rave
CD: Britney Spears - Femme FataleWednesday, 16 March 2011
Googling for academic articles about Britney Spears is one rabbit hole I've managed to avoid falling down thus far, but one imagines there are reams of the things. From demonically driven Disney child star via pigtailed Lolita and sex-droid air... Read more... |
Opinion: Can we please kill off the guitar as cultural icon now?Tuesday, 15 February 2011
There's been a lot of waffle lately about rock'n'roll being dead. This is down to mainstream radio turning its back on guitar music in favour of a stew of electro-pop and R&B, and the fact that just three spots in the Top 100 UK bestselling... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Producer/DJ Carl CraigSaturday, 05 February 2011
Carl Craig is extraordinarily easygoing. Most dance producers of his seniority and level of achievement would come with at least a publicist in tow, but when we meet him in his London hotel, his only entourage is his nine-year-old son, playing... Read more... |
Year Out/Year In: Electronic Music Digs In and Spreads OutMonday, 03 January 2011
2010 saw some major shifts stirring up the UK club music ecosystem and unleashing some fascinating hybrids and variants of existing sounds out into the wild. As the hefty bass of dubstep muscled its way firmly into the heart of the mainstream,... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Producer/DJ Richie HawtinSaturday, 11 December 2010
It's only after hanging up the Skype connection to Richie Hawtin that I realise how effective a branding exercise he has made the interview. In conversation the English-born, Canadian-raised Berlin resident is charming and smart, but listening... Read more... |
Primal Scream, OlympiaSaturday, 27 November 2010
Primal Scream's gig last night may well have been the loudest gig theartsdesk has ever attended. Three hours after returning home, my ears are still ringing like they've never rung before. At the time I didn't notice the volume though. I was... Read more... |
Magnetic Man, HeavenThursday, 04 November 2010
Rave music, in its many ever-mutating forms, is now more than a generation into its existence. Many, possibly most, of the crowd pushing into Heaven, under Charing Cross station, weren't even born when acid house fully hit the UK in 1988, but none... Read more... |
Time to party like it's 1926Wednesday, 27 October 2010
In 1920s London, those who could afford to indulged in a craze for wild parties - pyjama parties, sailor parties, pool parties - the wilder the better, with American jazzers such as the Blackbirds Revue providing the stomping music. Resplendent... Read more... |
Ninja Tune XX, Ewer Street CarparkTuesday, 05 October 2010
Its authenticity was helped no end by a torrential downpour leaking through the brickwork and creating puddles in various parts of the uneven floor – and by the rousing mix of hyperkinetic Nineties jungle beats cut up with seemingly humanly... Read more... |
Dubstep: what lies beyond?Thursday, 30 September 2010
Dubstep is everywhere – and if you will excuse a little self-promotion I have, in my small way, helped this state of affairs come about. The bass-heavy, rhythmically exploratory and very British electronic dance music genre has now – via Magnetic... Read more... |
Singles & Downloads 6Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Wiley, Electric Boogaloo (Back Yard) Erratic and spiky where his old mucker Dizzee Rascal has been slick and unerring in his rise to the top, East Londoner Richard "Wiley" Cowie has managed several massive pop-dance hits while remaining thoroughly... Read more... |
I Know You KnowWednesday, 07 April 2010
Justin Kerrigan was only 25 when he made Human Traffic. A bristling portrait of rave culture at the dawn of New Labour, it did well enough commercially and enjoyed a cultish afterlife on DVD. That was 11 years ago. Kerrigan hasn’t made another film... Read more... |












