Spotify

A couple of years ago I was helping out at an electropop night in London and got chatting with Rusty Egan, DJ and maestro behind 80s synthpop legends Visage. I mentioned that I wrote a blog about Spotify and he was perplexed. Not because he didn’t know what Spotify was – the music-streaming service had already started to enter the mainstream psyche – but he couldn’t see how someone could dedicate a blog to it. “Well, [...]

“The Fastest Way To Get Quality Deep House Out Now –  GUARANTEED!” That’s a bold claim made by DeepHouseHQ, a Spotify-friendly blog that specialises in deep house, chill-out, and other related sub-genres of electronic music. Site owner Pov Vysniauskas kindly spared some time to let us know what his site is all about. Over to you Pov! How did your site get its name?  Since the start of the blog (2010) I have [...]

Indiekingss is a new Spotify-centered blog about indie music. Site owner Ryan Freeman got in touch to tell us about the site, so I persuaded him to tell us some more… How did your site get its name? Well, I picked up the name Indiekingss when I started sharing music on tumblr, but I couldn’t seem to gain much traction in getting attention. I still use tumblr all the time, but not for sharing music. Nevertheless, the name lived [...]

Here are three albums that had a big impact on me growing up. Ostensibly all progressive rock, each album played a big part in my early music listening pleasure. ALL THREE are now on Spotify, so you can check them out right away.

So 2013 then: what another great year for music! Especially if you’re a fan of synthpop, electropop, new wave and the like. From classic-era heavyweights releasing career highlights (OMD, Pet Shop Boys, Alison Moyet) through to expectation-defying returns to form (Depeche Mode, Covenant) and dynamite debuts (CHVRCHES, Vile Electrodes), this past year has shown that the long-form album is still king. You can listen to what I thought [...]

While waiting for albums from CHVRCHES, Covenant, Northern Kind, Vile Electrodes, and VNV Nation (all due this year!) here’s another selection of excellent electronica from the past month or two.   SYNTHPOP   Iamamiwhoami – Bounty Marnie – Crystal World Pet Shop Boys – Electric Slave Republic – Quest for Love Zynic – Blindsided     ELECTRO-INDUSTRIAL   Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation [...]

I’ve been posting “Best Albums of the Year” lists for some years now, originally on MySpace then on this site. Feeling all retrospective, I thought I’d put together a quick “list of lists” to help keep track of them all. Unfortunately some of the older lists have gone AWOL: Wayback Machine has a few snapshots of my old MySpace homepage, but alas the blog posts were not archived. Google’s cache does [...]

Pansentient Synthpop 2013 is our latest annual Spotify playlist containing an ever-expanding collection of the best new synthpop and electropop releases of the year. Featuring over 100 songs from over 100 artists, this playlist is the ultimate modern sampler for every discerning synthpop fan! Updated weekly with additional suggestions from The Electricity Club, Brutal Resonance, Electronic Magazine and Bop 2 Pop.     Featuring: Alison [...]

Here’s another selection of great new albums on my Spotify rotation. These dozen or so slabs of prime electronica made the cut and should keep you going for a few weeks!   SYNTHPOP BEF – Music of Quality & Distinction Volume 3 – Dark Feathers – If All Here Now Ghost Capsules – Ghost Capsules Noblesse Oblige – Affair of the Heart Social Ambitions – Hunger Vaylon – Primus   DARK/MINIMAL [...]

Here’s a selection of new albums I’ve been enjoying this year, mostly synthpop but a few others in the mix too. Karl Bartos – Atomium Depeche Mode – Welcome To My World Marsheaux – Inhale Kavinsky – OutRun OMD – English Electric Space March – Mountain King Little Boots – Nocturnes Alison Moyet – The Minutes K-X-P – II KMFDM – KUNST