Bittles‘ Magazine JOHN BITTLES started up a blog called ShadowCuts which publishes fiction and various other titbits (submissions always welcome). Read his first story The Nutcracker
Bittles’s Magazine Ah, cassettes! I remember them well! My first forays into the wonderful world of music listening was through tapes with the very first albums I bought being Whitney by Whitney Houston and Licensed to Ill by The Beastie Boys. Yes, even back then I was an eclectic adventurer and overly pretentious to boot! By JOHN BITTLES
Bittles‘ Magazine This month we have some absolutely above average music for your listening pleasure. If you are heading back to school, or just mourning the death of summer then we’ve got lots of goodies here guaranteed to cheer up your moody little face. We’ve got some epic rock from Glasvegas, a stunning collection of house music from Kompakt, skewed rock grooves from Franz Ferdinand, and loads more fantastically funky stuff. By JOHN BITTLES
Bittles‘ Magazine One of my favourite »Overheard in a Bookshop« moments … Young Girl (with slight accent) – Do you have any books by Jane Eyre? John (with his accent) – Aha, I suspect you mean Charlotte Brontë. Young Girl – No, I mean Jane Eyre. John – We have the book entitled Jane Eyre. Girl – No, I mean the author Jane Eyre. John – Did she, perchance work as a governess, at Thornfield Hall and carry on with the Byronic Mr Rochester? Girl – Don’t know. John – She is often considered ahead of her time due to
Bittles‘ Magazine | Interview Have you ever cried while listening to an album? And I don’t mean shedding the odd fickle tear! What I mean is, have you ever been playing a record when all of a sudden it gets too much for you and you find yourself racked with heart-wrenching sobs? Even after decades of loving music I can list on one hand the songs that have had such an emotional impact on me. The reason for this isn’t just that I am a tough as nails Irish man! No, it also has to do with the fact that
Bittles‘ Magazine | Interview As future music historians will no doubt agree, there is a lot of derivative and unimaginative MOR-type music in the world right now. From the pop-dance of Avicii to the wet indie of Bastille there is enough rubbish around to make the average music purist’s ears bleed. What we really need is a record that hits the listener hard, like a well needed slap to the face. That not only alienates your ›nice‹ friends but makes your parents scream »What the fuck is that crap you’re playing? It’s not even music, you know!«
Bittles‘ Magazine Those fallow months of June and July have, over time, become notorious for their lack of key musical releases. It seems that with the onset of the holiday and festival season, record companies are wary of the fact that most people are saving up for overpriced drinks in Ibiza or a muddy field. In light of this most artists seem content to hold their albums back until late August or September in the knowledge that by then we’ll all be sunburnt and craving new sounds. For the music lover though it can make finding new releases during this
Bittles‘ Magazine To end our epic trilogy of interviews we have the extremely talented and funky Ikonika. Now, you know when lazy journalists are writing about female producers they always point out their gender and how hard it is for a woman to succeed in a male-dominated industry? Then when you’ve finished reading the article you find out they haven’t once bothered to mention the actual music? Luckily Ikonika has never had this problem for one simple reason, which is that her music is so good that you simply have to talk about it, discuss it, and show it off
Bittles‘ Magazine | Interview I first stumbled upon the twisted world of Mike Paradinas in 1994 through his remix EP of indie heroes The Auteurs. Across forty odd minutes of sonic experimentation he chewed up the original tracks and added huge layers of distortion until what remained was something of a truly mind-expanding listen. Yet just when it would seem that the tracks were too fucked up for comfort and your ears would start to complain, the music would suddenly break into a heartbreaking melody, or a moment of magnificent beauty that lifted the entire project to epic heights. By
Bittles‘ Magazine | Interview Dinky, real name Alejandra Iglesias, has over the years, produced some of the most sensual and exciting house music around. Releases on Cocoon, Truam, Crosstown Rebels and Wagon Repair have moved clubbers everywhere with their lush tech-house grooves. Single Acid In My Fridge thrust her into the limelight in 2005, and since then each release has been eagerly anticipated by an ever growing batch of clued-up listeners who have fallen for Dinky‘s versatile and ever-shifting sound. Previous albums May Be Later, Anemik and Black Cabaret were all strong records that somehow managed that tricky task of