An intention of mine in doing YAZ is simple. To say what I think, and not be accountable to anyone. It’s not a way into the industry for me. It’s me saying what I think about the music I buy, any I’m sent and the gigs I go to see. Along with my thoughts as to how things work based on my experiences from putting this together and my sadly misguided ideas as to how I’d like to see things work - with the focus first and foremost on the music. What’s the point in giving an opinion if it’s not honest and your own opinion. Not the bands. Not the labels. Not the PR company. Not the mainstream press’ opinion. Your own. To me there is no point. I won’t say something is good just because they’re a name band, or on a name label. To me, if I think it’s shite, I think it’s shite. That means I may offend some peoples sensibilities, but at least it’s honest. At least I can sleep at night. I’d find that harder if I knew I was lying about what I really thought. Doesn’t always win me friends, but then that’s not the intention of the zine. Not that it’s my intention to make enemies. I hope the people that know me through the zine judge me on who I am and like or dislike me for who I am, not on whether I will give them a good review or not.

As you’ll see as you work through this, a bit was written at a time when I was feeling particularly stressed. To the extent that the zine closed down for a month. People being people annoyed me and contributed to my distaste for the whole thing. But with time I reasoned things through and decided to start it back up.

Afterwards my ability to have an opinion, the worth of my opinion, the validity of it, and the truth of it appeared to get called into question by various people. Some of it you’ll come across. Some of it you won’t. I ended up feeling pinned into a corner, and this issue is maybe a reaction to all that - the stress, the criticism.

As such, this isn’t a particularly pleasant issue. I don’t know that I personally like it. I could have changed it, made it more "user friendly" But it’s a reflection of a particular time, and how I felt, so it’s as it is. But this serves as a warning now. I don’t particularly like this issue. It’s pretty confrontational I guess.

Some elements of it all may seem of no relevance and importance to people - you only want to know about the music, not what I’m thinking or doing. Well, music you see influences my moods and thoughts, sometimes what I’m thinking influences my approach to music, and so to me it’s valid in order to try and indicate where I’m coming from in terms of my attitude or mood when reviewing something. If you fail to pick up on the fact that sometimes I say something went over my head because I was in a bad mood, then that’s your problem. In my own way I’m trying to explain some of the reason to my opinions.

So all I really want to say here (yeah, I know, this was going to be brief!) is this, everything you read in here is my opinion. It means nothing. If you don’t like it, fine. But trust me, it’ll only ever be my opinion, and if you don’t like it that way then tough. After all, all this zine is, is someone who loves music trying to tell other people of some of the great stuff out there and give his opinion on what’s around. You may well think I contradict myself and am hypocritical. That’s your perrogative. And you’re probably correct. Because I’m human. My mind changes. My ideas change. My tastes change. My opinions change. I try to listen and learn things, and so everything is constantly changing, and I of course contradict myself. I think that anyone who thinks they’re not a hypocrite is a hypocrite.

Oh, and for those that whinged about the quality and lack of pictures. Well there’s even less pictures this time than before. My scanner’s lying dead at home. Personally I want to do an issue with no pictures at all. It only detracts from the music and clouds our judgement anyway.

I also don’t intend the next issue to be this big. I do intend that it goes back to about 50 pages. Same reasons as ever. Time and money. I’m busier than ever in work and so haven’t got the time to do something this big every couple of months or the money to buy the CDs. It’s taken three months longer than I planned to finish this one.

Looking for your review?: If you’re looking for a review of your bands demo or your labels artists or review of the band you represent and it ain’t here, well it’s pretty simple. You didn’t send it. There’s been a lot of releases by people who sometimes send stuff, but have for whatever reasons decided not to. Ok, but it then becomes a lottery as to whether I decide or can afford to buy it or not. It may explain why there’s some "gaping omissions". Though remember, sending something won’t guarantee a "good" review, just an honest one based on my opinion. Which may well mean nothing. Please remember, it’s going to take a few months before it gets printed. This issue is 100 pages - and I’ve still got stuff that I’ve bought left over for next ish. Send any stuff to: