David McKenna
, March 16th, 2021 09:08
David McKenna celebrates ten years of the Rockfort column and tackles folk, rap, the dark arts - and classic French Europop
This column marks the ten-year anniversary of Rockfort on The Quietus, a realisation which is a source of delight and no little consternation (for me, but perhaps for others too). It’s the sort of moment that leads to pained reflections on where the time has gone, and what I’ve achieved. Then I remember that over the same period Daft Punk only managed to release one paltry album before splitting up and I feel much better!
Christian Eede
, March 15th, 2021 16:06
The artwork sees Richard D. James team up with frequent visual collaborator Weirdcore
Aphex Twin has auctioned off artwork as an NFT (non-fungible token).
Titled
afx\/weirdcore\blockscanner, the artwork is a collaboration between Richard D. James and visual artist Weirdcore, with whom the producer has frequently worked before. The digital artwork, which features music from Aphex Twin, was made available on the cryptocurrency marketplace Foundation and the winning bid was 72 ETH, equivalent to around $128,000. An NFT is a token that defines ownership of part of a digital asset, which could be an MP3, a gif, a PDF or any other kind of digital file.
Oobah Butler
, March 15th, 2021 09:01
A chance encounter on an otherwise dry BBC art documentary took Oobah Butler down a revelatory rabbit hole peopled by Polish weightlifters, fake Jesuses and irate fortune-tellers
The author, acting as Jesus aged 13, in a school version of Jesus Christ Superstar
“Do you like to shock people, Christian?” says Dr James Fox, perched on the edge of a squat sofa, straight-backed, his neck angled upwards like a dad at a service-station urinal. Just an arm’s length away, Christian Jankowski looks back, smiles, and uncrosses his legs.
It’s September 2016, I feel poorly, and I’m watching a documentary about conceptual art. I’ve no real knowledge on the subject and the film is trying to educate me. It does this in the same language as pretty much any BBC documentary of the past 80 years: polished accents offer informative and dry anecdotes; stock footage brings colour; cameras are slowly approached by presenters who gesticulate and expertly