The best electronic music of 2014 could be found in thoughtful experimentation and dancefloor-ready fun. But the ones who led the way were the pioneers.
Japanese multi-instrumentalist and composer Masayoshi Fujita weaves mallet percussion and synths together for an arresting experience on Migratory.
Nala Sinephro’s Endlessness is music that is good for the ear, the mind, the heart, and the very future of the philosophical orientations of jazz.
British ambient composer Jon Hopkins creates dark, intimate landscapes of analogue and electronic sound on his new “ceremonial” album RITUAL.
Belaya Polosa is full of Molchat Doma’s most complex and overtly human music, organically integrated into their melancholy post-punk atmosphere.
A prolific conductor and a sophisticated synthesizer make for an under-appreciated but vastly important album in Frank Zappa’s prodigious catalog.
The deeply strange but sonically seductive duo Budokan Boys unleash a typically bonkers new EP. ‘Are You Sick?’ Highlights their odd, dark world.
Umberto is a master of creating moods that may be unfamiliar and alien but, like the best ambient music, are eventually welcoming in their own way.
Chromalight keeps a long winning streak going as STS9 continue pushing boundaries with their genre-blending sonic alchemy and collective improvisations.
How a stroll through the David Bowie exhibit at the Victoria & Albert to an auctioning of a Samuel Beckett manuscript at Sotheby’s left me at the World’s End.
Colin Newman and Malka Spigel discuss their collaborative project Nanocluster and the importance of collaboration to maintain artistic independence.
Los Angeles experimental label Leaving Records embrace an “all genre” aesthetic. At 15 years old, their artists are moving the cultural needle in a big way.
