Why the Sandpit?

Firstly, what is the sandpit for?

Well, it's a place to read about music. All categories. Pop, Dance, Medieval, Jazz, Folk, Electronic, Ambient, Techno.... there's going to be precious little Country though... sorry about that!

It's also a place for me to rail against the music press. Show them how to give more balanced and informative views on music than you can get from Q, Uncut, Jazzwise, Classic FM, NME, Mixmag, IDJ etc

Why would that be true? Good question. Have you been to a shop lately and seen a CD with a sticker on the front? You know, the ones with 4 reviews (or a couple of adjectives culled from a few sources, plus "four stars - Mojo"). Well, it's my suspicion that these guys sit around the office all day with a thesaurus and a bottle of scotch dreaming up new superlatives to make people like you and me part with our money. It's simple. Journo works for mag, writes glowing reviews for thirty albums a month. Quotes get used on stickers. Journo gets promoted/pay rise. So it goes on.

In fact it gets so bad, you can read a lengthy review and get right through without AT ANY POINT finding out what on earth it sounds like. Example: what instruments can you hear? Very few reviews bother with this small detail, yet if I knew there was a Celtic harp or a Hammond organ on the fourth track it may well influence me more constructively.

Another example, how many albums have been described as "Enoesque" only for me to get the wrap off the box, slip it in the CD player and find it's just another album with no guitars... not enough, in my humble opinion, on it's own, to qualify for a comparison to the Almighty Brian.

So, Ive had a lifetime of "Rock" journalism, Jazz reviews, critical silence on folk, medieval and others and I have never decided whether I prefer a record to be reviewed or not, because the best that can happen is a review can turn you off an album you would otherwise have liked.

Patti Smith's fourth album for example, Little Doves, got torn to shreds by Julie Burchill, almost a career killer.

Take the new magazine "Plan B" - reviews amazing records, such as Stars of The Lid's new album, "and their refinement of the decline" which just says it's a good album, and manages to say almost nothing else. Well, you won't get that here.

That's the intention, at any rate.


PS. Stars of The Lid are guaranteed high quality nosh every time...