Moogfest: Helena Hauff, DJ Haram, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Emily Sprague Downtown Durham Thursday, May 17, 2018 Torrential downpours marked the first evening of Moogfest 2018, and everyone dealt with it in their own way. Many people probably tweaked their schedule and camped out at one or two close venues for the night. Others did the […]
David Ford Smith
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Discwoman Shakes Up the White Male Hegemony that Betrays the Diverse Origins of Techno
In an interview last year with The Fader, Discwoman cofounder Emma Burgess-Olson, who also performs under the alias Umfang, reflected on her early misconceptions about the history of dance music. “If you went to Resident Advisor as your first introduction to electronic music, which I think a lot of people still do, you would think […]
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Activ-Analog’s Valiant Efforts Have Kept Classic Detroit Techno and Vinyl Records Alive in a Glossy, Digital EDM Scene
At the end of 1995, a fledgling dance label in Charlotte called Activ-Analog Records released its first record, Textures Vol. 1. The music was Detroit-inspired techno, raw and hard and highly atypical for Charlotte. At the time, popular dance nightlife was fixated on then-chic styles like English progressive house and maximalist Miami Bass. For Paul […]
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Mat Cothran Bids Goodbye to Coma Cinema After More Than a Decade of Crafting Celebrated, Scrappy Indie Pop
COMA CINEMA Monday, April 30, 8 p.m., $12–$15 Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro My hometown has one venue and I’m banned from it,” deadpans Mat Cothran. As he remembers it, he once played a noise set in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with Justin Blackburn, his longtime friend and musical collaborator. Before the gig, he had read […]
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As Hanz, Brandon Juhans Serves Up Another Round of Elastic Electronica
Since 2007, Brandon Juhans has recorded mystifying electronic music under the moniker Madbearhanz, or, simply, Hanz. But his interest in experimentation extends back much further. “Visual art was my original outlet until I picked up music as a teen. I was making these surreal black and white illustration and collages for a long time,” he […]
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Record Review: Boulevards’ Hurtown, USA Inches Toward Timeless Classics
BOULEVARDS Hurtown, USA Self-released Smuggling heartbreak into feel-good pop is a delicate art. There are the classic examples: Morrissey’s doom and gloom over Johnny Marr’s sunny guitar lines, or Mark Morrison’s scorned confidence on “Return of the Mack.” Raleigh’s Jamil Rashad is certainly inching his way toward timeless classics in this vein. Hurtown, USA, his […]
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With His Label, Hot Releases, Ryan Martin Has Made a Home for Far-Out Music for Nearly a Decade
HOT RELEASES 9TH ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND Friday, Oct. 27 & Saturday, Oct. 28,7 p.m. Fri./8 p.m. Sat., $15–$20 Nightlight, Chapel Hill www.nightlightclub.com I don’t like the term ‘promoter’ that much,” explains Ryan Martin. He’s awake and on the phone, fresh from sleeping off a long drive back to his home in Chapel Hill after playing a […]
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Tricky’s Thought-Leading Trip-Hop Discography Remains Uneven But Thrilling
TRICKY Thursday, Oct. 12, 8:30 p.m., $22 Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh www.lincolntheatre.com Paranoia can change an artist. We see it in musicians who vanish for years at a time, unwilling to write the follow-up record their fans want. We see it with image-conscious experimental producers who bristle at opportunities to work with pop artists. We particularly […]
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Hopscotch, Night Three: ILOVEMAKKONEN Cancels, But Phonte Fills In
Hopscotch Music Festival Downtown Raleigh Saturday, September 9, 2017 Can we get another round of applause for Phonte? In lieu of a scheduled set on Saturday from ILOVEMAKKONEN that didn’t materialize, the Little Brother/Foreign Exchange member and Raleigh resident was brought in Saturday morning to patch things with a rare solo performance at City Plaza. […]
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Hopscotch, Night One: New Spaces and Familiar Faces
Hopscotch Music Festival Downtown Raleigh Thursday, September 7, 2017 Down an inconspicuous side hallway in the Raleigh Convention Center, a pair of glowing escalators will shuttle you to and from Exhibit Hall A, also known as The Basement, Hopscotch’s newest venue. Don’t be fooled by the DIY-sounding name, though: it’s no scuzzy thirty-capacity show space. […]