Richard Thomas checks out – but not into – London's boutique Ace Hotel Shoreditch and its Paul Smith-curated, Moog supported experimental music residency series, where he finds Keiji Haino snoozing, chats Polari with cultural engineers while sipping on a Bibi Spritz and more. But was it all a dream? Or a nightmare?

Richard Thomas on minted petit-bourgeois pugilists, the end of year chart and the class politics of Black Friday

Richard Thomas is left hungry for ideas by the consumer feeding frenzies unleashed by music festival programmers out to fill every seat at the table

Richard Thomas weathers obscure, dilapidated venues and relcalcitrant promoters to take the pulse of NIFI – Non-Idiomatic Free Improvisation music