Music of Stranger Things review – sonic savagery from the Upside Down
Recreating the music from the hit TV series, Survive, AKA Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon, manage to scale up the scares
Proms at Battersea review – Top of the Pops, roaring cello and static crackles
This teasing, challenging new-music bill was a mashup of genres, noises and hi-tech tools that rejoiced in sonic breadth
Supersonic review – giant monsters and ghoul-sponge at UK’s best small festival
By embracing the heaviness in Birmingham’s heritage, and adding a strong dose of eccentricity, Supersonic is world-class
Banks: III review – a break from dark R&B doesn’t quite pay off
Her third album is a less-than-convincing attempt to lighten the old experimentalism in favour of chart-friendly ballads
New Music Biennial review – an electronic symphony of sound
From a turntable artist’s orchestral remix to Gazelle Twin’s melodic revelry, composers reimagine classical
K Flay: Solutions review – reasons to be cheerful
(Night Street/Interscope)
Flying Lotus: Flamagra review – stuck in a cosmic time-warp
Steven “FlyLo” Ellison usually releases an album of his collapsed nu-jazz every other year to roaring acclaim, but has spent much of the past half-decade producing for Kendrick, mentoring Thundercat and rowing back his imbecilic defence of alleged rapist the … Continue reading
Actress x Stockhausen Sin (x) II review – transcendent AI-driven opera
DJ and producer Actress strays even further from the dancefloor as he takes on Stockhausen’s famously over the top Mittwoch by sampling Westminster debates
Holly Herndon: Proto review – dizzying beauty and bracing beats
Related: Holly Herndon: the musician who birthed an AI baby It’s credit to Holly Herndon’s skill as a musical guide that her third album, though up to its elbows in complex ideas, feels so invigorating. Her boldest attempt yet to … Continue reading
Laurence Pike: Holy Spring review – cosmic drum trips
(The Leaf Label)
Four Tet review – let there be lights and a touch of magic
Kieran Hebden hits a new career high as he brings his eclectic club music to the masses with a dazzling stage show
Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy! review – joyful, loving testimony to black artists
Woods’s free-spirited second album pays earwormy homage to the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eartha Kitt and Miles Davis
Rosie Lowe: YU review – seductive, minimalist soul probes power balance
Lowe’s second album is full of hushed and classy electronica, with questions of power and female agency never far away
Holly Herndon: Proto review – dystopia averted! AI and IRL in pop harmony
Herndon’s own AI, Spawn, augments her group’s flesh-and-blood vocals to challenge our fears that machines will take over
Kedr Livanskiy: Your Need review – joyful, punchy beats with a touch of tape hiss
Sung in Russian and English, Livanskiy’s more playful, deeper second album has an optimistic spirit