Grain: Analogue horror, rotting internet, raves

I loved this long, fascinating piece about internet-born analogue horror (amateur cinema primarily uploaded to platforms like Youtube and Tiktok), and how it operates much like contemporary folklore. The essay explains how online communities use this purposefully eerie lo-fi media to create their own narratives that are similar to traditional storytelling practices: shared myths, legends, and communal anxieties. via Film Quarterly

Favour Amoye walks us through examples of art that spotlights how the internet is a fragile, now decaying system dependent on physical infrastructure, energy, and materials with a tonne of environmental waste. Think solar-powered websites that go offline when energy runs out and artists from West Africa (a dumping ground for e-waste) who repurpose discarded electronics into beautiful and interesting new things. via ContemporaryLynx

I’ve spent the past month on tour supporting Mogwai and managed to squeeze a single book in my bag, Out of Space by Jim Ottewill, a glimpse at how UK cities and towns shape club culture, and often how those cities are in turn shaped by the clubs themselves. I was lucky enough to be interviewed for this about growing up around Liverpool during its clubbing peak and soaking up sounds, and it charts a bunch of other important and often surprising rave geography across the country. via Velocity Press

While I’ve been away I’ve been really enjoying The Spiritual Sound by Agriculture which came out late last year - an ecstatic black metal racket that scratches an itch in my brain I didn’t know I had. It’s part brutal, part soothing, often at the same time. via Bandcamp

Leif Knowles’ Collide is a hypnotic collection of pieces that remind me of the guitar chug of Fugazi mashed with the woozy arpeggiated electronics of Terry Riley. via Bandcamp

Thank you to everyone who supported my repress of Engravings this winter after I finally got the masters back. Vinyl sold out from my webstore in a day, but partner shops will be getting a handful of final copies within the next week or so if you keep an eye out. CD and digital is still available from the usual places.