Radar: Robyn Hitchcock

Radar: Robyn Hitchcock

I recently spoke with Robyn Hitchcock, a songwriter who has spent nearly five decades treating the surreal as ordinary and the ordinary as suspect. He came up with The Soft Boys in Cambridge in the late seventies, out of step with punk and closer to the Doors and Syd Barrett than anything happening around them. Underwater Moonlight went nowhere at the time and became one of the most influential records of its era. He has been prolific ever since, solo and with the Egyptians and the Venus 3, writing about insects, weather, death and the small absurdities of life with a sharp eye, wit and wonderful humanity. The Confuser arrives July 24 on Tiny Ghost Records, his 25th studio album and first collection of all-new songs in close to four years. He recorded it in Nashville with Brad Jones and Jordan Lehning, backed by session players including guitarist Jeremy Fetzer, bassist Todd Bolden and drummer Eric Slick. Kimberley Rew, his co-founder in The Soft Boys, plays on four tracks. Gillian Welch sings on "Ghost in Sunlight." Johnny Marr heard the single "How To Feel Alright" and called it Bo Syddley, which is about right. Robyn kicks off an extensive UK and EU tour in October including the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Dates, records, books, ideas at robynhitchcock.com. ICYDNK: Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer. She is the lead singer and co-creator of Lulu Lewis, and the creator of all things at Darling Black, one woman brutalist synthpop. She curates and hosts Salon Lulu, a New York-based multidisciplinary performance series, and is also a cast member of the cult-classic New York film Metropolitan.

Radar: Sally Timms - The Mekons

I recently spoke with Sally Timms, co-lead singer of The Mekons since 1985, the year she stepped into the band on their breakthrough album "Fear and Whiskey." The Mekons formed in Leeds in 1976 under Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh and have outlasted nearly every other band to emerge from that same British punk explosion, shapeshifting through country, folk, dub, and art-punk without ever settling into one shape for long. Before joining, Timms recorded the experimental film score "Hangahar" with Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks in 1980 and fronted the all-female outfit the Shee Hees. Timms has run a parallel solo career the whole time, moving between lo-fi electronics and alt-country with releases including "Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat," "To the Land of Milk and Honey," "Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments for Lost Buckaroos," and "In the World of Him," a record of songs written by men, sung from their perspective. Her song "Horses" was later covered by Will Oldham. The Mekons are currently touring behind "Horror," a new record on Fire Records built around what they're calling horror-folk, tackling imperial legacies with the same nerve they've had since 1976. Catch them in the UK this fall at The Prince Albert in Brighton on October 22 and The Garage in London on October 23. She and Langford also just played Mini-Mekons at Solid Sound Festival, stripped down and acoustic, mining the deep dark Mekonic lake for classics and rarities. A voice that's been called intimidating and a sweetheart in the same breath. She joined Radar to talk about all of it. ICYDNK: Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer. She is the lead singer and co-creator of Lulu Lewis, and the creator of all things at Darling Black, one woman brutalist synthpop. She curates and hosts Salon Lulu, a New York-based multidisciplinary performance series, and is also a cast member of the cult-classic New York film Metropolitan.

Radar: Adi Newton - Clock DVA

Adi Newton is a founding figure of British experimental music whose work has shaped the genre for nearly five decades. Before founding Clock DVA and TAGC/The Anti Group in 1978, he was one of the original members of The Future, the project that evolved into The Human League. Clock DVA stands alongside Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire as a pioneer of late-70s and 80s experimental sound, with releases like the 1980 debut "Thirst" on Fetish, named by Paul Morley in his NME review as one of the best debut albums of the decade, and the 1988 electronic landmark "Buried Dreams." Through TAG, a shifting collective working under his direction, Newton has pushed into extreme electronic territory with works like the ambisonic "Digitaria" and the Test Tones series. His art has been presented at ARS Electronica Linz, the V&A London, and the Reina Sofía in Madrid. He describes music-making as research, guided by intuition and arcane, occult, and futuristic knowledge. Adi remains very busy working in all these projects and performing live with Clock DVA and TAG. CLOCK DVA recently released the 45th Anniversary reissue of Thirst, remastered and out on double “Thirst-Red” vinyl, CD and digitally via The Grey Area of Mute.  You can find Clock DVA at The Free and Easy Festival in Munich on August 2nd. You can find TAG at a very special London Interzone three day series where he will be performing with Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire [https://cabaretvoltaire.bandcamp.com/] The event is described as  “a three-day convergence of radical theory, sound, recognising the ongoing impact of the works of US writer William S. Burroughs and the Beat Generation, with London as a primary historical and contemporary nexus point for the American avant-garde.”  Painter, sonic and kinetic engineer, pataphysical pantheist, existentialist super-naturalist traveler. He joined Radar to talk about all of it. ICYDNK: Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer. She is the lead singer and co-creator of Lulu Lewis, and the creator of all things at Darling Black, one woman brutalist synthpop. She curates and hosts Salon Lulu, a New York-based multidisciplinary performance series, and is also a cast member of the cult-classic New York film Metropolitan.

Radar: White Hills

I recently spoke with Dave W. and Ego Sensation of White Hills. For nearly two decades, White Hills have been gifting us with a unique mix of neo-psychedelia, art rock, and post-punk. Their first release was shepherded by Julian Cope, you've seen them in Jim Jarmusch's sultry vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive as the band in the Detroit club, and they've collaborated with Martin Bisi often. They are both consummately New York while also holding the borderless spirit of all true artists. The duo has toured vigorously since their inception and have recorded over fifty releases, which include 12 full-length studio albums and numerous collaborations, EPs, and live records. The latest, Leave This World Behind, came out in March on their own label, Heads On Fire Industries. Five tracks built around a Sonic Rituals live series they're performing through 2026. We talked about how Dave and Ego met, the birth of the band, and the deeply grounded and spiritual point of view that this light filled and heavy music is born of. You'll be able to catch them in San Francisco on June 7th for the second of their Sonic Rituals this year. A deluxe vinyl edition of rarities entitled Collected Consciousness will arrive in the fall via Argonauta Records, with a new full length coming in early 2027. Follow them at @whitehillsmusic on Instagram and on the web to keep up with the heavy spirit engine. ICYDNK: Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer. She is the lead singer and co-creator of Lulu Lewis, and the creator of all things at Darling Black, one woman brutalist synthpop. She curates and hosts Salon Lulu, a New York-based multidisciplinary performance series, and is also a cast member of the cult-classic New York film Metropolitan.

Radar: Linda Perry

I recently spoke with Linda Perry, frontwoman of 4 Non Blondes and one of the most prolific songwriters and producers of the past three decades. After "What's Up?" became an era-defining hit in 1993, Linda stepped behind the boards and wrote and produced some of the biggest songs in pop music: Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful," Pink's "Get the Party Started," Alicia Keys' "Superwoman," plus work with Dolly Parton, Adele, Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion, Ariana Grande, Joan Jett, Courtney Love. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015 and made history in 2019 as the first solo woman nominated for the Grammy's Producer of the Year category in fifteen years. Now Linda is stepping back to the front. Her first solo album in over 25 years, Let It Die Here, was released May 8, 2026 via Kill Rock Stars/670 Records. The 17-track record is a raw, cinematic reckoning with grief, family, and survival, written and recorded alongside the making of her new documentary of the same name. Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, directed by Don Hardy, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is rolling out theatrically through Mercury Studios and Evan Saxon Productions: New York on May 8, Los Angeles on May 13, with screenings continuing through May and June in San Francisco, Palm Springs, San Diego, Denver, and London, many featuring live Q&As and acoustic performances from Linda. We got into all of it. The album, the doc, the catalogue, and what it means to come back. Tune in. Stream Let It Die Here wherever you listen to music, and head to lindaperry.com for the full documentary screening schedule and ticket info. ICYDNK: Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer. She is the lead singer and co-creator of Lulu Lewis, and the creator of all things at Darling Black, one woman brutalist synthpop. She curates and hosts Salon Lulu, a New York-based multidisciplinary performance series, and is also a cast member of the cult-classic New York film Metropolitan.