Long Reads

Seven years on from his last outing, the inimitable and irrepressible Wolfgang Flür has a new album in the racks. Recorded with the help of an army of fascinating guests, it’s called ‘Magazine 1’ and it’s an opportunity for us to talk robots, romance, pacifism, money, sheep, rubbery legs and, inevitably, Kraftwerk 

When Edgar Froese changed cosmic address in 2015, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Tangerine Dream would follow suit. But working from his extensive archive of recordings, a new school of composers is keeping his flame very much alive

There’s no one quite like Keith Seatman. His new album, ‘Sad Old Tatty Bunting’, is a psychedelic joyride through a parallel universe, a dreamlike England full of alchemists and scarecrows and gated communities guarded by gnomes

The second album by Electribe 101 is the stuff of legend. Dismissed as “crap” when they were dropped by their major label in 1992, ‘Electribal Soul’ is nothing of the kind. When it finally saw the light of day, singer Billie Ray Martin proudly showed off this lost classic

Good things come in little parcels. And the new Metronomy album, ‘Small World’, is certainly a welcome delivery. Joseph Mount, the band’s de facto leader, gives us the lowdown on their finest outing since ‘The English Riviera’ 

Infused with the spirit of Woodstock and resolutely “bound to the mountains”, Midlake and Mercury Rev’s Jesse Chandler pays tribute to his late father on a second album as Pneumatic Tubes

Splitting up, getting back together (twice), a farewell gig that wasn’t quite goodbye… and now Soft Cell are making another welcome return. Marc Almond and Dave Ball remain as thick as thieves and ‘Happiness Not Included’, their first album for 20 years, shows why the duo are still the undisputed kings of twisted synthpop

While he might be curating an online archive for his maverick Severed Heads outfit, Tom Ellard is not a man to rest on his laurels. “Don’t you want to jump full-bodied into the future?” he asks

Recorded in a Pisa living room rather than his Forst home studio where he’s worked for five decades, ‘As Long As The Light’, Michael Rother’s collaboration with partner Vittoria Maccabruni, fizzes with life

From folk singer/songwriter to the electronic music top table, Cate Le Bon has been on quite the journey. With a new album, ‘Pompeii’, ready to roll, we find her at the peak of her powers