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.(...)
Laibach’s Party Songs
When the news broke that the Slovenian band Laibach would be playing North Korea in 2015, long-time fans of their high-concept Kitschkunst smiled. What could be more Laibach than being the first Western rock group to play in the world’s most isolated country? (...)
The Case for Slowthai
Whenever a record receives as much attention as British rapper Slowthai’s debut LP Nothing Great About Britain has, it can be hard to hear. (...)
Pinch’s Border Control EP
From its opening moments, the new Border Control EP from Bristol dubstep legend Pinch channels the time when that culturally and geographically eccentric city in the western United Kingdom felt like the centre of the universe. (...)
Wolfgang Voigt’s Germany
When I was little, my German grandfather used to complain that American woodlands were not properly managed. At the time, I figured that this was just another one of his button-pushing remarks, designed to lure people into the sort of debate he loved. (...)