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Articles by Martin Ruddock
'Bob Stanley presents 76 In The Shade' reviewed " We Are Cult
❉ A kaleidoscopic collection of tunes evoking the long hot summer of 1976. “here be Philly soul and sugary disco, yacht rock, pastel funk and easy pop. It seems like a more innocent time in a lot of ways.
Saint Etienne Present Songs For The Fountain Coffee Room » We Are Cult
❉ Lounge funk, Philly soul, yacht rock and gauzy glitz from the mid to late ’70s. One thing you can always count on during uncertain, often terrifying times is that nothing gets in the way of Ace Records putting out lovely, expertly-curated compilation albums.
'Space Oddity' at 50: Notes on a rocket launch » We Are Cult
❉ Martin Ruddock traces the genesis of Space Oddity, released 50 years ago today. “The stew of Space Oddity has a fair few ingredients. Never one to let the whole truth get in the way of a good story, Bowie has claimed over the years that the song was inspired by a stoned trip to the pictures to see Kubrick’s 2001, but is that the full story? Let’s pick through the stew, and try and find the recipe….” Space Oddity wasn’t just David Bowie’s breakthrough single.
Interview: John Dowie » We Are Cult
❉ Andy Murray in conversation with the incomparable comedian, author, poet, playwright, musician, actor, director… and cyclist. If you’re lucky enough to own a copy of the inaugural Factory Records release, 1978’s A Factory Sample EP – copies of which fetch a pretty penny nowadays – you’ll know that it features four different artists, one per side of vinyl. Right there alongside Joy Division, Cabaret Voltare and The Durutti Column is the name of John Dowie.
Countdown to Major Tom: Notes on a rocket launch » We Are Cult
❉ Unravelling the genesis of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, released on this day in 1969. Space Oddity wasn’t just David Bowie’s breakthrough single. It was also the first truly tough act to follow. As the sessions for his first album for Philips/Mercury would demonstrate, he was still looking for a single voice. For the first time, Bowie truly grasped the zeitgeist, having spent much of the ’60s trying to catch up with it.
Cosmic Christmas - ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ at 50
? ‘Satanic Majesties’ documents a traumatic year in which the Stones went from edgy pop stars to Public Enemy Number One. Something happened to the Rolling Stones in 1967. Something big, and life-changing. The transformation is writ large on the sleeves of the two albums the band released that fateful, tumultuous year. The first, from January, is a fairly standard (albeit bleary) group shot of the band in their dandified mod finery on Primrose Hill, shot by Gered Mankowitz through a vaselined lens.
The Pattern Forms: ‘Peel Away The Ivy’ reviewed
? Stranger Things meets The Owl Service, with this latest long player from the Ghost Box stable. It’s hard to really ‘discover’ a new album these days. The way that music is sold and consumed these days tends to stop anything from really being ‘new’. Any Velvet Underground-style discoveries of the future are more likely to be found in sleep-deprived trawls of forgotten SoundCloud accounts than in any record shop, even a really good one.
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