Matt Peters looks at some pivotal highs and lows from half a century of one of the most influential bands of all time… Whether they admit it or not, legacy is the Grail most artists are chasing. But it’s one of the great human quandaries; what do we leave behind of ourselves? In the case of Led Zeppelin, it’s one of the greatest catalogues in … Continue reading Good Times/Bad Times: The Led Zeppelin Story
Peru’s homegrown rock soon evolved beyond its revolutionary mid-60s beginnings into a unique and fiery sound. Russ Slater charts its history… Forget the panpipes – when it comes to music, Peru has an illustrious history packed with many musical detours and movements, but never did it hit its stride quite so well as when it embraced rock in the 60s and 70s. From setting a … Continue reading Peruvian Blend: Peruvian Rock Records
Fifty years young, and as loud and obnoxious as ever, the world of metal remains a true musical phenomena. Michael Stephens turns the dial up to 11 and beyond. For the full top 40, get your hands on a copy of Issue 36 of Long Live Vinyl… 10 Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against The Machine ‘Rap metal’ threw up a lot of garbage, but … Continue reading The Top 40 Essential Metal Vinyl
From its beginnings in downtown Kingston and through multiple sub-genres, reggae has evolved into a worldwide cultural expression. Gary Tipp roots out its most crucial releases… For what is a relatively small island in the Caribbean, Jamaica has held a wildly disproportionate sway over shaping music across the globe. This vibrant nation has its own soundtrack – reggae, an astonishing genre that has influenced everything … Continue reading The Top 40 Essential Reggae Vinyl
Russ Slater goes in search of tales of soundsystems and African vinyl shipments on Colombia’s Caribbean coast… I scrape up a final mouthful of fish, rice and plantain at a shack-cum-restaurant manned by a delightfully jolly silver-haired lady, and sit back just in time to hear the soundsystem fire up. A group of young guys from the town had been assembling it for a while, … Continue reading Colombia’s African Soul
The infectious grooves contained in Brazilian vinyl have filled dancefloors around the world for decades. Russ Slater explains how a group of UK DJs helped light the touchpaper… In the summer of 2014, an unlikely figure appeared on Channel 4 News to make an appeal to the British public: “Hey, this is Gilles Peterson, I’m asking you to really dig deep in your record collection … Continue reading Brazilian Vinyl: London’s South American Love Affair
From Japanese ambient to funky gospel, from post-punk to electrified jazz-rock, it’s been a strong and diverse year for both reissues and compilations… 20 Stereolab Mars Audiac Quintet Duophonic Operating in a high-concept, retro-cool world all of their own making, Stereolab’s mesmerising third studio album formed part of the first wave of releases of a long-overdue reissue campaign. Lovingly repackaged as a triple, expanded and … Continue reading The Best Reissues Of 2019
Where pop meets shoegaze, often with ethereal, ghostly results. Daniel Dylan Wray gets deeply atmospheric… As a genre term, dreampop embodies some of the same characteristics as the music it describes: it’s hazy, ever-shifting, often undefinable and yet somehow distinctly recognisable. It overlaps with various other genres, most notably shoegaze, and it can veer into indie, pop, ambient, slowcore, post-punk and techno. One could argue … Continue reading The Top 40 Essential Dreampop Vinyl
The artists of the Laurel Canyon movement were a mellow, yet tightly knit bunch who formed bands, wrote songs, partied hard and slept together and, as Gary Tipp details, released an incredible catalogue of music… Laurel Canyon is a mountainous neighbourhood located in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles, California. With the birth of the film industry in 1910, it attracted a host of … Continue reading The Essential: Laurel Canyon
His tragic passing in 2016 left behind a rich, enormously complex canon of material and releases to sift through. Rik Flynn presents a guide to Prince’s rarest and greatest moments… His sales may have waxed and waned a little over the years, but during his 57 years spent on this Earth, Prince never stopped striving to outdo himself and everyone around him. Compulsive and entirely … Continue reading The Top 40 Essential Prince Vinyl
