I have a big soft spot for Fuck Buttons, so I was pretty intrigued to come across this second solo release by Benjamin John Power. There’s a lot in common with his work with Andrew Hung: that awesome technicolor synth drone is present and correct, as are the awesomely catchy melodies. This is as uncompromising as […]
Tag: year_2015
Sometimes, what you need in your life is 27 minutes of hard-as-nails acid techno. Container’s latest record (confusingly, his third simply called LP) is pretty much perfect for those occasions. All seven tracks here are bangers, amazing squelchy basslines over relentless high-BPM beats. This kind of reminds me of Universal Indicator’s Innovations In The Dynamics […]
Nick Höppner was half of My My, whose 2006 album Songs For The Gentle was a pretty fine example of the sort of minimal-ish techy deepish house that I was lapping up back then. But I can’t say I’d thought about them much in recent years. So when a friend recommended this to me, I wasn’t […]
If I told you that Mosillator is my very favourite Indian drum’n’bass artist, you’d probably think I was damning with faint praise, or trying to be clever. Well, how about if I say that this EP is about the best drum’n’bass record I’ve heard all year, and one of the best dance music records full […]
There are some records I like because they challenge me. There are some records I like because, from the first notes, I feel like I’m at home. This record falls into the latter category. Which is not to say it’s uninventive, ‘cos it’s far from that… just that this combination of modern classical, ambient effects, […]
This is pretty splendid. It’s made entirely with vintage modular synths, but it’s no retro noodling: this, to my mind, is proper techno. Minimal, sure, but the complex polyrhythms and the little blippy melodies are really compelling. It’s kind of like Ricardo Villalobos by way of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Most importantly, though, Taeggi’s timing […]
The latest in the recent run of releases from the pen of RDJ is his first under the AFX name since (by my reckoning) the untitled split 12″ with LFO ten years ago. If the title is to be believed, it was made in the three years following that — and it’s quite believable, because […]
Is it just me, or have there an unusual number of exciting collaborations happening recently (and not just on this intriguing FRKWYS series)? This pairs young experimentalist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, mostly on various modular synth type creatures, and old-time experimentalist Ariel Kalma, mostly on sax, flute, and didgeridoo. The result is pretty impressive. I […]
This album finds the Manchester-based collective (I count eleven members, plus guests) exploring the wilder edges of the folk world, and pretty great it is, too. Musically, there are elements of proggy psychedelia, brassy big-band soul jams, bluesy rock stomps — alongside some rather lovely melodic folk. Naturally, the instrumentation reflects this range, and alongside […]
I’m pretty excited about this record, which is doing something genuinely new with the modern classical / ambient form (which, while basically my favourite thing in the world a few years ago, was starting to show signs of becoming just a little bit tired recently). This is collaboration, recorded over two years, between Diana Yukawa on […]
dogrando writes about some records 