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Derek Walmsley

@derekwalmsley.bsky.social
2K followers 598 following 1.6K posts

I'm almost always trying to make the text flow better or reduce the number of words. Music writing in The Wire, Electronic Sound, The Quietus, LRB, elsewhere. slowmotion.blog

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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Guardian style used to be that anymore is not written like that any more. But it's not the case anymore
An entry from the Guardian style guide say ing "Please do not say “anymore” any more"”A new headline in the Guardian saying “Crowborough was the most welcoming town in Britain. Not anymore"
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Back from the bunker with this piece freshly turned from the lathe, a survey of recordings of Aphex Twin, from pseudonyms and limted eds to SoundCloud dumps. Loved being inside this world
Mike Watt on the cover of the October issue of The WireInside magazine spread of the Aphex Twin Primer
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Richard Dawson: the complete reverb tapes.
Richard Dawson talks about reverb in the music of the Fateh Ali Khan party in The Wire’s Invisible Jukebox feature.Richard Dawson talks about reverb in the music of Quinie in The Wire’s Invisible Jukebox feature.Richard Dawson talks about reverb in the music of PJ HarveyRD on reverb or the absence thereof in the music of The Velvet Underground
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
img.gifglobe.com/grabs/partri...
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Was this first paragraph written by Stormin’ Norman?
BBC report on Iran conflict which posits “a long history of US combat search and rescue missions over decades”
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Strong argument against the use of AI right here.
AI overview of what the famous junglist phrase “31 seconds” supposedly refers to, with no reference at all to Origin Unknown’s “Valley Of The Shadows”
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
The AI generated hype text that Spotify presents as ersatz sleevenotes to My First Plays On Spotify makes me want to gnaw my own arm off
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Amazing language in this one
Picture of AK Blakemore’s book The Glutton (Granta)
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
This reminds me of The Traitors when some complete random gets recruited and tries the robe on, claims it feels great but they‘re squirming awkwardly and you know they’ll be gone soon
Entrance to TG Jones at Westfield Stratford
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Also was privileged to review this important new book on the music world in Ukraine amid war
Review of Ukrainian Field Notes book in The Wire's Print Run section
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Savage Pencil strikes again! The brand new @thewiremagazine.bsky.social includes my guide to the world of outernational visionary Augustus Pablo, from sideman dates to digital steppers in the dancehall era, which has been on the back burner for many a month
Wendy Eisenberg on the cover of The Wire magazine 506Primer spread with shot of Pablo and Junior Delgado rocking the Astoria in 1987Opening spread of The Primer article on Augustus Pablo with Savage Pencil illustration
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
AI hallucinating “no-debate examples" 🤔
A Chat GPT response to a request for band names inspired by Brian Eno, presenting examples of Ultravox, Japan and China Crisis which are all false
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Big bunch of stuff in the new @thewiremagazine.bsky.social including hardcore hiphop bringing the noise in articles by Joe and Rob, plus me on Autechre guitar, Glasgow improvisers and brief histories of sound recording
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
And for @electronicsound.bsky.social I had a blast shooting the breeze with Oneohtrix/Daniel Lopatin swapping a couple of sample library CD tips and talking anything and everything re: his great new Tranquilizer album
Opening spread of Oneohtrix Point Never feature in the new Electronic Sound magazine
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
If you are canny you can still access sleevenotes of the first 30 or so Blood & Fire compilations on a version of their website on the Wayback Machine. Years or more accurately decades of reggae music scholarship
A screenshot from the Wayback Machine of the old Blood & Fire website from 2012, with cover notes downloadable in the Discography section of the website
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
What was I thinking with that screenshot. This one.
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Always happy to see Dana Andrews on my screen
Dana Andrews in Otto Preminger’s Laura (1944)
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
This is beer of the holiday
A glass and empty bottle of Timothy Taylor Landlord Dark
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
some serious heat on iPlayer films section for your noir xmas
iPlayer watchlist with classic b&w films including Farewell My Lovely and Witness For The Prosecution
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
It feels like Photobucket is stalking me.
Selection of email subject lines form Photobucket including "we found photos your probably thought were gone" and "the past is calling (and it has photos)"
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Couple of reallly great things happening this weekend if you can make it. The briliiant Ricardo Dias Gomes is playing with Jeremy Gustin at TRC on Saturday via @hivemindrecords.bandcamp.com
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
very sad to hear of the death of Jimmy Cliff. We got down to the recent Harder They Come musical in Stratford a month or two back, and it was a pure joy. Beg, borrow or steal a ticket if if comes again.
Natey Jones in the Matthew Xia production of The Harder They Come at Theatre Royal Stratford East
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Glasgow.
A piece of card from the 1960s reading “A World Cup without Scotland is like a pastoral without sheep” from Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition at GSA
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
@scottygb.bsky.social on BBC London lunchtime news: “now, I’ve just realised I’ve dressed like Pudsey Bear”
BBC London newscaster commenting on their yellow jumper’s similarity to Pudsey
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
RIP Adrian Maben! Very glad I got the chance to upgrade from teenage VHS to IMAX this year
The opening shot of Pink Floyd’s Live At Pompeii film with their equipment strewn across the floor of the auditorium and the cameras about to rollStanding in the auditorium at Pompeii
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Awesome new issue of @thewiremagazine.bsky.social, with amazing Francis Gooding interview going deep into the scales of Ethrio jazz, even wilder Griot Galaxy story, plus my review of @ucpress.bsky.social book by Theodore Gordon rethinking the synthesizer utopia
December issue of The Wire with Mulatu Astatke on the coverPrint Run review of The Composer’s Black Box book
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
A rare piece of Wikipedia shade
excerpt regarding Simon Pegg’s Hollywood career in the Mission Impossible franchise
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Among all the good shit in the new issue of @thewiremagazine.bsky.social I got to write about the original don Horace Silver and his killer left hand
Cover of the November issue of The Wire with image of claire rousayBoomerang review of the brand new Silver In Seattle set
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Sorry for the tired photo. Had to get up multiple times in the night to reassure him I was not dead.
Blurred photo of a stripy male cat looking angelic next to food bowls the morning after keeping us up all night
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Love this little note on the bottom of a rave blurb for the reissue of Goldie’s Timeless on the @boomkat.com site (and still not on Spotify)
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Luciano Berio in his Wikipedia image looks like a comedian being lined up for Taskmaster series 21. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
Luciano Berio in the 1970s, in a CC image from his Wiki page
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Oh no! I can’t have been the only young kid to have seen this and thought ‘OK, cinema can do THIS’
Butch and Sundance running out to
face the gunfire in the last frame of the film
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Loved talking to Lucretia Dalt for @electronicsound.bsky.social magazine, in their brand new issue (wooden instrument made in workshop for scale)
Cover of new issue of Electronic Sound magazine with Eno & Wolfe on the coverOpening spread of Lucrecia Dalt feature in Electronic Sound
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Loved this tiny John Berger book which uses the memory of his travelling uncle to travel to Bologna and its architecture and fabrics, something like Walter Benjamin’s Arcades crossed with David Toop
John Berger recalling the gifts he exchanged with his uncle EdgarLittle Penguin edition circa 2010 or so of John Berger’s The Red Tenda Of Bologna
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Shout out to a couple of tremendous Wire pieces I didn't get as much time with as I'd have wanted, but great to return to them now.
Vanessa Rossetto photographed in the September issue of The Wire magazineBill Orcutt photographed in September issue of The Wire magazine
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
I realise Bender is not the answer to your question, but, Bender.
Bender the robot smoking a cigar in a diner, from Futurama
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Man, how cool is Meg Woof’s artwork? Picked this up at Supernormal, it’s too nice to do the dishes with
Supernormal festival tea towel with artwork by Meg Woof
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Lots of things of mine I had fun with this issue inc label guide to the current activities of Ftarri and review of a very fresh film on improvisation in Istanbul by @anileraslan.bsky.social
Unlimited Editions article on Ftarri label/shop/venueReview of Anil Eraslan’s Sound Dreams Of Istanbul
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Oh! New Wire arrived while I was on holiday. There’s a fantastic @abibliss.bsky.social interview with the two remaining Cabs unknotting much of their history plus I was psyched to talk to members of Black Audio Film Collective about their industrial relations
Front cover of September issue of The Wire with Cabaret Voltaire on the coverArticle on the Black industrialism of Black Audio Film Collective and their relationship with the music and ethos of the Cabs
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Digging around for the millionth time at parents’ house for some kind of half decent CD for the car and…. not bad. not bad at all
CD of Let’s Get Lost: Chet Baker Sings
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Was delighted to meet up with Michael Ranta again, and blown away by this way cool cap he dug out for me
Black baseball cap from the Wuhan Cymbals & Gongs company
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Ozzy 🤝 Peter 🙌
Peter Shapiro writes on Black Sabbath in the first of The Wire’s Epiphanies columns
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
You freaking morons.
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Also in. the new Wire, I wrote the Against The Grain essay on. how Spotify is distorting the histories of UK black musics , and reviewed rave legend Keith Robinson’s posthumous memoir
Keith Robinson’s posthumous memoir Take No Prisoners published by Velocity PressScreenshot of Against The Grain essay on Spotify from August issue of The Wire magazine
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
New issue! I had the privilege of telling the extraordinary story of Michael Ranta, the percussionist who played with everyone from Harry Partch to Conny Plank, and hung with Edgard Varése and Toru Takemitsu along the way.
Bill Orcutt on the cover of the August issue of The Wire magazineOpening spread of Michael Ranta article in The Wire magazine
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Finally grabbed this, loved talking with Isabelle, Tina, General Magic about Mego’s 30th anniversary and life after Peter. Also includes a 14 (!) page feature for the St Eitenne-curious among us! @electronicsound.bsky.social
New issue of Electronic Sound magazine with St Etienne on the coverFour page feature on Editions Mego
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Such beautiful typography (see the first two) on these albums from Thessaloniki’s Granny Records
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Completely unbelievably wild that the WHOLE of Twin Peaks can be watched over on Mubi now
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Psyched to see this in the wild, I contributed an essay on “Togetherness And UK Improvised Music” to this Open Editions collection, talking to Steve Beresford, Orphy Robinson and Valentina Magaletti, alongside some great writers, out right now! openeditions.com
Blurb for Open Editions Togetherness essay collection: “23 innovators… from art, education, philosophy, curating, public health” etc
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Derek Walmsley @derekwalmsley.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Very sadly didn't get a chance to use my sound-spinner in the lesson yesterday.
A spinning wheel that when clicked randomly picks an unusual sound or music from around the world to listen to, from Chernobyl frogs to the sound of the US/Mexico border
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