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 […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 66: DJ Paypal
DJ Paypal is one of those internet gems that seems hell bent on nothing more than unleashing his rapturous brand of good times unto the world. Stylistically, the largely anonymous producer is smooth and glossy, yet supercharged with hyperactive footwork percussion and a kitschified energy that radiates from each of his tracks. This is real, […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 58: Grinch
Grinch came to our attention in the beginning of this year with the release “Chapter 1” on his imprint Grinch Productions. Since its inception in 2011, the label has been an outlet for the work of him as well as his close friends. His 2012 release was indebted as much to dubstep as techno and […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 57: Steve Bicknell
“It is what it is, to paraphrase Derrick May.” is Steve Bicknell’s modest way of defining Lost, point final. Starting out in the early nineties, the Lost warehouse parties in London have become a singular event for both its visitors and the artists playing, becoming so closely associated with the forefront of techno and the emergence of new artists […]
Read moreTruancy Volume 56: Huerco S.
Huerco S. is someone that we’re predicting to be on tip of a lot people’s tongues by the end of next year. He’s a Kansas City based artist that’s nonchalant without being dismissive and excited at prospect of more people listening to and enjoying his music. In the last two years his name’s been associated […]
Read more