Mareux – Night Vision [2⊘23]

In my past experience, strip clubs are not generally the happiest of places. Unless they have changed in the last few decades, they seemed frequented by mostly joyless older men, and populated with generally attractive women sometimes in it for the art of the pole dance, but always for the lucrative tips. It seemed what some women found degrading, others embraced. Yet for men, it always felt like an exercise in frustration, unless you dated … Continue reading Mareux – Night Vision [2⊘23]

An image of a scorched earth with an intruder emerging from the top and in close proximity to the sun

Gary Numan ~ Intruder [2⊘21]

A true 21st-century renaissance man, Gary Numan has reinvented himself both outwardly via cosmetic work and inwardly through mentoring from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. His remarkable life has been filled with trials and tribulations uniquely higher and lower than most. With the help of family and friends, he successfully transformed himself and his world from the highs of 80s song “Cars” to the lows of 90s album Machine … Continue reading Gary Numan ~ Intruder [2⊘21]

HUMAN BONE ART cover by Francois Robert

Arab Strap ~ The Turning of Our Bones [2⊘2⊘]

It has been variously said that everybody dies twice, first when we have breathed our last breath, and second when our name is spoken for the very last time. The Malagasy people of Madagascar take this philosophy a step further, much further, with a centuries-old funerary tradition … Continue reading Arab Strap ~ The Turning of Our Bones [2⊘2⊘]

Leonard Cohen ~ You Want It Darker [2⊘16]

A good friend of mine taught me a valuable lesson when I was a younger man. As he knew I had a predisposition towards the new and perfect, he instead encouraged me to seek beauty in the ill-used and oft-damaged. He showed me how scarred things display their flaws freely … Continue reading Leonard Cohen ~ You Want It Darker [2⊘16]

Mechanical heart within half human half skeleton body.

Depeche Mode ~ Stripped [1986]

Martin Gore famously paraphrased co-producer Daniel Miller’s shellacking of his demo tape, stating, “The songs aren’t good enough, there aren’t any singles and it’ll never get played on the radio.” That demo tape would become the basis of Depeche Mode’s fifth studio album Black Celebration. Lead single, “Stripped”, would be described as an “ominous and intriguing pop song”, reaching the top ten in five European countries (Finland, Ireland … Continue reading Depeche Mode ~ Stripped [1986]