Electronic

Interview: Friendly Fires plan to get the crowds dancing at RockNess 2012

Ed Macfarlane on festivals, pop music and dancing ‘like an idiot’

28 May 2012

Friendly Fires blur the lines between indie and dance music, so their brand of punk funk should fit in perfectly at RockNess. Hailing from St Albans in Hertfordshire they were nominated for the Mercury Music prize for their debut eponymous album, which…

Summer Festivals 2012: Death in Vegas - interview

A chat with Richard Fearless ahead of his RockNess performance

25 May 2012

As British music finally dragged itself out of a post-Britpop hangover around the turn of the century, Death in Vegas were among the most quintessential of festival bands. 1999’s The Contino Sessions and 2002’s Scorpio Rising were staples of any…

Summer Festivals 2012: Best dance music live shows

Which of this year's superstar DJs have visuals to match their beats?

25 May 2012

Picture the scene. Dusk has fallen on the festival site. Tens of thousands of inebriated and euphoric festivalgoers have assembled at the main stage. They’re waiting for the headliner, whooping and hollering in anticipation. Then it happens: a guy…

Interview: Jakwob prepares for his live show at RockNess 2012

The dubstep producer talks remixes, Rocky and RockNess

23 May 2012

Young dubstep producer and DJ Jakwob (aka James Jacob) favours a jazzy take on bassy electronica. He first appeared on most people’s radar with his squelchy remix of Ellie Goulding’s ‘Under the Sheets’ and has since gone on to remix Lily Allen, MIA and…

Tim Hecker / Wounded Knee / Matthew Collings

Pilrig St Paul's Church, Edinburgh - Sat 19 May 2012

23 May 2012

Anyone au fait with Sacred Music, BBC 4's two-series trawl through the history of choral worship, from plainchant to polyphony and beyond, will be as versed in the integral relationship between music and church architecture as they are with presenter…

Com Truise set for UK tour

Live interpretations of Galaxy Melt album with synth and drums

23 May 2012

Okay, so imagine if Blade Runner was not set in a dark, dystopian, fetid, sweaty, neon shoe-box version of LA and instead was transposed to a glaring and perma-tanned Miami of the future, drowning in UV rays, Day-Glo colours; a city as one giant…

Austra set for UK tour

Toronto electro-goth-pop six-piece take Feel It Break on the road

22 May 2012

Having rated spine-tingling coldwave-disco banger ‘Lose It’ as one of our favourite songs of 2011, The List are big fans of this Toronto electro-goth-pop six-piece based around one-of-a-kind Latvian-Canadian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist…

5 Reasons To Go See . . . 100% Silk tour

LA Vampires, Ital, Maria Minerva, Magic Touch and Innergaze team up for electronica tour

22 May 2012

1. Find out what all the fuss about Run by one-half of the husband and wife team behind the experimental Not Not Fun label, Amanda Brown’s more dance-orientated, LA-based offshoot is barely over a year old but has already enjoyed plaudits from FACT…

Auntie Flo - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sun 13 May

Club-friendly house beats with a world music undercurrent

22 May 2012

It’s a foul Sunday night and getting late, with the hour moving near to midnight when Glasgow duo Auntie Flo take their place behind a pod of trestle tables loaded down with kit and cables. The flickering projection behind them bears the legend ‘Night…

Ultravox - Brilliant

Dull and pompous record from the no-longer-relevant Ure and co

22 May 2012

Does the world really need another album, the first in 26 years, from the ‘classic’ Midge Ure-era Ultravox – a group of negligible lasting impact on music even at their mid-80s arena synth-pop zenith? The Trade Descriptions Act-violating Brilliant is…

Miaoux Miaoux - Light of the North

Gloriously melodic dance-pop in the vein of Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx and the Avalanches

22 May 2012

This is a perfect example of how good pop music can be if it’s driven by a restless intelligence. Miaoux Miaoux, aka Julian Corrie, has been turning heads with his distinctive electro-pop sound for a while, but this first album for Chemikal Underground…

Hot Chip - In Our Heads

The elctro-pop masters' fifth album is their most smartly accessible effort to date

21 May 2012

Every self-appointed creative with a WTF haircut and a MacBook thinks they’re an ‘electronic artist’ these days. But there’s more to it than bedroom-recording cry wank vocals over presets and dropping them to Tuesday night cheek-chewers. Hot Chip’s…

Ride the RockNess Express - train details

The Express will pick up festival goers from London, Birmingham, Derby, York and Newcastle

8 May 2012

As part of the Year of Creative Scotland, RockNess are offering a unique (and environmentally friendly) way to the festival site on the banks of Loch Ness. Picking up passengers from London, Birmingham, Derby, York and Newcastle before dropping them off…

Eye o’ the Dug - St Andrews, Sat 14 & Sun 15 Apr 2012

Fantastic bill featuring Django Django, Malcolm Middleton and more

27 Apr 2012

They may have quadrupled the size of their show, and conscripted beefcakes to man the doors, but the spirit of Fence chiefly prevailed at the inaugural Eye O’ The Dug – a musical hoopla which (kind of) filled a Homegame-shaped hole in the calendar (and…

The Sunshine Underground - King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, Mon 16 Apr

Energetic indie-electro-rock from the Leeds trio

26 Apr 2012

There's something different about The Sunshine Underground. Maybe it's their strange mix of electronica, grimy bass and echoing vocals. Maybe it's their somewhat unorthodox recording methods (they once put drummer Matthew Gwilt in a tent to get a 'big…

Five reasons to go and see Tim Hecker

The electronica artist is appearing at church venues in Edinburgh and Glasgow in May

23 Apr 2012

1. Celebrate the death of rave At least according to Hecker’s new album: the wonderfully-titled Ravedeath, 1972, a lush assembly of droning, dream-like electronic soundscapes which builds upon the work he’s been creating for the last two decades, both…

Madonna - MDNA

Album with producers Benny Benassi, Martin Solveig and William Orbit

18 Apr 2012

Kudos to 53-year-old Auntie Madge not for delivering a classic album, but for having the sheer brass she-balls to turn out a record that’s as clubby, sexy and designed for the dancefloor after midnight as any she’s produced. A nod and a wink to naughty…

Julia Holter - Tragedy

Celestial drones, mesmeric synths, ambient noise and unearthly vocals

18 Apr 2012

(Night School) Perhaps you read that album title and started hollering the Bee Gees song or god forbid, Steps. Thank the stars, then, for LA composer and minimalist pop diviner Julia Holter, who will banish your garish disco horrors with celestial…

Auntie Flo - Future Rhythm Machine

Highlife's Brian d’Souza delivers debut album of electronic music

18 Apr 2012

(Huntleys + Palmer) He coyly describes this as not being a full-length debut album and points to the fact it predates his debut singles ‘Highlife’ and ‘Oh My Days’, but as one of Glasgow’s foremost new electronic producers Auntie Flo (the recorded alias…

Lone - Galaxy Garden

UK producer's fourth album draws on Detroit techno, Chicago house and 90s rave

18 Apr 2012

(R&S) Impressively, given Matt Cutler is still only a relatively tender aged 27-year-old, ‘Galaxy Garden’ is actually his fourth album recorded as Lone. However, in something of a musical departure from its hip hop, 80s boogie and rare groove-inspired…

Interview: Grimes - Electronica artist

The Canadian musician shares the intense creative process that spawned new album Visions

16 Apr 2012

The stunning future pop masterpiece Visions by Claire Boucher aka Grimes is inspired by Enya, Japanese anime, TLC and Aphex Twin and samples Renaissance composer Palestrina. Her dream? To be Timbaland and Lydia Lunch simultaneously and leave a mark on…

Interview: Ben Sims gets ready for RockNess 2012

The techno DJ/producer among names added to festival bill

13 Apr 2012

DJ Ben Sims has been announced for 2012’s RockNess festival, where he joins Soma Records on the Arcadia UFO stage. With over 20 years of DJ experience, running his own Theory label (among others), he’s renowned for his DJ skills using vinyl, CD and…

Tinderbox Orchestra, Teviot Debating Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 25 March 2012

Successful 'classical electronica' experiment

11 Apr 2012

If there’s a slight school concert style to Tinderbox Orchestra’s Teviot show – word processed programmes, arts and craftsy venue design, uniform dress and branded music books - it’s quickly blown into another realm by stunningly executed…

Interview: Andrew Weatherall set for RockNess 2012

Esteemed DJ and producer on A Love From Outer Space and festivals

30 Mar 2012

Andrew Weatherall is just one of the new announcements for 2012’s RockNess line-up where he’ll be joining Soma Records who are taking control of the new Arcadia UFO. It’s a Scottish Festival exclusive as he’s joined by Sean Johnston as they present an…

RockNess 2012 hosts Hudson Mohawke at Sub Club 25 year celebration

Dave Clarke, James Holden and Andrew Weatherall among dance picks

30 Mar 2012

RockNess today confirmed not only a plethora of new acts for this June’s festival, but a whole new stage designed for hard partying aficionado’s of dancefloor devastation, all in celebration of Sub Club Sound System’s 25 year anniversary. The Arcadia…

Blanck Mass - School of Art, Glasgow, Sun 18 Mar

Fuck Buttons' Benjamin John Power's intense ambient electronica

27 Mar 2012

In comparison to Fuck Buttons, his and Andrew Hung’s punishing drone-techno crucible, Benjamin John Power’s solo project Blanck Mass makes music that manages to recreate the elegia and emotional power of club-ready electronic music with none of the…

Electropop duo Uh Huh Her to play Arches

The band consists of ex-Mellowdroner Camila Grey and ex-The L Word star Leisha Hailey

26 Mar 2012

Let’s get it out the way: Leisha Hailey was in The L Word. For anyone unfamiliar with the Showtime series (presumably you have been living under a rock on the outskirts of the lez community? Welcome. And get a boxset.), Hailey played quirky…

Trance act Above & Beyond to play set at Barrowland

Tony McGuinness sees trance music as a form of 'group therapy'

26 Mar 2012

Some dismiss trance as lowest common denominator dance music but for many it’s the epitome of club culture: the big build-ups, the huge breakdowns, glo-sticks, lasers and Gatecrasher kids. Whatever the critical reception, trance is wildly popular. Only…

New Edinburgh venue The Third Door launches mini-festival Qabalala

26 Mar 2012

In the past month it’s seemed there’s been precious little to get excited about on Edinburgh’s clubbing and live scene, but let’s put the hand-wringing to one side for a few paragraphs and remember that people are still out there trying to get things…

Batida - Batida

African-inspired electronica record that probably works best in a club setting

8 Mar 2012

(Soundway) Having carved out a reputation for unearthing rare tracks of touchstone Latin musics, Soundway now champions hot sounds heard today on the streets of Luanda. Angolan/Portuguese DJ Mpula (aka Pedro Coquenão) creates electronic dance music…

Creamfields 2012 line up announced

deadmau5, Avicii, Tiësto, David Guetta and Skrillex confirmed for dance music fesitval

5 Mar 2012

deadmau5, Avicii, Tiësto, David Guetta and Skrillex have been announced as headliners at one of the UK’s biggest dance music festivals this year. Creamfields 2012 will take place at Daresbury in Cheshire from Fri 24–Sun 26 Aug, and will also feature…

Dub/electronic/experimental act Hype Williams to play Glasgow's SWG3

The London duo marry a shadowy stage presence with engaging tunes

29 Feb 2012

The List once saw Hype Williams perform entirely hidden behind a white bedsheet. It was like a Poundstretcher version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall but with an added fug of skunk. The duo, Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, revel in this sort of batshit chicanery…

VCMG - Ssss

Vince Clark and Martin Gore minimal techno album is great fun

28 Feb 2012

(Mute) For many, the news that Vince Clark and Martin Gore were making minimal techno together seemed the perfect coda to the screenplay-like story of their respective musical lives. The former Depeche Mode bandmates’ last musical contact came in…

Gary Numan announces UK tour

The 'Cars' singer will pull over in Glasgow on Wed 23 May

9 Feb 2012

Electronica icon (and licensed aircraft pilot) Gary Numan has announced a full UK and Ireland tour to take place this summer, in celebration of his new album Machine Music: The Best Of Gary Numan. The tour features just one stop in Scotland, at the O2…

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Electro-folk and French lullabies bring weepie and comedy moments

3 Feb 2012

Celtic Connections’ Hazy Recollections sessions are great for two main reasons. Firstly, they provide a gathering place for the legion of those with beards and plaid shirts. Secondly, you get to see just how far the festival’s remit of ‘folk, roots and…

M83 - The Arches, Thu 19 Jan

Revered French electro act let down by bad sound

3 Feb 2012

The problem with eagerly anticipating a show for any great length of time is that you always leave yourself open to disappointment if things don’t live up to your expectations, such is the way with live music. Sold out weeks in advance, M83’s…

GFF 2012 - Italo-horror artist Umberto

The soundtrack specialist fits comfortably into the Glasgow Music and Film Festival strand

1 Feb 2012

Horror-score revivalist Matt Hill channels the creepyass compositions of Goblin, John Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi in his eerie synthjams, conjuring up a sonic witches brew. A member of drone-merchants Expo 70, Hill has, in his Umberto guise, explored the…

Steven Severin: Vampyr - Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Jan

Ex-Banshees bassist delivers brooding live score to 1930s horror classic

1 Feb 2012

The man with the flowing white hair walks towards a small table and chair to one side of the Cameo’s big screen. Sporting a long black winter coat and carrying a glass of red wine, the man looks as if he’s stepped in from another, altogether darker age…

Azari & III - Azari & III

Credit due delivering a straightforward house music manifesto with compelling four-to-the-floor forc

1 Feb 2012

(Island) This self-titled debut is actually a major label re-release of an album that, until recently, was widely available as an import – including on Spotify. It’s getting a reboot in the UK in CD form (you remember CDs right?) though really the…

GFF 2012 - Silver Apples set for Glasgow Music and Film Festival

Live set from the cult 60s space rock pioneers

27 Jan 2012

When Simeon Coxe III took a 1940s vintage oscillator onstage with him to liven up the psych-rock band he fronted, sparks flew to the extent that half the band left, and, with only drummer Danny Taylor in tow, Silver Apples were born. With their name…

The high energy, high concept dance-rock of Justice is French through-and-through

To these new gods of French electronic music, we say Salut!

27 Jan 2012

The hair; the crotch-hugging denim; the ‘tude - everything about Justice’s demeanour screams metal. And with good reason. The band, comprising Xavier de Rosnay (monobrow, flaired nostrils) and Gaspard Augé (hair of Robert Plant, moustache of a Deep…

Machinedrum - sXlnd

Inventive release taking in UK funky, smooth old-school house and sophisticated club tracks

27 Jan 2012

(LuckyMe) A five-track EP rather than a full-blown album, there’s nonetheless a long player’s worth of sonic invention on the latest from Travis Stewart, running the gamut from UK funky to smooth old-school house with an understated Balearic edge.

Biffy Clyro, Deadmau5 and Mumford & Sons announced for RockNess 2012

Justice, Metronomy, Noah & the Whale and Death in Vegas also confirmed

26 Jan 2012

Scottish rock titans Biffy Clyro and dance kingpins Justice and Deadmaus have been announced as acts set to play RockNess 2012. The festival which will take place at Dores on the banks of Loch Ness on Fri 8–Sun 10 Jun, will also feature performances…

Preview of 2012 - Errors

Rock Action's math-rock heroes return home

6 Jan 2012

The Glasgow band have been reduced from four to three as their guitarist has left to become a full-time dentist (leaving Steev Livingstone to get to grips with his six string again). Yet, despite this setback new album Have Some Faith in Magic (Rock…

Friendly Fires - Barrowland, Glasgow, Tue 20 Dec 2011

Triumphant end of year show from the St Albans indie-ravers

6 Jan 2012

2011 didn’t quite belong to Friendly Fires, as some had predicted it might, but they owned significant parts of it off the back of their euphoric second album Pala – not least the flying feet and skyward waving arms of a few summer festival crowds. The…

M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming combines ambient roots with pop sensibilities

We reassess the albumprior to Frenchman's upcoming UK tour

6 Jan 2012

The Associates’ Alan Rankine once opined that the best way to make an album is to ‘start with a climax, then go further.’ It’s a maxim that Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez – an Antibes-born, LA-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with an idiosyncratic…

Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic

Superb third album that should push the foursome out of Mogwai's shadow

6 Jan 2012

(Rock Action) Lazily regarded as Mogwai-lite for most of their seven year existence, Errors’ third offering finally sees the Glasgow foursome shrug off the shackles of their legendary label founders’ early patronage. Anyone with half a brain could…

Eat, sleep and breathe with Fránçois from Fránçois & the Atlas Mountains

A questionnaire about food and the touring musician

6 Jan 2012

Fránçois Marry is fuelled by a combination of herbal tea, techno, chocolate and Cognac – in varying quantities, depending on where the tour van is stopping that day... What time is breakfast? 7am at the hotel before a long drive. Tea or…

Exposure: Dead Boy Robotics

Edinburgh's avant synth-pop outfit, who released their self-titled debut album in November on Tape

6 Jan 2012

The name Dead Boy Robotics must be an obscenely cool reference to an obscure sci-fi tome, right? No, they came up with the name all by themselves. It fits pretty well as it happens; they describe their sound as an amalgam of ‘laptop bleeps, synth…

The Big Pink - Future This

Second electro-pop offering let down by over-egged desire to be anthemic

6 Jan 2012

(4AD) It’s easy to assume that London duo Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell’s oft-scrutinised industry connections have earned them their breaks while ignoring the fact that the dark, feedback and effects-swathed element of their music honours 4AD’s goth…

Single of the month: Trailer Trash Tracys ‘Candy Girl / Strangling Good Guys’

Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys and more also reviewed

5 Jan 2012

Music snobs love to flame Florence and the Machine these days. But as ‘No Light No Light’ (Island) ●●●● proves, Welch does epic, pagan pop pretty much perfectly. Her only crime is that lots of people now like it. They’d no doubt sneer at the recent…

Aeroc – R+B=?

Geoff White's minimal techno alterego saves his best material for last on new album

5 Jan 2012

(Ghostly International) Previously known for minimal techno releases on the likes of Traum, Force Inc and Psytrax, US producer Geoff White adopted the Aeroc moniker for more experimental offerings, resulting in 2004’s Viscous Solid album. Seven…

Best of 2011: Clubs

The best sets and gigs, including Plastikman, Ivan Smagghe and Bloody Beetroots

19 Dec 2011

Andrew Weatherall & Ivan Smagghe. Karnival’s fifth birthday featured vinyl vs computer hardware in a delicious back-to-back set that meshed in all the right places for a dynamic and unpredictable set that kept both DJs and clubbers guessing. Karnival…

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 32: Remember Remember interview

Graeme Ronald’s complex compositions get the full-band treatment

16 Dec 2011

‘Steve Reich on acid,’ is how one List critic described Graeme Ronald’s second album as Remember Remember, released this year. True, it has Reich’s trademark repetition – albeit combined with melodies that could only be Scottish – but Ronald is unsure…

Numbers discuss the club/brand's New Year plans

Hogmanay celebrations in both Edinburgh and Glasgow lie ahead

13 Dec 2011

It’s been another good year for Glasgow’s ever-growing clubbing export Numbers. So big, in fact, that they need a whole three cities to contain their send-off to 2011. First they’ll be warming up with a set at Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s the night before…

Jonnie Common - Mono, Glasgow, Sun 27 Nov 2011

Triumphant show from the skilled electronica musician and friends

13 Dec 2011

In August Jonnie Common, founder of the now defunct trio Down the Tiny Steps, released his debut album Master of None. In real terms, the event passed without a great deal of fanfare and yet critical acclaim was heaped upon Common by those lucky and…

Eat, sleep and breathe: Discopolis

The Edinburgh electronic pop act on their eating habits

13 Dec 2011

What time is breakfast? Usually sometime after lunch... Fergus is an early bird though. Tea or coffee? Laurie can’t do without his green tea, Dave will have an occasional sip of a Darjeeling and Fergus can’t get enough builders’ brew. Smoking or…

Plastikman Live 1.5 - Barrowland, Glasgow, Sat 3 Dec

Spectacular live performance by the techno artist

9 Dec 2011

The abundance of older faces among the Barrowlands crowd suggests that many could well have been present for Richie Hawtin’s first appearance at the venue, a DJ set as part of Pure’s Hogmanay celebrations in 1994. How things have changed. Returning…

DJ Shadow - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Mon 5 Dec

Stunning live show continues to break new ground

9 Dec 2011

For innovation and impact, genre-mashing LA turntablist DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis, has never bettered his entirely samples-based 1996 debut Endtroducing... But his visually stunning live shows continue to break new ground, and prove DJ sets can be just…

Jonnie Common - Hair of the Dog

Common's debut Master of None yields a just-as-good set of muso-buddy remixes

8 Dec 2011

(Red Deer Club) Jonnie Common’s debut album Master of None: a record so good he actually got two albums out of it. This remix package is more of an appendix to the original than a cohesive new creation in its own right, but its roll call of some of…

Tunng - This is Tunng: Live from the BBC

Warped magic of eccentric east London glitch folk collective

7 Dec 2011

(Full Time Hobby) With a line-up alteration or two, eccentric east London collective Tunng have gone from glitchy cut and pasters to singalong folksters. Their This is Tunng compilation features bouncy numbers (‘Jenny Again’, ‘Bullets’) from 2010’s…

Korn – The Path of Totality

Blistering new dubstep direction from the nu metal overlords

25 Nov 2011

They’ll forever be known as ‘the godfathers of nu metal’, but on Path of Totality Korn have taken a massive side step. Sure the guitars are still heavy as hammers but they’ve gone dubstep. And we’re not talking the odd breakbeat this is a full on…

FareWell Poetry / Matthew Collings / Hiva Oa / Opul, The Third Door, Edinburgh, Mon 14 Nov

Carefully crafted multi-media, poetry-meets-noise and guitar assaults

18 Nov 2011

Salsa class is cancelled tonight, according to the blackboard outside what used to be after-hours hippy student dive Medina, but which now looks intent on filling the DIY boho gap that the Roxy Arthouse and The Forest once occupied so randomly. The…

David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time

The iconic director's latest foray into music has great moments but an overdependence on filler

16 Nov 2011

(Sunday Best) The dark cinema of David Lynch needs no introduction, nor does the music in his films – whether the work of composer Angelo Badalamenti or his use of older pop songs. Who could forget Dean Stockwell lipsyncing Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams…

Little Dragon on UK tour

Swedish electro-pop quartet and Gorillaz collaborators take third album Ritual Union on tour

16 Nov 2011

You’d expect a band to delight in having artists from Gorillaz to DJ Shadow and Big Boi beating their door down to work with them – especially if they’ve hitherto existed in relative obscurity. But while Little Dragon find it ‘super exciting’ to have…

Com Truise - profile

Seth Haley (under his synth-pop pseudonym) gears up to play Sneaky Pete's

16 Nov 2011

Who: No, not the one married to Hatie Kolmes. Com Truise is the alias of Seth Haley, the New Jersey based producer behind this summer’s sublime Galactic Melt; his debut album, and one of this year’s finest, most addictive electronic synth-pop…

Various artists - Songs For Dying

Vibrant collection of tunes exploring noise genres from techno to metal

16 Nov 2011

(Pjorn 72) The local Noiserati and associates’ recent reclaiming of their techno and/or metal roots helped their clan avoid a nihilistic dead end. As this bumper fifteen track compendium of clings, clangs, sci-fi slapstick, sepulchral drones…

Interview: Hudson Mohawke

The electronic producer on big name collaborators and doing his own thing

9 Nov 2011

At last, the world seems to be catching up with Hudson Mohawke. It’s been two years since the Glasgow-bred, London-based producer released his debut album Butter on the mighty Warp Records, largely to recognition only from listeners of a truly…

Richie Hawtin resurrects iconic Plastikman persona for world tour

DJ and producer on the makings of his audio-visual spectacular

9 Nov 2011

Richie Hawtin is one of the most high profile DJs and producers working today, with activities incorporating several record labels, software and hardware products and a globe-spanning tour schedule. Known for distinctive and intense DJ sets, it might…

Interview: Richie Hawtin - Plastikman Live 1.5 tour 2011

Full transcript of interview with minimal techno producer and DJ

8 Nov 2011

Live music concert seems inadequate term to describe your current live show. What exactly is this thing you do now? Well live music exists somewhere between music, theatre and circus right? You're there to entertain and grab the people. I think what…

Interview - Max Cooper

Respected electronica producer and DJ set for Kollektiv show

3 Nov 2011

Max Cooper first came to the attention of clubbers and electronic music fans with his ‘Serie’ trilogy on Traum Schallplatten in 2009, each track inspired by a different mathematical or scientific concept. Since then alongside his own productions he’s…

Meursault and Happy Particles - Glasgow Science Centre, Sun 9 Oct 2011

Science meets creativity for a night beneath the stars

28 Oct 2011

Ever the fan of showcasing musical talent in the most unusual of circumstances, Detour teamed up with Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) for two shows during their Capture Space weekend. Held in the planetarium inside the centre, Detour selected two bands per…

Ever been to a silent disco with a Chinese dragon?

25 Oct 2011

Ever explored a museum at night? Ever had a cocktail surrounded by thousands of years of history? Ever been to a silent disco with a Chinese dragon? Thanks to the support of RBS and The List, the National Museum of Scotland is bringing you an exclusive…

Azari & III - Don't call them house revivalists

Toronto-based act favour Roland drum machines, crisp piano loops and emotional lyrics

21 Oct 2011

Is it too soon for a house music revival? That’s the question The List is mulling over ahead of speaking to self-proclaimed ‘house music aficionados’ Azari & III. The Toronto-based band, comprising producers Dinamo Azari and Alixander III and vocalists…

Bjork - Biophilia / Dirty Projectors & Bjork - Mount Wittenberg Orca

Embracing innovative on niche experimental curio by a huge artist

20 Oct 2011

(One Little Indian/Domino) It’s clear that Iceland’s premier musical export has no interest in writing another ‘Big Time Sensuality’ or ‘Violently Happy’ to please the casual listener, but these almost simultaneously released new albums demonstrate…

Active Child - You Are All I See

A lovely and welcoming debut of choral shimmers and electro pulses

20 Oct 2011

(Vagrant) Linda Ronstadt; Jon and Vangelis; the Chariots of Fire soundtrack – all this and we’re less than a minute in to Active Child’s debut album (and title track) ‘You Are All I See’. The electro-dreamy conduit of bygone choirboy Patrick…

Rob Hall & Chick Lyall - Blithe Spirit

Melodic compositions combine jazz, classical and folk

20 Oct 2011

(FMR Records) Hall and Lyall are familiar figures on the Scottish jazz scene, and their third duo recording reveals an even greater refinement in their thoughtful, inventive music. Their melodic compositions combine jazz, classical music and a touch…

Music for Airports: An appreciation by John Foxx

The artist, electro pioneer and friend of Brian Eno the now classic work

19 Oct 2011

I first heard Music For Airports in [legendary krautrock producer] Conny Plank’s studio, as Brian was making it. Christa [Fast] and Inge [Zeininger] were assistants at the studio. Brian roped them in to sing. I thought it was a great idea. I thought…

Remember Remember, Miaoux Miaoux - Glasgow Science Centre, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Fantastic electronica double-bill in impressively apt surroundings

19 Oct 2011

It’s a simple enough idea. Two nights of live music (Saturday and Sunday) inside the Glasgow Science Centre planetarium, with the performances broken up by lectures from Simon, the centre’s laser pen-wielding resident stargazer. Simple but brilliant.

Summer Camp - Welcome To Condale

Seeped in nostalgia and one of the smartest synth pop romp of the year

19 Oct 2011

(Apricot Recording Company/Moshi Moshi) Summer Camp’s music is seeped in nostalgia, but the London duo pay homage to the past cleverly; their 1980s’ teen flicks-inspired debut thankfully free of the usual pitfalls of cynical pastiche and straight…

Koreless - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sun 9 Oct 2011

The youthful, bright-eyed dubstepper takes centre-stage at Sneaky's

19 Oct 2011

Lewis Roberts may only be just about old enough to attend a club, but judging by this appearance he certainly understands what’s required to keep the customers satisfied. Still in his teens, this Glasgow-based Welshman has patented a form of lazy…

Born to Be Wide - The musician's guide to music videos

Music seminar offers advice for making and promoting music videos

18 Oct 2011

Don’t know your PPL from your VPL? Couldn’t tell your ISRC code from your elbow? Born To Be Wide is here to help. For any musician looking to make the leap from local pub gig to, well, basically anything that will make you any money, a little bit of…

Justice - Audio Video Disco

Highly enjoyable electro-rock from the Parisian duo, if notably less serious than earlier efforts

17 Oct 2011

(Ed Banger/Because) Hip Parisian electro label Ed Banger’s leading lights aren’t the first dance artists to make like rock stars – see The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and fellow French duo Daft Punk among others. But between their wiggly synth…

John Foxx & The Maths - Interplay

Cold synth masterpiece from the electro-pop pioneer

12 Oct 2011

(Metamatic Records) Now a real-life silver Foxx, the pushing-60 electro-pop/clash pioneer and former vocalist with Ultravox before Midge Ure made them rubbish might just have found his time. This retro-future compendium of detached, dystopian…

Profile: Moritz Von Oswald

Rare live show from minimal techno pioneer in association with club night Animal Farm

6 Oct 2011

This Saturday sees one the most important and legendary figures in electronic music, Moritz Von Oswald, play a rare, pre-Subculture live set with Tikiman, organized jointly by Animal Farm and the Sub Club. An established percussionist for the likes of…

Glasgow Science Centre takes a Detour

Ally McRae and David Weaver organise a special event with Remember Remember, Meursault and more

29 Sep 2011

Ever think that science wasn’t cool (despite the well-mannered, be-jumpered protestations of Brian Cox)? Well, Detour Scotland beg to differ. The video makers/radio pesterers/off the wall gig organisers, set up by Radio 1’s Ally McCrae and long-term…

5 Reasons to go to EH1 LIVE

The capital's new one-dayer features The Dykeenies, Jakil, The 10:04s and more

21 Sep 2011

1. Welcome to Edinburgh It’s that time of year again. Students are back, a new bunch of freshers are unleashed upon the bright lights of the big city, and while this new one-day, one-ticket-accesses-everything festival doesn’t cover all of the city’s…

Clubbers' Decktionary: Chiptune

DJ Hobbes guides us through clubbing's myriad genres

19 Sep 2011

Chiptune proper noun. aka 8Bit, Bitpop, Bitcore, Nintendocore Any tempo but generally fast (ie 130-180bpm), the sound of 8-bit and 16-bit micr-chips from classic arcade games from the late 70s and early 80s, hand-held computer games from Nintendo and…

Cabaret Voltaire's Alternative Freshers' Week

A list of reasons to attend the week-long club extravaganza

19 Sep 2011

SBTRKT Welcome to Edinburgh, say Cab Vol, as they introduce nine big student specials in a row. Allow us to take you through who’s appearing, starting with Young Turks-signed London producer Aaron Jerome, aka SBTRKT, playing at Sugarbeat. The…

Eastern Promise brings live music and record fair to Platform, Glasgow

To Rococo Rot, Tarwater and Conquering Animal Sound

14 Sep 2011

The second Eastern Promise builds on the good work of last year’s festival by bringing an admirably eclectic bill of Scottish and international acts to Easterhouse. Underground pop legends The Pastels play their first show in over a year on the Sunday…

Remember Remember - The Quickening

A shimmering and optimistic tour de force from Scottish composer and pop genius

14 Sep 2011

(Rock Action) Once upon a time there was a super electro-prog combo called Multiplies. They came from Glasgow, made like rock miscreants and then they were gone, leaving memories of marvellous live shows and the sense they were always too good to be…

Interview: Gary Numan - First Word

The legendary electronica artist on sausages and ape-populated planets

25 Aug 2011

First record you ever bought A Hank Williams Jr. album for my mum. Last extravagant purchase you made I bought a dirt buggy a couple of years ago. First film you saw that really moved you The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston in it.

Electric Frog September Weekender 2011

Frankie Knuckles, The Fall, Jeff Mills, Mogwai, and Joe Claussell feature in stellar line-up

25 Aug 2011

Whoever chose to carry out some large-scale maintenance at their Eastvale Place business premises on the last weekend of July has inadvertently done Glasgow’s clubbing fraternity a favour. It might have meant the planned Electric Frog Summer Weekender…

Clubbers' Decktionary: Cosmic

DJ Hobbes guides us through clubbing's myriad genres

25 Aug 2011

Cosmic (disco) adj/proper noun. aka Afro Cosmic, also Space Disco. Originally an highly eclectic, mid-tempo (9-105 BPM) style, which nowadays generally exhibits a lot of space, reverb and echo/delay in the production, bubbling synths, delicate keys…

Crate digging: London Elektricity picks 5 top tracks

Hospital Records head returns to Xplicit

24 Aug 2011

From the 1976 Big Terror Movie Themes album, Geoff Love & His Orchestra ‘Three Days of the Condor’ (Music For Pleasure) is an amazing piece of lounge dirty funk. I was Geoff Love’s roadie on his tour of Gibraltar in 1986. Along with the orchestra’s horn…

Soma Records: 20 Years

Three CD celebration pack of hits and resurrections

24 Aug 2011

(Soma) As ‘the UK’s longest-running dance label’, so they tell us and we’re inclined to believe, Soma (the releasing arm of production duo Slam, the guys who pitch that pointy blue tent at T in the Park every year) continue to occupy a place…

Penguin Prison - Penguin Prison

Crisp, revitalising debut album that is both retro and relevant

24 Aug 2011

(Stranger) Penguin Prison have just gone and nailed that curious talent of producing music rooted in retro sound, whilst also making it utterly relevant. This self-titled debut album features swathes of synth flooded in 80s sheen, but there’s enough…

Wesseltoft Schwarz - Duo

Norwegian ‘nu-jazz’ guru and techno producer make ambient jazz-meets-dance

24 Aug 2011

(Jazzland) The combination of piano and laptop computer would once have been pretty much the exclusive preserve of the free improv end of jazz, but Norwegian ‘nu-jazz’ guru Bugge Wesseltoft and techno producer Henrik Schwarz bring their collaboration…

Crate digging: Gary Beck picks 5 great tracks

Producer releasing on Soma, Drumcode, Minus and Bek Audio

16 Aug 2011

Gary Beck is one of the younger artists signed to Soma (he also has releases on Drumcode, Minus and his own Bek Audio) and he joins Slam and Animal Farm at the Edge Festival’s annual Soma Night as part of the Glasgow label’s 20th birthday celebrations.

A guide to the music genre Footwork

Clubbers Decktionary

16 Aug 2011

Footwork aka [Chicago] Juke (see also [Detroit] Jit, Shangaan electro) proper noun: so-called because of the associated dance crazes – essentially a contemporary form of break dance; wildly uptempo (140–170 BPM), characterised by syncopated beats…