When There Is No Sun - or how to remix Sun Ra
How do you remix Sun Ra? And, more relevantly, what’s the point? These are the questions asked - and tentatively answered - by When There Is No Sun, a new...
“I don't pretend to be a ‘great’ DJ” - an audience with Jeff Mills
Jeff Mills dances. That is maybe the revelation from my interview with the great man of techno, who I spoke to in Barcelona recently. I say this because I...
Stereolab in Tinseltown - weirdness at the heart of LA
This Friday, March 20, the delightful people at Jawbone Press release my new book, Space Age Batchelor Pad Music: The Story Of Stereolab In 20 Songs. I’ve...
The Happy Mondays, a couple of remixes and the birth of Madchester
Anyone who lived in Manchester in the 90s will know that the city belonged not to Oasis, The Stones Roses or New Order but to the Happy Mondays, a borderline...
“A musician and a poet” -20 minutes with Marie Davidson
At the Mira festival in Barcelona, Marie Davison returned to Line Noise for the third time, proving once again that she is one of the sharpest, funniest...
Between U2 and The Boss stands trance in all its dubious glory
I sometimes wonder if the whole process of cultural aging involves getting into music I hated as a teenager. It has happened again and again, the discovery...
“Everybody plays my beat nowadays” - an interview with Karl Bartos
If Kraftwerk are the electronic Beatles, then Karl Bartos is their George Harrison: an essential third voice and creative power in a band away from the...
Roger Sanchez speaks Egotrip and US Bleep
Scratch any “British” form of music and 100 different different international influences will seep out. Bleep techno may have been one of the first strains...
The Clockwork Orange soundtrack messed with my childhood
As a music-obsessed child, my parent's record collection was like a comfort blanket stuck through with pins: warm, welcoming and familiar but with odd spikes...
Caledonia, the Colonel and Kool & The Gang - Boards of Canada’s hidden history
Like many music fans, pre-internet, I thought that Boards of Canada emerged fully formed with Music Has the Right to Children in April 1998. I might, I...
Pigs, production and pianos - an interview with Matthew Herbert
Matthew Herbert is one of the most brilliant minds in modern music, a man who has sampled a pig from birth to plate; formed a Brexit Big Band; and headed up...
The Micronauts - Paris’s twisted answer to Bleep and Chicago
Chicago had Phuture; Sheffield had LFO: and Paris has The Micronauts, the originators, chosen sons and bastard offspring of the acid flame. Which is to say:...
It’s All In The Groove: a guide to Manchester house dons Rainy City Music
Rainy City Music were the connoisseurs’ choice of Manchester house music in the 90s; the kind of act passed on in reverent whispers by those in the know. The...
Massive Attack’s 100th Window - the Anti-Massive masterpiece
Blue Lines, Massive Attack’s debut album, makes me think of warm summer days and lingering sunshine; 100th Window, their fourth, evokes icy English houses,...
Who has the best melodies in electronic music? Eight masters of the overlooked art
What unites the top 20 songs in Resident Advisor’s recent guide to the best electronics tracks of 2000 to 2025? Melody. Not just that, obviously: they have...
An interview with the Line Noise artist of the year: Basic Unit
In 2024, I awarded the Line Noise album of the year to Xylitol, for the devastating Anemones. This year I took a slight change in tack. I want to give the...
Maria Somerville and the never-fulfilled promise of shoegaze electronica
You’d think that in this world of near infinite music offering, of 80k tracks uploaded every day to streaming platforms, that music lovers would never want...
Singles going steady - new music reviews
This week on the Substack I did something a little different: 13 pictures from the Sublow don Jon E Cash, with his own commentary. I hope you enjoyed it. And...
Tranquil indeed: Why Oneohtrix’s latest album leaves me cold
Tranquilizer, the new album from Oneohtrix Point Never, has sent me into an emotional tail spin this week. Not so much the music, which is, on the whole,...
The Three strangest records in my collection
Before I start, can I just say that this piece was inspired by Stephan Kunze’s post 3 Of The Strangest Albums Ever Recorded, which he published in 2024. Go...
