Mura Masa: Mura Masa review – a cutting-edge swordsmith
Electronic wizard Alex Crossan conjures shivers and warmth on his star-studded debut
Mura Masa: Mura Masa review – trop house brimming with nowness
Much like Disclosure did four years ago, Guernsey producer Alex Crossan has assembled a debut record that is brimming with nowness. Swapping the Lawrence brothers’ house-garage hybrid for the dancehall-lite tones of its slightly problematic relative tropical house – and … Continue reading
Shabazz Palaces: Quazarz review – hip-hop futurists hit their sweet spot
The Seattle rap duo stay weird without losing their edge, with two concept albums about a visitor from space – Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star and Quazarz vs the Jealous Machines
Public Service Broadcasting: Every Valley review – poignant elegy to coalmining
By their own admission, as “middle-class Londoners”, Public Service Broadcasting aren’t obvious candidates to musically chronicle the rise and destruction of the Welsh coalmining industry. However, they have put a shift in: relocating to Ebbw Vale, conducting painstaking research and … Continue reading
New Order + Liam Gillick: So It Goes review – a suitably theatrical Manchester return
There are intensely emotional scenes as New Order revisit their back catalogue on a grand scale with synth orchestra, airing songs not heard for 30 years plus rapturously received tributes to the band’s fated predecessor, Joy Division
Calvin Harris: Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1 review – trying to sound sun-kissed
Calvin Harris’s metamorphosis from ungainly dance producer from Dumfries to EDM overlord to Serious Musician with an LA tan is now complete. Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1 (blimey) completely eschews the jackhammer dance-pop of recent years in favour of sun-kissed … Continue reading
Floating Points: Reflections Mojave Desert review – windswept space rock
As the name suggests, Floating Points are hard to pin down. One iteration of Sam Shepherd’s outfit consists of banging DJ sets with Four Tet and Caribou; the first album, Elaenia (2015), by contrast, consisted of an immersive tableau of … Continue reading
Washed Out: Mister Mellow review – plunderphonic chillwave gems
Having become ever more hi-fi in recent years, Ernest Greene, prince of the none-so-hipster chillwave genre, returns to the chewed-tape aesthetic he started out with, and comes up with some psychedelic, plunderphonic gems. A little like the Avalanches, Mister Mellow … Continue reading
Moon Diagrams: Lifetime of Love review – undulating soundscapes for an anxious world
With stress, anxiety and memes taking up ever more of our valuable mental real estate, it is little wonder that the visualisations, mantras and brain-tickling sounds offered by mindfulness and ASMR videos have gone mainstream in recent years. This debut … Continue reading
Kraftwerk review – past masters of the future
You can hear the men-machines’ classical roots and the modern sounds they helped shape in this blissful 3D show
Laurel Halo: Dust review – eerie, warm experimental sounds
Another helping of strangeness and beauty on the Berlin-based US electronica artist’s third album
Goldie: The Journey Man review – over-ambitious jungle epic drifts off course
Goldie has always been larger than life, and his giant ambition took jungle from an underground concern to music that could sketch out cityscapes in epic widescreen. That ambition is undimmed on this 100-minute-plus solo album, his first in nine … Continue reading
Kraftwerk 3-D review – man-machine music with emotional soul
With the technology the band predicted all around us, their innovation now is in striking visuals and rebooted songs that accentuate humanity
Phoenix: Ti Amo review – kings of cool blow hot and cold
With their artfully tousled haircuts and general air of supreme nonchalance, Versailles electropoppers Phoenix are nothing if not cool. Indeed, it’s an adjective applied to them so often, the band might be tired of hearing it. That belief is strengthened … Continue reading