Devil in Disguise: Lovely Jon’s Oliver Reed Top Five
To accompany Alan’s wonderful Ken Russell piece, we thought we’d get our good friend Lovely Jon to select his five favourite Oliver Reed films. As one of Uncle Ken’s most celebrated collaborators, the great man doesn’t really need an introduction but here’s LJ with a couple of lines… [...]
Frightenin’ 45s: David McCallum – House Of Mirrors
The Man From U.N.K.L.E David McCallum, teamed up with legendary producer David Axelrod in 1967 to record the cult crate diggin’ classic, Music- It’s Happening Now! (great title) in 1967. House of Mirrors was sampled by DJ Shadow on his track Dark Days back in 2000. The lopsided and laidback [...]
Single of the Day: Amadeo – Memories
A DJ Harvey favourite, this sleazy bad boy of a Balearic tune was released in 1978 and as you can tell from the sexy cover (arf!) is rather wonderful.  Taken from Amadeo’s album Real Magic, Memories was featured on the aforementioned DJ Harvey’s seminal Sarcastic Disco mix. A debauched pop-infused, [...]
Plastic Mode – Digitally
Released on the fantastic Italo label Discomagic in 1985, ‘Digitally’ was the instrumental b-side to Plastic Mode’s seminal track Baja Imperial. An excellent and essential synth-heavy piece of Italo, it frequently features in the setlists of the likes of James Murphy and Metro Area. So enough of my yakkin’, let’s [...]
Downtown Week: TV Party Remembered
Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party was an anarchic music/arts show that aired between 1978-1982. Produced with almost no budget and no script it showcased the best talent from NYC and beyond. Fondly remembered for it’s mad performances and guests, it gave a valuable platform to the city’s assorted artists, weirdos and [...]
Single of the Day – Harry Thumann – Underwater
Start your week with a grandiose slice of  disco from German synth pioneer Harry Thumann. Released in 1979, Underwater is a cult favourite amongst disco aficionados due to it’s bombastic and quite wacky nature. Huge Salsoul-style horns and strings blend seamlessly with the icy simplicity of Moroder-esque synths, resulting in [...]
Single of the Day – Gina X Performance – Kaddish
Not many bands would take creative inspiration from the Jewish Mourners’ Prayer – The Kaddish, but cult avant-garde electro-disco pioneers Gina X Performance did just that with their 1981 song ‘Kaddish’.
Single of the Day – Grauzone – Film 2
Formed by brothers Stephen and Martin Eicher in 1978, the Swiss band Grauzone were part of the ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’ (New German Wave) – a collective of European bands who took their inspiration from punk, early electro and the grey decaying urban cities around them. From its early beginnings in 1981 from the underground punk [...]