Music Writing

Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride have made some of the most affecting ambient music of our time. Ian Maleney talks to them about their 20-year journey so far.

The air is crisp in Meilen. Nestled on the banks of Lake Zurich, with the magnificent Swiss alps far on the horizon, the charming country town is a picture of calmness and serenity. Besides the small center, which hosts all the necessary amenities, Meilen is surrounded by rolling hillsides of luscious green fields, peppered with secluded farmhouses and endless forest trails.

Something's in the air, but then again something always is. From the open confessionals of LiveJournal to the 'one-left' temptation on Facebook, only the most self-aware are carefully redacting their online history. But for most history no longers rots, it just lays inert on a server thousands of miles further than your parents' dusty photo albums. The artefacts lend to an IRL muckiness that we sometimes can't escape.

"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing properly." Stephen Titmus explains how this phrase shapes every aspect of Sam Shepherd's music. Being both a DJ and a producer is very common, but doing both as well as Floating Points is very rare. As a DJ, Sam Shepherd blends all kinds of seemingly disparate styles.

At the Ghostly Store, an online boutique, you can buy wristwatches, leather wallets, gallery-quality art prints, coffee beans, notebooks and a special line of Warby Parker eyeglasses. And if you're interested, you can also buy the latest downloads and vinyl from electronic artists like Gold Panda and Tycho.

Of all the types of rock music, perhaps the one that is least considered and most overlooked is "college rock." Like today's "indie rock," it was named for the circumstance of its proliferation, rather than some characteristic or aesthetic of the music (such as heavy metal, noise, punk, grind, et al).

"So this guy probably found out about Mego in 1995, he bought a Hecker CD or something, and that's it, there's no way this label could put out anything else except that form of music." Call Editions Mego what you like, just don't call them a noise label.

Julia Holter hates the sound of her own voice. "Speaking or singing," she confirms. It's quite the revelation. On fourth album Have You In My Wilderness her voice is clearer than it's ever been before. Sung, spoken, whispered, layered into woozy swathes that soar between strings. And super confessional.

For someone whose profile is growing meteorically with every gig and release, Helena Hauff is still a little self-conscious. "I feel a bit weird being on stage," she says. "As long as I've got something to do, I'm alright. But as soon as the next record's mixed in then I'm standing and dancing...

We partnered with Genius to create this annotated version of our Grimes autumn/winter 2015 cover story. Click the yellow highlights for new insights from Grimes and her collaborators The last time Grimes saw me, I was dressed as a chicken gimp.

Sometimes the real taste-makers aren't the ones who shout the loudest, and Planet Mu are a perfect example of that. The scene-defining label has been at the forefront of releasing cutting-edge, idiosyncratic electronic music for 20 years.

That's the funny thing about how it feels; you can't touch it, but you can taste it. A good place to start, when explaining the un-named and intangible sentiments whirling around Beach House's fifth LP, Depression Cherry, would be to quote the record itself.

In a bijou cafe near King's Cross, Kieran Hebden sits under a meteorite-sized glitter ball, sipping at a ginger beer and looking uncommonly relaxed. Yesterday morning he suddenly released Morning/Evening - his new album as Four Tet and his first in two years - on Bandcamp.

Sometimes saying no is the right thing to do. In late 2012, LuckyMe's Dominic Flannigan and Martyn Flyn were invited into the offices of some of the world's biggest record labels and offered a deal that most would find irresistible.

Jamie xx is in a unique position. With the world watching, he can turn in just about any direction. There isn't anybody else remotely like Jamie xx. This 26-year-old - real name Jamie Smith - is in one of the world's most adored bands with The xx.

"First, I systematically tried all 1,000 combinations of the lock," Holly Herndon tells me, referring to her suitcase mishap upon arriving in London a couple of days before our conversation, amusingly recounting a member of hotel staff opening the lock in seconds, only after she had entered every possible three-digit combinations.

"Aphex Twin stitched me right up." Holly Dicker absorbs the anecdotes of the freewheeling UK artist. "Let's make this a diss interview." Luke Vibert was joking, but Rave, Aphex Twin and Ninja Tune-the home of his "default" alias, Wagon Christ-were among those in the firing line.

Valet's founder and central figure Honey Owens is one of those people who really should be more famous than they are, but the world is cruel sometimes. The great thing, though, is that there's plenty of evidence to show why things should be different.

As the dust settles from the release of his landmark album, Will Lynch catches up with the ever-evolving Manchester artist. For most of the last decade, Andy Stott was a cult favorite, reliably feeding a small but devout following with records one fan described as "dark, moody and unassumingly beautiful."

One of club music's most celebrated artists returned this week with a politically charged pop record. Lisa Blanning gets the story behind Jam City's radical metamorphosis. As Jam City, British producer Jack Latham has released a steady stream of visionary club tracks.

Having worked our way out of our winter clothes - down jackets, hats, scarves, and mittens - we proceed into the darkened space and sit ourselves on the floor by the stage, backlit by quirky video art. Amid the darkness, pools of light reveal modular synths, samplers, cables and FX pedals arranged on a table before a musician.

The Red Bull Music Academy alumnus has made one of the best albums of 2015. Anthony Obst calls up Los Angeles to find out more about its making. We've been fans of Kai Hugo's music ever since he came to the Red Bull Music Academy in 2011.

A conversation between Michael Mayer and John Tejada, chaired by Kompakt label manager Jon Berry. The trio shared their ideas and experiences from the early sounds that informed their work, their shared remorse for the loss of the chill out room and the issues that are independent labels are currently facing with the rise of popularity of vinyl in the mainstream music sphere.

Who’s afraid of EDM? Certainly not Megan James and Corin Roddick. The ethereal Canadian pop-trap duo known as Purity Ring has lost its innocence by mining the best selling and most controversial genre of electronic music for maximum theatrical effect.

Matthew Kent dials up Abdulla Rashim to discuss the Swedish producer's music, the growing relationship between the labels he's involved with and his approach to identity. "These fields of music I'm working with tends to be the ones that is the most comfortable to listen to".