Electronic Music

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Exploring the frosty electronic pleasures of Brahms

Naming your band after a mighty musical figure whose work has preceded your group's by almost a couple of centuries takes some moxie, but don't mistake this choice for hubris. It's not quite a tribute, says Brahms's Cale Parks, but rather a way to chann
Digital symphony
By REYAN ALI | February 25, 2011

Born Ruffians | Say It

Over the past half of Warp’s robust 20-year run, the label’s enduring legacy as a vanguard force in electronic music has drifted as its tastes have gone positively eclectic. The mixed-media future folk of Bibio, the experimental soul of Jamie Lidell, th
Warp (2010)
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 28, 2010

LCD Soundsystem | This Is Happening

If the self-conscious hypercontrivance of James Murphy ever appears to you at odds with his relentless quest for abandon, I hear ya.
DFA (2010)
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 14, 2010

Booka Shade | More!

Booka Shade get back to where they once belonged.
Get Physical (2010)
By MIKAEL WOOD | May 07, 2010

Love by the numbers

Khaela Maricich, of the Portland, Oregon-based, low-budget electro-pop group the Blow, and Britain’s dauntingly young and talented folk star Laura Marling don’t, frankly, deserve to be lumped together like this.
The Blow and Laura Marling make their cases at SPACE Gallery
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | May 07, 2010

Master stroke

Stranding travelers across the continent as it forged surreal panoramas in the sky, the ash spewed forth by Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull might rank among 21st-century Europe’s most impressive natural disasters, but it didn’t quite register with Dan
Caribou’s Swim rules the pool
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | April 30, 2010

Hot Chip | One Life Stand

Four albums into a career that appeared to begin as an art-school goof, Hot Chip look more likely than any of their peers to ascend one day to the intellectual electro-pop heights of Pet Shop Boys or Scritti Politti.
Astralwerks (2010)
By MIKAEL WOOD | February 19, 2010

Four Tet | There Is Love In You

In the five years since Kieran Hebden a/k/a Four Tet last dropped a full-length, the playing field has been seriously leveled for sample-based electronic music.
Domino (2010)
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 05, 2010

Various Artists | Pop Ambient

It'd be easy to understand a resistance to "ambient" music — beyond all of its unfortunate Enya and dusty Eno connotations.
Kompakt (2010)
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 29, 2010

Matias Aguayo | Ay Ay Ay

You know the old saying: you can lead a horse to dance music, but you can’t make it sign up for a Beatport account.
Kompakt (2009)
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 06, 2009

First annual We Push Buttons Festival

The successful first-annual WE PUSH BUTTONS: ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL wrapped up on Saturday night.
Sibilance
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | October 02, 2009

Eno Moebius Roedelius | Cluster and Eno/After the Heat

Krautrock pioneers proved much more simpático musical partners than either the fractious Roxy Music or the British classical avant-garde milieu that thought of Eno as an untrained fanboy.
Bureau B (2009)
By GUSTAVO TURNER | September 25, 2009

Gus Gus | 24-7

Letting the music take control is a primary tenet of the dance-floor ethos — but that's only because dance music is by nature submissive. Even at its most sonically rich, dance music remains a utility, and even when it demands your attention, it does so
Kompact (2009)
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | September 18, 2009

Bound for greatness

Twenty years ago, Damon and Naomi founded Exact Change, a small publishing house (okay, a small publishing room) specializing in a wide range of near-forgotten texts from the far-flung fringes of Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus, and other outcroppings of the 2
An Exact Change sampler
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | September 18, 2009

King Cannibal | Let The Night Roar

King Cannibal is the latest incarnation of the artist formerly known as Zilla, a mixtape prodigy (check the supremely eclectic mid-'00s One Foot in the Fire, One Fist in the Air , if you can track it down) who managed to impress even the jaded Warp Rec
Ninja Tune (2009)
By GUSTAVO TURNER | September 04, 2009

Shudder to think

With the tools available to electronic musicians — software and limitless collaborators available through the Internet — the only limiting agents are ambition and work ethic. Well, talent, too, but that can be as easily wasted as ever if you don’t know h
Chill out this summer with Goose Bumps, Vol. 3
By SAM PFEIFLE | July 10, 2009

Bibio | Ambivalence Avenue

Since this new record by Wolverhampton's Stephen James Wilkinson (a/k/a Bibio) has done nothing but delight me, I'm going to honor the sentiments posted to his MySpace blog and spare him the f-word and all variants thereof.
Warp (2009)
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | July 03, 2009

The other river rave

When heads deserted the Chinatown-warehouse rave scene in the late '90s, the house loyalists from Soul Clap and Marz Entertainment were still cracking glow sticks.
Soul Clap and Marz bring life to the banks
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 19, 2009

Weird and wired

It is, of course, difficult to attach a single sound to a city. And Providence is no exception.
A small band of electronic music acts take on a rock ’n’ roll city
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 05, 2009

Same difference

"I grew so weary of playing by myself on the laptop. I felt so controlled by the computer."
It's a pleasure keeping the Field on repeat
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 15, 2009

Taking the B-boys to School

You may have noticed, hip-hop dance has gone legit — or at least slightly commercial.
The Other MIT Crew
By LISA SPINELLI | April 24, 2009

Black Dice | Repo

Spearheaded by Brooklyn trio Black Dice and their peers, American noise rock is less like the pure noise of Merzbow and more like a renewal of dark, grinding industrial rhythms.
Paw Tracks (2009)
By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | April 10, 2009

French tickler

"The French language is perfect for talking about sex," muses hirsute Parisian singer and electronic-musician Sébastien Tellier.
Voulez-vous coucher avec Sébastien Tellier?
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 30, 2009

Dance, dance, evolution

They've been working together for a long time, since the late 1990s in Florida and the nascent Slowing Room, which came to Maine to become early innovators of the Portland electronic music scene.
The secret weekend start the party with Energy Broadcast System
By SAM PFEIFLE | February 04, 2009

Various Artists | Money Will Ruin Everything

Asked to describe his label Rune Grammofon's output, Rune Kristoffersen uncomfortably offers, "It's typically somewhere between improvised, electronic, contemporary . . . ," before fading off.
Rune Grammofon (2009)
By DEVIN KING | February 03, 2009

Quitters, tinklers, tacklers, and whoppers

David Berman of Silver Jews intends to quit the music biz and concentrate on writing prose, says a post on the Drag City Web site.
The Big Hurt: Music news in brief
By DAVID THORPE | February 02, 2009

Rare Frequencies: Callithumpian Consort, Thurston Moore and Bill Nace

Although composer JOHN CAGE is best known for 4'33" of silence, he could raise a ruckus when the mood struck.
Louder than bombs
By SUSANNA BOLLE | January 20, 2009

Review: Drew Brown | Tiago La Is Losing the Plot

You know how Brian Eno is supposed to have said something like, "Only 5000 people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every single one of them started a band"?
Lex (2009)
By GUSTAVO TURNER | January 13, 2009

Review: Humcrush | Rest at World's End

Replete with bands who weave jazz, modern composition, and electronic music, the Rune Grammofon label captures a thriving scene of Norwegian improvisers and composers.
Rune Grammofon (2009)
By DEVIN KING | January 13, 2009

This old house

You wouldn't know it, but throbbing away in the upper two floors of that tiny wedge of a building splitting Stuart Street and Columbus Avenue is Rise: Boston's only after-hours nightclub.
Rise celebrates 10 years on the edge
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 12, 2009

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