10 records that prove 2024 was even better than you thought
There were lots of fantastic records released in 2024 and I got to write about many of them, an opportunity for which I am eternally grateful. Sometimes,...
The 10 biggest Line Noise posts + podcasts of 2024 (and the reaction to them)
As 2024 rolls wearily to an end, I thought I would take the opportunity to look back over the 10 most popular Line Noise Substack pieces and the 10 most...
Nexus 21 - from Stafford to Altern-8, via Detroit
On December 12 2024 Mind Machines, the second album by British techno duo Nexus 21 - aka Mark Archer and Chris Peat - was finally released, some 33 years...
Music From The Merch Desk - a true reflection of Aphex’s chaotic genius
AKA striking the Aphex anvil while it’s good and hot Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023) is by no means the best Aphex Twin album. It’s not even close. But...
Xylitol’s Anemones is the Line Noise album of the year
I’ve been watching the new (ish) version of Nick Hornby’s record-shop romedy High Fidelity this month and it has reminded me how much I love lists. Which,...
For Loidis’ sake let 2025 be maximal
It's not like 2024 has been without its share of bad news. But, amid the ongoing shower of political / environmental / imperial shit, one piece of musical...
10 tracks that prove hip house didn’t die in 1988
Hip house is the musical genre that dares not say its name, a flash-in-the-pan sensation at the end of the 1980s, when hip hop and house were briefly getting...
Heartless Crew: where Garage met grime and got on outrageously
Plus Blawan, Sónar 2025 and more In the early 2000s one of the reasons that many Americans (especially but not uniquely) had such a hard time getting their...
Weird 90s - Summers Magic / Kyiv’s resistance
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Sabres of Paradise’s Haunted Dancehall: Weatherall’s unearthly masterpiece
When Andrew Weatherall died in February 2020, most obituaries made more of his status as a DJ and remixer than his work as a producer of original music. And...
On Jeff Mills, Tomorrow Comes The Harvest and musical freedom
I’ve always seen electronic music as representing a kind of freedom. On the one hand, there is the musical freedom that comes from using instruments like...
DJ Mehdi: a misunderstood artist comes into focus
One of the few things generally known about DJ Mehdi - the French producer whose renown has only increased since his tragic death in 2011 - is that he...
A tribute to Cassius, the good-time boys of the French Touch
If Daft Punk were the innovators of the French Touch and Air the dreamers, then Cassius were the good-time boys, their songs full of uncomplicated fun, house...
10 songs to know Aphrodite, jump up innovator and supreme rabble rouser
In the mid 90s, I was friends with a group of amiable ravers who liked to go to happy hardcore and acid techno nights. They were lovely people but we didn’t...
Weird 90s - LFO’s LFO or Bleep goes mainstream
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Da Mongoloids explained: or how AV8, Jr. Sanchez, Daft Punk + more didn’t make the 36 Chambers of house
In the 90s, hip hop and house music had a very lopsided relationship. Hip hop artists didn’t have much time for house, on the whole; but there were a number...
Jamie xx, history and the LOLification of dance music
How much does history matter to dance music? Is it really important if a song earns its place in your affections, when you are swaying happily to its hi hats...
10 songs to go further into Todd Edwards - Part two
This is part two of my list of 10 tracks to go further into New Jersey garage experimentalist Todd Edwards. You can read part one here. 6) Todd Edwards -...
10 tracks to go further into Todd Edwards - Part one
New Jersey garage experimentalist Todd Edwards is best known to the world as a Daft Punk collaborator, having worked with the French duo on two songs: Face...
10 songs to know MK - Part two
This is part two of my ode of Marc “MK” Kinchen, the Detroit house don and production innovator. 6) MK featuring Alana - Love Changes (Masters At Work - MK...
