If anyone was going to justifiably lay claim to the tags ‘organic electronics’ or ‘natural electronica’ with any degree of credibility then that must be El Búho. The UK producer/DJ, otherwise known as Robin Perkins, has always partnered his environmental activism with his music, they are parts of him that in many ways have grown up together. His musical roots trace down to his Glasgow student days diving into the underground club and dance scene that throbbed to those global beats. A traveller post studies, living and jobbing in South America, he then worked for more than a decade at Greenpeac ..read more

Gordi (aka Sophie Payten) has just released a new track ‘Inhuman’ via Liberation Records. ‘Inhuman’ is the title track from her forthcoming EP, which is set for release on 19th August. Payten is a doctor and ‘Inhuman’ was inspired by the time she spent working in an emergency department during the Covid pandemic as well as what she experienced at work during the bushfires that swept through Australia in 2019. There is a sense of melancholy that permeates ‘Inhuman’ with Gordi delivering her vocals over a dense beat and lush electronic orchestration. The song builds slowly and eventually explode ..read more

Welsh producer and bassist Huw Marc Bennett is one of those orbital artists who washes up on your essential listening zones with a tidal regularity. A global beats innovator and world music synergist, his inspired 2016 album ‘Kiera’ under the guise of Susso emerged from his trip through Gambia making music with Mandinka griot families. Then in 2020 ‘Tresilian Bay’ saw Bennett brewing a steamy fusion of Total Refreshment Centre London jazz, lo-fi funk and slinky afrobeats on a release rightly revered across the air waves. Here, simmering just below the nyege nyege meets nu-jazz sustenance you c ..read more

BORN in Rakvere, a small town in the very north of Estonia, a handful of miles from the Baltic Sea, the experimental musician Maarja Nuut was first introduced to music by her mother, a choir conductor, which opened up a world which would become her métier. Aged 7 she began taking violin lessons, studying at the Tallinn Music High School from the age of 12 and pursuing musical academia at three universities; Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Viljandi Culture Academy and Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Early on she developed an interest in folk music, in a country with a rich ..read more

David Gray is in the middle of an Irish tour with his Skellig choir playing the songs of the Skellig album in full and more ..read more

Words: Max Falvey // Pictures: Ian McDonnell On the first show of a two-night stint in Dublin’s 3Olympia, alt-rock experimentalists Alt-J dazzled their boisterous Irish crowd last Sunday in support of ‘The Dream’, their latest record which dropped last February. Across a mindblowing 21-song set, each of their four albums were given the spotlight in what made for an absolutely euphoric performance, once again proving that the Leeds trio are one of the most stunning live acts around. Support on the night came from Oklahoma indie band Wilderado, who were just a perfect appetiser for Alt-J. Playin ..read more

AMON TOBIN has been in there for quite a while now, toying with our heads with very fine, playful, exploratory and sometimes just wonderfully weird sonic artistry. Rio-born, he arrived with Ninebar Records as Cujo, fashioning these trademark deep bass surges out on the edges of drum ‘n’ bass, like spitting thunderheads. He came out of the shadows of the Cujo nom-de-musique on the excellent Ninja Tune in its pomp; at which time, if you believed the fantastically fantastical press releases that Ninja would issue back then, he was living under a palm tree near Brighton or somesuch; there he was w ..read more

FIVE YEARS away from music – but Sophie Jamieson has lost not a jot of her musical acuity. A recording session all that time ago collapsed leaving Sophie uncertain after her lauded debut EP, Where; self-doubt built upon self-doubt and she retreated. But she’s dusted herself down, going on tour with Charlie Cunningham across Europe last year. Returning self-confidence brought her back to the studio and she released an EP, Hammer, back in February, just before it happened, resulting in a planned tour with Samantha Crain falling by the wayside. And boy, is that an EP – you can still pick up the v ..read more

That theme song from Silicon Valley? The incredible off-kilter synthpop played on a ribbon? That’s Tobacco – the enigmatic front-man who started life with Pittsburgh’s Black Moth Super Rainbow. Perhaps unfairly overlooked among some circles as another acid-laden, synth driven indie-psych band in the same era as Late Of The Pier and every mum’s favourite MGMT. What set BMSR aside from the others, however, was their unconventional attack on a number of genres; folk would become folktronica, synthpop would become ambient techno and yet there would always be a recurring psychedelic theme throughou ..read more

Luxembourg singer-songwriter Bartlelby Delicate (not his real name we assume, although if it is wouldn’t that be something) has just released a new single, From Top to Toe, available now on all your usual streaming platforms. After meeting German producer Taison (Lali Puna, Portmanteau) after travelling 1500km to play a show in Munich in which he happened to be Bartelby’s sound engineer that night, the two bonded and this is some of the first fruits of their collaborations. Moody synths and fidgety Electronics have found their way into Bartelby’s finger picked folk, as the melodies yearn and p ..read more