2021

Hannah Hu and The Specials perform their spellbinding reggae-fied version of the Talking Heads song Listening Wind from their classic album Remain In Light.

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I I know there are those who find roots reggae a little tiresome, seeing it largely as a vehicle for rambling about Rastafarianism while smoking humungous quantities of marijuana. To be fair, there’s a lot of that. And I love it.

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As Russia invades Ukraine, here’s a message for all the world, conveyed in the lockdown video shot at home by Sharon Van Etten and Josh Homme. (more…)

RIP Mike Nesmith (1942-2021)

11th December 2021 · 2021, Music
Mike Nesmith

Mike Nesmith was the tall one with the long sideburns, the green bobble hat and the languid Texan drawl. And The Monkees were one of the first pop groups I loved. (more…)

RIP Robbie Shakespeare, king of the bass guitar and one half of the peerless reggae rhythm section Sly & Robbie. (more…)

The French Dispatch - film review

Wes Anderson’s tenth feature film is “a love letter to journalism” told in a typically whimsical anthology of stories for the titular magazine. The director and his all-star cast of regulars and newcomers are on top form in this tour-de-force. (more…)

RIP Paddy Moloney (1938-2021)

14th October 2021 · 2021, Music

I only had the one encounter with Paddy Moloney, the late leader of The Chieftains. It was in Japan. (more…)

The word “legend” gets chucked about a lot but Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry really was one. Keith Richards once called him “the Salvador Dali of reggae.” (more…)

Nanci Griffith (6 July 1953-13 August 2021) (more…)

One is a young Norwegian singer-songwriter who makes minimalist electronic folk music. The other is a legendary Jamaican reggae producer in his mid-eighties. (more…)