Mark Roland

Sleep-deprived – thanks to a flight that required getting out of bed at three in the morning – is probably the best way to discover a new city

Which may well be the case, but when Wire’s Colin Newman also claims he’s a rubbish solo artist we just have to step in. Exhibit A? the lovingly reissued trio of his extraordinary 80s solo albums…

Caught in the slipstream of a killer synth score for the TV event of the year, one half of S U R V I V E, A little-known synth band from Texas, and 100 per cent the ‘Stranger Things’ soundtrack composers, we communicate via fairy lights with Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon

Dada, Hugo Ball’s quirky anti-art movement that inspired bands galore, celebrates its centenary this year. From 1916 and Zürich’s Cabaret Voltaire in 1916 to 2016 and the return of Yello, we squint at the cogs inside this cuckoo Swiss concept

There was no single unifying event for the formative UK electronica scene, no point when something suddenly clicked, no precise year zero moment. But there was a bunch of like-minded souls beavering away in what they thought was their own little void, unaware there were others just like them all over the country. We talk to seven of the artists featured on the ’Close To The Noise Floor’ box set and get their big bang stories

Take Japanese noiseniks-turned-minimalists Nisennenmondai. Add a big dollop of On-U production wizard Adrian Sherwood. The result is ‘#N/A’, an album where human frailty meets precision engineering

Welcome to the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, a gobsmacking collection of synths that is plugging Australia’s electronic music scene into the grid. Don't touch that dial!

The rise of tech and how we use it to communicate is the central focus of Karl Bartos’ debut solo album from 2003. We connect with the former Kraftwerker to talk about the welcome reissue of the record