lukowski has written the following articles:
Maybe tonight is just a lie: the next time we see Arcade Fire it won’t be in a plush Edwardian music hall, but headlining to fuck knows how many pissed up Libertines and Blink 182 fans at Reading/Leeds. We’ll know by then whether we like The Suburbs or not, and even though I can safely say these songs sound pretty great live, goodwill counts for a lot. But tonight Arcade Fire were the band we wanted them to be, and I think more importantly, they were probably the band they want themselves to be. It counts for a lot.»
Ahoy! In a week and a bit, DiS will be heading for the babbling brooks and fantastical coloured sheep things of this year’s Latitude festival. Here are some considered thoughts on what to see, tempered only slightly by the fact that we don’t know what days a lot of stuff is running yet.»
Expo 86 is good, it’s just not great. Wolf Parade, the 2010 model, are good, not great. That's fine.»
Lumpenly conceived singles collection with suspiciously close to Fathers Day release date - get Stop the Clocks instead.»
And yea! Primavera's final day was upon DiS writers James Skinner and Andrzej Lukowski and snapper Lucy Johnston.»
Onward and forward with day two of Primavera. Words James Skinner and Andrzej Lukowski, photos by Lucy Johnston.»
Hello friends: this year Andrzej Lukowski and James Skinner hopped on a plane (well, one went by train and the other lives there, BUT YOU GET THE IMPRESSION)and headed to the balmy city of Barcelona, where we bore witness to the tenth edition of Primavera Sound. We can't pretend we saw everything, and we can't write about everything that we did, but here are some observations. »
Corgan seems to be now devoting himself to the penning of pop songs in an overtly retro Seventies mode. This is better than the last record, when he was trying to sound like Linkin Park, and worse than the Nineties, when he was trying to sound like the Smashing Pumpkins. »
Ahoyhoy. Welcome to the review of the latest installment of ATP, hopefully a little trimmer, words, wise than the behemoths these things have been turning into of late. Brad Barrett and Andrzej Lukowski were the men on Butlins' newly-upholstered ground.»
Crystal Castles may have lost some of the old romance and enigma, but turns out they’re good enough songwriters to get away with it, at least part of the time. »
Holy Fuck's excellent third album Latin is not to be admired so much for its feral energy as moments of glowing, yes-my-liege stateliness. »
I don’t think I’d be stretching my neck too far to say Together is the band’s prettiest record.»
While it’s hard to gauge how many people might love this record, it’d seem like only a singularly mean spirit could bring themselves to hate it.»
Congratulations plumbs a musical theatre-indebted vein of psyche pop that brings to mind the Beatles’ latter years, a bigger budget version of former tour mates Of Montreal, Syd Barrett, and even The Libertines.»
Ultimately there are only so many excuses you can make for the fact Here Lies Love isn’t an out there masterpiece, merely a somewhat outré easy listening album.»
They’re not broadening their mystique, but stretching it to translucence.»
Though best known as PJ Harvey's most trusted lieutenant, the multi-talented John Parish has a long-standing career composing soundtracks to all manner of exotic-sounding indie movies. The latest, She, a Chinese, was released last month, the first to get a 'proper' release; to commemorate this occasion, Mr Parish hereby offers up his guide to the world of scoring.»
It was a showcase for Tomboy, and it did the job okay, not brilliantly.»
Though it looks likely that a new record will happen, Under Great White Northern Lights would be a funny postscript. It in no way intimates that the band was about to go into hiatus, and for all its merits, it does have the air of a slightly dotty side indulgence. Really, it serves, more than anything else, as a reminder of just how singularly odd the White Stripes are, and how boring things are without them around.»
Following the straight down the line thrills of their Berlin-wrought fourth album Liars, Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Julian Goss moved to LA for a year to make its follow up, Sisterworld. Here is its story, told by the genial trio themselves.»
Buon giorno! It’s Monday, streaming technology exists, let’s use some of it to listen to our albums of the week, shall we why not?»
They’ve soaked themselves in a new city and emerged renewed, again. So long as they never settle down, they’ll be just fine.»
We love blues psyche primitives Archie Bronson Outfit's fine new Coconut album, and you should too. You should PARTICULARLY like the fact that they were arsed to make a video to every song. YOU DON'T GET COMMITMENT LIKE THAT THESE DAYS. And here they are, with accompanying words from the band's Arp Cleveland and Dorian Hobday.»
Psychedelic Danes Oh No Ono have had a fine year so far, winning hearts and minds and generally giving the Archie Bronson a run for their money in the foodstuff-related album name stages with their marvellous Eggs. BUT CAN THEY SURVIVE A REALLY COLD NORWE»
The Knife’s Olof Dreijer discusses his dreams of Darwin and the downsides of frogs that sound too much like synthesisers. »
‘Tis the first of March, and what a bumper first of March it is, albums-wise. SO ON WITH THE SHOW.»
Want to get the straight dope about Efterklang's new DiS-approved album Magic Chairs, out this week? Well, we asked the band, but sadly being Danes their English was awful and we had to scrap the whole thing. ONLY JOKING, the dastards probably have better grasp of our grammar than the entire UK indie population combined.»
Tomorrow, in a Year is a coldly overwhelming record built on algorithms Dreijer spent two years tinkering with, modelled on both field recordings made on a trip to the Amazon, and Darwin’s own scientific data. Save for a few sparks at the end, Tomorrow, in a Year doesn’t romanticize or even demonstrate affection for its subject, and nor should it. In dispassionately reflecting just a fraction of nature’s pitiless immensity, it must stand as one of the most extraordinary records of our times.»
Dzien dobry! Here in London, England, it’s a drizzly Monday indeed, and frankly we at DiS towers would be so despondent we’d contemplate checking out the film Precious - ‘just to see what the fuss was about, like’ - were it not for the magic of the sweet, sweet, sweet music, music that is legally available today. That said, we remain in moderate despair, as for once virtually none of the music we rate this week has made it to either we7 or Spotify. But we’re still not going to watch Precious.»
The Retribution Gospel Choir represent catharsis, for both performers and audience. However, that’s not really the same as being a dynamic artistic force and prosaically speaking, 2008’s Retribution Gospel Choir debut already answer the question ‘what would Low sound like if they were loud?’ 2 doesn’t really alter that answer, and thus doesn’t quite have its predecessor’s impact.»
