Oi! from South East London,

Taking it in turns as the world boils. Ben here keeping the light on; Vic has escaped the country for the solstice and other non-English pursuits like taste and decency. I am reading too much about what a 'wet bulb' entails, and I have eaten five Twisters in three days - so I'm ready to rock.

June's Repetitive Strain is a home affair, with special guest my partner in crime Elena Colman, who you may know from Gross Misconduct & Benny Lager & the Tops)! We spent the hour playing lovers rock and punk fuckers for the sweaty season ahead - get clicking below to listen, but first, we've got a new EVENT…

New Repetitive Strain Event: Get To Spanners

Yes, Repetitive Strain returns to one of London's best railway arch clubs for a night of horrible music. Come And See Xanax and The Gall at Spanners on Friday 21st August, and enjoy new warped and shredded projects from a couple of our favourite D-I-Y exemplars.

You will have heard Xanax as one part of Kernow’s Gamma; The Gall hails from the house of Glasgow’s Shunning Ground who we’ve played all sorts from over the past year. Expect raw electronic punk, combined with us playing the usual Non-Standards in between and into the night.

Tickets are £10+BF on GEL.NOW, come down. (NOTAFLOF always in effect, venue is step-free with outside space; bar has everything you need form 0% to ??%)

Before then, may as well plug the Paper Event too. Oakland’s provincial jangle lovelies Neutrals are coming to the UK at last, and Another Subculture is putting the London night on at New River Studios on July 25th. £12 or £6, tickets available here.

Listen: Voices Radio • 21.06.26

01. Laurel Halo    – Sunlight on the Faded (Dub)
02. Quirino do Canto – Mino di Mala
03. Molten Slag – Sickening Crunch
04. Greebo – RITALIN M£NEY
05. Xanax – Mirror Composite
06. The Gall – City of Nigh
07. Spike – Disappear
08. K U T E – For You
09. The Fall – Lay of the Land (Live on Whistle Test)
10. Grace Jones – I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
11. Brown Sugar – I'm in Love with a Dreadlocks
12. Paul McCartney – Darkroom
13. Outsiders – Summertime Blues
14. Soga – Gracias Por La Explicación
15. King Short Start – Vivian Richards

You can hear the show on our Mixcloud and Soundcloud. Links to tracks available on Bandcamp can be found on our Buy Music Club.

We will be broadcasting live again on Voices Radio next month on Sunday 19th July 2026 at 20:00 UK time.

I feel very three dimensional today

First of all: I had a Mr. Sparkle moment at a car boot sale.

Always figured that I found these fellas through a pirate radio archive or two, so possibly this is the origin story? Answers on a postcard, fish-bulb.

It’s been forty years since Charles Atlas’ study of the wonderful and frightening world of Michael Clark, Hail the New Puritan was aired, and after seeing excerpts at last year’s Leigh Bowery exhibition at the Tate and reading this retrospective and/or lament in The Quietus recently, I figured I’d take the plunge after finding a full copy on the Internet Archive, complete with idents and adverts for the Mini Metro. As you can imagine, I was spellbound:

Do I need to watch A Hard Day’s Night now? What was the deal with Brix and Mark E. Smith’s bit? How did this end up on television? Who fancies putting on a screening of this sometime, adverts optional? (Glad to report that Clark is still making new work, including at the Serpentine earlier this year, and he really should collaborate with Jeffrey Hinton again sometime.)

If you want some cultural sustenance of the sort that used to pop up on TV after bedtime, I recommend the returning podcast Suite (212), Juliet Jacques’ show that puts culture into context from a socialist perspective. The latest episode takes in Red Herring Press, a DIY press from Great Yarmouth who are taking the idea of ‘amateurising professionalism’ - can relate - into their community, Restore fascists be damned.

What else? Oh yeah, music. We played Cape Verde space rock, the best pogo both of us had seen in years in the form of SOGA, and the definite cricket tune (ignore this list).

Just realised that our next show starts at the same time as the World Cup final, good grief. England team, please exit on penalties in the round of 16, save us all a headache, cheers. YOU’VE GOT TO HOLD AND GIVE