Electro

Electro DJ Jimmy Edgar

Detroit DJ Edgar shares the concept behind fourth album, Majenta

22 May 2012

Celebrating his recently released fourth album, Jimmy Edgar’s forthcoming Berkeley Suite show is the finale of Palace Promotions’ recent programme of club events aimed at representing the city’s ‘present and future musical character’. In contrast to the…

German house DJ Tensnake - interview

The DJ is set to play Musika, Heavy Gossip and Ultragroove's 12-hour bank holiday party

18 Apr 2012

Events like this usually happen in Glasgow. But Musika, in association with Heavy Gossip and Ultragroove, are giving something back to Edinburgh, presenting 12 hours of house and electro spread over three stages. Showcasing some of the best live…

Electric Frog Easter Weekender - Glasgow, 23-24 Apr 2011

Francois K and Erol Alkan top festival's expertly curated line-up

6 May 2011

It's an exciting time for Glasgow-based micro-festival Electric Frog, the city’s lively weekender of electronic music. Not only does it have both an Easter and summer outing this year for the first time, it's also expanding from a day-long to a…

Luxury Car - When I Was Good

Unique and inventive brilliance of second album is striking from the off

11 Feb 2011

Biphonic Records is known predominantly for introducing us to some of the most inventive Scottish pop around – namely works by Swimmer One and Seafieldroad over the years. Makes sense then that John Robertson, aka Luxury Car, should join forces with the…

Confusion is Sex

12 Aug 2010

Things are always a bit strange at Confusion is Sex, and here they take a turn for the even weirder as CiS host a ‘Hentai Tokyo Party’ for a dose of cortex searing neo-gothic Japanalia as drag acts, Manga erotica, the Kamikaze Girls, burlesque and more…

The Final Night of Club R-P-Z

23 Jun 2010

‘R-P-Z has been the best thing I have ever created,’ says the night’s founder, promoter and resident Hushpuppy, ‘and the most fun I have ever had at a club night, with all the best friends I have ever met. Far more fun that any one person could ever…

The house that Jaxx built - Basement Jaxx interview

10 Sep 2009

From the home front, Basement Jaxx have been uncharacteristically quiet for the last three years. They’ve kept out of view, retiring into studious production mode and, while they say they never went away, they can’t deny they have, at least, been…

Calvin Harris

10 Sep 2009

The Dumfries born disk jockey and all round music maestro is riding high on the success of his latest album ‘Ready For The Weekend’ charting at number one in the UK, cementing his position as the premier recording DJ in Britain. His first album, the 80s…

The Juan Maclean

A reminder of just how exhilarating live music can be

18 Aug 2009

This was always going to be good one. ‘Jesus, this place is small’ says production lynchpin John Maclean confronted by a wall of 100 bodies in a packed-out Sneaky’s. With four people, a drumkit and half a dozen synths crammed onto a tiny stage, and…

Seth Troxler

3 Aug 2009

‘Once upon a time, Satan shat out a crystal, squeezing it through a body cavity resembling Chinese-restaurant pork. That crystal, glowing red with embers, was Seth Troxler.’ It’s certainly an interesting way to start your offical bio. Now based in…

Frankmusik - Complete Me

23 Jul 2009

Twenty-three-year-old Vincent Frank dropped out of art and fashion school before becoming a very decent beatboxer, then a remixer, and now a popster. This, his first album takes the high-energy hooks of Swedish hyperpop, fizzes them up with falsetto…

Dolby Anol

25 Jun 2009

Sticking to their ethics Sick Note is still free entry whoever their guest might be, so it’s great to see Dolby Anol turning in a DJ set this fortnight. Their jerky, glitchy but instantly accessible brand of electro is certainly making waves as Glasgow…

Balkanarama

11 Jun 2009

It’s a full on fest of Balkan beats and gypsy jazz as Balkanarama hosts a big midsummer party in both cities. With live music (from Erdogan Orkestra, Kuchke and Black Cat); DJs for a fusion of electro, gypsy punk and reggae; belly dancing, pipers, jam…

Zoo MuZik

11 Jun 2009

B*Licious and GK Machine (pictured) stir up the wildlife with their new night of hot sweaty dance beats. Taking in acid, electro funk, tribal disco, ‘hippie freakout beats’ and more besides, this second date has a guest set from Chris G of Soft Rocks, a…

Cobra Starship - Garage, Glasgow, Thu 22 May

28 May 2009

This has been a long time coming for New York City-bred tykes Cobra Starship. Their last two dates in Glasgow were postponed, so third time lucky – it seems. It appears they may have booked the wrong venue however, with the crowd akin more to a youth…

Pressure

28 May 2009

Each time Pressure releases its monthly line-up it’s hard not to be impressed as the Slam and Soma team gather together another embarrassment of riches. Rooted in the world of techno, they are happy to embrace their house and electro brethren, and of…

Ladyhawke

14 May 2009

‘Well, it’s basically me just flying through the air, shooting cats, avoiding cats, and trying not to die,’ grins Pip Brown, abashedly. Better known as one-woman vintage pop behemoth Ladyhawke, the quietly-spoken, congenial New Zealander is detailing…

Danny Howells

14 May 2009

Musika continue to corral some of the best names in house and electro as Danny Howells brings his Dig Deeper roadshow to Edinburgh. He’s held down residencies at the likes of Renaissance, Bedrock and The End with mixes for Global Underground and his own…

Polly Scattergood

30 Apr 2009

POP/ELECTRO The wispy, diminutive Brit School graduate may seem ill-suited to the sweaty, underground musk of Sneaky Pete’s – what with her sparkling blue dress, poofed out at the bottom, and her ever so sweet, ever so timid greetings – but behind…

Peaches - I Feel Cream

30 Apr 2009

ELECTRO ROCK Toronto’s gap-toothed, potty-mouthed electro-punker is back, and although album five is not Peaches’ most energetic or hardcore, there’s still plenty to like. It’s weird to hear the lady who once sang ‘Fuck the Pain Away’ now in New…

Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care

30 Apr 2009

ELECTRO If Junior Boys’ first album, Last Exit was a colour, it would be icy blue. Cool, glassy art-electro with a sulky sexiness proved the Canadians to be a electro-pop force to be reckoned with. Five years later, third album Begone Dull Care has…

Dan Deacon - Bromst

19 Mar 2009

ELECTRO More complex, euphoric and chaotic than ever, Dan Deacon’s follow-up to Spiderman of the Rings is his showpony. From the home of weirdo electro-noise, Baltimore, the oversized specs wearer is worshipped like a demi-god at live performances…

Friday Night Takeaway

5 Feb 2009

Miranda Ralston and Angie Koorbanally believe that Friday nights are where it’s at clubbing wise. The duo, both Arches employees and Octopussy and Death Disco workers, are the brains behind Friday Night Takeaway, a one-off night in conjunction with…

Exposure: Ben Butler and Mousepad

5 Feb 2009

The geeks will inherit the earth. So it was prophesied that men wearing big glasses and bright jumpers, and carrying around portable Yamaha keyboards in their backpacks, would come to replace posturing rock stars as the myspace heroes of a new…

Profile - The Unabombers

5 Feb 2009

Name: The Unabombers Also known as: Mancunian duo Luke Cowdrey and Justin Crawford. Occupation: Premiership electro-funk producers, remixers and DJs of longstanding vintage. You might know them in their other guise, Elektrons, who are heavier on…

Exposure: zZz

30 Jan 2009

Let's get the bad out of the way first: zZz are from Holland, they have a name that sounds like sleeping and their music has appeared on a car advert (and surprisingly also a Japanese mayonnaise commercial, although that's neither here nor there).

Dead Boy Robotics

22 Jan 2009

Two fellas from Edinburgh construct something wonderful out of the dance/ noise/punk/electro sound they’ve been building. Seeing that this gig is part of the Cab’s Duty Free sessions this live set at Sick Note will be free entry and the resident DJ team…

Moby - Last Night Remixed

20 Jan 2009

With the success of Go - The Best of Moby: Remixed, Moby’s sixth album has also been given the remix treatment. The likes of D.Ramirez, Freemasons and Shapeshifters have all contributed to an album that although varied in the number of people remixing…

M83 - Saturdays=Youth

20 Jan 2009

ELECTRONIC/DREAMPOP (EMI) As special guests on the UK tour of Kings of Leon and support act for The Killers US Tour, M83 have felt it appropriate to re-release their album which was met with critical acclaim first time round but little in the way of…

Depeche Mode announce new album Sounds of the Universe

15 Jan 2009

Depeche Mode are to release new studio album, ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ on April 20, 2009 on Mute. Recorded in Santa Barbara and New York with Ben Hillier, the band returned to their pioneering electro roots, using a lot of vintage analogue synthesisers…

Exposure: Den Haan

18 Dec 2008

At the best of times, a live slot at Glasgow’s trailblazing, cross-genre club night Optimo is to be prized by any band. Even more than that, though, a gig at the club’s Hogmanay Party is the Holy Grail. One of the bands to have hit the jackpot on the…

Dolby Anol

11 Dec 2008

ELECTRO ‘It seems like everywhere else cares more about us than Glasgow, especially Europe and London,’ says Graham Peel, one half of Glaswegian DJ and production duo Dolby Anol. He’s laughing, but he’s got a point. In their home city, the pair are…

Jon Savage - Dreams Come True: Classic First Wave Electro 82-87

11 Dec 2008

ELECTRO After disco went saccharine and mainstream, producers returned to the stark optimistic futurism of the blueprint to make a new music, the spirit of which would later reach the mainstream via Madonna and the Pet Shop Boys. Jon Savage is a…

Trost - Trust Me

11 Dec 2008

ELECTRO POP The sound of Berliner angst then, is a woman saying over and over and over again how things are wrong. Her shoes are wrong. Her apartment is wrong. Her cheap lipstick is wrong. That particular track, then, is entitled ‘I Was Wrong’.

Heartbeat

11 Dec 2008

Electro, Italo-disco duo Heartbreak (British producer Ali Renault and Argentinean singer Sebastian Muravchik) recently scored a full five stars for their debut album Lies in this very magazine, where we described their sound as akin to ‘the Scissor…

The Prodigy

27 Nov 2008

ELECTRO ROCK Fierce – a horrific word for ‘cool’, that’s for sure, but totally accurate if you’re describing a new Prodigy album. When The List catches up with Liam Howlett in a New York hotel room, days before the completion of the long-awaited new…

Dialogues 2008

18 Nov 2008

University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, Sat 15-Sun 16 November. The interior of Edinburgh University’s just-built Informatics Forum on the site of the old Bristo Square car park is a retro-futurist delight resembling the set of some minimally…

James Pants

2 Oct 2008

ELECTRO Now if you reckoned Arctic Monkeys was a ridiculous moniker, try James Pants for size. Being named after an undergarment, however, hasn’t stopped critics and bloggers falling over each other to heap shed-loads of praise on this smart…

Friendly Fires

18 Sep 2008

ELECTRO SHOEGAZE It’s quite probable that pens and keyboard fingers across the land have been itching to write/type the phrase ‘new wave of new rave’ for at least a year now, so might The List endeavour to jump in before anyone else gets there.

Wrong Island

4 Sep 2008

‘Last month, a guy from London came up to us and said, “this is exactly what I remember the old Basement Jaxx parties being like”,’ says Teamy, co-promoter and DJ at Sleazy’s finest basement party since it won itself a late licence. ‘That’s just what…

Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel

14 Aug 2008

ELECTRO (Infected) The cover art sums them up nicely: Late of the Pier are a heady pastiche of their influences. They flip from the sticky rock-fuzz eccentricism of Muse to the nostalgic clunk of Gary Numan’s vampiric electro, and back again, without…

Profile - Andrea Parker

3 Jul 2008

Name: Andrea Parker Occupation: Sister, doing it for herself. Doing what, exactly? Building and maintaining a reputation and currently moving swiftly towards the status of ‘esteemed’ with a career in leftfield electronica that stretches back a…

The Ex-Men - A Life of Love

3 Jul 2008

SPOKEN ELECTRO (Beanstalk Records) At first, I took this to be a spoof. Why else would anyone rhyme ‘expressionism’ with ‘jism’? What possible other reason could there be for someone to warble ‘a word is a picture/made out of sound/a sound you can…

Padded Cell & Cut Copy

19 Jun 2008

NO-WAVE ELECTRO/ELECTRONIC POP Optimo, Sub Club, Glasgow, Sun 22 & Sun 29 Jun If you like going out in Glasgow on a Sunday night and were born with any taste at all, you’ll know all about Optimo. Do we need to tell you yet again why we love it so?

The Presets - Apocalypso

19 Jun 2008

ELECTRO (Modular) ‘When I was young,’ declares the first verse of the very first song on this album, ‘I was a star amongst zeroes’. That’s a good start. With their sophomore record, Sydney’s Presets once again declare themselves as something like the…

Dopplereffekt

5 Jun 2008

TECHNO/ELECTRO Numbers at the Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 6 Jun It seems curiously prophetic that a track named ‘Alleys of Your Mind’ would inspire the young James Stinson and Gerald Donald to form Drexciya, who would eventually become recognised as one…

Feist

8 May 2008

One of the founding members of Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene and former flatmate of Peaches, Leslie Fiest is now best known for that video ‘1234’ as featured so ubiquitously in the iPod advert. However this takes nothing away from the simple…

Radioactive Man

8 May 2008

Another high quality guest at Inner City Acid as Radioactive Man puts in a live set of wonky techno and freaked-out electro showcasing his new album, Growl. As one half of Two Lone Swordsmen (alongside Andrew Weatherall) he knows his way round a…

MSTRKRFT

24 Apr 2008

ELECTRO Art of Parties at the Arches, Glasgow, Sun 27 Apr What they do is very 2001 in its electro simplicity, but there’s also something about the music of MSTRKRFT (pronounced ‘Masterkraft’) which isn’t likely to go out of style any time soon.

IAMX

24 Apr 2008

ELECTRO-GOTHIC POP King Tut’s, Glasgow, Mon 31 Mar ‘Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!’ The Deutsch kitsch musical number from Cabaret is the perfect aural backdrop for IAMX (the demonic brainchild of ex-Sneaker Pimp Chris Corner) to take to the stage.