• Label Mixtape: Bella Union

    January 24, 2014 - By 

    In the second installment of Label Mixtape, we take a look at one of the UK’s finest ever independent record labels, Bella Union. Initiated in 1997 by Cocteau Twins‘ founder/lead guitarist Robin Guthrie and the band’s bassist Simon Raymonde, the label has went on to put out records – many of them debut releases – by some of the greatest songwriting voices of the last twenty years. With a implicit penchant for artists masterfully meddling in the realms of indie rock, alt-folk and dream-pop, the label won the 2010 Independent Record Company of the Year – an accolade very much coinciding with releases…

  • John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts

    May 29, 2013 - By 

    What happens to the elephant in the room when somebody talks about it? Contrary to popular opinion, it does not vanish in a puff of grey smoke. Rather, everyone is abruptly made aware of said elephant as it crushes their toes, pokes them with its tusks and snuffles about in their pockets for polo mints. And nobody appreciates the impact of proverbial elephants more intimately than John Grant, once of The Czars and Midlake, whose penchant for revealing his most secret desires and guiltiest pleasures knows no bounds. Infamously, at last year’s Meltdown Festival he announced onstage that he had…