My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights is on repeats until mid September.
Amazing Songs & Other Delights is broadcasted on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com to (or on the app). Each same show repeats 1st and 2nd Monday of the month, then another 3rd and 4th Monday of the month, 3-4pm (London time).
Exceptionally, this year The Anniversary Edition is in Autumn.
All shows on mixcloud shows on mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/infoyeye/ | Mondo Bizarre Magazine mixcloud
Swing on a Summer Afternoon, or the Great Panoply of Rock ‘n’ Roll
words: Paulo Carmona (edited by Raquel Pinheiro)
photos: Ricardo Silva
On 20 June, Silly Boy Blue took to the stage at number 33 on the iconic, almost mythical Rua de Sá da Bandeira, right in the heart of Porto, for what felt like an intimate yet celebratory gathering among friends, invited guests, their audience, and a handful of curious passers-by.
The musical landscape of the band inhabits is no stranger to us – indie rock with a healthy dose of Britpop, together with all the subgenres that naturally gravitate around it.
That said, Silly Boy Blue have its own sound, its own alchemy, and its own style, something that is by no means easy to achieve within the broad ecosystem of that musical universe.
I would like to highlight, from the outset, the vocal work of every member of the quartet. Their voices work together seamlessly, reaching a remarkably high standard of execution. Outstanding.
From Again and Again, through Away We Go, Did You Say Something, This City and Man on a Wire, to Jesus, Temptation and By The Window, the band remains cohesive throughout, navigating a melodic carousel of crescendos and diminuendos that are at times intense and abrasive, at others introspective and bittersweet.
If we close our eyes, we hear a band of gifted young musicians. If we open them, we see a group of grown men who still have all the mojo exactly where it belongs. Funny guys.
words: António Carvalho (edited by Raquel Pinheiro)
photos: Ricardo Silva
It was before a nearly full audience that the New Yorkers YHWH Nailgun returned to northern Portugal, after their debut at the Mucho Flow festival last November. Despite being dubbed by an American publication as “the last good band left in New York” (an exaggerated title, in my opinion), it’s clear from the first minute that there’s a spark of originality in their sound.
It’s difficult to define, but it seems easy to categorize it somewhere between post-punk and noise, a wide field in which some no wave bands from their city moved in the eighties. Their music is strongly anchored in Sam Pickard’s drumming, with its fast, elaborate and highly percussive rhythms (the use of rototoms helps immensely), inviting bodies to move.
Zack Borzone’s guttural voice and stage presence are other key elements, although the words he utters are difficult to understand. The sound of Saguiv Rosenstock’s highly processed guitar, achieved with a huge array of distortion pedals, is angular and dissonant, functioning almost like a second voice.
Dissonance is also present in Jack Tobias’ synthesizers, in a tone that is sometimes urgent, sometimes serene. The combination of these elements, meticulously interpreted, ever present and full of shifts and small explosions, results in something that confirms the cliché “first you find it strange, then it becomes ingrained.”
They began by playing their second album, released weeks ago, which curiously is only 11 minutes long and has 10 tracks, all around the minute mark. I even think they played it in its entirety, just like the tracks from their debut album that came after, released last year.
Zach immerses himself in his lyrics, as if exorcising inner demons, which contrasts with his angelic and contemplative pose between songs, looking at the faces in the audience. In less than an hour, they left people wanting more, as if they could deliver it and we could process it.
They have a somewhat mysterious and haunting appeal (perhaps that’s why the legendary 4AD recently signed them) and are the result of a successful experiment, such is the unique and cohesive outcome.
They’re not a band for the masses, but there will certainly be a vast minority who will want to get to know them and exchange strangeness for familiarity.
There’s a photo gallery on our Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mondobizarremagazine/
I’A’V – Lovers & Lollypops, Porto, 18.06.2026.
words: Paulo Carmona (edited by Raquel Pinheiro)
photos: Ricardo Silva
Everything seemed suited to the project’s sound. The atmosphere, the space, the audience, and the time of the show.
It was just after 7.45pm when I’A’V entered the venue to present one of the most original Portuguese projects I have heard in recent years.
They came to present their first work: Volatile Poem, and I want to begin with the instruments used: cello, transverse flute, samplers and voice.
The sonic world of this project, featuring Inês Malheiro, Arianna Casellas and Violeta Azevedo, brings us fresh, atmospheric, spiritual and soothing environments. They navigate calm waters of musical poetry, blended with soft colours and gentle breezes.
Very well prepared and perfectly coordinated with each other, they create a symbiosis of musicality, with richly crafted arrangements and beautifully explored silences where the music breathes and lives by itself. The vocalisations evoke the songs of sirens: calm and seductive.
At the end of the enchantment, I had the opportunity to speak with the members of the project, who shared with me that when they came together to create this work, they were aware that they were three people with different musical structures and distinct languages. It was through this fusion of experiences and life journeys that they naturally connected, creating their own identity.
Without pressure, without preconceived ideas. They allowed the music to flow naturally, and the project’s sound took shape.
A toast to symbiosis! It is from ideas and fearless experimentation that things like this emerge.
There’s a photo gallery on our Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mondobizarremagazine/
Percussion as Structure and Movement
words & photos: Ricardo Silva
On 16 June, the intimate venue operated by Lovers & Lollypops in Porto hosted a performance by percussionist Alex Lazaro, who presented material from Alocades, his first solo release.
The concert formed part of the venue’s ongoing programme dedicated to contemporary experimental and exploratory music, continuing the independent promoter’s long-standing commitment to emerging and unconventional artistic practices.
Lazaro approached the evening with a performance centred on percussion not merely as a rhythmic device but as a primary compositional language. Working with instruments including marimba, vibraphone and rototom, he constructed pieces that balanced repetition, texture and movement.
Rather than relying on conventional song structures, the performance unfolded through gradual developments in timbre and dynamics, creating a listening experience that emphasised detail and spatial awareness.
Throughout the set, the physical dimension of performance remained central. The relationship between body, instrument and sound became an integral part of the presentation, with gestures and movement contributing as much to the visual identity of the concert as the music itself. The result was a performance that occupied a space between concert, sound art and choreography, allowing audiences to engage simultaneously with sonic and physical forms of expression.
The acoustics and proximity offered by the Lovers & Lollypops venue proved particularly suited to the material. Subtle resonances, sustained tones and rhythmic shifts could be perceived with clarity, reinforcing the immersive character of the compositions. The setting encouraged attentive listening and highlighted the intricate relationships between the various percussive elements employed during the performance.
While Alocades serves as Lazaro’s first solo statement, the musician is already recognised for his collaborative work, most notably alongside Colombian composer and producer Lucrecia Dalt.
That experience is reflected in an approach that favours sonic exploration over genre conventions, combining contemporary percussion techniques with a broader interest in texture and atmosphere. The Porto performance demonstrated how those influences have been adapted into a distinct artistic language centred on percussion as both musical and performative expression.
The concert also reflected the broader curatorial identity of Lovers & Lollypops.
Alex Lazaro’s appearance in Porto was therefore more than a presentation of new material. It offered a focused exploration of percussion as a multidimensional practice, one in which sound, movement and space interact continuously.
In a programme increasingly defined by curiosity and experimentation, the concert stood as a concise example of the type of work that continues to find a home within Porto’s independent music community.
There’s a photo gallery on our Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mondobizarremagazine/
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights #98 – The Of Summer & Football edition is broadcasted Monday 15 and 22 June, 3-4pm (London time) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com to (or on the app).
Summer is around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2026 World Cup is on. The Of Summer & Football edition has nineteen songs and one instrumental that speak of both. The Summer songs aren’t all necessarily season specific.
The Wedding Present’s Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft of from their album George Best, Manchester United’s (in)famous right winger
Billy Bragg’s God’s Footballer is about
Peter Knowles a forward of
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., better known as Wolves.
John Travolta & Olivia Newton John – Summer Nights classic from the film Greece is a perfect Summer evening dancing song. Along with the surfy Peter Gunn by Duane Eddy.
The Smiths’ Golden Lights is a cover of English singer-songwriter Twinkle’s 1965 single, and in itself as little to do with Summer.
New Order’s World In Motionand Baddiel & Skinner & Lightning Seeds’s Three Lions where written with England’s National team in mind, while
Belle and Sebastian’s It Only Takes One Lion is their 2026 song for Scotland National team.
As usual on the Summer and Winter programme there’s a cover of The Mamas & the Papas do’ California Dreamin’, this time by José Feliciano.
Tracklist:
01 – Tom Joseph – Brighton
02 – New Order – World In Motion
03 – Frank Rabeyrolles – Bossa In My Heart
04 – The Wedding Present – Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
05: Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires – Under A Cat
06: The Fall – Kicker Conspiracy
07: National Death Industry – The End Of All The Things We Do
08: Belle and Sebastian – It Only Takes One Lion
09: Calvin Harris – Summer
10: Animal Collective – Goalkeeper
11: Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us Now
12: The Smiths – Golden Lights
12: Waaves – King Of The Beachaaa
14: Rod Stewart – Touchline
15: Duane Eddy – Peter Gunn
16: Baddiel & Skinner & Lightning Seeds – Three Lions
17: John Travolta & Olivia Newton John Summer Nights
18: Billy Bragg – God’s Footballer
19: Weezer – Island In The Sun
20: José Feliciano – California Dreamin’
All previous shows on mixcloud:
Yé Yé Radio mixcloud / | Mondo Bizarre Magazine mixcloud
Gemini New Moon, June 15 – The Things That Remain, my new post at The Polymath, is not an ordinary astrology post.
It starts with real every day life things, a song – The Irish Goodbye by Bernard Butler – conversations, a exhibition – Sentimento Monocromático (Monocromatic Feeling) by Gustavo Sanches de Castro, a poem – Na Spailpíní Fánacha (The Wandering Spailpín) read by Ian Duhig – a radio show – RTE Arena 100 – to arrive to what, for me, endures.
There’s pigeons, swings, sliders, ice creams, conversations too. You can read the full post here.
photos: © Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Gustavo Hochman; edited by Milena Katzman for Mondo Bizarre Magazine.
As usual, Wave-Gotik-Treffen was captured through the lens of Gustavo Hochman this year supported by image editor Milena Katzman.
Wave-Gotik-Treffen is the world’s largest gothic festival. It also includes Punk, Rivethead, Romanticism, Steampunk, Victoriana and other alternative and subcultures.
Gustavo Hochman, our photographer, was the only photographer allowed in a fashion show in a medieval castle.
We also photographed Covenant and She Past Away, the two main bands present at Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026. Covenant on Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 1 and She Past Away on Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 2
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 1
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 2
photos: © Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Gustavo Hochman; edited by Milena Katzman for Mondo Bizarre Magazine.
As usual, Wave-Gotik-Treffen was captured through the lens of Gustavo Hochman this year supported by image editor Milena Katzman.
Wave-Gotik-Treffen is the world’s largest gothic festival. It also includes Punk, Rivethead, Romanticism, Steampunk, Victoriana and other alternative and subcultures.
Gustavo Hochman, our photographer, was the only photographer allowed in a fashion show in a medieval castle.
We also photographed Covenant and She Past Away, the two main bands present at Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026. You can find Covenant on photolog-1 and She Past Away on photolog-2.
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 1
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 2
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 4
Wave-Gotik-Treffen – Previous Years photologs
There’s also a photo gallery on our Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mondobizarremagazine/
Here’s Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Leipzig, 2026 second photolog
photos: © Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Gustavo Hochman; edited by Milena Katzman for Mondo Bizarre Magazine.
Wave-Gotik-Treffen is the world’s largest gothic festival. It also includes Punk, Rivethead, Romanticism, Steampunk, Victoriana and other alternative and subcultures.
Gustavo Hochman, our photographer, was the only photographer allowed in a fashion show in a medieval castle.
We also photographed Covenant and She Past Away, the two main bands present at Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026. She Past Away are represented here.
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 1
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 3
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – photolog 4
Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2026 – Previous Years Photologs
There’s also a photo gallery on our Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mondobizarremagazine/
Mondo Bizarre Magazine 