First up is Uncut. It looks and feels like a carbon copy of Mojo in many senses, so this is sort of a combined review. The best thing about the magazine is the sheer size of articles. For example, the May 2003 issue of Uncut had a story about Fleetwood Mac that ran from page 38 to page 66. I’ve never seen such extensive essays in any pop magazine, and I must say I’m impressed. Not only because of the size, but because of quality. It’s obvious that you can’t just whip up a story this big without doing serious research, multiple interviews and so on, and I’m happy to say that it shows. Mojo has learned accounts as well, and they’re very well written, if not quite as extensive. My biggest – and only – gripe is that the two magazines have their sights set permanently in the past. Unfortunately that kind of rules them out, me being the kind of pop neophyte that I am.
Bang has a promising roster of writers, especially my new all-time favourite Simon Price. It is therefore a real shame that Bang seems to place more value on images than on text, especially as Price’s pieces about The Flaming Lips and Har-Mar Superstar were a real joy to read. The majority of the magazine was sadly filled with short bits of gossip that are already ubiquitous on the net. The accompanying CD was okay. It’ll be interesting to see if Bang will succeed in carving a niche for itself; to my eye it wouldn’t seem likely. Recommended with caution.
Rock Sound is pretty boring. I only bought it for the CD and it wasn’t that good anyhow. I advice you to skip this one.
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