The Independent

In the frame: Dan Deacon’s album Bromst mixes high BPM percussion with Eno-esque chanted melodies

Dance music: Minimal techno makes way for something more... maximal

07 February 2009 12:01 AM

Towards the end of last year, a mild frisson developed on dance blogs and forums regarding the diminishing merits of minimal techno. Why the fuss over a genre big in Germany but with a profile as low as its deliberately muted beats pretty much everywhere else? Well, it turned out to be just one manifestation of a recurring worry. That dance music has lost its way, proliferating into ever more microscopic genres which appeal to ever more microscopic audiences.

Creamfields is set to stage dance and rock [JULES ANNAN/RETNA]

Creamfields and other festivals are under pressure to diversify

04 July 2008 12:25 PM

Following the disastrous conclusion to Gatecrasher’s Summer Sound System event in May, when a rainstorm forced Hot Chip and The Chemical Brothers to cancel their sets on the Sunday evening, organisers of similar large-scale dance parties this summer will be nervously watching the skies. Yet there’s also a feeling that dance promoters are facing other, less elemental pressures.

Francophile: US expat Uffie is popular in the clubs of Paris

Is the rave spotlight shifting back to the alternative Los Angeles scene?

09 June 2008 10:00 AM

For a brief period in the early-Nineties, Los Angeles was the epicentre of rave culture in America, thanks to a series of epic, hedonistic parties and the presence of Mars FM, the country’s first radio station dedicated to dance music. Yet unlike, say, San Francisco, the city never developed a reputation as a nexus for electronic music makers.

Finally, it seems things are changing, with two fresh creatives surfacing on the alternative Los Angeles scene: Daedelus and Flying Lotus. Daedelus is the alias of Alfred Darlington. His new album Love To Make Music To (Ninja Tune), channels electronica, hiphop and R&B through an array of unusual guest vocalists, including Michael Johnson of Sub Pop band Holopaw and Brooklyn soul diva Erika Rose.

Airs apparent: Matmos' 'Supreme Balloon' is due out in May [ANDREW J FARKAS]

Exploring Intelligent Dance Music - the new kids on the block

11 April 2008 02:52 PM

'Such rarified experiments stand apart from the sonic meltdown'

French duo Orion Bouvier and Caroline Martial, aka Kap Bambino

Dance now channels the energy of Eighties rave through punk's attitude

07 March 2008 04:45 PM

Super Furry Animal and half of Neon Neon, Gruff Rhys [JO HALE/GETTY IMAGES]

'A decade on, drum 'n' bass has proved surprisingly resilient'

24 January 2008 12:00 AM

When UK garage first started generating headlines in the late-Nineties, it was widely viewed as the natural successor to drum’n’bass, a scene which then seemed on the brink of implosion.

A nifty return to form from Basement Jaxx leaves them three steps ahead

22 January 2008 07:47 PM

As the dance phenomneon of the late Nineties, Basement Jaxx duo Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe brought the pogoing, "punk disco" energy of their rowdy south London club nights to daytime radio, showing a popular touch largely missing since their heady days of rave.