Issue 108 – Electronic Sound

22 minute read

Soft Cell: Cell Shock

byNeil Kulkarni

With ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, their hugely influential 1981 debut album, Soft Cell brought sleazy lyrics and shady but infectious synth anthems to the mainstream. Marc Almond and Dave Ball reflect on art-school aesthetics, punk electronics, and the controversies that fuelled their speedy rise

LLong Reads

8 minute read

Shackleton: Most Haunted

byJeremy Allen

Shackleton’s stock has never been higher. In a rare interview, the sound designer and arch-collaborator opens up on his gloriously hypnotic new album, a disorientating miasma of woozy hauntology and “cracked-mirror oddness”

LLong Reads

8 minute read

John Carpenter: Feel The Fear

byStephen Dalton

With a new John Carpenter anthology featuring reworked versions of his most iconic and haunting themes, the celebrated horror director and composer reflects on his creepy “synth-noir” sound and a life well-lived

LLong Reads

5 minute read

Hinako Omori: The Soft Bulletin

byMat Smith

Somewhere in the mid-point between electronic, ambient and classical, composer Hinako Omori creates potent “therapeutic frequencies”. Deploying analogue synths and binaural sound, her second long-player is an experimental and deeply enchanting patchwork

BBanging On

2 minute read

Broken Booze Promises

byFat Roland

More random musings from Fat Roland. On his mind this month (as far as we can tell) is Underworld

RReviews

12 minute read

Albums Of The Year 2023

byES Staff

It’s been another amazing year for electronic music, in all its divergent and thrilling forms. After much wrangling and whittling, here are our 50 standout albums of 2023. Some you’ll probably expect and some you definitely won’t. Dive in and enjoy!

LLandmarks