Thu, Dec 12 2019

The Guardian

Coming up with his latest work was “ridiculously difficult”, Neil Gaiman admits. Last month, the Good Omens and American Gods author, who is also an ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), asked his…

In a hyperspeed world, it is increasingly meaningful to sit with the vision of one artist for an extended period of time. It's an experience that can offer shelter from the noise—or it can offer better noise, if that's what you're looking…

Twin Peaks as virtual reality? As if the TV series and the movie version were not created as a reality of its own. But just to make sure, David Lynch and his team are making sure that the mystery they created will become more realistic and more…

As Rolling Stone (RS) reports, the legendary Memphis soul label Stax, in cooperation with Vinyl Me, Please (currently one of the most popular vinyl-only online retailers), are coming up with a limited edition box set, VMP Anthology: The Story of…

Like milestone birthdays and trips to the hall of mirrors, listicle season is a time for reflection. What exactly have been the major talking points of the past dozen months? Which artists and releases have impacted strongest on the wider culture?

PopMatters – Chadwick Jenkins – Dec 10, 7:00 AM

Music critic, educator, performer Ted Gioia has published 11 books and innumerable articles (many of which are archived on his website). Wildly prolific, much of his most celebrated work focuses on music, primarily jazz and blues. But he also…

PopMatters – Will Layman – Dec 10, 2:00 AM

The music that gets called 'jazz' was utterly boundless in 2019. Partly for that reason, it gets harder to keep using that label without some discomfort. Other phrases—'creative music', usually applied to the more avant-garde edge of the…

‘Bake me off!' illustration by Lisa Cradduck The end of the year is at once the most stressful and the most rewarding time to work for The Quietus. Our co-founder John Doran has already explained the existential dread that list-making…

While the music scene over the past half-century has been dominated by major record labels, the most interesting, groundbreaking work is more often done by small, independent operations. One of the most idiosyncratic, and important, of these small…

Many artists – New Order, The Cure, Nick Cave, The Smiths, The Cocteau Twins, Talk Talk, Pet Shop Boys to name but a handful – had purple patches in the mid-late 80s, but patches got none more purple than that enjoyed by Brisbane…