Fat Roland

@fatroland

🎵 Music writer for Electronic Sound, veteran blogger, short story author 🎤 Comedian (Title Fight, Glang Show, A Lovely Time) 🍊 Operations droog for Anthony Burgess Foundation 💢 Was a sentient tower (grrrrrr) Read my blog: .

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Fat Roland@fatroland· 23d

I made some sunshine.

Fat Roland@fatroland· 23d

Oh for goodness sake. Christopher Nolan, this is your fault.

Fat Roland@fatroland· 23d

Felt cute, might delete later.

The dimly-lit grotesque-faced cyclops from Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey.

Fat Roland@fatroland· 28d

Dub no Fat with my Roland man.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jul 9

In the new issue of Electronic Sound, out today, I talk to Mouse on Mars about their new album with Lee 'Scratch' Perry, about spatial audio, music as fireworks, and Perry's special kinda voodoo.

Jan and Andi from Mouse on Mars with Lee Scratch Perry (hat with patches, pink fur coat, bling around his neck). A copy of Electronic Sound is superimposed in the background.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jul 5

FAT ROLAND'S ELECTRIC SHORTS — I challenge writers to tell five-minute stories through the medium of Microsoft Powerpoint, and if they include its awful inbuilt transitions, clip art and stock sound effects, I'll be extra pleased. Expressions of performer interest welcome!

Fat Roland Electric Shorts. The text is set within a Powerpoint-shaped trapezium with a photo of my own disappointed head wrapped in a sound cable

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jul 3

AI Weiwei's 24-hout performance, happening right now.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 30

Contrary to popular belief, I am actually allowed out on my own. Here are some recent-ish music events I have attended while I've been allowed out. ✍ Klingfully klangtastic: bleeps and Blackpool and other live treats fatroland.blogspot.com/2026/06/klin...

Four Kraftwerk musicians at podiums, backgrounded by a large, bright red and very domineering radioactive symbol.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 25

An old picture of me looking disappointed.

A black and white photo of me at a microphone, holding a long scroll of paper bearing the typewritten words "Oh dear".

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 24

There's one final chance to visit Saul Hay gallery in Castlefield. Their final exhibition is 10x10 featuring tonnes of 10cm x 10cm artworks. After Saturday, the gallery enters a new chapter, and the existing building will be jimmied off its foundations and floated down the Rochdale Canal. Probably.

A square canvas painting of a partial face, a grey-haired spectacled man staring, the visible eye gleams and the mottled canvas adds to the texture

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 23

What?

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 19

Laptop’s ‘End Credits’, an almost forgotten 1990s synthpop earworm, is set for re-release thanks to an intervention from Vince Clarke and Neil Arthur. My latest piece for Electronic Sound Magazine. www.electronicsound.co.uk/news/the-ret...

Laptop's Jesse Hartman dressed in black, arm across his chest, sitting on a fancy modern chair shaped a bit like a Quaver

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 19

Why isn't the fox diving into the bin? Worst urban fox ever.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 16

A good old natter about an omniscient hum with Hainbach & Ah! Kosmos, then popping to the shops to check out Frost, plus naming myself after a worm in honour of Madonna. It's all going on in issue 138 of Electronic Sound. electronicsound.squarespace.com/shop/p/issue...

A yellow magazine page showing a feature by me headed 'Hum Comfort'. The magazine is on a wooden table next to a pot plant.

A section of a magazine page showing a piece by me about Brighton drummer Frost, subheaded "Unexpected polyrhythms in the bagging area"

Another magazine page, this time showing my Banging On column about Madonna. The first line is "Madonna's back!". Each of these pics has a subset picture showing the magazine's front cover.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 15

I would like to reassure readers of Comma Press's anthology Monster Capital that the book is not possessed by a demonic AI entity. Repeat, the book is NOT possessed and therefore there is probably nothing to worry about.

The following book excerpt, but the text warps and smudges in a disturbing way:

‘In accordance with our standard bronze royalty service, your Unit Music quarterly receipt is…’
The Unit’s hum rose a few tones. Harmonically calibrated for optimum engagement, no doubt.
‘Seventeen pounds and sixty-two pence,’ said the Unit. ‘Congratulations, you nailed it, dude.’

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 13

Saddened to hear about the death of sound engineer Mickey Mann, aka Pressure of Speech. He knob-twiddled for Orbital & The Shamen. His credits include Megadog, Herbal Tea Party, System 7, Irresistible Force, Trance Europe Express. And Aphex Twin. And Kylie Minogue. And flipping Prince. What a star.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 13

Fond memories of visiting David Hockney's exhibition Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) last year. Stimulation for the eyes, brain, heart and other bits.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 11

I loved Backrooms. Blair Witch meets Being John Malkovich meets Sort Your Life Out with Stacey Solomon. It's now my third favourite Chiwetel Ejiofor performance, after Children Of Men and The Shadow Line.

A bland office room, so beige it's oppressive. Chiwetel Ejiofor looks at an impossibly messy pile of discarded furniture.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 11

In the new Electronic Sound, out today, I chat with Ah! Kosmos and Hainbach about scratchy noises, vintage bells, nuclear test equipment and being inspired by the hum. What hum? THE hum... 📰 Issue 138 here > electronicsound.squarespace.com/shop/magazine

A leather-jacketed woman and a comfily-jumpered man in front of stacks of vintage knobs, dials and filter banks.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 10

The heartbreaking and staggering genius DAVE EGGERS is coming to Manchester on 2 July to talk about his new book Contrapposto. Reviews call him RAVISHING and EXTRAORDINARY, so if you too are ravishing and extraordinary, best bag a ticket before they sell out. www.anthonyburgess.org/event/litera...

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 10

Well SOMEONE'S popular. Not even buying a ticket – this is the home page.

A screenshot of a website message by the venue Home saying "you are in a queue because of a lot of traffic, you are in a position of 2358 out of 2358.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 10

Read my story HIT in the Comma Press horror anthology MONSTER CAPITAL. It has a sinister AI bot, a supernatural record shop and a bag of dripping meat.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 9

Every once in a while I think of Sy Ableman.

Fred Melamed as Sy Ableman gives a bear hug to the hapless and helpless Larry Gopnik, played by Michael Stuhlbarg

Sy Ableman gives an impassioned talk to Larry Gopnik at a cafe table, with wife Judith Gopnik trying to get a word in

A blurred action image of a furious Sy Ableman slamming Larry Gopnik against a wall

A head-and-shoulders close-up of Sy Ableman giving a steely gaze, undermined by a powder blue beret and top

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 5

Don't worry, I'll get there.

A Wordle grid, starting with two greys, two yellows and a green, and ending with four greens and a grey.

A whole screen of four greens and a grey.

Another whole screen of four greens and a grey.

Yet another whole screen of four greens and a grey. The game never solves.

Fat Roland@fatroland· Jun 4

Guys, have you heard about this new act???

Fat Roland@fatroland· May 30

"I’m hoping the title Inferno refers to Dante’s famous 14th-century poetry, and not to Dan Brown’s 2013 novel of worthless word fudge." ✍ Read my review of Inferno, the new album by Boards of Canada, released this week on Warp Records. fatroland.blogspot.com/2026/05/boar...

Boards of Canada album cover (all retro and saturated) next to a badly-superimposed fire extinguisher

Fat Roland@fatroland· May 28

My laptop (pictured) is not booting up. I can't find the on button and I can't see how to plug it in. A bird keeps trying to steal it. Please advise.

Fat Roland@fatroland· May 24

Kraftwerk at the Apollo this weekend. I was sat right near the front, apart from the standing ovation bit where I was stood right near the front. And then we sat down again, so I was-- look, I shouldn't have to explain these things.

Me in a yellow t-shirt wearing a black and yellow Kraftwerk lanyard, with a yellow Kraftwerk tote bag, in front of a Kraftwerk poster. The caption is 'actual robot' because I'm doing a robot face. Below this, a still from the show with a "boing" graphic.

Two stills from the show, with the four podiums. Firstly Ralf Hütter on his own. Secondly, Kraftwerk in front of a bright red nuclear graphic.

Two stills from the show. Kraftwerk in front of a blue Autobahn motorway sign, then Kraftwerk all in red in front of a stern android character.

Two stills from the show. The band in front of the big word "machine", then the band in front of colourful stripes in magenta, cyan, green and yellow.

Fat Roland@fatroland· May 18

@filmci.bsky.social Took me ages to do this. Had to use a crowbar and everything.

The phrase "Happy birthday Fil" cut out, ransom note style, from the green and gold lettering of The Crescent pub, Salford.

Fat Roland@fatroland· May 7

Am I doing it right?