m-orchestra – More Ghost Stories EP and live shows
Regular readers will know that I make cursed and haunted electronica about the paranormal under the name m-orchestra, which has been my regular recording name since *gulp* 1987. Jesus. Anyway, I’ve got a new EP coming out on 15 February…
Have yourself a Womblin’ Christmas
What a lovely end of year treat a #TimsTwitterListeningParty for the Wombles’ album Superwombling was. That was my Wombles album as I kid. I suspect the vinyl is still lurking at my parent’s house somewhere. The passage of time is…
The definitive answer to the Fairytale of New York lyric controversy
In 1987, “Fairytale of New York” was beaten to Xmas #1 by Pet Shop Boys with “Always On My Mind”. This was the correct verdict by the British record buying public. Shane MacGowan is reported to have said of this…
m-orchestra at Halloween
You might think that Halloween would be the perfect time to be a musician making spooky haunted electronic music. And you would be right. If you’ve never seen or heard my Fortean electronica, then over the next couple of weeks…
Anneliese Michel
I released a new single on Saturday in all good digital record stores. It is called Anneliese and tells the particularly grim story of a woman, Anneliese Michel, who died in the 1970s. To contemporary eyes it seems most likely…
Mark E Smith
In recent years I always went to The Fall gigs with the assumption that it might be the last time I’d ever see the band. And then suddenly it was. When the news broke of Mark E Smith’s death yesterday,…
“I just got a bit fed up with singing and dancing for other people’s profit” – interview with The The’s Matt Johnson
Earlier this year, with Theresa May putting troops on the street during a general election campaign in the UK, I got in touch with The The’s management to see if Matt Johnson might share his thoughts on the political situation…
Thirty years of watching The Fall
It’s an amazing anniversary today. No, not two months since I last updated my blog. It’s thirty years since I first saw The Fall play live. It’s a gig that has lived long in the memory. I must have seen…
“Vinyl revival” stories are the worst fake news stories of all
This is a real bugbear of mine, but people keep writing about it, so I’m going to keep moaning about it. There’s another round this week of stories about “the vinyl revivial”, because apparently vinyl sales have out-stripped digital downloads…
Using wearable tech to film YouTube is going to be the new “taping songs off the chart show”
OK, probably not, but here goes… So I’ve been getting a glimpse of the future of wearable tech because my 5 year old daughter decided to spend her Xmas money on a Vtech watch like this. The main things she…