In our monthly subscriber-only essay, writer Paul Flynn describes being handed a flyer for an unusual literary event which acts as a madeleine, casting him back to the 1980s, and a sexual and sonic awakening. Detail from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt photographed by the author
With the new Surgeon album one of the highlights of 2023 so far, Anthony Child guides Luke Turner through a psychedelic journey that takes in The Cure, King Tubby, Sylvester and Alice Coltrane, and John Taverner’s quest for the sonic divine
To mark the anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, Paul Flynn (author of Good as You: From Prejudice to Pride, 30 Years of Gay Britain) chooses 13 records that soundtracked his life, from ACR to Elton and Lil Kim to Sleaford Mods.
Island-dwelling outsider musician and One More Grain brain Daniel Patrick Quinn tells us about his 13 favourite albums from Suede to Fela Kuti, Nico to Robert Wyatt and Gamelan to ELO, plus the sound of a snipe drumming, and wonders whether he'd have sexual feelings for Jeff Lynne were he a woman.
Phil Hebblethwaite invites you into Brahms’s German Requiem, one of the worst-named pieces of classical music in the canon. It has nothing to do with nationalism, or the church, and should have been called what Brahms later suggested: A Human Requiem. It couldn’t be more relevant in 2017
Ahead of their performance at this year’s Green Man festival, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell talks to Julian Marszalek about being the only goth in the village, the enduring power of the voice and why pen pals and fan clubs are beautiful things.