Music and Electronic

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The xx - xx

10 Aug 2009

How many times have we heard the maxim ‘less is more’ rolled out for someone new just because they resist knocking everything up to 11? Too often, perhaps, but this bewitching debut starts barely there, and doesn’t get much more full on than that. A…

La Roux

9 Jul 2009

Good pop music is instant, but great pop music lasts forever. Elly ‘La Roux’ Jackson, with hair like a winsome gingerbread Mr Whippy, a voice like spun sugar and on the receiving end of more hyperbole than Cristiano Ronaldo, Kanye West and Susan Boyle…

The Rizla Riverboat Shuffle on the Waverley Steamer

Optimo and Melting Pot DJs play second set on board landmark Glasgow landmark boat

30 Jul 2010

David Pollock climbs aboard the Waverley Steamer as Melting Pot and Optimo set sail on another Rizla Riverboat Shuffle It wasn’t meant to be more than a one-off party in a unique location, but the DJs from Glasgow’s Optimo and Melting Pot nights had…

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…

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…

Emeli Sande - King Tut’s, Glasgow, Mon 15 Nov, 2010

Voice of UK rap-pop hits tours classically-styled soul material

23 Nov 2010

Acknowledging the fact there were representatives of London record labels in the house for this last date of a short Scottish tour, Aberdonian singer Emeli Sande seemed every inch the promising young singer-songwriter trying hard to make an impression.

Foals and Toro Y Moi set for UK tour

Five reasons to go see nu-prog double header

26 Oct 2010

For their lies, for their sweet little lies Foals (pictured) are not baby horses, we can tell you that. And Toro Y Moi is not a bull. The former is a Mercury-nominated art-rock quintet from Oxford. The latter is one Chazwick Bundick: a hazy…

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…

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…

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…

Pere Ubu, Mogwai, Thomas Truax and Zombie Zombie set for The Glasgow Music and Film Festival

17 Feb 2010

The Music and Film Festival is a strange beast, full of contradictions and tangents that threaten to pull apart its coherence, but ultimately make it the most exciting strand of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. Co-curated by the Arches, and featuring…

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…

Little Boots: Hands

28 May 2009

Much touted at the turn of the year, Little Boots has rather had her electro-pop fembot pixie thunder stolen by Lady Gaga, and this debut album doesn’t do anything to turn that around. Suitably retro of feel, with shadows of Yazoo, New Order and the…

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…

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…

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…

RockNess 2011: Bus times, line-up and stages

New stages, weekend highlights and travel times

27 May 2011

RockNess have laid on three brand new arenas for 2011. Firstly, the Rock’n’Roll Circus will showcase cutting-edge music and comedy talent from the likes of Jamie Woon and The Cuban Brothers. Secondly, Glasgow clubbing institution Sub Club will present…

Fever Ray

O2 ABC, Glasgow, Mon 6 Sep.

16 Sep 2010

The night begins in hushed anticipation as a somewhat reserved crowd await the arrival of enigmatic Swedish artist, Fever Ray – aka The Knife’s Karin Dreijer-Andersson – making her debut Scottish live appearance. Punctuated by the hiss of smoke machines…

Fever Ray set for first Scottish show

Dark, gothic electronica, with a creepy edge is what Fever Ray does best

20 Aug 2010

Picture a sunny, cloudless day in San Francisco; the streets are engulfed by thousands of brightly coloured bouncy balls, tanning down the road in a glimmering haze whilst accompanied by a sweetly picked guitar tune, sung almost like a lullaby. Ring any…

N-Dubz - Against All Odds

13 Nov 2009

(Universal) Despite musically approximating a holiday fling between Cascada and East 17, London’s cuddly rap anarchists N-Dubz have become the UK’s best-loved chart stars. Little wonder in light of Against All Odds: every chord progression and…

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…

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…

Timeline - Summer music festivals 2011 from Scotland and beyond

A chronological list of the best festivals in Scotland and beyond

27 May 2011

A chronological list of the most significant festivals happening in Scotland this summer, along with the biggest and best from the rest of the UK and beyond.

Interview - Battles' Ian Williams on the story behind Gloss Drop

Ian Williams on life and making music after four members became three

24 May 2011

While deeply ensconced in the making of their second album, Battles singer/guitarist Tyondai Braxton announced his departure from the band last year. The news hit fans keenly anticipating the follow-up to 2007’s math rock masterpiece Mirrored hard; as…

Die Antwoord - SWG3, Glasgow, 12 Nov 2010

Doing for post-apartheid South African underclass what punk did for UK guttersnipes

22 Nov 2010

With their fresh new Zef style, South African rap-rave crew Die Antwoord performed a high energy, jam-packed line up of catchy rap, indecent exposure and 'next-level-beats' from their debut album $O$. A crowd of expat South Africans, indie kids and…

Electro-hip hop insurgents Ratatat set for UK tour

‘Mogwai taught us how to drink beer like a professional rock stars’

16 Nov 2010

‘Mogwai taught us how to drink beer like a professional rock stars,’ says Ratatat’s synth‘n’bass extraordinaire Evan Mast. ‘We’d be lost without them.’ He speaks of a Japanese tour that united the rousing twain back in 2006: Mogwai the post-rock…

Bruce Haack - Farad (The Electric Voice)

15 Sep 2010

(Stones Throw) Listening to the bizarre, bewitching and above all unique work of ‘lost’ electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack, it’s tempting to trace his influence through Cabaret Voltaire, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and any number of psychedelic…

Pantha du Prince at Sneaky Pete's and Oran Mor

Minimal techno joins dots between alpine forest and the dancefloor

5 Aug 2010

‘A girl once crawled onstage behind me, and was constantly holding my trouser,’ shudders Germany’s Hendrik Weber, alias techno forager Pantha du Prince. What fate befell this tactile fan? ‘I explained it would be better for her to leave because I could…

Music festivals 2010: Ones to watch

28 May 2010

Unicorn Kid Aka Oliver Sabin – Edinburgh-based electronic wunderkind, this year playing festivals including T in the Park, Wickerman, Belladrum and Bestival Hudson Mohawke He makes super sweet futuristic jams. I loved last year’s album Butter. I…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

Interview - Mike Slott, Eclair Fifi and Machinedrum of LuckyMe

Glasgow DIY label set for Edinburgh Festival clubnight

8 Aug 2011

Mike Slott (producer) I met Dom [Flannigan] who runs LuckyMe in Borders Books. He was sneaking flyers into hip hop magazines. We got chatting, we liked similar music and in Glasgow if you’re into a certain kind of music, you bump into the same people…

Singles of the month: Blood Orange - Sutphin Boulevard

Radiohead, Seafieldroad, Bright Eyes, and more also reviewed

18 Jul 2011

It’s a good month for Scots musicians, both electronic and otherwise. Probably the best ever, in fact, for 24-year-old Aberdonian Emeli Sandé with ‘Heaven’ (EMI) ●●●●, her instantly recognisable, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’-like major label debut after…

A Midsummer Day's Dream brings Chris & Cosey to Glasgow Tramway

Bill also features Tut Vu Vu, Tristan Perich and Lucky Dragons

21 Jun 2011

‘None of us went on to do anything remotely industrial,’ pointed out Chris Carter in a recent interview. ‘We’d burned ourselves out of it and we didn’t want it to sound like [Throbbing Gristle].’ The truth of that statement will be evident at this…

Interview: Katy B on bringing everything to RockNess - including the kitchen sink

The chart-friendly, female face of dubstep

27 May 2011

‘When I was 13, listening to Choice FM, I would listen to a lot of R&B from America, and whenever a British person tried to do it, it didn’t really work, they just sounded like they were trying to copy that whole style. Now the music sounds British…

Interview - Ducktails set for UK tour

Exotic pop augurer Matthew Mondanile

24 May 2011

With Julian Lynch, Big Troubles Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Fri 3 Jun; Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sun 5 Jun Exotic pop augurer Matthew Mondanile, alias New Jersey DIY buff Ducktails, has a hedonistic day ahead. ‘I just woke up,’ he says from his Brooklyn…

Fovea Hex - Here Is Where We Used To Sing

10 May 2011

(Janet Records) The hidden past of Fovea Hex vocalist and focal point Clodagh Simonds is almost as colourful as her present on this beguilingly mysterious album of new songs supported by an ensemble – neither the words 'band' nor 'group' lend the…

Sound recordist/artist Chris Watson set for Edinburgh's Dialogues Festival

The ex-Cabaret Voltaire member sets up a sound installation at InSpace

21 Mar 2011

How do you go from being a core member of experimental electronic pioneers Cabaret Voltaire to becoming David Attenborough and Bill Oddie’s favourite sound recordist, with the odd radio documentary and installation for assorted sonic arts festivals…

Leftfield, 2ManyDJs, Swedish House Mafia and Calvin Harris join T in the Park 2011

More dance acts added to 2011’s already impressive festival line-up

16 Mar 2011

Leftfield have been announced as headliners in the Slam tent at this year’s T in the Park, while the dance line-up gets even stronger across the weekend as Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris, 2ManyDJs, Felix da Housecat, Benga & Youngman and Silicone…

Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel

Compelling and gorgeous debut of eerie and astral electronica from Glasgow duo

11 Feb 2011

This gorgeous debut from Glasgow duo Conquering Animal Sound is draped in eerie, astral electronica, iridescent guitar ripples and heavenly, disembodied vocals. Evoking the pastoral machine music of Mice Parade and Múm, and fusing it with DIY pop and…

The Streets - Computer & Blues

Possibly final album is sound of an era’s voice wringing out last words

8 Feb 2011

(679) After nearly a year off for family reasons, this allegedly final long player from The Streets is more full of focused energy than its disappointing precedent Everything is Borrowed. It’s not all perfect, as Mike Skinner’s liking for…

Daft Punk - TRON: Legacy OST

Sense of melancholy and creeping doom pervades perfect retro-futurism pairing

15 Dec 2010

(EMI) There’s as much hype and hyperbole around Daft Punk’s TRON: Legacy score as there is around the film itself. Putting aside the massive media assault that is now building around the Disney sequel, the hiring of the Parisian electronic dons for…

Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite

24 Jun 2010

(Parlophone) There is so much goodwill aimed in the direction of the Antipodean pop princess, she is permitted to release an average album every so often. And All the Lovers is an extremely average album. It starts brightly enough with the title…

Sensu, Monox, Jackhammer and Substance reinforce Scottish techno scene

31 Mar 2010

Scotland has always been a stronghold for techno clubbing. Clubs like Pure, Atlantis and even Rez have become legendary, and this fortnight is particularly strong for fans of hard electronica as techno-heads are spoilt for choice with some seriously…

Dam Mantle launches debut EP

29 Mar 2010

Dam Mantle is the alter-ego of musician and artist Tom Marshallsay, who releases debut EP, Grey, on new Glasgow label Halleluwah Hits this month. A kaleidoscopic mix of melodic samples, jittery beats and post-dubstep bass mutations, Dam Mantle’s tunes…

Music In The Digital Age

Technology's impact on the artform

2 Oct 2009

To paraphrase the Creme Egg adverts, when it comes to music, how do you hear yours? Streaming over the internet? Nicking stuff from torrents on the web? A bag full of goodies from Fopp? Crates of obscure vinyl from your local specialist…

Ratatat

31 Jul 2008

Specialising in the art of bleeps and blips Ratatat are an electronic duo (Mike Stroud and Evan Mast) hailing from New York City harnessing synths and other machinery for a funky take on electro. Having toured with the likes of Bjork, Daft Punk and CSS…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

Richie Hawtin announces Plastikman live show for Glasgow Barrowlands

Sat 3 Dec date for Hawtin's live techno show

18 Jul 2011

One of the true innovators of techno, Richie Hawtin, will be bringing his live Plastikman 1.5 show to the Barrowland in Glasgow on Saturday 3 December 2011. One of only three UK dates, this hugely ambitious live electronica show was last seen in…

Fake Eyelashes - A Little Bit of Bread and No Cheese

Melancholic laidback affair fronted by Katy Lironi

13 Jul 2011

(Creeping Bent) Katy Lironi’s pedigree as a chanteuse dates back to C-86 swoonsters Fizzbombs followed by a stint fronting bubblegum stompers The Secret Goldfish. This latest vehicle for Ms L’s sublime cooing is an infinitely more laidback affair.

Brian Eno - Drums Between The Bells

Soundscapes accompanied by spoken-word passages from contemporary thinker Rick Holland

13 Jun 2011

(Warp) Featuring the words of poet and contemporary thinker Rick Holland, Drums Between The Bells isn’t so much a collection of songs as a series of soundscapes accompanied by spoken-word passages, here uttered by nine people, including actress…

Ferry Corsten, Eddie Halliwell and Pete Tong among highlights of Coloursfest 2011

10th anniversary of Scotland’s only dance-focused festival

30 May 2011

This year is the tenth anniversary of Scotland’s only dance-focused festival, and they’re throwing a little party. Who’s got the cake? And the Buckie? And the poppers? A ten thousand-strong sell-out for six years running, Coloursfest isn’t for the faint…

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…

Mount Kimbie interview

Dom Maker from Mount Kimbie chats dubstep and something called 'emo-step'

20 Apr 2011

Mount Kimbie manage to sedate you whilst still making you want to move. Rather than having you hurtle head-on into the sweaty masses like any old ‘dubstep’ club night, the London-based duo of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos’ deliciously concocted rhythms…

Hercules & Love Affair - Andy Butler interview

Andy Butler on new album Blue Songs ahead of their gig at Death Disco

3 Mar 2011

Andy Butler is feeling tired and emotional, and he’s blaming his airline for it. ‘I think BA played a trick on us and didn’t turn out the cabin lights the whole transatlantic flight. “No, we just turned them on because we’re serving food,” said the…

Found - Factorycraft

Edinburgh trio come of age on third album

1 Mar 2011

(Chemikal Underground) There’s an advert on TV just now, it’s for some fancy car or other. Its slogan is ‘machines cannot make art’, or words to that effect. Clearly its boxy manufacturers have never encountered the organic mechano-pop of FOUND. For…

Den Haan - Gods From Outer Space

Glasgow duo deliver debut to match electrifyingly sleazy live sets

1 Mar 2011

(Courier of Death) It’s taken them a while to get down to it, but Glasgow duo Den Haan (Matthew Aldworth, aka Crème de Menthe, and Andy Gardiner) have finally arrived with the debut album their electrifyingly sleazy live sets have promised. Beginning…

Faust screened with new score by Alex Smoke

1926 silent film's new score performed by The Scottish Ensemble

11 Feb 2011

At 85 years old, director FW Murnau’s Faust remains one of the most visually arresting films in the history of world cinema. Murnau’s last German production divided contemporary audiences and lost a lot of studio money with its retelling of the…

Twin Shadow set for UK tour

Slick, icy blast of danceable melodies make for magnificent moody New York pop

14 Jan 2011

The past few months haven’t been too terrible for George Lewis Jr, who makes unsmiling, magnificent synthpop gems under the alias, Twin Shadow. November: release debut album Forget to rapturous reviews. December: hire little place in snowy upstate New…

Randan Discotheque's Heather the Weather - Single of the Month

Singles & downloads January 2011

14 Jan 2011

The humanoid is often wracked with existential angst at the turn of the year. This malady will be aggravated by the latest release from Sandi Thom. One is likely to suffer unyielding conundrums like: why has this single been released? And: why has Thom…

Hercules and Love Affair - Blue Songs

3 Jan 2011

(Moshi Moshi/Cooperative) Within the first few seconds of this sophomore album, Andy Butler’s New York-based disco-house collective have achieved Objective A: to lose the one-hit wonder tag after the deservedly monumental success of ‘Blind’ in 2008.

Metronomy to release second album 'The English Riviera' and play UK tour

Joseph Mount and revitalised Brighton-based electro-pop band on 2011 tour

23 Dec 2010

‘I wanted to work with Girls Aloud’, says Metronomy’s electro-sage Joseph Mount. ‘I mentioned it a lot in interviews. One fifth of my dream came true.’ Mount has recently written and recorded with GA’s Nicola Roberts (‘she’s a well-seasoned…

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…

LCD Soundsystem on Hot Chip, Glasgow Barrowland and breaking the cycle - James Murphy interview

'I don’t know what’s going to happen for the first time in five years. It’s exciting to be confused'

3 Nov 2010

‘There’s a right way and a wrong way to play Glasgow,’ says LCD Soundsystem founder and frontman James Murphy. And he should know. His band’s excursions to the Barrowlands (‘my favourite venue in my favourite city in the world’, the New Yorker assures…

Robyn - 02 ABC, Glasgow, Mon 18 Oct 2010

Sweden's electro dissident triumphs with precision electro-pop anthems

2 Nov 2010

From her beginnings as a 90s teen-pop icon to her 00s domination of the hipster blogosphere, Sweden’s electro dissident, Robyn, has beaten a colourful path to stardom. She’s in Glasgow, replete with windmills and excessive strobe-lighting, while touring…

2010 Le Weekend bows out with Faust, Murcof and Tarwater

Pioneering Stirling experimental music festival also hosts Ben Frost, Bill Wells and John Butcher

6 Oct 2010

Since its inception in 1997, Le Weekend has brought a remarkable range of beautiful and challenging music to Scotland. ‘The idea of an experimental music festival, and also the idea of a festival in Stirling, was quite unique,’ says Alastair Campbell…

Jean Michel Jarre looks to Arthur C Clarke for 2010 tour

French musician seeks to reintroduce vision and passion to the future

10 Sep 2010

The problem with setting books and films in a not-too-distant future, is that it inevitably arrives. Whether it’s the dystopian nightmares of Escape from New York (set in 1997), A Clockwork Orange (1995) or Orwell’s 1984, the pitfalls awaiting any…

Scratcha DVA and The Blessings lined up for Cloak X Dagger set

Edinburgh Grime and bassline night gets busy

7 Sep 2010

‘People always say Edinburgh crowds are behind the times, but they’re really not,’ says Cloak X Dagger’s co-promoter, Ema Johnson. ‘They’re really up for it and they’re interested in good music. You know, everyone has the internet now anyway, it’s…

Rubadub records celebrate 18th birthday with Jeff Mills at the Sub Club

Pivotal Glasgow record shop brings Detroit techno legend to Sub Club

23 Jul 2010

‘In any city that has an important musical movement happening, there’s always a hub, like a really influential record shop or club or something like that,’ says Jack Revill. ‘As far as shops go, Berlin’s got Hardwax, Detroit has Submerge and Glasgow’s…

Will.i.am set for UK DJ tour 2010

30 Jun 2010

Name Will.i.am Occupation He’s in some band, The Black Eyed Peas, you might’ve heard of them … So what’s he doing in the club section? BEP are headlining the Radio 1/NME Stage at T in the Park and Will’s heading straight to Glasgow…

Field notes from Rock Ness 2010

Niki Boyle's reflections on Rock Ness

15 Jun 2010

So here’s some notes I took for my pen-and-paper analogue blog (anablog? No, probably not) from Saturday at Rock Ness. Ah, the memories. 9.57am: On the shuttle bus, drinking covert beers when a fellow bus patron is overheard saying, ‘Get the cello…

Scissor Sisters set for Glasgow Barrowlands show

10 Jun 2010

Scissor Sisters Jake Shears and the gang are back, following up 2006’s ridiculously successful Ta-Dah with third album Night Work. It’s a dance record, but not completely electronic, with Shears promising that the band dynamic will shine through…