High Contrast - bringing French House funk to D&B: Part One
High Contrast - Make It Tonight / Mermaid Scar Welsh drum & bass wizard High Contrast is supremely well named: not only is there a high contrast between his...
Romanthony, or the strange isolation of house music
For the vocalist on one of dance music’s biggest ever hits, Romanthony remained a very elusive character, right up to his tragic death. Daft Punk...
Mazzy Star at the rave - or why DJs should grow a backbone
Back in June, Four Tet released his allegedly long-awaited Mazzy Star remix Into Dust (Still Falling) to general acclaim and critical fawning. I was not...
10 songs to make (some) sense of Sun Ra - part two
Last week I wrote about the first five songs in my guide to Sun Ra. This week, things get chilled, pop, remade and live in part two. Sun Ra and his Arkestra...
10 songs to make (some) sense of Sun Ra - part one
When I was a teenager, getting into jazz, Sun Ra was the Great White Whale. However deep I would get into the freakier, weirder edges of jazz, however far...
Weird 90s - Jack Your Body and a childhood in rave
I’ve talked before about Weird 90s, the book I was writing about 90s rave hits that eventually got shelved. I’ve even shared three (and a half) chapters, one...
Britpop carpark aka my adventures in Oasis, from outside Murrayfield
I was in the Glastonbury dance tent when the toilet cleaning machine malfunctioned and spit raw human waste all over the dance floor; I spent a night at a...
Peter Buck on Luke Haines, Shiny Happy People, the Supreme Being and more
Line Noise might veer towards the electronic side of sounds. But I love pretty much all kinds of music, with the notable exception of bagpipes, so when I was...
Sabres of Paradise - The reunion interview, live at Primavera Sound
In October 2024, with absolutely no knowledge of what was to come, I started to think about Sabres of Paradise, the pioneering, obfuscating dance trio formed...
SHERELLE on depression, pressure and normalising moody DJing
SHERELLE is one of the best DJs in the UK, if not the world, a dynamo of energy and innovation, combined with a love for music that goes beyond mere sonics...
Deepest Burnt - 5 more tracks to appreciate the genius of Pepe Bradock
Is French producer Pepe Bradock the least compromised artist in musical history? The least sold out? The most true to his instincts and faithful to his muse?...
Crydamoure - painting a filter-house smile on the frowning face of dance
It is a situation we are all familiar with: the DJ’s not quite doing it; the drinks are overpriced; and you’re feeling a little tired. And so you decide to...
Not your usual records from the first half of 2025
It is, as anyone who has to fill in a quarterly mini tax return will know, the second half of 2025, exactly the right moment in history to take a look back...
Kevin Saunderson: from Detroit to Rage with rave in his heart
The news that Kevin Saunderson is returning in May with the first e-Dancer album in quarter of a century made my heart leap. That he will be accompanied by...
Air’s 10 000 Hz Legend - where OK Computer meets Discovery
Something distinctly proggy was in the Paris waters as 1999 became 2000 and a new Millennium roved into anxious view. For Daft Punk, then squirrelled away...
The Beach Boys: 10 songs to understand their post-Pet Sounds era
RIP Brian Wilson. Just a couple of weeks ago I was preparing for an interview with Idles at Primavera Sound by re-reading an interview they did with The...
Bending reality with Basic Unit’s Timeline, The Unconsoled of drum & bass
Enigmatic; un-knowable; sumptuous; confounding: to find one piece of art like this is a pleasure; to find two, a privilege; and to come across two in the...
There Goes The Cure - Another view on the One Dove myth
Few things in music are as mystical as failure. Why on earth did so few people appreciate the divine quality of Nick Drake’s records when he was alive? Why...
Visionary Road Maps: my electronic picks for Primavera Sound 2025
Next week is Primavera Sound. I’m going; I hope you’re going. Last week I put together a Line Noise podcast with my guide to the best electronic music of the...
Deep Dish - or the power of weirdness in plain sight
In mid 90s Britain, Deep Dish were BIG: top ten single, major-label deal, always on the radio big. Their remix of Hideaway by US house group De’Lacy hit nine...
