With the remaster of Stars of the Lid's debut album Music for Nitrous Oxide being released, they're a band that's been on my mind a lot recently. It was quite an experience to see them live and their drone/ambient/new-classical music takes on another level when performed in a church against Luke Savisky's stunning projected visuals. I only got to see them play live twice, the last time was at The Barbican in October 2016. Stars of the Lid at St John-at-Hackney, December 2012Needing to try and...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
I finally made it to the V&A East Storehouse this weekend, to see my icons in use. When the actual V&A East Museum opens next year there'll be even more on show, but such a thrill to see these in real life.| hicks.design
Hicks.design is (link: page://LDweTk1FXezcW6VU text: Jon Hicks), established 2002.| hicks.design
Every year, the Hicks Brothers get together for a few days of walking, cycling, eating and drinking. It means we all get to hang out for more than just weddings and funerals! In 2024 we went to the Lake District, and this year we chose the Peak District, and the bucolic village of Ashford-in-the-Water in particular. On the first day in the village we came across a sign outside the village hall, telling us "Well Dressing - in progress. Please come in". We'd vaguely heard the term before, but w...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
I woke up in the bedroom of the Airbnb, to a malevolent presence holding me tightly down to the bed. I couldn't move any of limbs at all, such was the force at which it held me down. I tried to shout at it, but couldn't speak. All I could manage was a kind of muffled grunt, in a vain attempt to fight back or call for help. Eventually the presence stopped, and I could move my body again. The room was empty and still. I'd just had my third ever experience of Sleep Paralysis, and probably the wo...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Today brings three, very different, new albums that I've been eagerly anticipating I'll be waving as you drive awaybyHayden Pedigo As mentioned in the latest episode of Troika. If you purchase the album (rather than stream) you get a great bonus 'credits' track. MorebyPulp A triumphant return after 24 years away. The song-writing is as fresh and invigorating as ever. NEVER ENOUGHbyTurnstile Post-hardcore outfit Turnstile embrace electronics and even, dare I say, pop?| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Apple Music is giving me jip at the moment, beachballing and freezing, so I'm giving Spotify another spin for a while. I'll be switching back soon I'm sure, but for now, I've immediately come up against the need to tame the UI chaos. Customising the Spotify web player is one option - if you know a bit of CSS you can bend things to your will to an extent. The drawback for me is the web player can't detect Spotify Connect speakers like my Sonos, only the desktop app can do that. Fortunately, I ...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Greetings peoples of the internets! Back in Troika #48, I was banging on about a genre that I had called ‘Ambient Americana’, and I’ve since discovered that there is an established name for it. ‘Ambient Country’ does makes more sense, and it encompasses a wide range between those two sides. This time around I’m going to focus more on the Country side of that spectrum with a double episode! This will also feature all the 'other' artists I mentioned in that previous episode: "Paris,...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Hello peoples of the internets, and welcome to the 10th anniversary episode of Troika! The first episode came out on 3rd March 2015, with the idea that it would be ‘low-key’ and ‘low-friction’. I hoped I’d still be recording episodes in ten years, and while 55 episodes isn’t much for that length of time, I’m very content to still be chugging along doing my little podcast. It’s important to me that Troika remains a hobby project that I do on my own terms. No outside influence ,...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
In the beginning there was nothing You're probably familiar with Brendan Dawes' drawing The Process, a succinct, sketched representation of the creative process. It resonates with a lot of people, and I'm definitely of the 'keep refining until I'm happy with it' frame of mind. I'm in danger of taking it too literally, but I keep feeling there is one important step that's missing. It's the fact that when you start, you start with nothing. A blank piece of paper, a blank screen, even a blank mi...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
This episode is a 'Triple Troika' of my favourite tracks from 2024. Slightly different from my rundown of favourite albums, I was hoping to get this out in December, but better late than never! With the impending 10th Birthday of Troika coming up in a few weeks, I wanted to make sure I'd cleared the backlog! "Mutations" — Nilüfer Yanya "Into the Ooze" — Brimheim "Lust for Gold" — Starflyer 59 "You're going to be fine, and I'm going to Hell" — Grandaddy "I know it's like this (Baby)" ...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Music streaming apps leave me wanting. While I collect albums both physically (Vinyl + CD) and digitally (from Bandcamp), there are still missing pieces that streaming services provide: discovering new music, sharing playlists and seeing what friends are playing so that I can try their recommendations. They're a valuable part of my listening habits, but none of them feel like 'the one'. I've been flip-flopping between Spotify and Apple Music for a while now, and over the last twelve months, I...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
I haven't talked code for a while, so let's do that. In the last few years, this site layout has been heavy on CSS Grid for screen widths above about 1000px, then everything in a single column below that. This always bothered me because: The 1000px width was sort-of based on where I wanted the content to change, but at the end of the day, still a magic number. There were many more @media query breakpoints to try and catch the layout at certain stages, but these were pixel values that wouldn't...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
It's that time of year again, where I review as many pre-made Festive sandwiches from supermarkets and cafe's as I can. Who will win this year? Sandwich of the Year Balancing the taste and quantity of filling with the cost of the sandwich, this years Festive Sandwich Winner is: Marks & Spencer (M&S) Smoked Ham & Winter Slaw. Other sandwiches had more filling, and maybe more traditionally 'festive', but for twice the price. Well done M&S for winning the second year in a row! Shit Sandwich of t...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
This year I scrobbled my little heart out. I was determined to record everything I played (at least for one year), whether it be on Plex, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, CD or vinyl. It hasn't been straightforward, as Apple Music and analog listening require third party apps or manual entry via Open Scrobbler. Even playing Spotify to a Sonos via Spotify Connect didn't scrobble unless I used NepTunes.app. This commitment to comprehensive stats helped give me a fuller picture of my listening habit...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Greetings peoples of the internets! And welcome to part five, the last part of this series looking at the history of Shoegaze. Historically, the genre has been stereotyped as a music form for the white middle class/aged. While some of its origins were undoubtedly that, its development shows a much further reach. As we looked at last time, the age range is wider. So for this final part, I wanted to highlight three black artists that help dispel the white bread image. ”Setting Sun” - Whitel...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Greetings peoples of the internets! And welcome to part four of this series looking at the history of shoegaze. Leigh and I went to see Slowdive play live in Bath in 2022 and were pleasantly surprised by the demographic. We’d expected a majority of middle aged blokes with beards (such as myself), but most of the audience were actually under 22. I originally put this down to Bath being a University City, but it turned out that something bigger was happening: shoegaze was becoming popular on ...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Greetings peoples of the internets! And welcome to part three of this series looking at the history of Shoegaze. Shoegaze seemed all over by 1997 but it was far from dead, just resting a bit. It didn’t take long for bands raised on the first wave of Shoegaze to emerge. As we get toward the 2010s, Ringo Deathstarr, Nothing and Deafheaven represented the heavy Shoegaze end of the spectrum, but it also saw original acts like RIDE, Slowdive and even MBV reunite and make some of the best music o...| Hicks.design Journal: Latest articles
Answering questions about my blogging setup, as requested!| hicks.design
