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The Tonearm

@thetonearm.com
7.2K followers 897 following 9.1K posts

celebrating music journalism + putting a needle on the cultural wax an online journal of unexpected music + culture → thetonearm.com

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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 47m
"Even the great Albert Einstein, whose ideas reshaped our understanding of the Universe, famously stated that had his path led him away from physics, he would have found solace in playing music." Why music could solve the Universe’s deepest secrets:
sciencefocus.com
Why music could solve the Universe’s deepest secrets
The equations of science and the harmonies of music are intimately linked.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 4h
Black-and-white portrait of megiapa, her hair full around her face, looking straight into the camera with her arms folded over a raised knee, wearing a one-shouldered black top and long beaded earrings against a patterned backdrop. Her quote is overlaid: "I'm less of a songwriting and lyrics enthusiast and more into how things sound and the meaning, feeling, and emotion captured in that." Her name, MEGIAPA, sits below. The Tonearm.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 4h
“Feared and monitored by the British establishment, tailed across East Germany by the Stasi, sponsored by the condemned Greater London Council and regularly hosted by British Rail, the history of Test Dept in the 1980s alone is remarkable…” The Strange World Of… Test Dept:
thequietus.com
The Strange World Of... Test Dept | The Quietus
Feared and monitored by the British establishment, tailed across East Germany by the Stasi, sponsored by the condemned Greater London Council and regularly hosted by British Rail, the history of Test Dept in the 1980s alone is remarkable and their often prophetic role in the struggles of that era still overlooked. They were on the […]
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 5h
“Listen to some of Mica Levi’s unsettling score for Jonathan Glazer’s 2014 film, 'Under The Skin.' Levi—the English musician behind experimental pop group Micachu and the Shapes allows the avant-garde to be accessible by using hand-made instruments (occasionally vacuums), and glass harmonica.”
wnyc.org
#5188, New Film Music | WNYC
Hear new scores by saxophonist Colin Stetson, L.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 7h
“A fan of JS Bach, Rush, and Discharge as much as of Black Sabbath, Cliff brought an unusually wide set of influences to Metallica, schooling the three younger and less well-schooled members of the band in music theory.” Living And Dying, Laughing And Crying — the Legacy of Cliff Burton:
thequietus.com
Living And Dying, Laughing And Crying: the Legacy of Cliff Burton | The Quietus
Joel McIver visits Cliff Burton's memorial stone and museum in Sweden, 40 years after the death of the Metallica bassist.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 7h
“When you start to think as an artist about the world, then the nihilist look, which had been perhaps in the past more like a romantic nihilism, became a real — I would say — realistic nihilism. And that’s a painful thing.” Bruno Kramm, German Goth Musician Who Moonlighted in Politics, Dies at 58:
nytimes.com
Bruno Kramm, German Goth Musician Who Moonlighted in Politics, Dies at 58 (Gift Article)
When he wasn’t playing with the groundbreaking dark-wave band Das Ich, he was a prominent figure in his country’s fight for online free speech and digital privacy rights.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 8h
“We weren’t jazz guys putting jazz chords and jazz inflection onto classical or pop songs, with the conclusion that it’s a jazz song now. We just used all our tools — free music, odd time signatures, straightahead minimalism, no-blowing — as if this was an art project.”
jazztimes.com
The Good Bye of The Bad Plus: Reid Anderson, Dave King Plot Next Moves - JazzTimes
W ith their September 20 date at Tulsa’s LowDown, The Bad Plus truly began their march to finality, with a several-night last stand at The … Read More "The Good Bye of The Bad Plus: Reid Anderson, Dave King Plot Next Moves"
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 9h
Today's Tonal Treat ✨ #SongOfTheDay #NowPlaying #MusicSky #TonalTreat
intlanthem.bandcamp.com
on the spaceway (frfr), by megiapa
from the album Intentions
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 9h
“If I don’t create these little moments in time, I think I’d go into a very expansive state where I could just play these patterns or loops for hours and hours … So I really had to work to make the songs end, I think, on this record.” Don’t miss harpist + composer Lara Somogyi on The Tonearm:
thetonearm.com
Grief, Glitch, and the Harp of Lara Somogyi
Harpist Lara Somogyi talks through 'a [time] patterned,' from delay pedals and disrupted loops to Steve Reich and 'A Pattern Language,' the architecture handbook that gave the album many of its titles.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 9h
“En Tlacotalpan, where they have the biggest fandangos I've ever seen, you can have 80 musicians. La Bamba and the dancing can go on for an hour. You play and play, and the dancers keep changing and changing, and it's interminable!” A Mexican fandango: www.npr.org/2026/09/27/n...
Jarana players join a mass jam session at a Veracruz fandango while the dancers pound out rhythms with their heels on the wooden tarima.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 10h
“If she’s struggling at the astronomical level she’s at, then what about the artists further down the pecking order? What about the crew members, managers, merch sellers, and other members of a touring party who will feel these struggles just as acutely?” Charli xcx — burnout is not brat:
drownedinsound.org
Burnout is not brat: Charli xcx’s struggles with touring are just the tip of the iceberg
Emma Wilkes asks - if one of the biggest popstars in the world is struggling, what must it be like for everyone else?
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 11h
↑↑↑ ✨ interview/article by @mhcoons.bsky.social ✨ megiapa’s ‘Intentions' is out now on @intlanthem.bsky.social
intlanthem.bandcamp.com
Intentions, by megiapa
15 track album
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 12h
On megiapa’s ‘Intentions,’ voice notes from her grandmother, her mother, and her closest friends drift through the synth haze, a family album cut to beats. The Tonearm’s Meredith Hobbs Coons leaves a voice note. The Warm, Cosmic Company of megiapa:
thetonearm.com
The Warm, Cosmic Company of megiapa
On megiapa’s ‘Intentions,’ voice notes from her grandmother, her mother, and her closest friends drift through the synth haze, a family album cut to beats.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 13h
"Do it yourself is always more than yourself." → 💯
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 13h
“In Cuba, we had no chance to hear any jazz music … The sergeant caught me and I was put in jail for three and a half months for listening to ‘the voice of the enemy.’” Vehicle — A Conversation with Arturo Sandoval:
postgenre.org
Vehicle: A Conversation with Arturo Sandoval - PostGenre
In his autobiography, Music is My Mistress (Da Capo, 1973), Duke Ellington stated that “Jazz is a good barometer of freedom…. [T]he music is so free, that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.” While one can quibble with the use of the term
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 14h
“Before it all metastasized into Stan armies and parasocial psychosis, we were unknowingly creating a grammar of online music fandom—not just fawning over our faves, but critiquing, interrogating, and challenging them.” The Afterlives of Okayplayer:
hearingthings.co
The Afterlives of Okayplayer
The story of a message board that changed hip-hop forever
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 15h
"His one-stop shop, in a factory outside Philadelphia, provided everything a musician required, including mastering, graphic design and vinyl (and later cassette and CD) pressing, sometimes just a few hundred units at a time." Morris Ballen, Who Helped Spread Indie Artists’ Music, Dies at 88:
nytimes.com
Morris Ballen, Who Helped Spread Indie Artists’ Music, Dies at 88 (Gift Article)
Countless independent acts in every genre — punk, hip-hop, church choir — relied on him to create small runs of high-quality records and CDs.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 15h
In this clip from The Tonearm Podcast, Mark Isham tells host Lawrence Peryer that he follows what feels emotionally right rather than expected musical form, and explains why his new album often takes an about-face or a dramatic bang. Listen to the full chat: podcast.thetonearm.com/mark-isham-a...
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 15h
“Even my solo records in the past, where it’s layers of guitar stuff, a lot of it is literally just throwing everything up in the air and seeing how it lands. Or randomly turning on two different things, hearing what they sound like together and going, ‘oh, wow, that’s really bizarre.’”
andybeta.substack.com
Oren Ambarchi
The Australian guitarist on the solo album as a construct, getting away from predictability, and his perverse Pat Metheny fandom.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 17h
“Let’s not let the paletero cart just sit in the street and be forgotten about … Let’s build speakers, let’s build a voice, and let’s push it to create the Contra-ICE sound system.” A new anti-ICE compilation album benefits immigrants' rights organizations: www.npr.org/2026/09/28/n...
Kathleen Hanna (left) and Adrian Quesada are two artists featured on the benefit compilation
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 19h
As Locrian reissues their landmark 2010 album, Terence Hannum discusses the band's evolution from experimental duo to post-metal trio, his separation of visual art from music, and why heavy metal "rewards playing it safe." The Going Gets Weird — Locrian Revisits 'The Crystal World':
thetonearm.com
The Going Gets Weird — Locrian Revisits 'The Crystal World'
As Locrian reissues their landmark album, Terence Hannum discusses the band's evolution from experimental duo to post-metal trio, his separation of visual art from music, and why heavy metal "rewards playing it safe."
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 22h
"MLP-Music has only scratched the surface with its Bandcamp offerings, partly due to the fact that many of the master tapes are missing, so they have to track down source material on vinyl records, compact discs, and cassette." How MLP-Music Became the Internet’s Largest Collection of Arabic Music:
daily.bandcamp.com
How MLP-Music Became the Internet’s Largest Collection of Arabic Music
A mind-blowing array of music that spans regional styles.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 23h
For Honda, an artistic format is a language rather than an identity — a conviction she shares with Ono, and one that made curating a tribute feel less like a departure than a translation. The Tonearm's Meredith Hobbs Coons still has her sky. Yuka Honda's Impossible Dreams — On Celebrating Yoko Ono:
thetonearm.com
Yuka Honda's Impossible Dreams — On Celebrating Yoko Ono
For Honda, an artistic format is a language rather than an identity — a conviction she shares with Ono, and one that made curating a tribute feel less like a departure than a translation.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 30/09/2026
"She was the epitome of Summer of Love chic – and became overshadowed by tragedy. But as her raw power is celebrated on stage in London, her family and bandmates explain there was far more to the singer than her legend." The real Janis Joplin, by those closest to her:
theguardian.com
‘She knew where she wanted to go – and just kept going’: the real Janis Joplin, by those closest to her
She was the epitome of Summer of Love chic – and became overshadowed by tragedy. But as her raw power is celebrated on stage in London, her family and bandmates explain there was far more to the singer than her legend
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 30/09/2026
Black-and-white portrait of Deniz Cuylan, bald with a long grey-flecked beard, in a black shirt, looking directly at the camera against a mass of blossoming branches. His quote is overlaid: "I think nature is a projection, and it's also the space that you exist within; there's no escape from it." The Tonearm.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 30/09/2026
"I get close. I always want to see the pupils in their eyes," Winn wrote — and 'Grievous Angels, Trout Masks, and American Beauties' is the first gathering of what that closeness yielded, from a coffee shop outside Eureka to the Grateful Dead's ranch. The Late Ginny Winn's Visual Trip to the Music:
thetonearm.com
Ginny Winn's Visual Trip to the Music
"I get close. I always want to see the pupils in their eyes," Winn wrote of her method — and 'Grievous Angels, Trout Masks, and American Beauties' is the first gathering of what that closeness yielded, from a coffee shop outside Eureka to the Grateful Dead's ranch.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 30/09/2026
“I try to let the landscapes shape the work, rather than the other way around. It’s the act of listening closely to a place and finding the story these places have to tell, but it’s also recognizing that sometimes your job is to just get out of the way.” Hiram Gets Out of the Way:
foxydigitalis.zone
Hiram Gets Out of the Way
Photo by Natalie Jennings Hiram’s music connects spaces and defines worlds. Immersed in specific natural environments, he listens and channels what he hears through different instrumentation.…
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“Techno raves have quotas of free tickets for military personnel and veterans and have become a place for informal socialisation among the population … It is a place where military personnel can socialise and civilians can relieve stress” Abbey Road music photography awards 2026 – in pictures:
theguardian.com
Oasis, Leicester punks and Ukraine techno: Abbey Road music photography awards 2026 – in pictures
A selection of winners and notable finalists in the awards celebrating the art of music photography, which saw 24,500 images submitted from 42 countries
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, trumpeter and composer Mark Isham explains why he calls his vintage synth setup "a little untamable beast" and how he values that it produces sounds he wouldn't think of on his own. Hear more: podcast.thetonearm.com/mark-isham-a...
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“I like to think of the teacher Pema Chödrön, who would say: analyse your anger. Go to the bottom up, to the roots of it, and you will always find the same thing at the root of anger: a broken heart.” Laurie Anderson — ‘I learned a lot through blunders. I’m not trying to live a perfect life’:
thenerve.news
Laurie Anderson: ‘I learned a lot through blunders. I’m not trying to live a perfect life’
The pioneering artist answers the Nerve Q&A about Trump’s threat to culture, how she finds inspiration – and her forthcoming first-ever show in Wales. Interview by Jude Rogers
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“Rap’s earlier years are full of artists and labels whose work was lost in the shuffle and has gone undervalued or, in some cases, virtually unheard … At any rate, some of the best rap music you can find is sitting at the bottom of the digital crate, just waiting to be vibed out.”
daily.bandcamp.com
Hip-Hop That Streaming Forgot
A selection of rap projects lost to the sands of time that deserve your time and love
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
Today's Tonal Treat ✨ #SongOfTheDay #NowPlaying #MusicSky #TonalTreat
hushhushrecords.bandcamp.com
No Such Thing (feat. Felbm), by Deniz Cuylan
from the album For Luca
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
"There might be a connection between making art as a woman and trying to create a kind of solitude in your life … where you can be messy and ugly and imperfect, where you can defy expectations." Don't miss Meredith Hobbs Coons's conversation with singer/songwriter Elanor Moss on The Tonearm:
thetonearm.com
Elanor Moss's English Solitude
Good and evil sit in the same character, the same song, and — Moss suspects — the same person, a Catholic inheritance she hears throughout 'The Knife, The Needle.'
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Reposted by The Tonearm
George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
For @bandcamp.com I wrote about William Burroughs' cut-ups being cut up by James Ilgenfritz, Anne Waldman, Thurston Moore, and others
daily.bandcamp.com
Anne Waldman, Thurston Moore, James Ilgenfritz & Anagram Ensemble, “The Travel Agency Is On Fire”
Cut-up poetry meets cut-up music on an album that must be heard to be believed.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“Here was a group from a still outsider genre, uniting hardcore fans and curious outsiders by making music that worried more about integrity, commitment, creativity and resolve than it did appealing to the mainstream.” 35 Years On — A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory Revisited:
thequietus.com
35 Years On: A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory Revisited | The Quietus
Angus Batey revisits the history and lasting legacy of A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory, 35 years after its release.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“Tiberi kept the bulky machine … on his lap and hidden in a cloth bag. He ran the microphone through his coat and learned to switch reels inside the bag like a blind man. Ultimately, Tiberi’s archive held more than 26 hours of music on 80-plus reels.” Coltrane’s Shadow:
tabletmag.com
Coltrane's Shadow - Tablet Magazine
The legendary ‘Tiberi Tapes’ reveal new sides of the master, even to his biggest fans
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“Having made themselves ridiculous by taking America too seriously, U2 survived the 1990s by making the ridiculousness deliberate. Instead of being sinners trying to sound like saints, they would be saints trying even harder to sound like sinners.” From Atmosphere to Empire:
quillette.com
U2 at 50: Reconsidering Bono and The Joshua Tree
U2 reconsidered at fifty.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“Instead of playing the melody, Marsh embarks on an adventurous solo from the get-go … The solo goes on, and suddenly the track is over, with no formal ending, no other solos, and not a single full statement of the melody.” Revolutionary Aesthetics — Warne Marsh’s Overthrow of Sweet Georgia Brown:
allaboutjazz.com
Revolutionary Aesthetics: Exploring Warne Marsh's Overthrow of Sweet Georgia Brown – Warne Marsh | Late Night Thoughts on Jazz | All About Jazz
Read Revolutionary Aesthetics: Exploring Warne Marsh's Overthrow of Sweet Georgia Brown by Daniel Casares on All About Jazz. Discover in-depth jazz Late Night Thoughts on Jazz coverage, artist features, and expert writing since 1995.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
The Istanbul-born film and TV composer on 'For Luca' — his earlier songs recast in his friends' voices, the dog it mourns, the freedom of being one crew member among many, and the melancholy he prefers to share. The Tonearm's Kallie Marie rewards with a treat. Deniz Cuylan Scores a Life With Luca:
thetonearm.com
Deniz Cuylan Scores a Life With Luca
The Istanbul-born film and television composer discusses 'For Luca' — his earlier songs recast in his friends' voices, the dog it mourns, the freedom of being one crew member among many, and the melancholy he prefers to share.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“It was used to make fun of the masters, to relieve oppression and bring the news of the day … It finally emerged as the mouthpiece for the underprivileged.” The Mighty Sparrow, Trinidadian Titan of Calypso, Is Dead at 91 (gift link):
nytimes.com
The Mighty Sparrow, Trinidadian Titan of Calypso, Is Dead at 91 (Gift Article)
He was sometimes described as the last of the true calypso singers. But in fact he simultaneously preserved calypso tradition and invented it anew.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“I love the fact that Finch, Love and the other women who felt obliged to work in the belly of the beast were the musicians who went on to kill this milieu off.” Brain Damage — 1991 and how Grunge Forced Metal to Grow up:
thequietus.com
Brain Damage: 1991 and how Grunge Forced Metal to Grow up  | The Quietus
Joel McIver looks back to rock's most pivotal year, 1991, via the history of three bands: Nirvana, Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“Canadian-based Afro-Cuban duo OKAN takes their name from the word for heart/soul in the Afro Cuban religion Santeria … their music combines the traditional chants and rhythms of the Afro-Cuban tradition with jazz, electronica, and pop.” New Sounds — OKAN, Daymé Arocena:
wnyc.org
#4926, From the Soundcheck Podcast: OKAN, Daymé Arocena | WNYC
Hear in-studio sessions from the Soundcheck Podcast series from Canadian-based Afro-Cuban duo OKAN and Afro-Cuban singer Daymé Arocena.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
'Música Para Quinteto: Live at Jazz Cava' captures Juanma Trujillo's Barcelona quintet at full burn, following a prolific decade of recordings and a deliberate exit from New York for a life the Venezuelan jazz guitarist believes feeds the music. Juanma Trujillo — A Cantaclaro in Barcelona:
thetonearm.com
Juanma Trujillo — A Cantaclaro in Barcelona | The Tonearm
'Música Para Quinteto: Live at Jazz Cava' captures Juanma Trujillo's Barcelona quintet at full burn, following a prolific decade of recordings and a deliberate exit from New York for a life the Venezuelan guitarist believes feeds the music.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
"t became a Chicago house anthem classic – and it was cooked up in just 30 minutes by four postal workers after a tough shift on the letter-sorting machine." ‘Nobody believed I sang it’ — how Move Your Body blew dancefloors away:
theguardian.com
‘Nobody believed I sang it’: how Move Your Body blew dancefloors away
It became a Chicago house anthem classic – and it was cooked up in just 30 minutes by four postal workers after a tough shift on the letter-sorting machine
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
Acclaimed banjoist Wes Corbett discusses his recording process, the Pacific Northwest landscapes that inspire him, and why assembling players like Sam Bush, Darol Anger, + Bryan Sutton meant working with musicians who make him play his best. Generational 'Drift' — Wes Corbett's Acoustic Dream Band:
thetonearm.com
Generational 'Drift' — Wes Corbett's Banjo Sessions
The banjoist discusses his three-year recording process, the Pacific Northwest landscapes that still inform his writing, and why assembling players like Sam Bush, Darol Anger, and Bryan Sutton meant working with musicians who make him play his best.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
"Hardy shot to fame singing airy, carefree pop before she took control of her career, hung out with 60s rock aristocracy and became a sophisticated singer-songwriter of rare sensuality and melancholy." Françoise Hardy: France’s girlish yé-yé star was a groundbreaking musical artist:
theguardian.com
Françoise Hardy: France’s girlish yé-yé star was a groundbreaking musical artist
Hardy shot to fame singing airy, carefree pop before she took control of her career, hung out with 60s rock aristocracy and became a sophisticated singer-songwriter of rare sensuality and melancholy
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
Black-and-white close-up portrait of Lara Somogyi, long straight hair falling past her face, looking directly at the camera with a steady, unsmiling gaze through a soft haze of translucent fabric that blurs the lower edge of the frame. Her quote is overlaid in white italics: “I remember the first time I plugged in a delay pedal; it was like, ‘Oh, I have a pulse.’ It’s not just made by my fingers.” The Tonearm.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 29/09/2026
“I wandered over to the Depop tent in search of a rumored free ‘Depopsicle.’ While in line, I was told access to the free treat was contingent on having the clothing resale app downloaded on my phone.” A dispatch from Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields music festival:
dirt.fyi
A dispatch from Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields music festival
Maya Man goes Mark Fisher mode on Depop, Taco Bell, and Rookie Mag aesthetics.
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 28/09/2026
“William Seward Burroughs … has attracted an abundance of left field musicians interested in finding a synergy between the novelist’s words and the creation of soundscapes which attempt to bring his often challenging texts to musical life.” James Ilgenfritz interviewed:
simonwarner.substack.com
Interview #52: James Ilgenfritz
Producer of new WSB box set speaks
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The Tonearm @thetonearm.com · 28/09/2026
“The rehearsal began in the early morning hours after Dorsey’s band had finished a lengthy concert engagement. The musicians were tired, and not overly enthusiastic about rehearsing a difficult score in the middle of the night.” A Time Capsule in Sound — Jim Pugh’s New American Symphonies:
allaboutjazz.com
A Time Capsule in Sound: Jim Pugh’s New American Symphonies – Jim Pugh | Groove Orbit | All About Jazz
Read A Time Capsule in Sound: Jim Pugh’s New American Symphonies by Kyle Simpler on All About Jazz. Discover in-depth jazz Groove Orbit coverage, artist features, and expert writing since 1995.
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