This is part two of a two-part series. Check out part one. Autechre — Move of Ten Autechre’s second release of the year is officially an EP, but is just as long as its companion album Oversteps. In the case of the second half of this EP, you can certainly hear that these tracks are […]
How to dance to intelligent dance music
Intelligent dance music — IDM. It’s a great genre with a naff name. Aside from the snootiness of ‘intelligent’, it has always raised the question: how on earth do you dance to this? Well we now have the answer, thanks to this video I found the other day. It demonstrates how you should dance to […]
Daphne Oram and the Oramics machine
This is the truly unique Oramics machine, designed by electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram. It will go on display at the Science Museum later this year. There was a great report on Friday’s PM programme about it. Daphne Oram was a founding member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1958. There are many people that […]
Autechre EPs getting a lavish reissue
As any fule kno, I am massively fanatical about Autechre. All of their EPs from 1991 to 2002 are being reissued in a slick looking boxset format. In all, 11 EPs are being condensed into a resource-friendly five CDs. I already own all of these EPs, with the exception of Cavity Job, which has never […]
Trish Keenan
I was very sad and shocked to learn that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away earlier today. Discovering the music of Broadcast was an important step in the development of my taste in music. It remains one of my favourite bands. Trish Keenan’s singing mesmerised me. Broadcast’s retro-futuristic style appealed to my then-developing interest in […]
Squarepusher’s Shobaleader One — d’Demonstator
I have been really enjoying the new album by Squarepusher. I had feared the worst about the Shobaleader One project since I first read the Q&A. It sounded suspiciously like Gorillaz on the cheap, complete with odd psuedo-humorous band member names. A low-budget Gorillaz would necessarily be a bad thing. But it seemed like an […]
Robert Sandall
I was sad yesterday to learn of the death of Robert Sandall. While he is most celebrated as a music journalist, I was more aware of him as a radio presenter. In 2001, when I was discovering my interest in experimental music, I was advised by someone on a messageboard to listen to the Radio […]
Autechre — Oversteps and Move of Ten
Autechre really annoy me. They are too good. What I don’t understand is why no-one else is apparently able to make music like this. Autechre may be perceived as being wilfully difficult. Maybe they are. Almost without fail, the first time you listen to new Autechre material it is impossible to get your head around. […]
Gristleism: a different take on the Buddha Machine concept
I have written before about the Buddha Machine. It is like a mystical modern-day music box. I’m a big fan. The original was described by some as the anti-iPod. It looks like the sort of iPod knock-off that you might get free in a cereal packet. Instead of loading it with several gigabytes of your […]
BBC 6 Music should be enhanced, not killed
If the reports that the BBC will close down 6 Music are true, it is a great shame. Of course, this could be seen coming. The BBC has been utterly weak in almost every respect for the past few years, and it is difficult to escape the notion that it is too big, with too […]