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John Doran

John Doran

John Doran has been a music journalist since 2003 writing for Record Collector, Plan B, Metal Hammer, Playlouder, Drowned In Sound, Loose Lips Sink Ships, BANG, Stool Pigeon, Classic Rock, Disorder and others. He lives near Kings Cross and will hold conversations about Gary Numan with anyone in earshot as his long suffering girlfriend has long since stopped paying attention. He lives in constant fear of his record collection falling through the floor and killing the couple who live in the flat below.

70 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Altaar, Årabrot, Ihsahn, Mayhem, Noxagt, Okkultokrati, Shining, Thorr's Hammer, Turbonegro, Wardruna: Order And Chaos: Norway In Noise And Metal

Overview by John Doran, Drowned in Sound, 22 October 2010

THIS LIST HAS been designed to upset you. It's not a best of Norwegian metal. It doesn't offer a comprehensive guide to any Norwegian genre ...

Animal Collective: Race Against Rhyme

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, March 2009

Animal Collective are retreating even further into their fool's paradise of a utopian never never land. Their daydream is tempting, given the alternatives. ...

Aphex Twin's Collapse EP Reviewed From The Gwennap Pit

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 3 September 2018

John Doran was on his way to the Gwennap Pit in Cornwall when he received the new Aphex Twin EP by email. But is the ...

Arcade Fire: The Arcade Fire

Interview by John Doran, Disorder, December 2005

In such a time of emotional flux for the Arcade Fire; losing close family members, founder members getting married, recording an album of immense beauty, ...

Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal: Art Corrupted - From Burning Churches To Toasted Bagels In Twenty Years

Overview by John Doran, Totally Dublin, March 2011

Some two decades after its inception, you can now take an official True Norwegian Black Metal coach trip round Oslo, visiting the sites of arson, ...

Cabaret Voltaire: Justified Fascination: Richard H Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire Interviewed

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 9 December 2013

Did Cabaret Voltaire lose their way when they lost Chris Watson? Far from it, they entered their imperial period... John Doran talks to Richard H ...

Cabaret Voltaire, Kora: Kora: Kora! Kora! Kora! Cabaret Voltaire Mixes

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 19 December 2008

THIS IS not to diminish the achievements of New Zealand/Maori dub band Kora, but I'm guessing for a lot of people the interesting name on ...

Can, Cluster, Faust, Harmonia, Kraftwerk, Neu!: Krautrock

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, Record Collector, January 2009

In the early 1970s a revolution in sound occurred that was as influential in its own way as the birth of rock'n'roll or reggae. John ...

Celtic Frost: Bring Out Your Dead

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 1 June 2020

He may be a prophet without honour at home, but elsewhere Swiss musician Tom Gabriel Fischer is widely recognised to have shifted the course of ...

Cliff Richard: Why Cliff Richard Is The Epitome And Saviour Of Rock & Roll

Comment by John Doran, The Quietus, 20 September 2008

Forget Liam Gallagher, Richard Ashcroft or Paul Weller — Sir Cliff is the best rock star we have, says John 'We Don't Talk Any More' ...

CSS: Donkey

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 3 June 2008

TO CELEBRATE 20 years producing left field heavy rock music, Sub Pop this month release bookended albums of a sort. ...

Miles Davis: John Lydon, Nick Cave, Wayne Coyne, Iggy & More: My Favourite Miles Davis Album

Guide by John Doran, The Quietus, 5 October 2010

To celebrate the recent reissue of Bitches Brew, John Doran asked Iggy Pop, Jim Sclavunos, Jason Pierce, Mike Patton, Paul Weller and many other musicians ...

Depeche Mode: Universal Truths And Sounds

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, April 2009

It's all tea and biscuits for Depeche Mode these days, and a trip back to the future ...

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris, Ernie K-Doe, The Meters, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint: New Orleans Funk Volume Three (Soul Jazz Records)

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 13 November 2013

Note: Contains Spoilers for the HBO TV show Treme ...

Bill Drummond: Recorded Music Has Run Its Course

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 28 August 2008

...

Eccentronic Research Council, the, Maxine Peake: The Eccentronic Research Council And Maxine Peake: 1612 Underture

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 22 August 2012

THROUGHOUT THE 17th century, witch-hunt fever was spreading virulently through the UK. Remote communities, once infected, turned in upon themselves and burned up. ...

Electric Wizard: You Terrible Cult

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, November 2009

Jus Oborn of doom titans Electric Wizard promises a new album for 2010. "I want the man in the street to spit at me", he ...

The Fall: Becks Induction Hour

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, Record Collector, May 2007

After a career that has included 26 studio albums, 50 compilation albums, 50 singles and 40 line-up changes, you might think it was hard to ...

Fever Ray: Fever Ray

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 26 March 2009

• Fever Ray is Karin Dreijer Andersson, who found fame as one half of Swedish electronic duo the Knife alongside her brother Olof Dreijer. ...

Franz Ferdinand: Tonight

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 10 December 2008

The Quietus got an early listen to the new Franz Ferdinand album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, and pegged it back to the office to give you ...

Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing (ATPR)

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 20 March 2008

NOISE, LIKE anything else, needs practise, needs talent and needs inspiration. As odd as it sounds, bands like Wolf Eyes didn't get where they are ...

Peter Gabriel: An Invasion Of Privacy

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 19 September 2011

Peter Gabriel tells John Doran about reworking his back catalogue, almost playing in space, being mistaken for a terrorist and how life might be four ...

Noel Gallagher: High Flying Birds, Musical Kettles And Exploded Psych

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 8 October 2011

John Doran is caught napping by Noel Gallagher, who is finally getting to indulge his creative impulses with the High Flying Birds and Amorphous Androgynous! ...

John Parish, PJ Harvey: Different Voices: PJ Harvey and John Parish

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, March 2009

Polly Jean Harvey has reunited with John Parish (who collaborated with her with on To Bring You My Love, Is This Desire? and White Chalk) ...

PJ Harvey: Let England Shake

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 11 February 2011

THE SPANISH PAINTER Francisco Goya was in an ideal position to comment on The Peninsula War of 1804-1808. ...

Hawkwind: Ian Abrahams: Hawkwind – Sonic Assassins

Book Review by John Doran, Classic Rock, November 2004

PSYCH-ROCK visionaries Hawkwind have undeniably one of the most interesting stories in rock: paranoia, madness, drugs, fatal road accidents, not to mention startlingly inventive music ...

Health: Health//Disco

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 13 June 2008

SO BY NOW you are aware of the Smell, the Los Angeles art space/studio/gig venue from which emanate the evil sounds of bands such as ...

Kristin Hersh, Throwing Muses: Baker's Dozen — Songs Are Syringes: Kristin Hersh On Her Favourite Tracks

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 28 October 2013

Throwing Muses are releasing Purgatory/Paradise, their first album in a decade, so Kristin Hersh met up with John Doran to discuss her favourite records (not ...

Interpol: Our Love To Admire

Review by John Doran, Yahoo! Music, 13 July 2007

THE ART WORK for Interpol's third album Our Love To Admire is a series of photographs taken from New York City's Natural History museum, depicting ...

Grace Jones: Grace Under Pressure: Grace Jones

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, December 2008

PLAYING BACK MY phone interview with Grace Jones, I notice that at the start of the transcript while I'm waiting for someone to pick up ...

Judas Priest: Pastor of Puppets: Rob Halford

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 11 February 2009

YOU ONLY HAVE TO open a style mag, left-field music publication or a broadsheet at the moment to see that heavy metal is enjoying one ...

Kate Bush: A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 10 November 2011

KANGCHENJUNGA was, for a long time, thought to be the highest mountain in the world. It wasn't until the Great Trigonometric Survey of 1849 that ...

Kelman: I Felt My Sad Heart Soar

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 5 January 2009

I CAN’T remember any of the platitudes that I was offered, the first time I ever got my heart broken. ...

Bill Laswell: Bass. How Low Can You Go?

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, July 2009

Prior to his appearance at Montreux Jazz Festival, John Doran caught up with Bill Laswell in New York and uncovered some surprising information about Def ...

LCD Soundsystem: Soundsystem And Vision

Interview by John Doran, Disorder, July 2005

"I'm losing my edge. To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin. I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed ...

Liars: WIXIW

Review by John Doran, bbc.co.uk, June 2012

OF ALL THE BANDS to emerge out of London and New York's post punk/punk funk revival of a decade ago, only Liars and LCD Soundsystem ...

John Lydon, Public Image Ltd, The Sex Pistols: John Lydon

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, March 2010

IN CALIFORNIA WE MEET a traveller from an antique land. On two scrawny legs – KFC issue – he stands. He has a shattered look. ...

Marilyn Manson: God Of Fucking About

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, June 2009

He promised us champagne and caviar, but now he's only capable of delivering cola and crisps. To John Doran, he's become little more than the ...

The Mars Volta: "The most revolutionary thing we could do was to make a pop record."

Report and Interview by John Doran, The Guardian, 12 August 2022

After their 2013 split left fans in shock, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López reveal how the Church of Scientology drove them apart – and inspired ...

Ennio Morricone: Lightning Conductor: Ennio Morricone

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, May 2010

ENNIO MORRICONE is not a slight man. He is a slim man. A man of average height. But he is not slight. ...

Tom Moulton: Zing Went The Strings: Tom Moulton's Disco Remixes Reviewed

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 5 November 2013

"You wait forty years for a boxset of Tom Moulton Philly disco remixes on heavyweight vinyl, and then two turn up at once." John Doran ...

My Bloody Valentine: Why My Bloody Valentine's mbv Has Come Too Late To Stop The End Of The World

Comment by John Doran, Noisey, 4 February 2013

SO, WHAT THE ancient Mayans predicted has finally come to pass, and only five weeks later than expected. At the end of a 5,125 year ...

New Young Pony Club: The Optimist

Review by John Doran, New Musical Express, 12 March 2010

WHEN NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB first released 'Ice Cream' on Tirk Records in 2005, it felt like they were destined to become Favourite New Band ...

Nine Inch Nails: Fighting Tooth And Nail

Interview by John Doran, Classic Rock, July 2005

After finally admitting to himself that he was in the merciless grip of alcohol and drug addiction, Trent Reznor (aka Nine Inch Nails) got himself ...

Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor: Trent Reznor on the NIN Tour

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 5 March 2014

"I feel some responsibility to the audience, I want them to leave feeling that they've had some kind of experience that was satisfying. But at ...

Yoko Ono: Naked Ambition

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, October 2009

THERE'S SOMETHING to be said for delayed gratification. There's no small amount of tortoise versus hare enjoyment to listening to Yoko Ono's new album. ...

Annette Peacock: She's The One: Annette Peacock Interviewed

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 3 June 2014

Annette Peacock is a stone cold original — an innovator, an outlier, authentically sui generis. John Doran talks to her about the timely reissue of ...

The Prodigy: Invaders Must Die (Cooking Vinyl)

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 12 February 2009

A CRITICISM often levelled at Cooking Vinyl is that it resembles a second division football team with enough money to buy once gloriously talented players ...

The Prodigy: Invaders Must Die first listen

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 28 November 2008

Long time Prodigy fan and self-confessed knackered old cheesy quaver, John Doran gets invited to the first listen of the new Prodge album Invaders Must ...

Pussy Riot Sentenced To Two Year Jail Term

Report by John Doran, The Quietus, 17 August 2012

RUSSIAN PUNK BAND Pussy Riot have been sentenced to two years in jail each after being found guilty of hooliganism earlier in the day. ...

Rammstein: Lichtspielhaus (Universal DVD)

Film/DVD/TV Review by John Doran, Metal Hammer, February 2004

RAMMSTEIN ALWAYS had an unashamedly arty, even pretentious, agenda and it is easy to see this developing by watching their videos. ...

Gemma Ray: Lights Out Zoltar!

Review by John Doran, bbc.co.uk, 2009

GEMMA RAY SHOULD, BY RIGHTS, be a household name. It would be nice to think that it was only a mysterious bout of blood poisoning ...

Lou Reed: I Thought That Lou Reed Would Outlive Death Itself

Obituary by John Doran, Noisey, 28 October 2013

STUPIDLY, I thought Lou Reed would outlive death itself. It wasn't just his implacable, gimlet-eyed countenance; his face already a kind of premature living death ...

Emeli Sandé: Her Version Of Events: Emeli Sandé Interviewed

Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 8 February 2012

Emeli Sandé discusses human brains, Virginia Woolf and Cher Lloyd with John Doran ...

Siouxsie Sioux: 100 Club, London

Live Review by John Doran, Classic Rock, December 2004

Two shows in one week for the iconic 'anti-Blondie' – one a lo-fi hits set, and one with 18-piece orchestra . Hark at her! ...

Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone Not Just A Clever Name…

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 13 August 2008

John Doran slowly peels back the masks of so-called extreme metal behemoths Slipknot and looks at the jaundiced and withered flesh underneath. It isn't, he ...

Sonic Youth : Ripped It Up And Started Again

Interview by John Doran, playlouder.com, July 2006

Hollow jokes about their name and their actual age in the music press don't alter the fact that Sonic Youth are still making visionary music ...

Candi Staton: We Want Candi

Profile and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, February 2009

CANDI STATON is, to put it simply, one of the most consistently underrated female vocalists ever. This is not to say that she hasn't had ...

Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions

Review by John Doran, Drowned in Sound, 21 May 2009

DURING SHELLAC'S excellent track 'The End Of Radio', about the nature of recording and broadcasting electronically amplified rock music, there's a line (when performed live ...

System Of A Down's Shavo Odadjian: My Life Story

Interview by John Doran, Metal Hammer, 21 December 2005

From Armenia to Hollywood, System of a Down's bass monster has beaten a crazy path to been a member of one of the biggest metal ...

Tyler, The Creator: Goblin (XL)

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 10 May 2011

OUR FRIEND and writer for The Stool Pigeon and this organ Kev Kharas recently went to interview Tyler The Creator. The mewling twit (Mr Creator ...

U2: Songs Of Innocence: On U2, Tax & Hypocrisy 


Comment by John Doran, The Quietus, 10 September 2014

John Doran is singularly unimpressed by U2's invocation of William Blake's Songs Of Innocence. Shouldn't they stop cosying up to morally bankrupt corporations, banks, philosophers, ...

Venom: Forging Black Metal: Cronos Of Venom Talks About The Genesis Of A Genre

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 14 January 2010

Helping create extreme metal as we know it today, as well as naming Black Metal, Venom have always been the antidote to musical boredom, says ...

Kanye West: Sensitive Soul

Report by John Doran, The Quietus, 24 June 2008

Quietus Editor John Doran gets drunk, falls over, destroys phone, makes noise like "broken panther" and has Proustian recall of two run ins with rap ...

The White Stripes: White Stripes: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by John Doran, Bang, June 2003

JACK AND MEG STRIPPED THE BLUES DOWN TO ITS BARE BONES, FLESH-WOUNDING 8,000 SCREAMING FANS OVER TWO NIGHTS AT LONDON'S BRIXTON ACADEMY ...

The xx: Between Les Paul's Pick-Up and the Akai MPC2000

Comment by John Doran, The Quietus, 27 August 2009

It is quite timely that the XX's debut came out during the same month that Les Paul died. They are the perfect band for a ...

List of genre pieces

All Tomorrow's Parties: Breeders And Fans Strike Back II

Live Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 26 May 2009

I'M MORE appreciative of ATP than usual at the moment (and I'm usually damn appreciative of its quasi-utopian spread of music, guilt-free loafing and social ...

Steven Wells 1960-2009: A Tribute

Memoir by John Doran, Andrew Mueller, John Robb, Terry Staunton, David Stubbs, The Quietus, 29 June 2009

David Stubbs ...

The Vinyl Staircase: Transmissions, Margate

Profile and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 6 June 2016

John Doran goes to Margate to visit the newly-opened Transmission. ...

Various Artists: Choubi Choubi! Vol. 2 — Folk & Pop Sounds from Iraq

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 29 November 2013

THIS EXCELLENT LP is a follow up to the original Choubi Choubi album that Mark Gergis put together in 2005 for Sublime Frequencies. ...

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