sat 09/08/2025

dubstep

CD: Example - Playing in the Shadows

Example: playing in the shadows is clearly an intensely serious business

Better him than Black Eyed Peas, eh? Will.I.Am never came up with a line like, "Just sittin' here chillin' in the Batcave/ Whilst listening to Nick Cave/ Last night was a sick rave". In fact, that lively sliver of channel-hopping doggerel pretty...

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CD: Lamb - 5

Between 1996 and the earliest years of the 21st century, the Manchester-based duo Lamb defined a moody, ambient, dance-influenced pop – the trip-hop/chill-out nexus. "Górecki", their 1997 chart single, will always be their most well-known moment....

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2011 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize nominations announced

The Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize nominations 2011: no surprises

The nominations for the 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize were announced earlier today. Beyond PJ Harvey and Elbow having won before, nothing wildly surprising cropped up.Here they are: Adele: 21Anna Calvi: Anna CalviJames Blake: James BlakeElbow...

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CD: LMFAO - Sorry for Party Rocking

Berry Gordy's son and grandson do moronic with relentless gumption

As subtlety in popular music becomes increasingly worshipped by heritage-led taste arbiters, we should relish proper shouty moron tunes. Few come more shouty and moronic than LMFAO, a Los Angeles duo named after the text abbreviation for "...

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Sónar 2011: Day 3 and Round-up

This is where the delirium kicks in. Tired but happy, the attendees started the third day of Sónar festival slightly boggled by how to pick and choose from the strange delights on offer. Saturday was when the true musical variety of the festival was...

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Sónar 2011: Day 2

Kathleen O'Brien aka Katy B, singing direct to the dancefloor

Thursday was gentle – an easing into the festival experience – but yesterday is when Sónar Festival really kicked into gear. With tapas and Estrella coursing round their veins, the audience was thoroughly drawn into Barcelona's bohemianism and ready...

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A Tribute to Tony Wilson, Purcell Room

Tony Wilson: From denim-clad regional TV presenter to doggedly passionate cultural icon

The Meltdown Festival's tribute to Tony Wilson was a lot like the charismatic post-punk legend himself: funny, eccentric, obscure, populist; all over the place but never dull. Wilson died in August 2007 and this event was a reminder of his...

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CD: Adventures in Dubstep and Beyond Volume 2

Ministry of Sound offers up a tour of popular music's cutting edge

Dubstep has now permeated pop. Drum and bass was the last British underground bass music to rub up against the mainstream but back in the mid-Nineties the major labels didn't know what to do with it. Apart from launching Goldie's career and...

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Singles & Downloads 13

Wiley's hectic schedule pauses briefly to drop a contagious pop nugget

At one level the day of the single is gone - the 7-inch, the CD, the physical format - and yet, at another it's more relevant than ever. Sure, any track can now be downloaded from an album and hit the charts but singles, downloads - chosen...

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Singles & Downloads 12

A still from Chase and Status's harrowing 'Time' video

Hip-hop soul, chart rave and Balearic beach-pop with a 1990s flavour, synthesiser-led space-rock, a localised Goth-electronic revolution, Kenyan Kamba beats, an eccentric attempt at bringing opera into pop, and vibrations from dubstep's deep roots....

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CD: Hyetal - Broadcast

Hyetal's 'Broadcast': A classic in the making?

One of the most powerful things about the dubstep movement – aside from the monumental sound itself – is how its rootedness has provided a platform for a generation of artists to launch out into other things from. The spaciousness, drama and...

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CD: Kode9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun

Kode9 & The Spaceape's 'Black Sun': 'An endlessly listenable and quite timeless album'

There's something about this album that feels as if it's already existed for a long time. Full of post-apocalyptic images of smoke, dust, decay and weakness, and themes of struggling individuals and implacable political forces, it thematically fits...

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