Low-Noise

Boards of Canada have created some of electronic music’s most distinctive and strangely familiar sounds: music that seems to evoke memories you’re not quite sure you ever had. We explore their mysterious world of faded childhood imagery, analogue textures, warped melodies and unsettling nostalgia, and ask: why does their music feel so much like a memory? In this episode I am in discussion with Dr....

Artificial intelligence is suddenly everywhere in music: writing songs, generating voices, creating performances and raising uncomfortable questions about creativity, ownership and what it means to be an artist. But is AI really the unprecedented disruption it appears to be? Music has always evolved alongside technology, from synthesisers and drum machines to sampling, Auto-Tune and digital produc...

David Crosby is one of those musicians whose life story can sometimes obscure his music. The Byrds. Crosby, Stills & Nash. Laurel Canyon. Drugs, prison, fallouts, extraordinary excess and, eventually, an equally extraordinary late creative revival. It's quite a story. But take all of that away and something much more interesting remains. Because David Crosby made some very strange music. His g...

What makes The War on Drugs sound so familiar, yet so completely their own? Drawing on the widescreen sweep of classic American rock, Adam Granduciel and his band transform guitars, synthesisers and repetition into something hazy, hypnotic and strangely timeless. We explore the music, influences and atmosphere of The War on Drugs — and ask how heartland rock became a dreamscape. In this episode I...

Can an album be nostalgic for a future that never arrived? When Donald Fagen released The Nightfly in 1982, it sounded unlike anything else. Immaculately produced, filled with jazz sophistication and lyrical detail, it looked back to the optimism of 1950s America through the eyes of a teenager convinced that tomorrow would always be brighter than today. But beneath its flawless surface lies someth...

Can music change the atmosphere of a room without demanding your attention? Few bands have occupied that strange, beautiful space quite like The Durutti Column. Often associated with Factory Records, post-punk and Manchester, Vini Reilly's music somehow exists outside all of those labels. Delicate, melancholic and quietly virtuosic, these are records that whisper rather than shout. But why has The...

How did Hotel California become one of the defining albums of the 1970s? Released in 1976, Hotel California found the Eagles at a remarkable creative peak. Beautifully produced and meticulously arranged, it combines soaring harmonies, memorable songwriting and superb musicianship with an atmosphere that remains instantly recognisable nearly fifty years later. In this episode of Low Noise, we retur...

What does In Another World reveal about one of the most intriguing bands of the last forty years? In this episode of Low Noise, we discuss Graeme Thomson’s In Another World: The Four Seasons of Talk Talk, a book that traces the remarkable evolution of Talk Talk, from their early synth-pop beginnings to the increasingly ambitious, uncompromising music of The Colour of Spring, Spirit of Eden and Lau...

What does it mean to be remembered—not loudly, not dramatically—but in a way that quietly refuses to fade? Forget Me Nots is a song by American R&B musician Patrice Rushen, released in 1982 by Elektra Records as the first single from her seventh album, Straight from the HeartThe song is co-written by Rushen with Freddie Washington and Terri McFaddin, and was produced by Rushen. Although it rec...

What does it sound like when a musician commits fully to a moment that won’t come again? The Köln Concert is a live solo double album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Opera House in Köln, West Germany, on 24 January 1975.  It unfolds without a score -just improvisation, in real time, and the subtle pressure of the room. You hear everything: the mechanics of the piano, the resonance of the...

What happens when electronic music chooses restraint over excess, when it speaks softly, but still leaves a mark? Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, often shortened to OMD, formed in Merseyside in 1978 by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys. Their sound sits in that space between pop clarity and experimental intent. Synthesizers, drum machines, fragments of melody, but arranged with a kind of carefu...

What happens when punk stops trying to shock and starts trying to haunt? In this episode, we revisit The Scream, the extraordinary debut album by Siouxsie & the Banshees. Nearly fifty years on, it still feels unlike anything else released during the first wave of punk. Sparse, unsettling and fiercely original, The Scream pointed towards post-punk before the genre even had a name. From John McK...

The Set Up is the 6th album by The Delines, the American group formed in the early 2010s. Known for their understated arrangements and deeply human storytelling, the band blends elements of soul, country, and Americana into a sound that feels both intimate and cinematic. Central to that identity is the voice of Amy Boone, whose delivery brings a quiet gravity to songs often focused on lives lived...

What happens when one of the greatest voices in popular music takes to the stage at the age of 85? In this episode, I look back on an unforgettable evening at the Royal Albert Hall, where I had the privilege of seeing the legendary Dionne Warwick perform live. From her gospel beginnings and groundbreaking collaborations with Burt Bacharach and Hal David to a career spanning more than six decades,...

Did one hit hide a truly remarkable band? For many people, Quantum Jump begin and end with The Lone Ranger—a quirky hit that briefly lit up the charts in the late 1970s. But behind that unlikely success was a group of exceptional musicians whose blend of rock, jazz, funk and progressive influences defied easy categorisation. In this episode we look beyond the novelty of their best-known single to...

Furniture were one of the most distinctive British bands of the 1980s, combining literate songwriting, sophisticated arrangements and an unmistakable sense of style. Despite critical acclaim and a loyal following, mainstream success largely eluded them. In this episode of Low Noise, we explore the story of a band that seemed destined for greater recognition, examining their music, their influences...

Was Green Gartside Pop's Great Outsider? In this episode of Low Noise, we explore the remarkable story of Scritti Politti and their elusive frontman Green Gartside. Emerging from the politically charged post-punk scene of the late 1970s, Scritti Politti evolved into one of the most distinctive and sophisticated pop groups of the 1980s, creating music that was both intellectually ambitious and irre...

What makes a performance become more than just a concert? In August 1969, as the Woodstock festival drew to a close, Jimi Hendrix stepped onto the stage in front of a much smaller crowd than the one that had gathered over the previous three days. Yet what followed would become one of the most discussed and enduring live performances in rock history. In this episode of Low Noise, we revisit Hendrix...

This week I went to see Rickie Lee Jones at the Barbican in London. It wasn’t a concert in the usual sense. It felt more like being invited into somebody’s world for a couple of hours, a world built from jazz clubs, late-night conversations, drifting highways, poetry, memory and beautifully fractured songs. Jones has always occupied her own corner of American music. Too jazzy for straightforward r...

Why does Getting Away With It still sound so impossibly sophisticated? In this episode of Low Noise, we explore the debut single by Electronic, the collaboration between Bernard Sumner, Johnny Marr (and Neil Tennant) that briefly united two of the defining musical worlds of the 1980s. Released at the close of the decade, Getting Away With It feels suspended between confidence and insecurity, glamo...

What keeps Elvis Presley alive in the cultural imagination decades after his death? In this episode we explore EPiC, Baz Luhrmann’s visually dense documentary meditation on Elvis Presley and the machinery of myth-making that surrounds him. Constructed from archive footage, fragmented memories and Luhrmann’s trademark sensory overload, EPiC presents Elvis not simply as a musician, but as an evolvin...

How can one of the most successful bands in British history become almost invisible? In this episode, I explore the story of The Shadows, a group whose distinctive sound helped shape British popular music long before the arrival of the Merseybeat era. For a time, their influence seemed to be everywhere: in guitar shops, on the radio, and in the playing of countless young musicians trying to recrea...

What does it mean for an album to sound effortless? Released in 1988, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars by Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians arrived at a moment when polish often equalled intent. And yet, this record seems to resist that logic, drifting between folk, jazz and pop with a looseness that feels almost accidental. In this episode, we explore how that looseness is constructed. Becau...

What happens when a record label tries to map the sound of a moment? Originally released in 1970, Fill Your Head With Rock is a double LP sampler that captures a shifting musical landscape, where folk, rock, jazz and experimentation begin to overlap. Featuring artists such as Santana, Chicago and The Byrds, it feels less like a compilation and more like a curated snapshot of transition. In this ep...

What does it mean to make music that feels both rooted in the past and quietly expansive at the same time? In this episode, we step into the world of Jonathan Wilson, a songwriter, producer, and sonic architect whose work draws from Laurel Canyon tradition while reaching into something more immersive and textural. This is music shaped as much in the studio as it is in the song itself, layered, det...