January – dank befuddled earth and white skies – is when we recollect the finest, funniest and brightest of our contributions from our first year of presenting the untamed feminine, across all genders, in arts, music, clubbing, sexuality and culture.

From “genius” experimental novelist Nicola Barker on finding her voice (“I can do whatever the hell I like with my keyboard. It’s mine! Who’s to stop me?) to debut writer British Bangladeshi Mahsuda Snaith (“being an outsider is vital to being an artist”) to Gazelle Twin on refusing to play the pretty, pleasing archetype, the first year of The Demented Goddess has seen us tango with to artists subverting gender norms, whether gently or brashly. We’ve asked demanding questions of electronic, porn, poetic and painterly artists  (BISHI, Vex Ashley, Eley Williams, Ellen Rogers, Joanna Kirk), rejecting the traditional division between high and low cultures in the same way we refuse to pick a side in ‘feminism’ or queer identity politics. We are interested in revolutionary excellence.

“Life is strange you know, people come and go,” as Gino Soccio echoes in the disco gem, ‘Remember’ that opens this month’s fizzing playlist of trippy, sweet electro by our Resident DJ Caoimhe Lavelle, from Chris & Cosey to The Pet Shop Boys.  At a time when the UK feels engulfed by uncertainty, the radical comings and goings of our contributors looks to continue throughout 2019.

Soma x

Soma Ghosh

Editor

Photo of Resident DJ Caoimhe Lavelle, by Laelia Milleri.