When Islamabad-based post-rock artist Hasan Abbas decided on a rebrand, he chose the Soan river that cuts through Punjab as a representation of his music. It makes sense - his previous work has often had an aspect of ebb and flow to it, especially the wah-wah effects that pop up in almost every Streams of…
The Foreversouth Collections thus far have tended to favour the more accessible side of the Karachi electronic artists that come under its roster. In many ways this is beneficial, creating a more cohesive collection and challenging the artists to create in a more constrained, ‘poppier’ environment. Under some circumstances, this can lead to stagnation - artists that…
‘Plumas’ is an album that moves from esoteric electronic pop to ambient music, from lyrics like ‘fingers and toes respond when touched’ to echo-drenched indeterminable vocals, all smoothly transitioning in a cohesive and luscious release. The opening half, from ‘Window’ to ‘El Amohadon de Plumas’ is a journey of electronic jazz, where synth lines…
It’s likely that 2016 will be remembered as a collective slap in the face. We lost a number of cultural icons, Trump became president, the UK voted to exit the EU, Aleppo saw one of the worst humanitarian crisis of the decade, and that was all in the last half of the year. Released on the…
"We’re very proud of it. Not least because, for the past few years, life hasn’t been particularly easy for us, and our music reflects our state of mind. There were these moments when we presumed we had lost our sense of celebration, and would just be stuck in these gloomy, lamenting and inevitably…
With any pop artist, when you strip everything away, a singular question remains: ‘why should I care?’ All the great artists know this, and even when singing through the most banal platitudes, they find a way to make you care. About their story. About their life. ‘Mariam’, a previous release from Mooroo, set the…
Unlike previous Forever South Collections, the Hotcues series is manic, frenzied and relentless. While FXS Collections Vol.3 was a colourful experience, Hotcues occasionally moves into trap territory and, while it sounds massive and exciting, there’s a niggling worry that trap is already somewhat out of date, a rigid percussive genre that is running out of places to go. Like EDM, trap occasionally…
A mission statement, taken from the Noland label Soundcloud: “NOLAND is not about global and local, not about identity, not about diversity and not about North and South cooperation. NOLAND is about a constellation of individuals, of identities, about laughing, arguing and the cosmic beauty of making music together in space which has…
I’ve always, like many people, hated the term ‘fusion’ music. There’s an Indian restaurant down the road from where I used to live that advertised itself as a ‘fusion’ restaurant, blending Indian cuisine with fresh, innovative recipes. “Yes, you can have Tikka Masala but we have some new ways for you to enjoy it” …
I always find it difficult to write about electronic music like this, as it seems so dependent upon space. Tollcrane’s latest LP has a cavernous, huge sound to it, that seems more suited to a warehouse than bursting though headphones. There is the sense that this is very much dance music, made for moving bodies,…
