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(Music Review) IR 29.1: New Generation Dub

Richard Marcus

IR 29 - New Generation Dub

One of the biggest crimes committed by the music industry has been their ability to co-opt, dilute and turn even the most radical of genres into something safe for mass consumption. Disco, punk and … [Read more...]

Music of the Sahara: Tinariwen’s new album Emmaar

Richard Marcus

tinariwent emmaar album

In the early 1960s the creation of artificial borders in the trackless wastes of the Sahara desert might have been cause for celebration among the inhabitants of the newly created countries. However, … [Read more...]

(Music Review) Soutak by Aziza Brahim

Richard Marcus

Soutak by Aziza Brahim

At first glance the Sahara Desert of North West Africa seems like one of the most inhospitable places on the face of the earth. Movies, and other Western media, usually show us images of trackless … [Read more...]

(Music Review) Adrian Raso and Fanfare Ciocarlia – Devil’s Tale

Richard Marcus

Adrian Raso and Fanfare Ciocarlia - Devil's Tale

When the Ottoman Empire invaded Eastern Europe they brought more than just their armies with them. Even today evidence of their occupation can still be found. Muslim communities in Serbia are only the … [Read more...]

(Music Review) Acá: Viggo and Friends

Richard Marcus

Aca - Viggo Mortensen and Friends

Some people say, "Politics make strange bedfellows" (Don't say it to Putin - he might take it the wrong way and have you thrown in jail) but the first time I heard Viggo Mortensen had collaborated on … [Read more...]

Review – How Music Works by David Byrne

Richard Marcus

David Byrne

We all listen to music. Maybe we only have it playing in the background, use it to help us sleep or meditate, or perhaps you sit and listen to it carefully. However, no matter how or why you listen, … [Read more...]

Music Review – David Broza: East Jerusalem West Jerusalem

Richard Marcus

David Broza - East Jerusalem West Jerusalem

There are some subjects I know not to talk to most people about, because they probably won't like what I have to say on the matter. Always having been slightly left of most anarchists I'm supposed to … [Read more...]

Music Review – Tartit With Imharhan – Live from the Sahara

Richard Marcus

Tartit With Imharhan - Live from the Sahara

When the annual Festival Au Desert in Northern Mali was cancelled in 2013 due to the territory's occupation by terrorist organizations intent on imposing a very narrow definition of Islamic rule, … [Read more...]

Music Review – Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices

Roey Skif

Bee Thousand - Guided by Voices

"I love the sound of background noise I wanna hear the crack in the singer's voice Fingers moving on the fret board Every time he plays a new chord" (Art Brut, "Slap Dash For No Cash") When … [Read more...]

Review – The Abbey Road Sessions by Kylie Minogue

Denise Enck

Kylie Minogue Abbey Road Sessions

I was in college back in 1987 when Kylie Minogue had her first hit with "Locomotion," which I remember dancing to on nights out. But after that, though I occasionally heard songs on the radio, I … [Read more...]

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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