Celebrating the great Japanese vocalist, songwriter, arranger with a retrospective on her works across city pop, disco, latin jazz, and dub. With city pop mania at an all […]
Deep Dive
Punk, disco, hip hop and experimental. A look into the seminal New York City ‘No Wave’ label. New York City in 1980 was at a musical crossroads: the […]
A brief primer on Ikutaro Kakehashi, the revolutionary engineer who built the world’s most widely used electronic equipment. At 28, a young engineer named Ikutaro Kakehashi began a […]
Celebrating 40 years of On-U Sound with selections from the label’s catalog of groundbreaking post-punk meets dub productions. Emerging during a time in the UK when racial tensions […]
A primer on Japanese experimental masters EYE, Yoshimi, Seiichi Yamamoto and the hypnotic mess they’ve made. The Boredoms aren’t an easy group to nail down. One of the strangest-ever […]
Folk, blues, minimalism and beyond. Selections from John Fahey’s seminal Americana label Takoma Records. It’s difficult not to think about Takoma Records without John Fahey’s name coming up. […]
The Lounge Lizards, Fishing with John, Stranger Than Paradise, Painting with John: ISC celebrates a singular artist. To continue the celebration of John Lurie’s new introspective HBO series, […]
Hidden gems in the Don Cherry catalog including collaborations with Sun Ra, Terry Riley, and Alejandro Jodorowsky. The “organic music” of free jazz trumpet player Don Cherry has […]
From Popol Vuh to Wagner to cellist Ernst Reijseger, an overview of a great director’s use of music in film. Viral videos of Werner Herzog’s skewed, oft archaic […]
A look into the influential BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer who arranged the electronic opening theme of Doctor Who. Delia Derbyshire’s fascination with electronic music started when she was […]
Celebrating 50 years of Mwandishi with a retrospective on the albums beyond the group’s legendary trilogy. Herbie Hancock’s electronics-heavy free jazz group Mwandishi has in recent years attained […]
The unbelievable story of the Incan princess who made timeless exotica with Les Baxter. Yma Sumac had a supernatural hold on her audiences. When she walked on stage, […]
Revisiting one of our favorite labels with Aquarium Drunkard’s excellent three part ‘Guide to ECM’ series. To celebrate the anniversary of our ECM Listening Party with Aquarium Drunkard, […]
Prolific Swedish electronic producer Tom Wolgers is a heavy favorite around ISC. The under-the-radar artist, who moonlighted as a fashion model, issued a series of records starting in […]
Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt: The core members of visionary Krautrock band CAN released timeless experimental rock music over the roughly ten years that they […]