Here’s a selection of my music writing from about 2015 till now. I’m drawn to unique characters, big-picture ideas and opportunities to explain stuff.
The Art Of DJing: Craig Richards
An in-depth Q&A with Craig Richards for Resident Advisor. He was a resident DJ at London’s fabric nightclub for almost two decades, and is Houghton Festival’s musical director.
For DJ Mag’s October 2021 issue, I spoke to Avalon Emerson about working on her debut album, the complicated promise of crypto and the dark side of the “influencer-industrial complex.”
Partying During Wartime
A 2015 profile for RBMA Daily on the late Keith Robinson, a rave-promoter-turned-corporal who threw illegal parties in the ‘90s before driving a soundsystem to the Balkans during the conflict.
Remembering SOPHIE, Who Looked And Sounded Like The Future (GQ Magazine)
Review: Jon Hopkins - Singularity
I discussed Andreas Gursky’s use of scale and transcendental meditation to assess the English artist’s latest LP for Resident Advisor.
Review: Nazar - Guerrilla
This album of “rough kuduro” memorialised the Angolan civil war as experienced by the artist’s family and particularly his father, a former rebel general. I reviewed it for Resident Advisor.
Rave by Rainald Goetz (translated by Adrian Nathan West), which I reviewed for The Wire’s November 2020 issue.
How will NFTs reshape dance music?
The blockchain technology is disrupting internet-era concepts of ownership, access and value. Could it also disrupt dance music’s progressive values?
Album reviews
Madteo - Dropped Out Sunshine
PTU - Am I Who I Am
Ossia - Devil’s Dance
Borusiade - A Body
Shinichi Atobe - Heat
Lifted - 2
For The Wire’s February 2021 issue, I reviewed Can Music Make You Sick? by George Musgrave and Sally-Anne Gross
What happened to tech house?
The untold history of dance music’s most popular — and polarising — genre.
The Hour: Baby Raves
A 30-minute report for Resident Advisor’s The Hour podcast magazine on the growth of parties for babies (and parents).
The Art Of DJing with Elena Colombi & John Talabot
A live interview I conducted in front of an audience at Dekmantel Festival 2018 with Elena Colombi and John Talabot.
The Music Institute
A feature for RBMA Daily on The Music Institute, the world’s first techno nightclub. I spent two weeks in Detroit speaking to the club’s DJs, owners, promoters and regulars.
Gig reviews
Sugai Ken
“At most gigs, musicians give off some kind of stage presence. Only a self-effacing type, as Sugai Ken seemed to be, could tell us more about himself with a stage absence.”
Egyptian Lover
“Egyptian Lover makes music with the same tools he had three decades ago… But this at least suggests a self-possessed attitude. He knows who he is and what he does best.”