“We’d taken darker steps, into the streets behind Victorian hospitals where, in backroom bars, the worst of men drowned their sorrows in a half-empty glass.”
‘In The Light Of Time – UK Post-Rock And Leftfield Pop 1992-1998’ (Ace Records, 2023)
“…you could almost feel the grime and noise of the capital clinging to the songs. While it was a time of huge creativity, that on-the-edge-of-breakdown sense is still audible.”
Dif Juz – ‘Extractions’ (4AD, 1985)
“…the bluster of Autumn, the bending of trees, wind rippling through long grass in waves, the mesmeric unraveling of colossal cloud fronts…”
Arcane Delights Radio Show 16 (Mixcloud 26/8/23)
Music in the Margins
Piano Magic Diaries : Artists’ Rifles
“I was later to realise that Woodbine, as with many other studios, was really just a blank canvas on which to paint. That we arrived with our brushes and next to no ideas was somewhat ironic.”
A Design(er) For Life : the Martin Andersen interview
“Some days would start with drinks at 10am and continue until late into the night. At times, it felt more like being in a rock band than working for a design studio…”
Peter Ulrich (Dead Can Dance) interview
“I think there were a lot of Dead Can Dance fans who imagined that we probably, you know, sat on the tour bus and just read Proust and pontificated or whatever. Of course, you can’t do that 24 hours a day.”
Ivo Watts-Russell/4AD interview, 1988
“You’re thinking about this music all the time as opposed to just simply listening to it – enjoying it or not enjoying it.”
Arcane Delights Radio Show 15 – Creation Records ’80s Special (Mixcloud 21/6/22)
Music in the margins
Arcane Delights Radio Show 14 (Mixcloud 18/5/22)
Music in the margins
Arcane Delights Radio Show 13 (Mixcloud, 19/4/22)
Music in the margins
Piano Magic Diaries : The Troubled Sleep
“Did we want to be on a label called Green Ufos? We were called Piano Magic for fuck’s sake, so we couldn’t exactly throw stones in that glasshouse.”
Searching for the perfect record shop (Pt 4) : World Of Echo interview
“I think people trust record shops now more than they trust the music press. Record shops have a really strong narrative around them.”
Arcane Delights Radio Show 12 (Mixcloud, 20/3/22)
Music in the margins
Band Abandoned
“There’s nothing more boring than middle age, particularly when you’ve spent two or three years in the glorious limelight of sycophancy.”
Vinyl Ramblings (Pt. VIII) : When A Record Store Just Wasn’t Made With You In Mind
“We don’t want middle aged bearded baldies coming in here asking for Cluster records. We want hot young things who want to hang out, drink obscure craft beers and discuss buftech.”
Arcane Delights Radio Show 11 (Mixcloud, 17/2/22)
Music in the margins
Vinyl Ramblings (Pt. VII) : Chance Meeting in a Dilapidated Shopping Arcade of a Record Shop and a Wallet
“It’s one of those shops where you almost want to shake the proprietor’s hand on the way out, to thank him personally for his services to your mental well-being.”
I Was A Teenage Shambler
“My look mutated around that Mary Chain axis. I no longer had haircuts. I encouraged holes in my clothes. In the absence of anything resembling a muscle, textiles simply hung off me.”
Vinyl ramblings (Pt. VI) : Leaving empty handed
“The racks of, particularly secondhand stores, change frequently, so there’s always a replenishment of mystery. And thus, we keep coming back, like virgins to a school disco.”
My favourite albums of 2021
“If asked, “What are your favourite records this year?” I hum and ha. Yet, ask me my favourite records of 1981 and I could write you a (small) book. “
Vinyl ramblings (Pt. IV) : The Record Market
“The vinyl community, much like the football one, is obsessive, fervid. Like pinballs, they ricochet from record shop to record shop, fair to fair, market to market, in the hunt for that elusive, limited edition, Third Man split-colour 3″, sealed, mint.”
Robert Dallas Gray (Life Without Buildings) interview
“Someone once called the record ‘mid-fi’ which is probably accurate – it was hi-fi recordings of a low-fi band.”
Searching for the perfect record shop (Pt 3)
“I very almost went in but I was suddenly gripped by the fear of never finding the exit again.”
Vinyl ramblings (Pt. III)
“What evokes one’s youth more than the soundtrack to it?”
Searching for the perfect record shop (Pt 2) : Pricing and the Discogs median
“There are only so many people happy to pay £100 for an obscure Wire off-shoot album in VG condition.”
Searching for the perfect record shop (Pt 1) : rude staff, overstuffed racks, unpriced stock
“Running a secondhand record shop is “a licence to print money right now.”
Good riddance, the bitter hack
“I’ve never quite connected with this notion that just because you have a podium and a loudhailer, your opinion is the gospel.”
Vinyl ramblings (Pt. II)
“The outpouring of love for the vinyl format over these past few years might actually be killing it.”
Vinyl ramblings (Pt. I)
“In the same way that I’m still in touch with most of my lovers, I’m still in touch with the records that spun on my turntable whilst we fumbled beneath the covers, eighties, nineties and beyond.”
Piano Magic Diaries : Writers Without Homes
“Take the head of a duck, the body of a goat, the legs of a rhino, the tail of a cat, stitch them altogether and see what you have. It may not be beautiful but it’s certainly interesting.”
Protected: Ilkeston/Heanor/Pinxton ’80s
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