Charlie Bertsch / 15 Mar 2023

Socialist Realism Done Right

Sleaford Mods’ UK Grim

If the UK had gone in a different direction over the past decade, if its leaders had remembered the people who slaved to make it great, Sleaford Mods might have become one of those novelty acts that disappear from view after a song or two.(...)

Charlie Bertsch / 17 Sep 2020

Music at a Standstill

Ellen Allien’s AurAA

From the precise low throbbing that introduces AurAA to the menacingly crackly bass tones that ends it, Ellen Allien’s new album strikes a balance between four-on-the-floor minimalism with atmospherics that can’t be reduced to their danceability.(...)

Charlie Bertsch / 22 Jul 2020

The American Scream

Speaker Music’s Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry

Combining elements of minimal techno in the great African American tradition of Detroit and Chicago with dubstep, avant-garde jazz, and spoken-word, Speaker Music's new “emergency” album Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry delivers bass that is as compelling as it is challenging. (...)

Charlie Bertsch / 04 Dec 2019

Britain in Fragments

Lee Gamble’s Exhaust

Lee Gamble’s new almost-LP, Exhaust, is not easy to like. Every time one of its eight tracks seems to settle into a groove, it suddenly darts off in a different direction. The patterns that do repeat are usually too complicated to remember before the record has been played many times over. (...)