Interview: Civilistjävel!
Over the past few years, Civilistjävel! has released a series of magical records. Each 12” has featured a collection of untitled tracks that sit somewhere along a spectrum of ambient smudge. Sounds vary, with dank drones and shocking darts hinting at musique concrète and strange soundtrack or library music. Occasional forays into lumpy techno and […]
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Truancy Volume 292: DJ Plead
The common thread running through DJ Plead’s career is tough, functional, percussive music, drawing on the rhythms and timbres of his Lebanese heritage for a sound that’s deeply personal yet one that can quickly alight a dance floor. It’s this genre-busting flair of club experiments, nurtured and supported by a crew of like-minded producers based […]
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Seven Plays XII : Maral
This installment was contributed by the artist Maral, whose intuitive and imaginative approach to sound production we’ve highlighted in past interviews. Maral’s experimental music and live sets are a shifting landscape, exploring the complex and often dueling emotions that pervade everyday life and drive us to create. Influenced by her Iranian background and the electronic […]
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Truancy Volume 291: Danielle
Danielle has been a key figure in the Bristol coterie for a while now, regularly lending her talents to the city’s ongoing musical developments. Yet her trajectory as a DJ has led her far further than the confines of Bristol over the last five years. Her versatility and multi-faceted skills have led her to take […]
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Truancy Volume 290: CCL
When we look back at the era from 2015 to now, we doubt there are DJs whose mixes dominated the zeitgeist as much as CCL’s. Through recordings for Unsound, Honey Soundsystem, C-, Discwoman and Blowing up the Workshop, their distinct vision and ability in creating masterful, story-like mixes has resonated far and wide. That’s not […]
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Truancy Volume 289: Bruce
For Bruce, breakthrough releases on Hessle Audio, Idle Hands and Livity Sound were always bound to turn heads, but he’s kept the momentum going in spectacular fashion the last eight years. A large part to this is his distinct ability in manipulating tension and release for either densely textured rhythms to stripped-back, ambient abstractions, but […]
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Truancy Volume 288: Sicaria Sound
For the last five years, the DJ and producer partnership of Lou Nour (FKA Imbratura Lou) and Sancha Ndeko has been on a wild ascent. As Sicaria Sound they’ve embraced the two-decade-old lineage of dubstep, and merged their own individual interests of grime, dancehall and soundsystem culture to produce the kind of quiet, careful innovation […]
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Interview: Freedom To Spend
Freedom To Spend is a label that takes unheard or underappreciated sounds from decades gone by and repackages and recontextualises them for a new audience. In recent years they have released music from Michele Mercure, Ernest Hood, Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton, Pep Llopis and more. 2021 has seen the label release Tiziano […]
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Seven Plays XI: Aurora Brainsky-Roth
This instalment of Seven Plays features selections soundtracking a week in the life of Aurora Brainsky-Roth. Originally from the US, Aurora relocated to the UK in 2017 to pursue graduate studies. As forgetful angel, she takes a considered and emotionally vivid approach to DJing, sometimes in collaboration with her husband, the producer ootheca. She has […]
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Truancy Volume 287: Fraxinus
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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Interview: YULLOLA
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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Recommended: Space Ghost – Dance Planet
What makes a good summer album? Is it music that sounds best in glorious sunshine or during balmy evenings? Or is it something that brings back memories of those times when gloomy winter arrives? Space Ghost’s Dance Planet does both. In the hazy stretch between May and August, these tunes can soundtrack carefree days, or […]
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