Author: Sean Keenan

An observer first and foremost, Sean Keenan takes what he sees and forges words from the pictures. Media, critique, exuberant analysis and occasional remorse.

Sabi/Kiyo – 71:36

01/08/2011

Sabi and Kiyo add yet more megabytes to the IDM glut. Force Intel is a sublabel of Mille Plateaux, the latter's management choosing to found a new imprint as a release platform for the music they...

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The Passing of the Amy Winehouse Object 1983-2011

28/07/2011

Remembering Winehouse as either the tabloid-splashed mental wreck or as the misunderstood musical genius archetype the press is already constructing, is unfair and ultimately disrespectful....

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Emika – Pretend/Professional Loving

28/07/2011

After her interpretation of Amon Tobin's 'Surge', Emika's Pretend' comes as something of an uneasy shock. The track is taken from her forthcoming album, entitled simply...

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Klive – Sweaty Psalms

22/07/2011

Nothing if not ambitious, the scope of Klive's debut album overwhelms. Originally self-released in 2008, Klive's Sweaty Psalms is now enjoying a European release via Mille Plateaux, offering...

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Raffertie – Visual Acuity EP

12/07/2011

Raffertie’s compositional ambitions happen on a grand scale – at times his basslines have at the warping boom of pedal-timpany; at other times they use pitch-bend to underpin the melodies...

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Crystal Antlers – Two-Way Mirror

06/07/2011

Crystal Antlers find liberation in music's current chaos. Adaptation to the realities of the music market in 2011 is something of a Darwinian exercise. Freetards lurking in the comment feeds of...

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Brilliant Colours – Again and Again

30/06/2011

Brilliant Colours teeter on the edge of the indie landfill. Knowing where homage ends and derivative starts is the responsibility of the band – in this case it would be very generous to give...

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Shifted – Control EP

25/06/2011

It would be easy to dismiss the tracks on this EP as uninspired minimal techno, droning morosely along, amassing texture by layering beats at nodal points and squirting atmospheric keyboard chords...

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Wiley – 100% Publishing

21/06/2011

'East London grime credibility or West Coast glamour, who cares? Just PICK ONE and get on with it!' ...

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Emptyset feat. Corneileus Harris – All Together Lost Remixes EP

21/06/2011

Emptyset live up to their name with the sparse minimalism of 'All Together Lost' 'All Together Lost' is innocuous and inoffensive trancey, minimal house music, but what else is there...

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Amon Tobin – Surge EP

13/06/2011

Amon Tobin simultaneously alienates and intrigues....

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Rival Consoles – Kid Velo

11/06/2011

Rival Consoles' Kid Velo has the beats and builds of anthemic house, but it's more Paul Hardcastle than Paul Oakenfold. Now that GaGa has got her hands on sidechain compression and synth...

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Ukkonen – Erriapo (EP)

10/06/2011

Erriapo's icy but intimate techno-chillout is understated, elegant, but never simple. Unhurried development: the tightrope walk of the electronic musician's art. How many bars can you...

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Mental D-struction – Extrapolation of Human Perspectives

01/06/2011

Swapping guitars and drums for VSTs and sequencers, Mental D-Struction makes the tricky jump to electronica and almost pulls it off. Having high artistic ideals, and creating material which follows...

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David Tort – Jack it Up

22/05/2011

David Tort’s ‘Jack it Up’ promises ‘a tempestuous sea of dark synths’ but actually delivers ‘a turgid canal of muddy loops’. With pretensions to dancefloor...

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Weekend Nachos – Worthless

19/05/2011

Weekend Nachos - Worthless - Relapse Records 2011...

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Hexstatic – Scan Me EP

18/05/2011

Trailer Trax's 'Scan Me' EP wallows so deeply in the 1990s that it ought to be buried in a time capsule with a Sega Megadrive and a Blue Peter badge. 'The music business has...

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Slugabed – Moonbeam Rider EP

11/05/2011

Can Slugabed's quirky beats and basslines inject new life into pre-packed dancefloor anthem hooks? Perhaps. Slugabed's Moonbeam Rider EP comes from the mind of a musician who has spent a lot...

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Dutch Uncles – Cadenza

05/05/2011

So NME accuse this album of 'musical incompetence' and being 'baffling', whilst The Fly go with 'one of 2011's most exciting prospects'. Things are already juicy....

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Dels – Gob

17/04/2011

Fear, righteous anger, too much booze and a boldly-drawn emotional vision, this debut from Dels wraps the disorientation of over-intelligent urban British youth into forty minutes of poetic and...

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Aleph – Haunt For Little Blind Fish

11/04/2011

Armed with a bag of glitch, can Aleph's four-track EP convince us of this Siberian instrumentalist's intent? What happens when musicians break free of the limitations of physical instruments...

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