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Malady – All Pressure, No Diamonds review

by Monica C. Smith

Transforming the minutiae of everyday life into dancefloor-ready rhythms, London four-piece Malady create glittering soundscapes punctured with the sounds of their city. Inspired by the brutalist beauty of London, ‘All Pressure, No Diamonds’ is a kaleidoscopic glimpse into the band’s creative partnership. Leading with the infectious dance grooves of ‘Hyperreal’, Percy Junior Cobbinah’s vocals melt into the deep grooves and jagged synths, delving into a feeling of living perpetually online. Detailing contemporary life with ease, the outfit agitate about “being past their prime” on ‘Fools Errand’. Matching their anxiety with jittery electronics and searing sirens, Percy frets over life passing him by: “All I do is wait in line / Waiting on the things that could never be mine”. This narrative flows throughout this debut EP, as he wrestles with life’s melancholy on ‘Black Dog’: “I find the black dog always bites my behind.” The indifference of the city can be isolating at times. The pulsating ‘Pressure Builds’ hustles through a system that is “set up to work against you”. Among the ominous synths, though, there are soft glimmers of hope as the electronics dance across the track’s surface. It may be all pressure, no diamonds, but Malady are still going to try and find the joy of life.

 

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DESIGNER

V&A museum acquires Bowie’s archive, will put it on display

by Monica C. Smith

LONDON (AP) — From Major Tom to Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, the many faces and inspirations of David Bowie are getting a permanent home in London.

Britain’s Victoria & Albert Museum announced Thursday that it has acquired Bowie’s archive of more than 80,000 items as a gift from the late musician’s estate. The trove of costumes, musical instruments, letters, lyrics, photos and more will be opened to the public at a new arts center dedicated to the chameleonlike pop icon.

The David Bowie Center for the Study of Performing Arts is due to open in 2025 as part of V&A East Storehouse, an offshoot of the U.K.’s national museum of art, design and performance that is being built in east London’s Olympic Park.

The V&A said the center will let fans and researchers gain insights into the creative process of Bowie, who died in 2016 at the age of 69.

Kate Bailey, the museum’s senior curator of theater and performance, said the archive was an “extraordinary” record of a creator whose “life was art.”

“Bowie’s a polymath, he’s multifaceted. He was inspired by all genres and disciplines,” she said. “He’s an artist who was working really in 360 — drawing from literature, but also drawing from art history … (and) the places that he’d been to.”

The musician — born plain old David Jones in the London suburbs in 1947 — reinvented himself restlessly, creating and shedding personas as he moved through musical styles from folk-rock to glam to soul to electronica.

He created a series of larger-than-life stage characters, mining influences ranging from German Expressionist cinema to Japanese Kabuki theater. In turn he has influenced musicians, filmmakers, fashion designers and advertisers.

Some of the items in the archive formed part of “David Bowie Is,” a multimedia exhibition that

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