jogontom has written the following articles:
What makes Johnny Flynn special is his breadth of influences and brevity of emotion - he offers a modern reappraisal of the folk genre»
“I wanna be trash,” sing The Whip. Once, I saw someone in New Cross with ‘eat my shit’ printed on tracksuit, stretched across their arse. I saw its sagging doubt become taut then drip away. I think it disgusted me more than anything possibly could»
With a conversation over a contested chess board dismissed - "a weird game" states our interviewee - DiS instead settles down in a Shoreditch eatery to discuss These New Puritans' debut album, Beat Pyramid, with one of its architects, Jack Barnett»
It turns out Untrue had no shadow to escape, simply because Burial's debut was sunless. With the rolling half-step and pitchshifted vocals, it seems more a prequel of highs»
This interview was supposed to be done via e-mail, where egos are kept wrapped and tones pacified through a wall of ones and zeros. But The Horrors wanted a face-to-face encounter»
Tom King loses his senses over new, and very young, London singer songwriter Laura Marling: These words puke forth. I can’t write like this, it disgusts me. I know all this appears gushingly sentimental, naïve, ridiculously self-centered, and that worried me for a while»
Explaining away 'New Romantic' is in some respects pointless; the lyrics are ridiculous and the sentiment one-dimensional. But that’s how I felt at 17, and I like to think there’s a residual piece of this youth left in me...»
Fatal Flying Guillotines have the energy but nothing to do with it. Quantum Fucking is a dry wank...»
Angular Recording Corporation, purveyors of pop music for thirsty kids, have announced details of catalogue numbers ARC026 to ARC029.»
As this is their first press I have no presumptions; as this is their first interview they can have no pretensions.»
It seems the incestuous west London rock scene has relocated to SE17, not so much Mystery Jets in the house as Kensington in the Castle...»
Oh the inevitably irony. The Cribs have become part of the machine they wished to break. And they’ve plenty of luddites clinging on... »
A musical Fin de siècle. Young mystics and chanters let the eternal beat run through them for twelve minutes, and rock and roll finally leaves the 20th century…»
It’s funeral season, and another band dies in the summer of our discotheque. These are dark times for music; even pretending the emperor’s new day-glo wardrobe isn’t a walking obscenity is becoming an increasing challenge. ‘Nu-rave’ may be all well and good every other Friday night, but if you think anything of substance is being created you’re dancing in the dark. But every band the cited as ‘the problem’ is not the problem...»
Facts: These New Puritans are from Southend. They are aged between 18 and 20 years old. They appeared on the Digital Penetration compilation. They have released one EP, Now Pluvial, on Angular Records. They are currently recording a debut LP and sporadically playing gigs. Now, I have two other things to say about them...»
Within seconds of The Violets’ opener frontwoman Alex has already alienated half the in-crowd, leering over them half squat on the stage’s edge. She doesn’t have to open her mouth for poetry to pour from her panda eyes, nor move to command the stage...»
Long before Rough Trade Records came 202 Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill; a record shop selling new punk records alongside DIY releases and JA imports. In the neverending democratization of music this was the year when, to those in the know, the Man finally became ‘the Man’. Hindsight will quite inevitably place 1976 as the year before 1977, as will chronology. But the cracks appearing in the establishment circa ‘77 were not fashioned in the art schools or dole queues...»
The Khe Sanh Approach have got to the point where the war could be won. They just need to avoid Russia...»
Stop worrying and learn to have no opinion on New Young Pony Club. Because if it’s not love, then it’s dancing to ‘The Bomb’ that’ll bring us together...»
Under the London Bridge train tracks stirs a mythical beast - the beat, ‘new rave’. Another year, another spurious media construct. As those who declare themselves thus seldom are, it’s neither new nor rave. But there’s a certain primeval transcendence in using kick drums as melodic instruments, an everlasting primal melody, wood on taut skin...»
