Chris JohnstonJazzy business from the deep north — the best of 2023The new music I liked most this year came from the north of England. This was not surprising, given this has been the case for me, more or…5 min read·Dec 21, 2023----
Chris JohnstonThe unsung career of Margret RoadKnightLittle-known outside the Melbourne folk scene for decades, singer Margret RoadKnight’s 60 years of music-making is celebrated in a new…6 min read·Nov 23, 2023----
Chris JohnstonTalking Heads’ Stop Making SenseBy the southern summer of 1984, the great New York band Talking Heads was imploding under the pressure of personal and musical differences…6 min read·Sep 15, 2023----
Chris JohnstonNina Simone’s ‘You’ve Got to Learn’The lost recording of the legendary singer and pianist’s set at the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival is powerful and pristine3 min read·Aug 18, 2023----
Chris JohnstonThe underworld psychedelic music adventures of Jon HopkinsAlmost immediately after releasing his last album Singularity — a glitchy, elusive dance groove in the vein of close peer Fourtet —…6 min read·Dec 10, 2021----
Chris JohnstonMolly Lewis : whistling while she works : a profileIt’s a rare, wonderful bird who can make a life — and living — out of whistling. LA-based Australian Molly Lewis is just such a creature.8 min read·Aug 20, 2021----
Chris JohnstonBicep and nostalgia for the raveBicep — two young men from London via Belfast — make electronic music that is unfettered rave nostalgia. They take us back 30 years while…6 min read·Mar 12, 2021----
Chris JohnstonSantiniketan Lodge and The FamilyThe headquarters of the infamous Australian cult The Family has been gifted to Victoria’s Tibetans in an unexpected move that has angered…6 min read·Mar 5, 2021----
Chris JohnstonNXIVM and The Vow — the ‘golden age’ of cults and conspiraciesThe Vow — a new documentary series on American cult NXIVM — offers an extraordinarily detailed investigation into the crimes and…7 min read·Oct 2, 2020----
Chris JohnstonFamily Ties : inside the cult that stole childrenIn 2017, with co-writer Rosie Jones, I published an investigative non-fiction book called The Family about the Melbourne-based cult of the…12 min read·Jul 27, 2020----