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...
The many-textured musical mind of Mark Pritchard - part two
This is part two of my guide to the brilliance of British producer Mark Pritchard, whose collaborative album with Thom Yorke has sent him skittering into the...
The many-textured musical mind of Mark Pritchard - part one
To be eclectic in music is to be fundamentally inefficient. Musicians would, in the mind of the algorithm, be far better off relentlessly pushing one...
Boccaccio Life 1987-1993 - un-silo-d tunes, when dance music was up for grabs
This week I have mainly been listening to the Hypnotone mix of Cascades by Sheer Taft, a duo signed to Creation Records in the early 90s, when Alan McGee...
The KLF were cool and other shock revelations from a 90s pop childhood
Hello! There’s a good chance this mammoth email is longer than your email app allows. If that is the case, click “View Entire Message” to read the whole...
10 best techstep slammers - Part two
This is part two of my ten biggest techstep slammers. You can read part one - in which I explain my relationship to techstep and talk about tunes from T...
10 best techstep slammers - Part one
I used to think that techstep ruined jungle. I love drums, perhaps more than anything else, and techstep - the loud, aggressive and (almost) uniformly dark...
Motorik madness: 10 Krautrock albums that rotated my head - part two
This is the second part of my introduction to Krautrock, aka ten Krautrock albums that rotated my head. You can read part one, which included records by Amon...
Motorik madness: 10 Krautrock albums that rotated my head - part one
Was zum Teufel ist Krautrock überhaupt? Or: what the hell is Krautrock, anyway? This is a question that surely comes to all right-thinking music fans at some...
DJ Gregory - the accidental house hero
DJ Gregory, aka Grégory Darsa, is one of the most unusual producers in French House. This is not so much for his sound, which is far from the absurd sonic...