Truants readers will be familiar with Dro Carey thanks to his impossibly good 12″ release on Templar Sound last year, which Simon Docherty reviewed here. “N.R.”‘s take on steely grime tropes summed up the essence of Eugene Hector’s approach to production, either as Dro Carey or Tuff Sherm. He delights in playful subversion, his take on the sacred totems of dance music simultaneously reverent and […]
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Interview: Gifted & Blessed
For a decade Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker has released music on labels such as Sound In Color, his own Gifted & Blessed imprint, Eglo Records, and more recently Wild Oats. On every record and with a multitude of names his work ethic and ability to carve out ear-perking synthetic melodies has shown through. Ahead of his appearance […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 65: October
There’s always that sense of hesitant laziness when asking someone what sort of music they’re into, only to have them reply with the slightly frustrating old “you know, a bit of everything.” However with Julian Raymond Smith, otherwise known as Bristol based producer October, a bit of everything seems like quite a fitting phrase to […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 64: Iron Galaxy
The democratization of the music industry should make it easier for talented artists to gain an audience, but if the last few years have shown us anything it’s that this was a blessing and a curse. There seems to be a constant flow of questionable and plain terrible music hitting the web daily, making it […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 63: Damu
The last few years saw a deluge of mediocrity in a scene describing itself as “UK bass music”, which drew together the politest bits of house, techno, garage and dubstep for a depressingly vanilla sound. Thankfully, the scene also yielded some real original talents, one of whom is Damu, an artist with releases that include an […]
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Interview: FunkinEven
Armed with a studio of vintage gear, FunkinEven’s productions have yielded music that acknowledges a long linage of funk and hip-hop, but is not captive to it. His music runs along the same timeline as his predecessors and influences such as Warren Harris aka Hanna and Big Daddy Kane. He regularly collaborates with the Swedish […]
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Interview: Xhin
It is not often that the relationship between an artist and its label feels quite as organic as Stroboscopic Artefacts and its Singaporean delegate Xhin have established for themselves. The Berlin-based label, led by its founder Lucy, have continuously exhibited sounds that are motivated by a self-proclaimed curiosity of a scientist and manage to challenge accustomed […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 62: Claude Speeed
You may not be familiar with CLAUDE SPEEED yet, but we guarantee that by the end of this year, you shall know his velocity. Part of the always-brilliant LuckyMe label/collective/crew (also home to Eclair Fifi, whose own Truancy Volume is one of our finest), he’s so far released an EP with his band American Men, […]
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Interview: Daniel Savio
Daniel Savio has a baby boy, but his experience being a father extends beyond his family tree. Credited as being the progenitor of the Scandinavian electro-funk movement called Skweee, he’s made funky-wave-babies felt around the world. Steeped in bucket hat and track suit hip-hop, Kraftwerkesque synthscapes, and “Was Dog a Doughnut” electro vibes, Savio’s sound […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 61: Kid Smpl
If you ask 22 year-old Joey Butler, also known as Kid Smpl, what to call his music, don’t expect a straight answer. “Super introspective, isolated and wondering, but there are a lot of other people that could probably explain it better than I could”, he says. Like many other producers in the post-Burial soundscape, Kid Smpl’s […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 60: Bookworms
When a debut release finds its way into almost every year-end list, it’s hard to not take a little notice of Brooklyn-based producer Bookworms. Having been taken under the wing of Ron Morelli and the L.I.E.S Records crew since his move from San Francisco to the Big Apple around a year ago, the young producer made […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 59: Locked Groove
“I don’t dance” is a pretty bold statement coming from someone whose line of work is to make the rest of us dance – but Locked Groove clearly knows what he likes, and it seems to be working out. He shot straight to the top in 2012 with two EPs on Hotflush Recordings (“Keep It […]
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