Whereas the dance music most immediately associated with South Africa are the forms that have arisen from the country’s townships and underground spaces, Portable (AKA Alan Abrahams, AKA Bodycode) has taken things in a different direction. Based in Paris, the South African DJ and producer has typically grappled with reconciling
Acid House / ambient / electronica / experimental / House / Techno
Producer Helado Negro has dropped a new music video for the track Hometown Dream from his latest album, Far In. This follows Negro’s announcement that he will be embarking on a tour of North America and Europe over the coming months, opening in Texas in April. He will be supported
In 2005, grime pioneer Wiley explained his music to Spin magazine. “Everyone’s so angry at the world and each other. And they don’t know why.” Rage is at the core of grime. Born in the early 2000s post DnB and UKG, grime is the pulverising, aggressive love child of jungle,
Bass / experimental / grime / Jungle / post-club
There’s something inherently badass about an artist or band using their name as the title of one of their songs. It’s quite metal, actually. In that genre, it’s seen as a sort of flex by a band who’ve reached a point at which they’ve garnered the merit to pull such
Amapiano / Bass / electronica / experimental / Gqom / Rave / trap
The future as prophesied by works of science fiction has never felt more likely to transpire. In the past year alone, we’ve come closer to the sort of tech-dystopias as foretold by H.G Wells than ever before. There’s Zuckerburg’s unveiling of the Metaverse, a chilling new reality that once seemed
Alt-Pop / ambient / experimental / glitch pop / hyperpop / trip-hop
Pop-punk and emo culture are experiencing a resurgence. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this new wave seems to come off the back of the current wave of Y2k nostalgia. Legacy acts like Avril Lavigne and Travis Barker are making lauded comebacks, while contemporary pop artists like Willow and current it-girl Olivia Rodrigo have
The wabi-sabi school of thought is one of Japan’s most influential aesthetic philosophies, informing many aspects of Japanese culture and artmaking. Finding beauty in the imperfect, the everyday, and otherwise mundane, wabi-sabi proposes an alternate perspective on the world around us. Shinichi Atobe’s music has never strived for outward perfection.
Last year, Pan Daijing delivered the haunting and beguiling album Jade 玉观音. Her third effort, Jade 玉观音 was steeped in a sort of uncanniness that made it creep through your veins long after it had finished playing. At the centre of this was Daijing’s voice. Mournful, pensive, and sometimes bizarre,
From blissed out new age techno to Arca updating Laurie Anderson for the post-club landscape, we roundup our favourite releases of the week. In no particular order: Pussy Riot – PUNISH Russian feminist punk-anarchist collective Pussy Riot has taken many shapes and forms over the years. From their early days
From the new guard of sonic disruptors to South Asian experimental R&B, these are our favourite releases of the week. In no particular order: Iceboy Violet – Vanity The latest single from Manchester based rapper, DJ, and producer Iceboy Violet is the first taste of the artist’s upcoming debut mixtape,
