Pop is all over Rainbow Milk, the Gordon Burn Prize-nominated debut novel by Paul Mendez. Here he tells Paul Flynn how a love of Marvin Gaye, Beyonce, Solange, Joy Division and Missy Elliott gave him a clearer understanding of his sexuality and racial identity
Seedy English vignettes supercharged by the bombast of New York's superclubs – though they didn't then know it then, the world's first modern remix album found Soft Cell on a seesaw between hedonism and self-destruction, says Patrick Clarke