#1 The Hannover Mitte

Cris and Michael met at the legendary CASABLANCA in Hannover. Cris just returned from his first trip to New York and inspired by the scene was saying: “I want to publish a magazine.” Michael: “Me too.” We started the next day, snatched Thomas from the turntables at CASABLANCA.  No experience, no funds, no computer, lot’s of glue, fun and music. Three months later ELASTE was launched.

#2 The Robots

#3 The Andy Warhol

#4 The Russians

#7 The Sport and Recreation

#8/9 The Classic

#10 The Psychedelic

#12/13 WHY?

#14 The Patsies

#15 Punk macht dicken Arsch

#16 The Heavy Metal

Sniffin' Glue

The Making of ELASTE

DINNER WITH ANDY

The King of Pop Art, our biggest inspiration, and the most enormous influence in contemporary art were coming to visit the Hinterland.

IN FLAMMEN

DOCUMENTA BOUND – KASSELER KREUZ
Feel the Burn

Always be Sceptical About Simplicity

Ping Pong mit den Rolling Stones (Deutsch)

You can't always get what you want

Hero For One Day

Fool For a Life Time

P.L.O.

REBEL REBEL

Looking for the Thin White Duke

Joi Trouvé

DA DA DA

"Ein Jahr (Es geht voran),"or "the Great Regression".

“Fantastic Voyage” serves as Bowie’s Poignant Testament. an Impassioned Proclamation of Humanism.

It's a very modern worldBut nobody's perfectIt's a moving worldBut that's no reasonTo shoot some of those missilesThink of us as fatherless scumIt won't be forgotten'Cause we'll never say anything...

Spray Nation

Spray Nation shares unseen photos of New York's pioneering graffiti artists Women on Train, 1981. All photographs © Martha Cooper, from Spray Nation: 1980s NYC Graffiti Photographs by Martha Cooper,...

Remembering Starman: Mick Rock’s legendary photographs of David Bowie as Ziggy

In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it came Bowie's alter ego and fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock....

Devo: “Kraftwerk from the waist up, Elvis Presley from the hips down” Gerard Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh on being bombarded by hippies at Knebworth in 1978, being told off by Neil Young, and their...

When Andy Warhol Came to China

In late October 1982, Andy Warhol and a small entourage were invited to Hong Kong by Alfred Siu, a young industrialist who had commissioned Warhol portraits of Prince Charles and Princess Diana for...

Brian Aris’ photographs of Debbie Harry

When photographer Brian Aris first met Debbie Harry in 1977 he didn’t know that much about her and scribbled down the phrase “punk princess” in his diary after the shoot. He could never have...

Lorde on David Byrne

On fighting stage fright, staying true to your inspiration, and the mysteries of songwriting It takes only a few minutes after they meet for Lorde and David Byrne to get in sync....

The Velvet Underground Meets Its Match in Todd Haynes

In the director’s hands, music subjects are as much about their cultural moment as about their sound — a good description of the band led by Lou Reed. Todd Haynes said his music-related films are...

PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Madonna: the unseen archives of rock photographer Tony Mott

Rock’n’roll photographer Tony Mott has led the kind of life that for the rest of us seems like a surreal dream. Travelling with Paul McCartney. Partying with Queen. He has photographed everyone from...

“I want to be that girl I needed when I was 15”

Beabadoobee channeled teenage misery and drug use into songs inspired by her grunge heroes – and now the 20-year-old is being hailed as the voice of Generation Z. After giving away physical copies...

Welcome to the weird and lucrative world of fake punk.

Anarchy in the Vintage Punk Clothing Market. Over the last 30 years, pretend handmade original designs incorporating S-and-M and dirty graphics, innovative cuts and straps, military surplus...

Charlie Watts Orbituary

Dapper and Elegant Drummer who was the Rock-Steady Heartbeat of the Rolling Stones. Unruffled amid excess, personality clashes and musical disputes, the Rolling Stones’ exceptional drummer used...

Sex Pistols win legal fight against Johnny Rotten

The former Sex Pistols frontman, Johnny Rotten, has lost a high court attempt to block the punk band’s songs from being used in a forthcoming drama series. The group’s former drummer, Paul Cook, and...

Louis Vuitton’s 200th Birthday Sparks a Host of Creative Collaborations

love maker, an astrologer, among others—to recreate the iconic Louis Vuitton trunk. In honor of designer Louis Vuitton’s 200th birthday, the luxury brand has commissioned 200 artists and...

Parental Advisory: the secret history of music’s most controversial logo

In 1985, they founded the group Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Its goal was simple, to contain the spread of indecent lyrics as much as possible, and stop them from reaching innocent ears....

It’s A Face I know And Don’t Know

Ed Atkin's videos have made him one of the most acclaimed artists of his generation, but what really animates this British artist are the emotions that slip off the screen. Of all the strange,...

Sigue Sigue Sputnik at a Newcastle B&B

It was 1986 and I’d been on the road with Sigue Sigue Sputnik for a couple of days. They’d played a gig in Leeds the previous night and we’d just arrived at a little bed and breakfast in Newcastle...

Iggy Pop Ascends to Greatness

By the time of this picture, it was 1970 and I was working in Detroit for the short-lived rock’n’roll publication Big Fat Magazine. Iggy Pop and I went to the same high school in Ann Arbor,...

Anton Corbijn on 40 Years Shooting Depeche Mode

He thought they were pop lightweights – then turned them into moody megastars. The photographer recalls his adventures with the band, from desert trips to drug-induced near-death experiences. ‘I...

David Bowie and Mick Ronson, Train to Aberdeen, Scotland 1973

"Maybe it’s got something to do with the ridiculously ‘glam’ look of the magic duo and the obviously mundane nature of their British Rail lunch." David Bowie and Mick Ronson on a train to Aberdeen,...

Subway to Studio 54

Skaters, dancers, hustlers, boxers … Swiss photographer Willy Spiller prowled the streets of the Big Apple from 1977 to 1985. Leroy in Harlem, 1984 Sunday Morning on Orchard Street, NY, 1980 Whether...

A Brief History of Transformers

This simple electrical device does much of the fundamental work of modern civilization, and it does so modestly and invisibly. An early AC transformer constructed by George Westinghouse in the...

Nightclubbing

Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Jamaican singer and songwriter Grace Jones, released on 11 May 1981. Like Josephine Baker nearly 50 years before her, it was when Jamaican-born Grace Jones...

New York’s Graffiti Scene in the 70s and 80s

Subway Art, originally published in 1984, introduced New York City’s graffiti to the world. A new edition produced by Thames & Hudson features over 70 photographs by Martha Cooper and Henry...

I Can’t Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit

London, UK Art handlers with Andy Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth II (part of his Reigning Queens series) during a preview of Prints and Multiples and Banksy: I Can’t Believe You Morons Actually Buy This...

Transformer

Iconic pictures of Lou Reed, Debbie Harry and David Bowie become exclusive art prints Today the legendary Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground would have turned 79. To celebrate the anniversary, the...

Covid-19 x Valérie Belin

‘In light of the present crisis, I think back to this photograph. It is emblematic of the technological obsolescence of the yesterday world, but which paradoxically seems to foreshadow the future,...

Abuse of Power Comes as no Surprise

Jenny Holzer (b. Gallipolis, Ohio, 1950) was 25 years old when she began compiling her “Truisms,” more than 250 cryptic maxims, terse commands and shrewd observations. Culled from world...

Creative Protest

Hongkongers find creative ways to voice protest. From holding up blank sheets of paper to baking messages into mooncakes, people are devising new ways to protest amid repressive security law The day...

Gareth Pugh’s Grand Reconstruction

The timing of Gareth Pugh’s comeback is as bold as his designs. Pugh observes in his press notes: “Naomi Klein speaks about the idea that seemingly impossible ideas become possible in times of...

Electronic at the Design Museum Review – A Sweaty Rave Paradise Lost

From squat synthesizers to a gyrating cube, a new exhibition dedicated to dance music culture poignantly brings the spirit of communal celebration to a museum One of the first items you see upon...

Basquiat & Warhol and Downtown’s It Crowd

The 1980s was arguably the most exciting time for artists in Downtown New York, and photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was there to capture so many of the big names from that lush and fertile...

The Beautiful and the Damned: Sheila Rock’s Punk Gods

  From Eater to the Clash, from the lipstick of Siouxsie Sioux to the staff of Sex, photographer Sheila Rock caught the faces of punk just as it all went haywire All photographs: Sheila Rock The...

Kanye West’s ‘Jesus Is King’ retail ‘installation’ rises in downtown L.A.

On the opposite side was a sleek counter punctuated with four cash registers. In between was a sand-banked, crater-like pool containing a Sherp — a muscular-looking amphibious ATV with knobby...

Kei Ninomiya at Noir

Kei Ninomiya at Noir proved again that If there is an heir apparent to Rei Kawakubo, he is it. His show featured garments of otherworldly complexity that pushed the envelope to outer space. The...

“I do not do heels, and the climate ain’t right.”

Billy Nomates has announced details of a new EP, ‘Emergency Telephone’, and shared the first track from it – ‘Heels’. The release follows the Bristol and Bournemouth-based artist’s self-titled debut album, which was put out last year. The new EP will arrive on March 5...

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COPY, COPY. EVERYTHING’S A COPY.

"Formed in 1976 and comprised of guitarist/vocalist Toshio Nakanishi, vocalist Chica Sato, guitarist Hajime Tachibana, keyboard player Masahide Sakuma, and programmer Takemi Shima, the Plastics were the archetypal Tokyo new...

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Rina Sawayama, Philosophical and Glittery Cute

Through Rina Sawayama's alternative take on East Asian beauty standards and philosophical, "glittery cute" R&B sound, the Niigata-born, London-bred musician and model has carved a path of her own with few precedents to look up to. Celebrating her unique take on...

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Dancing on the Berlin Wall

Universal Music Canada came to remind us of one of the most groundbreaking and edgy records from the ’80s. A deluxe expanded and remastered edition of seminal 1982 debut album ‘Cold War Night Life’ from Canadian new wave pioneers Rational Youth. At the dawn of the...

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Afropunk ‘s Not Dead

Afropunk ‘s Not Dead

The Stars of Afropunk Festival – In Pictures Since 2005, Afropunk has celebrated the music, fashion, and beatboxing of black artists – and seen the crowd swell to 70,000. Phil Knott talks us through who he’s photographed there. Comedian, beatboxer, and musician Reggie...

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All the Joy and Despair of Youth

All the Joy and Despair of Youth

The poetic Dublin post-punk band are back with a daring new album. In a field of their own ... Fontaines DC (from left) Tom Coll, Conor Deegan, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Grian Chatten. Photograph: Ellius Grace Do bands have a “difficult second album” or a...

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Ping Pong mit den Rolling Stones

Ping Pong mit den Rolling Stones

Ping Pong mit den Rolling Stones„Ah, ein Konzert... Ach, die Stones... Okay, wir geh’n aber echt nur hin, wenn wir Pressekarten kriegen.“ – Als die Rolling Stones 1982 auf der Tour zum „Tattoo- You“ Album nach Hannover kommen, ist die Originalbesetzung von ELASTE...

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Dinner With Andy

Dinner With Andy

The ELASTE squad had two icons who stood the test of time: Andy Warhol and David Bowie. The King of Pop Art, our biggest inspiration, and the most enormous influence in contemporary art were coming to visit the Hinterland.  Thomas loved his silkscreen prints...

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On Technodiversity: A Conversation with Yuk Hui

On Technodiversity: A Conversation with Yuk Hui

In the foreword to the book, the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler described Hui’s thinking as a “generous and open theoretical milieu for exploration of human experience in connection to the infosphere. IN HIS BOOK On the Existence of Digital Objects (2016),...

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Every Place Is the Same

Every Place Is the Same

No place places, with a phone, anywhere else is always just a tap away. Anywhere has become as good as anywhere else. Those old enough to remember video-rental stores will recall the crippling indecision that would overtake you while browsing their shelves. With so...

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From Gemany to Detroit and Back

From Gemany to Detroit and Back

Kraftwerk’s robotic rhythms resonated loudest in deindustrialising 1970s Detroit and gave rise to techno – starting a cultural feedback loop that continues today. ‘A feedback loop between Germany and Detroit that has existed for more than half a century’ ... Kraftwerk...

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Kraftwerk: Their 30 Greatest Songs, Ranked!

Kraftwerk: Their 30 Greatest Songs, Ranked!

From cycling soundtracks to anti-nuclear protest music, we celebrate the work of the late Florian Schneider and the groundbreaking group he co-founded. Kraftwerk in 1978, with the late Florian Schneider second from right. Photograph: Kraftwerk/Redferns 30. Expo 2000...

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Depeche Mode before they were Depeche Mode

After their 1986 album Black Celebration, new wave legends Depeche Mode fully committed to being the most gloriously gloomy band next to The Cure to appear on stadium stages. Earnest pleas for tolerance like “People are...

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STUMM433

STUMM433

Daniel Miller on Mute Records and his latest most ambitious project STUMM433. In 1978 in London the young musician by the name Daniel Miller recorded two songs, “T.V.O.D.” and “Warm Leatherette” under the moniker The Normal. He knocked on the door of Rough Trade...

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“You know what I wouldn’t do? Launch another style, fashion or music magazine. If I see another independent magazine that is desperate for a Prada ad in it… please. Why? I love that the fashion industry has supported the new talent, but it seems to me that right now...

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Two Scratchers, Beef Jerky, and a Power Ball

  A rapper doing jazz, a rocker doing rap, a trumpeter doing electric guitar. There are no rules in the musical realm of trumpeter-turned-rapper Pan Amsterdam. After a persona shrouded in mystery, he revealed his true...

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Keith Flint: RIP The Orginal Firestarter

Keith Flint: RIP The Orginal Firestarter

By gleefully escalating the moral panic around British dance culture, Keith Flint, the Prodigy frontman showed that rave could be the true successor to rock’n’roll. With his punk aesthetic of piercings, spiked hair and intense stare, Flint became one of the UK’s most...

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Internationalists

If you believe you have an equal share In the whole wide world and all it bears An' that your share is no less or more than Your fellow sisters and brother man Then take this knowledge and with it insist Declare yourself - an...

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Poundshop Kardashians

I drink and watch the zoo in motion Beautiful people devoid of emotion Sterilized, pedicured, pedigrees and mankind Thick as fuck and soulless And no longer fear genocide It’s gonna end from what I reckon As I puke my guts...

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Ghosts Don’t Walk in Straight Lines

Ghosts Don’t Walk in Straight Lines

Opening next Thursday at Red Hook Labs in New York, “Ghosts Don’t Walk in Straight Lines” is a chronicle of the artist and model Saskia de Brauw’s slow, southward amble from Manhattan’s 225th Street to Battery Park over the course of a single day in May 2015. The...

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Advice for Young Creatives

Advice for Young Creatives

“Destroy your computer,” says Jamie Reid when asked what guidance he would give young artists. “Most jobs are about enslavement, break free if you can.” It’s the sort of no-nonsense advice you’d expect from a man who has spent five decades on the cultural frontline,...

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A Very Los Angeles Welcome

A Very Los Angeles Welcome

Since leaving his native Australia in 1980, the musician Nick Cave has made his home in many cities, from London to Berlin to Brighton. But perhaps nowhere does his lushly dark aesthetic make more sense than in Los Angeles, where he now often spends time with his...

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Love is Magic

A silly, smutty slice of arch brilliance that also makes room for quiet introspection, John Grant, the American musicians's fourth album is an accomplished balancing act. An epic of squelching synthesisers and breathlessly far-ranging lyrics – touching on everything...

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Jenny Holzer on the Power of the Word in Art

Jenny Holzer on the Power of the Word in Art

As her work goes on display as part of a new group show, the provocative artist reflects on a career making the written word an art form. In the beginning was the word, and the word was art – though rarely do we conflate the two. Image and text are largely considered...

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Kraftwerk Drawings by Yosuke Kawamura

Kraftwerk Drawings by Yosuke Kawamura

Kawamura became a leading force in the alternative movement known as “hetauma” (so bad that it’s good), which came to exert a powerful influence on the history of illustrative art, and he attracted widespread attention with his abundant output of works. He has been...

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Ma' Ma' Raschplatz Da

»Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?«

(Richard Hamilton, 1956)
Wenn der Postmann zweimal klingelt, liegt meist ein kleines Kärtchen in meinem Flur. So auch diesmal »Basement« Hannover Raschplatz. Eröffnung Freitag 12.6.81 22h. Knapp am dreizehnten vorbei, dachte ich und lenkte meinen Wagen einige Tage später durch die trostlose Gegend hinter dem Bahnhof. Beinahe am Ziel angelangt ging ́s dann auch noch in den Keller. Gleißende Leuchtstoffröhren, Pirelli Gummi auf dem Boden, die Decke unverkleidet, hier und da ein bißchen Chrom. Der erste Blick signalisiert, hier wollte jemand der Café– und Diskothekenszene mit ihren pastellfarbigen, schimmernden Barocktempeln eine Ohrfeige verpassen.“

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