Ian MacMillan

Sad Season: Ze Records’ Christmas Album, 40 Years On

Ian MacMillan looks back 40 years to Ze Records’ classic festive compilation, and finds a Yuletide ‘state of the nation’ that captured an America burdened with financial struggle, loneliness, broken relationships and malaise

Black Sky Thinking

Sensation Nation: Blair, Oasis, Cocaine, Diana & British Maximalism 1997

Twenty-five years ago, Ian MacMillan was an arts writer and TV producer witnessing the madness of the YBA's Sensation exhibition first hand. Looking back, he argues it was representative of a shallow yet maximalist moment in British culture

Previously Read

News

LISTEN: Karl Bartos Announces New Album

"Classic line-up" member will release Off The Record next March

A Quietus Interview

Ride the Lightning: An Interview with FOUDRE!

Ahead of an appearance at Schwetfest 12.0 in Bristol next month, the French trio speak to David McKenna about their elemental, electric sound and the ties that bind them. Band photographs by Vincent Arbelet

Strange World Of...

The Strange World Of… Björk

Author of the recent 33 1/3 book on Homogenic, Emily Mackay offers us ten points of entry into Björk's bewilderingly large body of work

Subscribers

Low Culture Podcast

Low Culture Podcast: Missy Elliott’s Miss E… So Addictive

In the second pod of 2026, John and Luke dive into the game changing waters of Missy Elliott's third album

Live Reviews

Home Away From Home: Green Man 2023

One night of torrential rain can't dampen Julian Marszalek's spirits as he has a hoot at Green Man 2023, taking in sets by the likes of Devo, Jockstrap, Spiritualized, Bob Vylan, Billy Nomates, Nuha Ruby Ra, Lankum and his festival highlight Mandy, Indiana

Books

Feedback Loops: How The Who Turned Pop Into Self-Destructive Art

In an exclusive extract from his new book, *A Band with Built-In Hate: The Who from Pop Art to Punk*, Peter Stanfield explores the web of connections between Pete Townshend and the cybernetic art of Gustav Metzger and Roy Ascott

A Quietus Interview

What Will Remain Is Love: Marta Salogni Interviewed

Music For Open Spaces is an album inspired by landscape recorded by the late musician Tom Relleen with partner Marta Salogni. She talks to Kat Lister about the 'long journey' this music has taken

Reviews

The Early
I Want To Be Ready

New album by Philadelphia post-rock duo keeps things tight, amps up the tension

Album of the Week

Great Dame: David Bowie’s The Next Day Reviewed

Chris Roberts is inspired out of his clothes and on to the dancefloor by David Bowie's glorious return

Reviews

Makaya McCraven
Techno Logic/Hidden Out!/The People’s Mixtape/PopUp Shop

The drummer-producer’s four-EP project blends live performance and post-production tricknology into a new kind of superstrong musical compound

A Quietus Interview

Archives Of Back Pain: Nicky Wire Interviewed

As he announces his new solo album Intimism, along with new single 'Keeper Of The Flame', Nicky Wire speaks exclusively to John Doran about Miles Davis, migraines, melancholy, and the future of the Manic Street Preachers

Anniversary

What’s Wrong With Being Sexy? Species turns 30

After hearing the recent, sad news about Michael Madsen, our grind house geezer, Mat Colegate, turned his attention to Species (1995) only to find that the past is a foreign country where they do things differently...

Things I Have Learned

Crystal Fighters On The Culture & Music Of The Basque Country

Crystal Fighter's music is a homage to that of Spain's Basque region, inspired by the writings of singer Laure's grandfather. Here, Sebastian Pringle tells Luke Turner about their fascination with Basque culture

News

LISTEN: Goat – Hide From The Sun

From just-announced second album Commune

Art

Manchester Will Haunt Itself: The British Pop Archive Reviewed

At the launch of the British Pop Archive at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Lottie Brazier asks what it means to exhibit Ian Curtis's handwritten lyrics next to Shakespeare and the Gutenberg Bible

Black Sky Thinking

Imagine There’s no Box Sets: John Lennon, Angela Davis & the Gutting of 60s Counterculture

As Universal release an expensive box set celebrating John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "political activism", Samuel Cox argues that it cheapens the legacy of more impactful, radical figures

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Ian MacMillan

Sad Season: Ze Records’ Christmas Album, 40 Years On

Sad Season: Ze Records’ Christmas Album, 40 Years On

Sensation Nation: Blair, Oasis, Cocaine, Diana & British Maximalism 1997

Sensation Nation: Blair, Oasis, Cocaine, Diana & British Maximalism 1997

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