14tracks Selections
14 tracks: Wave Patrol
In focus this week: 14 aces rotating up-to-date and obscure '80s gems from the DIY/Industrial wave helix. Sometimes the abundance of reissues in circulation leaves us overwhelmed, but dig thru and yo…
14 tracks: Afro Beats
Shuffling from Africa through to Europe and America, we scan 14 rhythmelodic aces inspired by and created in the home of dance music. It's a wide-angled overview of myriad musics from and influenced…
14 tracks: box of tricks
This week we've selected 14 recent-ish tracks, reissues and catalogue additions that may well have escaped your attention and which we reckon are ripe for immediate investigation. There's not really …
14 tracks: Chamber drift
This week's selection sways from wistful drone pop to gauzy ambient and modern compositions; collecting 14 songs with an elemental, folksy awareness which share a rarified, surreal atmosphere. We've …
14 tracks: techno techno techno
We're well up for a techno session this week. Girder-strength pounders to serpentine rollers; 14 pieces that run the gamut of dancefloor techno currents from Marcel Dettmann, Moerbeck, Paula Temple, …
14 Tracks: Underworld Missive
From imperious doom to concrète invocations: our overdue roundup from the nocturnal hinterlands. They're those pieces of spatial dread and collapsed time, taking black metal, industrial and blown-out…
14 tracks: Holo Core
This week we're probing that holographic, sensurreal space between accelerated, cybernetic cultures: from HD electro to lo-fi machine psych and hypeR&B, this selection sorts 14 skeletal, cyber-dubbed…
14 tracks: Trouble At Mill
In workshops, bedrooms and studios from the industrial landscapes of Cleveland, Ohio, to Cleveland, England, and far beyond, producers are forging an uncompromising industrial sound. As a follow up t…
14 Tracks: Cyan Psych Syzygy
Casting the net far and wide, we spy 14 exotic cyan psychedelics touring everything from avant-blues to post punk obscurities, via pacific coasters, Korean classical and dub prayers. While far flung,…
14 Tracks:Road Works
Instrumental grime and London bass music is in rude health right now. With a nod to Keysound's excellent scene round-up, 'This Is How We Roll', we've selected 14 dread-filled and virulent riddims ran…
14 tracks elevation/expansion
There's nowt better to soundtrack the turn of the seasons than a buncha new age synth drift and streaking cosmic aces. It's turning into a yearly occurrence (see our 'Convective Currents' pick from 2…
14 Jacks
Fourteen jacks: from proto-house to nu skool buck beats! If there's any meme gurning at us from the 'floor right now, it's the perennial influence of Chicago house and European wave sounds. Here we s…
14 tracks: Nause Techno
This week we round up 14 pieces arcing across techno, junk electronics and noise. The application of overdriven electronics and throbbing beats is nothing new, really; the early industrialists and po…
14 tracks: Haptic Perception
This week we highlight 14 tracks for their stimulating, synaesthetic qualities; their enhanced capacity to be perceived as matter we can somehow "touch" with the ear or hear through our skin like som…
14 tracks: Scando Weirdo
To while away the long nights and p*ss poor weather, Scandinavians are particularly adept at entertaining themselves, and us, with a panoply of overproof pop and psychedelic musics melding ambient, j…
The Best of 2012: Reissues
The reissue machine worked overtime in 2012 to put a bit o' spit 'n polish on a raft of classics, known and unknown, for our eager ears. We were seriously spoilt for choice (just check our top 100 re…
The Best of 2012: Part Four
We finish 2012 at a juncture of pop, techno and avant-garde with 14 tracks that stuck in our heads all year. Respect is due to the masters, with Richard Youngs offering 'The Healing Of Everyone' on h…
The Best of 2012: Part Three
This 3rd part of our annual round-up checks a spectrum of lushly melodic and heavy psychedelic electronics orbiting the dimensions of 4.1 world ambient, trance techno, psyche-dub and those hard-to-pl…
The Best of 2012: Part Two
Part two of our 2012 round-up covers myriad bass mutations from all corners of the globe. As ever, the spirit of UK rave continues to provide inspiration; from Lee Gamble's impressionistic 'Diversion…
The Best of 2012: Part One
With the endgame imminent we'll try and sum up the 2012 vintage before it's all too late. As usual there'll be four selections covering the gamut of electronic, out-there and essential music, and we …
14 Tracks: Wave Riding
Oscillating between early '80s and 21st century wave musics, this ride parallels rudimentary yet forward thinking experiments from legends such as Factrix, Felix Kubin and MFH (aka Pump) beside moder…
14 SAD songs
We're suckers for bleak and melancholy sounds come autumn/winter. After a bit of foraging in our hard drives, we've come up with a string and song-based counterpart to our recent 'Crepuscular Electro…
14 tracks: Hyper Hyper
The explosions of early '90s rave music have a lot to answer for. Now, long after the moment, and as with punk/post-punk and psychedelia before it, musics made in light of these brief windows of oppo…
14 tracks: Crepuscular Electronica
The current electronic field is a place where ideas learned from ambient techno, pop, hauntology, and sound design play out a wealth of affective emotions, textures and groove. We've sieved out 14 of…
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident
From the American soul centres of Chicago, New York and Detroit, deep house has inspired fresh, strong roots in Manchester, Amsterdam, Liverpool and much further afield. This selection checks experie…
14 tracks: Slow/Fast
Slowfast is a term we've been using to describe everything from Diamond Ice's Miami trunk funk to Araabmuzik's finger-blur fibrillations and recent minimal D&B. It's been used by EDMX and Om Unit to …
Smash your Tom Tom, listen to Sun City Girls
Trying to sum up Sun City Girls' oeuvre is nigh on impossible, so we won't bother. Instead, we've sifted out a handful of gems from their kaleidoscopic catalogue and shaken them up with compatible go…
14 tracks - Put The Kick Down…
This week's selection collects 14 heavyweight bangers primed for transcendent, peaktime deployment in the sweatiest situations. A majority of tracks are ultra-modern, up-to-the-minute aces - from Sil…
14 tracks: Duppy Slomp
One for the smokers and the valium munchers - a narcotic selection running the gamut of psych-spiked dub, krautish new age electronics, avant pop and hip hop, all thoroughly skewed and screwed for th…
14 tracks: Tech House Shake Down
This week we're on a dancefloor flex, joining the dots between freshest tech-house, broken beat and latin percussions. It's straightforward: this is music to make you do-the-do, full of body-synched …
14 tracks: bury your hope in a safe place
With carnival weekend ahead and everyone enjoying their holidays, it's fine time for a selection of heavyweight drone and electro-acoustic composition, don't you think? This is music for covering vas…
14 Tracks: Mid East Recon
The spectrum of Middle Eastern culture, politics and imagery supplies an invaluable muse to countless artists both from the region and far removed. At one end of the scale, our recon of the region ch…
14 Tracks: Rocks off
It would be fair to argue that Industrial Techno, D&B, Post Punk and Garage Rock have a shared purpose, an insistent and economical urgency and attitude which has long made them vital forms of artist…
14 tracks: Digital Abduction
We're taken by the pleasures of digital sound this week, exploring strains of cinematic ambient bliss, microtonal composition, and advanced electronica. While there'll always be a place in the world …
How To Improve Your Swing In 14 Easy Steps…
Want to lower your dancefloor handicap? The biggest paradox in dance is that the harder you try to "dance", the worse it gets. In our easy-to-follow guide a simple system of sequential body movements…
14 tracks: Hardcore will never die
It's a theme we hope we never stop returning to; the enduring influence of early '90s Hardcore. Twenty years since that pivotal era, heads are still assimilating the 'ardcore stance, albeit with new …
14 tracks of Toolbox Electronics
Dissatisfied or perhaps temporarily bored with digital tools and computers, the artists on this selection express themselves via archaic apparatus, harnessing their free radical unpredictability to c…
14 Tracks: Blue Gaze
Shuffling around the intersection of R&B and ambient/dream-Pop, this collection isolates a slow, melancholic sort of sonic catharsis that we all need now and again. The cloud-like harmonics and skele…
14 tracks: Jukebox Juice
A follow-up of sorts to the 'Parallel Pop' selection, for 'Jukebox Juice' we've filtered out 14 crafty and lysergic Pop songs for merry psychonauts ranging from Mac Demarco to The Cleaners From Venus…
14 tracks: FatCat Split Series
This week we offer up a choice selection of tracks lifted from Fat Cat's legendary Split Series, an epic project which started life all the way back in 1998 and which has just become available on dig…
14 Tracks: Plugged-in Rhizome
Thanks to the efforts of insatiable diggers and exotic sonic magpies like Finders Keepers, Jazzman and Chocolate Industries, the obscure fringes of early, plugged-in pop, funk, disco, soul and jazz a…
14 tracks: Inter-dimensional Dissolve
From the fractal dis-arrangements of Ital and Oneohtrix, to Mohn or Bass Clef's tunnelling expanses and the hieroglyphic patterns of Perispirit and Mordant Music, we've sifted 14 actively potent salt…
14 tracks: Never Been To Ibiza
It's true; we've never visited the white isle. But if we did, we'd probably want our Balearic soundtrack to go a little something like this. It would push off with Jan Jelinek's exotic 'Irrelevant So…
14 tracks: ClunQ FunQ
Retuning tried-and-tested House, Garage and Techno frameworks with up-to-the-minute and in-the-box production methods, the dancefloor zeitgeist is increasingly defined by hollowed-out percussive poly…
14 tracks: Footwork diffusion
Footwork's futurist templates have catalysed some fascinating fusions in modern dance and electronic music. This selection checks for those artists/engineers/producers outside the scene who've fused …
14 tracks: Consensual Hallucination
Partly provoked by Black Rain's soundtrack to William Gibson's “Neuromancer”, our 'Consensual Hallucination' is shaped by cyberpunk dubs, phantasmic kosmische and clandestine architechtronics imagine…
14 tracks: Body Request
The pull of the 'floor was too much to ignore this week, hence these 14 driving, dramatic aces from the intersection of Industrial Funk, Wavey disco and Machine Pop. It's fair to say a lot of this st…
14 Tracks: Parallel Pop
Dreamy, gauzy pop is in the spotlight this week, from sly covers to '60s-inspired songcraft to wistful '80s themes, taking in sun-soaked Balearic bop, sophisticated composition and even a cheeky medl…
Hospital Productions: 14 open wounds
Hospital Productions is one of the most vital and prolific imprints in operation right now. Attempting to make some sense of their most recent batch of releases, here we trace the transgressive taste…
14 tracks: Convective Currents
Teetering on alternating weather systems at the cusp of spring, there seems like no better time to collect some of the beautiful synth music that's been keeping us warm over winter. David Cain and Ro…
14 Tracks: Dubstep in Rude Health
Dubstep in 2012 is still a mutant, virile beast. In recent years it's been summoned to do dirty work for Rihanna, Britney, and Usher, while suburban punks like Skrillex have even taken it to the f**k…
14 Tracks: The Unheimlich Manoeuvres of Kareem
Since 1996 Berlin's Kareem has forged a steely, blackened body of work spanning Industrial Techno, Hip Hop and Drone synonymous with his Zhark Recordings imprint. After nearly half a decade of inacti…
14 tracks: Hypersoul
What with Whitney's untimely passing and the fug of Valentine's day still lingering, it only seemed right to round up the best R&Bass/Soul-infused electronica from our digital stockpile this week. OK…
14 tracks: Midnight nomads
We're back on land this week, searching under rocks for desolate drone, introverted Americana and occult artefacts to while away baltic nights. 'The Story Begins' with Myrmyr's forlorn folk strings a…
14 tracks: Aqua-tech
From the earliest concrète thru Drexciya's wave-jumping electro, to the hydraulick torque of Drum & Bass and the hydrophonic sound studies of Chris Watson, this week we drawn lines between different …
14 tracks: Nexus Flux
Our 'Nexus Flux' selection isolates a luminescent cloud of syncretic, cybernetic electronic hybrids. This virtual mass of sonic memes crystallises elements of synth-driven Afro-Futurism, Sino-stepper…
14 tracks: Knackered House
Coined by Modern Love's Andy Stott, the phrase "Knackered House" best describes that strain of liminal, busted production we can't get enough of. Taking a blurry-eyed, shifty perspective on a well tr…
The best of 2011: Archival and Reissues
We start the new year by taking one last look back at 2011 and its finest reissues and archival releases. Synth & wave productions dominate proceedings, with strong contributions from Chris Carter / …
The Best of 2011 Part 4
So here is our fourth and final look back at 2011. It includes an exclusive digital taster for Demdike Stare's 'Elemental' album (which will be given a full CD release in 2012), as well as standout c…
The Best Of 2011 Part 3
Third week in and our look back at 2011 picks up another selection of tracks that we've loved over the last 12 months and which may not be too prominent on most end of year charts you'll encounter. W…
The Best of 2011 Part 1
So here we are again with another annual roundup covering twelve months of standout music from a multicoloured spectrum taking in Techno to Pop, Bass music to Ambient, Coldwave to House and numerous …
14 tracks: from the outside looking in
This week we take another look at Techno's outer limits, bringing together all manner of destroyed, out-of-time, washed-out and fragmented warehouse appropriations made by producers free of the const…
14 tracks: Schemin' House
There's an abundance of high grade House music of all shades in circulation right now. We've rounded up fourteen crucial cuts for your dancing feet, from reissued New Jersey classics thru freshest A'…
14 tracks - Halloween hangover
In the aftermath of halloween we've headed deep into a nocturnal selection from the realms of psychedelic prog, cyber-pop and zombie dance music. Like the residual memories of a nightmare you can't f…
14 Tracks: Ruff 2 Smooth, Bass & Funky
On a Funky, Bass-heavy flex this week, we've rounded up 14 crucial rollers from scene veterans and fresh-faced youngers alike. As the sound continues to develop we take a broad overview, checking the…
14 Tracks - Present: Future
The emotive futurist rhetoric and aesthetic of Kuedo's excellent 'Severant' album is the inspiration for this selection. Released on Planet Mu, the former Vex'd man's solo debut LP is a hyper-fused c…
14 tracks: According to custom
As much as we try to resist, the allure of darkside romance is a recurring theme round here. This particular, thorny bouquet of tracks is headed up by one of the songs of the year, Regis' 'Blinding H…
14 tracks: built to boom
It's a pure dancefloor selection this week, powered by big, booming 808 vibrations. From Atlanta to Amsterdam, Sydney to South London, the pervasive influence of American Electro, Juke and HipHop is …
14 tracks: Kafkaesque
Introspective, surreal and menacing, these tracks play out a maze of sensory and emotive manipulations, with emphasis on affective adjustments to ambient space, humidity, temperature and texture. We …
14 Tracks Of Psychotic repetition
While trawling the meta-pathways of our digital database, our radar's increasingly detected stray signals of pulsing trance noise and impressionistic techno creeping out of the binary mist. We traced…
14 tracks: A nocturnal transition
Taken by the mood, here's 14 tracks of glamourous yet trippy Disco, Boogie and Slow House to seduce and intoxicate you from the dancefloor to the sofa. At the top, there's Gay Marvine's frisky purple…
14 Tracks: To The Warehouse Born
Rounding up some of the heaviest House and Techno machinations from the last few months, this selection takes in tracks from Martyn, Regis, Kowton, Blawan, Skudge, Exaltics, Matt O'Brien and more. Al…
14 tracks: Ritual Order
Our 'Ritual Order' is a polytheistic, star-gazing selection of contemporary drone, electro-acoustic and synth music united by a wish to explore the extra-ordinary. With music from Seattle's Master Mu…
14 tracks: temporal pop dissolution
This week we're talking experimental, inverted and odder songcraft, from unexpected cover versions to histrionic, beguiling wave-pop by a bunch of genuine auteurs and outsiders. It's a mixed bag of i…
14 tracks: Touching Buttons
Our selection this week looks at a spectrum of women who sing and produce in the sphere of electronic dance pop and the avant garde. It's a kind of follow-up to our 'Strange Angels' selection from a …
14 Tracks: Immolation for Prurient
Influential Noise artist Prurient (Dominik Fernow) has just released his most diverse, pellucid and, ultimately accessible album to date in 'Bermuda Drain' on Hydrahead Recordings. It was reputedly i…
14 tracks: PAN
Under the curation of Family Battle Snake's Bill Kouligas, PAN Records has become one of the most important new imprints for extraordinary outsider and electro-acoustic music of the highest calibre. …
14 tracks: High Tech Rollers
This week we're rolling Hi Tech. We're ditching the 'Dance Du Jour' series and just picking up on 14 of the primest Teched-out and infectious riddims for discerning dancers and DJs. In particular, we…
14 tracks: 4th World feedback
As the feedback loops of sonic culture continue to tangle in ever more bewildering knots, we're drawn by to the evocative ecology of simulated environments for exploration. To some extent, these zone…
14 Tracks: No Hat, No boots = No Job.
Thanks in no small part to the machinations of Ancient Methods, Industrial Techno has witnessed a resurgence from the shadows of loop-based bangers in recent years, albeit with an updated swagger and…
14 tracks: Thanet to Jodrell Bank
We're heating up the Rover for a night drive from Thanet to Jodrell Bank, a fresh flask of tea on the (walnut effect) dash and 14 scenic soundscapes ready for the journey. Each of these tracks reflec…
Special Brew: 14 forward bubblers...
This week Planet Mu release the incredible 'Kentje'sz Beatsz' album by Anti G, exposing the infectious sound of Bubblin' to the world at large. The cultural creation of 2nd generation immigrants from…
14 tracks: Screw the pitch
Rollin' from DJ Screw's doped tones to Markus Schmickler's queered pitches, this 14tracks selection explores the relationship between displaced pitch and space in screwed HipHop, dub and experimental…
14 Tracks for the end of the rope...
Indulging darker inclinations, this selection traces a spidery path between the shadows of gothic shoegaze and blank-eyed post-industrial drone pop made by a coven of experimental musicians and some …
14 tracks to put a dip in your hip
The sun's out, bank holidays are just around the corner: it's high time for a drum-filled Afro-Latin selection. Leading the wiggle, we got a Latin R&B obscurity from exotic dancer Margarita Benitez, …
14 tracks: Strange Angels
Inspired by the near ineffable beauty of new albums by Grouper and Motion Sickness of Time Travel, we've induced a séance (of sorts) with similarly suggestive music by a (nearly) all-female cast of a…
14 tracks: Not Not Not Not Fun
LA's Not Not Fun is an incredibly prolific label dealing in all manner of outré psych, synth and noise music. Both NNF and their 100% Silk sublabel are lovingly curated by Amanda Brown (LA Vampires/P…
14 tracks: Concrete phantoms
In the years following WWII and the creation of magnetic tape recording techniques, composers Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry along with engineer Jacques Poullin opened a portal to the future of mu…
Dance Du Jour Vol.5
Better buff up yer clogs because it's time to get on the 'floor, this selection bouncing off the walls from epic Latin Hi-Tek to futuristic Acid-House, acrobatic D&B and Footwork concrète! As usual w…
14 Tracks: Rambling in the ether...
Inspired by the enigmatic music of Forest Swords, this weeks selection searches between blue R&B, plangent Shoegaze and psych-dub desert soundscaping for a lost soul. Five years ago, these sounds may…
14 tracks: Mission to the Technoplex
Entranced by a phantasy of cybersensual Gno Age discopop and electro, we jack into a selection primed for a night at the technoplex. Emotions are high, synapses sparking to databursts of augmented El…
14 tracks: The House that Trax built
Chicago's Trax Records ranks amongst the world's most influential labels ever. Since Rachel Cain and Larry Sherman set it up in 1984 they've released seminal House music from Chi-town's finest, carvi…
14 tracks: Baby, go slow
These 14 tracks identify a seam of bullet-timed grooves spread between House, Dubstep and Techno, all in thrall to that physical drag effect; kinda like dancing in a wind tunnel or those odd dreams w…
Listening At Home With Ghost Box
Are you sitting comfortably? Yes? Good good. For this 14 tracks we'd like to share with you the spellbinding world of Ghost Box and their coven of artists who "find inspiration in library music album…
14 tracks for a Knew Age
With tongue somewhere between cheek and chin we visit a subset of sounds inspired by notions of spirituality, space and consciousness, some vague, some ironic and all quite endearing. This particular…
14 tracks: Seefeel and Mark Clifford
Having formed almost 20 years ago, Seefeel were one of the most interesting and original bands operating at the intersection between guitar-based and electronic music traditions during the late 20th…
Dance Du Jour vol.4
Our latest round-up of all that's good and heavy 'pon di 'floor spans Industrial EBM remakes, Eski-House ructions, surreal Latin bum bum beats and up-to-the-minute techno. We start the session with B…
14 tracks of Elemental Improvisations
These 14 tracks are scattered like runes between the obelisks of avant-metal, doom ambience, jazz and electronic psychedelia. They're tied together by an automatic, instinctive feel for the black art…
14 tracks of Juke & Footwork: Enter the circle
Like East London's much debated 'ardcore continuum, Chicago has an evolutionary lineage of dance music stretching waaaaay back from Blues and Jazz, through to Disco, House, Juke and Footwork. Most Ho…
Best of 2010: Part 4
As we start 2011 we take one final look back at 2010 with the fourth and final part of our annual roundup. This selection heads off with Kevin Gorman's slow-building atmospheric crush for Ostgut, via…
The Best of 2010 - Part Three
Part three of our look back at 2010 features another diverse selection of standout releases and reissues taking us from a beautifully morose reworking of Gonjasufi by Oneohtrix Point Never, all the w…
The Best of 2010 - Part 2
As we continue to explore the music we've enjoyed most in 2010, this second selection features standout tracks from Iibiis Rooge, Teengirl Fantasy, Ramadanman, Laurel Halo, Sandwell District, Actress…
The best of 2010 - Part 1
Here we are at the end of another year and another look back at some of the most interesting new music and reissues of the last twelve months. It's been a genuinely diverse time for music, with a num…
14 tracks: Chris & Cosey
Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti are two of the most important and influential figures in the history of electronic music. During the late '70s they were core members of industrial pioneers Throbbi…
14 Tracks of screwed R&B emotions
Over the last few years a wave of emotionally skewed R&B and avant HipHop has captured the imagination of the underground. The scene has nurtured some of the most fascinating new sounds to have emerg…
14 tracks: investigating the interzone
It's a bit nippy outside so we thought we'd go somewhere a little more exotic with this week's selection. These 14 tracks inhabit a certain suspended interzone, under the influence of transcendent rh…
14 tracks: Dance Du Jour Vol.3
For the third and final Dance Du Jour in 2010 we've selected 14 of the biggest, craftiest, most addictive heaters in circulation right now. Covering all corners of the clued-up 'floor, we got Bubblin…
14 tracks: Sacred Bones
Sacred Bones is an exceptional underground imprint operating out of Brooklyn, NYC. Their taste for the sweet blood of young goth pop virgins and rare, uncut garage rock and psychedelia has earned the…
14 tracks: between the wires
The term "Techno" means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. This week we're attempting to define it's most abstract, advanced and visceral tier with a selection of awe-inspiring w…
14 tracks: Scanning the scene
Making a return to disco's parallel universe in the years before House domination, we've picked out 14 electronically enhanced grooves, from the obscure and eccentric, to essential edits and epoch de…
14 tracks: An Industrial Fetish
This week we follow our instincts towards the black light spectrum of Industrial dancefloors. We cross four decades of drum machine and synth music beating with a darker heart, from Chris Carter's …
14 tracks: Digitalis Exclusives
Digitalis Recordings is one of the most interesting imprints of the moment, established in 2003 and dedicated to mining the furthest reaches of the musical undergrowth for emerging new strands of mus…
14 tracks: Funky Refractions
As Funky climbs the charts and evolves in the the Pan-Ghetto diaspora, we've noticed an emergent seam of tracks which borrow heavily from European tech-house and minimal traditions. With Grime lynchp…
14 tracks under the spell of Fonal Records
Finland's celebrated psych folk shamens are in charge of this week's 14 tracks selection. From their base in the city of Tampere, the label has curated a stunningly unique catalogue of sounds, roving…
14 tracks: Memory Wholesale
Nostalgia for the mid-late '80s is endemic at the moment. Contemporary culture appears to be trapped in an ever-decreasing feedback loop on the cusp of the analogue-to-digital crossover, inspiring a …
14 tracks of rendered silence
The world of drone and microtonal music can be forbiddingly academic, yet it can also provide subtly visceral thrills which don't require a degree from the Conservatoire de Paris to enjoy and underst…
14 tracks: Pressure Sounds
Inspired by a surprise bout of sunshine, we present 14 foundational dub cuts from the mighty Pressure Sounds. The label operates on a mission to reissue crucial dub and long lost, unreleased archival…
14 tracks: Dance Du Jour Vol.2
We're into the final strokes of summer and the peak of carnival season so we've collected 14 ultra-fresh pan-global burners for the latest Dance Du Jour roundup. From the addictive Brazilian/East-end…
14 tracks: Echospace Exclusives
These 14 tracks scan a haul of exclusive tracks from Rod Modell & Stephen Hitchell, a duo of producers who between them (sometimes together, sometimes apart) have been known to work under a plethora …
14 tracks: Calypso Connection
Calypso music originated from the melting pot of Afro-Caribbean cultural identities living on the islands of Trindad & Tobago in the early 20th century. It evolved as a creole form of musical communi…
14 tracks: Oneohtrix Point Never
Daniel Lopatin has cemented his reputation as one of the most interesting operators in the field of new electronic music with the recent release of his excellent 'Returnal' album as Oneohtrix Point N…
14 tracks: 1980s Art-Pop infection
This week's selection delves into that period right at the very end of the 70's and early 80's when post-punk nudged itself ever closer to the very heart of popular culture while holding onto its dar…
14 tracks: An Electronic Jazz Infusion
Since sprouting from the fringes of dubstep, Mount Kimbie have defined a certain jazz-taught, post-everything aesthetic in electronic music. This 14 tracks selection is designed as an adjunct to thei…
14 tracks tracing Psyche-Dub
Dub's rooted principles have been routinely plundered by indie, noise and avant-garde operators for the last 30 years. Nowadays those stone-set tenets of psychedelic head space and tactile, bass-heav…
14 tracks for the dejected dancefloor
The fallout of 70s punk and disco has irrevocably contaminated the musical food chain. The radiation of those cataclysmic few years split into a spectrum of styles, from EBM and Industrial to electro…
14 tracks: Mark Pritchard Productions
Under a plethora of guises Mark Pritchard has been at the forefront of UK dance music for nearly two decades. He's not short on respect around these parts so we've asked him to compile 14 of his favo…
14 tracks: Dance du Jour
Welcome to the first of our Dance du Jour packages. Roughly every quarter we're gonna rack up 14 crucial 'floor joints which we've either slept on or haven't readily slipped into our other selections…
14 tracks: Hypnagogic heat haze
In preparation for the four hours of sunshine we're due this summer, this soporific selection gathers a heap of our favourite hypnagogic and chill wave dreamscapes for lazy afternoons in the garden a…
Dynamic Steppers: Next level
Following on from our Dynamic Steppers selection last year, we move further into the night with the moody robotic romance of the Autonomic posse and the advanced post-techno of Alva Noto, Oni Ayhun a…
14 tracks: locked onto Actress
Darren Cunningham aka Actress is one of the UK's most forward thinking producers. Over the last few years he's been hard at work curating his influential Werk Discs and Thriller labels, besides runni…
14 tracks: a Giallo thriller
This shady bunch of cuts share common roots in the film scores of John Carpenter and Vangelis, the Italian "Giallo" aesthetic and urgent missions on European highways, eyes narrowed and twilight sink…
14 tracks of hot buttered boogie
From Dâm-Funk to Funkineven, the allure of boogie magik is thick in the air. Whether taking inspiration from the elasticated funk of Zapp, the electro-shimmy of Mantronix or the mustachioed soft-rock…
14 tracks Dubbing with Joe Gibbs
Joe Gibbs was responsible for over 100 Jamaican number one records and was credited with creating one of the earliest instrumental dub albums on 1972s 'Dub Serial'. During the early to mid sixties he…
14 tracks: Global Ghetto House
From Dalston to Durban a prominent Afro-Latin accent is dominating dancefloors. In the kinky riddims of new producers like Julio Bashmore, Greena and Douster, tribalist percussion is gleaned from Kwa…
14 tracks: The inner lounge
Spread between vast libraries of music for film and TV, we hone in on the spirit of the inner lounge! Embodied by the likes of Can's Irmin Schmidt, the Radiophonic Workshop's John Baker, or Steven Br…
14 tracks: It's a Swing Ting!
In an elliptical curve of influence, the sound of UK Garage continues to haunt the hardcore continuum in 2010. Whether it's due to a new generation of youngers latching onto Oneman's history lessons …
Numbers - Let's go!
From the still glowing embers of Glasgow's acclaimed Wireblock, Dress 2 $weat and Stuff record labels comes the futureproof Numbers conglomerate, comprising an award winning and longstanding clubnigh…
14 tracks: Claro Intelecto
Mark Stewart has been releasing music as Claro Intelecto since 2002, influenced by his love of Depeche Mode, the Art of Noise, and the Artificial Intelligence of early Aphex Twin/ Warp releases. His …
14 tracks: The Nigerian Rhythm Nexus
At the heart of African music beats an irrepressible Nigerian pulse. From the foundational Afrobeat of Fela Kuti and his Africa 70 ensemble to Sunny Ade's Yoruba syncopations, Nigerian music has long…
14 tracks: Skweee!
In far flung corners of urban Scandinavia a legion of loons are making some of the oddest electronic music around. Lead by Sweden's Flogsta Danshall and the Finnish Harmönia label under the command o…
Techno: in perpetual motion
The rate of expansion and mutation in Techno today may not be as virulent as it was 20 years ago, but things happen more incrementally nowadays, with producers constantly refining and reducing the fo…
14 tracks dug up: Finders Keepers
Over the last 5 years Finders Keepers has been on a relentless mission to unearth largely unheard gems from across the musical spectrum. Expertly curated, conceived and executed by Andy Votel, Dom Th…
14 Tracks: Roska's Kicks & Snares
Over the last two years the productions of Roska, aka Wayne Goodlitt, have helped define the rhythmic make-up of UK dance music in the early 21st century. His ruggedly syncopated riddims on the Roska…
Black Noodles: 14 Tracks of Misanthropic Noise
In the wake of Valentines day we've been reading about the South Korean tradition where all those poor souls who have failed to receive a Valentines day gift are expected to eat black noodles and mou…
Roedelius: Synthetik Sehnsucht
Hans-Joachim Roedelius is one of the brightest stars in the constellation of German Kosmiche music. As a pivotal figure in the post '68 German avant garde, he would influence a generation of musician…
14 tracks: Minimal Wave
Exploring the Minimal Wave catalogue is like entering a secret crypt of 1980s electronic underground treasures. Under the co-ordination of Veronica Vasicka, the label has tirelessly reissued a stream…
14 tracks: Cosmic Soul Triangulation
Guided by an Afro-futuristic spirit and the mystic co-ordinates of Sun-Ra, this week's assortment of astrally inclined producers touch on jazzed electronic hiphop, hi-life disco and re-wired electro-…
Under the influence of Angelo Badalamenti
The films of David Lynch and their accompanying soundtracks from Angelo Badalamenti have had a subliminal yet profound impact on the sonic palette of a whole generation of composers. From the 50's ki…
14 tracks: Psychedelic Wanderlust
At the fringes of lo-fi, freeform folk, blues and experimental electronics are a number of artists operating with an untamed and psychedelic spirit of wanderlust. These cottage craftsmen share a larg…
14 tracks: Scandinavian Disco Heat
Thanks to the efforts of a handful of headstrong producers and zealous collectors, Scandinavia has gained a reputation for releasing some of the primest nu-disco on the planet. From the spiralling ce…
The Best Of 2009 Part 4
The 4th and final instalment in our 2009 roundup looks back at some more of our favourite tracks of the year, with another heavyweight selection of music we've loved over the last 12 months. From the…
The Best Of 2009 Part 3
The third selection highlighting some of our favourite music released in 2009, this time round opening up with a typically opulent synth fix from Oneohtrix Point Never, whose 'Rifts' collection has a…
The Best Of 2009 Part 2
Continuing our look at some of the tracks we've enjoyed most this year, this second selection includes music from newcomers as well as more familiar faces. The selection takes us from the reduced…
The best of 2009 - Part 1
Over the next few weeks we're going to bring you four selections of some of the finest music released in 2009 - taking in key tracks and hidden gems from experimental music, the ever-evolving bass-mu…
Stephan Laubner - Something's out there
Over the last decade Stephan Laubner has split his time between two disparate but similarly enchanting worlds of sound. His 'Something' imprint is home to the bulk of his output, from the isolationis…
14 tracks for the city at night
Inspired by the dark and magical view of industrial North Manchester from our office windows, this two and a half hour selection of tracks is intended to complement the mise-en-scene of the urban env…
The Jacking Zone: DJ International
From 1985 up to the early 90's, D.J. International was one of the most influential record labels in Chicago - and subsequently - the world. Alongside the slightly better known Trax imprint, they rele…
14 tracks: Dynamic steppers
In the studio/laboratories of rhythm auteurs like Breakage, Shackleton, T++ and Scuba, the pattern formulas of Drum and Bass, Techno and Dubstep have been broken down to their molecular structures an…
Redshape: A tech-noir enigma
The name Redshape has become synonymous with a brand of highly refined and cinematic Detroit techno ever since the release of his 'Shaped World' 12" on Delsin in 2006. There have been numerous rumour…
Head in the Clouds: a Discohouse dream
We've tagged this week's selection 'Head In The Clouds' to signify that warm feeling of being lost in the sublime ecstasies of deep house and disco. Artists like Linkwood, Trus'me, Actress and Move D…
Hauntology: A peculiar sonic fiction
The discourse developed around Jacques Derrida's concept of 'Hauntology' and its application to music in the minds of writers like Simon Reynolds, K-Punk and David Toop is one of the most discussed p…
14 tracks: Tropical Riddim Trip
The current Garage revival in the UK has met with the force of West African Calypso and Caribbean Soca inspired Funky/House via vintage Grime in the hands of DJs like Geeneus, Oneman and Kode 9, whil…
Mika Vainio: The Noise Component
With a resolutely intransigent aesthetic rooted in the experimental arts and heavily influenced by the Industrial music of groups like Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Neubauten, Mika Vainio has ov…
Life Is A Waveform: Underground Resistance
The legacy of Underground Resistance flows deep through the last 20 years of electronic music history. Originally a duo consisting of "Mad" Mike Banks and Jeff Mills, the collective was reinforced by…
Isolating the future-skank of Vladislav Delay
Sasu Ripatti is the Finnish electro-acoustic auteur behind the Vladislav Delay, Luomo and Uusitalo monikers, as well as part of a recent high profile collaboration with Moritz Von Oswald & Max Loderb…
14 tracks deep inside Matias Aguayo
Chilean ex-pat Matias Aguayo first came to our attention back at the turn of the century with the heart-stopping 'One Two Three (No Gravity)' recorded with cohort Dirk Leyers under the Closer Musik m…
14 tracks: Hype Grime
Of all British contributions to 21st Century culture, Grime must surely rank among one of it's biggest achievements. The style was initially born in the crucible of London's Garage rave scene, but as…
The decayed loops of Jeck and Basinski
Using different media, both Philip Jeck and William Basinski explore the gradual decay and manipulation of recorded sound. Jeck, using turntables, is fascinated by the inherent flaws and sonic detrit…
Rustie, Something In The Bucky (Does Not Compute)
We love Rustie. He's a singular character bridging the gap between slack hip hop, wonky, aqua-crunk, booty, electro, shuffling bump tunes and lazer/purple whatever you wanna call it. Unlike many of h…
14 tracks visualising sound: Alva Noto
Lynchpin and co-founder of the Raster Noton label, renowned installation-artist, producer, conceptual sound sculptor and all-round audio-visual maverick, Carsten Nicolai has over the last decade amas…
14 tracks raved up: Junglist Hardcore
Twisted Mentazm's, sweet rave vocals, distorted basslines and tough edits: simple elements defining classic UK Hardcore. It's a sound we're openly obsessed with and which continues to loom large over…
14 tracks uncovering the squashed funk of L.A.
L.A.'s thriving underground scene has in the last 18 months gone stratospheric, spearheaded by a mouth-watering alignment of producers who have between them cemented the city's reputation as a centre…
14 tracks guided by Takoma
John Fahey's Takoma label was originally set up in 1959 as an outlet for his own recordings, starting with the now legendary "Blind Joe Death" album that was made in a run of just 100 copies in the W…
14 tracks re-wiring UK Garage
With dubstep increasingly split between bombastic rave/wobble workouts and far more feminine (and, for our money, interesting) variants, the line is getting harder to define between one sub-classific…
The imbalanced computer music of Robert Henke
Robert Henke's biography is as impressive as they come in electronic music. The musician has spent time as a mastering engineer at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering, co-founded software company Ableton …
Processing Hardcore: the doom and violence of DHR
Alec Empire's Digital Hardcore imprint was, for a short time, the definitive 'Berlin' label back in the mid-late 90's. Harnessing the cultural freedom that washed into the city after the collapse of …
14 tracks opening up UK Funky
Perhaps not the most alluring genre-heading in electronic music, Funky House, or UK Funky, or just UKF for those with shorter attention spans, is currently the most invigorated and lively branch of B…
14 tracks inna digital dancehall style
In the mid 1980's Prince Jazzbo and King Jammy revolutionised Reggae by discarding live instruments and building riddims using entirely digital means. 1985's King Jammy produced "(Under Me) Sleng Te…
14 tracks deep into Jamal Moss
Mentored by House legend Adonis and a direct spiritual descendent of Ron Hardy's Chicago House legacy, Jamal Moss is a prolific and utterly uncategorisable producer who's been wrecking and re-buildin…
14 tracks bumping Rush Hour
No doubt one of Europe's most important hubs for new electronic music, Amsterdam's Rush Hour label grew out of the record shop and distribution setup of the same name towards the turn of the century …
14 tracks experimenting with bowed strings
Classical and experimental musicians of all persuasions have a long tradition of making use of bows on both conventional and unusual string instruments (as well as a whole variety of non-stringed one…
14 tracks in love with Mali
Over the last few years we've developed an obsession with half a dozen or so Malian albums that have charmed and beguiled us into submission. These include Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate's magical…
14 tracks in Hypercolour: a synthfunk sampler
Wonky's uglier, ruder cousin, the new wave of hyper-coloured synthfunk is fast becoming the definitive sound of 2009. Situating itself somewhere between Grime, classic Dre productions and arcade mach…
14 tracks: clearing the Cache
Pacou first surfaced in the mid 90's and for a while everyone was convinced that the project had something to do with Moritz Von Oswald - so precise and devastating were his productions. After a seri…
The loop-finding jazz records of Jan Jelinek
Berlin's Jan Jelinek is one of those exceptional producers who just doesn't sound like anyone else - a rare commodity in electronic music. Despite amassing a now substantial body of work that's admi…
14 tracks: Visions of the Future
From the Afrofuturism of Sun Ra to Italy's 'Musica Futurista' movement, from the science fiction obsessions of the 1950's to the synthesiser-led New Wave of the 1970's, our musical archives are full…
14 tracks doffing caps to the Bristol new school
Bristol already left its mark on UK Bass culture back in the late 80's and early 90's via the Wild Bunch, Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky, but over the last few years a new wave of producers ha…
14 tracks in the shadow of film noir
From the classic "Harry Lime" theme for 'The Third Man' to the smoky Jazz interludes of Angelo Badalamenti's work for David Lynch, we're absolutely obsessed with Film Noir and the sophisticated yet d…
14 tracks deep into Move D
David Moufang is a producer who's been involved with numerous labels, projects and collaborations since the debut release on his own Source imprint back in 1994. His stock has been in ascendance rec…
14 tracks: from Larry Levan to The Warehouse..
This week we go on a potted journey through club music, with particular focus on the slow mutation of Disco and Soul into the hugely influential and endlessly productive sound eventually just known a…
14 tracks of early electronic music
We could probably compile two dozen volumes on this theme and still not even scratch the surface, but we figured it about time we took a look at some of the most precious material in the archives and…
14 tracks: The other side of Sonic Youth
With roots in Hardcore Punk and No Wave, and a fascination with experimental music of all colours, Sonic Youth have always managed to inject pop sensibilities into the cacophonous racket they're so g…
14 tracks in search of Wonky: Part Two
Three months on from our first giddy adventure into demented synth-lines, squashed beats and malfunctioning laser beams and we're back for a second helping of the good stuff, spoiled for choice by a…
14 tracks: Cloned
For more than 15 years the Clone imprint has operated under the auspices of Serge Verschuur, a heroic character on a tireless mission to bring the world advanced synthesised pop, electro, jackin Hous…
14 Tracks blown up : Accordion and Melodica
A few years back our friend Heiko Hoffmann put together "Asthmatic Worm", an excellent compilation of contemporary Melodica and Accordion tracks including the likes of Mum, Dntel and Sensorama. This …
14 tracks of heartache and longing
With Valentine's day looming we thought we'd reconnect with our sentimental side and deliver something for the romantics among you. We ended up with a playlist that's arguably more suitable for the f…
14 tracks Bubble Up : Wackies
New York's Wackies label issued some of the most influential and bass-heavy Reggae, Dub and Dancehall of the 70's and 80's. The label was founded by Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes, a Jamaican producer wh…
14 tracks of dark ambient
Ambient music has long been tarnished by its association with new-age aesthetics and cheap 'dolphin-sound' compilations readily available at your nearest herbal remedy shop or local garden centre. Th…
14 tracks deep into Surgeon
Anthony Child is one of the most uncompromising characters in Techno. With releases under the Surgeon moniker and as one half of acclaimed duo British Murder Boys, his two imprints (Dynamic Tension a…
14 tracks of Urban Gamelan
Indonesia's Gamelan ensembles have long influenced contemporary music with their long, contemplative arrangements and oddly discordant harmonies. Everyone from Debussy through to John Cage, Messiaen…
14 tracks 2-steppin into the new year
Happy New Year one and all! With 'The Roots of El-B' due for release in the coming months and with its influence shaping much of the electronic music we're enjoying as we slip into 2009, we open the …
14 Tracks : The Best Of 2008 Part 3
The third and final part of our 2008 retrospective marks a turning point for 14 tracks - from now on all the selections we feature will come zipped as a bundle so you'll no longer have to download ea…
14 Tracks : The Best Of 2008 Part 2
The second instalment in our year-end highlights selection features another batch of incredible music that's hovered somewhere below the radar in 2008. From the masterful post-classical opulence of …
14 tracks : the best of 2008 Part 1
With the year almost out we thought it the right time to single out our picks for 2008, this being the first selection of highlights from what's been a brilliantly varied and exciting year for new mu…
14 tracks documenting the field
Field recordings often have a functional remit - capturing indigenous African tribes, studying the sounds of air at different altitudes, deciphering bird song, or just documenting everyday life for p…
14 tracks unstrung, the cello
Being one of the lowest pitched string instruments, the Cello lends itself perfectly to our obsession with the bottom registers, carrying with it bass weight and a kind of aural gravity that often co…
14 tracks in search of Wonky
A follow-up of sorts to our 'Hip Hop A La Mode' selection from a few weeks back, this week we return to the hybrid sounds loosely flung under the Wonky umbrella. This is music characterised by woozy …
14 tracks opening up Basic Channel
With the Basic Channel catalogue playing such an important part in shaping our world over the last fifteen years, it's easy to forget that not everyone out there is as familiar with the the label as …
14 tracks contemplating the Raga
Indian classical music is framed by melodic templates that dictate the shape, colour and mood of each piece, a modal blueprint known as a Rāga. The influence on contemporary music has been evident th…
14 tracks of Drone Pop
Drone music makes use of repetition and imperceptible change often embodied by a low, continuous hum designed to mesmerise and submerge. This selection, however, celebrates those dronesmiths who see …
14 tracks respecting the originators : Reinforced
With the Hardcore/Rave/Junglist revival in full swing (check out Zomby's imminent new album for Werk for a prime example) we're extremely proud to bring you this exceptional 14 track selection put to…
14 tracks: Detroit Techno beyond the Motor City
Detroit Techno has for some time now permeated and influenced clubs and music makers across the world, with those signature strings and warm chords defining a whole movement in electronic music over …
14 tracks deep into Machinefabriek
One of the most prolific and interesting recording artists of our time, Rutger Zuydervelt has put together over 60 releases in the space of just 4 years, amassing a substantial and dedicated followin…
14 tracks of downward acid
Acid House has swung in and out of fashion since its late 80's heyday, and although there's a seemingly endless line of contemporary producers enamoured with classic Jack templates, we're particularl…
14 tracks feelin the dubstep hybrids
Dubstep has divided and consolidated into distinct schools of sound, some settling into the predictable routine of halfstep templates and dub cliché, while others have forged a brilliant path through…
14 Tracks in love with the cover version
Cover versions can often be a fantastic device for adventurous music makers to speak in a more colloquial tongue. It doesn't matter how deviant the execution is, the encounter with a familiar melody …
14 tracks: beyond the forbidden city
With all the cultural and political interest in China recently we've found ourselves increasingly drawn to its rich and varied musical heritage. The country has a musical tradition as diverse and spr…
14 Tracks : Steve Barker's Dubwise assault
Steve Barker is one of the UK's leading authorities on dub/reggae and has been hosting and curating the hugely influential 'On The Wire' radio show for BBC Radio Lancashire since 1984. The show's ecl…
14 tracks hi-fiving Kompakt
As one of the most visible and well known 'dance' imprints of the last 10 years, Cologne's Kompakt label has re-shaped electronic music with a vast and sprawling catalogue of releases spread over a n…
14 tracks filmed in Super 8
Contemporary music has no shortage of evocative sound makers and aspiring film composers, but this selection here keeps its focus on widescreen compositions degraded and withered by time and intentio…
14 tracks for the Berghain massive
Berlin's Berghain nightclub has in the last couple of years become one of the most vibrant and important nightspots in the world. The club's influence is so substantial that it has had mentions in Vo…
14 tracks Saluting Ladies who Experiment
Ever since Daphne Oram joined the BBC in 1942 and eventually founded the Radiophonic Workshop, the fairer sex has contributed to the development of new and experimental music with a freshness and ori…
14 tracks engaging the Hardcore Continuum
The Hardcore Continuum is a movement borne out of the early 90's conflation of seemingly disparate underground cultures : Dancehall, Dub, Rave and Acid House. Steered by a burgeoning pirate radio sce…
14 tracks for the dusty veranda
These are songs that make us think of vast desert landscapes and tumbleweed, the long sequences from Paris Texas and the relentless heat of the deep Midwest. Of course it's all one big cliché, but th…
14 tracks of narcotic House
We just love the kind of slow and sultry House Music that's been oozing out of the Berlin club scene in recent months. With its origin in the paralysed shuffle of Detroit's Theo Parrish and Moodymann…
14 tracks that make you wish you played the piano
Welcome to another 14 track selection - and thanks for the overwhelming response to our launch last week. Please note that there are several selections up on the site - you can navigate these using t…
14 tracks : From The Echo Chamber
We've created '14 Tracks' because we feel it's now harder than ever to wade through the sheer volume of music available out there and find what you're looking for. "14 Tracks' has been designed and c…
14 Tracks : Selected by Xela
Everyone's favourite ginger noisnik John Twells has been producing and releasing his own music under the Xela moniker (as well as running his own highly regarded Type Records) for the last 5 years. H…
14 tracks for a summer in the city
It's hard to figure out exactly what it is that makes a piece of music ideally suited for a sunny backdrop, but this selection has been compiled with steaming inner city afternoons and balmy evenings…
14 tracks - where Jazz is the Teacher
Jazz has informed and exerted influence over artists operating in pretty much every kind of contemporary music that comes to mind. This selection (with a title borrowed from one of the most important…
14 Tracks - Destination: Tokyo!
This selection features a contemporary pick of tracks written by, about or somehow evocative of Tokyo. From the fast-paced neon trails of Akiko Kiyama's Techno, through to the Nintendo beats of Disru…
14 tracks of Hip Hop a la mode
Some people have already dubbed this kind of Hip Hop "Wonky" - a mostly instrumental variant that features out-of-tune synths, loose time signatures and sample edits from unexpected sources. The late…
14 tracks of deviant disco
We love a bit of disco, but it's so hard to find the good stuff! Here's a selection of tracks new and old, fast and slow, euphoric and contemplative - all doused in the make-up and romance of the af…
