No Ripcord: The Home of Honest Music Criticism

A little over a quarter of a century ago, I started a music website called No Ripcord.

Did I foresee the demise of print media and lead the charge in pioneering an exciting new brand of music criticism? No, I did not. Honestly, no one would enjoy telling that story more than me, but the truth is nowhere near elastic enough to stretch that far.

I idolised the music magazines of the era, specifically the British music weeklies NME and Melody Maker, and wanted to create my own version. I didn’t even add the caveat of “doing it better”—a second-rate knock-off would suffice. At the age of seventeen and stuck in the musical No Man’s Land of West Cumbria, an early embrace of mediocrity was probably the most realistic part of the plan.

I was blissfully unaware of Pitchfork Media, but I had read and admired the Drowned In Sound precursor, The Last Resort, so at least recognised the potential of the medium. Being a flaky teenager with intermittent exam pressures, I couldn’t commit to a schedule, so the resulting product ended up being an irregular ‘issue’ sent to subscribers via e-mail. A newsletter, basically.

As new contributors came on board, No Ripcord became a team endeavour, and my humble newsletter soon morphed into our irregularly updated website, with a heavy focus on verbose album reviews and a penchant for ambitious collaborative lists. I qualified as a doctor (hence the title), formed a band, got married, had a couple of kids, split up the band (probably for the best), and eventually handed over the reins to Juan Edgardo Rodríguez, whose unrivalled enthusiasm and skilful leadership kept No Ripcord alive for a further decade.

At various intervals, we created three separate podcasts, all with limited success, and a rather niche digital magazine celebrating long-form music writing, which lasted precisely one issue.

It’s been a fascinating journey, but now it’s time for a new chapter.

A few months ago, No Ripcord’s antiquated Drupal website finally gave up the ghost—no pun intended—creating an urgent dilemma: call time on a 26-year-old institution, or dust ourselves down and spearhead an evolution?

It didn’t take long to settle on evolution.

We believe in honest music criticism.

Not gate-keeping, not snobbery, just fair, proportionate opinions. There are some wonderful writers out there covering music and some superb curators, but we don’t see too many measured critics out there.

No Ripcord has always celebrated the best new music through the art of the long-form record review, and Juan and I plan to keep that tradition alive for the fans who appreciate the format as much as we do. It may be a niche audience, but we’re happy to write for our fellow music nerds, even if it means toiling away in relative obscurity.

Our plan is simply to be ourselves. That means you can expect honest, uncompromising takes on whatever new releases catch our eye (for better or worse). There will also be features, interviews, and coverage of older favourites. We even have plans for a podcast, but doesn’t everyone these days? Watch this space.

Support Our Mission!

It’s early days, of course, but we have exciting plans for No Ripcord. Please consider creating an account to support our project. We are asking supporters to contribute a small fee ($2 per month) to help with our costs. That’s cheaper than a really terrible coffee. An account also means you can argue with us in the comments, and you’re almost certainly going to want to do that at some point.

Tell Your Friends!

People keep telling us they don’t know where to begin when it comes to new music. They know they don’t like algorithms, and the aggregators seem to suggest everything is amazing—and it really isn’t. This is where we come in. We’re not going to overwhelm you with recommendations, but we can promise a steady stream of high quality picks. And if we rate something, you can be confident there is no hidden agenda. There are no adverts here. No affiliate links. We don’t do rage-bait, and we don’t even care about clicks.

If this sounds appealing, tell your friends. After 26 years, we still don’t really understand SEO, so word of mouth is all we have.