John Foster / 15 Jun 2020
American Killing Fields
Vincent Bevins’ The Jakarta Method
The short twentieth century, running from 1914 to 1989 is generally divided into two halves. The first, ending 1945, is the era of mass slaughter. (...)
Culture
Charlie Bertsch / 12 Jun 2020
Working-Class Cosplay
Sleaford Mods’ All That Glue
As I stared up at the mountains I love, glowing a beautiful and terrifying orange, trying to suppress a cough that just kept coming, listening to the new Sleaford Mods collection All That Glue was surreal. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 27 May 2020
Berlin and Everything
Einstürzende Neubauten’s Alles in Allem
A whirring mechanical device that hasn’t settled into a rhythm; a keening tone that wobbles slightly over the top; a thump that falls precisely where a beat wouldn’t: Alles in Allem, the new album by Einstürzende Neubauten, opens with a reminder of their origins as musicians who call the very idea of music into question.(...)
John Foster / 22 May 2020
Product of the System
Tony Woods’ Russia Without Putin
Everyone loves a good villain, especially one whose presence validates overlooking our own failings. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 13 May 2020
The Power of Failing
Lorenzo Senni’s Scacco Matto
Scacco Matto sounds like a mosaic of Europop hits from the early 1980s. The album is made from pieces so tiny, their arrangement so abstract, that it transcends the referentiality of so much postmodern music.(...)
John Foster / 24 Apr 2020
The Communist Influenza
Slavoj Žižek’s Pandemic!
Today's philosophers don’t do well in crises. The case of Giorgio Agamben, in which he wrongly downplayed the danger posed by COVID-19, is a perfect example. (...)
John Foster / 10 Apr 2020
Born to Lose
Joe Biden and the Democrats
When Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for the Democratic nomination earlier this week, the leftist finally gave Joe Biden what he's been after for four decades: a run at the presidency. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 01 Apr 2020
Rock Against Corona
Die Ärzte Hearts Merkel
After days of reading one depressing news story after another about the pandemic that has turned our world upside down, I was desperate for anything that would brighten my spirits. (...)