Sam Davies

In our series ‘The Films That Made Us’, we take a look back at the films that have shaped British music over the last three decades. In today’s edition, we talk to pioneering jungle DJ and producer Krust about the ‘Predator’ films and their insidious influence on jungle.

It’s a regrettable truism of the times that a great number of the albums reviewed on these pages begin with ambient intros. This one does not.

An hour into a recent mix in her monthly slot on NTS Radio, FAUZIA revealed she was doing a “water fast” and hadn’t eaten anything for eight days. “Once you get to know me, you’ll realize I do these really impulsive, intense things,” she said. “It’s just kind of part of my…um, brand.”

“You know how many times I’ve had audience members, black people, come to me and say ‘Your music would just go off in the hood, if you pushed it that way. Make sure the label pushes it that way!’” says Gaika Tavares, who performs simply as Gaika. “That’s happened to me more than 10 times.”

The voices behind Bart Simpson and Sterling Archer discuss the tricky business of being a voice actor, a rich American art dating from Bugs Bunny to Bob's Burgers

In our new series ‘The Films That Made Us’, we take a look back at the films that have shaped British music over the last three decades. In this first instalment, we speak to UK rap veteran Skinnyman about Alan Clarke’s 1982 film, ‘Made in Britain’, which starred a young Tim Roth and had a profound impact on a generation of musicians.

Bangers are the order of the day on young Nigerian pop star Rema’s debut album, ‘Rave & Roses’

The artist formerly known as Kanye West’s new album Donda 2, released in the same month as a Netflix documentary about his life, is the latest baffling chapter in a story that never seems to end.

Album of the month review

Nothing can prepare your ears for the effect of Nate Scheible’s Fairfax, which was first released in 2017, but is being reissued this month on vinyl. Part album, part audiobook, Fairfax is a glorious work of haunting ambient, all horns and keys and wordless vocals, cut through by a series of audio love letters and snippets from a 60-minute cassette tape that Scheible found in a thrift store in northern Virginia...

Interviews with diniBoy, DJ and producer from the Brazilian grime scene, and ChicoGod, drill rapper from Kumasi, Ghana.

2016 was a year of emotional turmoil for a lot of us in the UK and the US, with political shocks like Britain voting to leave the European Union and America electing Donald Trump as president. Since then, many a music writer has waxed philosophical about a surge in the popularity of ambient music, citing listeners’ needs to retreat from the turbulence of the real world. Three days before the Brexit referendum, Huerco S released his second album For Those Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those That Have)....

Naga Munchetty interviews culture writer Sam Davies about the influence of The Matrix on modern society (interview starts at 1 hr 55 min)

It was New Year’s Eve when the news broke. MF DOOM was dead. As it turned out, the London-born, New York-raised, metal-faced microphone master actually passed away in October 2020. But with the announcement not coming until December 31, many hip-hop heads woke up in 2021 with a sinking feeling already nagging away at them as the new year kicked off.

“No one cared who I was until I put on a mask.” The image of a drill rapper is unlike that of any other musician. Since the sound spread from Chicago to London in the 2010s, artists have twisted their identities in increasingly subversive, creative, and practical ways, masking up in videos, creating myths, and refusing to reveal government names to the press...