Radioland: Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity Revisited review

Village Underground, London

The Anglo-French trio go avant-garde with Kraftwerk’s tunes and textures – which stand up well to the ensuing mutilation

In his sparky history of krautrock, Future Days, David Stubbs describes Kraftwerk’s 1975 album Radio-Activity as “a milestone in electronic music, one that marks a precise and signal midpoint between Stockhausen and Depeche Mode”.

Radioland, an Anglo-French trio named after the third track on the album, imagine an alternative history. Instead of using Radio-Activity as the launchpad for synthpop, this trio take the album’s melodies and textures as the starting point for avant-garde explorations. It’s done entirely live, with English pianist Matthew Bourne behind a bank of vintage Moogs, Minimoogs and Korgs, French composer Franck Vigroux supplying beats and basslines, and French installation artist Antoine Schmitt creating live programmed art.

Bourne has an ability to explore the synthesiser’s most Kraftwerkian properties

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by John Lewis via Electronic music | The Guardian

Jam City: Dream a Garden review – a departure from Jack Latham’s glossy debut

(Night Slugs)

Without reading anything about it, you may not immediately recognise this second album by Jam City, aka London producer Jack Latham, as a protest record. A departure from the glossy, alien-sounding club music of his debut, it’s a slow, fragmentary work taking cues from drone and post-punk, with Latham’s vocals half-buried in layers of sound. But the clues are there in track titles – Unhappy and Black Friday hint at a critique of neoliberalism – and the texture of the music. Unlike earlier Jam City releases, this one aims to create friction, to disrupt the party, even if it doesn’t force its message down your throat.

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by Killian Fox via Electronic music | The Guardian

Alison Wonderland: Eclectic taste is good, but making music is all about your ears

The Sydney DJ/producer on her first album, sort of working with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and her plan to eat a cheeseburger in every city on her US tour

Her song I want U was one of 2014’s top tracks, she played Splendour and Stereosonic and her secret Wonderland warehouse parties sell out quickly. Alison Wonderland – real name Alex Scholler – was a principal cellist in the Sydney Youth Orchestra and played bass in an indie rock band before she taught herself to DJ and produce. Her dance tunes have been picked up by Annie Mac and Diplo, now she’s released her first album, Run, and is setting off on a US tour, starting with a sunset slot at Coachella. She talks about making twisted music clips, almost working with Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips and her plan to eat a cheeseburger in every US city.

Why did you call your album Run?
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to call my first album Run, so I didn’t want to let my baby self down. And it seemed to tie in with the whole record.

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by Alexandra Spring via Electronic music | The Guardian

International Day of Happiness: the songs that lift your spirits

At the start of this week, we asked you what songs made you happy – and to celebrate today’s official day of global joy, we’ve made a playlist of some of your best and most unusual choices

Stop whatever you are doing. Recline in your swivel chair, make yourself a nice cup of tea, consider all that is good in the world and kick off those shoes of yours. If you’re in an office, probably best keep your socks on, unless of course you work in a travel company selling naturist holidays in which case you’re probably already naked. Cool!

Related: #HappySoundsLike: a free playlist will not bring change for those in poverty

Thing Of Gold by Snarky Puppy. definitely not Ed Sheeran

Carcass make me happy. Also Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, nomeansno, Slayer, Neil Cowley Trio, Beethoven, Miles Davis, Fairport Convention, The Wedding Present, lots of so called 'world music' and even some Robbie Williams. Anything but Ed fucking Sheeran.

ed sheeren and james blunt help create a blanket of vapid banality that suffocates...

whereas Half Man Half Biscuit create joy on earth.

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by Harriet Gibsone via Electronic music | The Guardian

From Hawkwind to the human face: 10 weird sample sources

Let's say you're an electronic music artist or a hip-hop producer, and you're looking for a sample to anchor your next song. What do you pick? Average White Band? Yeah, you and everyone else. Rush? Danny Brown ruined those "Tom Sawyer" drums for everyone else.

Why not sample the sound of surgery, or your own face, or if you'd like to stick to sampling "songs," just for the challenge, why not reach for a Hawkwind deep cut, or base your slow, smoked-out hip-hop song on a Tom Waits sample.

Here are a few songs with surprising source material.

by Chris Dart via Electronic RSS