Nisennenmondai: Hashtag Innovation
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
Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio: Dance This Mess Around
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!
Karl Bartos: Phone Ohm
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
David Bowie: Synthesist
Let’s get this straight: David Bowie was the godhead of 1970s electronic music. It was through him that electronic music was understood by a mass audience. His unique ability to synthesise, in both senses of the word, opened up pop music and revealed new ways of creating it, ways which would rapidly mutate and produce beautiful (and gloriously ugly) offspring in quick succession.
Underworld ‘Barbara Barbara we face a shining future’ (Universal)
Just enough quality to make a ninth album worth the effort
Blancmange ‘Commuter 23’ (Blanc Check)
Bowie, Eno, Neu! and existential crisis rendered beautifully
Anna Meredith ‘Varmints’ (Moshi Moshi)
All sorts of unexpected electronic glory from the edge of post-classical world
DJ Flugvél Og Geimskip
Spellbinding Icelandic quirkpop pioneer
Radioland ‘Radio-Activity Revisited’ (The Leaf Label)
Klassic Kraftwerk album gets a pop arty reworking in its entirety
Howes ‘3.5 Degrees’ (Melodic)
When it comes to modular, what comes first, man or machine? Or is it somewhere inbetween?