Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
A couple of weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of headlining Mansfield Ball: it was a well-organised event, the crowds were insane and I was up on stage with some of my best friends in the world playing music that I love. It would be misleading to pretend that playing at balls isn’t a […]
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David Pickard: choir schoolboy, Cambridge graduate, Britain’s leading classical music executive. For anyone interested in classical music, David Pickard is the man of the hour. He’s been at the forefront of the classical music scene for some time, leading notable organisations such as Glyndebourne, and has had stints with the European Arts Festival, the Orchestra […]
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A campaign has been launched to advocate for an Oxford Musicians’ Minimum Wage. The campaign aims to bring the reimbursement of student musicians at college balls more in line with the Musicians’ Union National Rate for functions, to £162.00 per player; currently, student bands are sometimes expected to work for as little as £25 per player, […]
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Ahead of their recently-announced headline gig at the glamorous Freud bar on the 20th of February, I caught up with the student band Still Pigeon, who reveal the stories behind their latest lyrics and enigmatic band name. Their glistening and fresh take on R&B opened some big doors for them last year. With two Spotify […]
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Deftly hushed, confessional and yet timid, Cavernzz’ woozy bedroom pop sits on the fringes of collective security—drawn from the quiet, empty hours of the night, where shapes and shadows exist in ways you’ve never noticed before, in a unique and sometimes eerie strain of vulnerability. Sitting down to chat song-writing, Luke Bolitho seems conscious of […]
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James Blake’s mainstream popularity has always seemed odd. His naturally melancholic vocals, bleak and abstract lyrics, grating synths, jerky beats and overwhelming bass lines intertwine to create somber soundscapes that are often difficult to listen to. Assume Form doesn’t deviate too much from this surprisingly successful – if well-worn – rubric. But what is noticeably […]
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With the corporate hollowing out of the media now commonplace, music journalism is fighting back. The battle against commercialism, clickbait headlines and contemporary trends is well and truly alive and kicking. Online hoaxes, shoddy reporting and all things ‘fake news’, 2018 has truly made its mark as a media meltdown. In Britain, reached journalistic rock […]
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John Joubert, one of the most celebrated British composers of our time, died on 7 January at the age of 91. Born in South Africa, Joubert lived in England for most of his life, residing for nearly half a century in the city of Birmingham. He held professorships at the University of Hull and the […]
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Sunflower Bean arrived in Oxford following the release of their second full length album Twenty-Two in Blue. Hailing from Brooklyn NY they brought effortless cool to the Bullingdon stage, with glam rock and punk décor. I arrived post-Christmas Gaudy, jumping from a very different mood of carol singers to the pumped-up energy of their first […]
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Every now and again we stumble upon an album that quietly evolves as it’s absorbed—its images, chord changes and melodies, gradually weaving themselves into the fabric of our own makeup until it exists, uniquely, for us. Adrianne Lenker’s album abysskiss enacts this very journey, a quiet display of subtle beauty blossoming from its brutal, emotional […]
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In 2018, there was one album I’d been waiting for: Anderson .Paak’s Oxnard. Dre was producing, “Tints” had the funky verve I’d been praying for. His live performance on SNL exuded polished and restrained swagger. Clearly he was someone who knew they were about to serve a rare and bloody steak to a blindfolded lion. […]
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Cellar, one of Oxford’s most popular music venues, has taken an important step to securing its future. The venue won permission from Oxford County Council to build a new fire escape further along Cornmarket Street, thereby meeting all the its legal obligations. The club had previously been under threat as safety inspectors found its fire […]
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Image credit: Bill Ebbeson. Description: Damon Albarn performing in 2010. Japanese culture considers it rude for someone to greet the day’s weather with impractical choices of clothing. Who knows if Damon Albarn is comfortable offensively sweating it out in a long-sleeve omelette yellow sweater and jeans on a sluggish, sultry evening in the Tuscan city […]
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Image Credit: Ben Darwent On the first Friday evening of Michaelmas term, Trinity College welcomed Marco Bertozzi, a Vice-President of Spotify Europe, as a guest speaker for the Oxford University Media Society, a new society established this April. In the words of its President, Theo Davies Lewis, the society aims to connect many areas: “Media is […]
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We can skip the back story, as we all know who Kanye West is by now. Whether you have sung along to ‘Gold Digger’ at a bop, watched the debate about him at the Union last year or sported the finest shutter shades Claire’s Accessories had to offer in 2007 (guilty) – Kanye West is […]
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Sitting in the middle of a field in London, pint in hand, listening to some of the most exciting bands of our time as the sun set, I felt like I had potentially taken escaping the ‘Oxford bubble’ a little too far. Though it was winding to the end of a long sixth week, the […]
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Richard Melville Hall is a man of modest means. Even when he gained a huge amount of critical acclaim for Play, his fifth studio album, the New Yorker remained grounded. In a personally memorable episode of the MTV series ‘Cribs’ around 15 years ago, his humble personality and modest abode provided a remarkably refreshing view […]
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For those unfamiliar with the concept, concert films are film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment. Though the popularity of concert film has rocketed in recent years, they are by no means a recent development. The earliest known concert film was Concert Magic which premiered at the Charlie Chaplin Studios in 1947. Featuring the renowned violinist […]
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I cannot be the only person who greets yet another music plagiarism case with a sigh of frustration. This time it is the turn of James Arthur to be sued by The Script over his single ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’. For anyone who listens to the openings of these songs the similarities in […]
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