Long Reads

Dedicated to his late wife and former Low cohort, Mimi Parker, and made using his children’s drum machine and synths, Alan Sparhawk’s astonishing solo debut is both profound and propulsive

Extraterrestrial interlopers, hyperreal post-punksters or “cyberfeminists”? Whichever way you see it, NYC’s cumgirl8 are here to save us

Faithful Johannes? The Alan Bennett of hip hop. Sir John Betjemen with beats. And weighing on his mind at the moment are life-threatening lawns, river monsters called Tony and the “icky” thoughts that have inspired an album riddled with very English anxieties 

Rafael Anton Irisarri’s mournful and majestic new work – all complex ambient and drone heft – heaves with “simmering electric despondency” 

With a sonic reinvigoration, former 4AD outfit The Wolfgang Press are making a surprise comeback with their first album in almost 30 years – a brooding and typically multidimensional return to form

Back in 2021, Scottish composer Erland Cooper buried a tape on the island of Orkney, allowing the music on it to be manipulated and “co-composed” by the soil. Unearthing it a few months ago after three years of natural decay, the resulting sounds are remarkable – as is the story of this project 

Since tracking down Suzanne Ciani, Finders Keepers have released more albums by the Buchla legend than in her entire career prior. Label boss Andy Votel gives us the rundown

Touring the globe with curated sets of African club music spanning the 1970s to the present day, East African DJ Kampire is a tastemaker extraordinaire, as her debut compilation so richly attests

Miki Yui has produced a beguiling body of work rooted in elemental electronics and field recordings. She describes being shaped by the art and music of Düsseldorf, the influence of her late husband Klaus Dinger, and her recent conversion to modular synths

Having moved from their native Minsk to LA, the fourth album from Belarusian post-punk/synthpop outfit Molchat Doma also marks an expansive and propulsive “technicolour reinvention” of their sound. Taut, moody, imposing and typically brutalist, it’s one heck of a gut punch