Bristol Bass Music Scene Report

photo credit: Brizzlebornandbred 2010 was an eventful year for the Bristol underground. Liam from the Liquid Steel Sessions, one of the most forward thinking Soundsystem crews in Sheffield has this report… 2010 saw Easton’s Dubstep wonderkid Joker sign a publishing deal with heavyweight label Universal and a landmark collaboration between some of the local scene’s luminaries and Jamaican Dub engineer Scientist. Curated by Tectonic label boss DJ Pinch, Scientist Launches... Read More

Locking off the dance.

Eh, not sure if it’s much consolation – but Irish cops aren’t the only ones locking off the dance despite legalities being sorted and all that shizzle. If you spent NYE spaced out like a mong, trying to figure out your take away numbers from your local taxis, you might find a mirror in this wee piece from dancehall tourists over in JA. Definitely for me, that whole buzz of such a well organised dance being shut down by some local pigs stuck like a sore thumb... Read More

How Do Gods Feel About Super-glue?

photo credit: Matthew Winterburn I’m not one seeped in superstition, but there are some things that you certainly develop personal attachments for and wind little personal beliefs around, even really if it’s just to add some level of magical realism to our usual hyper rational world. And so, there was the puma statue.  A darling little object of black stone, that I picked up in the Witches Market in La Paz.  It depicted a snarling puma, clutching a severed human... Read More

Cowboys and Kymers

photo credit: Dave_B_ ’ve always preferred to think that you can get inside a country’s psyche faster by sitting in bars talking with the people who live there. My night-time walking tour of East Berlin’s seedy history and seedier bars led by a man dressed as a magician is a treasured memory of a great weekend blighted only by a tedious afternoon looking at the Reichstag. Skipping out on the “cultural” attractions of Barcelona to reel blindly around the Gothic Quarter,... Read More

Snakes on a Plane.

photo credit: Matti Mattila A conversation on a Thai-airways flight from bangkok to London mid august 2008 approximately 6am many miles above central Europe.  Mark wakes up from a Valium induced stupor still groggy and not quiet in contact with reality. Gentleman seated beside Mark: “Where are you from?” Mark: “Ireland, where are you from?” Gent: “The Philippines. Where are you going?” Mark: “To Ireland and you?” Gent: “To... Read More

This Way Up: Reimagining Argentina’s Shattered Economy From Below

photo credit: Mate Amargo blus Just recently Buenos Aires became a mass partying destination for Americans, all intent on a retail respite from the gringo trail that runs down the spine of the continent. It lends itself well to most of the disconnected vignettes that pass for travel writing. You give some harried mentions of local poverty, and assurances of stabilisation, then you roll into dishing advice on where to join the local urbane consumer class as it gets mashed... Read More

Theatre Review: Disco Pigs In Toronto

photo credit: rofanator   Quite a few years ago, the extent of my access to “under ground” culture came in morsels through the magazine racks of Eason’s dominated news agent chains. Still, there was always goodness to be found in the racks of other cut throat bookstores that pop up to profit from over stocks and cheap rents in vacant small town shopping centre units. One play that continuously made its way on to the bargain shelves of such an outlet... Read More

A Pair of Skates, A Stick and Shinny

photo credit: Banff Lake Louise I started playing hockey this year, or rather shinny. Shinny for beginners, just to be precise. People show up, they throw their sticks in the middle of the rink and once split up in two groups, one lucky team gets to be team hi viz. I don’t believe through the whole season we ever kept track of the score. But believe me, you keep track of your own. Although once I was told I got a hat trick and stared back blankly, hoping I would be... Read More

Street Art and The War On Terror

Remember my interview with the Vomito Attack heads fond of raging across Buenos Aires with spray cans in hand and that link to the Flickr gallery of street art I took while away this time last year? No? Don’t worry I barely did. And then I got a request out of the blue some months ago, asking if it was okay to use some of the photos I took. They’ve made their way into a forth coming hardback compendium of all those walls where the war on terror and street art met... Read More

Scratching the Surface of San Telmo

Buenos Aires is a city where European cultural impulses throb with a South American heart beat. Each night I found myself basking in a pool of dusk in squares ruled by colonial elegance, sipping Quillmes beer, sucking on cigerettes and nattering over life’s hum and haws in the night time company of young portenos (Buenos Aires locals). The economic collapse and peso devaluation of 2001 has made Buenos Aires an increasingly popular destination for partying American students... Read More