Heads on Sticks Chats

Chat #22 up, and delighted to feature minimal-synth stalwarts Xeno & Oaklander! Formed in the mid-2000s over a shared love of early coldwave electronic music, Sean McBride and Liz Wendelbo have been conjuring essential cuts of glacial and ethereal synthpop and forging a reputation for solely working with analogue machines and recording in single takes. One of the most vital forces in electronic music today, and with new album VIA NEGATIVA (in the doorway light) out next month, join us as we explore their first encounters with synthesizers, radical theatre, and exactly which Italian perfume their upcoming LP might smell like, enjoy!

Follow Xeno & Oaklander on Instagram, X, and Facebook

Pre-order new album VIA NEGATIVA (in the doorway light)

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Chat 21 featuring none other than Marseille synth pop legend Alain Séghir from Martin Dupont Formed in 1980, the trio cut a distinctly colourful and dramatic take on new wave, each of their original two albums and EP fauvist shocks of passion, romance, and mysterious intrigue, transcending genres and always unexpected. One of the essential excavated gems from the Minimal Wave project, and now touring as a revitalised live act, join us as we explore the methods and inspirations behind their unique body of work!

Follow Martin Dupont on Instagram and Facebook

Listen to latest album Kintsugi

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Chat 20 incoming and the first of the year with dystopian acid punk ‘Noel Skumm’ from VR Sex! Unleashing massive hefts of enveloping power-pop soaked in Chrome-like radiation and electro-discolouration, Skumm’s lyrical anxieties surrounding tech’s suffusion with humanity and the queasy subterranean of urban life have only festered more presciently since 2019’s ‘Horseplay’. Back with new album ‘Hard Copy’ and renewed snarl, plug-in and join us as we talk underground cinema, channel 98, Japanese sex dolls, and L.A.'s seamy underbelly!

Listen to new album Hard Copy

Follow VR Sex on Instagram and Facebook

Watch new video for 'Inanimate Love'

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for regular write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Nineteenth Chat incoming with Young Marble Giants singer Alison Statton! Carving a distinctly serene and spectral voice fronting the band’s nocturnal minimalism, their classic album with Rough Trade Records, ‘Colossal Youth’ remains a gem from the U.K. post-punk wave. Collaborating on a string of equally brilliant releases with Weekend, Ian Devine and ‘Spike’ Williams, join us and get to know the voice that influenced many!

Follow Young Marble Giants on Facebook

Listen to the latest Alison Statton & Spike album Bimini Twist

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for weekly write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Chat #18 has beamed down to Earth with none other than Ygarr Ygarrist from alien rockers Zolar X! Landing at the cusp of glam and fuelled by Ziggy, Star Trek, and a healthy disdain for double denimed hippie stagnation, Ygarr, their mime-robotic frontman Zory Zenith, and a revolving door of like-minded space cadets conjured dizzyingly thrilling ‘rocket roll’ which straddled the coming punk explosion while reaching for the prog cosmos! Join us as we explore the Zolar X TV show that never happened, the great Alternative Tentacles resurrection, UFOs over Hollywood, rivalries with KISS, and get Zolarized!

Follow Zolar X on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok

Order the authorised memoir Out of this World: The Story of Zolar X

Listen to new material over at their Bandcamp

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for weekly write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Chat 17 up with none other than post-punk industrial legend Paul Barker! A longtime former member of Ministry during their 80s and 90s heyday, in addition to a plethora of monikers and collaborations with Wax Trax! Records and beyond, join us fresh off his new album ‘The Eternal Present’ for July’s episode of Heads on Sticks Chats as we talk bubble-gum pop, touring with Skinny Puppy, and a little existential philosophy to boot! Check it out!

Listen to new album The Eternal Present

Follow Paul Barker on Instagram and Facebook

Check out Malekko Heavy Industry

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for weekly write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Chat #16 incoming with none other than U.K. music TV legend Chris Cowey! Attached to seminal music shows The Tube and The White Room, his tenure as Director and Executive Producer of Top of the Pops 97-03 heralded the iconic show’s ‘last hurrah’ and helped deliver a litany of classic performances from that era of pop. From spinning records at the Sunderland Mecca before even leaving school, to currently immersing himself in the latest camera technology for cutting-edge live performance capture, there's plenty covered on this month's Heads on Sticks Chats!

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for weekly write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Fifteenth Chat up with Peckham weirdo punk Tommy Cossack! With a string of EPs behind him drenched in expert DIY garage and sarcastic explorations of cultural inertia, come get acquainted with the self-described "cheeseslice" in preparation for the upcoming Degenerators debut album and join us as we yak Top of the Pops, acoustic renditions of Super Mario, math rock, and earning the epithet "Portsmouth's greatest party DJ", check it out!

Follow Tommy Cossack on Instagram

Check out his and The Degenerators' Bandcamp

Listen to Tommy's guest appearance on March's Heads on Sticks Show

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for weekly write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

The Chats are back and I’m delighted to kick things off for the year chin wagging with one half of Aussie synthpop duo Syzygy's Rebecca Maher! Both stalwarts of the Melbourne punk scene, join us as we explore their journey from scrappy synthpunk to buoyant electro pop, check it out!

Follow Syzygy on Instagram

Listen to latest album Anchor and Adjust

Read the Heads on Sticks word on The Pendulum

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for weekly write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!

Thirteenth and final chat for this year and I'm delighted to have a natter with industrial smut trio Concentration! Responsible for some the most visceral, knotted, and puerile excretions of gutter-jazz, electro-punk, splatter-pop (and a reputation for head spinningly wild live performances), join us fresh from their latest 2LP offering ‘Aren’t You Going To Introduce Me To Your Friend?’ and get acquainted with their warped world of psychosexual fetor!

Follow Concentration on Instagram and Facebook

Listen to new album Aren't You Going To Introduce Me To Your Friend?

Watch the video for 'Grün im Gesicht', directed by Max Kelan Pearce

Read the Heads on Sticks cover of I'm Not What I Was

Head to headsonsticks.co.uk for weekly write-ups on the latest releases in alternative and underground music, and keep up to date with the latest 'Ead 'appenings on Facebook, Instagram, and Mixcloud!