In Depth
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Festival Preview
Green Man Festival 2010: the DiS preview
Green Man is one of the few absolute, cast-iron festival bankers. Year after year, you know the lineup’s going to be up there with the best of them (despite it being independent, with only a fraction of the budget that bigger festivals have at their dispo »
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In Depth
'It's like the Barcelona FC of grime stations' - DiS meets Martin 'Blackdown' Clark
For anyone keeping even a casual eye on the ongoing development of London’s post-garage music styles over the last few years, Martin Clark’s name ought to set bells ringing. His involvement with the scene surrounding Rinse FM and London’s bass culture run »
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Column
Subliminal Transmissions 01
As part and parcel of this week’s set of features exploring the myriad sounds and styles that have emerged out of dubstep and grime, this is the first in a monthly column series that will look at the same regions. As the broader bracket of ‘bass music’ ha »
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Takeover
DiS meets Mala of Digital Mystikz
‘Some other energy’s working’ – Melissa Bradshaw interviews Mala of Digital Mystikz. »
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In Depth
Cut it and play it loud: Dubstep record labels
One of the most prohibitive – or exciting, depending on your perspective – aspects of UK urban dance music is dubplate culture: the circulation of unreleased tracks between tight-knit circles of producers, which then are played out at club nights. Prohibi »
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Label focus
Skull Disco is dead; long live Skull Disco!
Part of the brief for our tenth birthday celebrations was to cast a critical eye back over Drowned In Sound’s decade-long existence and draw out strands we felt had been overlooked, artists we felt were under appreciated or hadn’t been given due column in »
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Takeover
DiS meets FaltyDL
Convergent evolution, in biological terms, describes the process of two unrelated species evolving the same physical or behavioural traits due to similar environmental pressures. Say, hedgehogs and porcupines, which both evolved long spines for defence ag »
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Takeover
25 Tracks: A Dubstep Chronology Mixtape
Even though dubstep’s popularity has certainly skyrocketed in the last year or so, in the wake of the Hotflush label’s successes and the continued rise of Skream, hosting a week of content like this on Drowned In Sound is still a real step into the unknow »
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In Depth
This Week's Singles: 16/08/10
This week’s singles are brought to you by the letter 't' for tired and 'w' for weary. Sometimes being all ruined works though; all those frayed nerve endings and shaken vitals make for a curiously vulnerable listening experience. That’s my excuse, anyhoo. »
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Festival Review
Poland's OFF Festival 2010: the DiS review
Rory Gibb reviews this year's edition of the Primavera of the east. Photos by Helen Boast. »
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Interview
DiS meets Kele Okereke
One of this year's finest pop albums has come from the most unlikely of sources. Kele Okereke, a man who spent the previous decade in one of the UK's biggest indie bands Bloc Party, has embarked on a solo career and released his debut album The Boxer to c »
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Interview
DiS meets Sleepy Sun
Putting a Californian spin on sludgy rock riffs, Sleepy Sun have managed to get a fair few heads noddin’ since they released their debut Embrace last year. Adding a fried-folk sensation to Black Mountain’s doomy Sabbath-rock, they’ve also managed to work »
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Artist-generated
Sky Larkin: Letters To America
In order to take a slice of home with us on our last North American tour, I made a zine called 'Letters to America' that we gave away for free. I asked British bands to write a letter to a city of their choice on our tour routing. I chose the letter forma »
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Artist-generated
"Tour Not Bore": Sky Larkin, Slow Club, Melissa Auf der Maur & Los Campesinos!
Katie spoke to Ellen Waddell from Los Campesinos!, Melissa Auf der Maur, Rebecca from **Slow Club and Mary from Fight Like Apes about the tour experience... »
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Column
Drowned in Scotland #3
Most people reading anything Scottish and arts-related in August are probably sick to the eye teeth of the fact that the one and only thing anyone seems to talk about at this point is the Edinburgh bloody Festival. Well I live in Edinburgh and, frankly, »
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Artist-generated
Exchange Students: Telekinesis & Sky Larkin
(The Pacific Northwest vs the North of England) Kaleide is the second record we’ve made in Seattle, Washington. This return visit reinforced my notion that the North of England and the Pacific Northwest are rainy, melodic, kindred spirits. When we went t »
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Artist-generated
DiSection: Sky Larkin 'Kaleide' Track by Track
To celebrate the release of their new album, Kaleide, Katie from Sky Larkin kindly agreed to talk us through a track by track. As an extra special treat, the band have also provided us with an exclusive DiS digital version of the album which includes two »
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Festival Review
Field Day 2010: the DiS review
Disclaimer: this review contains two Boyz II Men references. Festivals are all about ‘moments’. Always. A festival moment is hard to exactly define, but it’s something that is clearly only possible in the unique environment of a music festival. My »
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In Depth
This Week's Singles: 09/08/10
Single of the Week! Klashnekoff - ‘Klash Anthem’ (Abstract Urban) My favourite line in ‘Klash Anthem’ – a doomy, irresistible and utterly classy hip hop jam with more atmoss than a hundred Powell'n'Pressburgers - is ‘Vex at the way that I flex’. Par »
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In Depth
Spotifriday #56 - This Week on DiS as a playlist
This week's Spotify playlist, formed from the various bits of content on our site in the last week or so. This one features some Norwegian goodness/badness, Perfume Genius, Darren Hayman, Skream, Tweak Bird, Eels and a few other luminaries. Click here to »
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Artist-generated
DiSection: Caitlin Rose's track-by-track of Own Side Now
Young American and talented is how you'd best describe Caitlin Rose, whose debut record Own Side is released at the end of the month. Looking deeper into the record you'd have to ask the woman herself for the finer points, which is exactly w... »
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Festival Preview
Five to see at the Sziget Festival
What's that you say? Hungarians can't rock? DiS's Tom Perry begs to differ as he offers a preview of this year's righteous-looking Sziget festival. »
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In Depth
Who To See: Industry tips on Norwegian acts at Øya 2010
We get some people in the know to tell us about which Norwegian bands and artists they're looking forward to seeing at this year's Øya festival, which takes place in Oslo from August 10-15. There's a bloody lot and a bloody good lot, so this perhaps wasn't the easies... »
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In Depth
This Week's Singles: 02/08/10
This week I have reinstated the Singles Bike Ride system of appreciating music and then writing about it. I don’t know why I abandoned it. What a fool. »