Long Reads – Page 8 – Electronic Sound

19 minute read

Jean-Michel Jarre: Live Rendez-Vous

byMark Roland

As Jean-Michel Jarre gears up to release a boxset of his city-swallowing spectacular in Bratislava earlier this year, we chat to the French master of electronic music about the evolution of his extraordinary live shows, from his 1971 debut to the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics

LLong Reads

21 minute read

Albums Of The Year 2024

byES Staff

Diverse sounds, exhilarating gems, new discoveries and a dash of the unexpected – it’s been another phenomenal year for electronic music, brimming with innovation and surprises. After many hours of listening, heated debate and fine-tuning, we present our Top 100 albums of 2024

LLong Reads

5 minute read

Robin Guthrie: Round Robin

byRobert Harris

Ex-Cocteaus man Robin Guthrie gives the scoop on his unique approach to music, and how these days he’s just as likely to make an album in the back of a camper van

LLong Reads

9 minute read

Field Music: Cafe Society

byBob Fischer

The new Field Music offering, ‘Limits Of Language’, finds brothers Peter and David Brewis in a nostalgic mood. Overdosing on Marmite in their favourite Wearside cafe, they look back on the vanished eateries and melancholy early Septembers of their youth

LLong Reads

10 minute read

Gavin Friday: Renaissance Man

byStephen Dalton

Former Virgin Prunes frontman Gavin Friday has just released his first solo work in 13 years. Reflecting his fabled life, steeped in hook-laden electronics, typically melodramatic and emotive, it’s one of the most absorbing albums he’s ever made

LLong Reads

5 minute read

Jill Fraser: Pleasure Principle

byFat Roland

Taught by John Cage, and having worked with Morton Subotnick and Serge Tcherepnin, pioneering electronicist Jill Fraser has had quite the career. Her new solo effort, reframing American revival hymns in a modular setting, finds her at the very peak of her powers

LLong Reads

5 minute read

Memorials: Monumentally Good

byJeremy Allen

Heirs apparent to the likes of Stereolab and Broadcast, Canterbury duo Memorials craft surrealist psych-pop and tape experiments into gloriously wayward grooves

LLong Reads

8 minute read

Xeno & Oaklander: In A Different League

byOli Warwick

NY synthpop duo Xeno & Oaklander are back with their ninth album, and it’s a real corker – all retro-futuristic earworms, analogue anthems and an intriguingly murky backstory

LLong Reads

8 minute read

Alex Paterson: Sphere And Now

byBen Murphy

As driven and restless as ever, and with a new, career-spanning “director’s cut” compilation in the shops, The Orb’s Alex Paterson reflects on his eventful 30-year journey – with good tales, to boot

LLong Reads

5 minute read

Throbbing Gristle: Shock And Awe

byMat Smith

Throbbing Gristle’s visceral live performances were intense, powerful and often overwhelming. Notable witnesses and band insiders recall their heady experiences of seeing TG in the flesh