Who are the best music journalists currently/ever?

luka

Well-known member
We make up afterwards but it's a source of constant tension, sometimes buried sometimes close to the surface
 

boxedjoy

Well-known member
But you can definitely still be interested in youth culture and popular stuff without being like "hey fellow young person who is also poly do you wanna do a tiktok to Billie Eilish?"
 

kumar

Well-known member
i think over egging your visceral reaction to music is pretty crucial for reviews but i suppose that conveying any genuine commitment might be pretty impossible if youre a resident advisor style hack. my favorite "proper" reviews from the last couple of years were probably on the low company website, and theres a fair bit of "ball choppingly good" sshenanigans there, but you also get the sense that there is an at times breathlessly exciting world of thousands of singular swedish noise freaks and teenage psyche prodigies from scunthorpe completely dedicated to their vital path.

i probably listened to 3% of the records on there but the energy they put in was impressive. but its also welcome to read anything that doesn't sound like a undergraduate art history press release.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Danger of not being exposed to youthful optimism and passion.

I found that people in their early twenties (and teenagers) got quite irritating when I was in my 30s. Probably that was quite healthy. I like them now though and it's good because I am well past the age where there can be any ambiguity about our relationships.
 

luka

Well-known member
I found that people in their early twenties (and teenagers) got quite irritating when I was in my 30s. Probably that was quite healthy. I like them now though and it's good because I am well past the age where there can be any ambiguity about our relationships.

Me too. There was a period when I was stuck working in coffee shops in my 30s and it became intolerable because of this. They wanted me to die and I felt the same about them.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
But you can definitely still be interested in youth culture and popular stuff without being like "hey fellow young person who is also poly do you wanna do a tiktok to Billie Eilish?"

Well I am (a bit) and what works for me is:

1. Not making it central to my identity
2, Linking stuff to other things I have always liked (Drill -> Grime -> Fast chat MCs for example, but also Girls Aloud -> Soft Cell -> sixties girl bands)
3. Asking younger people about this stuff rather than lecturing them about it.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Penny Reel introduced me to Nick Kimberley at reggae do about 10 years ago. He was one of my sorta heroes because the pair of them edited Pressure Drop in the 1970s which was the UK's first reggae fanzine.

I asked him what he was doing now and he told me that he was reviewing classical music for the Evening Standard. And I looked confused and asked him how he ended up doing that.

And basically he really loved music and followed a trail of progressively interesting material and that's where it lead him. He was probably in his 60s or something at the time.

I thought that was quite dignified.

Yeah, that was just my reaction to that specific situation. He was there, talking to the Sugababes, who were talking about their career aspirations in the industry, and you could read him, between the lines, despairing.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Yeah I keep having this conversation with Paul Meme who remains happy as a pig in shit making 2 step tracks. I mean fair play to him, he is completely genuine about it. Just seems a bit narrow to me...

tell him to make a speedcore 2step hybrid, the dem 2 micro edits double timed to the 2step beats, but they are gabberised.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Danger of not being exposed to youthful optimism and passion.

There's no danger. you just grow out of it. Music just demands more of a commitment when you're less naive. It's the only way to form the future without being locked into the momentum of inevitably transient youth cultures. There was a lot of shit dance music in the 90s, totally irredeemable. Be that the eurodance end or the one bar bongo loop tribal techno end. Same with 70s jazz, heaps of shite. loads of wank punk. and don't even get started on anticon.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
quite a bit of decently good but not great jungle from its golden age as well. the journalist is never a participant in the culture so the hard work is always done for them. Their job is really quite easy. cratedigging is antithetical to the music journalist, though not necessarily the critic outside of that circuit.
 
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