It’s been 25 years since Maxinquaye, the trip-hop classic that shook the world. Since then, Tricky—the stage name of Adrian Thaws—has been living in its shadow. It’s as though every new Tricky album comes prepackaged with the disclaimer: “Not bad,… Read More
When you start to ask questions about rock music from a decade ago, you can sound like you’re lying. Remember when the most exciting young rock bands in the world were fronted by soft-spoken dudes with acoustic guitars? Remember when… Read More
When Sam Prekop isn’t crafting progressive, polyrhythmic pop tunes as the singer and guitarist for the Sea and Cake, he’s releasing records under his own name and exploring the outer possibilities of electronic music with modular synthesizers. Prekop is subtle… Read More
The first notes of Afel Bocoum’s Lindé are soothing and subtle, earthy strings and percussion walking in step with the artist’s gentle voice in an evocation of the album’s namesake space, a wilderness near Niafunké. The opening track “Penda Djiga”… Read More
If we could agree that Nicholas Buccola’s The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Jr. and the Debate over Race in America is a book that has found its moment in 2020, as some critics have said… Read More
In the mid-’90s, Alan McGee was on a roll. As the boss of Creation Records, he was the Lord of the Britpop Empire, having signed Oasis to the label he started on a shoestring in 1983. He’d began with years… Read More
In 1967 as part of the series Cinéastes de notre temps, director Jacques Rivette conducted an extended interview with Jean Renoir and several of his colleagues. Rivette divided his in-depth foray into Renoir’s work into three relatively lengthy installments. The… Read More
Stanley Kubrick has acquired a mystique that began to accrue while he was still working: increasingly wild rumors abounded that he was a semi-reclusive tyrannical bully, that he helped fake the moon landings for NASA, and that his films were… Read More
PYX are a collective out of Southeast England led by front-person Wesley Triffitt, and their sound is slightly lo-fi, indie rock influenced by ’60s harmonies and ’80s jangle pop and post-punk. Triffitt shows off his melodic chops on the group’s… Read More
Gregory Porter is no less than an icon in the world of contemporary jazz. His accolades are numerous and towering – multiple Grammy nominations and awards, the bestselling contemporary jazz artist in the world with over three million records sold,… Read More