Save Our Sounds
As the British Library sound archive launches a multi-million pound project to save the nation’s sounds, we take a guided tour of their ever-growing collection to get an idea of the task ahead
Da-Da-Da
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
Baffo Banfi ‘Ma, Dolce Vita’ (Innovative Communication, 1979)
"Looking back, I see now that I spent my mid-90s university years in Colchester buying excessive amounts of music as a defence against a largely miserable existence"
Ladyhawke
From Wellington to Melbourne to Sydney to London to Los Angeles. Pip Brown, aka Ladyhawke, settles down for just about long enough to talk through some of the things that have shaped her along the way
Léon Theremin
We’re setting the dials all the way back to 1927, to the Royal Albert Hall in London, where a packed audience gathered on a chilly winter’s evening to witness Russian scientist Léon Theremin using his remarkable black box to create “Music from the Ether”
M, ‘Pop Muzik’ (MCA Records, 1979)
Robin Scott remembers the genesis of ‘Pop Muzik’, his huge worldwide hit as M in 1979. New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about…
Vince Clarke: On The Square
Erasure with rave licks? Orbital with pop flecks? it’s an unlikely collaboration on the face of it, but these two electronic music behemoths have served up a proper treat in the form of Vince Clarke and Paul Hartnoll’s ‘2Square’. We pop round to Vince’s Brooklyn studio to discover more, while Paul joins in the conversation on Skype
onDeadWaves: Waving…Not Drowning
OnDeadWaves is a fascinating collaboration between Mute artists Polly Scattergood and MAPS, also known as James Chapman. Their self-titled album is one of the most melancholic records you’ll hear all year, but they insist there are nuggets of hope sparkling in the sadness
Robert Moog: Memory Moog
We all know him as Robert Moog, the godfather of the synthesiser, a man whose role in the history of electronic sound cannot be overStated. But to Michelle Moog-Koussa, he was plain old Dad, who helped her with her piano lessons, chopped wood for the fire, and liked gardening and canoeing and star gazing. Ahead of a new documentary about Bob Moog that Michelle is putting together for release next year, we get a fascinating and highly personal insight into the everyday life of a legend
Floorplan: We Are Family
From Detroit techno legend – a key member of Underground Resistance, no less – to Alabama church preacher, Robert Hood is a man on a mission. Now he’s teaming up with his daughter Lyric Hood under the name Floorplan and the result is wholly exhilarating