International Festival is one of the sceptered isle's more outstanding cultural happenings, and like the team of non-parochial cultural types we are, DiS has spent the last few weeks infiltrating the cream of the festival's musical »
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Column
The Insider: Beyond The Death of The Critic
In the latest edition of The Insider, the art of criticism in the world of Web 2.0 is put under the microscope. »
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Staff-generated
Armchair Dancefloor 008
This time around, Chris Power's fortnightly round-up of the electronic scene flits with elephantine grace between Dutch dubstep, Belgian horrorcore, Lithuanian ambient techno and plain old laptop blissfulness from the Home Counties. »
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Column
This Week's Singles: 20/07/2009
This week I have been clearing out my parents’ house, involving days of shoebox rifling and the finding of various teen-pash accoutrements - not least a gigantic wall poster of Jan Michael Vincent. All this looking back is neatly relevant though, as some bright spark... »
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Takeover
A Day In The Life Of A Music Journalist
Ben Myers talks us through a typical day in his life. »
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Takeover
The death of the critic? That’s the least of your problems
The death of the music critic I can live with, though I’d rather not. If the music writer is dead it’s really time to stir shit up. The critic dissects, the writer makes the music come alive. »
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Takeover
Being a music critic when music criticism is dead(?)
DiS' albums ed offers his tuppence on this week's debate... »
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In Depth
An Australian’s Input
I chose to become a music critic in Brisbane, Australia as a stupid 19-year old in June 2007, after reading a factually incorrect and otherwise poorly written review of a show that I’d attended. Two years later, I’d like to think that my critical analysis skills have... »
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Festival Review
Perdu sur la plage: DiS does Les Eurockéennes
DiS arrives at Les Eurockéennes , a long-running French festival that takes place in a stunning location on the peninsula of Malsaucy near Belfort, just a hop over the Swiss border. It is very nice here: located on a strip of land between two massive lakes, it sort o... »
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Takeover
You are what you read
The recent death of pop-political scatologist Swells has prompted fresh introspection among music journalists. »
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Takeover
Rubbing Sh*t in God's Eyes
The Death Of The Music Critic. By John Doran. »
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Takeover
Making the grade: the strange and cryptic lore behind assigning numbers to records
Louis Pattison talks us through the strange and cryptic lore behind assigning numbers to records »
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Takeover
Love Thy Reader
The rot set in when the music press started treating you all like idiots, says Stevie Chick. »
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Takeover
How The Peacocks Lost Their Lips
A herd mentality replaced enjoyable argument. We lost, they won. Pity the brave soul who asks if Bon Iver (or whoever) might not actually be a tiny bit over-celebrated, if he/she wants to be commissioned again. »
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Takeover
How To Start A Music Magazine
A five point guide to starting a music magazine from Everett True »
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Takeover
The trouble with music criticism
Everett True asked me to tell you about some music journalism that interests me. There were a few problems with what he asked; firstly, his injunction to privilege slightly more under-appreciated or under-known examples of good music criticism – to “[steer] as fa... »
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Takeover
Kissing without the sex – the role of the music critic
The day that I realised my girlfriend wanted to leave me for a musician was the day I discovered a burning interest in music criticism. »
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Takeover
Music critics are not to be trusted
I figured out long ago that music critics weren’t to be trusted. Journalism in post-modern times is a cynical business; everyone knows that there can no longer be any talk of the “new big thing”... »
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Takeover
To think, I could have got a proper job...
From a financial perspective, freelance music journalism is a terrible profession. Rates are no higher than when I first got paid for a review back in 1996 (though I was writing for fanzines before that). And that's if you get paid at all. »
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Takeover
The Winner Takes It All
I wanted to be a music critic. I became a games one. There had to be a reason for that. I have to believe there’s a reason for that... »
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Takeover
Music criticism in Web 2.0
One of the main issues with music criticism and the Internet lies in the fact that anyone can post a review online and call themselves a critic. If they could honestly label themselves that way, where is the art in being a critic? If anyone can write a review, what j... »
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Takeover
The 12-second critic
What we’re talking about – the public expression of opinion about cultural product – doesn’t really have a name that does it justice. Let’s use ‘criticism’ for the moment, but any single word that can encompass TS Eliot and Britain’s Got Talent is so vague as to be e... »