Long Reads

Not content on resting on her classically-trained laurels, Poppy Ackroyd takes inspiration from nature and revels in an unconventional approach to tickling the ivories

With the release of remastered versions of classic ZTT albums by Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Propaganda, the label’s co-creator Trevor Horn discusses the controversial chart-topping smash hits, the law suits and some eye-wateringly expensive synths

As ‘A Secret Wish’ gets a welcome reissue this month, Propaganda founder Ralf Dörper retells the incredible tale behind one of the most striking acts of the 1980s

Appearing seemingly out of nowhere with her stop-you-in-your-tracks album ‘The Kid’, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith talks Buchla, the great outdoors, Buchla, why electronic music very much isn’t cold and uninviting… and Buchla

What’s in a name? Quite a lot it’d seem if you are as misunderstood as Fujiya & Miyagi, whose warm, thrumming tunes are… well, what? we do our best to get to the bottom of the whole thing

With their back catalogue being lovingly reissued via Mute, we pile into a car for a guided tour of the Manchester hotspots that shaped the influential sound of A Certain Ratio… fasten your seatbelts

It was the year that the Taito Corporation in Tokyo released its ‘Space Invaders’ arcade game. It was the year that Douglas Adams’ ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’ was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4. And it was the year that the punk rock revolution opened the way for some of the most innovative and exciting music ever.

Think Altern-8, Unique 3, Forgemasters, LFO and Krush. The bleep sound of Sheffield spawned an entire genre, not to mention its own label, Warp. Now the makers of many of those original tunes have mobilised once again as The Originators…

As Tears For Fears declare themselves back in business with a Greatest Hits and new album due in 2018, we talk Numan, cover versions, the synthpop misnomer and why Kanye is a dick…

His voyeuristic 1995 ‘Mass Observation’ album broke all the rules and put Scanner on electronica’s top table. Some two decades down the line he’s still pushing at the edges. Robin Rimbaud talks life, the universe and almost everything…