VIVA SPARKY #1
In-house zine of Catchpenny Records. Anyone who thought the paper version of Aquamarine was too thin at 20 pages won't be too impressed with this as it only has a mere 12! Includes hype for Catchpenny Records, plus articles on the Welsh music festival Sesiwn Fawr, The Mekons, and environmental protestors, and that's about it, but they hope the next issue will have more content, and they're looking for contributors. Articles and artwork with the themes of 'music, art and Welshness' should be sent to Catchpenny Records, PO Box 88, Mold, CH7 4ZQ. By 'music' I don't think they mean mainstream/conventional music, judging by their editorial. The current issue costs 50p & A5 SAE from the above address.

VIVA SPARKY! #3 & #4
Seems I've missed issue 2, but here's two more recent issues of the Catchpenny Records fanzine, which is now free with an SAE. Both issues are mostly in English, with bits of Welsh text. #3 contains reviews of Anweledig, Bob Delyn A'r Ebillion, Johnny Panic, Magic Alex, Manchuko, Ian Cottrell, Ectogram, The A5, Moon and Siouxsie & the Banshees, and a piece on the Pioneers programme on Sonic Youth. #4 has reviews of Anweledig, Pep Le Pew, Paccino, Mwsog, Zabrinski, Ethania, Locust, Morose, MC Mabon, Trawsfynydd Lo-Fi Liberation Front, Tystion and Glovebox. Send an A5 SAE to the Catchpenny address, or for further info email catchpennyrecords@hotmail.com

VENDETTA #16
Another issue of this great zine that I raved about in Aq #21. This time it's professionally printed (newsprint) instead of photocopied. They interview lots of great bands, such as The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Tyde, Lilys, Tram, Asteroid No. 4, as well as various other bands I've heard good things about but haven't actually heard yet. Stacks of reviews too, including The Aislers Set, Alpinestars, The Bevis Frond, The Byrds, Captain Soul, The Clientele, Delta, 14 Iced Bears, January, Lenola, Love, The Minders, Oranger, UHF and many more. Out of what must be hundreds - if not thousands - of fanzines I've read over the years, I've only seen a handful that have made any mention of Delta, so it's great to read a zine that's run by someone who likes them. Info on this highly recommended zine from modvendetta@yahoo.com

BUTTERFLY CRUSH #1
Great zine which includes lots of reviews of the current wave of old-style indiepop, as well as a fair amount of post-rock. This might make you expect one of those small-minded zines that hates everything on big labels even before actually hearing it, but no - amongst all the indie stuff there are reviews of a handful of major-label signed 'indie' bands and even a review of a Sophie Ellis-Bextor single! So although there's an overall emphasis on small-label stuff in this zine, you certainly can't accuse Butterfly Crush of being elitist. Peter just writes about music he likes, and this is good. I can't understand people who don't like zines that are just about music the writer likes, and who reckon these sort of zines should contain more negativity and anger. Positivity is best!
Peter must be quite young as he states that he was 'barely out of knee-socks and dungarees' when the Sarah label was around, but despite his youth he has an immense knowledge of music, both current and past (compare and contrast with all those teenage ziners in the mid/late 90s who only knew or cared about Bis and their ilk, and slagged everything else off as being retro and therefore irrelevant to their generation). Great to see a zine writer who has his ear to the ground when it comes to music - I like zines that introduce the reader to something new, instead of purely focusing on music you can read about elsewhere. Of course, the occasional review of a record by someone famous is OK, but when the zine contains nothing other than famous bands, there doesn't seem to be much of a point. It's also great to see so much old-style indiepop written about in here. It was this type of music that got me involved in the underground scene to start with, and a lot of the current bands in this style are well worth listening to.
This issue has interviews with Gnac, Figurine, Shermans, Tompaulin, Chapter 13, The Feline Dream and Solvent; reviews include Screen Prints, The Aislers Set, The Fairways, Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers, Harper Lee, Lovejoy, Simpatico, Epic 45, Electrelane, Super Falling Star, Belle & Sebastian, Orange Cake Mix, Grandaddy and more. Also includes poetry by Adam Crothers, an article on the writer Neil Gaiman, and ISAN-penned articles on cats, hairslides and house flowers. Has a neatly word-processed layout and is intelligently written without being pompous. An impressive debut issue, I look forward to the next one! butterflycrushzine@hotmail.com

BUTTERFLY CRUSH #2
Another issue of this good indiepop/post-rock/electronica zine, now in A5 size. Has interviews with Foam, The Reverse, Go Commando, Camera Obscura and Orange Cake Mix, an article on Gemma Hayes, reviews of Belle & Sebastian, Kanda, Landshipping, Trembling Blue Stars, Fosca, Dntel, Bastard Son of Shrimp, Astromech and others. £1.30 inc p+p or £1 + A5 SAE from Peter Millar, 24 Donegall Park, Upper Lisburn Road, Belfast BT10 0HH, Northern Ireland.

WIDE OPEN ROAD #7
Really good indiepop zine with an artistic layout that's had a lot of work go into it, and an intelligent writing style. Includes features on Camera Obscura, Miss Mary, Birdie, Elefant Records, the Bristol Community Festival, Super Furry Animals, The Smith Garrett Band, 14 Iced Bears, Belle & Sebastian and Track & Field, and reviews of music and zines. The Aereogramme review starts off like this: "Someone observed somewhere that it's a thin line between post-rock and rock (I think it was in Robots but I'm not sure)". Robots and Electronic Brains may have made this statement, I don't know, but I know I did. It's quite possible that Stu remembers this from Aquamarine and not Robots, as I know he's read that issue of Aq, but who knows, Robots may have said it as well?
Another quote I just have to mention is that Brighter "deserve some kinda reappraisal, coupled with a compilation of everything they ever recorded". He then goes on to say "I suppose you'll disagree with me", but I don't, and I know at least one other person who would love the idea of a Brighter compilation. In fact the person I have in mind asked Matt (Sarah/Shinkansen) whether he had any plans for such a release, but the answer was, unfortunately, in the negative. With the increase of old-school indiepop in recent times, perhaps someone else will release a Brighter compilation?
Wide Open Road is one of my favourite zines at the moment - great layout, great writing, great attitude, great choice of music covered. A bargain at 50p & A5 SAE from Stu, Flat 5, College Court, Glaisdale Road, Fishponds, Bristol BS16 2HF.

ROBOTS & ELECTRONIC BRAINS #9
There are some things about Robots that are to be applauded, but there are other things that get my goat. On the plus side, the zine is extremely musically varied, with a main emphasis on the obscure and uncommercial. There are lots of bands written about that I've never heard of, as Jim gives lots of coverage to bands who play noise and underground dance/electronica, styles I don't have much to do with. There are also reviews of bands I already know about and like. Unfortunately Jim is somewhat ambivalent when it comes to old-school indiepop; some 'apologetic fey boys' leave him 'beaming' whilst other make him 'want to puke'. I'm not irritated purely by the fact that some indiepop bands aren't his kind of thing - we can't all like the same kind of music. I do, however, take exception to some of the things he says that strike me as misinformed. In a past issue he made a gross generalisation about Sarah bands, that they were all 'lovey/sunshine', which smacks of something you'd expect to come from one of the narrow minded journalists who slagged off Sarah just cos the label was unhip, and described all the bands in 'stereotypically Sarah' terms, regardless of how they actually sounded. The vast majority of Sarah bands were not the happy-go-lucky, twee pop they were branded as, but instead a mixture of moods, such as extremely sombre and melancholic music (eg Brighter), punky, noisy stuff (eg Boyracer, Action Painting!, The Golden Dawn), shoegazing (eg Eternal, who included a member of Slowdive, and also Secret Shine's later output). The Field Mice also made occasional excursions into electronica, as did The Orchids.
There's more Sarah-bashing in this issue, where Jim speaks of 'foppish Sarah bands from 1986' (even though the label was actually started in 1987!) who need to 'tune their fucking guitars and develop an additional dimension'. This is just narrow minded and needlessly insulting, and it confirms my previous suspicion that Jim has probably only heard one or two bands on the label (if that!) and has perhaps taken too much notice of what small-minded, lazy journalists have said. In fact I really don't know what bands he's referring to when he says they should tune their guitars. As for implying they're one-dimensional, this is just untrue - as I mentioned earlier, there was quite a variety of music on Sarah over the years. It's a shame that Jim appears to have preconceived ideas about Sarah as he normally comes across as someone who is open-minded about music and forms views on music after he has heard it and not before. He also seems to have a wide knowledge of music, so it's surprising that his opinions of Sarah are so inaccurate and seemingly based on stereotypes perpetuated by journalists.
The layout of Robots is, as usual, messy strips of photocopied text in the stereotypical, generic fanzine style. This isn't all that appropriate as content wise this is anything but generic. There's also a free 7" EP with this issue, which includes 22 Metre Band (electronic experimentalism), Pale Boy (janglepop meets easy listening, complete with brass instruments), By Coastal Cafe (extremely lo-fi, garagey noisepop), The Groove Criminals (experimental sampley stuff) and The Fabulous Nobody (some of the most retro music you're likely to hear - and I don't mean 60s or 70s retro. This sounds straight out of the 30s or 40s!). The Fabulous Nobody and Pale Boy are also interviewed, there's a giant discussion involving Colin Newman (Wire), Pete Bassman (Alphastone), Nigel Turner (Pickled Egg), Laurence Dillon (Fabulous Nobody) and Scissorkicks, on the death of the music weeklies, and there's an article on the Emmaboda festival, as well as trillions of reviews, covering a large number of musical styles.
Costs £1.50 & A4 SAE, payment to J Thomas, from Jim, 133 Green End Road, Cambridge CB4 1RW, UK.

ROBOTS & ELECTRONIC BRAINS #10
Lots of reviews, mainly of experimentation and electronica. They cover lots of stuff that 'proper' music mags and even other fanzines don't - as they say, "If you usually skim reviews looking for the words 'punk pop', 'Mogwai' or 'blonde singer in a short skirt' please move on to another music magazine". As well as reviews, this issue has interviews with Marianne Nowottny, Broklyn Beats, 3D House of Beef and the guy who runs the Fanzine Archive. There's also a free CD, which features bands from the Burning Emptiness, Enraptured/Endorphin, Intellectos, Kitchen and Pickled Egg labels. Music ranges from unbearably harsh experimental noise to enjoyable off-centre/experimental/intelligent pop. Winterbrief, Stars of Aviation, Pop Off Tuesday, The Go! Team, Marshmallow Coast, Big Eyes and Oddfellows Casino are particularly outstanding bands. £1.50 & A5 SAE from the above address; enquiries to rebzine@hotmail.com There's also an online version at http://come.to/robots

A CHEERY WAVE FROM STRANDED YOUNGSTERS #6
There's a bit on the 2nd page that appears to be Al (the editor) interviewing himself, and one of his aims is to be as informative as The Original Sin. Whilst CWSY isn't quite as varied as TOS (eg Al doesn't come across as a fan of the goth and other dark/heavy stuff Didier of TOS has such a fondness for), it certainly is as informative. There's lots of music reviewed in here that a select number of zine people have been plugging for ages, but you'll never see in the journalist-wannabe fanzines (or indeed the 'proper' press). CWSY is written with humour, but doesn't treat everything as one big joke - it's obvious that Al is a real music fan. A shame some bits are cut off, like the bottom of the Wide Open Road review, and part of Al's self-interview looks to be missing too, but most of the text is, fortunately, intact. Info from alcwsy@hotmail.com

A CHEERY WAVE FROM STRANDED YOUNGSTERS #7
After writing the above review I discovered that issue had sold out! However, there is this new issue, subtitled Disco Chicken: a post-indie music fanzine. CWSY gets smaller and smaller, it started off as A4, then it went A5, now this issue is A6! Has interviews with Troika and The Edible 5ft Smiths, articles on the Roskilde and Leeds festivals, and reviews ranging from the famous (Manic Street Preachers) to the obscure (Flashing Astonishers, Souvaris, Romeo Trading Co and others). Sometimes a little hard to read, like the Romeo Trading Co review which is on top of a dark photograph, and the page with Geoff Capes on has text photocopied on top of text - but Al does say some of it was meant to be hard to read. I don't really see the point of having a zine that's purposefully hard to read, but each to their own... Most of it does have a neat, readable layout though. Contact Al during term time at Room 8, Flat 3, House 3, Pacific Court, 36-40 High Street, Hull HU1 1NQ (this address will only be valid until May 2002 as he's moving again) or at other times 6 Angotts Mead, Stevenage, Herts SG1 2NJ.

SPUNK #10
Some cut n' paste layout, some neater word processed layout in this 28 page zine, which covers various subgenres within the punk scene, plus a smattering of metal and ska. Interviews are with Catch 22, Whippersnapper and SNFU, and there's 8 pages of music reviews. Contact spunkzine@yahoo.com

LO-FI #4.0
Very good looking pro-printed zine with over 100 pages in a near A4 size, covering music, literature and cinema. A shame I can't understand what's written though, as it's all in Portuguese. Has interviews with Steve Albini and Eric Gaffney, a piece on Lolita, incorporating a Vladimir Nabokov interview from 1967, articles on Air, Nick Cave, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Avalanches, The Strokes, Black Heart Procession, Grandaddy, Dimitri From Paris, Stephen Malkmus, PJ Harvey, Daft Punk, Mirwais, Neil Young, Bloodhound Gang and Mudhoney, various film and literature reviews, and music reviews including Marshmallow Coast, Elf Power, Ken Stringfellow, Lucksmiths, Drugstore, Of Montreal, Great Lakes and Refrigerator. Info from lofi_zine@hotmail.com

SHREDDING PAPER #11 & #12
This has a glossy, full-colour, pro-printed cover complete with barcode, so you could be forgiven for thinking this is a product of the mainstream music press, but no, it's definitely a fanzine - it's just more professionally produced than most. The inside layout is a DTP-ed job that looks similar to the unfortunately defunct AUTOreverse. "Hundreds of punk and indiepop reviews" boasts the cover, and they're not exaggerating either. These two issues have several articles on one main subject - in #11 it's music on the internet and in #12 it's Bin Laden and Bush. Then there's the interviews - #11 interviews the Dickies and #12 interviews David Janik of Soft Skull Press (who published JH Hatfield's Fortunate Son, on George W Bush). The bulk of both zines is made up of tons, and I mean TONS of reviews - mostly indiepop and punk, with some coverage of other styles, eg psych, garage, surf, reggae, electronica, etc. Well worth checking out. Email shreddingpaper@netscape.net for more info, or check out http://www.shreddingradio.com for indiepop webcasts and a selection of reviews.

CURVATURE #1
Phil did his post-grad dissertation on fanzines and after studying other people's zines he decided to do his own. The layout is very different to other zines, a non-standard size (a bit smaller than A5), with lots of white text on a black background, and some colour here and there. Good to see some originality! Content-wise, it's mostly a personal zine, but it goes far beyond than the usual angsty stuff you often find in perzines. There's articles on smoking, Twiggy, temping, trepanning (!), the Dying at Dawn horror festival, and a story by Richard Shipp. There's also some music stuff - a Hefner interview and 3 pages of fanzine reviews (but no music reviews). A definite break from the norm. reznor@lundwood.u-net.com

I'D RATHER BE FAT THAN CONFUSED #3
I've come across quite a few decent indiepop zines lately; this is another. Has interviews with The Loves, Dressy Bessy, The Sickroom Gramophonic Collective and Tompaulin, stuff on Kindercore Records, The Shangri-Las and Belle & Sebastian, and lots of reviews, including The Shermans, Amy Linton & Stewart Anderson (in which Ben admits to never having heard of Boyracer - I'm surprised a band as prolific as them have escaped his attention as he generally seems pretty knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the indiepop/noisepop scene), The Fairways, Would-Be-Goods, Saloon, Of Arrowe Hill, Great Lakes, Kicker, Camera Obscura, Miss Mary, Remington Super 60, Masters of the Hemisphere and more. 50p & A5 SAE from Ben Sharpe, 2 Greenland Crescent, Chilwell, Nottingham NG9 5LB. Further info from irbftbc@iobox.com

SPITTING GLASS STARS #7
A4 zine which has a neatly done, DTPed layout with lots of text packed in. Humorously written too - check out their spoof article on 'Emma Nim' the female Eminem, and the Medulla Nocte review with its '5 basic ingredients to qualify as a hardcore band', for starters. Their review of David Neil Cline (who makes very 80s, non-ironic metal) is a classic, made me laugh out loud! Laptop and Risingson are interviewed, and there's stacks of reviews of both well known and obscure bands. Free with an SAE from Sarah, Flat 1F3, 15 St Mary's Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TA. Info from spitting_glass_stars@lineone.net

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