electronica album reviews

(Deutsche Grammophon) The Eno brothers have collaborated before, most recently on 2019’s revamp of the celebrated 1983 Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks documentary score (credited to Brian). Mixing Colours, the Enos’ duo debut, is a double sound-painting made up of natural phenomena (in tracks such as Snow, Desert Sand) and colours (Ultramarine, Burnt Umber) that plays …

Roger and Brian Eno: Mixing Colours review – an intimate conversation Read More »

(Cosmo Rhythmatic) Inspired by the arctic tundra and the climate crisis, the Finnish producer’s angriest work to date is a mix of unstable, deconstructed beats and bludgeoning noise Most people tend to start out angry at injustice in the world, and then have that anger pared down by the passage of time until they’re playing …

Vladislav Delay: Rakka review – techno from the end of the world Read More »

(Exodus) Moses Boyd is a drummer in the same way Questlove from the Roots is a drummer, which is to say that the twice Mobo-winning 28-year-old Londoner is a producer-composer-collaborator-influencer not bound by the kit surrounding him. A progenitor of the current London jazz scene, Boyd’s official solo debut goes large on cross-pollination – and …

Moses Boyd: Dark Matter review – party-facing solo debut Read More »

(Houndstooth)Earthquakes, shovels and screaming peacocks are all sampled in a bombastic and occasionally ingenious album A nail-bomb of grief explodes in this second album by US musician Katie Gately, trauma seeming to rip open its edges. It was written while her mother was dying from a rare form of cancer; the title suggests this horror …

Katie Gately: Loom review – nightmarish orchestrated despair Read More »

(Nyege Nyege Tapes)DJ Diaki’s debut is a speeding cascade of sound that skilfully re-creates the pounding atmosphere of Malian street party Balani Show Recent years have seen some of the most exciting dancefloor-focused music moving further and further away from its spiritual homes of Detroit, Chicago, Berlin or London. Now, styles such as South African …

DJ Diaki: Balani Fou review | Ammar Kalia’s global album of the month Read More »

(PAN)These exuberant electronic experiments in mixing 150bpm dub-techno with live instrumentation fizz with the joy of artistic creation At the end of last year, the Guardian declared Beatrice Dillon “the most thrilling new voice in British electronic music”, and her first full-fledged solo LP, Workaround, demonstrates why. Put together during stolen moments over three years, …

Beatrice Dillon: Workaround review – a global future-folk manifesto Read More »

(Warp)Tom Jenkinson goes back to his mid-90s moniker and makes use of old electronic hardware in a fun, if bumpy, ride Emerging in the mid-90s as part of the generation of artists defining Warp Records’ IDM sound, Squarepusher now presides over a discography that positions himself directly opposite the genre’s ideological associations. His dense, frenetic …

Squarepusher: Be Up a Hello review – devilish, danceable return Read More »

(Because Music) The former Air member’s second solo album is a paean to various architects the veers between elegant and insipid It’s hard to credit now how revolutionary Air’s first album, Moon Safari, sounded in 1998 – a soufflé of a record so light and fluffy it was irresistible. Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel had …

Nicolas Godin: Concrete and Glass review Read More »

(GOOD Music/Virgin EMI) Among the few highlights from Kanye West’s 2018 album, ye, were two features from emerging New Jersey artist Danielle Balbuena – known by the moniker 070 Shake. Most notably, the bilingual singer-rapper’s guest verse on Ghost Town swam with a heady feeling of darkness and freedom – something that carries through to …

070 Shake: Modus Vivendi review – an impressive statement of intent Read More »

(Domino)The singer and producer has absorbed Chicago house, Robyn-style pop and dub reggae, and refashioned them into an album about being ‘consumed by night’ The photo on the cover of Georgia Barnes’s second album seems telling. At first glance, it looks like one of those classic late 80s/early 90s club shots that get ageing acid …

Georgia: Seeking Thrills review – a bold British hymn to hedonism | Alexis Petridis’ album of the week Read More »