Hauntology Parish Newsletter - Late Summer Edition: Belbury Poly, Fil OK, Jamie Sexton, Brutalist Ghost Stories, Hauntology and Spectrality Group, Lawrence English, Regina Collage, Space Afrika, Conflux Coldwell, Luke Haines, Realm of Dusk

 

August is the deadest month.

And somehow, even though you've been here so many times before,  you're never prepared for the way  that each week feels deader than the one before. 

Until finally it's the last week of August and it's like Time's clock has stopped. 

. . .

Hang on a minute

I have a powerful sensation of deja vu. 

A sicky suspicion that I wrote exactly these words last year. 

Or was it the year before?

Well, I suppose that only goes to prove my point, in a way.

But this August... this August has felt deader than ever, no-thanks to the unrelenting stifling heat, discouraging people from doing anything but sit indoors and sweat. 

As our sexton Susan said plaintively the other day, mopping perspiration from her brow as she stepped into the rectory: "has the sky forgotten how to rain?".

The footpaths are cracked and dusty. The grass in the meadows is crisp and brown. The trees have that beat-down sun-struck feeling about them. The birds are silent. Blackberries, ripened prematurely, are already at that bloated, fly-blown stage, too sickly to tempt the rare soul on a stroll across the fields. 

Indeed there was some debate about whether this newsletter should be called the Harvest Edition on account of the abnormally early harvest.

"We need rain. On parched soil and souls" - so says Evangelical Focus.

It all brings back memories of the long hot summer of 1976 and the unforgettable events of that season.

I'm talking of course about the village fête -  the dispute about the whittling contest, the vandalism of the exhibits display, that shocking brawl on the Castle grounds between Ralph Knapp and Patrick Hearn, culminating in the pair of them tumbling into the moat (thankfully almost completely dried out because of the drought).

 

Memories of another long ago era waft pungently from the first of this season's offerings (dead it might be in the streets and the fields, but musicians and other creative sorts have been busy). 

Memories of the early '80s  and local musicians like Dramatis and Pride of Passion - late-arriving prog rockers who adapted with surprising agility to the synthpop era (if not in these cases actually making the charts like other musicians who followed a similar arc, such as Nik Kershaw and Howard Jones). 

I speak of the new album by The Belbury Poly - Sorcerer, released on the Ghost Box sister-imprint Belbury Music to indicate its divergence from the label's primary soundstream. 

Release irrationale: 

At the outset of the project, Jim Jupp assembled a palette of instruments and sounds which evoke a moment in musical history when digital studio technology just started to take over from analogue. 

Eschewing Belbury Poly’s earlier mid 70s obsessions, to focus on that period around 1983, when artists who could afford it started to experiment with samplers. It was a musical moment dominated by the sounds of Prophet 5, DX7 & PPG synthesizers, Fairlight & Synclavier music computers, TR808 drum machine & Simmons Drums (those ubiquitous hexagonal drum pads) and of course the much-maligned fretless bass.  

It’s also an era that’s now seen as something of a golden age for fantasy, sci-fi, comics, book, TV, movies and games (particularly in Britain where it was often fuelled by a post punk reaction to Thatcher’s regime).

In Jupp’s memory these things go hand in hand; as a child his nerdy fandom was soundtracked not as it was for most by Heavy Metal, but by the electronic pop of Bill Nelson, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Japan, and Frank Chickens. Also, by otherworldly TV soundtracks & production music of the era: Elizabeth Parker and Paddy Kingsland at the BBC, The Parry Music Library, Rod Argent’s new age library albums and even Clannad’s Robin of Sherwood score. 

Sorcerer is due for late September release

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Also flashing back to the Eighties is the latest release from Fil OK, the final instalment of his "ecclesiastical electronica" trilogy, released under the alter-ego We're in the Water.  It's titled The Dome.

No tasters available as yet but to whet your appetite for the kooky chorale of tracks like "Being Eaten" and the final title track, you can check out the previous installments of this 36 song-cycle:  The Belltower and The Steeple

Release irrationale: 

2026’s three ambitious works have each interpreted the lyrics and music of his new songs literally as architectural spaces, placing them conceptually in these three grand, holy places of worship, celebration and contemplation. Across the past twelve months this musical trilogy has variously explored different facets of the human experience, and The Dome sees Fil delve deep into the universe of spirituality and what lies within its mysterious realms.

Whereas February’s The Steeple explored the mind - how we think, question, imagine and make sense of the world around us - with June’s second long-player The Belltower turning to the body - the reality of living through relationships, joy, struggle and experience – this autumn’s concluding part The Dome completes the trilogy via an exploration of what nourishes the spirit. It's a record all about connection, hope, resilience, compassion, love, and our capacity to keep growing.

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More squarely in the main soundstream of parish activity, a couple of new publications and a podcast series dedicated to all things spectral. 

From Reaktion Books, here's a new tome attempting to take the measure of this thing they call hauntology: Jamie Sexton's The Sounds of Lost Futures: British Musical Hauntology by Jamie Sexton (that's the second appearance of that word in this newsletter, and kind of an eerily apt name for a scholar of hauntology to have, since a sexton's responsibilities include funerals, digging graves and keeping cemeteries tidy).

Release irrationale: 

Musical hauntology conjures sounds of futures that never arrived: music that reflects on memory and the recent past, drawing on analogue instrumentation, sampling and digital processing to capture how time feels twisted in an age of endless reproduction. The Sounds of Lost Futures offers the first sustained overview of this influential British mode, tracing its emergence, cognate genres and wide constellation of media influences. It also unpacks the conceptual forces that shape it – from nostalgia and retro culture to fractured temporal experience – while covering key artists and labels such as Ghost Box, The Caretaker and Mordant Music. With a dedicated focus on audiovisual hauntology, this book provides new clarity on a musical form attuned to the strange echoes of modern life.

Unconvinced by that "the first sustained overview" claim - A Year in the Country has put out no less than eleven books on the subject, there was this effort by the splendidly named Merlin Coverley several years ago, I feel like I'm blanking on one or two other books .... Not forgetting some jottings by yours truly and the Reverend Fisher. So I would say the soil is well tilled at this point. 

A slightly stale air also clings to this non-nonfiction publication: the anthology Brutalist Ghost Stories.  

You simultaneously think "why did no one think of this before?" and "surely someone already did this?"

From Confingo Publishing, a release irrationale:

‘We live among ruins, surrounded by places built for a future that never arrived.’

Brutalist Ghost Stories is an anthology of seventeen original stories inspired by Britain's brutalist buildings and landscapes.

From grand libraries and university buildings to service stations and closed down car parks, this collection explores the concrete structures which have in their own way shaped Britain and imagines what dwells in them.

Traversing Scotland through to the south coast of England, these stories explore haunting, memory, folklore, loss and the uncanny.

Familiar landmarks become sites of mystery, overlooked corners of our nation's built environment reveal hidden histories and strange encounters abound.

Clearly this whole area remains a growth area. Viz, the Institute's launch of a special unit,  Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group 

Ghost stories are in fact one of its areas of study:

 

We can glimpse the gleanings of these researchers through their regular Hauntology Podcast, as amiable and indoor-voice intimate as you'd expect from such a gathering of scholarly kith.  It's available via Rephonic, Apple, and other places you might expect, with transcripts offered as well as the audio. Three episodes in, topics include "Spectral Tourism" and "Haunted Writing, Creative Non-Fiction and the Moors Murderers".

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Returning to recent musical emanations...

Sunday school director Dave Howell informs me that the new record by Lawrence English, who hails from our Australian twin town Woolloongabba, is definitely on the vibe: sonically "somewhere between Vangelis and The Caretaker" and carrying a polemic about "the weaponisation of nostalgia for the purposes of cloaking possible futures."   English's release irrationale refers to a term he's coined, "Acid Nostalgia... a shorthand to describe the de-contouring of the future through a corrosive fixation on a flatten rendering of the preceding times...  a certain type of lazy cultural scripting where tropes of the past are presented in the absolute, as empty pictorials; photocopies without any original from which to draw actual meaning, or useful detail."

The album's title is certainly bang on theme: The Rest Is My Ghost.

Mr. Howell incidentally directs us to a new track by Ukrainian exchange student Regina Collage that if not exactly haunty does waft off halycon echoes of A.R. Kane - "It Should Be Something". 

Gorgeous stuff, definite "Up!" vibrations.... From the album Horizont.  It's on Jabu's label do you have peace? 

Hauntology is all over the current issue of The Wire.

It pops up in the cover story on Space Afrika, whose new album Quiet Storm is out at the end of September.

And it pops up again in the lead review for an artist unfamiliar to me: Conflux Coldwell. The album is called Echolalia and it explores the connections between hauntology and autism.

Release irrationale:

"There is a spectre haunting Conflux Coldwell, the spectre of autism."

Bulletdodge is proud to announce the release of Echolalia a striking new electronica album from Conflux Coldwell. Arriving digitally this June, with a vinyl edition to follow in early September, the album Echolalia explores the notion of internal “ghosts” — the lingering traces that inhabit the mind. Sparked by his daughter’s autism diagnosis earlier this year, and his sister’s AuDHD diagnosis the year before, Coldwell was prompted to reflect on his own neurodivergence. The result is a deeply personal and introspective work that interrogates how these experiences have shaped his creative process, his unique perception of the world, and his enduring fascination with machines and hauntology.

Also lead reviewed in that same issue of The Wire is a record that truly can only be described as bringing-up-the-rear when it come to its subject: the spookiness of children's TV of the British 1960s and 1970s: Luke Haines's Izzy Wizzy Let's Get Busy. 

"By the 1960s and 70s magick was all over children's television in the UK..."   

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Not precisely hauntological but hailing from our Canadian twin town of Port Moody, Realm of Dusk - the new-ish alias of Sam Macklin - have recently released a third album  of spacey glitchscapes. It's titled, logically enough, III and is released on the evocatively named imprint Blasted Gorse.  

If the title like "Astral Vomit" suggest a secret and hitherto unexpected arsequake influence, other titles like "Bill Evans" and "Solitude Seekers" are probably nearer the mark. Matthew Ingram, reviewing at Woebot, uses words like "pensive" and "sidereal" and "funereal". 

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Overtaken by meteorological events! In between starting the Newsletter last weekend and finishing up this morning, well, the sky remembered how to rain.  Susan, the sexton, popped by the rectory on her back from the shops, her face streaming with moisture - only this time it's precipitation not perspiration.  Answering the prayers of farmers and gardeners alike, the heavens have opened up 

Perhaps a little too much... 

WHEN MATES MAKE BOOKS: Anwen Crawford, Sean Nye, Hillegonda Rietveld, Kevin Dettmar, Tim Sommer

Far be it from me to encourage you to buy any other book this summer, but I feel obliged to draw your attention to a flurry of notable books, made by mates, that have come out recently or are about to come out...

For instance, here's the latest from an old friend from down under, Anwen Crawford -  a critical study of the film Morvern Callar  that comes in this daintily designed and pleasingly petite edition by Fireflies Press. 

I was glad to offer this endorsement: 

There is a film called Morvern Callar and a novel called Morvern Callar. Now a critical study called Morven Callar joins them as an equal. Anwen Crawford’s writing is as tactile, agile and alert as Lynne Ramsay's direction, Alwin H. Küchler’s camera, Samantha Morton's performance. She pushes always for the startling thought, the tartly troubling image. Great critics make compelling work even more compelling than it already is and this is what Crawford achieves here, as she always does."

Anwen’s monograph made me watch the film again. 

From the publisher: 

In the 2002 volume of the Decadent Editions, Anwen Crawford delves into Lynne Ramsay’s haunting second feature Morvern Callar, adapted from Alan Warner’s novel, to craft a fiercely lucid and poetic exploration of grief, class, women’s authorship and the place of art in our world today.

It's out on September 22 with pre-orders shipping earlier - indeed shipping now. 

Another mate of long vintage is Sean Nye, professor at USC Thornton School of Music and scholar of electronic dance music. 

Here is his long-time-a-comin' masterwork on the Teutonic / technotronic interface, The Music-Machines, via Oxford University Press.

 For which I was pleased to offer this blurb: 

“The Music-Machines works first as a richly researched and wide-ranging material history tracking the transmissions and transmigrations of German electronic innovations across American popular culture over the last half-century. But even more fascinating is Sean Nye’s exploration of how certain ideas about “Germany” and "the Germanic" have been a spur to the creative imagination. These myths and stereotypes about “Teutonic” traits (discipline, a talent for engineering, a steely and chilly posthuman precision) resulted in a kind of exoticism of Mittel Europa, a syndrome that has proved to be particularly seductive and generative for Black American musical subcultures. Teeming with sharp perceptions, fresh discoveries, surprising connections, and amusing details, The Music-Machines is as entertaining as it is intellectually probing.” 

Sprockets is actually written about in the book!

What the publisher says:

In The Music-Machines, author Sean Nye traces a fascinating and distinctly American interpretation of 20th century German electronic music . Covering a series of crucial historical moments, Nye provides both a new and alternate history of the extraordinary impact that electronic music from Germany had in the United States, including the receptions of elektronsische Musik, Krautrock, goth-industrial, Eurodance, techno, trance, and minimal.

This first comprehensive history of German-American exchanges in electronic music explores the political and social dimensions of American constructions of Germanness in electronic music. Nye interprets the music in relation to technology, art, and musical style, encouraging readers to delve into what that reveals about its relationship to nation, race, gender, and sexuality. Through such interpretations, The Music-Machines presents a cultural arc of these constructions of Germanness and electronic music. 

Nye sets this German-American exchange within larger questions of music and transnationalism, tracing key intersections between German and US cultures while also reflecting on other musical and cultural influences on German electronic music, The Music-Machines also places the evolution of electronic music in its broader historical context, demonstrating the ultimate intertwining of America's popular music with the Cold War history of West Germany and the post-1989 history of the Berlin Republic. In this way, The Music-Machinessets the frame not only for the study of German electronic music, but the ways in which this electronic turn emerged in American perceptions of German identity

From Oxford University Press to Cambridge University Press... And another dance-music scholar I've known for decades: Hillegonda C. Rietveld, whose friends call her Gonnie and who some will know as a former member of Quando Quango.

 Gonnie recently published a book  co-edited with Toby Young (no, not that Toby Young),  The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Dance Music.

I have not seen inside it but it looks to be a meaty and essential read - one I should really get hold of as I embark upon teaching a new course this coming semester, Studies in Electronic Music. 

What the publisher says:

Electronic dance music is increasingly the focus of a multitude of academic research projects around the world but has been drastically under-represented in accessible core published material. This innovative scholarly collection provides an important 'first stop' for researchers and students wishing to work in this area. It examines the key features of numerous electronic dance music scenes and (sub)genres alongside discussions of the musical, social and aesthetic experiences of participants to consider how these musical practices create purpose and cultural significance for millions around the world. At the same time, it introduces diverse theoretical approaches to the understanding of electronic dance music cultures and addresses the issues and debates in electronic dance music culture studies. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach drawn from both music and cultural studies – including music aesthetics, technologies, venues, and performativity – from a broad geographical perspective, the volume sheds fresh light on electronic dance music cultures. 

A more recently acquired friend is Kevin Dettmar, a professor at Pomona College and author of books like the fascinating Is Rock Dead? and his monograph on Gang of Four's Entertainment!, amongst others. 

Now Kev comes with a memoir-tinged celebration of punk and New Wave's greatest recordings, Punk In 50 Pieces.

For which I offered this endorsement: 

"You think you know all about punk? Kevin Dettmar shows how much there is still to discover about the music and its era. Crackling with startling ideas and unexpected insights, juiced with surprising stories and unknown connections, Punk in 50 Pieces is a sustained feat of zoomed-in listening and zoomed-out contextualizing. As fast and fun as a Buzzcocks singles compilation, this book vaults to the top shelf in the Punk Lit pantheon." 

This is a very entertaining read, breathing fresh life into  an overtold story.  You’ll reach out to imaginary-high-five the author when he strikes a righteous chord (NY Dolls, Adverts in my case) and relish even more squabbling with him in your head when he doesn't.

Come squabble with us on September 13, when Kevin and I will be chatting Punk In 50 Pieces at Book Soup in Los Angeles. The time is 3pm. 

The book is out now on HarperCollins

Finally,  someone I have known since he was in Hugo Largo, a band who figure in Still In A Dream just as they did in the late Eighties pages of Melody Maker (Joy in fact was the person who first introduced them to those pages).  

Before he formed Hugo Largo,  Tim Sommer was involved in various bands (including Swans, for just a moment, very early on) but he was primarily a champion of other people's music, via his roles as radio presenter (hosting Noise the Show, on WNYU) and as a prolific music journalist writing for Sounds, Village Voice and Trouser Press (the latter from the age of 16!). And it is Trouser Press Books who have just published his collection of music writings, drawn from 1979 right up to almost the present:  Dispatches from the Kingdom of Outsiders.

This is another book that's great to argue with - Tim will take a combative stance on some contentious issue or other (Sha Na Na as the most important band at Woodstock, Sandinista! as a worthless mess), often starting the piece with a throwdown first line ("R.E.M. were the American Sex Pistols". "There is only one Bob Dylan. And the other one is Mark E. Smith"). Along with the argumentation, there are memoiristic vignettes about his involvements with NYC figures like Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth, real-time eyewitness reports on things like the PiL-incited riot at the Ritz in 1981, interviews, and a lot of pieces about The Beatles. It's a fun book for dipping into it. 

Another string to Tim's bow - presenter on the alternative music show Post-Modern MTV

He then went on to work for VH1, and then A&R at Atlantic...

Still In A Dream - readers reactions, upcoming events (plus new reviews and interviews, info about translations and US edition etc etc)

   

RAVE REACTIONS FROM READERS WHO DIDN'T GET SENT IT FREE

"What a fantastic book this is! It is, I think, the finest work by the best living music writer.

Simon Reynolds looks back fondly on an era during which he worked for Melody Maker, once seen as the poor relation to NME but which evolved into a journal that took more risks after the Punk explosion had died down. His writing on everything from The Smiths to My Bloody Valentine is exceptional but what makes the book so special is that he describes his own journey into the world of rock criticism as seen from the mature perspective of a sixty something.

He evokes a world which, post-Internet, no longer exists; recalling an era when information was not available at the click of a mouse. He does so without descending into mawkish nostalgia.

In the afterword he confesses : "The job of a rock writer, almost a scared duty, was the make things seem bigger than they were." The sense of discovery, independence and adventure is what he values in music both then and now. Rock and pop are still what he calls among "life's essential inessentials" and Reynolds' gift to music lovers of all ages is to articulate passionately why this still holds true."

- Martin Raybould, Goodreads

"Surprised even myself by how much I enjoyed and devoured this book. Just loved it.... What I really appreciate about Simon’s writing is his capacity to trace the lineage of sounds and influences, his thoughtful capacity to put words to ineffable qualities of music....  but perhaps moreso, his ability to see into the ethos of the time, place and people who were making the music. His sense of how the cultural aesthetic and music philosophy and politics are all boiled into the indie music is just fabulous, and I found myself often amazed at how he was capturing feelings of an era that I felt true, but had never articulated. I love this ability to see how the potent fresh music of a culture are a direct manifestation of that moment’s gestalt....  I thank Simon for such a labour of love and such a delightful insight....  Over 400 pages and I wished it was longer....  If you love this era of music, read this book. So, so satisfying.

-          Robert, Goodreads

"I read this in two days flat: that's how much I enjoyed it. Like 'Rip it Up' and 'Energy Flash', Reynolds gives you the big picture 'rise and fall’ narrative and zooms in on individual artist and albums to explore what makes them great/innovative/strange. The analysis of why Morrisey's lyrics so distinctive and evocative was particularly strong. It is more personal than his other books, but without being self-indulgent. It ends with a rousing defence of music as a dream world, which will seem a bit odd if you've come to this book straight from Rip it Up."

                                                - William, Goodreads

"As blissful as the cover, as wondrous as the swathes of music Simon Reynolds goes into detail on, Still In A Dream is every bit as essential reading as Rip It Up And Start Again. I have literally dozens of recommendations to go through over the coming months; this is a glorious celebration of music." - Top10 Nathan 

“My final verdict is that the book is so readable I want to re-read a few chapters again, just live in all this music and splendor...  A lot of humor and wit, some post-40 wisdom that only comes from looking back…. The mention of REM's Murmur as an American Cocteau Twins (backed up with interviews and writing of the time) is a reminder as to why I enjoy reading Reynolds and loved getting these dispatches; there is new knowledge, new lenses of appreciation.

                                                        - WaneLietoc, r/indieheads, Reddit

"Long-awaited follow-up to the 2006 classic Rip it Up and Start Again. And by far the best Simon Reynolds has written.... Nearly every band covered in this book I fell in love with; the music, the way they looked and dressed, the music press at the time... the concerts and festivals I attended when these bands were in their pomp. I feel privileged to have been at an age to appreciate everything going on around 84/85/86/87. Reading this I get exactly the same impression that Simon Reynolds had, and this privilege and passion pours off every page. If you were my age around the time period of this book. If you fell in love with any/all of the band's mentioned in this book, then this is a book for you. A perfect accompaniment to his Rip It Up and Start Again. Thank you Simon for bringing back so many memories. Highly recommended." - - Bookends (Amazon.co.uk reviewer)

"I've never dropped everything so fast to read a book immediately after receiving my pre-order.... It's a good book. It met my sky-high expectations" - Richard Balmer (Goodreads)

"Enjoyed this more than Reynolds’ “Rip It Up and Start Again”... Much more personal and sensational than his recounting of Post Punk history. These years clearly have much fondness attached to them from him which makes this a joy to read." - Aaron Hodgetts (Goodreads)

"Reynolds is a great writer. Many visceral, haptic descriptions of music that made me immediately put the book down and look up whatever song he was waxing lyrical about.... I loved hearing Reynolds discuss the critical 'battles' which took place within the independent music zine world (who did Melody Maker think was the future of music, and how did this show that NME's position was retrograde, old hat, soporific?). A lot of this reads like an impassioned plea for the value of criticism. It reminded me of how much I owe my aesthetic taste to those who write about art, who helped me see its value – it's beauty." -  Luke McCarthy (Goodreads)

"Reynolds is one of the sharpest minds in music journalism, and like his other excellent books, this one is no disappointment. Taking a HUGE area of music to cover, he depicts his time writing for Melody Maker in the 80s / 90s and the emerging explosion in indie rock." - Nick Cubs (Goodreads)

"Reynolds is really good at contextualising even the most minor subgenres such as "Arse Quake" dialectically, showing what things in the culture they existed in-reaction-to, and what then reacted against them in turn. He is also a very fun and approachable writer and in this book, talks about most of my very favourite bands while deflating some of the mythos around them.... What I like is the lack of reverence towards every band and movement without the tone ever being snarky or disrespectful. It casts an impressively wide net, telling a cohesive story of the wriggling rise and fall of guitar-based Indie Rock from the early 80s until the mid-90s. " - Ben Yaxley, Goodreads

"I have never gone to the bookstore and bought a book as fast in my life as I did when I discovered Still in a Dream. An account of my favourite genres of music from Simon Reynolds, someone who ate, breathed, and slept in this era. It was so fascinating to see how so many of my favourite bands, including Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine, could possibly be connected to bands such as The Stone Roses, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains. Simon Reynold’s thesis of shoegaze being a dreamy form of escapism from politics as opposed to punk and rock’s outright urgency and anger is fascinating. It was fun to read the context behind my favourite bands as well as learn about new bands. Some sections interested me more than others...  but I still thoroughly enjoyed!"                                               - Jo, Goodreads

"Highly enjoyable blend of memoir, history, anthology. Reynolds never really fails."

- Stagger Lee, Goodreads

"Reynold's adjective soup reminds me of the way I used to write about music, and that infuriates me. He quite clearly cares about the music under discussion here and puts into words a lot of what I have already felt in an unexamined way about the music that came out of this particular moment in rock culture - I admire his passion. Don't fw The Smiths, yes it is because of Morrisey, and yet the chapter dedicated to him was quite fun to read about and contextualizes why it is people find him so magnetic"

- Eamonn Kelly, Goodreads 

"First, it’s Simon Reynolds—which means you’re instantly guaranteed forensic cultural criticism wrapped in razor-sharp, effortless prose. Second, his late-1980s personal memoirs land with uncanny precision, capturing the volatile, blissed-out haze of that transitional era right before indie rock calcified into stadium-ready posturing. But above all, Still in a Dream serves as the ultimate autopsy of guitar music after it’s ran its course: a brilliant, bittersweet chronicle of what happens when six-string romanticism finally hits its sonic end of the road and has nowhere left to go but pure noise."

- Ilya Miller, Goodreads

"Great book -informative/very readable"

- Alan David Jones, Amazon.co.uk

"Love this book covering the period of my youth when I was obsessed with all these bands ( admittedly I still am to a lot of them ) Feels particularly topical now shoegaze is no longer seen as a term of derision."

- Diabolik, Amazon.co.uk

"Such a wonderful book. Reynolds is the world's pre-eminent authority on alternative music. Although with Energy Flash, Rip it up and Start Again, and Shock and Awe he's set impossibly high standards, this might be his masterpiece. Essential" - Ingram, Amazon.co.uk

"Simon Reynolds, you have outdone yourself"- James Marples, Instagram

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 3 - Novotvar, Bratislava, Slovakia  (with Miloš Hroch)

October 20th / Rock and Roll Book Club, Walthamstow Trade Hall (with Daniel Avery + Kitty Empire) - tickets

October 21 / Brussels (with Simon Taylor), at Librebook

October 23 / Borderkitchen, The Hague, Nederlands (with Lee Brackstone)

German publication, December 2026

American publication, January 12, 2027

  

Two months since publication date, Still is still going strong

But please buy it from anywhere else but the Evil Empire - ideally from a bookshop if you can!

!RECENT INTERVIEWS and DISCUSSION!

Fun wide-ranging conversation with Robin Allender for The Allender Calendar - hearable via Apple UK, Apple US, Spotify

Great chat with James Marples for The Readings Podcast, in Melbourne.  Also at Apple and Spotify.

Very interesting chat with Andrew Stevens at Musical Urbanism (a Substack about music and its relation to place and space created by Leonard Nevarez)

Interesting commentary from Liam McNulty at his Substack

Interesting if pretty out-there commentary from Christopher Banks at Objects of Affection 

interview with Gijsbert Kamer for De Volkskrant (Nederlands)

                                            REVIEWS 

"Absolutely loved this book by simonreynoldswriter on 

@whiterabbitbks

. For anyone interested in shoegaze, music history or simply the untamed excitement of finding your own voice in your youth"                   

 Daniel Avery, Instagram reel

"double thumbs up for Simon Reynolds ‘s professional Bildungsroman cum scene finally celebrating itself cum could-have-been-written-just-for-me Mega Blaster; the delicate balance of sage context with transmission of adrenalised rapture make it another essential tome from him and White Rabbit Books"

- John Doran of The Quietus, via Instagram etc

- Teddie Jamieson, The Herald, 12 best music books of the year so far...

Very nice review by Eamon Sweeney for Arena on RTE Radio 1

"An insightful history, mixed with fond memoires of writing for Melody Maker, one of the weekly "inkies" in the UK's exuberantly opinionated music press ― Financial Times, Best Books of the Summer

"Still In A Dream is at once erudite and expansive - it does what the most convincing bands he's writing about managed to pull off: open doors to other worlds" 

- Miloš Hroch, The Wire

"Reynolds proves to be the ideal guide. He builds bridges between British indie, American rock, grunge, and shoegaze, and shows how ideas, bands, and scenes constantly interact. As a result, a period usually fragmented into genres and subcultures acquires a surprising unity. The book demonstrates how alternative music shifted from society to experience. Much of contemporary alternative music still builds upon this. What felt like separate scenes at the time turns out, in retrospect, to be one of the most fruitful periods in the history of alternative music."

- Hester Aalberts, OOR (Netherlands)

"His wealth of interesting sound bites seems inexhaustible." -Maurice Summen,  review in TAZ (Germany) 

"Still in a Dream is Reynolds' clearest attempt to write close to his own life, with attention directed towards his work in the Melody Maker editorial office and the love affair with the American journalist Joy Press, to whom he is now married. This forms the framework for some overarching thoughts about work (what society wants from you) versus art (dreams and desires) and what opportunities existed in the transition between the 1980s and 1990s to escape society's expectations and create alternative worlds that went under the radar of a more utilitarian parent generation.

"One of the best things about Still in a Dream is the many descriptions of the material conditions under which the music – and Reynolds’ own journalism – came into being….  A small gap exists in time where they can create a life outside the demands of society. There is room to dream, and thus the music also sounded floating and yearning….

"Compared to Reynolds’ previous books…. Still in a Dream is a broader account of the connections between the individual and the collective and how cultural currents can wash through us and create oceanic trends…. Reynolds weaves all these stories together and gives a kind of portrait of a moment in time. The stories about being a music journalist in London, and what this community was about, are some of the most interesting things about the book. He takes self-criticism at some points and surprises with his music historical revisionism…. Reynolds is aware that the many journalistic conceptualizations have not always been for the best... In Still in a Dream Reynolds tries to sneak away from the labels. It fits well with the dream theme. He captures some currents under the language, and some melodic textures outside the reach of the official narratives. Maybe it's possible to bathe in the pink mist and still have new experiences." -  Susanne Christensen, Vagant

"Was it all a dream? I'm still dizzy, there could be various reasons for that, but a noticeable, sweet whizzing lingers in my body. I've read the new book by one of the most influential music writers of our time: the Englishman Simon Reynolds. Still in a Dream is at times dizzying non-fiction about the most wonderful and dreamy music that was created in the alternative rock era 30–40 years ago. This was among the last events in analog pop culture before the internet changed everything. At that time, alternative expressions could be viable, without having to be explicit resistance work, like today. You also have to dig out old LPs, CDs, seven-inches and maxi singles, not least Youtube videos, to get this music straight into your veins again. Thus, a very inspiring book."

- Audun Vinger, DNHelg

"Although he is mature in his analysis, he nonetheless retains the zeal of an erudite cheerleader. He writes eloquently on the feeling of being overtaken or subsumed by the music, of relinquishing logic in pursuit of inner space . . . to devote a book to a set of wilfully amorphous and hazy bands, many of them long-forgotten outriders, is an act of love, commensurate with the saturated thrum of much of the music" ― Kitty Empire, Observer

"Simon Reynolds is the kind of music writer who makes you want to rush out and listen to a hundred bands you have either never heard of or heard of / meant to check out / never got round to. If you dabbled with any of his previous books (Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84 is one of our particular faves) you’ll need little encouragement to make a beeline for this one..... An essential purchase for the muso in your life, Still in a Dream is as entertaining, informative and combative as a night out with your gig going buddies." - Bookmunch

"A masterwork . . . The fascinating thing about Simon Reynolds is that as he gets older and adds more books to his canon, it becomes increasingly fascinating to see where his attention will turn next. Where ever it is you know it's going to be good. After all, you don't get to be the best music journalist working today for no reason" ― Neil Mason, Moonbuilding, Book of the Week

"Through the fug of nostalgic haze, [Reynolds] brings his subjects and their times to crystal-clear life, with plenty of the kind of new, exciting pin-sharp thought we came to adore from the very best of the weekly music press . . . Still in a Dream acts beautifully as a thorough, thoughtful examination of the many featured bands and their music, as an encapsulation of the societies in which they emerged, and as a memoir of the formative years of Reynolds' adult life" -- David Pollock ― Record Collector

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

"We know and appreciate the Simon Reynolds authority and formula but, Still in a Dream, is worth more than the value of considered critical conversation . . . not so much a memoir or biography, unravelling the person, but a grand hat tip and bow to the bands and their music . . . In the end, Still in a Dream will be personal for some readers too: triggering stops and starts as you retrieve vinyl, CDs and other memorabilia to revisit with fresh interest" -- Ngaire Ruth ― Louder Than War

"For those of us who lived through the late 80s and early 90s, it’s a bit disconcerting to see this period of music eulogised through multiple articles and books.  But every so often, a ‘must-read’ book emerges from this literary mountain, and Simon Reynolds, ex-Melody Maker journalist, has written a remarkably detailed account of what you might term alternative music....  There are some interesting stories from the perspective of somebody who was definitely there and most likely wore the t-shirt.  It’s one for the music nerds, but it’s written with a real sense of joy.  Even the most ardent student of this period will surely not be familiar with everything here; there’s plenty of scope to learn... It’s an extraordinarily detailed work, nostalgia for a pre-Internet age.  It will be of interest to anybody interested in the music of the period" -  No More Workhorse

"A masterful cultural and social archaeology"- Richard Imrich, Fullmoon

"Pretty good" - Kieran Press-Reynolds, GQ

EARLIER COVERAGE

Very fun chat with Fran and Babs at Overunderrated Podcast

Extract from Still In A Dream at The Wire website - on the dawn of post-rock versus the rise of Britpop, Seefeel versus Pulp...

Interview with David Eastaugh for the C86 Radio Show podcast –  main site or Spotify

Interview for Rock N Roll Book Club Music Maps podcast 

interview with BBC Radio 6 Huw Stephens 

Lovely long review from Susanne Christensen for the pan-Scandinavian arts magazine Vagant

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. 

Great in-depth chat with Luke Clancy for his radio show Culture File

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

Perceptive Observer review (pictured above) ofStill In A Dream by Kitty Empire

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

My Baker's Dozen on reinvention of the guitar at The Quietus - with a YouTube playlist to accompany.

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 by David Pollock - current issue

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 

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. 2027.

Italian version from Minimum Fax.  2027

Turkish version from Ayrinti. 2027

French version from Audimat. 2028

PLAYLISTS AND FOOTNOTES

Still In A Dream YouTube playlist

Early activity at the Still In A Dream Footnotes blog - The Lost Epigraphs and Lodestar Quotations - with much more to follow in due course

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

                     Table for one - Still In A Dreams pulsing with an ultravivid glow at Foyles, Charing Cross Rd. 

Snapped by old friend Mark Hudson.