New album: The veteran techno rave and electronica king pair Karl Hyde and Rick Smith return with one of their finest LPs of the 11 to date, a miasma of metronomic beats, stream-of-consciousness lyrics, ambience, energy and ecstatic elevation
Read moreKelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate
New album: The London-based Welsh electronic artist, DJ and producer’s fourth LP takes a new mainstream turn, celebrating daydreaming and emancipated creativity through electronica and dance music, combining ambience and beats with guest collaborators Bicep, Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers, and George Daniel
Read moreFaux Real: Faux Ever
New album: Oozing camp panache, and packed with some previously released singles and very entertaining videos, Franco-American brothers Virgile and Elliott Arndt’s debut LP captures their mesmeric moves and superbly fun, semi-ironic gloriously glossy synth-art-pop
Read moreSOPHIE: SOPHIE
New album: This posthumous and final album by the extraordinary, innovative, experimental electro-pop and trans artist Sophie Xeon, who tragically died in 2021, is here finished by co-producer Benny Long and with a huge cast of guest vocalists, but also leaves the question of how much more there could have been
Read moreFloating Points: Cascade
New album: Inspired by the dance culture of Manchester, cleverly crafted, evolving, clubby but intricate and supremely infectious work by the British electronica artist and producer Sam Shepherd
Read moreFat Dog: WOOF.
New album: Having gathered a lively cult following on tour, the canine-themed London-based band’s LP is an eclectic, theatrical techno, industrial-pop post-punk fusion, with klezmer strains, synth- and horn-parping, panache-filled dancey debut of wit, energy, noise and sheer shouty fun
Read moreMura Masa: Curve 1
New album: A fourth LP by the Guernsey-born electronic and dance music producer Alex Crossan, now on his own label, Pond, is a cleverly experimental, sweaty underground feel mix of oddball beats, sounds and voices, with a variety of guest including Singaporean artist Yeule
Read moreMagdalena Bay: Imaginal Disk
New album: Flamboyant, dynamic, cinematic, this sparkling sophomore LP is summons up striking 70s and spacey effervescent pop and disco from the Los Angeles-based electro-pop duo of Mica Tenenbaum and multi-instrumentalist and producer Matthew Lewin
Read moreHifi Sean and David McAlmont: Daylight
New album: After last year’s Happy Ending album, the seasoned British duo return with a sparkling selection of electro-pop, disco and rave bangers, often with tender lyrics, all decorated with the silky beauty of McAlmont’s high resplendently soaring voice
Read moreLiv.e: PAST FUTUR.e
New album: Released back in May, a wonderfully wonky short album of electronica and experimental post-punk by the Dallas artist, aka Hailee Olivia Williams, with a clever, menacing, witty delivery over a suite of strange squelchy keyboard sounds
Read moreBrijean: Macro
New album: A magical, serene, dreamily sophisticated and witty psych-pop, lounge and dancefloor new creation by the LA duo of percussionist/singer-songwriter Brijean Murphy (Mitski, Poolside, and Toro y Moi) and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart
Read moreKOKOKO!: BUTU
New album: The brilliant band from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo return with an LP inspired by the vibrant nightlife of that city, the titled translated as ‘the night’ in Lingala language, featuring rawer, more electronic sounds and the commanding lead of vocalist Makara Bianko
Read moreKiasmos: II
New album: A decade after their acclaimed debut, the award-winning duo of Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and Faroese musician Janus Rasmussen return with an emotive, uplifting release of inspired, transportive electronica
Read moreKasabian: Happenings
New album: This eighth LP from the Leicester rockers and second since guitarist Serge Pizzorno took over on vocals from the sacked Tom Meighan edges closer to pop, disco as much as the more distinct psychedelia, but is full of punchy, catchy tunes
Read moreCharli XCX: BRAT
New album: The Essex-raised, hugely successful star Charlotte Emma Aitchison’s sixth album is a far more nuanced than her last, 2022’s Crash, still embracing mainstream pop and dance, but also with ironic twists, sleazy fun, humour, and a dirtier, more underground sound of her more experimental past
Read moreKNEECAP: Fine Art
New album: Alongside their upcoming feature film, a stylish, witty, smash’n’grab, satirical, brilliant and sometimes brashly in your-face hip-hop debut by the West Belfast trio of stage names Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, who rap mostly in the Irish language
Read moreJohn Grant: The Art Of The Lie
New album: The Iceland-based American returns with his seventh LP, a mixture of catchy funk and disco with slow-burn, simmering, contemplative electronica where dark humour stirs along with candid emotions and a sorrowful look at rising fascism in the US
Read moreArab Strap: I'm Totally Fine With It I Don't Give A Fuck Anymore
New album: Menacingly poetic, darkly humorous, searingly sordid and the sweetly sarcastic? It can only be the return of Scotland’s Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton with another fabulously articulate assault on the self and society’s sadness and strangeness
Read moreIbibio Sound Machine: Pull The Rope
New album: Another cracking release by the London collective fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, a catchy, infectious concoction of Afrobeat, funk, disco, pysch and electronica, with punchy, enticing beats and grooves
Read moreLynks: ABOMINATION
New album: After a series of entertaining singles, the flamboyant, often masked south London artist Elliot Brett’s debut LP is full of bounce and thrust – a humorous, witty, catchy collection of stylish synth-electro-pop mainly about gay sexual adventures in the city
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