I was randomly curious the other day, and looked up bands from New York City on Wikipedia. I noted down every one I recognized; it’s a very musically diverse list, and there were a few surprises, at least for me. Do you see anything that ties them all together? I’ll give you a hint: I don’t. A Tribe Called Quest Anthrax Beastie Boys Blondie Blood, Sweat, and Tears Blue Oyster Cult Brand New C+C Music Factory Chic The Chiffons Coheed and Cambria The Cramps The Cro-Mags Deee-Lite De La Soul…

The last on this set of pieces for Arisu. Thank you again for commissioning me! Artwork is © 2026 by Marina Neira. You may NOT copy, color, reference, repost or use this artwork in any way or claim it as your own. Only the commissioner/giveaway winner & those featured in the artwork may repost with credit and following my Terms of Use. Scraping of my work by content crawlers, or using it for the training of generative AI software, is strictly prohibited.

Finally the long awaited reissue of Drukqs has arrived with preorders (here and here) for various physical editions going live today at 3PM BST. The following editions are now available to purchase for release expected by the 30th of October this year apart from Vinyl Box Set which is due on the 4th of December. Vinyl Box Set 4×LP+ WAV / FLACThe Drukqs Vinyl Box Set is available via Aphex Twin store and Bleep. Final manufacture quantity for the Box Set will be confirmed on 12:01pm BST August…

About 18-months ago I made a commitment to myself to spend more time listening to full albums — both new, and old. The nature of BlackPlastic.co.uk is that I naturally spend a lot of time listening to singles. If I’m not careful, this can lead to me missing out on the widescreen scope of a great album, and so I made a pact to myself — every week I would try to commit to listening to an album, at least a few times, to get under (or back under) the skin of it. I can’t say I’m always successful —…

SandyAcc. by The UniquesSchool Bus RideSwanger-Sheetz1:55Li-1Released thru the Nova Laboratories1958Sandy SwangerAccompanied byThe UniquesSchool Bus RideSheetz-Swanger-TrompJuanita Music Co. (BMI)2:37Connie 10021959 Both records are listed by Rockin' Country Style. Li track come from the Buffalo Bop 55069, also previously issued on a Bison Bop LP. Connie track come from the Collector CD 4479 where it's credited for some reasons to Sandy Swandy Swanger & The Uniques, curioulsy clocked at 1:58,…

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Lizzie Buehler’s novel The Obsessed is a thought-provoking and immersive debut. Publishers Weekly wrote of the book: “A thought-provoking [meditation] on romantic love, one-sided…

[1974]The great glam rock disco sound of The Glitter Band. They didn't even need Gary. Also a tune.

Writing this post mostly so I can refer to it again later if needed. A while back I taught my dad how to save YT videos he watches on TV to a playlist and he watches a lot of music and recently he asked me if I could export his playlist to mp3s and put them on a flash drive so he can play them in his car. (Do not suggest that I teach him how to use an app like Spotify instead, he is very tech unsavvy, its basically impossible.) I was like okay, that should be easy, I can just use yt-dlp. When I…

"Jack and Diane" by John Cougar Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Share a song that captures the feeling of being seventeen. - Jack and Diane by John Cougar I grew up fast. I was desperate for adulthood and freedom, but the good stuff already felt like it' was slipping away in real time. That's what this song feels like to me. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile

There are already other ways to do this. Of course I had to do it the hard way.

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 30th May 2006 Named for the 1960 movie of the same name about a serial killer, Peeping Tom was one of the inimitable Mike Patton’s many side projects over the years, but with only one record under their belt in 2006, they are a bit of a one off project. Sadly, as this slinky lo-fi electronica/hip hop project remains one of the real under the radar high points of his career. The shell of the idea began in 2000, but it took six years to finally see the light…

From Protopia by Kevin Kelly:Dystopia leans into problems; utopia leans into progress; protopia leans into problems and progress in unison. It acknowledges there is no progress without problems, and problems propel progress. Dystopia runs on fear, and utopia runs on faith. Protopia runs on facts: the fact of real problems, and the facts of real progress. Most people have no issue with facing up to the problems we are creating today, but they take issue with the idea of real progress. They can…

As its title, “Water From Mars”, might suggest, Simon Herody’s second long-player for Music From Memory affiliated imprint, Records We Release Records, acts as the score for an imaginary trip to The Red Planet. The label have described Herody’s music as “ambient-informed jazz”, and Ban Ban Ton Ton’s own Cal Gibson called Herody’s debut, “Hard Lounge”, a mix of Sven Wunder and Brian Eno. Here, again, Herody’s saxophone chops largely lead the way. On “So Quiet Here”, it’s backed by IDM-esque…

Wet Leg – CPR (horsegiirL remix) Kerala Dust – White Noise Deep Sea Diver – Teardrop (Massive Attack cover) La Securite – Detour Radio 4 – Dance to the Underground Paul Westerberg – Dyslexic Heart The Soup Dragons – I’m...

At Blanco last weekend.

I’m listening to this again today while the extreme heat and humidity break into thunderous downpours in Chicago streets and damn is it nice to hear strange and challenging songs joined by your favorite artists. It’s not even like every song is good, but the challenge of some minor ones really make the great licks hit. More artists need to do challenge collaborations like this. Or maybe I just need to find more of them.

I don’t think I ever posted this: Hellgate NYC, a great, local, journalist owned New York City news site, sends incredible T-shirts to their subscribers.

Posted to Warp’s social media channels today is an image that simply says tomorrow. Displayed using the typography taken from the keyboard of a Sinclair ZX81, this is almost certainly a reference to the long awaited Drukqs repress as the original release utilised the same font. Stay tuned for a news update tomorrow. The ZX81 keys as used on the CD edition of Drukqs

A new seasonal song, for this moment in American politics! 99 Bottles of… What?! Americans of a certain vintage are acquainted with the tedious children’s song, “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”. [1] We have a somewhat more immediately applicable variant upon that theme for this portion of the political calendar, while we are all looking forward to the Big Trump Whump: 99 days to the primary, 99 days remain. Mark one down, canvass your town, 98 days to the primary! The Weekend Conclusion C’mon,…

I’ve been a fan of Trespassers William for almost 25 years now, going back to their 2002 second album Different Stars, a monumental document of country-space-gaze-core. You might think that wouldn’t require much effort considering their last album came out 20 years ago and they’ve been officially disbanded since 2012, but they’ve still sneakily been […] The post Trespassers William @ KCRW, Santa Monica – April 2006 appeared first on Space Echo.

[1968]Obscure moody and broody garage psych from another one and done group from MichiganYou gotta love the intense mandolin and misanthropic sentiments delivered with tormented desperation by singer Bob Glese and those mournful dirge-y backing vocals. You could imagine them playing this in a dusty saloon in a scene from a south of the border acid western.A haunted lost classic.

Tara Clerkin Trio - Somewhere GoodA blissfully dubbed-out Broadcast? A trip hop-infused Young Marble Giants?! Whatever! The Bristol-based group was one of the best totally-new-to-me things I saw at Big Ears this past spring. I don’t think I’d ever heard of them, but enough trusted heads told me to check ‘em out and those trusted heads were absolutely right. The TCT’s set was hypnotic, playful and mysterious, all elements that are in full effect on their new LP Somewhere Good. There’s a cool,…

Fatale - July 2026Photo by Brian SweeneyWith thanks to PANINAROAhead of the release of their debut, vinyl only, EP entitled Saint Mungo, I caught up with Fatale guitarist and songwriter Christopher Jollie to find out how things are going. Fatale only played their first gig back in May 2025 and have had quite a year since! A recent highlight being airplay for their song Jesus Christ on 6Music, BBC Radio Scotland and Amazing Radio. Read on for reflections, producers, guitar pedals and sounds,…

If you're a regular visitor of this blog or have somehow landed here of your own accord, there's a good chance you are already familiar with the Swiss artist Tobias Möckl (a.k.a. Wintherr) and his involvement in the prolific projects Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace. I've spent some time reviewing a couple of releases from both projects, even though a deeper dive is borderline mandatory and would be the perfect counterweight to surviving this dreadful summer. Apart from the interest in the…

Carolina Chase On My Mind Somewhat unbelievably, On My Mind, is the product of an artist who is just 15-years-old. Hailing from Los Angeles, Carolina Chase began writing songs at the age of nine, before releasing her first collection of music by the age of 12. This latest release comes ahead of Chase’s debut album, Warwick. On My Mind is an emotive piece of indie pop that sits at the intersection of emotive piano balladry and epic electronic music. With a vocal that evokes the delivery of…

Apocalyptic SteelOut 26th June on Season of Mist Underground Activists Say what you like about Nargaroth, but the guy dances to the beat of his own drum. In his earliest period Ash was simply content to write Nordic black metal fanfic, resulting in a surplus of flat, bloated material that bored more than it enraged despite its charms. This era will forever be remembered for the ‘Black Metal ist Krieg (A Dedication Monument)’ episode however, establishing Nargaroth’s reputation as a third wave…

Kumla is a locality and the seat of Kumla Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with a population of 21,640 as of 2018. The name Kumla is renowned for its prison (“the Kumla Institution”, or Kumlaanstalten, commonly known as ‘The Bunker’), which is the largest prison in the country. I don’t think I’ve ever written about a band of this small town in Sweden. A small town not only known for its prison but also for being an important shoe manufacturing town in the past. They even have a Shoe Industry…

Good morning! Late last week, I was in a meeting when my wife walked in and quietly set a stack of (new to us) records down. That by itself was cool. What made it eve better was the how excited she was that she’d found them. She’d been at a garage sale, and they had brought them out while she was there. Right place, right time and all that. I’ve mentioned it before, but garage sales up here usually follow a specific template: In Wisconsin specifically, you’re bound to find cross-country skis…

"A Torrid Extravaganza" the ad declares. "Daring Glamorous Beauties in Risque Dances." In Gadsden, Alabama, in 1941? Well! Let's investigate. In my wanderings through old issues of the Gadsden Times I've encountered many such advertisements for revue-type variety shows in Gadsden in the 1940s. I'll be doing future blog posts on some others. Let's take a look at the performers and other elements of this production which played in Gadsden on Sunday, February 23 [according to the ad] and on…

(Previously) Flukes and Breakthroughs In the NBA 2015–16 season, Steph Curry set the all-time single-season record for three-point field goals, 402, completely crushing the old record of 286. Curry's record still stands. The New York Times was rather breathless about this: The record is an outlier that defies most comparisons, but here is one: It is the equivalent of hitting 103 home runs in a Major League Baseball season. And it is an astonishing feat. But I wrote an article called Steph…