dubstep
CD: Oneohtrix Point Never - Age OfSaturday, 26 May 2018Everything on this record changes shape. One moment in “RayCats” Far Eastern instrumentation is being glitched beyond recognition, then suddenly it sounds like something from a relaxation tape. “Same” shimmers and twists between 20th century avant-... Read more... |
CD: Young Echo - Young EchoMonday, 12 February 2018Young Echo is a sprawling Bristolian collective, comprised of individual musicians Jabu, Vessel, Kahn, Neek, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Manonmars, Bogues, Rider Shafique, chester giles [sic] and Jasmine, who combine and re-combine in various permutations... Read more... |
The Best Albums of 2017Tuesday, 14 November 2017Disc of the Day reviews new albums, week in, week out, all year. Below are the albums to which our writers awarded five stars. Click on any one of them to find out why.SIMPLY THE BEST: THEARTSDESK'S FIVE-STAR REVIEWS OF 2017Alan Broadbent:... Read more... |
CD: Sherwood & Pinch - Man vs SofaThursday, 09 February 2017British bass music has played a gigantic role in contemporary pop. Twenty years ago it nearly crossed over when the major labels wrongly assumed that, post-Goldie, drum & bass was going to explode commercially. It didn’t and the whole scene... Read more... |
CD: James Blake - The Colour in Anything / Skepta - KonnichiwaMonday, 09 May 2016Skepta (aka Joseph Adenuga Jr) and James Blake provide a fascinating parallel as voices of the UK's “generation bass”. Both are from north London, and both have come from a grounding in the subsonic undercurrents of London's early 21st century ... Read more... |
Herbert & Kode 9, Abbey Road StudiosThursday, 22 October 2015There'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 2015Polar 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 2013The 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 2013The 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 2013When 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 2013AlunaGeorge 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... |