Starting with Sixth Wonder - Burnout, and Sixth Wonder - IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME?, fron Glasgow. The first video might haunt your dreams tonight. (previously)

Spiritbox - Mourning, their first new music since Tsunami Sea. They said it's a new direction, I tend to believe them. (previously) BLACK SPIKES - SENAS DEMONAS and BLACK SPIKES - APATIJA, both off their album Ydos, which I already posted, but they didn't have a videos before. (previously) The Rat Utopia Experiment - Three-Banded Armadillo, the circus punks are back. (previously) SECRET RULE - Someone Killed the Pope, Italian modern metal, title track of their eleventh album. 天乞い - amagoi / Character, ex-Jungfrau. CRYPTA - A Portrait of Decay, death metal from São Paulo. MADAM - Fell In Love With A Girl, the Toulouse trio doing the White Stripes. (previously) 星熊南巫 - HOSHIKUMA MINAMI / NOVA feat. Kenta Koie, the Crossfaith and AFTERVOID frontman guesting, plus YD from Crystal Lake. Kami Kehoe - LOVE IS A WEAPON, alt-rock with pop instincts and some nice breakdowns. LUNA KILLS - LEECH, the Finnish four-piece. (previously) RAZE - ทิ้งไว้กับฉัน (UNFADING) and RAZE - จํานน (Break Me), metalcore from Thailand with two vocalists, Murlyn screaming and Yoko singing. 花冷え。 - バリバリBuddy, the Harajuku-core crew doing the ending theme for the anime I Reincarnated as a Sword II. (previously) 闇雲 -yamikumo- / 悪党 (AKUTOU), nine members, visual kei and idol in one, and the song is a television ending theme. ANKOR - ITACHI · blood moon, singing about Naruto on the second volume of I SEE RED. (previously) The whole thing as a single playlist.

As he releases new album Hippies, Thugs and Heroes, the 77-year-old British folk legend answers your questions about Billy Connolly, Californian fish and chips and whether he nearly joined the Eagles

Billy Connolly recalled being in a room with you, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake and John Martyn. Did you feel you were collectively doing something special? poscopy
That might have been at the Royal Festival Hall [in 1969], where Fairport Convention had Nick and John as openers and Billy must have been backstage. He’d have been in the Humblebums with Gerry Rafferty, before he evolved from a banjo player who told jokes into a comedian who played a bit of banjo. He was always a fantastic bloke and we’ve been friends for a long time.

There was a great camaraderie between the stable of acts Joe Boyd produced: Fairport, the Incredible String Band, John Martyn, Chris McGregor. We felt different, not special, and didn’t feel successful because we weren’t. None of these people really sold many records in their lifetimes, but people are still discovering them now. This album is my latest attempt to sell some units.

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© Photograph: Paul Clampin

© Photograph: Paul Clampin

© Photograph: Paul Clampin

(RCA)
Massive in her home nation but less so outside, Angèle is aided by Justice, Soulwax and Caroline Polachek in ​a bold bid for broader appeal – but her resultant album ​can be generic as well as daring

As has often been pointed out, we live in an era where the traditional Anglo-American stranglehold over pop has been broken. Partly because streaming has presented listeners with a far broader choice of music than would once have been imaginable, and partly as a result of social media accounts doing the promotional departments’ job for them, the charts are now as likely to include music made in Seoul or Lagos as London or LA. Spurs’ 62,000-capacity stadium has recently hosted not just Jay-Z, Gorillaz and System of a Down, but India’s Arijit Singh, South Korea’s BTS, BigBang and Stray Kids, and Puerto Rico’s Bad Bunny, who addressed the crowd almost exclusively in Spanish.

Clearly, British audiences’ disinclination to be welded to English-speaking artists is a cheering thing. Equally clearly, there seem to be limits: the same interest hasn’t been afforded Francophone pop. The biggest French-speaking stars in recent memory have either dealt in dance music or acquiesced to recording in English. Belgian rapper Stromae has attracted media interest and co-signs from Kanye West and Lorde without ever progressing beyond cult status in the UK.

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© Photograph: Kenza Le Bas

© Photograph: Kenza Le Bas

© Photograph: Kenza Le Bas