Music critics tend to carry big bags of creative insults, and one of the more bizarre is the allegation of “wallpaper music.” To some jaded critics, certain music is so inconsequential, so “background,” that it fades into unnoticeability like so much flowery wallpaper,...

Even though the weather in NYC is shitty, it’s always a great day when I can post something new created by a close friend. Sam Willis, one half of Kompakt recording artists Walls and the fantastic DJ/blog duo Allez-Allez is a busy man these days up in Hackney, but somehow found the time...

Somewhere along the line, various strains of electronic music separated into unspoken (or overspoken) factions, such that some tunes sound distant, ethereal and ghostly, drowned in reverb and static, and others sound compressed, crunchy and in-your-face to the point of bludgeoning. Of course,...

In a musical world where each new artist uses a more bizarre nom de plume than the last, it’s refreshing to come across an electronic artist with the unassuming and very plain-sounding name of John Roberts. It’s a name that sounds more akin to, say, a conservative chief justice of...

When you run a blog as long as I have, you end up stuck in database hell. Interns adding contact emails from the Hype Machine top 100 eventually land on scissorkick, and after nearly 10 years my inbox is cluttered by PR from labels and bands that have probably never downloaded or read about a...

Jeff sent this EP over and said he was “90% sure” I’d be into it. Fuck, I must be hard to please or something because this is so squarely in my wheel house I can’t imagine why he thought 10% of me wouldn’t be feeling this. American Men are a group of Scotsmen...

New EP from Brooklyn's Home Video just dropped and while I will readily admit the Radhiohead comparisons are warranted, I still think the band is one of NYC's most underrated.

The Thrush sounds like a mixtape made by the dude down the hall with the ill Krautrock collection who's dating a dancer into Afrobeat and old UK downtempo.

Few, if any, current producer/musicians out there manage to be as dense and melodically satisfying as Max Tundra, unapologetically birthing electronic pop so saccharine that it reminds of you of your mom's favorite 90s tracks from Lisa Stansfield and Desiree.

I actually haven't heard the original yet, but it's always exciting when a Four Tet remix actually hits the mark and this one surely does.

... Other maverick online music models have resulted since (like NIN's free record), but few have the charm of the recent 4AD release from David Edwards, aka Minotaur Shock.

He DJs as Egg Foo Young here in the city, has done production work for Bonde Do Role and -- most importantly -- is one of the first artists I can think of who has included written explanations of his instrumental song titles in the CD.

Here’s a nerd fantasy for you: Tortoise covering Boards of Canada’s “Roygbiv” with Quincy Jones producing. Yeah, it’s totally unrealistic, perhaps even a slight bit musically incongruous, but I don’t give a fuck. I think that would be sick. It is just a...

Happy to report that longtime SK favorite and fellow Brooklyn resident Eliot Lipp has a new album slated for release on March 4th on Mush records, home of Bibio, Lymbyc Systym, Caural, et al. His last LP, Tacoma Mockingbird was one of last year’s gems, a brilliant collection of...

The d_rradio guys (pronounced D-R-radio) are definitely from the SK oldschool and we are happy to announce their next full-length, self-titled opus will be on its way to your ears in March via UK imprint Distraction Records. We’ve been online friends for sometime (check this old post...

You may remember that a while back I was given a number of demo tracks from Ben Mullins, former member of Midwest Product and currently in PostPrior (both essential Ghostly International artists) to post. That was one of the more commented upon recent posts and I received quite a few emails...

More familiar perhaps as the A/V wizards behind the Ninja Clan’s more memorable live performances, Robin Brunson and Stuart Warren-Hill return with their first full-length LP since 2004′s tragically underrated Master View. Even casual electronic music fans know that much has...

The prolific Guillermo Scott Heren, man of many pseudonyms, is back with yet another release under his most noteworthy guise, Prefuse 73. One of the forefathers of the glitch-hop sound — an abstract, mostly instrumental and regularly angular take on hip-hop’s standard 4/4 —...

The Smalltown Supersound label has been steadily putting out some of the most unpretentious yet forward-thinking “pop” music for sometime. Tussle and Jaga Jazzist may be the most immediately recognizable names, but Bjorn Torske and Kim Hiorthoy are strong contenders for the...

It’s been about six years or so since the last Fridge LP and during that time each member of the UK trio has done nicely for himself. Kieren Hebden’s Four Tet project has garnered the most attention but don’t overlook the pastoral elegance of Adem Ilhan’s releases as...