Still In A Dream - interviews, reviews, podcast and radio appearances, praise

Check out Instagram.com/simonreynoldswriter/ for the latest news about the book

!NEW!

Rock’s Back Pages podcast with Barney Hoskyns, Jasper Murison-Bowie and William Pike.

Perceptive Observer review of Still In A Dream by Kitty Empire - pictured above

Kieran Press-Reynolds chats with his dad for GQ -  long,  rambling, occasionally goofy colloquy with my firstborn

My Baker's Dozen on reinvention of the guitar at The Quietus

Moonbuilding - lovely review by Neil Mason (scroll down a ways)

Matt Moore at Lost Tempo appraises not just the new book but the entire Reynolds bibliography

Financial Times best books of the summer

Shoegaze Special dreamy ASMR-y session for Zakia's Sewell's Welcome To Dream Time, BBC 6 Music - origially aired June 14

909Originals in depth interview with Stephen Wynne-Jones

Nice review from Ngaire Ruth at Louder Than War 

Record Collector interview and review - current issue

IMMINENT

Excerpt from Still In A Dream at The Wire website - July 2

Interview with Robert Quinn / Wasteland Receiver (Resonance FM) - soon

Essay for Vice's "Self-Destruction" issue - on the oblivion-thru-obliteration aesthetic of narcotic neo-psych bands like Spacemen 3 and other late '80s bliss-rockers. Soon

BBC Radio 6 Huw Stephens – around 7th July

RTE Culture File –  Luke Clancy - soon

Rock N Roll Book Club Music Maps podcast - soon

Over/underrated podcast - soon

C86 Radio Show – David Eastaugh - soon

RECENT AND OLDER COVERAGE

To Here Knows When podcast - excellent chat with Paul McDermott 

Word In Your Ear podcast - fun chat with Mark Ellen and David Hepworth - Word In Your Ear podcast -  the episode with me now available on Apple   and YouTube

Quietus news story by Christian Eede on Still In A Dream, with comments from myself and from the cover designer Henri Holz 

Still In A Dream YouTube playlist

PRAISE - PULL QUOTES AND BLURBS

"His writing is passionate. . .  it's a thrill ride. If you weren't there, you'll wish you had been" - Uncut

"Still in a Dream is more than just a celebration of some enduringly wonderful music - it's a great book full stop, Reynolds' best yet. Bringing together the sugar hiccup enthusiasms of his music press youth with the harsh wisdom of his extremely online old age, it covers everything from the sensual sublimity of the Cocteau Twins to Big Black and the genesis of edgelordism, from the little undergrounds of C86 and shoegaze to the pyrrhic overground victories of Grunge and Britpop. It's warm, funny, sometimes startlingly honest, and a very timely reminder that 'withdrawal in disgust is not the same thing as apathy'

- Owen Hatherley, author of Militant Modernism and The Alienation Effect

"Still in a Dream is as important a work of art as any of the records that inspired it. Simon Reynolds's erudition and judgement is at the service of the music he so passionately loves, his words meeting the songs on an equal footing thanks to an innate lack of ego which allows his insights to float amidst the notes in an ether of sonic luminosity

- Tariq Goddard, founder of Repeater Books and author High John the Conqueror

'Much like the melodies of the music itself, this book feels like a story which has been waiting to burst out and shine for an eternity. Every band detail is fascinating but the real joy lies in Reynolds being entirely enraptured by a scene, the tales of someone blissfully caught in the heart of a storm'

- Daniel Avery, deejay and producer

‘The alternative guitar rock of the late 80s was imaginative, expansive, experimental, and ultimately - and perhaps unexpectedly - proved to have a lasting impact on the way pop sounds in the 21st Century. Simon Reynolds was there, filing dispatches from rock's cutting edge: part-memoir of a lost world of music journalism, part critical analysis, Still In A Dream brings an important and exhilarating era vividly to life’

- Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

TRANSLATIONS 

German version from Ventil Verlag. November 2026

American translation on Da Capo January 2027

Spanish language version is due from Caja Negra Editora in Argentina. Date TBA.

French version from Audimat. Date TBA.

Italian version from Minimum Fax.  Date TBA.

Turkish version from Ayrinti. Date TBA

First copy seen in the wild - Waterstones, Hampstead

STILL IN A DREAM OUT TOMORROW!!!!! Details of UK Tour, media appearances, 50 Lost Treasures zine, translations, advance praise...

Check out my Instagram Instagram.com/simonreynoldswriter/ for the latest news about Still In A Dream

NEW Baker's Dozen on reinvention of the guitar at The Quietus

STILL IN A DREAM UK TOUR JUNE 15-20

Monday 15 - London - Rough Trade East 

Location: Old Truman Brewery 91, Brick Ln, London E1 6QL 

Time: doors open 7pm, event starts 8pm on dot

Conversation with Miki Berenyi (Lush / author Fingers Crossed)

Followed by audience Q+A and book signing. 

Get tickets here

Tuesday 16 - Bath - Roseberry Road Studios

Location: 25 - 28 Roseberry Road, Bath, Somerset, BA2 3DX 

Time: doors open 7pm

Conversation with Jonathan Wright (journalist and Groovy Times co-founder)

Followed by audience Q+A, book signing and a DJ set from Dave Howell

Get tickets here

Wednesday 17 - Bristol -  Strange Brew

Location: Strange Brew, 10-12 Fairfax St, Bristol BS1 3DB 

Time: 6pm

Conversation with Darran McLaughlin (Bookhaus)

Followed by audience Q+A and book signing (books courtesy Bookhaus).

Get tickets here

  

Thursday 18 - London  - IMCP The Long Play Sessions,

Location: The Venue, ICMP (Queens Park Campus), NW6 6PA 

Time: 7pm 

Conversation with Rudy Tambala (A.R. Kane)

Followed by audience Q+A and book signing

Get tickets here

Friday 19 - Leeds - Waterstones 

Location: 93-97 Albion St, Leeds LS1 5AP 

Time: 7pm

In conversation with David Hesmondhalgh (Leeds University / author Why Music Matters)

Followed by audience Q+A and book signing.  

Get tickets here

Saturday 20 - Brighton - Resident

Location: 27 - 28 Kensington Gardens, North Laine, Brighton, BN1 4AL 

Time: doors open 6.15 pm, event starts 6.45 on dot

Conversation with Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins / Bella Union) 

Followed by audience Q+A and book signing  

Get tickets here

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, PODCASTS, AND OTHER MEDIA APPEARANCES, PLUS  ARTICLES BY ME RELATED TO THE BOOK

Baker's Dozen on reinvention of the guitar at The Quietus

Shoegaze Special for Zakia's Sewell's Welcome To Dream Time, BBC 6 Music - June 14 10pm-midnight on 6 Music

Very nice review from Ngaire Ruth at Louder Than War 

Baker's Dozen on reinvention of the guitar at The Quietus

Rock's Back Pages podcast (imminent)

Excerpt from Still In A Dream at The Wire website (imminent)

interview with Robert Quinn / Wasteland Receiver (Resonance FM) (imminent)

Essay for Vice's "Self-Destruction" issue - on the oblivion-thru-obliteration aesthetic of narcotic neo-psych bands like Spacemen 3 and other late '80s bliss-rockers. (imminent)

To Here Knows When podcast - excellent chat with Paul McDermott 

Word In Your Ear podcast - a really fun conversation with Mark Ellen and David Hepworth - Word In Your Ear podcast -  the episode with me now available on Apple   and YouTube

Quietus news story by Christian Eede on Still In A Dream, with comments from myself and from the cover designer Henri Holz 

Still In A Dream YouTube playlist

                                                    

UK edition published June 18 by White Rabbit Books - pre-order. US edition Jan 2027.

FIFTY LOST TREASURES bonus zine

For the U.K. only, the Record Store Special Edition comes with a limited-edition fanzine, Fifty Lost Treasures dedicated to "lost treasure from the lost generation", artists not covered or only glancingly mentioned in the book.  

You can get it here at Gnostic Sonics or here at Resident or here at Stranger Than Paradise or here at Norman Records

TRANSLATIONS

German version from Ventil Verlag. November 2026

Spanish language version is due from Caja Negra Editora in Argentina. Date TBA.

French version from Audimat. Date TBA.

Italian version from Minimum Fax.  Date TBA.

Turkish version from Ayrinti. Date TBA

PRAISE FOR STILL IN A DREAM

"His writing is passionate. . .  it's a thrill ride. If you weren't there, you'll wish you had been" - Uncut

"Still in a Dream is more than just a celebration of some enduringly wonderful music - it's a great book full stop, Reynolds' best yet. Bringing together the sugar hiccup enthusiasms of his music press youth with the harsh wisdom of his extremely online old age, it covers everything from the sensual sublimity of the Cocteau Twins to Big Black and the genesis of edgelordism, from the little undergrounds of C86 and shoegaze to the pyrrhic overground victories of Grunge and Britpop. It's warm, funny, sometimes startlingly honest, and a very timely reminder that 'withdrawal in disgust is not the same thing as apathy'

- Owen Hatherley, author of Militant Modernism and The Alienation Effect

"Still in a Dream is as important a work of art as any of the records that inspired it. Simon Reynolds's erudition and judgement is at the service of the music he so passionately loves, his words meeting the songs on an equal footing thanks to an innate lack of ego which allows his insights to float amidst the notes in an ether of sonic luminosity

- Tariq Goddard, founder of Repeater Books and author High John the Conqueror

'Much like the melodies of the music itself, this book feels like a story which has been waiting to burst out and shine for an eternity. Every band detail is fascinating but the real joy lies in Reynolds being entirely enraptured by a scene, the tales of someone blissfully caught in the heart of a storm'

- Daniel Avery, deejay and producer

‘The alternative guitar rock of the late 80s was imaginative, expansive, experimental, and ultimately - and perhaps unexpectedly - proved to have a lasting impact on the way pop sounds in the 21st Century. Simon Reynolds was there, filing dispatches from rock's cutting edge: part-memoir of a lost world of music journalism, part critical analysis, Still In A Dream brings an important and exhilarating era vividly to life’

- Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

Hauntology Parish Newsletter - "Feint May" Edition: Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory; Boards of Canada; Keith Seatman; Fil OK / We're in the Water; Naomi Elizabeth; Haunted Generation; A Year in the Country

Goodness, but it's been glorious out there in the parish lately.

The combination of all that heavy rain earlier in the year - and the spell of cloudless skies and midsummer heat in late April -  resulted in a virulent verdancy I've never seen before.

What did the poet say? 

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil

Dancersend was incandescent last week.

And then, the other day, driving past the station and through those four or five fields of rape (such an unfortunate name) I was floored, overawed, by the flaming fluorescence of yellow stretching out in every direction as far as the eye could see. 

A vibrancy of hue I've never seen before. 

This photo - of a different field, at a less bright time of day -  doesn't nearly do it justice. 

And of course the bluebell woods -  again, so hard to capture on camera, the gaseousness of that peak-bloom purple haze.  

But I've gushed about this time of year in England before. 

So - even though the birdsong is our surroundsound symphony these days - we turn now to musical happenings of note in the parish.

From our Emerald Isle twin town Kilkenny, something really special:

Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology Vol. 3 - The Stray Sod.

The latest - and last - installment of the compilation series documenting this Irish institution for electronic music composers active in the 1970s and 1980s.  

But what a way to go out - it's a gorgeously varied selection of pieces, ranging from miniature electronic radio-plays to tone poems woven out of chimes and drones to dulcet folk songs.

You can buy it here either as a digital download or as a compact disc that comes with a beautifully illustrated and intricately informative 70-page book about the Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory's history,  a pull-out A3 poster of the Ireland Pavilion Expo '74, a Radagast's Allotment Macpaint design by Johnny Donnelly, and a special thank you letter from the Label Director.

Release irrationale:

In this third, and final, volume of the Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology, we focus on several disparate yet conceptually linked topics, many of which connect to the Kiely cousins, Owen and Tom, who have been briefly mentioned in previous volumes. The first half of the book focuses largely on the foundations which led to the events of the second half. The second half of the book will focus largely on the arts, crafts and lifestyle collective founded by the Kielys, Radagast’s Allotment.

In our first chapter we cover the creation and publication of the 1971 children’s book and accompanying audio cassette Upon the Air. Written and produced by Gerry Duggan and Jacinta Delaney and illustrated by the renowned Irish equine artist Johnny ‘Ding Dong’ Donnelly, Upon the Air, was the first and only children’s book made in the lab. It was intended to disseminate Delaney’s early-years sound studies research to a wider audience, though was a commercial failure.

The second chapter of the book covers an ill-fated, government funded, immersive art installation which had been planned for the Irish pavilion at the 1974 World’s Expo in Spokane, Washington, U.S.A. In this chapter we cover the development of the installation, which was a collaboration between K.E.R.L. founding member, Eoghan Comerford and the Dublin-based artist duo Beamish and Watson. We also explore the government in-fighting which led to the ultimate failure of the project.

Chapter three documents the musical works of the Kilkenny folklorist and composer Maeve Scully (1947-2011), her connection to the Radagast’s Allotment and K.E.R.L., and the rediscovery of her work by a younger generation of composers, musicians and improvisers throughout the world. Maeve would go on to become a key member in Radagast’s Allotment and would frequently make use of the facilities in the Electroacoustic Lab to realise her ‘Mayday Dew’ series of compositions.

The radio adaptation of T.V. Delaney’s, post-apocalyptic ecological science fiction novel The Capsules of Posterity – The Aurochs, is the topic of our fourth chapter. Initially published in ’76 by Tamhóg Press, the book was adapted into a radio play by Antrim Productions and K.E.R.L. It was produced by Tony Quinn, Tom Kiely and Eoghan Comerford and broadcast in 1981. The production process of this adaptation is often cited as the origin for the ideas which later became the formalised Radagast’s Allotment.

At this halfway point of the book, we have included several pages from the first edition of the Radagast’s Allotment Almanac, which came out in the summer of ’85 and was designed by Johnny Donnelly using MacPaint. It gives an insight into the activities and interests of the group, which we will then explore in the second half of the book.

Next, we have an interview which I conducted in a pub in London with the Radagast’s Allotment founding member, Owen Kiely, last year, where we talked at length about Dian Cécht and his band after Dian Cécht, The Triskelion. Owen does not suffer fools lightly, though we have printed the interview in full as it gives an insight into the culture and condition which led up the founding and eventual collapse of Radagast’s Allotment and the Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory.

In chapter six we cover the activities of the Radagast’s Allotment, an arts, crafts and lifestyle organisation described by Hannah Sheppard-Noonan, in her book Bards, Binaural Beats, and Borderline Personality Disorder – Mental Illness in a Rural Arts Community as showing ‘all the signs of being a new religious movement, though lacked anyone with basic, never mind effective, organisational skills, which fundamentally prevented the group from fully actualising into a cult.’

Socracht Rothlach, which was a collaboration between one of the guitarists from The Triskelion, Stevie Larkin, and the K.E.R.L. member Packie Bolger, is the topic of chapter seven. The release was the second in K.E.R.L.’s Relaxation Series and was, like most things released by the lab, a commercial failure. In the chapter we cover the process of making the album, its musical qualities and the life and death of Stevie Larkin.

Our final chapter is about Tom Kiely and his group The Small Green Hand, who had splintered off from Radagast’s Allotment in the mid-80s, and who, inspired by Italian Futurists and the Viennese Actionists, attempted to poison a significant amount of the Kilkenny public in an attempt to ‘herald a new Irish techno-feudal utopia.’

Vivere Solem Et Oppositum,

Neil P. Quigley

April ‘26

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The Kilkenny release has understandably and deservedly overshadowed everything else going at the moment.

But I do want to shine a spotlight on some other parish activities that may have escaped your notice.

For instance, those secretive brothers behind Boards of Canada have been shyly, slyly, hinting at a forthcoming release, their first in an absolute age. 

It would be a shame if they were so coy about it that Inferno didn't get the attention it probably merits. 

Fresh from their epic BoC treatise "Corduroy Psychedelia", Split Infinities has another essay that interpretatively irradiates BoC's teaser releases so far: Boards of Canada’s ‘Prophecy at 1420 MHz’: Spinoza, Bataille, Nasr, and the Aesthetics of Prophetic Transmission -

Susurrations of Cosmic Consciousness or Notes Toward a Hydrogen Communism

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Talking of things getting overlooked... I fear that I missed the Keith Seatman album, owing to the long gap since the last newsletter - Counting To Ten Then Back Again came out in February and now there is a remix of a track off the LP, "Clip Clop", done by Simon Heartfield. 

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Conversely, I am a little early in drawing your attention to a new album by Fil OK, titled The Belltower, and out in June.

Well, not really early, actually -  as it is part 2 of a trilogy of LPs released this year, with The Steeple already out and hearable here, and the final installment, The Dome, due in the autumn. 

The trilogy is under Fil's alter-ego We're in the Water and it's sweetly spooky electro-pop in the vicinity of John Foxx and the Belbury Circle 

Naturally, I'm all in favor of ecclesiastical electronica. 

Although going by the release-rationale, this second installment of the trilogy is less about the ethereal and spiritual and more about the corporeal:

"The concept of the album is how our bodies constantly guide us: through instinct and movement we are attracted to pleasure, beauty, nourishment, relief, connection and survival, and intuitively away from pain, discomfort, danger, excess and the grotesque. These impulses can be gentle or relentless, welcome or intrusive. We call them needs, instincts, desires – but, at their core, they are simply the language of the organism itself. To live is to inhabit this system: to navigate and direct a restless, vivid machine of nerves and muscles as it carries us forward through life....  Where The Steeple leaned into cerebral electronic textures, The Belltower brings guitars and beats into sharper focus, emphasizing the resonance and vibration of bells and twanging guitar refrains on tracks like "Nothing Is Certain But Death", "The Headaches" and "Not Sleepy", as well as rhythm and distortion on "Not Quite Naked" and "Storm Before The Calm" – the latter a dark electro murder ballad inspired by David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Lyrically, the new album explores a range of bodily states and experiences - waking, breathing, seeing, identifying, enjoying, suffering, escaping, fornicating, violating, dying and the peculiar theatre of cohabiting... 

"The three new works planned for this year each interpret the lyrics and music of the songs literally as architectural spaces, placing them conceptually in these three grand, holy places of worship, celebration and contemplation.

"Whereas The Steeple imagined the mind as a place of elevation and introspection, The Belltower represents the body - vibrating in visceral resonance - tunes and rhythms designed to make the blood flow and the body move."

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Talking of "sweetly spooky" - not really hauntology, and not a new release, but newly nailed to my brain - is year-abroad student Naomi Elizabeth, currently studying Instagrammatology at Pendley  Manor Arts Institute, but I for one think she should go back to making tunes like these...

Wet Leg goes hyperpop

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Bob Fischer's latest Haunted Generation column has a bunch of haunty activity, names mostly unfamiliar to me. Like this fine fellow

and this atmospheric, shortwave radio inspired audio-drama 

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The supernaturally prolific Stephen Prince of A Year in the Country has yet another book out  (how does he do it?! Surely he is now in double figures? My refractory period for a new all-new tome seems to be a decade!).

Ghost Signals: The Shadowlands Of British Analogue Television 1968-1995

Full information about its scope and contents, and how to buy it, is at the A Year in the Country blog. 

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A Year in the Country brings us back to where we started - the English countryside, succulently ablaze this month, a vernal inferno

And for all this, nature is never spent;

    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things