Electronica

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…

Inspiration, stylings and getting bored - Hot Chip interview

1 Feb 2010

Back with an album packed with real instruments, hymns to male friendship and informed by increasingly grown-up personal lives, Hot Chip are maturing into a proper band. Rumour has it that the mighty Hot Chip have gone a bit soft. They’ve never been…

Exposure: S-Type

Homegrown beat-maker launches EP at Mixed Bizness

24 Nov 2010

Bobby Perman’s new single on Scottish label Phuturelabs isn’t his first, but it does signal a change of musical direction under his production alias S-Type. The Edinburgh-raised, Glasgow-based brother of Dougal (who runs Radio Magnetic, where Bobby…

Why the Beats & Cubes show is the square root of live electronic music - Etienne de Crecy interview

Square Pusher

1 Feb 2010

Henry Northmore is spellbound by French producer Etienne de Crecy’s new ‘Beats & Cubes’ live show. Etienne de Crecy is an outstanding DJ and producer. Born in Lyon, it was a move to Versailles, where he attended Jules Ferry College with Air and…

Beirut/Realpeople - March of the Zapotec/Holland

5 Feb 2009

FOLK/ELECTRONICA Ever since he quietly elbowed his way onto the 2006 end of year polls of several critical organs with debut Gulag Orkestra, there’s been intrigue surrounding Zack Condon and his peculiar combination of Eastern European party music…

Human League, ABC and Heaven 17

27 Nov 2008

SYNTH-POP ELECTRONICA When David Bowie watched Human League play an early gig in 1979, he said he’d just seen ‘the future of pop music’ and their sci-fi, deadpan brand of electronica was ‘like listening to 1980’. Almost 30 years later, with synth-pop…

Dialogues

13 Nov 2008

Informatics: it’s the future. This study of ‘the structure, algorithms, behaviour, and interactions of natural and artificial computational systems’ has been around since 1957, when German computer scientist Karl Steinbuch coined the word, ‘Informatik’.

Various - Sub Club: 20 Years Underground

22 May 2008

ELECTRONICA (Soma) To continue the Sub Club’s 20th birthday celebrations, Subculture’s Harri and Domenic and Optimo’s Twitch and Wilkes (the Subbie’s longest-serving residents) have been invited to compile an album which reflects the music policy that…

Kyon & Dyems - Overnight

10 Apr 2008

HIP HOP ELECTRONICA (Crystal Wish) Kyon & Dyems are enigmatic Edinburgh-based brothers who, on this quality showing, would put most major label hip hop acts to shame. This debut album, recorded on a budget, is nevertheless brimming with ideas…

CocoRosie - Grey Oceans

21 Apr 2010

(PIAS) Remember trip-hop pantywaists Sneaker Pimps? Disconcerting swathes of this fourth long-player from CocoRosie will jog your memory if need be. Thankfully the US-born, Paris-based sisters’ foray into cry-baby drum’n’bass is bedimmed by a collage…

Autechre Oversteps tour includes Glasgow date - Sean Booth interview

25 Feb 2010

The new album just kind of made itself, really.’ That sounds like a pretty glib statement from Sean Booth, one half of Warp-signed electronic experimentalists Autechre, alongside Rob Brown, the kind of thing you hear from any band which plays the music…

Exposure: Laki Mera

30 Nov 2009

Laki Mera, are a Glasgow five piece with a singular take on cinematic trip hop atmospherics who don’t really fit into any particular corner of the Scottish music scene. Their album. Clutter, was released as a download in 2007. They’ve more recently…

Substance

Edinburgh electronica evening

2 Oct 2009

Techno night Substance has been importing and promoting cutting edge electronica in Edinburgh since its inception and now they take things to the next level for their third birthday. Appropriately featuring three guests: loud and abrasive beats with a…

The Orb

Ambient electronica legends in Glasgow

1 Oct 2009

The Orb brought ambient to the masses. The brainchild of Dr Alex Paterson the band emerged from the early house scene, manning the decks at Paul Oakenfold’s Land of Oz in 1988. ‘We split £90 between us when we did the six-hour chill out sessions. Our…

Ballers Social Second Birthday Party

3 Sep 2009

Spend two days in the company of Ballers and LuckyMe as they celebrate their second birthday. And it’s a bumper line-up of warped hip hop, leftfield dubstep and wonky electronica featuring the likes of Jamie Vex’d (live), Darkstar, Rustie and The…

Fuck Buttons

Avant-garde, post-rock, sweary sorts come to Glasgow

3 Sep 2009

Experimental electronica meets squalling fuzzy post-punk in the hands of the wonderfully monikered Brighton duo Fuck Buttons. Signed to ATP Recordings expect discordant synths, freaked-out vocals, slabs of drone rock and crashing waves of blissful…

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…

The Foundling Wheel

6 Aug 2009

Solo experimental electronica from Edinburgh as The Foundling Wheel lay down a set of abrasive beats, deep spooky vocals, ‘noise-saturated mountains of programmed polyrhythms and bit-crushed distortion’. Enfant Bastard and Asthmatic Astronaut join The…

Cruiser - Happy Robots:Programmed to Love You

23 Jul 2009

Despite a touring schedule which might fairly be described as minimal, Fife’s long-serving Cruiser are still criminally under-rated. So anything that gets the gospel out there – particularly a well-realised remix version of their last album Happy…

Various - Soma Coma Vol III

23 Jul 2009

Glowing ambient melodies here invite you to get horizontal, maybe stare at something moving in slow-motion, and zone out. A soft, melodic flip-side to the label’s techno and electro releases, it’s best enjoyed in one long spaced-out chunk, like an aural…

Profile: Mark Farina

9 Jul 2009

Occupation Chicago house master. Chicago you say? He’s certainly not the first quality DJ from that neck of the woods Very true – Chicago has a place in the hearts of anyone who loves real house music. Farina counts Derrick Carter among his friends…

Battant

9 Jul 2009

Signed to Paris’ Kill the DJ label, sometime home of Optimo’s own How to Kill the DJ (Part 2) mix, Battant are a class above most other bands of their ilk. Look to lead singer Chloe Raunet for the reason why, her jeans, plain white T-shirt and cropped…

Numbers

25 Jun 2009

The trailblazing stargazers from Glasgow’s Numbers are throwing a party to celebrate a milestone of significant arithmetical value. Six years ago they arrived on the scene, bright eyed and bushy tailed, unwittingly setting new standards in a clubland…

Labels of Love - Crystal Wish

11 Jun 2009

Based in Edinburgh Roster 7VWWVW, Kyon & Dyems, Albaross, Spells Tower, The Kittens Bosses Crystal Wish is an artist-run group, not ‘a typical company as such’; 7VWWVW’s (pronounced ‘Mammal’) Nick Munro is just one of the group involved in…

RBRBR, Yoshi and Supersonic Sims

14 May 2009

Another new night, another line up of new musical contenders and Edinburgh’s Supersonic Sims are clearly an eye and ear-catching new talent, although not quite the finished article. With bold images of the singer plastered across the video screen in the…