Clubland March

I read a review recently that took issue with a release not treading new ground, of sticking to familiar pathways within its genre. Like rock music with all of the best chords already used up, there will always be a certain amount of familiarity within electronic music. The 808 and 909 drum sounds are an instantly recognizable feature within the medium, while there are a plethora of production tricks and sounds that are aped, rehashed and re-molded by the bulk of producers. Red Rack'em may not be breaking new soil with his latest twelve for the coveted Untracked label, but through employing some of the classic deep house sounds and themes on the release he alsoch touches on that vital quality of creating a classic vibe.

Rupert Grint

Rupert Grint looks slightly uncomfortable. The young British star may be the veteran of no less than six Harry Potter movies with numbers seven and eight on their way, but right now he looks less than convincing as a stylist helps him into his tight leather vest which will feature on the very pages you are now leafing through. Maybe it's his inner wizard, perhaps just that there doesn't seem to be much rock 'n' roll in the flame headed actor, but between shots, the fashionable attire appears out of place on the young man known to millions as Ron Weasley.

Clubland Jan/Feb

The mnml explosion wasn't particularly kind to hard techno. As the cleaner, reduced ethos of the music proved more popular the harder geared sound fell out of favour for a while, prompting certain labels to go into hibernation or dissolve completely. The pendulum has certainly swung back the other way of late and one of the stalwart labels of hard techno, Blueprint re-emerged this year after a good five years of dormancy. Paul Mac, a vanguard of techno for nearly fifteen years didn't suffer the same fate as some of the record labels, but for the past couple of years his releases have almost exclusively been limited to digital format. His latest excursion under the new moniker of Valmay on Blueprint strikes another win for the label this year and finds Paul Mac in top form.

Ed Hogg: Actor Profile

Ed Hogg's humility is refreshing in an industry full of elephant sized egos that quite often see actors assume their craft is imbued with superhero like powers. The Sheffield born rising star makes no such lofty claims, as we chat over warm, soothing coffee that removes some of the chill from a frosty winter morning in central London.
“It's down to luck” he simply states of his career path to date. “I didn't go searching for the roles I've played. I think that the parts find you, not the other way around. I think if you're right for it you'll get it and you'll play the parts you're meant to play. You read about these big famous Hollywood actors picking and choosing their way to whatever they've done and it's just bollocks. They've been lucky just like everyone else, it's bollocks.”

Shackleton 3 EPs

Even at Sam Shackleton's most kinetic moments of dub-based munitions deployment, there has existed a fervent experimentalism in everything he has undertaken. Whether it has been the laissez faire approach to making his productions palpable club successes or a casual disregard for the very structures of what may deem a track to be called dubstep, it has been obvious from the first that inherent in Shackleton is to forge his own unique path through his music. Shackleton has been instrumental in turning on many techno heads to the charms of dubstep via some of the hybrid, cross genre pollinations on his Skull Disco imprint, but what sealed it was Ricardo's two part epic remix of “Blood On My Hands”.

The Editors

The bleak light of the Editors' maudlin pop dresses up with a lick of colour for their third outing.

Snatching a few moments during their rehearsal schedule at their North London studios, Editors' guitarist Chris Urbanowicz and drummer Ed Lay are in a relaxed, jovial mood as they give me the low down on new album, In This Light And On This Evening.

Mika

Will the pop prince's second album blow away some of the mysteries of Mika?

In today's musical climate Mika is a rare artist; his unabashed pop anthems are gloriously over the top, his stage persona and flamboyant style unapologetic and beneath it all is a serious young man with a single pointed determination and intelligence. His songs have been at once personal (his first album detailed childhood experiences while new album The Boy Who Knew Too Much looks at his adolescence) yet unrevealing.

Clubland September

With the sad passing of James Stinson of Drexciya some years ago, the dark aquatic electro sound of Detroit looked to be in decline, though in reality that has hardly been the case. Gerald Donald, the other member of the group has kept busy with Dopplereffekt, Der Zyklus, and recording most recently under the name Heinrich Mueller.

Simian Mobile Disco

The purveyors of big room mirror ball house are back with Temporary Pleasure.

First came the anthemic remix by Justice, then from the ashes of Simian stepped James Ford and Jas Shaw under the new guise of a mobile DJ unit. Their debut album was heralded as one of the best in modern dance culture, garnering critical praise and spawning a handful of recognizable hits, rare for an album of its genre. After intense touring and both members lending their production skills to other projects they are back with Temporary Pleasure, the instrumental album chock full of vocals.

Clubland August

For over fifteen years Moritz von Oswald has been rewriting the book on modern dub music, feeding stripped back German techno and house through vintage valve compressions and creating a legion of fans with his Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound projects with Mark Ernestus. Save for a couple of remixes we haven't heard from von Oswald since the last Rhythm & Sound release though his Recomposed album with Carl Craig last year was a dramatic shift away from his affiliation with dub techno and saw the veteran producer delving in to modern classical fused with electronics. Following on from that project we here witness the formation of the Moritz von Oswald Trio, a supergroup of sorts featuring Vladislav Delay and Max Loderbauer from Sun Electric.