Liam Inscoe-Jones

I reviewed the new Rochelle Jordan

Reversing the Decline of Union Power Neoliberalism and postmodernism have torn apart the social fabric that once held us together. But in rebuilding the strength of labour and the organised society, we can be unified, empowered, and…

The path forward begins in the workplace. We must advocate for a society built around collective strength, industrial cooperation, and democratic control. Read Eddie Dempsey on unions.

Charlie Kirk in his own words: ‘prowling Blacks’ and ‘the great replacement strategy’ The far-right commentator didn’t pull his punches when discussing his bigoted views on current events

Charlie Kirk in his own words: ‘prowling Blacks’ and ‘the great replacement strategy’

Tom if you wanted to keep this dev hynes energy going then I think I may have the book for you… (you’re in it too actually) bsky.app/profile/whit...

I wrote some words about the new Blood Orange album for The Quietus

Album: Blood Orange - Essex Honey The more time goes by, the more it seems like Dev Hynes might be the antidote to what Guy Debord called “the society of the spectacle”. As is documented in the fantastic recent book Songs in the Key o...

my book gets a lil mention in this new review of the new blood orange album theartsdesk.com/new-music/al...

Yeah, the downturn is crazy. The situation with music journalism/writing is, as I’m sure you’d expect, even more dire…

PS, where can we find the Simz interview Joe?

access to time and resources has always impacted the actual aesthetic of music which can either be utilised as part of an anti-establishment sentiment (Nicolas Jaar, Open Mike Eagle) or, from the critic/writer’s POV, can also still be picked at to uncover shifting material and cultural conditions…

thanks Peter, I didn’t mean to turn this into self promotion haha, but I simply spent 2 years trying to articulate these ideas better than I ever could in a quick-fire reply. If you do read, I hope you enjoy!

yes exactly! a moral litmus test indeed

YouTube video by backwoodz studioz Gabe 'Nandez & Preservation "War" featuring billy woods

there is also coherent scenes based around explorative, counter-cultural music which young music fans are very much tapped into, the scene around Backwoodz Records in NYC for example is just one. This music is critically acclaimed for a devoted following

youtu.be/yw_D2L6lYZA?...

over the 2010s there was a great deal of counter-cultural art of which - as Joe says - I cover in my book in detail, and I would argue tended to be more substantive than the outwardly “political” bands of say the early 90s as the counter-cultural efforts were embedded rather than simply declarative

I agree with Joe (thanks for the shout out as ever!), Gaza especially is a nexus for counterculture because, with the state-led crackdown on free speech, any art which is oppositional to the genocide is automatically counter-cultural. The upswell of untied voices on that front has been accelerating

3) I keep hammering on about Liam's book, but with good reason. It embodies new ways of tracing the nature of artists' influence and position in the ecosystem, suited to the more fluid 21st century. To this conversation, it points out how real subcultures - skate, dancing, sex work - feed in.

Sorry not sorry to link to my own review, but Liam's book really crystallised a lot of this for me recently.

I remember in 2013 when I started making lists I struggled to fill a list of 50, now i’m past a list of 100 albums I liked this year and it’s august, perpetually astounded by the quality and quality of new music in the atmosphere

After Retromania In our atomised, fragmented society, newness in pop music can be increasingly hard to uncover. Tribune invited Chal Ravens to discuss the rate of innovation — and the cultural position of music in the...

tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/afte...

After Retromania In our atomised, fragmented society, newness in pop music can be increasingly hard to uncover. Tribune invited Chal Ravens to discuss the rate of innovation — and the cultural position of music in the...

tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/afte...

I’m in this! Spoke to Chal Ravens about newness in music 15 years on from Retromania, AirPods, the new Niontay album and other things, I’m really proud of how it came out

he used to be part of Divine Council! that album is amazing, check out his new one from this year too, just as good, his voice is made for it

agreed, MIKE hasn’t dropped the ball once since 2016 and this is a joy to see. In the back of my book I list ten essential listens from each year and ‘Burning Desire’ is there but I’d go further, that’s easily one of the best albums of the decade so far

glad you’re enjoying! 🫡

cover of the book "songs in the key of mp3: the new icons of the internet age" by liam inscoe-jones

this 1 by @liaminscoejones.bsky.social

the way time and writing works is amazing, you can spend hours working on something and become convinced it’s the best it can possible be, leave it for two weeks, come back and it’s immediately apparent how to make things 10x better, it’s sick

that’s me. wholesome.

The Best Ambient Music on Bandcamp, July 2025 Our guide to the month’s crucial ambient LPs.

Wrote about more music of the ambient variety in column format for popular music web store and streaming platform @bandcamp.com's editorial arm 💯
daily.bandcamp.com/best-ambient...

Britain’s Urban Working-Class Invented Metal Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath were a product of post-war Britain’s industrial heartland. But today, for Birmingham, metal, and young working-class people, those conditions could not be further away.

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath were a product of post-war Britain’s industrial heartland. But today, for Birmingham, metal, and young working-class people, those conditions could not be further away.

Feat. Jim Legxacy, Blood Orange, Geese, John Glacier, Maruja, Deftones, Titanic, underscores, Che, Lupe Fiasco, Princess Nokia, rRoxymore, Nightcrwlr, Soul Wax, Sudan Archives, Ana Frango Eléctrico, Alice Glass + more… These are the best songs of July 2025 music.apple.com/gb/playlist/...

the Dev Hynes model