The attack had left him with hypoxic brain damage, leading to dystonia, an extremely rare condition that causes chronic pain and a drastic loss of motor skills. Mary Wren, a member of Cardiacs’ label Alphabet Business Concern said: “We are comforted by the fact that he left us quietly, albeit suddenly”. It is not unreasonable to assume that his death was related to this condition.

In an interview with The Quietus a decade after his heart attack, Smith likened living with the condition to “wearing a skintight bodysuit made of fishnet all around you with electrical pulses going all the time”. “This is what my body feels like unless I fall asleep”, he told Sean Kitching, “this I have called my digital pain, and bashing my head or something what hurts loads or any sort of normal pain, like toothache, I call analogue. Also, I can’t write or hold a pen or use a computer”.

Originally forming as ‘Cardiac Arrest’ in 1977 with his brother Jim, Smith helped curate the band’s unreplicable sound by fusing together rock’s most famous ideological nemeses prog and punk, with results that were aggressively technical as often as they were playfully childlike (in a feature for The Guardian, lifelong admirer Peter Cashmore once called them “lovely one moment and unlistenable the next”). 

Shifts in their early lineup pushed Smith from guitarist to being the face of the group (now renamed ‘Cardiacs’) taking control of lead vocal duties in 1981. Over the course of the decade, the closest the group came to commercial success was their 1988 (sort of) hit “Is This the Life?”, but their adventurous (if at times uncompromising) sound earnt them a devout following that included Napalm Death, Radiohead, Faith No More and Blur. Damon Albarn once told Louder Than War: “Cardiacs were an early inspiration for all of us in Blur. I remember one of their gigs at ULU. It was amazing, one of the most magical live performances I’ve ever seen”.

Smith married saxophonist Sarah Cutts in 1983, who remained a member of the band until the two amicably separated in 1990. The two remained firm friends, even releasing new music together with fellow Cardiacs member William Drake as The Sea Nymphs. As strong as their 80s output is, it was their 1996 album Sing to God which has become regarded as their masterpiece, and has gained an underground status as a cult classic. Watch music journalist and video essayist Oliver Kemp dissect the album below:

The 2020 #HyundaiMercuryPrize Shortlist has been revealed! Let’s take a deeper look at the 12 incredible albums that make up a snapshot in music over the past twelve months… pic.twitter.com/2xuP1WtMWG

— Mercury Prize (@MercuryPrize) July 23, 2020

On her BBC Radio 6 Music slot this morning, showhost Lauren Laverne revealed a record-breaking shortlist that for the first time in the award’s 29 year history included more women solo artists than men. Alongside mixed gender groups Sports Team, Porridge Radio and Lanterns on the Lake, five women were nominated for the award. In addition to Scottish composer Anna Meredith and English folk singer Laura Marling, Dua Lipa, Charli XCX and Georgia all hail from the pop sphere, though a pop album has not won the award since M People’s Elegant Slumming in 1994.

Charli was one of several artists to record their reaction from lockdown, saying that “it feels really good to be recognised, especially when there are so many incredible artists making so many bold steps and albums at the moment”. While the nominations have platformed Newcastle indie underdogs Lanterns on the Lake (frontwoman Hazel Wilde works a part-time job at Newcastle University to help fund the project), eyebrows have been raised at the omission of critical darlings Rina Sawayama and FKA twigs. Similarly, Guardian columnist Alexis Petridis lamented that despite Dave’s win last year, UK rap newcomer J Hus hadn’t got a look in so as to make way for genre staples Kano and Stormzy.  

“Stop! Whoa!” Here’s @charli_xcx‘s reaction to making the 2020 Hyundai Mercury Prize Shortlist! #HyundaiMercuryPrize pic.twitter.com/aNJe9zEkOW

— Mercury Prize (@MercuryPrize) July 23, 2020

Marling’s Song for Our Daughter – an album addressed to a fictional, future daughter inspired by the concept of Maya Angelou’s book Letter to My Daughter (2009) – is the singer-songwriter’s fourth Mercury nomination, making her the joint second most nominated artist (level with PJ Harvey and the Arctic Monkeys) in the award’s history, just lagging behind Radiohead’s five. Like the Oxford five-piece, none of her previous entries have yet won her the £25,000 prize.

Fellow nominee (and bookies’ favourite) Michael Kiwanuka also matched previous award records, joining Coldplay and Anna Calvi in having all of his first three studio albums nominated. This year’s obligatory jazz nomination (made seemingly into an unwritten tradition in recent years) went to Moses Boyd’s Dark Matter. As of now, the awards ceremony is still set to take place on the 10th of September at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, though organisers will of course have to wait on future government guidance. Read the full list in alphabetical order below:

Moses Boyd – Dark Matter

Charli XCX – how i’m feeling now

Georgia – Seeking Thrills 

Kano – Hoodies All Summer

Michael Kiwanuka – KIWANUKA

Lanterns on the Lake – Spook the Herd

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Laura Marling – Song for Our Daughter

Anna Meredith – FIBS

Porridge Radio – Every Bad 

Sports Team – Deep Down Happy

Stormzy – Heavy Is the Head

The 24 year old captioned the image with a definition of the word ‘autochthonous’, meaning (as per the tweet) “indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists”, presumably with reference to Albanians being indigenous to the Balkans (something which Serbia disputed and used as justification for the genocide of Albanians in Kosovo during the 1990s). 

au•toch•tho•nous adjective
(of an inhabitant of a place) indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists pic.twitter.com/OD9bNmLcZ4

— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) July 19, 2020

While ethnologists disagree as to exactly when and how Albanians first settled in the region, the narrative that Sunni muslim Albanians are descended from Arabs and therefore not native is not only racist but incorrect; Albania was a Christian nation before being gradually Islamised under an Ottoman rule that began in the 14th century. By the 17th century it had eventually become a majority muslim nation, some 600 years after the historical record first places Albanians in the Balkans. It is fair to assume that Lipa sent the initial tweet with this sentiment.

Despite being born in London, she spent her late childhood in her parents’ native Kosovo before returning to the UK (I know it’s complicated but stick with me). Formally a part of Serbia, Kosovo declared independence in 2008 largely due to 92% of its inhabitants being ethnically Albanian (called ‘Kosovar Albanians’), Lipa’s parents included. Along with around half the world’s nations, Serbia still refuses to formally recognise the region as an independent country.

What perhaps Lipa didn’t know, is that the flag posted has connotations that overstep simply stating that Albanians are native to Eastern Europe. The ‘Greater Albania’ in the image encompasses not just Kosovo (which in itself contests Kosovo’s independence) but most of Macedonia, the island of Corfu, parts of Montenegro, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, where the ethnically Albanian populations are negligible at best (see map below). The irony of using a Greek term (‘autochthonous’) to claim parts of Greece was not lost on users either.  

Just Dua Lipa pushing the far right ‘Greater Albania’ idea, nothing to see here. https://t.co/mklvdAZAOo pic.twitter.com/OGdKelRNYx — Kyle Glen (@KyleJGlen) July 19, 2020

Instead of apologising for pairing a commendable message with an inflammatory image however, Lipa left a bizarre statement that accused critics of “promoting ethnic separatism” by “wilfully misinterpret[ing]” her post. Her response verges on gaslighting her detractors calling them “crazy”, conveniently ignoring the ties between ‘Greater Albania’ and Albania’s far-right fascist movement when the country sided with the Nazis during the Second World War.

Even more strangely, her statement ends with a wish for her “country to be represented on a map”, a reference to Apple bowing to a recent petition to include Kosovo as a country on their GPS systems. However, the map Lipa shared does precisely the opposite, erasing Kosovo’s independence as a part of ‘Greater Albania’. For the minute, both tweets remain undeleted, though we’ll have to see if Lipa’s clarification undergoes its own clarification. Read Lipa’s second statement via the embed below:

pic.twitter.com/LbHKoXnYEu

— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) July 21, 2020

As stipulated by the film’s title, the forlorn, monumental synths that characterised the Ghosteen cut have been stripped away, with Cave instead playing what sounds like a newly-arranged piano part over the song’s melancholic musings: “If I could sail a galleon ship/Long lonely rider cross the sky/Seek out mysteries while you sleep/And treasures money cannot buy”.

In addition to “Galleon Ship”, Cave’s official website details that we will hear acoustic renditions of songs chosen from throughout his discography, from “early Bad Seeds and Grinderman, right through to the most recent … album”. Another we can expect to see is of course the film’s namesake “Idiot Prayer”, a track from his 1997 album The Boatman’s Call of which Cave played the first few notes at the end of the initial announcement trailer (spoken lyrics from Ghosteen’s opener “Spinning Song” were also used).

Watch the trailer for IDIOT PRAYER: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace here: https://t.co/FgKl1JjYZA. Global live streaming event on 23 July 2020. Buy tickets and find out more information including how to stream the event here: https://t.co/tL3zmyQCtr

— Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (@nickcave) July 13, 2020

Despite its filming having already taken place last month, the website also details that the 90 minute feature will be streamed on Thursday (the 23rd) as if it were a live performance, meaning that viewers will not be able to pause or rewind the film, nor access it once it has finished screening. Tickets to stream Idiot Prayer… are available through the DICE website, though viewers should note that the time of the broadcast will differ between timezones (for the UK it is 8pm BST). Watch the full trailer below:

The momentum gained by the Black Lives Matter movement has also encouraged a redress of racist norms beyond anti-blackness. In a move that was echoed last week by the Washington NFL Team, One Little Indian Records similarly have renamed themselves ‘One Little Independent’ to reflect the current climate. It is likely in this spirit of anti-racism that one of the world’s most streamed artists, Dua Lipa, posted this flag onto Twitter last night. The online reaction to the tweet however, was hardly one of anti-racist unity.

au•toch•tho•nous adjective
(of an inhabitant of a place) indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists pic.twitter.com/OD9bNmLcZ4

— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) July 19, 2020

Originally born in London to Kosovar Albanian (ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo) refugees, Lipa spent most of her childhood in Kosovo before returning to the UK. The flag she shared depicts a map of ‘Greater Albania’, an imagined area that in addition to modern day Albania covers land from several of its surrounding countries. Alongside the image, Lipa left a caption defining the word ‘autochthonous’, a descriptor meaning “indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists” as the definition reads.

Aside from the problematic implications that come with laying claim to land within other sovereign nations , the flag in question has historically been used by far-right nationalists who argue for the annexation of ‘ethnically Albanian’ areas, most notably when the country sided with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Pink News also pointed out that in more recent history, the flag was flown by a drone at a football match between Serbia and Albania, inciting a riot.

While the caption likely stems from Lipa asserting that the ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo  (in 2013 more than 90% of the population) have no less a right to live there than neighbouring ethnic groups, the idea of ‘Greater Albania’ is extremely insensitive to Kosovo’s ongoing struggle for international recognition as an independent state, not too mention that the area covers most of Macedonia, the island of Corfu, parts of Montenegro, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, where the ethnically Albanian populations are negligible at best (see map below).   

Just Dua Lipa pushing the far right ‘Greater Albania’ idea, nothing to see here. https://t.co/mklvdAZAOo pic.twitter.com/OGdKelRNYx

— Kyle Glen (@KyleJGlen) July 19, 2020

As of now the tweet still remains uploaded and the row rages on. Several publications are still awaiting comment from Lipa’s representatives.

After announcing her fourth album how i’m feeling now on the 6th of April, Charli imposed upon herself a strict five week production time frame and filmed its entire recording process, right up to its release on the 15th of May. 6ft Apart is expected to be in keeping with the DIY approach Charli took towards making the album. It promises to be, as she puts it, “very indicative of the times we’re in”. 

Cataloging the developments of the project via livestreams on her Instagram account and YouTube channel, (as well as several exclusive Zoom meetings) fans of the singer were invited to collaborate on much of the promotional material. A collage of home movies submitted by her fans was used for the music video for the album’s lead single “forever”. 

6ft Apart will be the feature length directorial debut for Bradley&Pablo, the duo behind music videos for high profile artists such as Lil Nas X, Harry Styles, Rosalía and Frank Ocean. The two have also been longtime collaborators of Charli’s, directing the videos for her tracks “Vroom Vroom”, “2099” and “Blame It on Your Love”.

In her press release with Variety, Charli said of the upcoming film: “I don’t think I’ve ever made music in such a unique situation: being so logistically far apart from my collaborators, but going through exactly the same thing, writing songs about my relationship with my boyfriend sitting in the next room, and being so connected to my fans in such an intense and creative way, it felt quite overwhelming and heartwarming all at the same time. So I wanted to film it all. Why not add to the pressure of making an extremely personal album within a five-week timeline by putting a load of cameras in my face and zooming in on my personality and insecurities too??! You know???” 

Featuring contributions from A.G. Cook and 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady, Charli XCX’s fourth album how i’m feeling now was released in May via Asylum Records to high critical praise. Review aggregate site Metacritic has awarded the album a Metascore of 82 out of 100 based on 16 professional reviews, indicating “universal acclaim”. Though there is no release date yet set for 6ft Apart, it has been confirmed that the film is already in post-production. Read its official press statement below:

The project would be a virtual experiment like no other, with Charli making use of all the tools at her disposal – collaborating online with select artists and her fans around the world via social media. No fancy recording studios. No glossy music videos; everything is made at home, and yet everything is made with the world watching. ‘6ft Apart’ depicts how this project would become a cathartic lifeline for both Charli and her fans, called the ‘Angels’, and a welcome distraction for the wider music world. At the very heart of ‘6ft Apart,’ we uncover the profound power of music to inspire hope, bringing people together in a time where we are forced to be apart; from Charli’s own relationship with her long-distance-now-live-in boyfriend, to a generation around the world in times of global crisis.

Described on the Bandcamp release page as combining a “myriad sounds from her youth”, “Source” re-works her 2018 song of the same name, taken from her EP When We Are. This version swaps the lighter, nu-jazz tempo of the original by anchoring the groove with a dub-infused bass so thick that Garcia’s signature tenor sax only just slices its way through. Speaking on what inspired this “paean to personal power”, Garcia reflects that what makes her feel powerful is the feeling of “being ok with reaching out to people and supporting one another”; a message that bears repeating in our current climate.

After 2 EPs I’m excited to announce my DEBUT ALBUM…! Featuring some very special people in my life, @dancasimirmusic @BarrellJones @joeArmonJones @CassieKinoshi @_rich_chie @smauricegrey @akenyamusic and La Perla!

Released August 21st + up for preorder now on @Bandcamp pic.twitter.com/QLFxNaQXXc

— Nubya Garcia (@nubya_garcia) July 16, 2020

Aside from the EPs Nubya’s 5ive and When We Are, the award-winning saxophonist has performed on several high profile jazz releases that have come out of the capital over the last few years. Her credits include Yazz Ahmed’s Polyhymnia, Moses Boyd’s Dark Matter from earlier this year, and the Mercury Prize-nominated Your Queen is a Reptile by Shabaka Hutchings’ band Sons of Kemet. 

SOURCE will arrive on the 21st of August via Concord Jazz Records on double LP, CD and as a digital download. Tracks “Source” and “Pace” are available for purchase and streaming now. See the tracklist for SOURCE below:

SOURCE Tracklist:

1. “Pace” (featuring Ms MAURICE, Cassie Kinoshi, Richie Seivwright)
2. “The Message Continues“
3. “Source“
4. “Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be“
5. “Stand With Each Other” (featuring Ms MAURICE, Cassie Kinoshi, Richie Seivwright)
6. “Inner Game“
7. “La cumbia me está llamando” (featuring La Perla)
8. “Before Us: In Demerara & Caura” (featuring Ms MAURICE)
9. “Boundless Beings” (featuring Akenya)

Our next single ‘A HYMN’, out Tuesday 14 July.

Subscribe & set a reminder to watch on @YouTube at https://t.co/Qj5xSvWVPe

Pre Order ‘ULTRA MONO’ – https://t.co/TwOCbzEx1F pic.twitter.com/Ek697T4p9R

— I D L E S (@idlesband) July 11, 2020

Premiering on their YouTube channel yesterday afternoon, “A Hymn” is the third single from the band’s upcoming album Ultra Mono, following on after May’s barnstorming “Mr. Motivator” and last month’s already firm fan-favourite “Grounds”. Changing tack from the aggressive snarl in those previous two tracks, “A Hymn” takes the tempo down a notch, opting to open with a minute long stretch of feedback and distortion.   

You’ve got to have faith. Love, IDLES.https://t.co/Qj5xSvWVPe — I D L E S (@idlesband) July 15, 2020

This atmospheric prelude tees up what Ali Shutler of NME has called “the closest thing they’ve come to releasing an all-out ballad”; a muscular bassline is accented by pitter-patter hi-hats, as frontman Joe Talbot turns what should be a moment of vulnerability (“I wanna be loved/Everybody does”) into pessimistic misanthropy: “Shame, shame”. Contrasting the universal existentialism with grueling mundanity, translations of the profound lyrics in a variety of languages are displayed in ugly yellow font at the bottom of the screen as each of the band members embark on a shopping trip to TESCO. Watch the video for “A Hymn” through IDLES’ official YouTube channel below:

Speaking on their meaning, Talbot said in a press release, “‘A Hymn’ is a hymn that rejoices in the sinister flesh-eating virus of the pedestrian. It sings the tune of normal’s teeth sinking into your neck as you sleep stood up with your eyes open”. To celebrate the release of their third album, IDLES announced they would be selling tickets for three livestreams of virtual gigs in the run-up to its drop date. Ultra Mono will be released on the 25th of September via Partisan Records. Find the album’s tracklist and the dates of the livestream gigs listed here:

LIVESTREAM 1 SAT 29 AUG £10

9PM BST / 4PM EDT / 1PM PDT / 6AM AEST

LIVESTREAM 2 SAT 29 AUG £10 

11:45PM BST / 6:45PM EDT / 3:45PM PDT / 8:45AM AEST

LIVESTREAM 3 SUN 30 AUG £10 

12PM BST / 7AM EDT / 4AM PDT / 9PM AEST

His website also details that despite the fact that filming already took place last month, Idiot Prayer… will be streamed on the 23rd of July as if it were a live performance, meaning that viewers will not be able to pause or rewind the film, nor access it once it has finished screening. Credits for Idiot Prayer… – which Cave has called the “luminous and heartfelt climax” of a trilogy preceded by his earlier concert films 20,000 Days on Earth and One More Time with Feeling – include the award-winning cinematographer behind The Favourite and Marriage Story Robbie Ryan, as well as editor Nick Emerson (Lady Macbeth, Emma).

Take part in a special 20,000 Days on Earth watching / listening party on Sunday 28 June at 6pm (BST) with the directors @iainandjane live tweeting with @Tim_Burgess #TimsTwitterListeningParty pic.twitter.com/HaRFA5yZk3

— Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (@nickcave) June 23, 2020

Over the course of the three minute teaser, Cave sits reading a notepad before making his way through the empty palace to take a seat at the piano. His voice accompanies the clip, reading aloud lyrics from the mediative opener to Ghosteen “Spinning Song”: “Once there was a song/The song yearned to be sung/It was a spinning song/About the king of rock ‘n roll”. The trailer ends as Cave begins to play the first few chords of his 1997 The Boatman’s Call cut “Idiot Prayer”, from which the film takes its name.

Watch the trailer for IDIOT PRAYER: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace here: https://t.co/FgKl1JjYZA. Global live streaming event on 23 July 2020. Buy tickets and find out more information including how to stream the event here: https://t.co/tL3zmyQCtr — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (@nickcave) July 13, 2020

Nick Cave released his seventeenth album with the Bad Seeds Ghosteen last October via his own label Bad Seed to universal critical acclaim. Review aggregate site Metacritic has given Ghosteen a Metascore of 96 out of 100 based on 28 professional reviews, placing it as the second best received record of the entire 2010s (after Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly). Tickets to stream Idiot Prayer… are available through the DICE website, though viewers should note that the time of the broadcast will differ between timezones (for the UK it is 8pm BST). Watch the trailer below:

The Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick (who has recently been dogged by accusations of corruption in granting planning permission to personal friends without council approval) referred to Britain’s cultural institutions the “envy of the world”, and that it was therefore “vital they are properly protected by the planning system for both people today to enjoy and future generations”. Jenrick was repeating a sentiment put forward by his fellow cabinet members following the government’s plans to inject £1.57 billion of investment into the ailing arts industries; the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak similarly called Britain’s galleries, museums, heritage sites, music venues and independent cinemas “world-renowned”. 

Adding his approval, the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden also named the creative industries “world-beating”, despite later conceding that the primary aim of the package was to preserve Britain’s cultural “crown jewels”. The government’s supportive rhetoric however, does not match the lack of intervention on behalf of the arts sector over the course of the pandemic, nor their confused message with regard to the protection of the UK’s music venues. 

PLANNING AMENDMENTS

We are pleased to confirm that Grassroots Music Venues will not be included in amendments to the planning law under the proposed ‘Project Speed’. Thanks to @KevinBrennanMP for asking the question and @DCMS for the very clear answer. pic.twitter.com/OSi124K3TD

— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) July 7, 2020

On the 30th of June, the Prime Minister established an Infrastructure Delivery Taskforce (dubbed “Project Speed”) that aimed to “to cut down the time it takes to develop, design and deliver vital infrastructure projects”. The Music Venue Trust condemned the project as a “replica” of the widely-criticised Permitted Development Rights, a scheme by which developers closed hundreds of venues before eventually being reversed in 2018, asking for “urgent clarification”. The government then responded to confirm that music venues would be an exception from the development plans, with the Minister of State for Health Caroline Dinenage reassuring the Trust that the “significant challenges” grassroots music venues were undergoing were being recognised.

Despite the praise heaped on by various members of the cabinet, appeals from arts organisations for government intervention had been ignored for several months, until the instigation of the #LetTheMusicPlay campaign. Days after more than 1,500 high-profile artists signed an open letter in support, plans for the £1.57 billion investment were announced. With live events limited to either open air arrangements or not at all, hundreds of independent theatre and music venues across the country were previously under imminent threat of closure. Read the full letter here.