Electronic
12-Year-Old DJ Has Equipment Confiscated After School Bathroom Rave
Cael Bell, 12-year-old DJ and all-ages legend, had his equipment confiscated after hosting a rave in the school bathroom. As his mother Louise Bell related on Facebook, the saga began about two weeks ago, when the budding turntablist sent out a Snapchat announcement inviting “all the boys from year 8” at St. Antony’s Catholic College in Manchester, UK. Together, they held an impromptu dance fest in the boys lavatory during lunch period on December 11th. The set included complimentary soft drinks and Cadbury Twirls, and while a school bathroom is a below-average setting for such a lunch, it is certainly cleaner than your typical rave. The set lasted 30 minutes before anti-fun authorities broke it up. Bell’s mother said that the boy’s speaker and lights have been impounded, although she...
The Avalanches Transport the Listener on We Will Always Love You: Review
The Lowdown: In a recent interview with the BBC, founding member of The Avalanches, Robbie Chater, said of We Will Always Love You, “We were thinking a lot about signal transmission and how every radio broadcast from the last hundred years is still floating out there in space … It’s a beautiful thought to me that all these broadcasts are still out there, surrounding us.” It’s easy to feel this focus in the album, an expansive cosmic compendium that finds its tracks crackling and churning into one another. The context of the album’s production — how the band was inspired by the idea that sampling old records is like summoning old spirits and by the recording of Ann Druyan’s heartbeat for the Golden Record just after Carl Sagan proposed to her — helps, but it isn’t strictly necessary. This a...
Top 50 Songs of 2020
The 2020 edition of our Annual Report continues today with our Top 50 Songs of 2020. If you haven’t already, check out our Top 50 Albums of 2020, which came out earlier in the week. Also, be sure to tune in next week as we begin handing out our annual accolades and continue looking back on the strange year that was 2020. Upon being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some years ago, Tom Waits said, “We love music, but what we really want is for music to love us back.” Believe it or not, it felt like music did that in 2020. For me, anyway. I know that it’s easy to see the world through pandemic goggles right now or strictly through the lens of racial injustice or political turmoil. Tragedy and frustration that keeps piling on can definitely cloud our vision or color our window on t...
Top 50 Albums of 2020
As we return from Thanksgiving and head into December, our Annual Report will spend the next few weeks looking back upon the strange year that was 2020 and the music, film, and television that came with it. We begin today with our Top 50 Albums of 2020. You’ve heard it from me dozens of times already: 2020 has not been a normal year. And by that, I mean absolutely nothing has been normal. The music world hasn’t been immune, of course. I’ve spent more time cancelling flights and accommodations and trying to get tickets refunded than I actually did watching live music this year. Instragram became a concert venue, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions had no performances, and livestreams (which are pre-taped) seem to be the often-underwhelming future of live music at least for the forseea...
Sex and Explosions Abound in Yves Tumor’s New NSFW Video for “Kerosene!”: Watch
Yves Tumor is here to give the people what they want: sex, explosions, violent car chases, and a new music video for the incandescent song “Kerosene!” “Kerosene!” comes from the April release Heaven to a Tortured Mind, one of our favorite albums from the first half of the year. It features… Please click the link below to read the full article. Sex and Explosions Abound in Yves Tumor’s New NSFW Video for “Kerosene!”: Watch Wren Graves You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of I...
Deftones Unveil Mike Shinoda Remix of “Passenger” (featuring Maynard James Keenan): Stream
Deftones are set to release Black Stallion, a companion LP featuring remixes of every song from 2000’s White Pony. As the latest preview of the release, they’ve shared Mike Shinoda’s remix of “Passenger”. “Passenger” is a standout track on White Pony, featuring guest vocals from Tool singer Maynard James Keenan. On… Please click the link below to read the full article. Deftones Unveil Mike Shinoda Remix of “Passenger” (featuring Maynard James Keenan): Stream Spencer Kaufman You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging...
The Adventurous Magic Oneohtrix Point Never Illuminates a True Talent: Review
The Lowdown: The pseudonym of Brooklyn-based electronic musician Daniel Lopatin, Oneohtrix Point Never has made a name for himself not only with his own releases, but also through his collaborations with notable artists like Tim Hecker, FKA Twigs, and The Weeknd. He’s also found acclaim as the composer for both Safdie brothers films — 2017’s Good Time and 2019’s Uncut Gems — and he set a high bar with 2018’s Age Of. Thus, he had quite the task in front of him in making its follow-up, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, a worthwhile addition to his impressive and renowned catalog. Fortunately, Lopatin goes one step further by creating a fascinating and evocative, yet periodically frustrating, sequence. Recorded in lockdown between March and July of this year, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never sees him c...
Autechre Drop Surprise Album PLUS: Stream
Autechre have dropped the new surprise album PLUS. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. This is the second new album from the electronic duo in less than a month, following on the October 16th release SIGN. Before that, fans waited seven years for the album-length follow-up to 2013’s Exai, although the British veterans were hardly idle in-between. In 2016, Rob Brown and Sean Booth released elseq 1-5, which was made of five 50-minute segments, while 2018’s NTS Sessions was taken from an NTS Radio residency and had a total running time of about eight hours. The pair continue to program their own sounds themselves, though their relationship to technology has evolved. Autechre’s current system allows for many more channels — more layers of complexity — than their early efforts. But the...
Italians Do It Better Release New Compilation After Dark 3: Stream
Italians Do It Better, the cult-favorite record label by Johnny Jewel, has released a new installment in its After Dark compilation series called After Dark 3. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. After Dark 3 spans 17 previously unreleased tracks in total that run the gamut of synth possibilities. Alongside music from Jewel’s various projects, including Chromatics, Glass Candy, and Desire, there’s selections from newcomers such as Orion, Joon, MOTHERMARY, Double Mixte, and more. Today’s release follows 2013’s After Dark 2 and the original After Dark compilation, which surfaced way back in 2007. Editors’ Picks Speaking of Chromatics, the group is still teasing their long-awaited new album Dear Tommy, which they initially announced back in 2014. To tide fans over, the band...
John Frusciante Reveals New Album Maya: Stream
John Frusciante has revealed his new electronic album Maya. Stream it below with Apple Music or Spotify. The once-and-future guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers has had a busy year as a solo artist, despite rejoining RHCP in December. Under his Trickfinger alias, he released Look Down, See Us in April and She Smiles Because She Presses the Button in June. But Maya is different, for two reasons: It’s his first solo effort in six years to be released under his own name; and it is the first album in his esteemed discography to be named for his beloved cat. Unfortunately Maya passed away after 15 years together, but the hope is that Maya will endure. In a statement, Frusciante explained the “self-imposed limitations” that went into his new album. He said, “For a fu...
Shygirl Announces New Alias EP, Shares SOPHIE-produced “Slime”: Stream
Shygirl has announced a new EP titled Alias. With a November 20th release date just around the corner, she’s also dropped her latest single, “Slime”. Shygirl is one of the most interesting musicians to emerge from the British club scene in recent years. The artist also known as Blane Muise straddles the worlds of electronica and hip-hop, with quirky, sly lyricism complemented by absolutely banging beats. She first made waves with the 2018 EP Cruel Practice, and now seems poised for a breakout. The upcoming Alias is meant to bring together the different parts of her personality, as “Slime” demonstrates. Produced by SOPHIE, Kai Winston, and Sega Bodega, “Slime” seems at first blush to involve a back-and-forth exchange between a cocky horndog and a badass boss bitch. The reveal, as you’ve alr...
The Knife Unveil Anti-Nationalist Anthem: Stream
In 2014, Swedish electronic duo The Knife wrote the theme song to the anti-nationalist cabaret Europa Europa, which toured the world for the next two years. “För alla namn vi inte får använda” was previously only available in Sweden and on YouTube. But as far right political groups have continued to gain power, The Knife have decided to give the track an official release. “För alla namn vi inte får använda” roughly translates to “For all the names we cannot use.” Via Google Translate and r/Svenska, the lyrics are from the perspective of “illegal immigrants,” though as the song points out, “We can never be illegal.” In a statement, The Knife’s Karin and Olof Dreijer explained why they wrote the song and how it’s meaning has changed over time. They said, “In 2014 we made music for an anti-na...
