Skream – Outside The Box

Skream - Outside The Box

Perhaps the one prevailing characteristic that defines Skream is his versatility – from mid-range wobblers to eyes down rollers, 24 year old Oliver Jones has skated around the blurred edges of dubstep’s ever-expanding palette ever since his self-titled debut in 2006. Skream! was released at the dawn of dubstep’s inexorable rise to the key underground scene that it is today. It also served as arguably the first major album of that genre and as a watershed in terms of new listeners, primarily due to the success of ‘Midnight Request Line’. Aside from that, Skream dragged dubstep from the dark, meditative vibes of DMZ and FWD and made it suitable to listen to it at home with melodic tracks such as ‘Dutch Flowerz’ and ‘Summer Dreams’. … Continue Reading

Liars, London Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Liars

May 27, 2010

It goes without saying that Liars are a band that enjoy the louder things in life. Their five studio albums are a maelstrom of ideas and concepts merged together, propelled by a ferocious appetite for unseating the listener with wildly unsettling dynamics. Psych, folk, garage rock and punk form an often inconsistent palette that yet never fails to impress. So tonight’s surprise inclusion of two extra band members begs the question: what more is needed?   … Continue Reading

Holy Fuck – Latin

Holy Fuck - Latin

In today’s overtly fickle and pedantic media industry, albums get criticised left, right and centre in scrupulous fashion. UK Funky maestro Roska’s debut album was received to lukewarm applause by those who felt his soca-fied rhythms felt misplaced within the album format, while Fuck Buttons came under fire from a dissenting minority for supposedly “selling out” by compromising on their intensely abrasive noise. … Continue Reading

Autechre – Oversteps

Autechre - Oversteps

For someone unacquainted with Autechre’s work, a quick delve into any of their 10 studio albums is a confounding and exhausting experience, regardless of where you start. Displaying an admirable sense of ambivalence towards categorising their music within established genres, Sean Booth and Rob Brown have traversed the length and breadth of electronic music whilst still retaining a relatively dissonant yet rhythmic sound. From propulsive techno throbs (Incunbula) to introspective ambient soundscapes (Amber), the elusive Mancunians love to keep their fans guessing. Perhaps the album that is most representative of their all-encompassing sound is 2008’s Quaristice, an album widely hailed as return to form following the intimidating and at times mechanical production that characterised the main body of their career. … Continue Reading

Gonjasufi – A Sufi And A Killer

Gonjasufi - A Sufi and A Killer

Over 20 years and still going, the creative juices still seem to be flowing for Warp, and their unrelenting passion for innovative acts shows no sign of abating. Their recent penchant for establishing non-electronic based artists has given their already impressive roster some breathing room; the considerably more conventional Maximo Park and Grizzly Bear created a much needed, albeit unexpected, balance. … Continue Reading

Ikonika, on catching the attention of Kode9 and more…

Ikonika

Embracing new technology is a pre-requisite these days for producers of electronic music and its many variants – indeed, most current button-pushers do so with vigour and eagerness. The increasing popularity of Serato and Ableton in live sets pays testament to that forward thinking experimentalism, with only handful of admirably obstinate DJs spinning the black wax of vinyl. … Continue Reading

2008: dubstep, grime, career-bests and Jay-Z at Glastonbury

Wiley - Wearing My Rolex

Much like the rest of the noughties, 2008 had no defining genre that formed the spine for listening trends and consumer interest; we were instead provided with a rather messy collage of beats, breaks and riffs left to our own devices to sift through the good, the bad and the ugly.

One memorable yet disheartening sensation was the rise of Grime, which swiftly moved from dingy pirate radio studios to the speakers of cheese clubs up and down the country. Most notable of all was Wiley’s ‘Wearing My Rolex’, which opened up a new avenue of electro-house anthems. … Continue Reading