Electronic
Here you'll find album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries from electronic artists, producers, and labels, plus vinyl reissue news as it appears. Electronic music and the 12-inch single grew up together: it was the format built for DJs, with extended mixes and white-label pressings that spread new tracks through clubs before anyone else heard them, and reissue labels keep working through that early club history. The stories here follow how specific tracks and albums were built — studio setups, drum machines, the rooms they were made for — and why a given pressing matters to collectors.
98 STORIES
Armin van Buuren: 10,300 Copies and a Platinum Dream
Ten thousand three hundred copies. That’s what Armin van Buuren’s fourth studio album had sold in Russia by the end of 2010 — a slim figure that nevertheless ea…
· 4 min read
Fedde Le Grand: A Detroit Salute That Toppled the UK
A disembodied voice commands a crowd to put their hands up for one American city, and a Dutch producer who hadn’t yet released an album suddenly rules the Briti…
· 4 min read
How Hildur Guðnadóttir made history with Chernobyl
The Geiger counter on the Chernobyl soundtrack doesn't just tick — it becomes a pulse, a voice, a warning. Hildur Guðnadóttir, born September 4, 1982, in Reykja…
· 4 min read
Depeche Mode: How 'Personal Jesus' Shook Synth-Pop
Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus' arrived on August 29, 1989. Built on stomped flight cases and a sleazy blues riff, it marked a hard pivot for the synth-pop pioneers.
· 5 min read
Shirley Manson: The Redhead Who Wired Alt-Rock
Shirley Manson was told she wasn't marketable. Then she fronted Garbage, sold four million copies of a debut album, and wired alt-rock into the mainframe.
· 4 min read
How a Paris Apartment Became the Ultimate Speaker Test
Jean-Michel Jarre recorded Oxygene alone in his Paris flat in 1976. The album went on to sell over 18 million copies and become a permanent fixture in high-end audio showrooms.
· 5 min read
How a Super-8 Video and 60,000 Arms Made Depeche Mode Immortal
Anton Corbijn filmed the Super-8 video for Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again" in 1987. The grainy monochrome footage prefigured a stadium ritual that would make the song immortal.
· 5 min read
Jean-Michel Jarre: The Kitchen Sink That Sold 18 Million
His father scored Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, collecting Oscars while redefining Hollywood's sonic landscape. His mother survived the Ravensbrück con…
· 4 min read
The Stratocaster and the Symphony: Terje Rypdal at 79
Born in Oslo in 1947, Terje Rypdal abandoned the piano for a Fender Stratocaster. His career made the violin bow, the symphony orchestra, and the long sustain of ECM a single, uncooperative sound.
· 4 min read
Terje Rypdal's ECM Chill: Fusion Records That Freeze Time
Born the son of a military bandleader, Terje Rypdal forged a desolate guitar language on ECM. His records turned cold climates and long winters into a musical language all his own.
· 5 min read
Portishead: How Dummy Became a Trip-Hop Blueprint
Portishead’s debut 'Dummy' arrived on August 22, 1994, via Go! Beat — an album built from self-destructing samples and a vocalist who had never faced a crowd.
· 5 min read
Yazoo's Upstairs at Eric's: Where Synth Met a Blues Voice
Yazoo's debut album Upstairs at Eric's, released on 20 August 1982, paired Vince Clarke's synthesizers with Alison Moyet's blues voice. The result reshaped synth-pop.
· 4 min read
The Bank Vault, the Tank, and the Warp Catalog That Never Drops
Richard David James, who turned 55 today, returned in 2014 with 'Syro' after 12 years of silence. The album won a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
· 4 min read
Leon Theremin: The Man Who Vanished Into Sound
A man steps into thin air and draws a trembling electronic voice from nothing. His hands never touch an instrument — yet the room fills with a glissando that se…
· 5 min read
Utah Saints: When Kate Bush Said Yes to a Rave Anthem
A graffiti writer and an indie guitarist walk into a Leeds club where both are DJing — and somehow, the result is a group named after a misheard phrase about U2…
· 5 min read
Devo’s Whip It: a whip, a magazine, and a synth-R&B hit
Devo's 'Whip It' was released on August 13, 1980, and became an unlikely synth-R&B hit after a radio DJ championed the song region by region.
· 4 min read
Neneh Cherry: The Buffalo Stance That Refused to Pick a Lane
Neneh Cherry built a career on refusing to pick a single lane. From post-punk squats and free-jazz sessions to the global smash 'Buffalo Stance' and the trip-hop blueprint of 'Raw Like Sushi'.
· 5 min read
Pete Burns and the 12-Inch That Spun the World
A glossy, oversized 12-inch single sleeve holds more than music — it captures a moment when pop swelled into something club-ready, theatrical, and unapologetica…
· 5 min read
Klaus Schulze: The ARP 2600 Manifesto
In 1973, Klaus Schulze recorded Picture Music using only an ARP 2600. The album distills the Berlin school ethos into a single-synth manifesto of absolute electronic self-sufficiency.
· 5 min read
Arca's XXXXX: XL Recordings as Object, Stream, and Ritual
Arca announces her first solo album in five years with a live broadcast across seven Barcelona locations. The 16-track XXXXX arrives July 31, 2026, on XL Recordings.
· 5 min read
John Cage: The Submarine and the Silence
John Cage inherited his father's instinct for making things disappear. He spent his career erasing intention, ego, and narrative from music.
· 4 min read
Fatboy Slim: From Housemartins Bass to Big Beat
Norman Cook spent a decade moving from Housemartins bassist to Fatboy Slim. The alias turned cut-and-paste sample chaos into the defining sound of big beat and 12-inch culture.
· 5 min read
Murcof's Martes: Micro-Rhythms and Mountain Myths
The double black vinyl sits heavy in the hand, its sleeve dominated by a stark, monochromatic photograph of jagged peaks. These are the Rumurosa Mountains, a cr…
· 5 min read
Jennifer Lopez: The Fly Girl Who Flipped the Billboard 200
Jennifer Lopez went from In Living Color's Fly Girl troupe to a historic Billboard 200 run. She became the first woman with a simultaneous number-one album and film in the United States.
· 5 min read