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35 items by Michaelangelo Matos
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Kompakt 20 Jahre Kollektion 1 | ALBUM REVIEW
Berlin became techno's gravity center during the 2000s, much the way Brooklyn became indie rock's. But the best dance-music label of the new millennium is actually situated some 300 miles west, in Cologne. Kompakt started out...
March 19, 2013 12:05 AM ET -
Rebel Rave 3 | ALBUM REVIEW
Not long ago, London-L.A. dance label Crosstown Rebels put out consistently sharp house records with a moody sense of grit. On this overlong overview – two discs of 12-inches, plus a negligible mix CD by Subb-an –...
March 19, 2013 12:00 AM ET -
Ultra Music Festival Serves Up Banging Beats and Other Delights | ARTICLE
Getting one's head around the entirety of Miami's Ultra Music Festival is nigh impossible – and not just because this year, its 15th, the festival has expanded, Coachella-style, to two consecutive weekends with largely the same lineup....
March 18, 2013 12:40 PM ET -
Swedish House Mafia Set It Off at Ultra Music Festival | ARTICLE
About 20 minutes into their second-to-last show as a group, Swedish House Mafia's Axwell spoke into the mike. "Thank you for joining us on our little journey," he said. "Turn on your hearts, turn off your brains."...
March 17, 2013 10:55 AM ET -
Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute | ARTICLE
If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop...
March 8, 2013 11:20 AM ET -
EDM superstar plays rare small-room gig fo | VIDEO
The upscale New York eatery Tao put the tables and chairs away for a night of dancing recently, with some help from one of the top DJs in the world, Tiësto. Co-sponsored by Rolling Stone and...
November 15, 2012 5:33 PM ET -
"True Thrush" | SONG REVIEW
The Baltimore cult fave pushes his crazy beat mutations further toward celebratory laptop pop. "Show me the sky, tell me I’m home," he murmurs, as a dense fog of hand claps, synths and guitars helps make this...
July 13, 2012 3:10 PM ET -
Ronnie Spector Opens One-Woman Show in New York | ARTICLE
"Phil Spector wanted to erase me from the public consciousness," the producer's ex-wife, Ronnie Spector, said with righteous indignation. The former lead singer of classic 1960s girl group the Ronettes was nearing the end of her...
July 7, 2012 2:55 PM ET -
“Silhouettes” | SONG REVIEW
Swedish DJ Avicii typically purveys utter gush, but on "Silhouettes" his prancing synth chords and euphoric builds are tauter than usual, and less over-the-top. Odd that Salem Al Fakir croons he's "never getting back to the new...
June 27, 2012 10:50 AM ET -
Late Night Tales—Music for Pleasure | ALBUM REVIEW
Many DJs mine Seventies AM gold for inspiration, but this mix from London vet Findlay (half of Groove Armada) dives all the way in. Seamlessly and shamelessly blending the obvious (Boz Scaggs' "Lowdown") with the...
June 27, 2012 8:00 AM ET -
Songs | ALBUM REVIEW
This Brit beatmaker's productions ("Cockney Thug") and DJ'ing (Fabric Live 37,with Caspa) helped define early subwoofer-punishing dubstep well before Skrillex made it rage like new metal. But on Songs, rather than go full-on aggro (or even collaborate again with various Dirty Projectors, as on 2010's O.M.G.),...
March 27, 2012 12:00 AM ET -
In the Mix: Dancepop Anthems | ALBUM REVIEW
It's time someone adapted the Now That's What I Call... compilation formula to fit dance music's pop surge. But on this remix-heavy collection, pop stars are subsumed to the machine, e.g. Sidney Samson reducing Nicki Minaj to...
March 26, 2012 3:20 PM ET -
"Hey Jane" | SONG REVIEW
Jason Pierce has always worn his classic-rock ambition on his poufy sleeve. So naturally his band's latest sounds like "Jane Says" and "Sweet Jane" with psychedelic Stones thrown in – a rowdy sing along that swells over...
March 20, 2012 10:00 AM ET -
"Under the Westway" | SONG REVIEW
Debuted live and acoustic in London, this drizzly Ray Davies-style ballad should sate anyone missing the Blur of old. "It was a quiet day in my city today/Everything was sinking," Damon Albarn sings mournfully, tying everyday London...
March 9, 2012 12:45 PM ET -
"Do You Remember" | SONG REVIEW
Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun (who toured with Peter Gabriel in 2009) is typically a rustic acoustic type. But on this knockout single, Brun hires three Burundi-style drummers who turn her elegy to a finished romance into...
February 9, 2012 10:05 AM ET -
Sparrowmania! | ALBUM REVIEW
Harry Belafonte made calypso briefly popular in1950s America, but Trinidad’s Mighty Sparrow wasits sharpest-tongued golden-age singer. This tour of his 1960-76 output has too many novelties and covers – stick with Louis Jordan’s version of “What’s the...
February 2, 2012 10:30 AM ET -
A Collection | ALBUM REVIEW
A single CD of short edits is an odd thing for a prog-techno act who specialize in spacious songs that often run for more than 10 minutes. The live "Cowgirl" is nothing and the dubstep moves are...
January 31, 2012 12:10 AM ET -
DJ Kicks | ALBUM REVIEW
Fans of cuddly, home-listening indie electronica (like Four Tet or the bells-loving Pantha du Prince) will want to hear this lovely DJ set of headphone beat candy. The rising U.K. producer's grooves tease beguilingly (see Muslimgauze's dry-textured...
January 12, 2012 8:05 AM ET -
"I'm Excited" | SONG REVIEW
Shadow's music used to be touched by the uncanny; this may be the clunkiest thing he's done. Stray, seemingly found noises give the groove ridges, but it's so busy it never finds its footing. Listen to...
July 29, 2011 7:00 AM ET -
SBTRKT, 'SBTRKT' | BLOG ENTRY
Ambitious like James Blake, and freewheeling like the London dubstep scene he’s lit up for two years, SBTRKT (real name Aaron Jerome) tries a lot of things on his debut — and succeeds at most....
July 6, 2011 10:38 AM ET
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