Diagnosing the problem is easy – streaming is fundamentally broken and opposed to artists’ interests and no one likes it. But finding a solution? After going viral with a rant about streaming, James Blake has revealed his answer – but it’s one we’ve seen before.
Read more →Search results for ""
Visco is a warped drum machine that lets you squish sound like goo [hands on]
Between samples and synth, sound design and performance—and with a heaping dose of machine learning—Visco is a new way of imagining a beat construction plug-in. But what you’ll probably notice first is that you get to squish around a futuristic blob of goo like it’s space-alien Silly Putty.
Read more →Emmanuel De La Paix on nature in mirrors, essence of clouds [LP, gallery]
Enter a meditative world of images of the “invisible essence” of things, as tranquil as an Alpine pool or wispy cirrus cloud. Multi-instrumentalist Emmanuel De La Paix teams up with engineer Jón Þór Birgisson (Jónsi, Sigur Rós) for a sublimely calm new LP, The Physics of Clouds.
Read more →Listen: Falyakon, between Berlin and Ramallah, with an urgent music mix
Palestinian multi-instrumentalist and experimental DJ Falyakon has long been an inspiration to anyone who’s met her – for her energy, her vision, and the depth of feeling and activism threaded into her music mixes. We were fortunate to have her in the Refuge Worldwide studio over the weekend, in a mix that says what no opinion piece or social media post can.
Read more →Finding one another in sound: compilations for Palestine
In the face of daily violence and massacres delivered in near real-time to our phones, musical artists are finding ways to find one another and be named. Compilations in solidarity with Palestinians take on a new urgency — as a way to weave threads between people.
Read more →Premiere: aya has a blazing footwork-ish remix of Zoë Mc Pherson’s “Wait”
Some tracks have a magic ability to smash the gas pedal. “Wait” by Zöe Mc Pherson gets a deeply satisfying treatment by aya that’s just too good not to share here right now. It just churns. And it drops atop a don’t-miss EP of remixes of Zöe’s Pitch Blender – so here’s your reminder to catch that.
Read more →An hour of poignant experimental music from Palestinian producers and friends
As so many friends and colleagues face ongoing warfare and violence, I hope we resist reducing them to victims – that we both keep active and keep their humanity in view. On this Bandcamp Friday, Gaza is again calling. From a mix last week for Refuge Worldwide, here’s an hour of Palestinian experimental producers and Palestinian labels and adjacent music and where to go support it.
Read more →Algoriddim’s djay now supports Apple Vision Pro – and Apple Music
Algoriddim’s djay line of DJ tools is getting a lot more Apple-y. That includes a native spatial version for Apple Vision Pro. Since very few of you likely have that, the more pressing news may be complete integration with Apple Music – including your uploaded personal library.
Read more →Eastbloc Dispatches is the podcast for the Eastbloc culture you’re missing
From DJ and journalist Andra Amber Nikolayi, the Eastbloc Dispatches podcast is your pass to all the culture you could easily miss out on elsewhere, from central, eastern, and southeastern Europe, and various parts of the world recovering from the Soviet Union. And it’s full of terrific conversations.
Read more →Marie Wilhelmine Anders’ Frozen Music: Debussy, dance, and foghorns
In ethereal stretched harmonic recollections of Debussy, across cooly confident grooves echoing from dance floors, composer Marie Wilhelmine Anders has again constructed a rich musical reverie. I spoke to her about her process for Frozen Music, down to the bar, and how Scottish poetry fed this lush sonic landscape.
Read more →








