Patrick Gamble

A review of the latest album by Mercury-Prize nominated singer Sam Less

“I'm really scared of them!” laughs Elizabeth Bernholz, aka Gazelle Twin, when asked where her fascination with ghosts comes from. “It's a fucking terrifying concept to me; that there could be this whole other side of existence that is less about nature, and more about sadness and suffering.” Bernholz is speaking to us about the inspiration behind her new record, Black Dog, an album that unfolds like a classic haunted house movie. “I'm a child of the 1980s,” she tells us. “I grew up watching ...

When Daniel Kasman covered the Locarno Festival on Notebook in 2017 he hit upon a great way of engaging with standout work. In his introduction, he explained that he would be “looking for specific images, moments, techniques, qualities or scenes…that grabbed me and have lingered past and beyond the next movie seen, whose characters, story and images have already begun to overwrite those that came just before.” This seemed like a great way to engage with the creative work in a milieu like a fe...

Taking its inspiration from game theory – a branch of applied mathematics frequently associated with chess – Darren Cunningham's ninth release as Actress sees the producer pit his techno-oriented rhythms against his avant-garde impulses in a knotty single-player game. This conflict comes across loud and clear on opener Push Power ( a 1 ) where a pattering house rhythm and a ponderous piano-led melody interact in a back and forth dialogue between analogue and digital modes; as if each were wai...

Gentle Confrontation's title track opens the record with a cauldron of trembling strings that wouldn’t be out of place on Building Something Beautiful For Me, James’ homage to late US composer Julius Eastman. However, it doesn't take long before her trademark angular beats bring the album to life. This dialogue between past and present continues on Glitch the System (Glitch Bitch 2), in which James revisits the opening track of her 2019 album For You and I, and steers its anxiety-inducing bea...

The term “Lost Generation” was originally coined by American novelist Gertrude Stein, to describe the cynicism that defined the literary landscape in the aftermath of World War I. However, in recent years, it has also been used to describe those who grew up during the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia in 1991 [1] and the bloody conflicts that followed. As a result, many of the films that have emerged from the region have been preoccupied with the past and the following disillusionment.

Berlin-based producer Ziúr creates deconstructed dance music that beats with a human heart. Her previous album Antifate took its inspiration from medieval myth, but her latest pushes her sound into more extreme and abstract territories. Working with a diverse ensemble of collaborators (including Juliana Huxtable, Ledef and Emptyset's James Ginzburg) it’s a Frankenstein stitch-up of an album; 11 tracks expertly pieced together with a unique blend of mechanical noise and scuffling organic percusion.

Godflesh’s ninth studio album – their first since 2017's Post Self – sees the Birmingham pioneers of industrial noise (guitarist/vocalist Justin K. Broadrick and bassist Ben Green) revisit the template behind their 1992 hip-hop-inspired record Pure.

“It wasn’t a big story at the time. Certainly nothing compared to Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning,” explains playwright-turned-filmmaker Tina Satter when asked about the first time she heard of Reality Winner, the subject of her gripping docudrama Reality. “Obviously her name stood out, but if you’d asked me what she’d done, I couldn’t have told you.”

Since forming in 2020, bar italia, have released a steady stream of music. Throughout that time the group have ruthlessly preserved their anonymity; rarely granting interviews or sharing images of themselves online. However, that’s all about to change following the release of Tracey Denim, the band’s first release for Matador Records.

For the Pop issues of The Skinny I wrote a brief capsule about James Gray's Ad Astra and how it's the perfect example of why popular films don't need to be brainless or unambitious.

In English, YIAN translates as ‘swallow’. It’s a fitting metaphor for an album that majestically soars to blissful plateaus, but the inspiration behind the title of Lucinda Chua’s debut comes from the name her parents gave her to preserve a link to her Chinese heritage.

When Daniel Kasman covered the Locarno Festival on Notebook in 2017 he hit upon a great way of engaging with standout work. In his introduction, he explained that he would be “looking for specific images, moments, techniques, qualities or scenes…that grabbed me and have lingered past and beyond the next movie seen, whose characters, story and images have already begun to overwrite those that came just before.” This seemed like a great way to engage with the creative work in a milieu like a festival - to concentrate on that which lingers rather than attempting to highlight everything. As such,

It’s hard to imagine a better title for Kate Shilonosova’s latest album than WOW. The Russian songwriter, best known as Kate NV, has always approached music with a childlike curiosity; her compositions wavering between a genuine post-internet pop and the iconoclastic product of outsider art.

“Are you a good guy, or a bad guy?” asks Smiley (Wang Yiwen), the adorable young daughter of Gu Wentong (Xin Baiqing), the middle-aged divorcee at the centre of Zhang Lü’s The Shadowless Tower. A failed poet-turned-food critic living in the cramped apartment he inherited from his mother, Gu’s life is in disarray, which is probably why his his daughter is currently being taken care of by his sister Wenhui (Li Qinqin). He isn’t offended by his daughter’s question though, after all, he’s been asking it about his own father since he was five years-old.