Riffs Journal

03/09/2025

New from Riffs: Volume 8, Issue 2 — Check out Craig Hamilton’s “I Swear I Heard This…”

“I remember exactly where I was, and what I was doing. I was in the kitchen, washing up. I like washing up. It’s a process with a start and an end, and there is a sense of achievement provided by the evidence of your efforts. Clean plates where recently there was a mess and chaos. Like ordering your thoughts, and creating a clear argument that is convincing to others. Or writing something.”

Read the full piece here: https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/15/craig-hamilton-2/

🎤 About the author: Craig Hamilton is an independent scholar whose research explores contemporary popular music reception practices and the role of digital, data and Internet technologies on the business and cultural environments of music consumption.

Craig Hamilton Craig Hamilton 2 Citation: Craig Hamilton (2025) “I Swear I Heard This…”, Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music 8(2): 26-28. Tweet Post navigation Previous PostUttaran Das GuptaNext PostAsya Draganova August 15, 2025 Sarah Raine News Leave a comment

02/09/2025

Check out Asya Draganova’s “I Swear I Heard This… Inspired by ‘Dark Windows’ by Rupert Hine” in the new issue of Riffs!

“I swear I heard this – the sound of thunder, the abrupt arrival of torrential rain, the picture of a day becoming dark as night for all but three, maybe three and a half minutes… or a lifetime, should I say? As I remember it so well, a yesterday from thirty years ago (or more). Wandering, wandering in the stormy foreign streets of the unknown: the future as imagined by a child. ‘Dark windows, ah, who would be a hero?’”

Read the full piece here: https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/15/asya-draganova-2/

🎤 About the author: Asya Draganova is a Senior Lecturer in Popular Music Culture and co-director of BA (Hons) Music Business at Birmingham City University. Some of the prominent themes in her research and publications include popular music and post-communist transitions in Bulgaria, subcultural music scenes, cultural alternativity, and the lived and metaphorical relationships between music and place in the Canterbury Sound and beyond.

01/09/2025

Check out Chris Mapp’s “I Swear I Heard This… I dream of Kelly” in the new issue of Riffs!

“I swear I heard this unbelievable version of the song I Will Always Love You, the one written by Dolly Parton and covered by Whitney Houston for The Bodyguard. I might describe something as ‘unbelievable’ after seeing an incredible performance or hearing an extraordinarily talented musician doing something goosebump-inducing. ‘Man, that gig was unbelievable!’ Or maybe as a way of expressing my dislike of a particular musical endeavour, ‘that was unbelievably bad’. Whether the moment I’m describing here was unbelievably good or unbelievably bad I’m not sure. I could probably argue it either way. However, the fact that this particular version happened was somewhat improbable to say the least. But it did happen.”

Read the full piece here: https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/15/chris-mapp-2/

🎤 About the author: Chris Mapp is Head of Music at the Music Centre, University of Warwick and a bass player, improviser, and composer. His research focuses on defining meaning making through the practice of writing about playing and playing about writing.

31/08/2025

New from Riffs: Volume 8, Issue 2 — Check out Nicholas Gebhardt’s “I Swear I Heard This… Blow, Mo********er, Blow!”

“I swear I heard this. Or at least, I thought I did. There was so much noise in the club. More people than I’d ever seen before, all perched on chairs, tables, hanging off the window ledges; crammed in wherever they could find a space, some of them hanging on right up the stairs and squeezed out onto the street.”

Read the full piece here: https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/15/nicholas-gebhardt-2/

🎤 About the author: Nicholas Gebhardt is Professor of Jazz and Popular Music Studies at Birmingham City University. His research focuses on the histories, theories, cultures and practices of jazz and popular music, with particular emphasis on themes of the everyday, improvisation, collective practice, sonic experience, experimental writing and modernity.

30/08/2025

New from Riffs: Volume 8, Issue 2 - Check out Juliane Deil’s “I Swear I Heard This… The Annual Reunion”

“I swear I heard this favourite band of mine perform in a tiny music venue in Brooklyn, New York, while the event that was actually going on was the annual reunion of all Welsh New Yorkers! The previous time I had seen Stereophonics perform was on their UK tour in November 2013 at the O2 Arena in London with seats right at the back, opposite of the stage, feeling lucky I had managed to find tickets for under £50. These are arguably the least desirable seats. At least to the far left or right of the stage you see the side-view of the musicians on stage, whereas on the opposite end to the stage, the figures become action figure size at best, with your eyes peeled to the screens.”

Read the full piece here: https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/15/juliane-deil/

🎤 About the author: Juliane Deil is a PhD student at Birmingham City University, researching music improvisation and music education. With a strong background in music performance, she completed a Master’s in jazz piano at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2024, and a Bachelor’s degree in music at Durham University. Both confirmed her career interest in combining jazz and pedagogy research with music performance.

28/08/2025

New from Riffs: Volume 8, Issue 2 — Sharonne Specker’s “I Swear I Heard This… ping pong duet”

“A chorale, then, or perhaps a madrigal, voices weaving in and out, in counterpoint, as the long, languorous notes of the alphorns joined in. Was that one, or two? Three? Four? Five?? Five. Five sonorous voices, layers of sound and reverberation, carrying faintly but firmly across the hill.”

Read the full piece here:
https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/15/sharonne-specker/

🎤 About the author: Sharonne Specker is an anthropologist with an interest in sound and sensory ethnography, identity and citizenship, collective memory and tradition, and creative research methodologies. Her doctoral studies at the University of St. Andrews explored the relationship between Swiss folk music and the learning of place, belonging, and homeland. Adjacent to her academic work, she has studied and taught classical voice.

Sharonne Specker Sharon Specker Citation: Sharon Specker (2025) “I Swear I Heard This… ping pong duet“, Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music 8(2): 14-16. Tweet Post navigation Previous PostJuliane DeilNext PostLee Griffiths August 15, 2025 Sarah Raine News Leave a comment

27/08/2025

New from Riffs: Volume 8, Issue 2

Check out Lee Griffiths’ “I Swear I Heard This… Swear I Hear This Ghost. Like, For Real”

“So, from the beginning. I decided to listen to the eponymous debut album by Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath for the first time in… longer than I can remember. It’s really good.”

Read the full piece here:�https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/15/lee-griffiths/

🎤 About the author:�Lee Griffiths is a saxophonist, promoter, and researcher who draws on his practice as a writer and musician to explore themes around improvisation, jazz, media, and culture. His doctoral project drew heavily on the philosophy of Karen Barad and he continues to explore a range of New Materialist themes and ideas.

Lee Griffiths Lee Griffiths 2 Citation: Lee Griffiths (2025) “I Swear I Heard This… Swear I Hear This Ghost. Like, For Real“, Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music 8(2): 12-13. Tweet Post navigation Previous PostSharonne SpeckerNext PostEd McKeon August 15, 2025 Sarah Raine News Leave a...

26/08/2025

New from Riffs: Volume 8, Issue 2

Check out Ed McKeon’s “I Swear I Heard This… Discord Brag”

“@433 exhibition. no, it was a gig. well, it was a bit arty, so. anyhow, we were at the science museum and the floor was vibrating, the sound system was lit. the space was like the size of an olympic swimming pool and there were perhaps a dozen speakers on this balcony level, while the band, ensemble…whatever were exhibits in the centre, playing instruments that haven’t been heard together since the ‘70s, like the vcs4 and shozygs . and this was next to a soviet-era computer array, this huge wooden thing – the rugby tuning coil. but it was like the whole space was buzzing.”

Read the full piece here:�https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/18/ed-mckeon-2/

🎤 About the author:�Ed McKeon is a Visiting Research Fellow at Birmingham School of Art and lectures at Goldsmiths, University of London. He writes on, researches, and produces new and experimental music and art, with a particular focus on curatorial theory and practice.

Ed McKeon Ed McKeon Citation: Ed McKeon (2025) “I Swear I Heard This… Discord Brag“, Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music 8(2): 9-11. Tweet Post navigation Previous PostLee GriffithsNext PostBenjamin Torrens August 18, 2025 Sarah Raine News Leave a comment

25/08/2025

New from Riffs: Volume 8, Issue 2 — I Swear I Heard This

Check out Benjamin Torrens’ “I Swear I Heard This”

“So, I’m at this jam session, right? It happens every Thursday evening at this restaurant in Liguanea, kinda uptown. Not far from campus. I got to know the organisers a bit. Nice people; very good musicians.”

Read the full piece here: https://riffsjournal.org/2025/08/18/benjamin-torrens/

About the author: Benjamin Torrens is a musician and Midlands4Cities-funded doctoral researcher at Birmingham City University. He researches reggae as a music production culture in Jamaica and Britain. He uses his own background as a musician to explore ethnographic histories of reggae as a transnational music culture.

Benjamin Torrens Benjamin Torrens Citation: Benjamin Torrens (2025) “I Swear I Heard This“, Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music 8(2): 7-8. Tweet Post navigation Previous PostEd McKeonNext PostEditorial – Vol 8 Issue 1 – August 2025 August 18, 2025 Sarah Raine News Leave a comment

21/08/2025

NEW ISSUE: Riffs Volume 8, Issue 2: I Swear I Heard This.

This issue returns to the origins of Riffs and revives The Write Club format. Written on one wintery afternoon in Birmingham (UK), these short pieces began with the prompt “I swear I heard this…”, recounting a musical event or encounter that might be described as untoward, unforeseen, mysterious, or inexplicable – a happening that might invite disbelief from someone when they hear you talk about it later. Suspend your scepticism as the contributors explore fractured moments, fortuitous alignments, and unusual echoes.

Guest Editors: Nicholas Gebhardt and Asya Draganova (Birmingham City University, UK)

Check it out here: https://riffsjournal.org/volume-8-issue-2-august-2025/

10/02/2025

Pop! Art School Reunions (editor Ed McKeon)
Pop Music, Pop Art, + Art Schools have long and entangled histories. This special issue of Riffs calls for a reunion of these elements, but with an added ingredient: experimental music + performance. More info: https://riffsjournal.org/news-latest-cfp/

09/12/2024

Our latest issue of Riffs is now available to read + download! Guest edited by Sharon Kong-Perring (Birmingham City University, UK) + Mathieu Berbiguier (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) on Asian Pop, it includes pieces on K-Pop, Japanese Punk, the Indian music industry + more.

Cover artist: Ning-Ning Li (by Ian Davies, all rights reserved)
Design work by Iain A. Taylor.
Riffs front cover design by Adam Williams.

Volume 8, Issue 1 – December 2024 We are pleased to announce the publication of Riffs Volume 8, Issue 1: Asian Popular Music. Asian pop music has experienced a spectacular rise in markets globally and outside of the Asian continent, yet its popularity and relevance in academia, content creation,...