Hicks.design | graphic design, branding, illustration iconography
I’ve written at length about my search for the perfect digital music app . I’ve spent too much time, trialling every app and streaming service I find, and wasting hours trying to coax Qobuz into being ‘the one’ with CSS (only to find they use Tailwind, and lack enough semantic hooks). It’s more of a sad indictment of my obsessive brain, than the quality of app choices out there though. I can't…
Here's another little update to the Qobuz Beta theme . Their use of Tailwind continues to be an obstacle, as there just aren't enough semantic classes to style things how I would like. In the vein, this likely the last update to the theme, but here are the changes in the version: Changes in 1.4 The main focus is on improving the appearance of modal dialogs, such as Album Info and Add to Playlist:…
This is small bug-fix version of the custom Qobuz theme for the Beta release. There's not many changes but they're important ones, fixing bugs that will affect your usage of the app: Fix for the 'Catalogue/Library' toggle being hidden behind the top toolbar on artist pages: Fix for the Library toolbar (Toggle sidebar, Library Settings and Add button) being hidden behind the now playing bar:…
Sister Ray Davies , whose debut album Holy Island featured on my top 20 of 2025 , played Oxford's diminutive The Library pub in Cowley Road last night. They're a dreamy shoegaze duo from Alabama's Muscle Shoals, comprising of Adam Morrow and Jamie Sego, although Jamie was sadly not able to come on the tour. For good reason though - he and his wife's first child came "much sooner than anticipated"…
There's a Qobuz Beta for desktop available to download from the Qobuz Club forum (Beta Club channel) and I was curious to see what's changed, and how much my theme had to be updated. There’s a fair few changes compared the current release. I can now order albums by release date, so that's another tick on my Music App Criteria list! The new combined 'Library' view, with an overload of buttons and…
In my big ass Music App post , I’d mentioned the iOS/iPadOS app Albums , but since the debut of the MacOS catalyst app, I'm due a revisit to see how it fits with my criteria. Art view, with UI elements tinted to match the cover artwork Albums is a companion app to an Apple Music Subscription where, like Longplay , long players are the focus. You can skip previous/next albums as well as tracks, and…
Since I wrote that big-ass music app post last year, Apple Music's desktop app has seen some nice updates, not least due to the release of their new design language, ‘Liquid Glass’, in MacOS 26 Tahoe. Design changes I really like the new Tahoe design. There, I’ve said it. While I hate Liquid Glass’ fussy twinkly edges and lack of legibility, they both feel less prominent in Apple Music somehow. I…
To summarise my experience with the alternative music streaming service Qobuz : great ethical company, the best sound quality, but I couldn't quite get on with how it looks. As Qobuz desktop is an electron app, with a webplayer at play.qobuz.com , I can customise the interface with CSS. This is not an unsolicited proposal to Qobuz, telling them how they should design their app and logo, it's just…
Tyler Ramsey (ex Band of Horses) played the Jericho Tavern last night. This is the hallowed local venue where Radiohead played their first ever gig (back when they were called 'On a Friday'). He played a sublime fingerstyle acoustic guitar set of his solo work, a couple of Band of Horses tunes, as well as his recent collaboration with Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket, Celestun . The 2019 album…
I love apps that ignore traditions and explore new, different ways of doing something. Such is the case with Spite , a new app for playing your own music library. As James Reeves the creator explains: I asked some friends if they’d like to help me build this. They wished me luck. “To hell with them,” I told C. “I’ll build it anyway and destroy Spotify and Apple.” C smiled and said spite was an…
A great night out with neighbour Doug Tolley (Nine is the Level) to see Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan at the Bullingdon in Oxford! I've been moaning for ages that bands rarely come to Oxford (it's all tribute bands!), so it was exciting to see an artist I love pop up in local gig listings. I've been a fan for a couple of years, but this was my first time seeing him (Gordon…
To summarise my experience with the alternative music streaming service Qobuz : great ethical company, the best sound quality, but I couldn't quite get on with how it looks. Normally with desktop apps there's nothing I can do anything about that, but Qobuz is an electron app, with a webplayer at play.qobuz.com . This means I can change the interface with what I know - CSS! So over the last couple…
Something a bit special for episode #60! It's the first one to feature other humans , and it's a threesome. In the One Footer in the Grave group chat, Andy Clarke , Marcus Lillington and I had been discussing about recording an episode on ( my favourite subject ) music. As Paul Boag was too busy on a cruise, and hates music anyway, a plan formed to ask Richard Rutter (with whom Andy hosts…
I couldn’t let episode #59 be anything else but a celebration of one of my favourite bands: Starflyer 59. I've been besotted with them for over thirty years, and as such, it’s going to be a quadruple dose of Troika this time. Americana era lineup of Starflyer 59, with Jason Martin centre. Formed in Riverside, California by Jason Martin, and while the lineup around him is ever changing, Jason is…
"Is this your idea of romance?" was how Leigh responded to the news that I'd bought tickets for us to see The Besnard Lakes play in Birmingham on Valentines Night. Kings Heath's The Hare and Hounds isn't my favourite venue. It feels cramped and claustrophobic, and there are always at least a couple of high volume obnoxious twats. While Jace (Lasek, lead singer/guitar) was talking to the audience,…
When Danish band Mew arrived on the scene, having (very) young children prevented me going to many gigs, so tonight was both the first, and last time I got to see Mew. They're one of the bands whose music will always be intertwingled with certain life events; going freelance, flying to SXSW, and even my father dying. They went out on such a high though—there was so much love for them in Camden's…
There was an excellent in-store performance from Kula Shaker at Truck Oxford tonight. They played songs from the new album Wormslayer : ‘Lucky Number‘, ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’, ‘Be Merciful to Me’ and the title track, along with old favourites ’Shower Your Love on Me’ and ‘Govinda’. The set was what they called “Busking Sessions”, all four band members but semi-acoustic. Aside from a break…
It's been ten years since 'Hickensian Christmas II' on Troika, probably because I get more curmudgeonly about 'Christmas Music' every year. This even includes quirky 'indie' versions of Christmas favourites. If it's not Vince Guaraldi, I'm not interested! Bucking this trend, I was given Sonic Cathedral 20th Anniversary box set by my daughter last Christmas, which came with a disc of Christmas…
18,970 ↑ Scrobbles 6,701 ↓ Tracks 1,655 ↓ Albums 1,275 ↑ Artists 93 ↑ Albums Bought 14 ↓ Gigs 20 – Books read Album of the year This has felt like a particularly good year for music, and as such, it's been hard to keep the list down to 20. There was however, one album in particular that nudged ahead of all the others: Album of the year The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation The Besnard Lakes…
Ever since Stars of the Lid Forever went live last month, I've been getting a nice batch of new show recordings. I've finally got through processing them all, and I’ve just published 8 new shows, bringing our total to 25 🙌 Saint-Jean-Baptiste au Béguinage, Brussels - Oct 2016 Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham - 04 Oct 2016 St John-at-Hackney, London - 10 December 2012 (audio now added!)…
The band Stars of the Lid should be familiar to anyone who's read the Hicks.design Journal or listened to Troika. The ambient duo have featured on this podcast more than any artist, from the very first episode , episode #31 and episode #45 , a tribute to Brian McBride who had just passed away. They created the #1 and #4 albums in my top 15 of all time . Safe to say I'm a big fan, and this episode…
The band Stars of the Lid shouldn't be unfamiliar to anyone reading this blog, or listening to the Troika Podcast. They've been featured on Troika more than any artist, from in the very first episode , #31 and #45 which was a tribute to Brian McBride who had just passed away. They created the #1 and #4 albums in my top 15 of all time . It all started with a blog post where I'd gathered a list of…
Fat Lil s in Witney is hosting another night of live ambient and experimental music, sponsored by Chase Bliss, on 16th November 2025. This time it's a free event! Kicking off at 7:30pm will be Nine Is The Level, a name that should be familiar to anyone who reads this blog . Next will be Nick Rees , and headlining is The Balloonist , otherwise known as Ben Holton (of Epic45 , My Autumn Empire ,…
For the last twenty years (bar a four month absence during COVID lockdown) I’ve worked from a ‘proper’ office, renting with other freelancers. Despite living in the least “co-worky” area, I’ve always found like-minded folks to work and share rental costs with. It's made working life fun, created separation between work and home, and given me a daily journey (either walking or cycling), that allows…
Know what song comes next before it plays? Can you name albums by their covers alone? Yes! In my search for the "perfect" music app , Adrian Schönig's Longplay is the closest match I've found yet. The MacOS app has been out of beta for a couple of weeks now, and I've been enjoying it, a lot! Longplay is a companion app to an Apple Music subscription, where the album cover art is the UI. No lists…
With the remaster of Stars of the Lid 's debut album Music for Nitrous Oxide being released, they're a band that's been on my mind a lot recently. It was quite an experience to see them live and their drone/ambient/new-classical music takes on another level when performed in a church against Luke Savisky s stunning projected visuals . I only got to see them play live twice, the last time was at…
I finally made it to the V&A East Storehouse this weekend, to see my icons in use. Anyone who was there on Saturday will have seen a rather emotional middle aged man taking more photos of wayfinding than exhibits. The lighting was quite dark, but with a bit of fiddling these do an OK job of documenting how the icons are being used. When the actual V&A East Museum opens next year there'll be even…
Today brings a long-awaited new album by Greet Death and BC Camplight. I also want to highlight a couple of recent-ish releases I've had on heavy rotation: Die in Love by Greet Death New Hell was my favourite album of 2019, and with only EPs in between to keep my going, it's been a long wait. I won't try and describe their sound, but please give it a listen! A Sober Conversation by BC Camplight…
Every year, the Hicks Brothers get together for a few days of walking, cycling, eating and drinking. It means we all get to hang out for more than just weddings and funerals! In 2024 we went to the Lake District , and this year we chose the Peak District, and the bucolic village of Ashford-in-the-Water in particular. On the first day in the village we came across a sign outside the village hall,…
I woke up in the bedroom of the Airbnb, to a malevolent presence holding me tightly down to the bed. I couldn't move any of limbs at all, such was the force at which it held me down. I tried to shout at it, but couldn't speak. All I could manage was a kind of muffled grunt, in a vain attempt to fight back or call for help. Eventually the presence stopped, and I could move my body again. The room…