In The Digital Age

The digital revolution has not quite killed off the analogue synthesizer, and vintage or vintage-style instruments have an enduring appeal. Julian Colbeck looks at why this should be so.

Voltage Controlled Filters Part 2

Reader Mark Lowman tells of his X-15 exploits.

Clarke, Radcliffe & Marlow

Northern tape manipulators

Two sparkling summer concerts, by Ultravox and Michael Nyman.

A survey of trendsetters

Having helped establish the direction of British electronic experimental music in the early-'80s and helped guide it through the dance explosion, Cabaret Voltaire have released a new album. Tim Goodyer finds out why the tracks sound strangely familiar.

Scottish band Danny Wilson were led by Gary Clark, who regards his debut solo album Ten Short Songs About Love as his finest work to date. From conception to birth, it was made entirely at home. Phil Ward drops in on the basement studio, and finds both album and proud father doing very well

Turning their backs on pop notoriety to meet electronic experimentation head on, Sheffield's LFO are taking dance music into new areas. Simon Trask gets a new perspective on nostalgia.

Personal Services

It’s a tough world out there in the 16-track studio jungle, but Abbeydale’s owners have made a success out of providing a ‘personal production service’ for songwriters and bands. What's their secret? Read on...

Jon and Helena Marsh in their natural habitat

why the beatmasters make a mess with their lunch

The Return Of Die Krupps

Volume isn't everything

and The Sample Of Doom

common sense and uncommon synths

Sold on the 3-Minute Song

Erasure's fifth album sees the duo of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell going from strength to strength, delivering electro-pop at its finest. But the doyens of synthesizer pop recorded Chorus with almost no MIDI instruments at all. Vince Clarke tells Paul Ireson how he made a hit album with 10-year old technology.

Catch a glimpse of what goes through the mind of a Newcastle musician commissioned to provide a suitable soundtrack for an animated film whose subject matter revolves around a woman living alone in a high-rise block of flats. John Goodenough relates his experiences.

The cheap alternative?

A Guide to Recording, Electronic Music and Popular Music Courses in Britain

The first ever published guide to all Recording, Electronic Music and Music Courses available in Britain today.

A focus on this computer-based band, their home studio and newly-developed sound sampling device that is changing the way they record.

Away from the fickleness of the pop music world, Cabaret Voltaire have been quietly breaking the barriers of underground electronic music. Interview by Dan Goldstein.

Janet Angus talks to Jo about his enthralling past and his new studio where surfing is the most serious distraction.