Long Reads

You join us in Germany, where Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF to their friends) treat a large, expectant festival crowd to a proper sonic hosing, industrial style. They’ve clearly lost none of their edge in a mere 30-odd years of doing things their own way…

As ‘Blade Runner 2049’ hits cinema screens, the news that the film’s soundtrack composer Jóhann Jóhannsson has been replaced at the 11th hour by Hans Zimmer comes with a sense of déjà vu. Like a time warping Philip K Dick short story, didn’t all this happen before? It certainly did…

Ever since their extraordinary debut on UK TV in 1974, Sparks have pushed the boundaries of pop and electronic music. Their latest album suggests that the future still belongs to them

With friends in high places and a new album set to make waves, Irish synthpoppers Tiny Magnetic Pets look ready for the limelight

A desert earth, marauding tribes of murderous religious zealots, and a vengeful father called Ruin, Gary Numan’s new album is a riot of misery, anxiety and epic synth hooks…

Donning her Mary Casio alter ego, Hannah Peel pairs up analogue synths with a full brass band and plots an interplanetary musical adventure to the stars

Featuring iconic record sleeves by the late Hull-born photographer, a new exhibition, ‘Trevor Key’s Top 40’, opens at the city’s art school, where he studied, later this month. We doff our cap to the great man

They might have launched a thousand post-rock ships, but who the heck were Bark Psychosis? As their seminal 1994 ‘Hex’ album gets a welcome reissue, frontman Graham Sutton tells all…

Seven degrees of separation? How are Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club connected to Brooklyn retro synth trailblazers Xeno & Oaklander? We unpick the tangled webs…

Four years on from the acclaimed ‘English Electric’, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark are preparing to release their difficult 13th album. It’s called ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’ and it’s full of surprises. Are you ready for a bit of bending?