electronica
CD: Gonjasufi - Mu.zz.leWednesday, 18 January 2012
Debut albums often set the bar high. How are you going to top a Psychocandy or a Piper At The Gates of Dawn? The answer is, not easily and, with rare exceptions, not at once. All those ideas that had been growing forever splurge out in those first... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician GonjasufiSaturday, 14 January 2012
Gonjasufi, AKA Sumach Ecks (b 1978) was raised in San Diego by a Mexican mother and an American-Ethiopian father. His musical ability first came to more than local prominence when he appeared on the Flying Lotus album Los Angeles in 2008. His own... Read more... |
CD: Wiley - Evolve or be ExtinctWednesday, 11 January 2012
It's become a fairly common trope for herbally enhanced rappers to hype up their individuality by referring to themselves as an “alien”, but with Wiley you could believe it. In “Can I Get a Taxi”, the odd extended skit that forms the centrepiece of... Read more... |
CD: Twink - Itsy Bits & BubblesThursday, 05 January 2012
I’m a fan of a child-like musical sub-genre which some call toytronica. It’s the sound of retro-futuristic electronic music mashing into playroom sounds, sometimes using actual gimmicky children’s toy instruments. In its broadest definition, it... Read more... |
CD: Tunng - This is Tunng... Live From the BBCWednesday, 04 January 2012
Tunng are not as kooky as they might appear. Yes there is a preponderance of beards in their extensive lineup, and a rather byzantine tale to how that lineup has evolved over the years. And yes, their songs include bone percussion, electronic... Read more... |
CD of the Year: Metronomy - The English RivieraSunday, 25 December 2011
Even in a bumper year for Xmas albums there comes a point where you really don’t “wish it could be Xmas every day”. After the third helping of turkey, and feeling like a cracker that has been well and truly pulled, it’s only natural to long for a... Read more... |
CD of the Year: Rustie - Glass SwordsMonday, 19 December 2011
If 2011 was the year when dance music's natural tendency to fragmentation was taken to extremes, this album was the one that bound those fragments together into one demented but scintillating vision. Russell Whyte – Rustie – comes from a very... Read more... |
Red Bull Music Academy: a caffeine boost for the music industry?Tuesday, 06 December 2011
I almost feel duty bound to make a declaration of interest here. I have done several pieces of paid writing for the Red Bull Music Academy, including a piece of course material for this year's Academy, and a few days ago I went to Madrid to see the... Read more... |
Mouse on Mars, Oval, Stockhausen, BarbicanSaturday, 26 November 2011
Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths), composed in 1956, is, in many ways, the mother of all electronic music. I can remember discovering it in the 1960s, before I had acquired my first pair of Koss headphones, lying on the floor,... Read more... |
CD: Mondkopf - Rising DoomMonday, 17 October 2011
The title Rising Doom hints that the second album from 24-year-old Paris-based Paul Régimbeau may not have much in common with the output of his fellow countryman and electronic dance music producer David Guetta. “Where Them Girls At?” this is not.... Read more... |
CD: Björk - BiophiliaThursday, 13 October 2011
An album that encompasses pan-global collaborations, iPad/Phone apps, internet jiggery-pokery, art installations, live multimedia shows and even a tuning system, with the “Ultimate Edition” of the album coming complete with a set of tuning forks to... Read more... |
Imagine - U2: From the Sky Down, BBC OneMonday, 10 October 2011
Never knowingly under-mythologised, U2 have chosen to mark the 20th anniversary of their album Achtung Baby with this sizeable documentary about the making of the record and the traumatic soul-searching that went into it. It dovetails neatly... Read more... |
