John Foster / 27 Mar 2020
Body Count Democracy
The COVID-19 Con
The crisis through which we (or at least most of us) are now living is defined by biopolitics. (...)
Culture
The Battleground / 23 Mar 2020
Same As It Ever Was
The Battleground’s Spring Book List
Don't believe the hype. There's nothing new about Coronavirus. Everything about it says more of the same.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 18 Mar 2020
Burying The Fall
Jan St. Werner’s Molecular Meditation
Molecular Meditation, the new collaboration between Jan St. Werner – half of the influential Berlin duo Mouse on Mars – and Mark E. Smith – the deceased frontman of post-punk stalwarts The Fall – is a proudly self-indulgent record. (...)
John Foster / 09 Mar 2020
Investing in Trump
David Enrich’s Dark Towers
Long ago, when the single income of a TV dad like Ward Cleaver or a Jim Anderson could support a family with cash to spare, banking was viewed, not without justice, as a boring profession. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 04 Mar 2020
Power in the Darkness
Kaelan Mikla’s Riot Goth Noir
If someone put you in a dark room and played you a version of Icelandic band Kaelan Mikla minus the vocals, you might well wonder which neglected post-punk band from the early ‘80s was in the process of being rediscovered. (...)
John Foster / 24 Feb 2020
Revenge on Germany
Miriam Gebhardt’s Crimes Unspoken
The rape of hundreds of thousands of German women in the waning days of the Second World War has historically gotten short shrift, both as crime and tragedy. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 19 Feb 2020
Rock Against Neoliberalism
Wire’s Mind Hive
When a band has been around as long as Wire, starting off a new record with the line “It’s nothing new” feels like a dare. (...)
John Foster / 24 Jan 2020
Remembrance Culture
Hope Harrison’s After the Berlin Wall
Memory is one of the most important elements of modern societies. Nowhere has its centrality been so fully illustrated than in Germany.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 22 Jan 2020
Banlieue Noir
The Suburbs of TripleGo
How you respond to the work of Paris rap duo TripleGo may well depend on your knowledge of the context that produced them. If you know it well, you will likely understand why they have received so much praise for the subdued, yet propulsive tracks on their two 2019 albums, MACHAKIL and Yeux Rouge(...)