Robert Hood: The Faith and the Fury
We almost lost Detroit. It's the title of a song, one of Gil Scott-Heron's best, but that phrase often comes to mind when I read another accidental obituary for the Motor City.
Detroit's decline is...
Carl Taylor: Debbie’s Groove (w/ Robert Hood Remix)
Blindfolded and the business end of a Glock to your head, you'd guess this is a Floorplan record. And if you've read any of last issue's interview with Robert Hood, you have an idea...
Robert Hood: Torque One/Movement (Music Man Records)
Something happened. At some point, we lost our way. "Chicago House" to me was anything but what "Chicago House" now means in the wider world. I'm really not trying to sound naive here -...
Innerspace Halflife: Cosmology (Machining Dreams)
Call it logrolling if you will, but sometimes a record commands your attention. Hakim Murphy (a senior editor here if you haven't looked at the masthead lately) didn't send me this release from his...
Kate Simko and Jeffrey Weeter’s Live AV Experience
Welcome to the future, or one iteration of it.
Synesthesia is what they call the association between sight and sound and other sensations, and for most of us it's involuntary. But Chicago's Kate Simko and...
Carl Craig, Detroit and Planet-E
Carl Craig was three years old on June 21, 1972 - the day the lights went out at 2648 West Grand and Motown left the city that gave the label its name.
Octave One: The 5 Magazine Interview
Talk about the great musical families that have come out of the Midwest, and the Burden Brothers (aka Octave One) are finally getting their proper acclaim
Chris Minus: Drained Delays EP
This is just one great Chris Minus EP released in April, but without question the easiest to get excited about. The man from Denmark understands how to create one serious groove.
Chez Damier talked about...
Ben Sims and Kirk Degiorgio: Machine
Reading about two artists forming a new label in 2012 is about as exciting as watching cardboard age. As an example, in the 31 days of March, I received no less than five Kickstarter...
Area: Where I Am Now
Where I Am Now is the debut LP from Chicago-based producer Area (aka m50) released on Francois K's Wave Music imprint. Featuring 12 tracks of pulsing, adventurous electronic music, of moody lows and exhilarating...
Christina Chatfield Interview
Getting to know San Francisco-based producer and Beretta Grey recording artist Christina Chatfield - on live PAs and performing, the Bay Area techno scene and the art of (not) DJing.
You're in San Francisco now,...
Area: Youth EP
Sometimes I love living in this cold and heartless meatgrinder of a city. Nowhere else in the world could I pick up a record outside of my own private free speech zone, fall in...
Afrikan Sciences: Means and Ways EP
Seriously, I almost flipped my wig when I first heard the tunes on this 12" from Oakland's Eric Douglas aka Afrikan Sciences. This is soundscaping at work as unique waveforms are presented with three...
Kate Simko: The 5 Magazine Interview
With her album Lights Out, Kate Simko joins an illustrious club, taking the ambient sounds of a city and showcasing them with exquisite skill.
Hieroglyphic Being: Music is Mathematics
A sound artist, an experimental composer, a music-making savant with analog machines - this is Jamal Moss, aka Hieroglyphic Being, the next in a lineage of Chicago's electronic producers driven by a vision to...
Tevo Howard: The 5 Magazine Interview
5 Magazine's interview with Tevo Howard: the true hero of the underground.
Dave Pezzner: The 5 Magazine Interview
Tagged as a newcomer the electronic dance community, Seattle's Dave Pezzner proves to be everything but "green" to the dance scene.
Armando: Downfall Remixes
In the list of classic Armando Gallop acid tracks, "Downfall" was the evil stepsister - not quite as sinister and chaotic as "151" but with more of a demonic gleam than "Land of Confusion"....
Malcolm Moore, Chicago Skyway, Specter, Steven Tang: Pancake Sessions
Attention Deep House heads: there is vinyl heat circulating in breakfast form entitled Pancake Sessions. The label is equipped with delicious pancake art on Side A and the cool-down after a Tetrode-Downbeat party on...
MUST READ!
Longevity: DJ Slugo + the New Issue of 5 Mag
DJ Slugo: a 5 Mag cover story, plus Michael Gray cover mix & interview, the anti-AI backlash and music platforms' reaction and more inside the new issue of 5 Mag, out now.
