Tariq Goddard dodges the punches and negotiates with arthritis in order to bear witness to one for the ages

I remember the shock at discovering that Marlene Dietrich was still alive in 1992. She lived long enough to have raised a glass with Brecht and listened to all but one of Kraftwerk’s albums; and if she hadn’t been careful, ample time to take in Klaus Kinski and The Scorpions as well. Perhaps sensing that contemporaneity would eventually kill her, Dietrich wisely locked the door and refused to read the papers, an option that does not exist for innovators whose enduring relevance requires meeting their public. I feel something of the same era-straddling incongruity watching Kraftwerk play live in 2026 in Bournemouth,…

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Daniel Spicer considers the impossible task of trying to compress all facets of Ra into one release…

Do The Impossible: Original Soundtrack To The Documentary by Sun Ra

Among his many mythopoeic pronouncements, the great Sun Ra maintained that he was making music for the future. So, we shouldn’t be surprised that, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and more than 30 years after he left the planet for the last time, his music is gaining more recognition than ever before. A recent slew of reissues, new compilations and previously unheard live recordings continues unabated. His Arkestra – under the direction of long-time member, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen since 1995 – continues to delight audiences worldwide. Just last…

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Words by Claire Biddles. Cover image of Sam Reid as Lestat De Lioncourt from The Vampire Lestat, by Sophie Giraud/AMC

“I was trying to write from a vampire’s perspective, but a vampire who still has a connection to the human experience,” explains musician Daniel Hart, composer of songs for The Vampire Lestat, the bolshy, brash, rock opera follow-up to AMC’s cult adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire. The season sees Rice’s vampire creation – played by Sam Reid – become a rock star, with songs written by Hart narrating over two centuries of undead life, love and loneliness. “Songwriting is one of the main ways in which he stays connected to humans in season three,” says Hart, speaking from his home studio…

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Lee “Scratch” Perry & Mouse on Mars

Spatial, No Problem.

The rich voice of the late dub pioneer lifts the latest from the German electronic music duo to an eerie kind of joy

Spatial, No Problem. by Lee "Scratch" Perry & Mouse on Mars

Spatial, No Problem. sees electronic duo Mouse on Mars team up with the late, great Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry for fifty minutes of jaunty, elaborate instrumentals, and deeply enjoyable vocals from the giant of Jamaican music. The opening pair of tracks are the most immediate and accessible over the course of this record. Both blend bass, shrieking guitar and the occasional synth pulse, though the opener snaps into the most blatant – and catchiest – hook off the album. Comparatively, ‘Hallo…

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Khun Narin Electric Phin Band

III

Northern Thailand’s premier multi-generational psych rock band return for their third record – and first studio album

III by Khun Narin

The tale of the Khun Narin Electric Phin Band is one of the feel-good stories of the global music ecosystem. In 2013, a grainy YouTube video emerged. In glorious 144p, it showed a village in rural North Thailand, where a large psychedelic ensemble were casually easing through a set of wigged-out free rock jams like it was the most natural thing in the world. DIY instruments – most notably a home-made phin (a traditional three stringed lute) run through a circuit of cheap pedals – blasted through a colossal home-made soundsystem. An obscene reminder of the strange and…

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The US band’s first album in four years is out in August

The Afghan Whigs have a new album on the way, titled Soft Control.

Comprised of 10 tracks, including previously released cut ‘House Of I’, it’s the 10th studio LP from Greg Dulli and co., and follows on from 2022’s How Do You Burn? The album was recorded across multiple studio sessions in four different locations: Fireside Sound in Joshua Tree, Gold Diggers Sound in East Hollywood, Marigny Studios in New Orleans, and Sycamore in Cincinnati.

The record’s title is inspired by an old David Bowie quote in which he described ageing as “an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been”. Reflecting on this, Dulli said in…

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Bad Bunch marks the trio’s signing to Fire Records

Photo by Bunny Biskit

Black Bananas, the group led by Royal Trux’s Jennifer Herrema, have shared details of their first album in 12 years.

Signalling their signing to Fire Records, Bad Bunch is scheduled for release on a currently unannounced date later this year. Their last LP, Electric Brick Wall, came out on Drag City in 2014.

Since that last album, Herrema and band have continued to perform live occasionally, and they also launched a show last year on NQRA Radio. The group formed in 2011 having emerged from previous group RTX, which Herrema established after Royal Trux disbanded.

Fire Records will release Bad Bunch in late 2026.
…

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Keith Kahn-Harris whose book, The Beautiful Death Of Ozzy Osbourne, has just been published reflects on the challenges of remembering such a complex figure. Main shot courtesy of Ross Halfin

The announcement a couple of weeks ago that the Osbourne family were working with a company to create an AI-powered avatar of Ozzy Osbourne, looks at first sight to be another example of how new technology appears to be unmooring us from the world as we know it. The family are no doubt motivated by a mixture of sentimentality and mammon; their beloved paterfamilias can linger indefinitely in the world, and will no doubt also offer lucrative licensing opportunities. Fan reactions seem to depend entirely on the exact percentage of sentiment…

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The soundtrack to a new film about the Denver heavy metal four-piece takes the listener deep into an exploration of outer – and inner – space

Photo credit: Alessandro di Martino

In 2024, Blood Incantation released Absolute Elsewhere. One of the strangest, most compelling and original albums in heavy music of the past decade, it connected with a wide variety of listeners – many within and, crucially, an equal number outside the metal underground.The album used cathartic, whirling death metal with cerebral, unexpected pastures (ambient music, analogue synth freakout, gloriously complex prog passages, vintage kosmische panache) and – as is always the case with Blood Incantation – some serious world building.

As intimate with Popul Vuh and Tangerine Dream as Morbid Angel or Death, Absolute…

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Fire-Toolz

Lavender Networks

Angel Marcloid makes her Warp Records debut – and it may just be her most accomplished and considered record to date

Lavender Networks by Fire-Toolz

There’s a simple beauty to the opening organ chords on Lavender Networks, which whir and crackle in the mix like the equipment is breathing and singing by itself. But maybe there’s beauty in the cartoon sounds which follow: the screamo vocals, digitised grindcore and inversions of new age, prog, IDM and everything in between. All sounds which shouldn’t gel, but Fire-Toolz has been doing so with glee for over a decade, enough so that the specific textures and emotions drawn out are as comforting as they are novel or transportive now.

Chicago producer Angel Marcloid’s most celebrated…

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