First surfacing in 2017 as one of the Paul Institute’s earliest acolytes, the prospect of Sean “Ruthven” Nelson’s arrival proper has been as tantalising as it’s been unpredictable. The South London artist bucked the family tradition of becoming a musician at first, focusing on a career in the London Fire Brigade to support his children. […]
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Jim Legxacy is a rapper, singer and producer rolled into one, though it’s his vulnerability that is his greatest asset. You can hear all of him in his music: his mid-twenties age, his Nigerian heritage, his Lewisham locale, but also his time spent in art school, his deep connection with past experiences, maybe even the […]
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It’s December 2021 and chamber group Manchester Collective are on stage at the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds, undercutting the pomp and posturing innate to all classical venues with their palpable enthusiasm and personable candour. They’re presenting a programme named Heavy Metal, looking to distort sound as well as the performance space itself. First on […]
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Named after the Latin word for the ash genus, Fraxinus is a vehicle for the weighty techno of Devon-born, Netherlands-based DJ, producer and composer Cameron Leaf. Originally making a name for himself as part of the Her Records crew, he debuted with the All Ends 12” in 2014. Compilation contributions for Her Records and Astral […]
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It almost feels like an undersell to refer to NYC/Maine-based artist YULLOLA as a singer-songwriter and producer; she practises imagination more than anything else, using audio, visual, literary and performance arts as tools to realise and express an overarching vision. Previously, she had been releasing music under the name Jasper Lotti – her track “Bad […]
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The swift rise of notorious Yorkshire entertainers Bad Boy Chiller Crew is a fascinating feat seldom seen in today’s landscape. As a trio, members Clive, Gareth Kelly and Kane started out making comedy skits, prank videos and lad banter viral clips much in the vein of Dirty Sanchez or Jackass – complete with a recurring […]
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With a vision for powerful, narrative-driven DJ sets as well as a production catalogue spanning original hardstyle compositions, rhythmic drum track collaborations, dancefloor-storming superhit blends and wondrously uncanny metal mashups, Estoc sets any and all music libraries alight. The Philadelphia-based artist has been consistently delivering the fiercest of mixes and edits under the name for […]
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Shades is the fourth album in some 11 years from Good Sad Happy Bad, the London-based band formerly known as Micachu and the Shapes (now rechristened after their 2015 LP). It arrives after the longest gap between between the group’s albums yet, and just as there’s something idiosyncratic and unshakeable about their lo-fi avant-pop and […]
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Below is the streamlined transcript and audio recording for a panel I moderated at Unsound 2019 in Kraków last October, programmed with the festival’s theme of ‘Solidarity’ in mind. Since then, COVID-19 has revealed the fragilities not only of global underground music ecosystems, but of the globalised, capital-driven world as a whole. Within music, artists, […]
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With a background originating among Sheffield’s DIY/independent punk scene and now existing as an explosive part of Manchester’s DJing circuit, Clemency was always destined to thrive in liminal spaces. The producer and DJ has spent the past few years gaining a reputation for dropping the dark and dubby right in with frazzled techno, tense-yet-cathartic hardcore […]
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As Gabber Modus Operandi, vocalist Ican Harem and DJ Kasimyn have spent the past couple of years raising hell across their native Bali and beyond. The duo connected over their shared love of disparate musics, including metal, grindcore and noise from the local punk scene, regional sounds like dangdut, koplo and gamelan plus footwork, happy […]
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Videogames have been a continued influence on the work of Cologne-based, DC-originated big picture maximalist Swan Meat. As a composer, producer and DJ with a background in poetry and audio engineering, Swan Meat AKA Reba Fay has incorporated an ‘everything, all at once’ approach to her music – much in the same way games apply […]
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