I got to perform on stage for my second highland dance show this weekend with two performances: Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. I dance with the Pam Dignan school of highland dance in Westhill and although the show is really for all the young dancers at the school rather than us adults I do feel very privileged getting to dance and participate with them all as a student at the school and enjoyed it immensely. It’s very much a novelty for me as it wasn’t something I did when I was young…
One week at number one on 29th August 1987Sometimes, amidst a string of often more noble efforts, one particular single becomes a catchphrase in a band’s career. It’s not necessarily their best single, or the most advanced, or even their biggest hit; it’s the one that seems, rightly or wrongly, to define their whole ethic to the Mums, Dads and "squares". While watching “The Chart Show” in the summer of 1987, the video for “Girlfriend In A Coma” came on and my parents immediately began…
After 17 years of anticipation, the dream has finally become reality. Among the countless bands and albums of the "cavernous" death metal movement throughout the 2010s, Funebrarum's first two albums have been endlessly cited as predecessors and essential points of reference. Their 2009 masterpiece, The Sleep of Morbid Dreams, in particular (alongside Dead Congregation's Graves of the Archangels), is so complete that it almost renders further listening of this genre unnecessary. You don't feel…
DJ Plead – “Stucco” Daniel Avery – “Neon Pulse” (Midnight Version) Clark – “Who Booed the Geese” Clark – “Who Booed the Goose” The post New Hots Hots 22 first appeared on Palms Out Sounds.
Berlin-based label, ELSI, recently reproduced a little bit of dance music history. At the imprint’s request, legendary Italian DJ Leo Mas, took a step back in time, and recreated one his sets from during his residency at Ibiza’s Amnesia. Giving us an authentic hour long mix of some of the sounds that shaped the summer of 1987. An eclectic selection that, when exported back to the UK, subsequently sparked and ignited “The Second Summer Of Love” and rave. Leo’s remit was indie and rock. Don’t…
Having finished my exam marking the previous day and with a Bank Holiday weekend ahead, I had a spring in my step as I walked through a sunny Dublin yesterday evening for the season finale of concerts by National Symphony Orchestra Ireland of 2026. The guest conductor for the evening was Jonas Alber. As usual for the closing concert of the season there was a very full house. There were only two items on the menu, but it was a substantial feast, so much so that I only just made it back to Pearse…
Long before Martin Scorsese cast them as screen enemies, Joe Pesci and Frank Vincent were bandmates in a New Jersey lounge act called the Aristocrats. Here's the story.
This year marks the 100th birthday of Marilyn Monroe. I thought I would take the opportunity to share the five film performances that I consider to be her best. Here are the other five films that would make my Marilyn top 10: Clash By Night(I’m in awe that she stole this from Barbara Stanwyck), Some Like It Hot, Don’t Bother To Knock, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and River Of No Return. I’ve always loved this shot of Marilyn outside the Actors Studio in New York. Marilyn as Rose Loomis in Niagara.…
Hey people! Today I’d like to feature an artist whom I discovered very recently. Mika Akim is a solo project of singer, songwriter and violist Mika Persdotter Svensson, who has over the years been involved in a lot of other projects as well, be it on the experimental or Baroque music scene. She is Swedish, but based in Copenhagen. What makes her music particularly interesting is that she plays viola d’amore, which you certainly don’t hear very often in popular music, and which is a very…
For this past week, we went to Jakarta for Eid al-Adha and Java Jazz 2026. Java Jazz is one of Indonesia’s prominent music festivals since 2025, also one of the largest jazz festivals in Asia, even though I would say it has been… debatable, considering there have been non-jazz performers taking center stage. It used to be all-jazz festival, but due to market demand and catering to a wider audience, more variations are understandably needed. This was my third time attending the Java Jazz…
Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes al andar.–Gloria Anzaldúa Echoes from the Borderlands is a collective comprised of Valeria Luiselli, Ricardo Giraldo, and Leo Heiblum. It also names the 24-hour sound piece that explores and gives voice to areas of interstate violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. At the core of this sonic experience is a living canvas of sorts, a vibrational palimpsest built from binaural and quadraphonic recordings. Into this are woven archival recordings and other…
“Gentlemen, for the first 60 feet, that was a hell of a pitch.” Warren Spahn, joking about allowing Willie Mays his first Major League hit, a home run.
Od kiedy pracuję zdalnie, a więc gdzieś tak od 2011, jestem wyczulony na jakość dźwięku podczas rozmów video. Podobnie jak poziom języka (słownictwo, akcent), jakość dźwięku bardzo mocno wpływa na odbiór człowieka podczas videocalla. Nie wiem jaka dokładnie stoi za tym psychologia, w każdym razie jeśli zrozumienie wymaga wysiłku to człowiek jest odbierany jako głupszy. "Do you know how smart I sound in Spanish?" jak to doskonale podsumowała Gloria z "Modern Family".Nie chcę zanudzać historią…
Album of the Week, May 30, 2026 Following Mister Heartbreak, Laurie Anderson continued to develop and tour shows based around her unique combination of performance art and music, as well as technology. In 1986 that led to an unexpected place: a theatrical release of a movie capturing the touring show that she mounted in support of the 1982 album. The movie flopped, grossing only $1.25 million at the box office, but it spawned a video release and a soundtrack, which provide a fascinating picture…
"Trouble In the Fields" by Nanci Griffith Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. What is a song that makes you think of your first job? - Trouble In the Fields by Nanci Griffith I was a farm kid, but my last few years at home were marked by the drought that finally led my family to give up that life after more than 100 years and take what are called "public jobs" - ones where you have a boss, but also a paycheck. This song, by the unforgettable Nanci Griffith…
Lexx launches a new label, titled Unlimited Capacity, with a terrific 12 from an act called The Telomeres. In its original mix, their song “No Phones in The Dance” is a post-punky, punchy, spiky, early LCD Soundsystem-esque synth-pop ode to dance floor escapism. Celebrating the ritual of getting lost in music and hedonistic abandon. A “Nitetime” remix introduces an Italo-disco bass arpeggio and beat like New Order doing Giorgio Morroder. Lexx’s “No Shackles” lick is stripped back, darker, sexy,…
Some 13 years after releasing 'Tomorrow's Harvest' Boards of Canada return with an album that reflects our times whilst retaining the distinct sense of otherness that has characterised their work.'Inferno' is suffused with religious imagery. Beyond it's opening triumphant fanfare, it's first half is bathed in the acid-soaked hallucinatory rapture of the apocalyptic evangelist, it's one moment of light coming in the form of a mutated Hari Krishna chant - the slightly heavy-handed 'Naraka - that…
gonna rank from worst to best song ranking system 😇- need to have a looong conversation with whoever made this song 🥹- teared up a little 🥰- i love love love 😊- very good 🙂- good with some issues 🤔- i would let it play in the background ig.. 😪- not feeling it 😠- no this is bad. 😡- this is really bad. 🤬- play this around me and im taking a gun out. for both of us. fuck my life 😠 and fuck this song april shower 😪 snooze fest. super 😊 i remember watching this at school when this first came out…
I spent most of 2025 pretty high on Tokyo’s The Floatings and their debut album Flowering so it was kind of bittersweet when they pre-empted the big news of making my year-end list by announcing that singer re:caco was leaving the band. What I missed in that announcement was their promise of one more song […] The post The Floatings – “Everlasting Gaze” appeared first on Space Echo.
Billet Doux Maybe Tokyo Hailing from France, Billet Doux take their name from the 17th-century expression, meaning ‘secret love letter’. The duo apply that emotionally charged feeling into their music, creating a tender intensity. The latest single from their forthcoming album Superbloom is Here Again, Maybe Tokyo is a song about escape and uncertainty. Opening with a strummed guitar and tight clipped drums, the pair’s male-female duet creates a playful sense of excitement, amplified by moments…
[2026]This could be a lost Boards of Canada tune from the year 2000. I listened to the whole new album tonight. I'm not having the cargo cult/quasi religious experience some of these others are having. In fact some of the tracks downright sucked. I'm happy to stick with my BOC era as 1995 to 2005. I was only 26 in 1998 when Music Has The Right To Children came out and that was such a fresh and cool cd. You can't really replicate that era and feeling. However You Retreat In Time and Space is…
Neil Young - Pantages Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 26, 2019From its return in the late 1990s to its regular inclusion in late 2000s setlists to its lead-off spot on last year’s Chrome Hearts tour, “Ambulance Blues” has quietly become less of a live deep cut. But it was a little MIA between 2008 and 2025, only getting a handful of airings. But Neil boldly started one of his solo Minneapolis shows with it in the early 2019 — a somewhat uncertain but ultimately powerful version. As…
“There comes a moment in every electronic music fan’s journey when they discover Patrick Cowley.” Andrew Ryce, liner notes for Hard Ware (2025) I’m trying to think of the first time I heard of Patrick Cowley. I highly suspect it was one of the typical routes: from his epic 15-minute remix of “I Feel Love”, created in 1978. It was designed for the clubs, so obviously I get a great deal of enjoyment from listening to it on the sofa, while devouring a Kitkat. Perhaps my favourite track of his is…
Listening to Julian Lage’s latest video on his YouTube channel, I came to realize a subtle quality: He and his quartet are in a meditative state. It doesn’t look like they are performing, nor are they working. Thus, listening to them draws you into that restorative state in which you strip off...
Mass appeal indeed! The post Rhythm Roulette: MPC Sample Edition appeared first on Sampleface.
Doom is the prefix du jour. Doomscrolling, doomposting, doomsplaining, doomspreading, doomgooing, and doomliving dominate discourse. (Ok, I made the last two up.) Doom joins other recent meme morphemes—the suffixes -maxxing, -pilled, and -slop—in giving our discussions about a contemporary life an overtly negative cast. Doomspending, in particular, has become synonymous with the declining fortunes of young Americans. Sean Monahan…
MournholdOut 15th May on True Cult Records Following a promising debut that stitched a foggy haze of thrash and melodic death metal with a thread of black metal, Tyrannus push this loose alliance to breaking point and gamble it all on the second album. Approaching ‘Mournhold’ is akin to taking the first few sips of a dubious pint of craft beer. Has the incongruous flavour concoction paid off as advertised? How does the sensation progress from the initial burst of flavour on the tongue to the…
I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching old Modern Jazz Quartet concerts, as a quartet and as individuals. This is one of my favourites. Milt Jackson, just a few months before he died at 76.
"Four Seasons" by Vivaldi What is the oldest song you like? - Four Seasons by Vivaldi I don't know much about classical music, but I know what I like. The opening movements of Vivaldi's Four Seasons instantly transports me back to the early 90s when my kids were in elementary and middle school. All of them loved this CD and we played it all the time when cleaning house on Saturdays. It made the weekly chores something they looked forward to. Magic. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile
On a Friday in May we went to Aachen to see Steve Hackett. I have been a Genesis fan since my early teens. So it was kind of a wish come true to witness the music of the golden prog-rock era come to life on a stage. And, boy, did they burn through it. The set was split by a 20-minute break and the first session consisted of Steve's later solo creations with the second session giving focus to the early Genesis years, where Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford, Banks and Collins all worked together. The…
