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For its 30th edition, Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival handed the reins to Little Simz, not just one of British music’s sharpest voices, but a listener deeply attuned to the multiplicity of sound. Over eleven days, she reimagined the festival as a living, breathing portrait of her creative world: a space where Yoruba-rooted soul met met contemporary classical composition, grime flowed over orchestral arrangements, spoken word cut through stripped-back folk, and West African guitar rhythms trade phrases with sparse, loop-driven minimalist […]...
For the opening night of her Meltdown-curated festival, Little Simz handed the keys to a fellow scene-shaper: Mike Skinner, the Midlands-born writer-producer-MC behind The Streets, who rewired the UK music with Original Pirate Material in 2002. Now, 30 years into the project — from mid-90s pirate radio roots to a Mercury-nominated legacy — and performing in the stately Royal Festival Hall no less, he’s still pulling the same trick: using everyday detail and raw emotional clarity to push things somewhere […]...
Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” was already thundering through the Royal Festival Hall when BADBADNOTGOOD began walking onstage. No lights-up moment, no announcement, just that snarling antiwar riff bouncing off the walls. Three days earlier, Israel had launched strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. In response, the following morning, Iran and the Houthis fired missiles at Israeli targets. By the 16th, that intro felt weighty. Charged. The band didn’t say a word. They let it hang, then sliced straight into “Eyes On […]...
In Estonia, the weather isn’t background noise. It’s narrative. The long, dim winters tighten your world into a kind of tunnel vision. The brief, ecstatic summers feel like a reward for having made it through. And in between, during those awkward and indecisive weeks of spring or autumn, you get stuck in limbo. One day it’s T-shirt weather; the next, you’re digging out your winter coat again. You leave the house with confidence and return damp, cold, and full of […]...
Every summer near the Danish town of Roskilde, a peaceful plain transforms into a sprawling pop-up city of music, art and community. Over eight days, around 130,000 people converge – a volunteer-powered metropolis of 100,000 ticket-holders and 30,000 helpers – turning this small town into one of Denmark’s largest cities for a week. The festival’s ethos is summed up in the “Orange Feeling”: a spirit of openness, freedom and shared respect that runs through every campfire and stage. From recycled-tent […]...
LATEST POSTS
Event Review: Cross The Tracks @ Brockwell Park (London; Sunday, 25th May 2025)
Words by Samuel Fletcher / Photos by Khali Ackford, Garry Jones & Samuel Fletcher
Album Review: Femi Kuti – Journey Through Life [Partisan; April 2025]
Words by Lucas Keen
Interview: Yugen Blakrok – The Art of Becoming (April 2025)
Words by Marco Canepari; Photo by Oscar Lanau
Interview: Ana Lua Caiano – Tradition in Loops, Resistance in Layers (May 2025)
Words by Marco Canepari / Photo by Vera Marmelo
Event Preview: Cross The Tracks 25 (Brockwell Park, London; Sunday 25th May 2025)
Words by Samuel Fletcher / Photo by Garry Jones
Album Review: Salif Keita – So Kono (Nø Førmat!; April 2025)
Words by Lucas Keen
