dubstep
Herbert & Kode 9, Abbey Road StudiosThursday, 22 October 2015
There's a new kind of forum for electronic musicians. Certainly not a rave, and not just a recital to earnest nerds, built on a kind of patronage, but a long way removed from a standard corporate gig where you're just providing the interchangeable... Read more... |
CD: Polar Bear – Same As YouWednesday, 25 March 2015
Polar Bear have been re-shaping the musical landscape (the experimental jazz end of it, at least), since 2004, and after a few years’ hibernation after 2010, the creature is back in rude health, this year’s album hot on the heels of last year’s... Read more... |
CD: Livity Sound - Livity SoundWednesday, 20 November 2013
The past year or two have seen a staggering return to popularity of house and techno music in the UK. For the first time since the mid-1990s, records which have grown steadily through club play over many months are breaking through into the charts... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Amsterdam: Club Culture OverdoseSunday, 27 October 2013
The thought of attending a dance music conference in Amsterdam frankly gave me the creeping horrors. I'd never been to Amsterdam Dance Event before, and the combination of DJ egos, business hustling and relentless partying through hundreds of club... Read more... |
CD: Sub Focus - TorusMonday, 30 September 2013
When drum'n'bass emerged from hardcore rave's interactions with London's pirate radio culture, 20-odd years ago, it created some of the most radical grassroots music ever to come out of the British Isles. It came in such a white heat explosion of... Read more... |
CD: AlunaGeorge - Body MusicThursday, 25 July 2013
AlunaGeorge deserve to be lauded as one of this year’s great singles bands solely on the strength of “Attracting Flies” and “White Noise”, their collaboration with electro outfit Disclosure. The London duo - featuring the purring vocals of Aluna... Read more... |
CD: E.m.m.a. - Blue GardensMonday, 22 July 2013
“Formulaic” is all too frequently used pejoratively in reviews – but from minuets to minimalism, Bo Diddley to drum'n'bass, finding a formula that works and sticking to it has produced some of the finest music in human history. Liverpool-born... Read more... |
CD: Fuck Buttons - Slow FocusWednesday, 17 July 2013
Drawing connections between the far margins and the relative mainstream always leaves you in a difficult position, as it invites judgement from different groups with very different criteria. And the duo of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power put... Read more... |
CD: Maya Jane Coles - ComfortMonday, 01 July 2013
The part-Japanese Brit Maya Jane Coles displays elaborate asymmetric hair, interesting piercings and enormous tattoos in her moody photoshoots, makes sounds that are uniformly smooth and high-gloss, and has a sonic palette that takes in populist... Read more... |
Reggie Watts/Mac Lethal, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 19 June 2013
The Meltdown Festival has always been a fascinating proposition, getting a living legend in their field to curate their own personal festival line-up, and present all of their idiosyncratic choices to London in the refined and retro-futuristic... Read more... |
Major Lazer, RoundhouseSunday, 05 May 2013
It was a carnival-like atmosphere and a packed house for the transatlantic trendsetters Major Lazer in Camden. Recent show reports suggested a more maximal and bombastic vibe from Diplo and his current sidekicks Jillionaire and Walshy Fire, but... Read more... |
CD: Benga - Chapter IISaturday, 04 May 2013
Benga is at a crossroads. Like many who arose from the dubstep scene, the 26-year-old is finding the term an albatross that’s hard to throw off. Sure, he was one of the Croydon originators of a sound that now dominates Transatlantic pop, a sound... Read more... |
