pop

There’s usually a fairly clear correlation for me between the duration of an album and the amount of listening required before i feel i’ve begun to make sense of it. Not quite so simple as ‘short albums = shorter time, long albums = longer’, though that’s perhaps basically true. But …

My second evening at Tallinn Music Week was occupied with two events. The first was Tier Kollektiv, located in the cosy bar space of Fonoteek, to grab a rare opportunity to hear Icelandic singer Lúpína in action. It feels like Lúpína has been around for a long time; she started …

Something i haven’t drawn attention to in this Lent Series is the fact that almost every album i’ve explored has been a debut. It’s the case with Suicide, Sakamoto, P-Model, Human League, Leer & Rental, Der Plan and Fad Gadget. John Foxx and Bill Nelson’s Red Noise clearly pick up …

During the critical period i’m exploring in this Lent Series, 1977–81, alongside the assorted group divisions, schisms and reformations i’ve mentioned previously, another recurring problem was artists finding it difficult to get their music heard. San Francisco synthpunk band Units – led by husband and wife Scott Ryser and Rachel …

i’m not sure anyone in 1977, listening to Ultravox’s spectacular album Ha! Ha! Ha!, could have imagined what the band’s lead singer, John Foxx, would be doing in just three years’ time. One of the most pumped-up albums of the late ’70s, Ha! Ha! Ha! was partly fuelled by the …

Where some artists saw electronics as a means to undermine or break entirely from existing pop and rock tropes, UK musician Frank Tovey assimilated them in his work as Fad Gadget. His output under that nom de guerre – four albums, beginning in 1980 with Fireside Favourites, before continuing using …

Liminal times be liminal. If there’s one thing that typifies the period i’m focusing on in this Lent Series, 1977–81, it’s the extent to which, with the proliferation of electronics, more than usually strange and wonderful things suddenly seemed to be possible. As i’ve explored previously, this led to some …

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To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

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To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £10 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more

To view this content, you must be a member of Simon Cummings’s Patreon at £5 or more