Does Britain need a new weekly diverse and radical music magazine? to take on NME's dull complacency

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No more Maker which has been in demise over a decade - getting progressively worse ever year, and we left with the dull NME - time for change and new competition

Does Britain need a new weekly diverse and radical music magazine? the case for

Look what the MM under Mark Sutherland - has achieved - I hope the ignorant smug slimey bastard is pleased with himself, for lowering the Maker into the gutter with the lowest common denominator rubbish "the tabloidisation" and "sound bites" and "trivialisation" of music

His stewardship of MM has been an utter sham, shameful and discraceful to music. Journalists such as Simon Price, and Jonathan Selzer - have been openly critical of what Mark Sutherland did to the magazine.

You could not criticise standard MM "house bands" such as Oasis - when they made some truly horrible bog standard meat and two veg laughable sub Beatles showbiz karoake muzak.

From the peaks in 1987/ 1988 with front covers for Skinny Puppy/ Jane's Addiction/ Front 242/ Faith No More/ Cocteau Twins/Swans/Arkane/ Pixies/ Throwing Muses/My Bloody Valentine etc - to the final lowest point of the last edition of the Maker next week- with the most horrible mainstream wanker in rock - Fred fucking Durst ! (as trailed in this week's edition) - a truly sad end to the Maker!

The "Maker" had sunk to an alltime low both culturally and sales wise, to 32, 000 copies a week.

the MM had totally lost its way, and the NME I find too scatter gun dull and predictable and lacking in quality control, risk taking and wisdom and style and tone and substance and interesting content.

I am sure that there are many people in the UK, from diverse music backgrounds are not being satisfied with the weekly music press as it stands with NME only left: (the only other weekly publications are 7 - a poor mans Jockey Slut and Kerrang - which completely lacks quality control and celebrates about a dozen key big names a year on a rolling basis - that are average and boring, readers of Terrorizer demand more for extreme rock music and more than a once a month fix)

- industralists, goths, post rockers, fans of IDM/ electronica music, terrorizer types - hardcore, noisecore and extreme metal, Wire intellectuals, junglists, ambient heads, technoheads, tech housers, -all are neglected by NME

and NME's coverage of the following is totally inadequate - techno/ tech house/ electronica/ electro/progressive house. Relegated to one page !

NME's coverage of industrial and darkwave is non existent.

What is needed in Britain is a radical weekly music magazine, with a High IQ agenda - to be our guide to modern sound exploration

There is room for a magazine with a radical, eclectic, knowledgeable and challenging take on contemporary music as well as having a solid appreciation and understanding of the best music of the past "a coalition of underground and creative margins"

A weekly magazine that is a mixture of The Wire meets Terrorizer meets Wax meets Side Line meets Alternative Press

I am thinking of something as excellent as The Lizard magazine in 94/95 or Zigzag in the late 70s/ early 80s

covering

abstract sounds/ downtempo ambient dark ambient dark metal digital hardcore dub electro rock electro/ breakbeats epic rock experimental electronica gothic/darkwave/ethereal hardcore/ emocore industrial/electro industrial/ ebm jungle math rock metalcore/noisecore Noisey US Indie Rock post hardcore rock post rock/ spacerock/drone rock/ Lo fi progressive house/trance tech house techno

DJ Martian

djmartian.blogspot.com

DJ Martian, Thursday, 14 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think that the world has ever "needed" another critic/critical venue.

Sterling Clover, Friday, 15 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wouldn't sell. The kids are not interested in darkwave. The kids, it seems, aren't very interested in reading about music, generally. Whether this is because the standard of pop writing in this country is low, or because the standard of pop is low, or because they have different information needs and channels, or because they can't read, I couldn't tell you.

Tom, Friday, 15 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nobody would want to read that because it would be intellegent. Heavens forbid that intellgence would get anywhere these days.

Music and it's culture is at all time low - thanks to Pop these days just being a factory line with no room for being creative. The marketing is more important than the songs. Dance keeps repeating itself and people who listen to it are twats anyway. Indie has become boring and stale, and needs a good firm kick up the arse if it is to be at least a little fresh and exciting again. (Ha!).

Phil Paterson, Friday, 15 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No it doesn't. We've got the internet now, for a start :).

Lutra Lutra, Friday, 15 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Covering everything you like?

Dan Chedgzoy, Friday, 15 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Your question implies (to me at least) that you think there's stuff you can't read about on the internet. Like what?

Josh, Friday, 15 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the internet is clearly going to be the way ahead now. *even* nme have realised that (in the process of course becoming completely self- important in their role in developing this). nme is of course, a self- important, badly written, shallow, lacking in wide coverage, piece of weekly piss. but (as far as I know) it's all there is really left for people who mainly like indie music ( a dying breed anyway) - god forbid that we might have to start reading Q/Mojo etc o a regular basis. so it will keep selling (picking up no extra readers from the maker since they all read nme anyway).

god help us.

Bill

Bill, Saturday, 16 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I enjoy reading printed magazines, as well as the internet. I have diverse music interests, and enjoy reading about different perspectives and opinions on music.

fact - taking an overall knowledge of contemprary music, there are few people who can match me with knowledge across the sound spectrum from dark metal to tech house to spacerock to electro industrial etc.

fact - However there are MANY people with specialist indepth knowledge of particular genres and music scenes that I continue to learn from on an ongoing daily basis.

Josh, even you mentioned the overload of keeping up with music in relation to Uncle Fester best of lists.

Why can't there be one weekly music magazine, that rather reflects sets and shapes the music agenda. With the best music writers, both cross genre types and other writers have a deep specialist and informed knowledge within particular genres. But rather keeping the best music locked into music ghettos, a quality focused eclectic music magazine - can inspire, rather than reading 10 average market researched niche music titles, give me one excellent one - that breaks the rules, challenges, questions, informs, has strong opinions and enthuses.

Music for me is about discover, sound exploration. Yes the internet is a very useful tool - but I also want to read an exiciting weekly printed music magazine.

Rather than keeping music in ghettos, interesting creative music deserves a wider audience.

josh stated "Your question implies (to me at least) that you think there's stuff you can't read about on the internet. Like what? "

that is not my intention, there are many websites that I check and read on a regular basis, see my website for details, it can be time consuming!. However most of the deep knowledge of new music, is initially locked into specialist genre scene websites - with few exceptions, the idea behind a radical, diverse, eclectic music magazine - is that it would break music out of scene ghettos, fasttrack new talent, inform a wider audience, interesting music deserves a wider audience.

This past year I have had a growing interest in artists in noisecore, metalcore etc such as Botch, Dillinger Ecape Plan, Isis, Drowingman, and there a growing number of artists that I am taking an interest in such as Taken, Zao, Sky came falling, Grade. Does MM or NME cover these artists no!

Does the MM/NME cover artists such electro industrialists such as Hocico or VNV Nation ? no

Has the NME/ MM picked up artists such as Ulver, Artcturus, In the Woods, Strapping Young Lad, Beyond Dawn,3rd & the Mortal, Anathema, Solefald in recent years? No

Why does the MM/ NME choose to put dumbasses such Fred durst on the cover? and not Cave in, Trans Am, or And You Will know Us by the Trail of Dead

Has the NME/ or MM - celebarated jungle - this year - no

Why have NME/ MM - ignored an exceptional talented artist such as Zan Lyons this year - Zan's talent deserves a wider audience

Why has NME not put Laurent Garnier - on the front cover this year?

Why has the NME not celebrated the excellent tech house music as featured on MR C show on Kiss? Circulation, Layo & Bushwacka etc

I could go with countless other examples !

So yes there are a range of artists (that I am aware of from the internet or John Peel or other music magazines/ fanzines)that NME does not cover that I would like to read reviews, interviews, and writers perspectives on, also a good music writer/magazine should also be able to introduce and switch me on to artists that I am unfamiliar with - e.g Terrorizer, Wire, Outburn, Knowledge, Beware the Cat, Wax, Side Line, etc - however these magazines range from monthlies - to quarterlys per year etc. However I want a weekly fix.

I simply would like to read an interesting, informed, passionate music magazine each week, - is this to much to ask for? the MM did this well in 87/ 88, and I also enjoyed reading Sounds in the 80s.

NME - does not inspire me, it does not cover the across the spectrum music that I enjoy and am interesting in learning more about, it offers poor analysis, and its writers are not given space and encouraged to voice their opinions.

Indeed a better approach to music journalism, would be to give key writers there own page, with their thoughts on music, internet websites to check out, playlists, albums of the week etc - rather the NME today has a dull house style of journalism - that is merely consumerist PR rehashed, inane waffle with mainstream musical non entities, single reviews that are through away, album reviews that are insubstanial, no analytical thought pieces, over familiar artists that offer nothing new, the ignorance of many areas of contemporary music, no fasttracking of exceptional musical talent regardless of sales figures etc. NME is way sort of what a music magazine should be.

NME, MM, Select, Q, Mojo etc - have failed music and discerning music fans over the the last decade. Surely we deserve something far better? I dont want indie smash hits (MM/NME), John Lennon/Q deadrock mags like mojo/Q, clubs and drugs lifestyle not music magazines such as Mixmag/ Ministry.

Now will EMAP relaunch Sounds(they bought the rights to the name) when Morgan Grampian publishers sold out to EMAP along with Kerrang in 1991.

EMAP in 2001 I believe will launch a rival weekly music magazine, instead of a 3 way tie, with MM out of the way, and the NME having so many weaknesses - this is too good a chance to take on IPC/ NME. They will do it.

DJ Martian djmartian.blogspot.com

DJ Martian, Saturday, 16 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Where does this assumption that magazines are necessary come from? However many Wire intellectual junglists (the fuck?) are pointed out to me in a magazine, I'd much rather just talk about it and listen to it with a real, live person. I propose that friends are a much better (and much more trustworthy) filter than an anonymous magazine.

Also, where does the idea that it takes skill or ability to keep up with music come from? I'd say it takes a lot more disposable income and spare time than skill. I can find out what records people recommend easily; it's having the money to buy them and the time to listen to them that I find difficult.

Greg, Saturday, 16 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

there would never be a magazine to satisfy any of you. though dj martian sems to be proud to boast of himself as a lover of all music that is not the current state of the larger population's affinity for recorded music, everything is segregated and the idea that a magazine could, without fail, cover every single genre of music is a tiny bit of mythmaking. i'd rather see more specialized magazines but the economics of a fractured marketplace make that impossible so it seems to me we will be stuck with magazines collectively dipping their toes in many different musical ponds and making not a single person happy in the process. for me the internet is already filled with far too much pseudo- intellectualisation of music, for myself, i would desire a glut of devotional emotionally driven sites like tangents over any more freaky triggers or pitchforks. i am aware this is only my particular slant but as seen in the godless question above the philosophical arguing over musical trends as seems to be the end goal by the readers here tends to be dry, dispassionate, uninvolving and in the end not too revealing considering the subjective nature of the material under discussion.

keith, Saturday, 16 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe the people you find dispassionate are simply passionate in different ways about music.

Josh, Saturday, 16 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This idea that FT is some kind of intellectual's (or wannabe- intellectual's) playground is a recurrent and weird one. I think Tangents is great, but I also think it's doing pretty much exactly the same thing we are, with less emphasis on the mainstream and more emphasis on lost 1980s jangle bands and going for long melancholy walks.

I suppose also we're nastier about music. Hmm. Okay, try this romantic analogy on for size - Tangents is about putting pop on a pedestal, whereas FT is about a relationship with pop, the downs as well as the ups. But if you think we're not 'devotional' you're not reading hard enough.

Tom, Sunday, 17 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Personally, Tom, I think FT should feature more writing about long melancholy walks.

Josh, Sunday, 17 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah but Tom, we all know that you can't understand why Alistair Fitchett might, gasp, choose to live anywhere to the west of Swindon :).

A lover of long, melancholy walks, Sunday, 17 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The pleasure of understanding vs. the pleasure of connecting, perhaps? Music criticism as seeking relationship between listener and work, trying to comprehend what it is to appreciate, and why it is that connection occurs?

Sterling Clover, Sunday, 17 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree with the question entirely. The Maker went seriously downhill about 3 years ago and lost all the writers that made it great: Simon Reynolds, Simon Price, Neil Kulkarni, Taylor parkes, etc..

Robin, Wednesday, 20 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oddly enough, Kulkarni was still writing for them the last time I picked up a copy (maybe 3 months ago). I would have thought that he of all people would have jumped ship as soon as Sutherland joined.

Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 20 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was equally surprised that Kulkarni has lasted the course. However he seemed to have been largely diverted to writing about his guilty pleasure which is, of course, Sutherland's beloved metal.

"WE'RE NOT REALLY IN COV HONEST MR AND MRS NICE SOUTHERN TORY PARENTS" :).

The World of Science, Thursday, 21 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah but I forgot Kulkarni's best ever which was, of course, his diatribe against Ned's Atomic Dustbin's "Brainblood Volume", which did not mention anything about the record itself and devoted itself to a cruel, nasty, unsolicited and wonderfully entertaining attack on middle-class Southern students at Warwick University:

"Cherry red doc wearing stupid Bronx hat and shorts combo sidewinding Carter shirt over PWEI long-sleeve stripey-tights pony-owning drippy horse-faced please hit me Mazola-haired spotty sack-of-subservience girlfriend-having ... put 'Glory Box' on to show how hip you are and with every word of your cretinous jabber make me wanna rip your face off ... do the sailor's hornpipe to The Levellers have a zany 'Quotes Board' in your communal kitchen sneer at townies ruin every pub you set foot in for nine months ... tie chequered shirt round your waist goatee-beard attempting waiting for your balls to drop say pants when annoyed Terry Pratchett reading Vic'n'Bob quoting stupid dense thick crass sottish doltish dumb imbecilic dim idiotic asinine fatuous inane gormless banal snide mindless brainless daft backsliding pig cunt bastard scab insect bitch shiteating monkeyspunk gorging faced arseheaded sweaty ring-pierced fucking SCUM. Yeah, I'm talking to YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Oh, you'll *love* it."

MM, 15th July 1995. The only way to go was down ...

The World of Science, Thursday, 21 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four weeks pass...
Thank you World of Science, I remember that review, one of the classics. Bless ol'Neill he got me into Mobb Deep.

o.munoz, Friday, 19 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A little question I'd like to ask the older and wiser contributors to the forum - has the NME ever been decent? I started reading it when I was 15 in 1996, and I can say from at least then they've been spouting the same 'We're the NME, we set the trends and there's nothing you can do about it' rubbish (indeed, there was a reply to a letter on the Angst page a couple of weeks back that genuinely read like that). What always has amused me is that despite statements like that, the press has been largely irrelevant to the majority of music buyers. I submit as evidence (the horrible) Ocean Colour Scene: the press hated them and yet they still sold by the truckload. The internet has only made their position worse. Why bother spending £1.20 to read a bunch of hacks with hidden agendas (remember the flak the Spice Girls took for being involved with Pepsi? The objection seemed to be that Pepsi was a second-rate cola...hmm...) when you can read far more interesting stuff from people who genuinely love music? This site alone has inspired to me to buy more music in 6 months than the NME has in 4 years. To respond to the question, I don't believe that another mag is needed whilst there is such a huge amount of better material on the internet.

DG, Friday, 19 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spot on. Which is why I was baffled with Martian's original requirements.

Robin Carmody, Sunday, 21 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and for what it's worth, the NME hasn't been good since about 1993, and hasn't been better than the MM since 1985.

Robin Carmody, Sunday, 21 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry to go on a bit, but just to prove my point the latest NME (27/1) seems to be entirely devoted to plugging that new 'Almost Famous' film. Go see what I mean.

DG, Wednesday, 24 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And mythologising its own former hacks. And claiming that Steve Sutherland has been at the NME since 1980, when in fact he was at the MM from 1980 to 1992 - in other words, implying that the two publications have always been merged with each other rather than just this month.

Go figure :).

Robin Carmody, Monday, 29 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fuck a weekly music paper, what Britain needs is something like the Village Voice, which plainly has the best music section in the entire damn world - I mean *look* at the current line-up: 2step AND NY 60s drone minimalism AND teenybop pop AND what looks like a jazz piece for the Josh element. I am greener than the Hulk. *That* is what FT should ideally be like (plus all the crass features to get the hits in, heh heh).

Tom, Friday, 2 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Except of course that the article on 2-step seems to go out of its way to be wrongheaded. Apparently, a dance genre's relative innovation is controlled largely by its speed (actually an interesting idea but untrue in and of itself), jungle had nothing to offer, 2-step is best when it tries to be disco, the darker stuff is horrid and we should only pay attention to the big names who've released albums. And yet Woods somehow ends up liking 2-step. Strange.

Tim... who could be seeing MJ Cole tonight but is not... damn., Friday, 2 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well as I just said on NYLPM it's the commissioning policy that excites me more than the individual pieces - though there have been some awesome ones recently. I think you or Greg or Sterling should write them a snotty letter and get hired, though.

Tom, Friday, 2 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Certain geographical difficulties to that plan, methinks; perhaps Sterling? My sister is actually passing along some of my stuff to a friend at some weird net-culture company thingy who may want me or otherwise may have connections to a street music rag who may...etc. So I desperately had to search for some of my writings that didn't sound like insane twittering to an imaginary friend who thinks nothing of conversations around snare sounds.

As for Scott's article, well it's hardly surprising that a US piece would end up having such a skewed perception of the whole thing (Tim says, living in Australia, but then I bet Scott doesn't spend nearly as much on 2-step as I do) and so on average Scott did a pretty good job. The jungle comment was the only one that actually shocked me - how can you possibly like 2-step and not like at least some jungle?

Tim, Friday, 2 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well jungle was never popular in the states, really, and Woods strikes me as being very much in the radical-populism Eddy tradition where what is popular is good because it pleases people, as opposed to the Reynolds idea that what is popular is good because it creates a rave massive and has mad new sounds (the FT approach is a hybrid of these, as you've probably noticed). So on that model there's no 'reason' to pay jungle much attention.

Tom, Friday, 2 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Forget the VV, the magazine I admire most right now is Revolution, which covers all bases. Latest issue features an overview of the best of hip-hop, sort of like a cheat sheet -- except one clever enough to mention Simon Reynold's B-Boys on E, to hype Kool Keith, and to have smarmy comments about dead rappers. Okay, that covers the Details end. Then there's the feature on MJ Cole which is really just some stylish photos. Which, along with a few other style layouts, covers the Vanity Fair magazine trashy fun end. Then there's the interviews -- which range from Boy George to house producers to et cet., going over an astonishing range of various musics -- sort of trite interviews, but capture a flavor -- which is the CMJ end of things. Then there's the "cool album" featurettes at the back, sort of Entertainment Weekly like, and covering an equally diverse range. Then the tie-in to the online music sampler, and the listing of the 40 or so best free MP3s they've found that month -- which is the trusted DJ element. And then the feature where they list the albums you should spend 100$ on each month -- some newly released, some going back well on 30 years. The once-over-lightly attitude towards not understanding, but enjoying at least the whole of today's vast mishmash is sort of the ultimate anti-Wire approach to similar territory.

Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 7 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Songlines and uncut are OK

, Monday, 12 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...
Martian: obviously I would like to see the NME according to my specifications (I think that was on the 'NME: good?' thread). That aside, no, I certainly don't ever wish to see any publication, record or product that has anything to do with the kind of records you espouse.

the pinefox, Saturday, 28 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That does not surprise me, buy the new Orbital on Monday listen to Dr Who theme remixed, get back in the Tardis then set the controls to travel back in time 1991.

Here's where the story (of music) ends

DJ Martian, Saturday, 28 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...
< TROLL >What about BANG Magazine?< /TROLL >

Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 12 May 2003 11:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Bang is part of the problem, and not a solution.

DJ Martian (djmartian), Monday, 12 May 2003 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...
Revive.

revive, Friday, 13 May 2005 09:59 (twenty years ago)

Why?

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

what's an nme?

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

The opposite of a friend.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:05 (twenty years ago)

Hey, let's start a weekly music magazine, and call it "Friend".

Maybe not.

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:06 (twenty years ago)

hahahaha

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:08 (twenty years ago)

"my flexible friend"

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:08 (twenty years ago)

bendy

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:10 (twenty years ago)

but not in the sense of amanda platell with her 20-inch stilettoes on.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

um, there was an udnerground mag called 'frendz' yeah? five gets you nine some future nme writers wrote for it.

N_RQ, Friday, 13 May 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

Why?

Why not?
The original question is still relevant don't you think?

revive, Friday, 13 May 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

define "relevant"

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

Need? No. Otherwise there'd be one.

NME's dull complacency? I disagree, they seem frantically desperate to keep solvent by any means possible while bigging themselves up at every opportunity.

Apart from that, relevant.

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 May 2005 11:43 (twenty years ago)

Does Britain need another weekly diverse and radical discussion about NME that leads to dull complacency.

Err...no.

doomie x, Friday, 13 May 2005 11:44 (twenty years ago)

"Need? No. Otherwise there'd be one."

riight. fine logic!!! does iraq need peace? no, becasue otherwise it'd have it.

N_RQ, Friday, 13 May 2005 11:48 (twenty years ago)

does the nme need apologists? no.

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 11:49 (twenty years ago)

who is the apologist? get off yr arse and do something if you don't like the situation!

doomie x, Friday, 13 May 2005 12:02 (twenty years ago)

bitching on ilx isn't doing something now?

N_RQ, Friday, 13 May 2005 12:04 (twenty years ago)

what situation? i haven't read a music magazine in over two years and i'm unaware of any reason to change that. i gave up reading the NME because it didn't provide answers to the questions i sought. to be fair, pretty much no publication does, these days.

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:04 (twenty years ago)

nme is not the meaning of life!

doomie x, Friday, 13 May 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

i would hope not! life would be pretty sad otherwise

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:08 (twenty years ago)

Ahem. The NME is not like peace in Iraq.

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

Does Britain need a new weekly diverse and radical music magazine? to take on NME's dull complacency

Replace "Britain" with "the US" and "NME's" with "Rolling Stone's and Spin's" and you're ridiculously OTM.

Rolling Stone is ten times duller than NME.

Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

Those of you who hate white guys with guitars already have numerous dance and hip-hop mags, so I don't see what you are complaining about. NME is pathetic, not in its championing of that kind of band once in a while, but in that they will usually start hating "the next big thing" just a year later.

What the Britan might have benefited from was if Q turned into a weekly mag, giving good reviews and positive coverage to the music that actually sounds good, regardless of time and trends, rather than what the kids decide they want to use to provoke parents and teachers with right now.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

I bought an issue of Q last week (for research purposes) - JESUS CHRIST! How big is that font????? It's about a half-step away from Janet and John books.

Tom (Groke), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

Geir, you seem to be the only one that gets excited about the kind of music that everyone hos and hums about.

If Q 'enthused' about stuff that 'sounds' good, why criticise anybody? Everything 'sounds' good.

mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:25 (twenty years ago)

define "relevant"

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

Those of you who hate white guys with guitars already have numerous dance and hip-hop mags, so I don't see what you are complaining about

A completely wild guess on my part, but I'm thinking that maybe you're not incredibly familiar with the British dance press?

DJ Mencap0))), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

The "white" stands out in that sentence like a B*P supporter would do in the middle of Southall at two o'clock on a Saturday afternoon.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

get off yr arse and do something if you don't like the situation!

I did, I stopped buying the NME.

Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 13 May 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

fair point the kids

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 13 May 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1821508769/decompression-music-magazine

getting a warm djmartian glow off of this

Julian-Joachim Roedelius (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 00:11 (twelve years ago)

NME's coverage of industrial and darkwave is non existent.

caek, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 03:47 (twelve years ago)

first ilm thread I ever read. I recall a friend linking me to it saying that I would enjoy ILM.

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 03:53 (twelve years ago)

If they're going for that design aesthetic, I'm already out.

dog latin, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 09:51 (twelve years ago)

That's horrible.

they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:22 (twelve years ago)

"Philosophy". Yeah, right.

Manfred Mann meets Man Parrish (ithappens), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:31 (twelve years ago)

oh my god WHERE IS THE APOSTROPHE in that massive strapline

lex pretend, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:37 (twelve years ago)

The 'FREE CD' on the cover is kind of quaint.

Matt DC, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:42 (twelve years ago)

"Sales of music itself" are not "rapidly declining."

Not exactly the Paris Review.

Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:43 (twelve years ago)

This would have been amazing for 15 y/o me in 1995. What is "Crossover"?

dog latin, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 10:47 (twelve years ago)

what is EBM

Alice 2 Chainz - "I Luv Dem Bones" (zachlyon), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 11:09 (twelve years ago)

"electronic butt music"

9 results (0.27 seconds)

Alice 2 Chainz - "I Luv Dem Bones" (zachlyon), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 11:10 (twelve years ago)

english black metal, they hurl eggs at football stadiums

Black Sabbath - violence, religious obscurantism (imago), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 11:11 (twelve years ago)

nah sticking with mine

Alice 2 Chainz - "I Luv Dem Bones" (zachlyon), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 11:12 (twelve years ago)

EBM in fairness was actually a thing - basically industrial dance music.

The only two photos visible feature a white dude with dreadlocks and a bloke in a balaclava. All they need is a dog on a string and they've got the hat trick.

Matt DC, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 11:15 (twelve years ago)

the dreads guy is Aaron Spectre, I quite like him because I'm up to speed with the hot squat sounds of 2004

Julian-Joachim Roedelius (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 11:52 (twelve years ago)

pledge £178.95 and they can upgrade to Photoshop CS4.

bendy, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 12:11 (twelve years ago)

I don't think they've really thought this through if they think they can produce a decent print magazine for a grand.

Matt DC, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 12:28 (twelve years ago)

i was gonna say they'd have a hard time selling it, but maybe a squatter/crusty revival is just round the corner.

dog latin, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 12:41 (twelve years ago)

looking at the sort of stuff they're talking about covering, I think it's more for metalheads who like a bit of dance music on the side as long as it reminds them of metal. the dummy issue has Anaal Nathrakh on the cover. if they're only printing 250 copies they'd prolly do better making it look like an authentic shonky cut'n'paste fanzine instead of something made on a government training scheme

Julian-Joachim Roedelius (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 13:16 (twelve years ago)

Is Rock a Rolla magazine still going?

ジー・ニュー・マイ・ブラッディー・バレンタイン・リッコード・カインダー・ブローズ (MaresNest), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 13:18 (twelve years ago)

No, I think it married Kate Winslet.

Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 13:40 (twelve years ago)

A "physical magazine of musical style"? With a free CD and sticker bundle?

OMG TAKE MY MONEY

On Being Blue (Da Ba Dee): A Philosophical Inquiry (wins), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 14:19 (twelve years ago)

The 'FREE CD' on the cover is kind of quaint.

don't pretty much all the monthlies still have a covermount CD on every issue? surely this is no more quaint than printing on paper?

SOYLENT GREEN IS SHEEPLE (stevie), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 15:20 (twelve years ago)

For extra redundancy there should be a PDF of the magazine on the CD.

"Did you see the sign on my car park that said 'Dead King Storage'?" (snoball), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 15:26 (twelve years ago)

The fact that they felt the need to list breakcore, speedcore and gabba seperately speaks volumes. Reeks of crusty.

straightola, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 15:30 (twelve years ago)

Is Rock a Rolla magazine still going?

yup. Its pretty established now.

http://rock-a-rolla.com/main/

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 12 February 2013 17:06 (twelve years ago)


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