One Thousand Cranes
On my recent trip back to the UK I was lucky enough to bump into my old friend Kevin Summers, of Anomaly. He had come to a house party thrown in honour of my return, thinking it was the host’s birthday, but that’s beside the point (he did bring a nice card). Whilst reflecting on...
How Soft Cell’s Tainted Love Came To Be…
Ian Dewhirst, longtime Soul DJ and man behind Mastercuts and many other good things, just put this post on DJ History and I thought I’d put this up here almost so I could remember it. The thread was about Leeds club The Warehouse. Ian Dewhirst says… “Soft Cell recorded “Tainted Love” as a direct result...
What’s It All About? Balearic Beat In 2012.
I was asked to write a piece for a friend about something relating to the website, so I have taken the easy way out and opted to talk about the main musical genre we focus on and obsess about, Balearic Beat. Thought I’d share it here. It’s a musical scene that is both niche and...
168 / Dr Rob / Tokyo-To Kissa #10
The Tokyo-To Kissas were made, one a month, during 2007. My first year in Japan. Prior to the move to Tokyo, I had spent much of my free time recreating Harvey`s Moonshadow sessions in a shed at the end of our garden in Croydon, so I was already on a pretty mellow one. Then someone,...
Tokyo Tracks 011 / あけぼの印 – 夜ノ街ヲ駈ケル
Mori Art Museum / Metabolism / The City Of The Future / 17092011 – 15012012 (click on poster for link to the Mori web site)
Rusty Egan’s Blitz Playlist
Here’s another one that we forgot from the old site and an important one in the scheme of things. To read more about Rusty Egan and the New Romantic scene click here. This is taken from here by Dave Rimmer, yours for a mere £3. Here’s the playlist on Spotify. Thanks to Adam Atkinson and...
Boat Drinks / Stop Making Sense Festival / Petracane
Giacomo is our roving techno reporter. Well he likes all sorts of stuff but generally he writes about techno and things related. He has just come back from the Stop Making Sense festival in Petracane so we asked him to give us a run down of how it was… Now in its second year, Stop...
010 / Far East Family Band / Nippon-Jin
To explain for the newer readers, Dr Rob is the other key contributor to Test Pressing alongside myself. He lives in Japan and here writes about living in the country post-earthquake. If you didn’t know the good doctor has a radio show and you can stream it here. When the Tohoku earthquake hit I was...
RIP Darryl Pandy
I just saw via Twitter that the great Darryl Pandy has passed away. Sad news. His performance on Top Of The Pops where he got so excited that he kicked of his shoes was a classic moment in the programmes history. Well for me and my mate Emma it was. I had the privilege of...
Just Because / 025
Why Chris Blackwell Is A Genius Part 312. This comes from an interview with Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter in today’s The New Review magazine (part of the Independent). The passage has been about Mott manager, and later producer of ‘London Calling’, Guy Stevens, and his cavalier attitude to life when they got onto the...
Gimme Shelter / Shelter NYC
This piece on the legendary New York club Shelter first appeared in Straight No Chaser and was written by Andy Thomas with photography by Dustin Ross. Prepare yourself for a Sunday morning epiphany, as Andy Thomas explores the deeper side of clubbing NYC style. For over a decade and a half The Shelter has provided...
124 / 雨ニモマケズ〕宮澤賢治 / Be Not Defeated By The Rain / Kenji Miyazawa
Dr Rob lives in Japan. This is his response to recent happenings. Help where you can people. Ed. :: 雨ニモマケズ 風ニモマケズ 雪ニモ夏ノ暑サニモマケヌ 丈夫ナカラダヲモチ 慾ハナク 決シテ瞋ラズ イツモシヅカニワラッテヰル 一日ニ玄米四合ト 味噌ト少シノ野菜ヲタベ アラユルコトヲ ジブンヲカンジョウニ入レズニ ヨクミキキシワカリ ソシテワスレズ 野原ノ松ノ林ノ ノ 小サナ萓ブキノ小屋ニヰテ 東ニ病気ノコドモアレバ 行ッテ看病シテヤリ 西ニツカレタ母アレバ 行ッテソノ稲ノ朿ヲ負ヒ 南ニ死ニサウナ人アレバ 行ッテコハガラナクテモイヽトイヒ 北ニケンクヮヤソショウガアレバ ツマラナイカラヤメロトイヒ ヒドリノトキハナミダヲナガシ サムサノナツハオロオロアルキ ミンナニデクノボートヨバレ ホメラレモセズ クニモサレズ サウイフモノニ ワタシハナリタイ Be Not Defeated By The...
Spectrum / Terry Farley
Story: Terry Farley Photographs: Chris Abbot On April 11th 1988 the vast space that was (and still is) Heaven opened its doors to an ‘Acid House’ night. The problem was apart from around 200 people who frequented Shoom and Future nobody knew what Acid House was, let alone how to dance to it. The promoters...
Laurie Anderson / Trisha Brown / Gordon Matta-Clark / Pioneers of the Downtown Scene New York 1970s
Today me and the boy (my 13 year old son) visited the new Barbican exhibition. Apparently a lot of the work comes from the time that the downtown NY scene came together across the mediums of art, music, dance and architecture (often all in the same piece). By the way, excuse the bad iPhone photos...
122 / Dr Rob / Tokyo-to Kissa #9
I wake in cold blue before the sun. Unraveling the dreams I have come to treasure. One or five AM. I have no idea. My head so cold it aches. I check the kids are covered and brave downstairs. Three degrees in the kitchen. But the fish are still swimming. I light the stove with...