Landmarks

A major figure in the French underground who worked with the likes of Grace Jones, Stereolab and Sonic Youth, Brigitte Fontaine reflects on ‘Patriarcat’, the 1977 electro-funk curveball she made with Areski Belkacem

With the release of their new album, ‘Touch’, Tortoise man John McEntire deconstructs the production of ‘Djed’, the Chicago band’s otherworldly defining track and blueprint for the mid-1990s post-rock scene

It’s 35 years since ‘Gala’ became Lush’s de facto debut album. Now available again as a deluxe reissue, songwriter and guitarist Emma Anderson looks back at the breakthrough track ‘Sweetness And Light’

Professional Englishman Martin Newell recounts the story of 1982’s ‘Corridor Of Dreams’, a classic track by The Cleaners From Venus born out of industry disillusionment, fraught relationships and a love for the “damp, misty lands” of Essex 

Influenced by Afrika Bambaataa, West Yorkshire and a dusty old marimba bought from The Beatles, ‘When The Birds Return’ is a forgotten masterpiece by Bill Nelson

Michael Rother dissects ‘Monza (Rauf Und Runter)’, an ethereal cut made with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius for Harmonia’s second album, 1975’s ‘Deluxe’ 

Jagz Kooner, who together with Andrew Weatherall and Gary Burns made up The Sabres Of Paradise, tells the story of the inimitable ‘Smokebelch II’

Franz Treichler talks us through The Young Gods’ 1989 single ‘Longue Route’, the Swiss group’s wired-up stormageddon of heavy metal samples. D’accoooord!

The The frontman Matt Johnson tells the tale of how the unforgettable ‘This Is The Day’ came to be

Dubstar’s Steve Hillier explains how a breaks album, dub reggae and a nightclub closure fed into their 1995 hit ‘Stars’