Music Mags

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
Rambler said:
So, if not the Wire, then what?

My subscription finishes in a month or two and I'm reading the mag less and less - I'm hardly giving time to the cover CDs these days. With the quality of mixes that are getting posted here and elsewhere at the moment I hardly have time in the day for listening as it is. I like the fact that the Wire exists, and that they give proper room to the artists they speak to; it's just that they don't seem to speak to any artists I want to hear about any more.

So where should my subscription money go? Recommend me some decent alternative magazines that cover similarly off-the-radar music to the Wire but aren't so po-faced about it. If there aren't any, the money's just going on Scotch.

The Wire is the only one I buy regularly. There's nearly always something interesting in it. There was a great issue last year with This Heat and Pierre Schaeffer.
 

Ned

Ruby Tuesday
Can I just make sure no one ever buys a copy of Notion, it's independent so it has the potential to be good but it's offensively bad.
 
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qwerty south

no use for a witticism
why is edan on the cover of wire? he is self consciously 'old school' and not a musical innovator by any yardstick.

riddim mag is very good - few ads etc.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
qwerty south said:
why is edan on the cover of wire? he is self consciously 'old school' and not a musical innovator by any yardstick.

riddim mag is very good - few ads etc.

New issue of Riddim is just out. Confusingly called issue 1 cos it's a relaunch.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I like the Source again, post Mays and Benzino oustment. That said, I even liked it when it was going through its cocaine fuelled Mayzino trips, it was hysterical reading. I'd agree with HipHop Connection as well, they've really stepped their game up, and it's really really funny.
 

SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
I like XLR8R as far as a mixed bag trend driven thing, it's well put together but I agree their hiphop taste is poor. I enjoy them more as a 'this is what a certain group of hipsters are going for right now' review (arguably what 99% of magazines are good for) but then occasionally they'll cover Fanton Mojah or someone else a bit surprising and I'll be pleased.

My favorite hiphop magazine is Murder Dog, mainly because it has lots and lots of words in it (not just a lot of airy layouts) and covers a lot of rappers I've never heard of who are doing their thing independently.

De-bug is quite good for electronica (if you can understand enigmatic comments in german) but sometimes are also a bit trend-ist although they are still reviewing and taking seriously a lot of music that a lot of other people wouldn't get anywhere near in 2006, which is cool to me.
 

SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
I second that the Source under Benzino was hilarious. It was like a count the eminem-camp disses on one hand and the two page ad spreads for Benzino's latest flop on the other and then run out of fingers. And then he would give HIMSELF quotables. Deeply disturbing and hilarious at the same time, didn't know they were ousted but whoever did definitely had the right idea, might be a bit late though. The Fader/Cornerstone mafia thing is definitely a wierd one, they're all up in the same office all together up there, absolutely no church and state at all. Bet you that a lot of people start going that way though, in a way it just makes explicit a lot of what is REALLY happening anyway, 90% of journalism is based on who's friends with who or what label is buying ads in who's mag. Vertically integrating that process is just a logical progression.
 

dsp13

GAMEBWOY
john eden said:
New issue of Riddim is just out. Confusingly called issue 1 cos it's a relaunch.

Thanks for that link John! I downloaded the pdf of the "old issue 1" and read it cover to cover tonight. Best mag I've read in quite a while.

Hip-Hop wise, I really like ELEMENTAL but to be honest, I prefer to buy non-music mags alot of the time... LODOWN, GIANT ROBOT, random graff & design mags etc
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
This interview ( post ousting ) with Benzino
http://www.allhiphop.com/features/index.asp
( January 2006 if it doesn't link proper )
is hysterical as well.
Thing is, through all of that I kinda knew what he meant, but his way of saying it was just so full-on. The past two issues have been really interesting, they're going for a much more 5% nation take on things again, which is fine by me.
I'd second on MurderDog as well, it definitely has that 'WHO?' factor, and its retropsectives are superlative, but it makes me cry, so much music, so little time!
 

DavidD

can't be stopped
Murderdog is good.

xlr8r, urb, many others are all basically the same mag now. its too creepy! Does everyone need to cover the same artists? Like, talk about trend jumping. I bought xlr8r the other day and thought i was going to learn about house and techno! But no.

Fader has nice photography, but it suffers from the above ^ plus the stuff mentioned about its cornerstone-beholdeness.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
Rambler said:
So, if not the Wire, then what?

about the only thing left on the shelves i like is ..............UNCUT. there's lots of guff but you get surprises like the other day, one monsieur stelfox on dancehall, and a wicked piece on van der graf generator.
 

blunt

shot by both sides
Having been looking (in vain) for a decent printed magazine ever since Jockey Slut folded, I picked up issue 1 of a magazine called Dummy when I was in Sister Ray on Friday night. And it's actually pretty good! Not least for its eclectic coverage of everyone from Goldfrapp to Test Icicles, Tiga to Lady Sovereign (who was on the cover).

Early days yet, but I'd recommend issue 1, at least. If you can find it.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I got rock-a-rolla from Virgin on Friday. Quite interesting interviews with Dalek, Whitehouse and Justick Broderick (Lull, Godflesh). A load of stuff in the "weird rock" vein I hadn't heard of and wasn't bothered about, and Mudhoney who were fine for about half an hour 15 years ago.

I think it's let down by not having too much in it compared to The Wire - big point sizes on the fonts, lots of space etc. Worth flicking through tho and it'll be interesting to see who they cover in the future if they survive.
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
WOEBOT said:
about the only thing left on the shelves i like is ..............UNCUT. there's lots of guff but you get surprises like the other day, one monsieur stelfox on dancehall, and a wicked piece on van der graf generator.

haha, i never expected anyone here to even see the uncut stuff. i like the reviews section in uncut a lot. it covers pretty much everything.
 

blunt

shot by both sides
ambrose said:
er this just sounds like OMM to me?!?

Yeah, but imagine if they actually had something interesting to say ;)

Besides, Tiga in OMM - Idon'tthinksosomehow...

(Cue someone posting a scan of their Tiga cover story)
 

AshRa

Well-known member
I really liked the utter nerdiness in the first few issues of Wax Poetics but it's worn a bit thin now for me. Nowadays the only thing I have a quick look at in the newsagents is the mixtape page in Sleaze Nation.
 

mms

sometimes
AshRa said:
I really liked the utter nerdiness in the first few issues of Wax Poetics but it's worn a bit thin now for me. Nowadays the only thing I have a quick look at in the newsagents is the mixtape page in Sleaze Nation.

boy you don't read mags do ya, sleaze nation closed about 2 n' half years ago :)
wax poetics is just mad, for people with far more cash than me..
that kinda exhaustive soul/funk canonising is pretty hardcore but rather blinkered imo, i know people that are into it but they would rather live in that kinda past than try and find something present..
 
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