Loraine James’ music often feels like it’s on the verge of tipping into chaos. Competing rhythms run out of sync, throwing sparks as they scrape. Straight lines bend without warning, and smooth surfaces splinter. Rather than conform to a flawlessly… Read More
In 1962, an American ad man named Martin Speckter proposed a new punctuation mark. The sublimely named “interrobang” combined question and exclamation into a single expression of quizzical incredulity: “What are those‽‽‽” This space-age innovation sadly didn’t catch on, but… Read More
The Las Vegas-born musician Ivana Carrescia’s voice flits about the edges of her club tracks like a benevolent ghost. She sings in a downy falsetto that rarely rises above lullaby levels, and she whispers as often as she sings. Her… Read More
PC Music founder A. G. Cook settled on Apple as an album title, he says, because the word evokes so many things: the eponymous tech company (which, historically, has been regarded as the opposite of the Windows-based personal computer, or… Read More
Over the past decade, underground club circuits around East and Southeast Asia have grown from a collection of fragmented markets to an integrated community that’s dedicated to supporting local talents. Projects such as bilateral DJ exchanges and regionally-focused record labels… Read More
For Chaz Bear and Adrian Mojica, rhythm is a bridge capable of spanning geography, styles, and even generations. Oakland’s Bear, an indie veteran and chillwave pioneer best known as Toro y Moi, has been making music since the mid ’00s;… Read More
A pop diva is poorer without her remixes. Madonna’s dance remixes span Shep Pettibone’s kinetic “Express Yourself” rework to Stuart Price’s revitalizing overhaul of her discography on ’00s tours. Whitney Houston’s club versions brought extra oomph to a joyous NYC… Read More
The Queens-based producer Alex Dadras has cast a wide net. Working across New York’s rap and experimental scenes, he’s collaborated with everyone from A$AP Rocky to Eartheater to Show Me the Body. In the process, Dadras has developed a unique… Read More
When French provocateur Serge Gainsbourg decamped to Jamaica in 1978 to cut a reggae record, the befuddled rhythm section of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare didn’t know quite what to do with the singer. “It was quite tense,”… Read More
The two Italian experimental musicians that comprise Bellows arrived at their aesthetic in a manner as oblique as their music. Giuseppe Ielasi, schooled in Derek Bailey and hardcore punk, started out as an improvising guitarist before moving into computer music,… Read More