Charlie Bertsch / 27 Jul 2023
Epidemic Psychedelia
AKSU, Il Santo Bevitore, and The Seer, Self-Titled
The eponymous LP by experimental artists AKSU, Il Santo Bevitore, and The Seer testifies to the power of collaboration.(...)
Pandemic
Charlie Bertsch / 08 Feb 2023
Resisting the Status Quo
Catalogue’s Modern Delusion
Marseille trio Catalogue’s new album Modern Delusion demonstrates why we need music criticism more than ever.(...)
Oliver Sheppard / 28 Nov 2022
Unfinished Business
A Brief Moment in the Sun, by Soulside
That the first song on Soulside's new LP ends with a sample from a 1952 American civil defence film Duck and Cover, about a nuclear apocalypse, says it all.(...)
John Foster / 21 Jan 2022
Neoliberal Crisis Analysis
Aftershocks, by Colin Kahl and Thomas Wright
The rapid spread of the Omicron variant has buried hopes the world might be ending its morbid embrace of COVID-19.(...)
Joel Schalit / 10 Jan 2022
Asylum From Germany
The Coronavirus Shakes
They asked what the purpose of our visit was. “We’re fleeing Germany,” I said, as I handed over our Israeli and American passports. “My wife and I want to apply for asylum.”(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 10 Nov 2021
Pandemic Expressionism
Sonic Hauntology: Subterranean Internationale, by Raz Mesinai
Sonic Hauntology, Raz Mesinai's new album of field recordings for The Battleground, pushes that peculiar genre in exciting new directions. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 15 Sep 2021
Post-Punk Internationale
Gut and Fratti’s Let’s Talk About the Weather
While the pandemic continues to inflict horrific suffering on the world, its early phase is now capable of inspiring nostalgia. We remember the excitement of watching everyday routines grind to a halt and then having to figure out what to do in their absence.(...)
Duncan Simpson / 08 Sep 2021
Ideological Upheaval
Pandemic Rebels and Fascist Longings
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, opposition to anti-contagion efforts has been led by a small number of fringe groups and quasi-movements linked together by social media.(...)
Tanya Lokot / 08 Mar 2021
Always Under Surveillance
COVID-19 and Digital Freedoms in Eastern Europe
From genome sequencing to track virus mutations, to smartphone apps monitoring close contacts with those who test positive, countries around the world have harnessed technological solutions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.(...)
John Foster / 17 Jul 2020
Famines, Pandemics and Politics
The Mike Davis Reader
Last week, I wrote at length about Set the Night on Fire, the definitive history of radical Los Angeles in the 1960s, co-written by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener. This might be the apotheosis of Davis’s career as a historian of the city.(...)