With the new year comes my annual update (they really ought to be semi-annual but hey, I got stuff going on) of links to recent writing. Much of the work that I’m proudest of (e.g., big retrospective pieces on Leonard Cohen, Siouxsie & The Banshees, the New York Dolls, Sly Stone and more) is in the print version of Uncut magazine and its Ultimate Music Guide series. I like my recent reviews in Sight & Sound too. So find them on your nearest newsstand, should your city happen to still have one of those!

Also be pleased to get a great meaty piece in Variety about the TIFF Short Cuts program that occupies much of my focus these days.

FILM WRITING

On the occasion of Sid & Nancy playing TIFF Bell Lightbox.

On Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell.

On The Man from Mo’Wax.

MUSCI WRITING

On Dead Can Dance’s Dionysus.

On Cocteau Twins’ underrated final years.

On the golden age of indie disco, complete with playlist.

With 2018 beginning, it seemed like high time to get a few fresh links up here, even though much of my written output of late has been print-only, like my reviews of Pretzel Logic and Donald Fagen’s Sunken Condos for Uncut’s Steely Dan special issue (see above demonstration of withering sarcasm), plus a long review of the very fine new album by H.C. Entire for the February 2018 issue and recent features on King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and The Weather Station. I also review Blade Runner 2049 for the winter 2018 issue of Cinema Scope. And there’s a review of Roman J. Israel for the February 2018 issue of Sight & Sound.

Nevertheless, here are some recent long reviews for Uncut that I’m happy to see in the world.

The Clientele – Music for the Age of Miracles

Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder

Feist – Pleasure

And I very much enjoyed getting to write a short history of shilling foreign films to American audiences on the basis of their smut content.

 

Tons of stuff of late. Proudest of my first cover story for Uncut:

Been working as a writer and script consultant on The VICE Guide to Film — after a year of being not especially secretive about the whole thing, it’s now on the air and can be seen here at VICELAND.

 

Another big new one is my primer on VR storytelling, the first of a new batch of stories for the Canadian Film Centre.

 

And a story on Steve Mann’s Hydraulophone for Red Bull Music Academy.

Here’s a smattering of links to reviews of recent-ish discs by Deerhunter, Tame Impala and Sunn 0))).