a new toy

ay-yay-yay...I wondered why the kids made fun when I dressed like her at Beckford Primary...

killing the primary colours

A great gig (if usual terrible sound at the Phoenix theatre).

An amazing new album - turns preconceptions about them on their heads. Every song turns out just the way you want it to. Sounds so new and throwback at the same time.

r.i.p.j.g.b

Died today at aged 78 in London. No more from this incredible mind is a sad thing...

Black Hearted Love

PJ Harvey and John Parish have made a new album together: A Woman A Man Walked By. The Chapman Brothers made the video for the first single, Black Hearted Love.
They have a palpable chemistry together - you can feel it in their work. He's produced her for years, and they made Dance Hall at Louse Point in 1996. I love their elegant, enigmatic album titles.
This song really struck something with me: the minor key of the recurring riff, its slight messiness, but Polly's voice so crystalline and clear.

Fever Ray

Karin Dreijer Andersson is half of The Knife, a remarkable, enigmatic brother-sister band from Sweden. She has released her first solo album as Fever Ray: a heavy, atmospheric and dense thing that I can't rip myself from...

libertango

Grace and...yogurt? Last night, a new ad for H&M had a cover of Grace Jones' "Libertango" tinkling in the background, immediately followed by an ad for Liberte yogurt, featuring a healthy, yogurt-y couple dancing the...'libertango'. I suspect someone in the studio was having a little fun.

conrad williams: tight wrappers

The best story in Best New Horror 19. Absolutely horrid, stuck to my thoughts for days, involves scaffolding and True First Editions. Many thanks again, CW!