Years before they formed the Drain Gang collective, Ecco2k and Bladee were in a hardcore band called Krossad (“crushed” in Swedish) as schoolmates. This fun fact has become part of the Stockholm group’s narrative: their noisy 2007 demo CD has… Read More
After the tragic death of SOPHIE earlier this year, the Miami duo Basside wrote in memoriam that the artist “wasn’t from this planet.” They were far from the first to observe the galactic magic of SOPHIE’s music, but the phrasing… Read More
A year on from first being told to down tools and go home en masse, people in the UK find themselves in the perverse situation of comparing lockdowns. Despite the nearing possibility of being able to do things like go… Read More
Okkyung Lee and Florian Hecker (aka Hecker) both find freedom in limitation, channeling the infinite possibility inherent in cello and code, respectively. Their methods sometimes verge on hermetic; some of their weaker work sounds more like a demonstration of every… Read More
In tarot, the flame-licked Tower card represents a mercurial period of upheaval and personal transformation. After producer and experimental artist Vegyn moved from London to Los Angeles last fall, the foreboding card became a regular appearance in his deck. The… Read More
In a 2020 interview with The New Yorker, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, who turned 80 last October, said he hadn’t been listening to records for a while. “I listen to things that maybe some guys don’t,” he said. “I listen to… Read More
Twenty years is a long time to do anything, no matter how well you do it. Even for an artist as restless as English electronic polymath Chris Clark, 20 years of poking and prodding at his hybridized sound might lose… Read More
Sometimes, particularly these days, those in search of grace find they must create it themselves. In the Callao district of Lima, Peru, for instance, crowds of outcasts including transgender individuals and people surviving homelessness and poverty gather to worship a… Read More
The history of electronic music, particularly in the UK, has been one of fractures and splits, as ever more specific styles and subgenres spin off into their own orbits. Special Request (aka Leeds’ Paul Woolford) is one of the enlightened… Read More
In a city of 23 million, Ahmed El Ghazoly sometimes had trouble finding a receptive audience for his brand of club music. “My stuff is too weird for Cairo,” he told The Wire a few years back. In fact, El… Read More