Ben Graham takes a detailed look at the decadent path trod by David Bowie during the creation of Station To Station

Decadence is an appropriately mutable and ambiguous concept. It can be used to signify the most contemptuous approbation, to suggest rottenness, decay, wasteful amorality and an utter disconnectedness from reality and shared social values. Yet without any real change in its meaning, the word can also be used in praising terms to suggest an alluring glamour, a wild, intoxicating freedom from society’s petty restraints and a sense of abandon and entitlement that is somehow admirable despite, or even because of, its obvious destructiveness. In some ways, decadence is about style over substance, and whether you view that as a sin;…

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Megadeth

Megadeth

Thrash legends’ swan song finds Dave Mustaine and co. at their most Spinal Tap – but perhaps that’s no bad thing?

Like him or loathe him, Dave Mustaine has long been one of the most fascinating figures of the modern metal era.

For all his bravado, his outspokenness, his… let’s call them “traditional” and “patriotic” views (without prodding directly into that hornet’s nest) – not to mention the ease at which he’s made enemies, his habit of trashing other bands (shared by too few musicians these days) – there’s also been a vulnerability floating near the surface.

He had a tough childhood involving an absent father, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, drug taking and dealing. After Mustaine was fired, aged 22, from Metallica before their debut album…

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HELP(2) is inspired by the charity’s landmark 1995 release, HELP

Pulp

War Child, the charity which aims to protect children caught up in war, is releasing a new compilation album, HELP(2).

Spanning 23 tracks, it features new music by a wide cast of artists that includes Pulp, Depeche Mode, Beth Gibbons, Sampha, Cameron Winter, Bat For Lashes, Young Fathers, Big Thief and Black Country, New Road, among others.

HELP(2) is inspired by War Child’s original 1995 release of HELP, which raised £1.2 million. The new compilation was recorded largely during a week-long session at Abbey Road Studios last November and was overseen by producer James Ford.

Leading the release is a new song from Arctic Monkeys, which marks their first release of new material since…

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The Dutch festival has revealed a second wave of names playing this April’s edition

Photo by Alex Heuvink

Rewire has added a number of acts to the lineup for its 2026 edition.

The second wave of artist additions is headed up by Kim Gordon, who will play live in support of her recently announced third solo LP, PLAY ME, which will be released in March. KMRU is also listed for a live set alongside artist and light designer Nick Verstand, with the duo combining under the name As Nature.

This year’s Rewire will also host a world premiere screening of Julian Charrière’s latest film Midnight Zone, featuring a live score from Laurel Halo, while contemporary dance company Chunky Move will present a show called U>N>I>T>E>D at…

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In this month’s Low Culture Essay, Jennifer Lucy Allan considers nostalgia and the Japanese idea of kona in the work of electronic pioneer Susumu Yokota. Featuring an exclusive playlist for our Subscriber Plus tier.

Portrait by Rune Hellestad

The first time I tried to buy a Susumu Yokota album I was in my late teens. I picked up a copy of Image in Vinyl Exchange in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. I was taken by the artwork: the vintage colour grading, the abstracted shape that could have been a tree branch or a spool of tape. It was inviting but felt important; those dates – 1983-1998 – were a promise of longevity; of material that might survive the passage of time. When I got…

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After a decade of fluctuating commercial fortunes and sonic wandering, is Oscar Powell ready to start firing out club bangers again? He discusses a time of transition, hedonism and fatherhood with Luke Turner

Portrait by John Cronin

“I’ve had 10 years in the wilderness as an artist,” says Oscar Powell, backlit from the evening light of West London through the window of his studio, which doubles up as the headquarters of his record label, Diagonal. “I ran away from my own success and I feel out of time with everything, but I’ve reached a point where I don’t really care, that’s just who I am.” Powell’s latest album We Do Recover, and the follow-up WDREP1 that came out at the end of of 2025,…

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Many membered South London group drag the capital’s post-punk scene into strange and scrappy new realms, restlessly documenting England’s deep reserves of residual weirdness

In the beginning, there was This Heat. Charles Hayward and co traversed the disused pie factories and damp warehouses that suffused South London, and the resultant music was something seriously challenging: dread-laden, perversely fun, janky, dancey, genre-collapsing. Some believed it encompassed post-punk.

I’m not sure if Hayward cast a spell on South London, but, if you haven’t been in a 50-year-long hibernation, you might have noticed that the badlands below the Thames have now long been the reactor core for some of the UK’s most interesting guitar music. Even young bands from further afield, like Crewe’s University, Manchester’s…

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Michael Moorcock and The Deep Fix

The New Worlds Fair

A brand new deluxe and remastered edition of the SF author’s album with Steve Gilmore and Graham Charnock sounds dolorous and kaleidoscopic, finds Jeremy Allen

Michael Moorcock isn’t particularly well known for his musicianship, despite deep associations with space rock figureheads Hawkwind. In the 60s and 70s, the British science fiction and fantasy author headed up the influential New Worlds magazine, which helped precipitate a new wave of sci-fi that coincided with the emergence of writers like J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin. Moorcock, for what it’s worth, apparently introduced Peter Green to his first guitar chords before the British blues rock explosion of the mid-60s, and in 1975,…

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Harry Gorski-Brown, Abul Mogard, Rafael Anton Irisarri and more will play across Cafe OTO and Iklectik this May

Able Noise

Dig That Treasure! Festival has announced its return to London this May.

Running from 1 to 4 May, the opening night at Cafe OTO hosts the acclaimed Kurdish bouzouki player Mohammad Syfkhan along with a rare live appearance from Somali pop singer Canab Marwo.

The following evening sees experimental pop duo Able Noise and enigmatic minimalist project Jemima, as well as DNA? AND?, a group composed of young people with Down Syndrome and professional musicians from Oslo’s improv scene.

3 May features the much-loved guitarist Eric Chenaux, joined by the Scottish folk musician Harry Górski-Brown – among the most essential of the current wave of…

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Finely turned-out rambunctious industrial no wave folk outfit unveil their Sod In Heaven long player at the Windmill on Saturday

One of the capitol’s most exciting young live prospects, My Pussy Tastes Like Microplastics, are releasing their debut LP, Sod In Heaven, this month (watch this space for a review) and to celebrate they are throwing a shindig at Brixton’s Windmill. And you are cordially invited.

Tickets are the price of a (fancy) pint and as well as the ecstatic MPTL deluge, the bill also includes (effervescent young team) Doom Club, (student nurse with wound x zoomer Pastels) Daltons Fen, and (handmade industrial experimentalist) Ellis Berwick, with DJs Melanie Moof and tQ’s John Doran.

Get your tickets here! …

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