Electronica and Synthpop
383 articles
Tonto's Expanding Head Band: Zero Time (Embryo)
Review by Dick Meadows, Sounds, 16 October 1971
AT FIRST sight this is an album to put fear into the hearts of stronger men than me. After all, two whole sides of Moog ...
Walter/Wendy Carlos: The Walter Carlos Sonic Boom
Interview by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 23 September 1972
"There's music in the sighing of a reed; There's music in the gushing of a rill; There's music in all things, if man had ears; The Earth is ...
Walter/Wendy Carlos: Walter Carlos: Sonic Seasonings (CBS Quadraphonic)
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 27 January 1973
HERE'S ONE for Tangerine Dream freaks. ...
Tangerine Dream: Exclusiv interview mit Tangerine Dream
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974
They were in Oxfordshire, mixing it at the Manor and sunbathing with scantily clad ladies in the presence of fully clad FRED DELLAR, who here ...
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 27 September 1975
Kraftwerk are happiest when surrounded with technology and artificial items. Karl Dallas reports ...
Overview by Davitt Sigerson, Black Music, November 1975
Arps, Moogs, Rhythm Boxes... the sounds of black music have never been more complex. DAVITT SIGERSON explains all. ...
Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity (Capitol)
Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 20 December 1975
Kraftwerk: too mechanical ...
Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity (Capitol)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1976
DOES ANYBODY out there remember 1962's top ten screamer, 'Telstar', by the Tornadoes? I really loved it at the time. Not only was it one ...
Interview by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, May 1976
Suicide Note: "The thought of suicide is a great consolation; with the help of it, one has got through many a bad night."– F. Nietzsche ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 4 February 1978
SUICIDE? PERHAPS; rather life at one remove, through a one-way mirror. Or wilful withdrawal from the sea of impossibility... ...
Suicide: The Third International Science Fiction Festival, Metz, France
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 17 June 1978
METZ: SOURCES inform it to be located some 20 miles east of Paris, France. Or two hours of sky from Luton, England, as it proved ...
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 11 November 1978
TEN YEARS from now, some Nick Lowe with perfect recall will mimic the sound of Giorgio Moroder; for it defines and will come to represent ...
Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1979
(Investigative Reporter Dances The Poot) ...
Jean Michel Jarre: A Jarre With Bottle
Interview by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 3 March 1979
OR YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A LOUT TO HAVE CLOUT ...
Tubeway Army: Looking Through Gary Numan's Eyes
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979
THE LIST went something like: 2.00pm – Jackie, 2.30pm – My Guy, 3.15pm – Patches, 4.00pm – Record Mirror, 4.45pm – Smash Hits, 5.30pm – ...
Gary Numan: The Pleasure Principle
Review by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 8 September 1979
AND PEOPLE seethe at the Golden Boy. Let's forget the threadbare rock'n'roll bitch that it's all been done before by 'proper' artists — Bowie this, ...
Gary Numan: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 29 September 1979
Are pin-ups electric? ...
Gary Numan: Do Sheep Dream Of Electric Androids? The Gary Numan Enigma
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 6 October 1979
DATA: Gary Numan found his stage name in the Yellow Pages. The original Numan is a vendor of domestic appliances. In German ...
Guide by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980
"Progress in the physical and mechanical sciences determines a progress in art." — Carlos Chavez, 1957 ...
Overview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 12 January 1980
POMP THE trouble with synthesisers is actually playing them, accepting their status as sound-generators and starting from scratch. Mechanical keyboards were included in early synth ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Eric's, Liverpool
Live Review by Penny Kiley, Melody Maker, 23 February 1980
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES are going to be big. It's the opening night of an important tour, on home ground (almost), and the message is there. It's there ...
Gary Numan: Warfield Theatre, San Francisco
Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 22 March 1980
Frozen Robots ...
Suicide: Suicide: Alan Vega and Martin Rev (Ze)
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1980
TEN YEARS ago in a dingy New York loft two blokes were whipping up formidable walls of sheer, pulverising sound using just a set of ...
The Human League: Travelogue (Virgin V2160) ***
Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 24 May 1980
Paradoxes in industry chic ...
Suicide: Suicide As A Way Of Life
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 5 July 1980
"I THINK," breathes the camp dwarf in the sweatshirt and stubble, "that people should only write songs about economics and sex, because that's all everybody's ...
The Human League: Very Ordinary People With Very Odd Tastes
Profile and Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 10 July 1980
THE HUMAN League are different. Yes, I know that's the fanfare that's trotted out to greet the arrival of every other new act these days ...
The Human League: LADIES, GENTS, ANDROIDS, MUTANTS & BIOTRONS A BIG HAND For The Human League
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 12 July 1980
THE HUMAN LEAGUE ADVENTURE IS JUST BEGINNING. The first slide appears on the top left-hand screen. It is rapidly flanked by another: A LONG TIME AGO IN ...
New Musik: The Appliance of Science
Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 7 August 1980
Knee deep in keyboards and cables, Tony Mansfield makes New Musik. Tape Op: D. Hepworth ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Techno Conservationists
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 25 October 1980
Dave McCullough bumps into Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark ...
Gary Numan: Match Wits With Gary Numan!
Interview by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, January 1981
...if you were him, what would you do? Administered and Graded by Neuromantic Jeffrey Morgan, B. A. ...
Depeche Mode: This Year's Mode(l)
Profile and Interview by Betty Page, Sounds, 31 January 1981
DISPEL FROM your minds the untenable notion that Futurists are either bored Mummy's boys tinkering with expensive gadgets or desperately earnest avant-garde merchants trying to ...
Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, February 1981
BOTH THESE records explore the musical turf of brave new pop swathed in synthesizers and studio effects. Neither is quite a paradigm of such experimentation; ...
Kraftwerk: Computer World (EMI)
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 16 May 1981
COMPUTER-WORLD is the first Kraftwerk LP for over three years, an inordinate period of silence for most groups, but no surprise in their case. Indeed, ...
DAF: D.A.F.: The Venue, London
Live Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 6 June 1981
'ALLES IST Gut', for sure, ist gut: there's an almost imagistic pointedness to DAF's musical progressions, just simple sequencer patterns stripped bare of "musicianly" encumbrances ...
Moog On The State Of The Synthesizer
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 1981
IT’S NOT UNUSUAL for a musician to become controversial, but it is rare for a musical instrument to be debated. Robert Moog may have envisioned ...
Kraftwerk: A Computer Date with a Showroom Dummy
Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 13 June 1981
And we'll fahr'n, fahr'n, fahr'n auf der Autobahn — until big daddy takes our Volkswagen away. Chris Bohn and Anton Corbijn do the Spanish hustle with Kraftwerk ...
Interview by Betty Page, Sounds, 1 August 1981
"COMING!" SHREIKS a familiar voice, as we knock on the door of the flat that appears to have been built on a slag heap in ...
Interview by Johnny Black, Smash Hits, 6 August 1981
Soft Cell are half-Soul, half-Electronic. Johnny Black likes both bits. ...
The Human League: Beautiful Dreamers
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 8 August 1981
Start with pop with a capital P, add a touch of glamour, stir with a generous helping of amateur enthusiasm and you've got the new ...
British Electric Foundation, Heaven 17: Heaven 17… Or Music For Business And Pleasure
Report and Interview by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, 17 September 1981
BACK IN THE middle '70s, when punk snapped out of the woodwork, everyone wanted "complete control". It was a Robin Hood policy — steal from ...
Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement (BEF/Virgin)
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 19 September 1981
YES, THERE'S plenty of use! Sometimes you can wonder why you're so enthalled by pop's maze: it would be easy to break out in that ...
The Human League: Dare (Virgin)
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 17 October 1981
SURPRISE! ...the love of human MOR-als ...
Soft Cell: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (Some Bizzare BZLP 2)
Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 28 November 1981
SYMPATHETIC SYNTHESIS ...
Devo: Sixties Idealists or Nazis and Clowns?
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1981
LOS ANGELES — "Someone wanted to know where your home is," the waitress said to Mark Mothersbaugh. "I don't have a home," Mothersbaugh replied softly, peering at ...
Soft Cell: Marc Almond: The Whip Hand
Interview by Jon Savage, Face, The, January 1982
…and who holds it? The pop process, alienation and sexuality discussed with Marc Almond. By JON SAVAGE. ...
Fad Gadget: Fadfoolery and Frank Confessions
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 23 January 1982
Paul Morley encounters Frank Tovey on the verge of failure, and Fad Gadget on the point of hysteria. So why is this a succesful combination? ...
Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 4 February 1982
TWELVE YEARS OF PRACTICAL ELECTRONICS FINALLY PAY OF WITH THE SUCCESS OF 'THE MODEL'DAVE RIMMER TOURS THE WERKS ...
Profile and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 18 February 1982
MAYBE IT'S something to do with the '80s computerised approach to pop. Or maybe it's a reflection of the hard business sense many young bands ...
Depeche Mode: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 20 February 1982
FAST FORWARD TO THE FUTURE! ...
Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, March 1982
PUNK BANDS made up in sheer energetic vitality and charm what they lacked in technique. The young electronic bands now taking the British charts by ...
Ultravox: Number 1 With A Bullet Train
Report and Interview by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 20 March 1982
HUGH FIELDER goes along for the ride with ULTRAVOX in Japan ...
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Vogue, May 1982
The Human League are widely acknowledged as this minute's perfect pop group. The following is an account of their perfectly romantic rise in the charts. ...
Report and Interview by Lesley White, Face, The, May 1982
IN CASE YOU'RE still wondering, Vince Clarke's amicable departure from Depeche Mode was motivated by nothing less than that time honoured and truly honourable ideal: ...
Thomas Dolby: The Golden Age Of Wireless (Venice In Peril)
Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 15 May 1982
THE NOISE REDUCER ...
The Human League, Japan: Human League: Dare (A&M); Japan: Japan (Virgin/Epic)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982
CONTRARY TO popular belief, all synthesizer bands are not unlistenable. True, many do sound rather like the result of an infinite number of silicon chips ...
New Order (For The Old Ceremony)
Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1982
NEW YORK — The word had gone out through Ruth Polsky, the booking agent handling New Order's American tour. No interviews. They never do them. ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: OMD: Pilgrims' Unplanned Progress
Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, June 1982
NEW YORK — Think a minute, and recall the members of the Electronics Club at your school. If stereotypes haven't been swept under the carpet ...
Interview by Betty Page, Noise!, 24 June 1982
EVERY OTHER individual who burst forth from neo-legendary club The Blitz as aspiring popster or artist/designer/photographer has now almost been forgiven the cardinal sin of ...
The Human League, Japan, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Soft Cell: Human League et al: Synth-Pop
Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982
Music Without Musicians...But Not Without Craftsmanship and Great Songs ...
Profile and Interview by Toby Goldstein, Trouser Press, October 1982
MIKE SCORE, 24-year-old founder and lead vocalist of A Flock of Seagulls, strongly resembles a large winged being: His carroty-blond hair has been coaxed into ...
Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 6 November 1982
THESE THREE men belong to neither pavement nor penthouse. Instead they've grown comfortable by the fireside. Heaven 17, Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh and Glenn ...
Thomas Dolby: Life in the Age of Wireless: Thomas Dolby's State-of-the-Artwork
Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, December 1982
PERHAPS IN another century, Thomas Morgan Dolby Robertson would have been an explorer of science. I imagine him in an antique laboratory like another Thomas ...
Thomas Dolby: Marquee Club, London
Live Review by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 9 December 1982
UNTIL THIS series of four shows at London's Marquee, live appearances from the redoubtable Mr Dolby have been rare indeed. He was, apparently, locked up ...
Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget: Ace Cinema, Brixton
Live Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 8 January 1983
SOME OF the many moods of Mute were on show tonight. Label mates Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget would appear to be polar opposites, but ...
Depeche Mode: Modes to Freedom
Interview by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 22 January 1983
A YELLOW PLASTIC watering can rests idly on the floor, haying just recovered from a bashing the previous night in the name of 'percussive effects'. ...
Soft Cell, Yazoo: Soft Cell and Yaz(oo): Synths and Singers
Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, February 1983
JUST TWELVE months ago it was unclear if the primarily British phenomena of synthesizer bands would exhibit any staying power. Although 1981 was a good ...
Yazoo: Yaz: Upstairs At Eric's (Mute/Sire)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1983
"YAZ," ARE really "Yazoo," and still go by that name in the U.K. and Europe, but for North American consumption they had to drop the ...
Blancmange: Stuck In The Mould
Report and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 19 March 1983
Paolo Hewitt attempts to cultivate a taste for Blancmange but finds their electronic packet mix still leaves him cold... but not freezing. ...
Soft Cell: The Art of Falling Apart (Sire 237691)
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, May 1983
MARC ALMOND and David Ball of Soft Cell make great singles. Like Paul McCartney, Abba and precious few others these days, they're adept at creating ...
The Human League: Fascination! (A&M)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1983
BACK IN THEIR serious-artiste days, before they shed the future Heaven 17 to go POP! with capital P's, the Human League used to attempt to ...
Gary Numan: Warriors (Beggars Banquet)
Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 17 September 1983
NUMAN — OLD HAT... ...
Gary Numan: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, Guardian, The, 18 October 1983
EVEN IF you are undecided about his music, you have to give Gary Numan credit for his nerve and the mysterious hold which his meagre ...
Gary Numan: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 29 October 1983
BARBIE'S BOYFRIEND IN BONDAGE GEAR ...
Great Polysynths For Under $2,000
Overview by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1984
Making Trickle-Down Economics Work for You ...
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 4 February 1984
Undeterred by the psychological disadvantages of being a one-man band and the subject of a national 'paper slur campaign', HOWARD JONES struggles on... to victory, ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: New Junk for Old
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 28 April 1984
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK emerge from the shadows with a new album, Junk Culture. Helen FitzGerald hops on the Sealink to Belgium for a ...
Howard Jones: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 5 May 1984
"YOU'D BETTER give this a good write-up," quoth my 18-year-old brother, veritably frothing at the mouth with raw aggression, halfway through giving Howard Jones a ...
Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 10 May 1984
When Neil Arthur first met Stephen Luscombe, he thought he was "a bit strange". When Stephen first met Neil, he thought he was "a right ...
Bronski Beat: Runaway Boys: Bronski Beat
Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 21 June 1984
Bronski Beat are young, talented and they've only played a handful of concerts. And suddenly everyone's asking them questions. Questions about their "stance" as a ...
Heaven 17: The Heaven 17 Manifesto
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 1 September 1984
Once upon a time, Heaven 17 presented themselves as the dynamic young businessmen of pop. But now they've crossed sides to support the miners, the Labour ...
Heaven 17: How Men Are (Virgin)
Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 29 September 1984
YOU KNOW the pokerwork proverb in every chippy/cab firm/newsagent in the country: "You don't have to be mad to work here…but it helps!" ...
Interview by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 2 February 1985
In our fascinating profile of Mr Glenn Gregory, crooner of this parish, we discover what Heaven 17 and toilet paper have in common. And there's ...
Interview by Chris Roberts, Sounds, May 1985
"I DON'T KNOW exactly what a pop theorist is," says Green. "I think everybody has their own ideas on what pop music's about and what ...
Depeche Mode: Private Lives: The Depeche Mode Story, Pt. 2 – Martin Gore, The Decadent Boy
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 11 May 1985
In the second part of our exclusive Depeche Mode series Martin Gore talks about his steady progression from milkmaid to bank clerk to popstar in ...
Jean Michel Jarre: Jean-Michel Jarre: French Polish
Interview by Robin Katz, Over 21, June 1985
Jean-Michel Jarre — more than an upmarket face and Sunday supplement music. He talks to Robin Katz. ...
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, 1 June 1985
Is there life after Suicide? Martin Rev gets fired up ...
The Human League: Six Go Completely Bonkers
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Smash Hits, 17 July 1985
Three years ago, The Human League were the biggest pop group in the whole world. Their classic single 'Don't You Want Me' had been number ...
George Clinton, Thomas Dolby: George Clinton and Thomas Dolby: The Nut & The Nerd
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 20 July 1985
We're known as The Nut and The Nerd say George Clinton and Thomas Dolby, now together as DOLBY'S CUBE. Caroline Sullivan met this unlikely pair ...
Marc Almond: Do You Hate This Man?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Smash Hits, 11 September 1985
Do you hate this man? If so you're not alone. Marc Almond admits he's "one of the most disliked of all pop stars". But he ...
Pet Shop Boys: The Pet Shop Boys: An ex-Smash Hits Writer and the Grandson of a Nitwit
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Smash Hits, 18 December 1985
Doesn't sound like the ideal line-up for a successful pop duo, does it? But now that 'West End Girls' is whizzing up the charts that's ...
Propaganda: The Pop Machinery Cranks On
Interview by Chris Roberts, Sounds, 22 February 1986
In the frozen musical wastes of '86, Claudia Brucken-Morley thinks of PROPAGANDA as "being a life long thing". CHRIS ROBERTS is thinking more along the ...
Pet Shop Boys: Please (Parlophone PS81)**
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 29 March 1986
AUF WIEDERSEHEN PETS ...
A Flock of Seagulls: Dream Come True (Arista)
Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
AFTER THEIR 1982 debut became one of that year's most popular albums, A Flock of Seagulls found itself unable to expand on its kinetic, reductive ...
Suicide: Camden Palace, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 8 November 1986
A LITTLE hipper than they were when Clash fans bottled them a decade ago, the cult New York duo Suicide have reformed for some select ...
Kraftwerk: Electric Café (Warner Brothers)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, March 1987
Platter du Jour ...
Erasure: Central Hall, Westminster, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, 11 April 1987
THANKS MOSTLY to the glittering Andy Bell, Erasure manage not to be the cold stew of circuits and digital read-outs decried by some. Certainly, much ...
Erasure: Westminster Central Hall, London
Live Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 25 April 1987
IT WAS A night full of juicy contradictions. Fancy having a pop show in a Methodist hall next to a statue of John Wesley! Fancy ...
Scritti Politti: A Restauranteur's Guide To The Galaxy
Report and Interview by Rachel Felder, Alternative Press, 1988
GREEN GARTSIDE – Mr. Scritti Politti – describes his band's sound in the distanced terminology of a fed up rock critic; as he puts it, ...
Depeche Mode: Spreading A Pack Of Lies About Depeche Mode
Interview by Jon Young, Creem, April 1988
OR, NEW WAYS TO HAVE FUN ...
Pet Shop Boys: Outsiderdom: The Pet Shop Boys
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, August 1988
The Pet Shop Boys have played live once, never toured and only grudgingly socialize with the pop fraternity. They've stoutly refused to take the conventional ...
Depeche Mode: California Screaming
Report by Paul Mathur, Blitz, September 1988
In Britain, they're known as just another plinky plonk band. But in the USA, the boys from Basildon are megastars. Paul Mathur visits California during ...
Live Review by Jane Solanas, New Musical Express, 17 September 1988
THE THING about this alarming trend of 'rock comebacks' is that the term can mean anything from the return of a bankrupt geriatric to the ...
Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 15 October 1988
"IT'S COLD outside" sang GARY NUMAN nine years ago during 'Are Friend's Electric''s wintery grip on the charts. None of Gaz's more recent attempts have ...
Depeche Mode: Modernists à la Mode
Profile and Interview by Jon Savage, Observer, The, 12 March 1989
JON SAVAGE enters the futuristic visions of Depeche Mode, where androgyny meets electro-pop ...
Depeche Mode: The Unlikely Lads
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, April 1989
The latest stadium-filling attraction in the States is a band that began as a cheaply equipped electronic pop act from Basildon. Today, Depeche Mode are ...
Brian Eno: Man Out Of Time: Brian Eno
Interview by Don Watson, Spin, May 1989
"IS THIS 1962 OR 20 YEARS ON?" asked the sleeve notes of the first Roxy Music LP, the record that introduced Brian Eno to the ...
Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 10 March 1990
DEPECHE MODE have always been the poor relations of New Order and Kraftwerk, offering pedestrian, sometimes inconsequential variations on the electro-pop theme. Their simplified interpretations ...
Nitzer Ebb: Re-Pressing The Start Button
Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Sounds, 17 March 1990
The jackboots are off and Nitzer Ebb have loosened up into a cool pumping rock mode. But do they long to strut afront a Marshall stack letting ...
The KLF: KLF: Tales From The White Room
Interview by John McCready, Face, The, September 1990
SINISTER. That's the word. The KLF are sinister. With their pervy mail-order black-hooded packamacks, their propaganda and their perfect assimilation of rave culture they are ...
Electronica: Electronics Anonymous
Report by Johnny Black, Q, December 1990
Swatched in dry ice, tucked behind towering banks of keyboards, they are the spiritual descendents of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, prescribing "psycho-active music to bring ...
Front 242: The Number of the Beat
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 12 January 1991
We are coming to your House! Paradise crumbles to the sound of FRONT 242's tyrannical Techno ...
Pet Shop Boys: Opera House, Blackpool
Live Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 8 June 1991
"WELL, MY mother would agree with you," says Neil Tennant after. "She doesn't like the first half either." ...
Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, July 1991
IT'S THE DREAM ticket – two prime movers from the two most significant British pop groups of the '80s unite to form a unique presidential ...
Bomb The Bass: Seasonal Adjustment
Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 13 July 1991
TIM SIMENON shuts his eyes, shakes his head and through gritted teeth describes the last Bomb The Bass single, 'Love So True', as "a total ...
Kraftwerk: Barrowlands, Glasgow
Live Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 20 July 1991
THEY SMILE. That's the first surprise. Dressed in black, the four Kraftwerk-ers briskly stride on stage to take their places behind the giant computer consoles ...
Nine Inch Nails: A Bang On The Gear
Report and Interview by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, September 1991
SAN FRANCISCO, city of peace and love. Perhaps the last refuge of the beautiful people who advocate making babies, not bombs. But, hey, get out ...
William Orbit/Bassomatic: Inner Space
Interview by Jim Arundel, Melody Maker, 4 January 1992
It's four in the afternoon, which is a bit early in the day for William Orbit, especially as he awoke with a migraine. ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 7 March 1992
IT'S GRIM down south. Suicidally so on the remote escarpment of lunar terrain where the Dungeness nuclear reactor hums its menacing mantra out across beaches ...
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe, The, 20 July 1992
Suicide casts a deep, dark spell ...
Leftfield: Release The Pressure!
Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 5 December 1992
CRITICAL ACCLAIM means bugger-all in clubland. Here, an act's reputation is better measured by the number of others sampling them. And, right now, it's impossible ...
Review by David Toop, Wire, The, February 1993
ALWAYS PREJUDGE the intentions of a piece of music by its title. The judgement may not be entirely fair, yet its accuracy is frequently uncanny. ...
Interview by Simon Witter, Sunday Times Magazine, The, 21 February 1993
A brief interview piece from early '93, just before her album Debut came out. Nobody, least of all her, had any idea how huge it ...
Pink Floyd Meet The Orb: David Gilmour and Dr. Alex Patterson
Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 27 March 1993
JUST ABOUT everything anybody has ever told you is wrong. Take, for a very mundane example, the music you listen to. Most likely, there are ...
L.F.O., The Orb, Orbital, The Shamen, T99, Third Eye: Techno
Overview by Mark Dery, Keyboard, April 1993
TECHNO. THE name sounds at once monolithic and impersonal, the acronym of a multinational conglomerate, and toylike, as in brightly colored plastic Lego blocks. ...
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 7 August 1993
GOOD VIOLATIONS ...
Live Review by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, 7 August 1993
"THAT'S IT THEN," bellows the portly juggler, with some relief, on the train back to civilisation. "Done The Mode. Tick that one off." ...
The Orb, System 7: Trekroner Fort, Copenhagen
Live Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 11 September 1993
SOMETHING'S ROCKING IN THE STATE OF DENMARK ...
Review by Ian Christe, Alternative Press, November 1993
INSIDE AN artful cardboard CD holder, liner notes for Collusion explain that Zoviet France refused to participate in compilations for many years for two reasons: ...
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 27 November 1993
Aphex Twin is unusual. He likes tanks. He hates sleeping. And he pours tea on his cereal. SIMON REYNOLDS meets the rave-age Mozart in a ...
Aphex Twin: Machine Soul: A History Of Techno
Overview by Jon Savage, Village Voice, The, Summer 1993
Oooh oooh Techno cityHope you enjoy your stayWelcome to Techno cityYou will never want to go away– Cybotron, 'Techno City' (1984) ...
The Orb: Live '93 (Island COO 8022)
Review by Lisa Verrico, Vox, January 1994
Q. WHAT'S THE difference between The Orb in concert and The Orb in the studio? A. An amazing light show, a revolving spiky symbol and ...
Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994
I KNOW IT'S ONLY January but there's no way you will hear a more thrilling dance music album this year than Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman. No fucking ...
Aphex Twin: Armed and Fairly Dangerous
Interview by Stuart Maconie, Q, March 1994
AND BY their conspicuous celebrity consumption you shall know them. When Rick Wakeman entered rock's upper echelon, he armed himself with a fleet of Rolls-Royces. ...
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Warp)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1994
The prodigious, prolific and increasingly eccentric Richard James brings us two and a half hours of his unique muse. SIMON REYNOLDS is bewitched on our ...
Aphex Twin: 'Phex And Drugs And Rock'N'Roll
Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 12 March 1994
APHEX TWIN is the first superstar of ambient, the crossover King of innovative pop. Which is why Seefeel, Saint Etienne, The Boo Radleys, Curve, hell, ...
Erasure: I Say I Say I Say I Say (Mute/All formats)
Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 21 May 1994
DURING THE recent furore over the homosexual age of consent, nobody saw fit to introduce into the debate the on-going 30-year-old love affair between straight ...
Interview by David Toop, Wire, The, September 1994
Pete Namlook is one of the more remarkable figures of 90s electronic music. Since December 1992, he has released over 150 albums on his own ...
Future Sound of London: The Future Sound of London: Lifeforms (Astralwerks/Caroline)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, September 1994
GOD BLESS the Future Sound of London — Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans — for striving to infuse personality and humanity into the chip-driven technoscape. ...
Future Sound of London: Beauty/Paranoia at the Flick of a Pixel
Interview by Chris Campion, Mondo 2000, Summer 1994
EMITTING ELECTRONIC effluvia across a liquid sky. Broadcasting their alienation out to the world. Future Sound Of London's music and pronouncements contain viral strains of ...
Tricky: [the Phantoms of] TRICKNOLOGY [versus a Politics of Authenticity]
Essay by Ian Penman, Wire, The, March 1995
"Machine technology is a type of transformation." Martin Heidegger ...
Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 25 March 1995
THE ORB, the first band since Pink Floyd to transfer ambient noodling and stunning visuals from clubs to stadia, return this week with a new ...
Carl Craig: Listen To The Future
Profile and Interview by Kodwo Eshun, i-D, April 1995
One of Detroit's legendary first generation, Carl Craig has left behind the legacy he's outgrown. Ripping up techno's rule-book, this 25-year-old is making records for ...
The Chemical Brothers: Apothecary Now: The Chemical Brothers : Exit Planet Dust (Junior Boys Own)
Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 June 1995
THINK OF THE truly great, era-defining albums of the last 18 months. Definitely Maybe would be in there. Ill Communication and Dummy, too. ...
Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 24 June 1995
NOW HERE'S what you know about Björk. She's tiny, elfin, mad as a rabbit, childish, arty, trendy and Icelandic. ...
Aphex Twin: I Care Because You Do (Sire/Elektra)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, July 1995
NO, MR TWAIN, I care because you do. I wasn't sure I did, for a minute — the largely drumless synth moans of 1994's oddly ...
Interview by Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope, 1996
"You are about to have probably the most unusual musical experience of your life. The music will enter areas of your mind never before opened ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 27 January 1996
For 25 years, DAVID TOOP has been writing about making music that breaches all musical boundaries. Now he's compiled a CD that sets out to ...
Pet Shop Boys: An Attitude Thing
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, 20 April 1996
THERE IS NO MORE embarrassing chapter in the big book of Pop Interview Ritual than the one in which you're forced to listen to music ...
DJ Spooky: Spooky After Dark: The DJ as Dead Dreamer
Review by Richard Gehr, Village Voice, The, 6 June 1996
DJ SPOOKY'S Songs of a Dead Dreamer (Asphodel) magically distills the mysterioso live performances the artist (and occasional Voice contributor) otherwise known as Paul D. ...
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe, The, 5 July 1996
ROCK 'N' ROLL often has a lot to do with public image – a preening Mick Jagger, a prancing Tina Turner, a spitting Johnny Rotten, ...
Electronic: Raise the Pressure
Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, August 1996
FIVE YEARS after cementing their partnership as the coolest Mancunians on the planet, Messrs Marr and Sumner return with a dreadfully disappointing album. Raise The ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1996
PET SHOP BOYS have become an institution. The quintessential '80s act, Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant have stuck to their guns and refused to defer ...
Live Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 9 November 1996
WHAT... what... what the fuck is going on? Frenzied breakbeats and oppressive bursts of synth are emanating from the front of the venue, but the ...
Guide by John McCready, MOJO, 1997
UNLIKE THE Hoover, a similarly undisputed brand leader which describes any vacuum cleaner as all vacuum cleaners do the same thing, all synthesizers are, over ...
Profile by Richard Gehr, Village Voice, The, 23 January 1997
AN AKIMBO version of hippie-band staple 'In the Midnight Hour' was the only thing about the Silver Apples' recent appearance suggesting they were anything other ...
MTV's Unconventional Amp Takes A Stab At Reinventing Popular Music for the 21st century
Report by Matt Hanks, Memphis Flyer, 27 March 1997
SO YOU'VE HEARD about this new craze that's all the rage with the kids. Although it has yet to produce its first teen idol, 'electronica' ...
Daft Punk: Plastique Fantastique
Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 29 March 1997
It's taken a while, but mainstream America is finally welcoming dance music with open aims. Now they're going crazy over the Chemicals and are poised ...
Profile and Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, April 1997
Chilly symphonies and misty synth-scapes: the Gothic revival starts here ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Request, May 1997
"DOCTOR" ALEX Patterson, overlord of the Orb and revered godfather of the genus Ambient Techno, would like another brandy and ginger, if you don’t mind. ...
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, June 1997
YELLO HAVE been into electronica since their inception in 1980, when only the most wilfully avant-garde dabbled in synthesisers for any purpose other than the ...
The Prodigy: Prodigy: The Fat of the Land
Review by Simon Reynolds, Village Voice, The, 8 July 1997
SOME SAY the Prodigy have betrayed the bright promise of the "electronica revolution", resulting in a techno-rock hybrid that's not so much kick-ass as half-assed. ...
The Prodigy: Prodigy: The Fat Of The Land
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1997
RARELY HAS a pop trend been so shamelessly spoon-fed to America as the hold-all genre dubbed "electronica". Rarely, indeed, has the music industry tried so ...
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, September 1997
IT'S HARD NOT TO praise someone who's a pioneer and a star in techno/electronica — that's just Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) for you. ...
Pet Shop Boys: Savoy Theatre, London
Live Review by Paul Morley, Uncut, September 1997
Neil Tennant: vaudevillian existentialist? ...
Live Review by Rob Young, Wire, The, September 1997
AH, A DUMBSHOW — now that's entertainment. In the middle of the floor in the largest of the Ministry Of Sound's three shapeless spaces, the ...
Silver Apples: Oscillate Wildly
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Wire, The, September 1997
After 30 years of universal neglect, New York's Silver Apples are finally getting recognition for their pioneering electronic rock. ...
The Orb: Living in Orblivion: The Orb
Report and Interview by JoE Silva, Remix, 1998
"THE RECORD COMPANY didn't have a clue what was going on." ...
Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty', 1998
DRIVING ON THE M25 in a rusty Mini. Early evening, thick drizzle. Only one windscreen wiper works because someone has snapped the end off the ...
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, 16 January 1998
IF, AS SOME believe, 1998 is to be the year that France finally produces pop music of international appeal, then synth duo Air are the ...
Interview by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 17 January 1998
Qu'est-ce que c'est? Music that sounds like ELO jamming over a porn flick soundtrack — on the moon!? Oh yes indeedy, prepare to enter the ...
Add N to (X): Equation Plug Foundation
Interview by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 14 February 1998
They take their name from a mathematical formula, think electricity is God, want to form a 1,000-strong synth orchestra and play a millennium gig from ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, May 1998
Before the Chemical Brothers, before Ministry, before even Soft Cell, there was SUICIDE, the original electro-duo. DAVID STUBBS meets the synth-terrorists whose noise still provokes ...
Kraftwerk: Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 1998
Techno-Rocking Kraftwerk Charges Up In its first L.A. concert in almost 15 years, the German quartet shows the influence of its ground-breaking circuit-driven music. ...
Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 1998
"BRITPOP IS AN ATTEMPT TO REASSERT A sort of mythical whiteness," asserts Aniruddha Das, aka Dr Das, bassist of Asian Dub Foundation, leaning forward in ...
Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, August 1998
THOUGH THEY'RE often lumped in with other early Eighties techno-tarts as shiny and superficial, Soft Cell had a soot-black heart, a vicious edge, and an ...
Depeche Mode: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Carl Loben, Melody Maker, October 1998
CITED BY MANY electronica artists as an early influence, Depeche Mode began life as chirpy synth-poppers in the early '80s before moving into superb clangers ...
Depeche Mode's sonic revival: The godfathers of techno tour again
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Boston Globe, The, October 1998
IT'S ABOUT A month ago, and Depeche Mode -- Martin Gore, David Gahan, and Andy Fletcher -- are in England, on the eve of a ...
DAF: Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft: Reissues
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, December 1998
Overdue reissue of Eighties German minimalist synth duo's electronic pop albums ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Bennun, Guardian, The, February 1999
AS LOW POINTS go, this one was not merely a dip in life's road. It was a chasm. A gorge. A bloody great sheer-sided canyon. ...
Atari Teenage Riot: 60 Second Wipe Out (Digital Hardcore)
Review by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 8 May 1999
There's A Riot Going On... and On ...
Atari Teenage Riot: 'I Would Die For This'
Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 8 May 1999
...And Atari Teenage Riot's Alec Empire means it. So away, you doubters, and come on feel the mid-frequencies! ...
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 1999
CORNELIUS is a pick 'n' mix match retro-futurist whizz-kid. Stephen Dalton meets the boy they're calling the Japanese Beck ...
Fatboy Slim: Electronica Goes Straight To Ubiquity
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, New York Times, The, 6 June 1999
THE USUAL trajectory for a new form of pop music is from underground sound to mainstream omnipresence, followed by eventual banalization as the style filters ...
The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Heeeere we go!
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1999
The Chemical Brothers: Surrender First album since 1997's chart-topping Dig Your Own Hole features guest vocals from Noel Gallagher, Hope Sandoval, Jonathan Donahue and Bernard ...
The Chemical Brothers: Back To The Lab
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Spin, July 1999
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE BLOCK-ROCKIN' SOUND YOU INVENTED HAS BECOME THE SOUNDTRACK TO LAME TEEN FLICKS AND TAMPON COMMERCIALS? IF YOU'RE THE CHEMICAL ...
Live Review by Keith Cameron, Guardian, The, 22 July 1999
SUCH IS THE brouhaha provoked by Technique in their brief career that one might innocently suppose it had something to do with their music, and ...
Review by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, The, 11 August 1999
AUTECHRE, THE ENGLISH DUO of Sean Booth and Rob Brown, don't so much write songs as program ecosystems. Within electronica, where everyone says Autechre have ...
Interview by David Bennun, Observer, The, 3 October 1999
AS REGENCY drawing rooms go, this one is on the largish side but, at first sight, perfectly ordinary. ...
Go Kart Mozart: Go-Kart Mozart: Instant Wigwam And Igloo Mixture (West Midlands)****
Review by Bob Stanley, Uncut, January 2000
No reservations: Former Felt and Denim singer Lawrence presents unsettling novelty electronica ...
Kid Koala: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Ninja Tune)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, The, 23 February 2000
LISTENING TO Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, it's possible to imagine that generations of musical progress have brought us back to the dawn of jazz, that through ...
Susumu Yokota: Ambient Confessions of a Japanese Technohead
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, 1 March 2000
THE IDEA OF an ambient recording that stops you in your tracks might seem to be a contradiction in terms, but Susumu Yokota's Image 1983-1998 ...
Asian Dub Foundation: Community Music
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, April 2000
Storming new set of eclectic agit-pop from best live band in Britain ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Wire, The, April 2000
MARTIN REV might not be toppling too many new barriers, but the rhythmic and lyrical ghosts he summons up have an indefinable, haunting quality. ...
Review by Ian Penman, Wire, The, May 2000
ON THE FACE of it, Stefan Betke is producing a very samey, so-what? music; compared to some modern millenarians, the bunker dub he releases under ...
Various Artists: Machine Soul: An Odyssey Into Electronic Dance Music
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, June 2000
From Kraftwerk to BT, via Throbbing Gristle, Moby and the Chemicals – the history of synthpop ...
Matmos: Where Art Worlds Collide
Profile by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, The, 14 June 2000
I MUST HAVE misplugged my phone adapter before interviewing Drew Daniels and Martin Schmidt of Matmos, because all I hear on the tape are my ...
Max Tundra, Tele:funken: Tele:funken: A Collection Of Ice Cream Vans Vol 2
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2000
LIKE LABELMATE Max Tundra's debut last month, Tele:funken, aka Tom Fenn, here attempts electronica disconnected from the dancefloor, skipping round the looped conservatism of current ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2000
Founding fathers of technopop come together in electro land ...
Jimi Tenor: Out Of Nowhere (Warp)
Review by Ian Penman, Wire, The, September 2000
SOMETIMES YOU just need a Song: one that makes you feel electric angels are sitting on your shoulder and whispering arcane formulae of timeless Passion ...
Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, September 2000
"WHEN YOU'RE YOUNG", explains 29-year old North London electro-soul auteur Leila Arab, "you get into these strange emotional states - either of over the top ...
Radiohead: Sound and Fury: Radiohead
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, Observer, The, 1 October 2000
IN THE EARLY '90S, you knew you'd arrived as a rock group the day you made it on to MTV and the Beavis & Butthead ...
Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, November 2000
MAYBE WE SHOULD all get a little perspective on this. Radiohead are five blokes from Oxford; they've been at it nearly 10 years now; their ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Wire, The, November 2000
WITH THEIR FOURTH album Kid A, Oxford quintet Radiohead have caused a tsunami-sized wave of confusion by breaking with stadium rock orthodoxy to exhibit an ...
Review by Ian Penman, Uncut, December 2000
Mixed bag of tricks from latest Electronica whiz ...
Profile and Interview by David Bennun, Hot Air, Summer 2000
THEY CALLED him Moby from the moment he was born. A tiny homunculus, small for his age even then – too small, they thought, for ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001
Jean-Benoit Dunckel, b. Versailles, France; Nicolas Godin, b. Versailles, France ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001
Vince Clarke, b. 3 July 1960, Basildon, Essex, England; Andy Bell, b. 25 April 1964, Peterborough, Northants, England ...
Book Excerpt by uncredited writer, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
Trent Reznor, b. Erie, Pennsylvania, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Dieter Meier; Boris Blank ...
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, April 2001
Gods of "filter disco" finally issue follow-up to 1997'strailblazing Homework. ...
Goldfrapp: "The Mercury prize? Oh God, that would be great. I deserve something"
Profile and Interview by Dave Simpson, Guardian, The, 4 May 2001
Singing sensation Alison Goldfrapp tells Dave Simpson why her time has come. ...
Review and Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, June 2001
Self-proclaimed "grown-up" album from French duo who created 1998's million-selling retro-pop classic Moon Safari and inspired many imitators. ...
Aphex Twin: Rephlex Records at 10
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, URB, June 2001
PART MALL, part Moroccan Souk, Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre is a dilapidated mish-mash of late '60s brutalist architecture that contains a bustling marketplace. It's ...
Air, Daft Punk: Daft Punk & Air: Disco Tech
Profile and Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, July 2001
DAFT PUNK AND AIR ARE THE BEATLES AND STONES OF THE INTERNATIONAL DANCE SCENE. SO WHY IS THE FRENCH ESTABLISHMENT – SO PROUD OF ITS ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2001
First six studio albums plus Tennant's extra ...
Plaid, Prefuse 73, Squarepusher: Warp Records: Various Reviews
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, July 2001
Don't all rush at once, alt.country fans – a triple-whammy of Warp techno Plaid - Double Figure Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies And Uprock Narratives Squarepusher - Go ...
The Human League: Don't you want them? Maybe
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 15 July 2001
Sheffield synth-pop trio the Human League haven't always had it easy, but they've never given up. Simon Price met them as they prepare to stage ...
New Order: Olympia Theatre, Liverpool
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 22 July 2001
"IT'S LIKE WE'VE never been away," says New Order's Bernard Sumner, and they haven't, really. ...
Björk: The Last Great Pop Star
Interview by Nick Coleman, Independent, The, 9 August 2001
She thumps reporters, wears funny clothes and thinks she was born in the wrong century. Now she's made an album about her kitchen. Nick Coleman ...
Björk: Alone in the Dark: Björk on Vespertine
Interview by David Toop, Wire, The, September 2001
Björk's eerie night songs are infused with the mythological landscapes of her native Iceland and the concrete fjords of Manhattan. She tells David Toop about ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Various Compilations
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
From post-punk to dance crossover: Sheffield pioneers' mid-Eighties revisited The Original Sound Of Sheffield — The Best Of The Virgin/EMI Years Conform To Deform — The Virgin/EMI ...
Soft Cell: The Twelve Inch Singles (Mercury)
Review and Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, December 2001
Every 12-inch single A and B-side of their career collected into o 3-CD set ...
Guide by Pat Blashill, Wired, 5 January 2002
EVER SINCE Sam Phillips stuffed some wads of paper into an amplifier, inadvertently creating the fuzzed-up, overdriven electric guitar sound on Ike Turner's 1951 rave-up ...
Kurt Ralske, Ultra Vivid Scene: Kurt Ralske: An Interview
Interview by David Hemingway, unpublished, 1 March 2002
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was intended as the basis for a feature in Alternative Press. It's never been previously published. ...
Boards Of Canada: Geogaddi (Warp)
Review by Kodwo Eshun, Wire, The, April 2002
LIKE YOU, NO doubt, I'm a sucker for what Marshall McLuhan called "participation mystique". ...
Review by David Hemingway, Guardian, The, April 2002
NOEL GALLAGHER may attribute Oasis's success to having simply written unpretentious, uncomplicated songs on his guitar, but not everyone shares this fascination with six strings. ...
Boards Of Canada, Takagi Masakatsu: Boards Of Canada: Geogaddi/Takagi Masakatsu: Pia
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, May 2002
GENREPHOBES HAVE had it easy lately. It's been a while since electronica coughed up any New Sounds of note. ...
Report and Interview by Ian Watson, Sunday Herald, May 2002
FROM THE OUTSIDE, Moby Mansions looks like any other whitewashed townhouse in upmarket west London. Walk a little too quickly and you'd pass it without ...
Adult, Fischerspooner: The '70s are so '90's: The '80s are the thing now
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, New York Times, The, 5 May 2002
AND NOW, the '80s. It was probably inevitable. The pop music and fashion industries depend on recycling their own history, and the retro styles of ...
DJ Shadow: King of the Vinyl Junkies
Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2002
DJ Shadow revolutionised hip hop with his first album and toured the world with Radiohead, but he is still regarded as a record-collecting nerd, he ...
Beth Orton: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, 11 July 2002
WITH A NEW album, Daybreaker, due at the end of the month, this one-off show was an opportunity for Beth Orton to shake down the ...
Essay by Biba Kopf, Wire, The, August 2002
Punk may have been reduced to a teen angst soundtrack, but it created a virus that liberated Germany — specifically, the fiendish marriage of punk ...
Señor Coconut: Senor Coconut y su Conjunto: El Baile Aleman (New State Recordings)
Review by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, 16 August 2002
DESPITE HIS name, his album title and the fact that his introduction is in Spanish, Senor Coconut is a German called Uwe Schmidt who fronts ...
My Computer: MY COMPUTER: Vulnerabilia
Review by Paul Lester, Uncut, October 2002
YOU COULD get the wrong impression about My Computer from Vulnerabilia, as raved about everywhere from Uncut ("the most original debut LP by a Manchester ...
Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 October 2002
WITH THEIR 1974 international smash hit 'Autobahn', Kraftwerk had coolly demonstrated that an experimental electronic group from Dusseldorf, Germany, could kick out perfect pop on ...
Review and Interview by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, November 2002
THIS IS SPARKS' 19th album, the follow-up proper to 1994's Gratuitous Sax..., and one might be forgiven for saying "So what?", since their work after ...
The Human League: Dare/Love And Dancing 21st Anniversary Edition
Review and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Joel McIver, Record Collector, November 2002
THE LATE '70s/early '80s were a period of enormous fast-track development in popular culture. The flood of cheap technology ensured that machines that went ping ...
New Order: "We've had it large"
Profile and Interview by Ted Kessler, Guardian, The, 22 November 2002
A five-year split, a suicide, financial ruin, heavy cocaine abuse... New Order have survived the lot – and they're nowhere near quitting. Ted Kessler meets ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 21 December 2002
NINE MONTHS AGO, the Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp were the cultish darlings of the style press, their debut album Melody AM hailed as an esoteric ...
Underworld: The iJamming! Interview: Underworld
Interview by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.net, Summer 2002
IN THEORY, THEY'RE the greatest group on the planet. By which I mean that Underworld's Modus Operandi reads, to me, like a blueprint for how ...
Asian Dub Foundation: Rappers With A Cause: Asian Dub Foundation
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 24 January 2003
They helped secure the release of the warehouse worker Satpal Ram from prison. Now they're tackling domestic violence, asylum, the war on terror and the ...
Asian Dub Foundation: Foundation Course
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, unpublished, February 2003
JOHN PANDIT is hopping mad. We were supposed to be discussing the latest album by Pandit's multi-cultural protest-pop collective Asian Dub Foundation, but our interview ...
Marc Almond, Soft Cell: Marc Almond: That's enough erotic cabaret!
Report and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 2 February 2003
Soft Cell's Marc Almond is intending to grow old gracefully, says Simon Price. Then again... ...
Clipse, Melanie C, Moloko, The Spice Girls: Melanie C: Reason/Moloko: Statues/Clipse: Lord Willin'
Review by Lisa Verrico, Times, The, 21 February 2003
Melanie C has too much going for her to rejoin the Spice Girls. ...
Autechre: The Futurologists: Autechre
Interview by David Stubbs, Wire, The, April 2003
The world of electronica might have become overcrowded since their first releases a decade ago, but Autechre are still burrowing through microscopic cracks into the ...
Goldfrapp: Black Cherry (Mute) ****
Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, May 2003
Second album from sultry singer/musician Alison Goldfrapp and musical partner Will Gregory. ...
Matthew Herbert: The Body Politician
Interview by Rob Young, Wire, The, May 2003
If electronica constructed entirely from sampled body parts, stacked recordings of falling telephone directories or the noise of domestic appliances hasn't already established that utopian ...
Retrospective by David Hemingway, Record Collector, October 2003
Kraftwerk regularly appear in lists of the most influential artists of all time. David Hemingway takes the digital pulse to find out exactly why. ...
Report and Interview by James Medd, Esquire, January 2004
"IN FRANCE, the more you have girlfriends,the more you are a seductive man, and the more you are healthy," says Jean-Benoit "JB" Dunckel. "In France, ...
Zero 7: When It Falls (Ultimate Dilemma)
Review by Lisa Verrico, Times, The, 27 February 2004
Out in the cold: Chilled-out Zero 7 need to thaw ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 21 March 2004
Automata for the people ...
Dean Roberts: Lost City Rambler
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, Wire, The, April 2004
"I LIKE TO get songs to find their place in the air and sort of float there," says Dean Roberts, who began his career in ...
Depeche Mode: The Day I Met Four Terrified Teenagers Called Depeche Mode
Memoir by Beverley Glick, beverleyglick.com, 2005
In the fourth extract from my Eighties memoir, another brand-new pop group gets interviewed by Sounds' Betty Page, who is fast establishing herself as the go-to ...
Report by Simon Reynolds, New York Times, The, 23 January 2005
IN THE FIRST months of 2005, two of electronic dance music's biggest bands will release what are generally referred to as long-awaited albums. ...
Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, February 2005
FIVE YEARS. It's a long time by most people's standards, but when such a period passes between albums by Nine Inch Nails, the turbulent electro-noir ...
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, March 2005
ONCE TAGGED the "Iggy Pop Of Techno", New York electronica geek Moby's come a long way. ...
Profile and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 5 May 2005
The electronic music poster boy picks up a guitar and uncages his rock 'n' roll animal. ...
Röyksopp: Music to Watch Grills By
Interview by James Medd, Esquire, August 2005
Royksopp say they've made the perfect soundtrack for your barbecue. ...
Goldfrapp: Tales Of The Supernatural
Interview by Ian Watson, Scotsman, The, 13 August 2005
ABOUT A year and a half ago, Alison Goldfrapp finally snapped. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Witter, MOJO, September 2005
2009 NOTE: This is a 9000-word "Director's Cut" version of a 5000-word piece written for MOJO in September 2005. ...
Boards Of Canada: Protect and Survive
Interview by Rob Young, Wire, The, October 2005
In a rare face to face interview at their Scottish retreat, Boards Of Canada break their self-imposed isolation to scotch the myths that have coalesced ...
Cut Copy: 'It's Certainly Not Knob Twiddling'
Interview by Dave Simpson, Guardian, The, 14 October 2005
When they are not letting off fireworks in people's houses, or rugby tackling Mylo off the stage, Australia's Cut Copy are the future of synth-pop. ...
Hot Chip: Coming on Strong (Astralwerks)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, January 2006
TIMMY THOMAS' 1972 beat-boxdriven hit 'Why Can't We Live Together?' is a paradigm of how machine rhythms can make the human voice sound simultaneously stalwart ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 16 May 2006
CROUCHED BEHIND an acoustic guitar on a pocket-sized stage, Cortney Tidwell struggled to be heard above the chatter of the late-night drinkers who crowded her ...
Review by Paul Morley, Observer, The, 21 May 2006
The style-mag favourites walk the irony tightrope with their airy electro-pop. Paul Morley applauds from the stalls ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Observer, The, 18 June 2006
Dubstep has finally thrown up an album that will work in your living room. Simon Reynolds soaks up the ambience. ...
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 22 December 2006
YOU DON'T NEED to know a thing about London's dubstep scene to find this cryptic debut the most mesmerising electronic album of the year. ...
LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 9 March 2007
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM'S James Murphy is chiefly regarded as a man with a gargantuan record collection. ...
Daft Punk, Justice: Electronica that Rocks, à la Française
Report and Interview by Will Hermes, New York Times, The, 1 July 2007
ONE OF THE most blogged-about sets at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California took place on a stage dominated by ...
Burial: Love Among the Ruins: Burial and the Poetics of Hoodie Dubstep
Comment by The Rev. Al Friston, eMusic.com, December 2007
IF I'M WRITING about dubstep, then it's officially over as a trend. I don't even know what dubstep is, and I'm not sure I need ...
Crystal Castles: New Band of the Day: Crystal Castles
Profile by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 6 December 2007
Paul Lester hearts these darlings of the electronic underground, whose "songs" sound like a load of Gameboys going off all at once in your brain ...
The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Brothers: Chemical Romance
Report and Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 7 December 2007
WHILE MANY OF their 1990s superstar DJ peers have fallen by the wayside, the Chemical Brothers remain a phenomenal British success story. Duo Ed Simons, ...
Hot Chip: Made in the Dark ****
Review by Ben Thompson, Observer, The, 20 January 2008
You might know them as pop nerds, but Ben Thompson just loves their power ballads ...
Hot Chip: The League of Very Ordinary Gentlemen
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Spin, February 2008
Everybody seems to love Hot Chip's catchy, endearing dance pop. But are these bookish Brits ready to love everybody back? ...
Hot Chip: Super Fry Guys: Hot Chip's Made In The Dark (EMI)
Review by John McCready, Word, The, February 2008
Hot Chip: Brains from Thunderbirds and his science-block mates create wonderful dance music — that you don't have to dance to. ...
Crystal Castles: Astoria 2, London ***
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, 18 February 2008
TORONTO DUO Crystal Castles appear intent on being the most cryptic band imaginable. Eschewing interviews and declining to divulge their ages, producer/keyboardist Ethan Kath and ...
Report and Interview by Angus Batey, Guardian, The, 28 March 2008
"I FIGHT BACK!" a grinning Alec Empire blurts, explaining why his iPod contains only three albums (by John Coltrane and Stockhausen) but has been filled ...
Review by John Doran, Quietus, The, 13 June 2008
SO BY NOW you are aware of the Smell, the Los Angeles art space/studio/gig venue from which emanate the evil sounds of bands such as ...
UNKLE: End Titles… Stories For Film (Surrender All)
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, 11 August 2008
EXACTLY A DECADE ago, Psyence Fiction, the debut album from Mo' Wax label boss James Lavelle and his then musical partner DJ Shadow, stood as ...
Underworld: Celebrating the Underbelly: Underworld
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, September 2008
UNDERWORLD HAVE been at the forefront of electronic music for the past 15 years. The partnership at the group's core, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, ...
Kanye West: 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella) ****
Review by Angus Batey, MOJO, November 2008
NB This record wasn't made available to reviewers properly, due partly to Kanye still working on it at the time MOJO went to press. As ...
New Order: Movement/Power, Corruption & Lies/Low-Life/Brotherhood/Technique (Rhino)
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Q, November 2008
From the ashes of Joy Division rose a phoenix fusing indie rock and dance music to create the perfect soundtrack for a decade striped by ...
La Roux: New Band of the Day: La Roux
Profile by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 19 November 2008
Make no mistake, today's new artist is a solo female synth star in waiting. ...
New Order: The Making Of 'Blue Monday'
Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2008
A stone classic, for sure, but the best-selling 12" of all time was a bastard to play live and lost money on first release. "We ...
Live Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, February 2009
THE STEEL CITY TOUR is a thrilling glimpse of the once- future through the lens of the past. What these groups attempted in Sheffield at ...
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, March 2009
WHILE THE unexpectedly sharp return-to-form of last album, 2006's Fundamental, confirmed that the Pet Shop Boys should never be discounted, it's been more than a ...
Review by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 26 March 2009
NEARLY 30 YEARS ON, the Gilbert and George of pop are still charmers. Like two Planet Pop missionaries sent to cheer us up in the ...
Depeche Mode: Sounds Of The Universe
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Q, May 2009
AT THE 12th time of asking, to play the fan-pleasing goth-pop card, or to attempt something more testing? Alas, once again, it's the former. ...
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Hotline, May 2009
Synth-pop queen Ladyhawke, aka New Zealander Pip Brown, talks to John Lewis from the back seat of a New York taxi. ...
Pet Shop Boys: Animal Instinct
Interview by Luke Turner, Stool Pigeon, The, May 2009
Pet Shops Boys done good these last three decades, and they're still playing cat-and-mouse with expectation. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2009
JUST 29 YEARS into Depeche Mode's evolution from hoppity-boppity three-minute wonders of Futurism to global phenomenon of electronic rock and here's sempiternal hit songwriter Martin ...
The xx: Between Les Paul's Pick-Up and the Akai MPC2000
Comment by John Doran, Quietus, The, 27 August 2009
It is quite timely that the XX's debut came out during the same month that Les Paul died. They are the perfect band for a ...
Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Grizzly Bear: 20 years of the Warp factor
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, 28 August 2009
Sheffield's Warp Records celebrates its 20th anniversary in September. Nick Hasted looks back on the cutting-edge electronica/indie label that has produced acts as diverse as ...
La Roux: 'Of course Lady Gaga's not my thing'
Profile and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 24 September 2009
IT IS MORNING, and 21-year-old Elly Jackson – or La Roux, arguably the biggest new pop star of the year – is on the Eurostar ...
Kraftwerk: The Elusive Kings of Digital Pop
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 25 September 2009
AFTER FOUR DECADES spent standing guard over one of the most secretive and enigmatic bands on the planet, it seems that Ralf Hütter is loosening ...
Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Ultravox: One Nation Under a Moog: How Britain Went Synthpop
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Guardian, The, 10 October 2009
As new BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia shows, the synthesizer first dehumanised then re-humanised British pop, fulfilled the DIY promise of punk, and changed how bands ...
Pet Shop Boys/Bad Lieutenant: NIA, Birmingham
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, December 2009
FIRST SEEN in Britain six months ago, the Pandemonium world tour feels even more dazzling second time around. Even though every pre-programmed note and choreographed ...
Little Boots, Gary Numan: When Gary Numan met Little Boots
Report and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 3 December 2009
He arrived in 1979, bringing synthpop to the masses. She is part of the bold new wave reinventing the genre for the 21st century. So ...
Yello: Mad About Saffron: Thirty Years of Yello
Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Quietus, The, 4 December 2009
Yello's Dieter Meier sits down with Wyndham Wallace to discuss the duo's new album Touch and three decades as an aristocratic prankster. ...
Grimes: Halfaxa (Arbutus Records)
Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, 2010
ON A CURSORY listen it seems Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, creates the kind of ethereal gloom-scapes that have served Zola Jesus well thus far. But ...
Hot Chip: One Life Stand (Parlophone)
Review by Simon Price, Word, The, February 2010
THE NAME, of course, is one of pop's great double entendres. As well as carrying the sense of overloaded silicon circuitry, "Hot Chip" — like ...
Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, February 2010
ANYONE WHO caught the Pet Shop Boys touring their superb Yes album – BBC Music's number one Pop & Chart album of 2009 – last ...
Retrospective and Interview by Kris Needs, MOJO, May 2010
"I'VE GOT so much to do. All the music in the world," wrote Arthur Russell to a San Francisco friend after arriving in New York ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 19 July 2010
"DON'T FUCKIN' tell me what to do," chants reformed teen-pop prodigy Robyn. No worry, girl, things are under control. ...
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, August 2010
Post-shoegazing classic reissued with bonus disc of demos. ...
Propaganda: Your Wish Is My Command: Propaganda's A Secret Wish
Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, Quietus, The, 5 August 2010
Celebrating 25 years since its release, Propaganda's A Secret Wish has just been reissued with a bonus disc of rarities. Wyndham Wallace confronts their Sturm ...
James Blake: Klavierwerke (R&S Records)
Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, September 2010
Rising UK producer's latest EP points the way towards an anticipated debut album. ...
Propaganda: A Secret Wish (ZTT/Salvo)
Review by John McCready, Word, The, September 2010
Fizzing with conflicting creative energies, Propaganda could have been a disaster. Instead they constructed a masterpiece. ...
Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 2 September 2010
IT'S DARING of Belgian rapper Stromae to give his first album a title that encourages gags about it being a load of fromage, and equally brave to ...
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, National, The, October 2010
ONE OF THE MOST exciting breakthrough artists of 2010, Flying Lotus has been hailed as the Jimi Hendrix of his generation. Besides his own genre-blurring ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, October 2010
CURRENTLY THE hottest rising star of electronic music on both sides of the Atlantic, Steven "Flying Lotus" Ellison played his biggest London show so far ...
Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement Revisited
Retrospective by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, November 2010
"SHEFFIELD HAS ALWAYS had a bit of a maverick attitude," says Martyn Ware of evergreen electro-pop veterans Heaven 17. "It's the natural bolshiness of the ...
The Human League: Make A Date: Phil Oakey and the Human League
Interview by John Lewis, Metro, November 2010
NEARLY THIRTY years ago, as the Human League were about to become the biggest band on earth, we had a recession, a Tory government enacting ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: You Should Already Know: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Report and Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, November 2010
DESPITE BEING BORN into the choking, mechanized wasteland that was early '80s urban England (Dear Old Blighty had, sadly, become Dear Old Blighted.), ...
Overview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 18 November 2010
Ostentatiously intellectual and scornful of rock'n'roll cliche, the likes of OMD and Heaven 17 briefly set 80s pop alight – and now they're back in favour. ...
Deadmau5: O2 Academy, Bournemouth
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 9 December 2010
JOEL "DEADMAU5" ZIMMERMAN has turned facelessness into a brand, elevating his polished electro-trance anthems into a dazzling audio-visual spectacle that owes more to Kraftwerk or ...
LCD Soundsystem: Give It Up! Ten Reasons We Loved LCD Soundsystem
Comment by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.net, April 2011
On Saturday April 2, 2011, at Madison Square Garden, LCD Soundsystem gave it up for good. Here are Ten Reasons We Loved Them... ...
Blancmange, The Human League: The Human League: Credo/Blancmange: Blanc Burn
Review by John McCready, Word, The, April 2011
Shiny new albums by Blancmange and the Human League show they'll stop at nothing in the service of "electronic ideals". ...
LCD Soundsystem: Madison Square Garden
Live Review by Iman Lababedi, Rock NYC, 3 April 2011
JAMES MURPHY is Irish, so why not a wake? Following his decision to kill off the LCD Soundsystem franchise, lead singer Murphy announced a last hurrah ...
Brian Eno/Rick Holland: Drums Between The Bells
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, July 2011
IT'S HARD TO know what's more surprising: the fact a man approaching his mid-60s continues to release groundbreaking music in such quantities that this is ...
Björk: Is Björk the last great pop innovator?
Comment by Simon Reynolds, New York Times, The, 4 July 2011
EARLIER THIS YEAR I interviewed Amanda Brown of cult band LA Vampires and was surprised when she announced that "every day I wake up and ...
Art of Noise: The Art Of Noise: Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, September 2011
Innovative, sample-pioneering debut on CD at last. ...
Grimes, Laurel Halo, Maria Minerva, Stellar OM Source: Breaking Through the Synth Barrier
Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, New York Times, The, 7 October 2011
SUDDENLY IT SEEMS there are a lot more women twiddling those knobs than ever before. ...
Deadmau5, Portishead: Portishead: Hammerstein Ballroom/Deadmau5: Roseland, NYC
Live Review by Maura Johnston, Village Voice, The, 12 October 2011
AT A LIVE MUSIC event, your eye naturally is drawn to what's happening onstage: guitarists thrashing and sawing at the air, vocalists preening between yawps, ...
Cabaret Voltaire, Richard H. Kirk: Warp Records: Richard H Kirk looks back on a futuristic life
Report and Interview by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, 5 November 2011
RICHARD H KIRK spent much of his career waiting for the future. He remains a resident of Sheffield, a city with a rich tradition in ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, 15 January 2012
IT'S 2AM on Sunday morning in this club night, but Plaid are here to move minds, not feet. ...
Simple Minds: "Maybe we shouldn't have cashed in…"
Retrospective and Interview by Graeme Thomson, Guardian, The, 23 February 2012
A COUPLE OF YEARS ago a young, anonymous musician approached Jim Kerr in a Glasgow rehearsal studio and began humorously haranguing him. "He was like, ...
Profile and Interview by James Medd, Word, The, March 2012
Like David Byrne and Gary Numan, Ladyhawke suffers from Asperger's — a tough call in an industry based entirely on communication. ...
Pet Shop Boys: Format 1995-2009
Review by Jude Rogers, Word, The, March 2012
Pet Shop Boys' later B-sides — now compiled into a titillating album — offer an alternative narrative to the last two decades. ...
Live Review by Jude Rogers, Observer, The, 22 April 2012
HERE THEY come — the tiger-print leggings, the vest tops, the T-shirts soon to be removed. It is 8.40pm. This 80-year-old art deco venue in ...
Chvrches: New band of the week: Chvrches
Profile by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 26 June 2012
With their super-heavy brand of "Neon Gold pop", we have nothing but praise for this Scottish indie group. ...
The Human League: The Things That Dreams Are Made Of
Retrospective and Interview by Neil Mason, electronic, July 2012
Studios with leaking roofs, trips to new romantic clubs in a little Hillman Imp, and a heavy metal single recorded between sessions. They're all part ...
Report and Interview by Andy Gill, Independent, The, 21 July 2012
From Brooklyn to Glasgow, a new wave of musicians are choosing laptops over guitars as their instruments of choice, says Andy Gill. ...
The xx: Earthy & Complicated: The xx's Coexist Track By Track
Review by Luke Turner, Quietus, The, 21 August 2012
Next month, London trio The xx release their much-anticipated second album Coexist. Luke Turner takes you on a track-by-track guide through its eleven "far more ...
Skrillex: 100% Shock & Awe: Skrillex Blasts Tiny Venue
Live Review by John Calvert, Quietus, The, 29 August 2012
THE SCENE IN the Shacklewell Arms is fairly typical of any gentrified boozer in the Hackney precinct, come Sunday night. ...
Ultravox: Hammersmith Apollo, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, 28 September 2012
REFORMED BANDS almost always find it nigh-on impossible to recapture the musical glories they routinely summoned up in their pomp. Ultravox may be a unique ...
Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, November 2012
WHEN HANS-PETER Lindstrøm released Six Cups Of Rebel earlier this year, fans of the Norwegian producer might have wondered what they were putting in the ...
Laurie Spiegel: Resident Visitor: Laurie Spiegel's Machine Music
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2012
The experimental pioneer's groundbreaking work with computers in the '70s and '80s helped lay the foundation for many of today's electronic noise makers. ...
The xx: the xx: Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 14 December 2012
MODESTY, UNDERSTATEMENT and tasteful restraint have no place in pop music, an art form tailor-made for dysfunctional drama queens. Yet somehow the xx have backed ...
Metronomy: A Nice Walk With A Pop Star
Report and Interview by John Lewis, Do Not Disturb, Spring 2012
JOSEPH MOUNT IS discussing the title of his latest album, The English Riviera. "People abroad are a bit puzzled by England having a Riviera," he ...
Kraftwerk: Ladies und Gentlemen, the future has arrived
Retrospective by David Stubbs, Independent, The, 27 January 2013
To the unenlightened (i.e. most of us), they were just naff. Now, with good reason, they are hailed as prophets. David Stubbs hails synthpop pioneers ...
Kraftwerk: Autobahn at Tate Modern
Live Review by Paul Morley, Daily Telegraph, 7 February 2013
WHEN I SAW Kraftwerk 38 years ago, as much as they were about the future, I didn't think they would actually make it into the ...
Review by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2013
FOLLOWING 2011's mammoth stock-taking collection EPs 1991-2002, this new double-disc offering from electro pioneers Autechre emphasises that this most perpetually forward-thinking of groups is in ...
New Order: Lost Years in Original Modernity? On Listening to New Order's Lost Sirens
Retrospective by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, March 2013
THIRTY SEVEN Year Party People! Since Ian Curtis, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook began playing regularly as Joy Division in 1978, that's effectively ...
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, May 2013
DAFT PUNK'S FORTE has always been their sleek, glistening futurism, the sense of mischievous glee they take in the very textures of electronic sound. ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: From Kraftwerk to Craftsmen
Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, May 2013
They were just "two guys with a tape recorder and a name as long as the stage they were standing on", but Orchestral Manoeuvres In ...
Profile and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, June 2013
SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST, "the world's leading music industry event". Depeche Mode are onstage in a conference room at Austin Convention Center answering questions about the ...
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, 6 September 2013
After 15 years of glam-pop, the duo's new album sees them channelling the spirit of film noir. They tell Nick Hasted where the sequins went. ...
Crystal Fighters: Brixton Academy, London ****
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 24 November 2013
If you thought this sextet could only evoke Vampire Weekend and CSS, then think again: live, their passion can't be faulted ...
Metronomy: Old Market, Brighton
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, 30 January 2014
The band makes a euphoric homecoming loaded with new material that twitches and percolates like nu-rave Sly Stone ...
Fuck Buttons: F*** Buttons: The Barbican, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 28 April 2014
FEW BANDS can combine punishing volume, discordant drones and blood-curdling screams quite so joyously as F*** Buttons. Andrew Hung and Benjamin Power, the main attraction ...
Flying Lotus: Colston Hall, Bristol
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 10 June 2014
"BRISTOL, IT'S been a while," beamed the electronic explorer Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, as he welcomed an excitable young crowd to one of his ...
Underworld's Dubnobass... 20 years on
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 9 October 2014
THE PLAN, in the beginning, was that there was no plan. No album, no record label, no tours. Karl Hyde and Rick Smith of Underworld ...
Edgar Froese, Tangerine Dream: Edgar Froese 1944-2015
Retrospective by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages, January 2015
THE GUYS in Tangerine Dream — leader Edgar Froese, plus more than 20 others over the years — always gave us the silent treatment in ...
Marc Almond: Let's Talk About Death
Interview by Simon Price, Independent, The, 17 February 2015
Simon Price talks to the enigmatic singer about Soho, Soft Cell and mortality. ...
Giorgio Moroder: Dr. Love Machine
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, MOJO, May 2015
BETWEEN 1974 AND 1986 GIORGIO MORODER TRANSFORMED POP AND DISCO WITH A NEW KIND OF EUPHORIC MACHINE MUSIC. NOW, AFTER HIS 2013 SPOT ON DAFT ...
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages Audio, 22 November 2015
Iain, Martin and Lauren talk about how the band evolved; the development of their writing style; the influence of '80s electropop; dealing with the focus on Lauren, and the broad nature of their audience.
File format: mp3; file size: 30.2mb, interview length: 31' 29" sound quality: ***
Hudson Mohawke: Roundhouse, London ★★★☆☆
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, 11 December 2015
With synths that screech like air brakes and crushing, abrasive beats, a night of Mohawke's musical maximalism is both exhilarating and wearying ...
Various Artists: Close To the Noise Floor – Formative UK Electronica 1975–1984
Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 May 2016
THIS 4XCD BOX draws on electro-punk, industrial, synthpop, dark ambient, and more, including key early tracks from the Human League, Throbbing Gristle, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in ...
James Blake: "I'm the opposite of punk – I've subdued a generation"
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian, The, 5 May 2016
Kanye, Beyoncé, Drake and Frank Ocean have all been inspired by the unassuming Londoner's sound. Now he's coming of age with his new album, The ...
James Blake: The Colour In Anything
Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, 11 May 2016
"IN MY HEART, there's a radio silence going on," sings James Blake on the opening track of The Colour In Anything. It's an odd claim ...
Thomas Dolby: Godfathers of Pop: Thomas Dolby
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2016
BEFORE HE EMERGED as a pioneering figure of electronic music in the 1980s, Thomas Dolby wrote Lene Lovich's single, 'New Toy', appeared on the Thompson ...
Christine and the Queens, Jain: Christine and the Queens: A new French revolution
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Sunday Times, The, 10 July 2016
They are now the hottest name in pop. We talk to their leader about changing the industry. ...
Suicide, Alan Vega: A King Has Passed: Alan Vega Remembered
Retrospective by Tim Cooper, Quietus, The, 18 July 2016
BY THE SUMMER of 1978, punk rock had lost the power to shock. The revolution that had shot an amphetamine rush into a moribund music ...
Alan Vega: Infinity Punk: A Career-Spanning Interview With Suicide's Alan Vega
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 July 2016
Following the musical iconoclast's death at age 78 – an in-depth conversation from 2002 that includes tales of dangerous old New York, what it meant ...
Bon Iver: 'There are people who are into being famous. And I don’t like that'
Interview by Laura Barton, Guardian, The, 24 September 2016
Justin Vernon’s falsetto-folk infiltrated pop and caught Kanye’s ear but now he’s kicking against the fame game. For his new album, he explains why the ...
Essay by John Lewis, Guardian, The, 6 October 2016
A generation of jazz musicians has grown up with hip-hop in its blood. The result is the thrilling reinvention of a genre that has been ...
Marc Almond: "I've had the chance to be subversive in the mainstream"
Profile and Interview by Jude Rogers, Observer, The, 23 October 2016
With a career-spanning 10-album box set coming out, the Soft Cell star reflects on the '80s, Brexit and his fading love affair with London. ...
James Blake: O2 Academy, Bristol
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, Times, The, 1 November 2016
JAMES BLAKE has had a bumper year, guesting on Beyoncé's Lemonade album and releasing his own sublime third long-player, The Colour in Anything. ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, Guardian, The, 16 December 2016
Matt Healy lounge-lizards across the stage as his band charm the first of two sellout O2 crowds with sharp-edged, irresistible songs. ...
Review by Luke Turner, Quietus, The, 12 January 2017
In The xx's third full-length effort, Luke Turner finds an album seemingly more geared toward the televisions syncs that catapulted their once affecting minimalism to ...
MUNA's About U—an unflinching and unapologetic record of the lives of queer women the world over
Review by Pip Williams, Line of Best Fit, The, 6 February 2017
It's hard to review an album when your words just don't feel big enough. ...
Phoenix and the Flower Girl: New band of the week: Phoenix and the Flower Girl
Profile by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, 27 March 2017
The last ever New Band of the Week brings an appropriately phantasmagoric end to the column's 11-year run ...
Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan: "Why I don't understand my own band"
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 1 June 2017
WHEN NEIL TENNANT of the Pet Shop Boys was the assistant editor of Smash Hits, he made the following observation: ...
Burial: Why Burial's Untrue Is the Most Important Electronic Album of the Century So Far
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 26 October 2017
Delving into the politics, emotion, and musical history behind the disquieting masterwork a decade after its release. ...
Comment by Geoffrey Himes, Paste, 15 November 2017
Even as the tools of popular music evolve further from the analog to the digital, the spirit of the rock 'n' roll is as dangerous ...
Tangerine Dream: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by David Stubbs, Guardian, The, 25 April 2018
For their first UK show without founder member Edgar Froese, the synth pioneers enlivened their proggy ambience with techno, but still created the same cosmic ...
Review by Dave Simpson, Guardian, The, 4 May 2018
IN 2016, ELEANOR Friedberger spent a month in Athens, Greece, ending up in what the half-Greek American describes as an "'80s goth disco" – called ...
Nitzer Ebb: The return of pop perverts Nitzer Ebb
Retrospective and Interview by Luke Turner, Guardian, The, 3 January 2019
Loud, rude and flirting with fascistic imagery, Nitzer Ebb took synth-pop and sexual deviance to working class Essex. Three decades on, they're back – now ...
Billie Eilish: Academy, Manchester
Live Review by Dave Simpson, Guardian, The, 28 February 2019
A teenage talent not quite eclipsed by screaming fans: the LA singer had her young audience shouting her empowering lyrics as she worked the room ...
Billie Eilish: When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Review by Lisa Verrico, Sunday Times, The, 31 March 2019
HEAVENS, HOW teen pop stars have changed since Britney Spears tantalised dads in school uniform. The L.A.-born Billie Eilish wears what she wants, smiles as ...
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