Although you probably need to live near the Aldridge-Brownhills part of the West Midlands to get full value from it, this spoof article from excellent local blogger Brownhills Bob is one of the best I’ve seen in y […]

Seems to be interested only in this one topic and its replies. No comments on any other topics, no info in their “profile”. Odd.

My mom & dad knew nothing about buying records outside of those stocked by WH Smith, so Dad drove me to a local record shop I’d recced, where I picked out the VdGG magnum opus and Focus’s “Moving Waves”. I was […]

Van der Graaf Generator – Pawn Hearts. My favourite, most-played CD (if you count the transition to the remastered version in 2005 to be the same CD), just as the vinyl album was my most-played album ever since I […]

The Cure’s “Mixed Up” and Kraftwerk’s “The Mix” remain perennial favourites of mine.

I know what you mean – a couple of years ago, I wanted to find out if I could still understand some of the group theory and linear algebra topics that I’d covered in my OU degree courses. I no longer had my OU […]

I did my maths degree with them, 1980-1985 and found it an enormously enriching experience. I’m quite strongly introverted, so the “lone distance learner” learning style suited my personality – learning style […]

Like VV, this is probably a bit pricey (albeit excellent value) for a casual purchase, for me, but it seems to lie in the sweet spot intersection between my strong liking for jazz, and my love of Colosseum (their […]

1. Colosseum Live ’71 – Colosseum
2. Wrong Way Up – Eno / Cale
3. Complete 1969 Recordings – King Crimson

I think referring to Jamie xx as “flavour of the month” might also be pushing it a bit, The xx having being formed in 2005, and receiving award nominations by 2009. Time does fly rather, though, these days.

After years of swearing by Ardbeg’s spectacular peated single malts, my current favourites are from the Arran distillery (just across the water from where I live now). Their “basic” 10-year-old is delicious, with […]

A few years ago, They Might Be Giants toured Australia, doing a “full album” set in which they played the whole “Flood” album… in reverse track order. They kindly gave away a live recording as a downloa […]

I confess, they only really came onto my radar when my wife’s best friend from school days married Rob Lloyd (a good few years ago, now). Caught up with their later stuff pretty sharpish after that.

The Nightingales. Long history (second only to The Fall in number of Peel sessions), but reinvigorated in their current incarnation with Robert Lloyd’s lyrics as acidly topical as ever, ably supported by former m […]

You beat me to it! Totally agree, and Hammill continuing to restlessly explore new territory with every release, refusing to slip complacently into the musical equivalent of a comfortable old chair, pipe and slippers.

The biggest crime of the Citizen box was losing the lovely, mysterious bass-solo intro to “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”.

As “artists” per se, a disregard for their back-catalogue is entirely appropriate – art is about the doing of the art here and now, not what you did years ago. However, touring and album-releasing is all about ped […]

I’m with you, Barge. Halfway through now,and it’s prime Mitchell. It was a long wait, after Slade House, but well worth waiting. Wonderful to see the mind-hopping theme from several of his novels emerging once aga […]

Since you enjoyed The Bone Clocks, I think you’d enjoy Slade House, too – it’s effectively a side-shoot of The Bone Clocks. A terrific short self-contained novel, too.

See above. And lockdown has played havoc with my Kindle backlog, as I only use it when I’m away from home (no more suitcase half-filled with books for holiday reading!) last time I looked, my Kindle “to rea […]