FACT magazine - could it stop people moaning about the pitiful state of UK music media?

Ostgut-Ton cocktail umbrella as well.

Agree with Garda, aside from Kiran Sande (granted he is the editor), and maybe things here and there, the writing tends to be pretty bad, in certain cases abysmal (i.e. everytime they ever try to do anything funny).

really hate the sort of British "let's all ave a laff" tone that British (and prob Irish, we're basically the same) people feel the need to do when writing about techno. It's not that I don't want jokes, just that this particular "what a load of bloody bollocks eg mate?" humour isn't actually funny.

casual homophobia of that list is a bit disturbing

yeah otm

^^^ poofs

i'll upload that "picture of you kissing a fat girl" if you're not careful jim

wait is Kiran the editor? I might be mixing him up with richard brophy at RA.

Also, the British humour (and the general UK-centricity of it) makes it harder for a North American like me to digest, so I'm not the best critic here.

is anyone regularly enjoying any techno/house writing these days? if so where is it?

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.de-bug.de%2Freviews%2F36139.html&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0=

; )

Their podcasts have been kicking RA's arse this year.

― Chewshabadoo,

that's why i started this thread: FACT Mixes. Your comments here...

Anyone following their run-down of best albums of the 80s? Some interesting choices though it seems to me self-consciously challopsy.
http://www.factmag.com/2013/06/24/the-100-best-albums-of-the-1980s-100-81/

feeling this so far, mainly because it embraces the arbitrary near-meaninglessness of these lists

Best of lists are the worst way to discover music

Yeah, lots of interesting records on there, but things like the low placing for Public Enemy and picking a Skin album (while possibly excluding Children of God? they seemed to hint that) is a bit daffy. Never heard that Colin Newman record, have two of his other solo records from that era though and they're great.

arbitrary near-meaninglessness otm

agreed, I like the fact that there's obviously no ballot and that it seems to be "hey this Jandek/Bathory/Tackhead record is good, let's put it on the list", making it all pretty random and therefore more interesting than reading yet again that "The Queen is Dead" is a pretty good record.

I just listened to the Colin Newman record Nick, it's of a kind with late 80s Wire records in terms of its sound and is good but not essential. Worth a listen though.

The Queen Is Dead can gtf tbh, it's an interesting exercise in extending the ~FACT aesthetic~ backwards in time while shining a light on a few obscurities (and racking up some page clicks) along the way.

yeah i saw Jack the Tab on the list and half of what they said about it seemed wildly inaccurate and it isn't a great record but i was happy to see it dusted off instead of some bonehead retro-nonce bollocks

61. JANDEK
SIX AND SIX
(CREATION, 1987)

looool

Ha, that's not even close to the right year either. Trying to think what Creation album from '87 they could have got the text jumbled with, I've got no idea.

that list! LOLLOLOL.. Seemed to be plenty of errors in the (short) write ups. At least do the research. UK Street Sounds comp were all attributable to Greg Wilson I'm sure...

xp Momus wasn't it?

xpost

Is Jack the Tab the same as Tekno Acid Beat? Because that's a comp that's stood the test of time pretty well, although some of that could be the flashbacks it's triggering on my part.

Sade followed by Morbid Angel in today's chunk!

http://factmag-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/36Szajner-300x300.jpg

^ I really have no idea wtf this is but it looks awesome as all hell

Never heard of it either, remarkably it's on Spotify:
http://open.spotify.com/album/5cDJVQeeoaMbQlNg5wUHaN

Cover reminded me of this:

http://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Black-Breath-Setneced-To-Life.jpg

never heard "Tekno Acid Beat" but it reads like a conceptually very similar thing to "Jack the Tab". I do like the latter, but in terms of pretending to be underground Acid House - which was how i understood it at the time, even knowing it was really Genesis P - it doesn't really succeed at all

a weird list, pleasingly so in places but today is a bit jarring, half "let's rep for stuff that would never make any other 80s top 100" and half "I guess we'd better put in this stuff that's on every other 80s top 100"

(also p. hard to navigate, but I'm sure we've done that discussion before)

nice to see the Units y/day though, looking forward to hearing that Bernard Szajner thing

xp Fortunately I was aware of Psychic TV well before I was aware of acid house so I didn't realize how derivative most of the production values in that compilation are. I'm pretty sure that the release I have combines Tekno Acid Beat and Jack the Tab but it's buried now so I can't be sure.

Regardless, they are compilations and not all strictly P Orridge productions. I think some of the music really does shine, there's one called Wicked (Mistress Mix) that still stands pretty well on its own.

i'll have to revisit it, it was real "of the moment" stuff for me

i can imagine the 2 albums boiling down to a pretty convincing EP amongst all the extended 60s psychploitation samples

Some interesting choices though it seems to me self-consciously challopsy.

Anything else would be truly surprising.

Blimey, this Bernard Szajner record is even better than the cover suggests.

Like a one man Magma meets the Residents in the Normal's cold, clammy basement.

Been discussed here. Have a vague idea that Bernard Szajner did a Kraftwerk and appeared on Tomorrow's World, have I dream that?

Could definitely see Judith Hann getting her funk on to this.

The laser harp was definitely featured on Tomorrow's World and he had some hand in its invention, and he'd worked with Jean-Michel Jarre so he must have introduced him to it

Pretty sure Jack the Tab was not an actual compilation. That was fictional, as I recall.

Hmmm. This might be a good time to sell my vinyl copy, if people suddenly get intereste again. (But maybe FACT magazine does not equal "people.")

interesting list, seems more personal than challopsy, but i'm not sure there's a difference

Some time in the 80s, some college friends and I once seized control of the TV in a generic pizzeria in Philadelphia, to put on Koyaanisquatsi (which we knew happened to be being broadcast).

Overall this list looks more like the 80s I knew in the 80s than a lot of other 80s lists I've seen, not that that's necessarily good or bad.

Definitely a touch of the Goblins with this Bernard Sjazner record...

Peanut Butter Wolf drops a 24hr(!!!) mix of soul 45s:
http://www.factmag.com/2014/02/14/fact-mix-425-peanut-butter-wolfs-24-hour-valentines-day-mix/

been a while since i visted, what the hell happened?

https://www.factmag.com/

seems to be just a front-end for a youtube channel now

they went videos & mixes only a while back

i know they laid some people off, possibly including their designer if that ugly new look is anything to go by

Good FACT obit here: https://notagspodcast.substack.com/p/06-music-journalism-the-final-farewell-tour

ever wondered what happened to FACT magazine?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBmGOEniawI/?igsh=MXg4bXpqczIzYzFoMg==

Lol, what year is it again?