I went to Joy Orbison and all I got was a great sense of joy, good music, and fun times

Walking past the slightly uncanny midnight pickleball league in a mostly asleep Entertainment Quarter, I wondered if anyone else was aware of the musical significance of what was going to happen inside Liberty Hall. Joy Orbison, the London-born and based DJ and producer, was about to play his first show in Australia. I reached Liberty Hall, pretty set in my conviction that there wasn’t a good chance many pickleball players knew about Joy Orbison. I was pleasantly and incredibly surprised

ReviewsChina MeldrumMarch 26, 2025criticism, music, electronic music, Dj

True Nostalgia: PULP goes to salute

At the bottom line, salute rejected the pretension that seems to dominate much commercial dance music (read: the uninspired spoken word poetry of Fred Again). Eschewing these pseudo-philosophies of house heavy hitters, at the heart of TRUE MAGIC is a magical world of nostalgia, joy, and most of all, good old fun. Not only a testament to the varied influences upon salute’s signature sound, but the many influences that shape our first encounters with dance music.

Reviews, MusicMia RetallackMarch 5, 2025music, dj

LIFE IS A LANEWAY? I WANNA RIDE IT ALL DAY-FESTIVAL LONG: PULP'S LANEWAY REVIEW

Laneway 2025 was a refreshing return to normality for Australian music festivals. It featured a balanced and loveable lineup of fan favourites and internet sensations but was let down by its administration and infrastructure. Its artists provided fantastic and memorable performances that resonated but its vibes were either hamstrung by technical difficulties or over-police and surveillance

Reviews, MusicHugo Anthony HayFebruary 13, 2025live music

A Boiler Room with a View

Boiler Room was last weekend’s confused lover, trying its best to be intimate, but couldn’t do the work to make it so (even though you both really wanted it to).

ReviewsPulp EditorsDecember 11, 2024boiler room, music, dancing

Magritte - Art Gallery of New South Wales

Both eerie and peaceful, the final room is shrouded in a velvety green amongst which his final paintings whisper rumours of Magritte's transformation. At this point, one cannot help but think back to the self-portrait that greeted them, now at odds with the viscerality of The happy donor and Man and the forest.

Isaac Julien's 'Once Again...(Statues Never Die)'

As soon as you enter the space, you find that the dialectic of light and darkness is already at play. Then begins the piano, and notes that echo cavernously, consuming the space. In a haunting, projecting boom, Alice Smith begins vocalizing the words, “once again…”

Reviews, ArtAkshaara AgarwalOctober 4, 2024art gallery, art, MCA

Mixing RED with black: the death of the art movement is the only given

A tortured artist. A naive assistant. The child always kills the father. Pop art will kill abstract expressionism. It’s the 50s.

ReviewsSasha BlackmanOctober 2, 2024theatre, student theatre, sydney fringe festival