the bitch is back

The stunning, striking Kristen McMenamy is back from huge 90s fame followed by obscurity, in a 30-page feature in July's Vogue Italia. Bravo.

the shuttered room

1967 - apart from being set in New England with some mysteriously deformed villagers, it's a great 60s British horror that has little to do with the Lovecraft story. Oliver Reed is a twisted joy to watch as he terrorises a young couple claiming their ancestral inheritance: a dilapidated millhouse which has secrets to tell. Particularly that upper room.

Carol Lynley is the perfect, kittenish ingenue returning to her childhood home. The girl can leave the village, but the village will reclaim the girl...

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...