@unpopularuk.bsky.social
This is a 'no win' for progressive liberals because pursuing identity politics (or politicising identity, if you prefer) is to engage in the very essence of what drives hard-right-leaning argument ('freedom' of expression, cult of individualism etc). It stokes the fires either way :(
The failure to reckon with transphobia as a currently central motivation of the far right will continue to plague those disturbed by its rise for a decade or more
Rather than standing with trans people many liberals have pursued appeasement and helped the wider shift to the far right in the process
Rather than standing with trans people many liberals have pursued appeasement and helped the wider shift to the far right in the process
January 23, 2025 at 11:52 AM
This is a 'no win' for progressive liberals because pursuing identity politics (or politicising identity, if you prefer) is to engage in the very essence of what drives hard-right-leaning argument ('freedom' of expression, cult of individualism etc). It stokes the fires either way :(
I've been writing about the books of John Moore this morning, in particular his excellent final novel 'The Waters Under The Earth' from 1965. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/23/i...
In Praise of John Moore
We are already nearly a month into 2025 (and who shall not be delighted to see the back end of January recede into the distance once again?) and I realise that, for all the words written about book…
unpopularuk.wordpress.com
January 23, 2025 at 11:42 AM
I've been writing about the books of John Moore this morning, in particular his excellent final novel 'The Waters Under The Earth' from 1965. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/23/i...
Of course there is a lot of reference to John and Christine Nash in the Ronald Blythe biography. Here's one of John Nash's paintings, which I cannot see without also seeing Jem Southam's photograph at Upton Pyne, just over the river from where we live.
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
January 9, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Of course there is a lot of reference to John and Christine Nash in the Ronald Blythe biography. Here's one of John Nash's paintings, which I cannot see without also seeing Jem Southam's photograph at Upton Pyne, just over the river from where we live.
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
I've always liked Maggi Hambling's paintings. Here she is with the obligatory cigarette. She also pops up in the Ronald Blythe biography, making a great observation on his self-invention. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
January 9, 2025 at 11:48 AM
I've always liked Maggi Hambling's paintings. Here she is with the obligatory cigarette. She also pops up in the Ronald Blythe biography, making a great observation on his self-invention. unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
Reading the Ronald Blythe biography, one of the most unexpected and unlikely connections unveiled was one between Blythe and Patricia Highsmith. Here they are looking young and beautiful. My piece about the biography is here: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
January 9, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reading the Ronald Blythe biography, one of the most unexpected and unlikely connections unveiled was one between Blythe and Patricia Highsmith. Here they are looking young and beautiful. My piece about the biography is here: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
Earlier this week I wittered on a bit about some #detectivefiction that I (mostly) enjoyed reading over the festive season. Niche interest, no doubt, but here we are: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/m...
More Books and Beverages
So the year has turned once more and here we are, heads bent to it again, battling the January gloom. A opportunity perhaps to try and flex the mind, scrape off some of those flakes of rust. Books …
unpopularuk.wordpress.com
January 9, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Earlier this week I wittered on a bit about some #detectivefiction that I (mostly) enjoyed reading over the festive season. Niche interest, no doubt, but here we are: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/m...
Last night I finished reading this terrific biography of Ronald Blythe which was a lovely Christmas present from my mum. This morning I have been marshalling some thoughts about it into a new Unpopular blog post: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
January 9, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Last night I finished reading this terrific biography of Ronald Blythe which was a lovely Christmas present from my mum. This morning I have been marshalling some thoughts about it into a new Unpopular blog post: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/a...
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 7: GospelbeacH - ‘Wiggle Your Fingers’
This is the sound of a band taking musical templates created by/for youth and grappling with how to transfigure them for advancing adulthood. Evidence that one can both embrace and reject tradition in the same breath.
bit.ly/49nZSCT
This is the sound of a band taking musical templates created by/for youth and grappling with how to transfigure them for advancing adulthood. Evidence that one can both embrace and reject tradition in the same breath.
bit.ly/49nZSCT
Wiggle Your Fingers, by GospelbeacH
11 track album
curation-records.bandcamp.com
December 7, 2024 at 11:18 AM
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 7: GospelbeacH - ‘Wiggle Your Fingers’
This is the sound of a band taking musical templates created by/for youth and grappling with how to transfigure them for advancing adulthood. Evidence that one can both embrace and reject tradition in the same breath.
bit.ly/49nZSCT
This is the sound of a band taking musical templates created by/for youth and grappling with how to transfigure them for advancing adulthood. Evidence that one can both embrace and reject tradition in the same breath.
bit.ly/49nZSCT
It's Bandcamp Friday, so if ever there was a day to buy something from the Unpopular mix for December, today is the day. Links to band and label Bandcamp pages are in the tracklisting on the Unpopular blog: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/12/01/u...
Unpop 249
The cover illustration is a linocut print showing the Gurnard’s Head cliffs in Cornwall. Original prints are available in the UNPOPSHOP Past present future – Jet Set Willy vs The Shangr…
unpopularuk.wordpress.com
December 6, 2024 at 10:53 AM
It's Bandcamp Friday, so if ever there was a day to buy something from the Unpopular mix for December, today is the day. Links to band and label Bandcamp pages are in the tracklisting on the Unpopular blog: unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/12/01/u...
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 6: Ducks Ltd. – ‘Harm’s Way’
This LP of chiming, charming guitar driven Pop clocks in at 28 minutes and delivers 9 songs that step up, do their thing and then bugger off, grinning a little sheepishly at their audacity and infectiousness. Ace.
bit.ly/3ZEYd8v
This LP of chiming, charming guitar driven Pop clocks in at 28 minutes and delivers 9 songs that step up, do their thing and then bugger off, grinning a little sheepishly at their audacity and infectiousness. Ace.
bit.ly/3ZEYd8v
Harm's Way, by Ducks Ltd.
9 track album
bit.ly
December 6, 2024 at 9:12 AM
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 6: Ducks Ltd. – ‘Harm’s Way’
This LP of chiming, charming guitar driven Pop clocks in at 28 minutes and delivers 9 songs that step up, do their thing and then bugger off, grinning a little sheepishly at their audacity and infectiousness. Ace.
bit.ly/3ZEYd8v
This LP of chiming, charming guitar driven Pop clocks in at 28 minutes and delivers 9 songs that step up, do their thing and then bugger off, grinning a little sheepishly at their audacity and infectiousness. Ace.
bit.ly/3ZEYd8v
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 5: New Starts - ‘More Break-Up Songs’
There's an excitable movement to the sound here, a degree of the dervish offset by a lyrical tone that is mature, certainly, but still fuelled by glorious observational bemusement. Marvellous. New (Stop) Starts indeed.
bit.ly/4ikzn5k
There's an excitable movement to the sound here, a degree of the dervish offset by a lyrical tone that is mature, certainly, but still fuelled by glorious observational bemusement. Marvellous. New (Stop) Starts indeed.
bit.ly/4ikzn5k
More Break-Up Songs, by New Starts
12 track album
fikarecordings.bandcamp.com
December 5, 2024 at 4:22 PM
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 5: New Starts - ‘More Break-Up Songs’
There's an excitable movement to the sound here, a degree of the dervish offset by a lyrical tone that is mature, certainly, but still fuelled by glorious observational bemusement. Marvellous. New (Stop) Starts indeed.
bit.ly/4ikzn5k
There's an excitable movement to the sound here, a degree of the dervish offset by a lyrical tone that is mature, certainly, but still fuelled by glorious observational bemusement. Marvellous. New (Stop) Starts indeed.
bit.ly/4ikzn5k
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 4. Peter Perrett - ‘The Cleansing’ ...might be the most barren, beaten yet surprisingly uplifting record of the year... a wilful mess of contradictions, at once full of sneering barbs at Modern Life and profound declarations of Love In Spite Of It All. bit.ly/3VpOnVx
The Cleansing, by Peter Perrett
20 track album
peterperrett.bandcamp.com
December 4, 2024 at 12:22 PM
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 4. Peter Perrett - ‘The Cleansing’ ...might be the most barren, beaten yet surprisingly uplifting record of the year... a wilful mess of contradictions, at once full of sneering barbs at Modern Life and profound declarations of Love In Spite Of It All. bit.ly/3VpOnVx
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 3. Death And The Maiden: ‘Uneven Ground’. The sound of trauma unwinding; a mass of memory, dream, regret and confusion meshing in a heavenly nightmare of DoomDisco introspection. Songs of a lost world for those of us too perverse to listen to a Cure album. bit.ly/3CQZEb2
Ceramic, by Death And The Maiden
from the album Uneven Ground
bit.ly
December 3, 2024 at 11:30 AM
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 3. Death And The Maiden: ‘Uneven Ground’. The sound of trauma unwinding; a mass of memory, dream, regret and confusion meshing in a heavenly nightmare of DoomDisco introspection. Songs of a lost world for those of us too perverse to listen to a Cure album. bit.ly/3CQZEb2
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 2: Isobel Campbell – ‘Saturday’s Son’ (from ‘Bow to Love’ LP). With this record Campbell asks us to bow not only to love but to the tenderness and vulnerability that come with it. An assured and delicate delight. isobelcampbell.bandcamp.com/track/saturd...
Saturday's Son, by Isobel Campbell
from the album Bow To Love (Digital)
isobelcampbell.bandcamp.com
December 2, 2024 at 7:09 AM
Unpopular Advent 2024 - Day 2: Isobel Campbell – ‘Saturday’s Son’ (from ‘Bow to Love’ LP). With this record Campbell asks us to bow not only to love but to the tenderness and vulnerability that come with it. An assured and delicate delight. isobelcampbell.bandcamp.com/track/saturd...
Belated Unpopular Advent 2014 – Day 1: Alula Down – ‘DELPHI’ (from ‘The Leyline’ LP). The sound of simplicity, whilst being far from simple... the sound of inhaling earth energy and exhaling a contemplation of our own impermanence. aluladown.bandcamp.com/track/delphi
DELPHI, by Alula Down
from the album The Leyline
aluladown.bandcamp.com
December 2, 2024 at 7:07 AM
Belated Unpopular Advent 2014 – Day 1: Alula Down – ‘DELPHI’ (from ‘The Leyline’ LP). The sound of simplicity, whilst being far from simple... the sound of inhaling earth energy and exhaling a contemplation of our own impermanence. aluladown.bandcamp.com/track/delphi
I've made a Bluesky Starter pack for some of the artists/labels who feature on the Unpopular mix for December 2024. Go follow them and buy their music of you like what you hear on the mix/playlist! go.bsky.app/3NURxUD
December 1, 2024 at 10:26 AM
I've made a Bluesky Starter pack for some of the artists/labels who feature on the Unpopular mix for December 2024. Go follow them and buy their music of you like what you hear on the mix/playlist! go.bsky.app/3NURxUD
The Unpopular mix for December is available now to stream/download). It's the usual mix of new and old, with a short segment of Christmas numbers for seasonal cheer. As ever, please support the artists and labels by buying anything you like the sound of. bit.ly/unpop249
Unpop 249
The cover illustration is a linocut print showing the Gurnard’s Head cliffs in Cornwall. Original prints are available in the UNPOPSHOP Past present future – Jet Set Willy vs The Shangr…
bit.ly
December 1, 2024 at 10:01 AM
The Unpopular mix for December is available now to stream/download). It's the usual mix of new and old, with a short segment of Christmas numbers for seasonal cheer. As ever, please support the artists and labels by buying anything you like the sound of. bit.ly/unpop249
New additions to the Unpopular shop on ETSY: a wren in a winter garden; a Dansette record player; Netherexe church in the snow; Netherexe church Spring sunrise. unpopshop.uk
November 25, 2024 at 11:27 AM
New additions to the Unpopular shop on ETSY: a wren in a winter garden; a Dansette record player; Netherexe church in the snow; Netherexe church Spring sunrise. unpopshop.uk
It's a rainy day in Devon so I've spent the morning updating my ETSY shop with prints from most of the Unpopular mixes in 2024. From Beer beach to Corrugated Iron barns, from Scottish castles to Cornish cliffs and from Sea Scouts huts to teasels, there is something for everyone. unpopshop.uk
November 23, 2024 at 11:19 AM
It's a rainy day in Devon so I've spent the morning updating my ETSY shop with prints from most of the Unpopular mixes in 2024. From Beer beach to Corrugated Iron barns, from Scottish castles to Cornish cliffs and from Sea Scouts huts to teasels, there is something for everyone. unpopshop.uk
It has been snowing a bit in Devon, which is as rare as a rare thing. Now turning a bit wetter, so the snow hat is sliding off the pizza oven chimney…
November 21, 2024 at 10:49 AM
It has been snowing a bit in Devon, which is as rare as a rare thing. Now turning a bit wetter, so the snow hat is sliding off the pizza oven chimney…
Reposted
Big news. Our debut album is being released on 14 March on the fabulous Tapete Records label. ‘Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same’ has ten new songs, plus a bonus flexi-disc for vinyl buyers. Preorder it now from a range of great shops: orcd.co/the-loft
November 20, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Big news. Our debut album is being released on 14 March on the fabulous Tapete Records label. ‘Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same’ has ten new songs, plus a bonus flexi-disc for vinyl buyers. Preorder it now from a range of great shops: orcd.co/the-loft
Lovely morning walk around Killerton
November 20, 2024 at 2:19 PM
Lovely morning walk around Killerton
More recent reading: Gibbons' is a strange magical nature tale with a setting that puts me in mind of the cottage that John Nash and Ronald Blythe lived in. Streatfeild's is a rumination on the End Of The English Country House in the early days of WW2 and is pretty much perfectly pitched.
November 19, 2024 at 12:48 PM
More recent reading: Gibbons' is a strange magical nature tale with a setting that puts me in mind of the cottage that John Nash and Ronald Blythe lived in. Streatfeild's is a rumination on the End Of The English Country House in the early days of WW2 and is pretty much perfectly pitched.
Catching up with some beverage/book photographs. I thoroughly enjoyed these two John Trench novels towards the end of the summer. To my knowledge none of Trench's books have been reissued, which is a shame because they have an intriguing archaeologist/amateur detective slant to them. #penguincrime
November 19, 2024 at 12:42 PM
Catching up with some beverage/book photographs. I thoroughly enjoyed these two John Trench novels towards the end of the summer. To my knowledge none of Trench's books have been reissued, which is a shame because they have an intriguing archaeologist/amateur detective slant to them. #penguincrime
And finally, for now, 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration for this month (November) is a lovely corrugated iron Dutch barn in the Mid-Devon countryside near Raddon and Thorverton.
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/u...
www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/u...
www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...
November 19, 2024 at 12:31 PM
And finally, for now, 2024's Unpopular mix/playlist Illustration for this month (November) is a lovely corrugated iron Dutch barn in the Mid-Devon countryside near Raddon and Thorverton.
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/u...
www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...
unpopularuk.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/u...
www.mixcloud.com/unpopularuk/...