Latest articles by Roy Spencer
"Would I feel okay about showing David Bowie this album?”: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith on making Ears
The Californian artist on the live Buchla jams that created her breakthrough album
"It’s possible to make an album in a bedroom which can be talked about 30 years later": Ken Ishii on Reference to Difference
Flare (aka Ken Ishii), the techno god from Sapporo, tells us how about how the making of his 1994 techno classic was a personal game changer
"We were young and up for anything”: The Postal Service on making Give Up
Jimmy Tamborello, aka Dntel, on creating the seminal work of ‘indietronica’ with Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard
"I was getting my ass kicked": DJ Nu-Mark on bouncing back from Jurassic 5's split to record his solo debut
How Mark Potsic recovered from the demise of Jurassic 5 to record the 2012 hip-hop classic, Broken Sunlight
“We were solid, bungling amateurs on little mixing desks”: D:Ream on their road to platinum success with classic 1993 album D:Ream On Volume 1
Peter Cunnah and Al Mackenzie on how things have only got better for the British pop and dance group
"It’s all about that filter that Bob Moog patented all those years ago": Mike Parker on Dispatches
Mike Parker talks us through his 2001 minimal masterpiece track by track
"The main synths were the Juno, Moog Voyager and the Roland SH-5": Mr. Scruff on Ninja Tuna
Mr. Scruff takes us back to 2008 for the making of his eclectic, gloriously silly Ninja Tune debut
"Rap purists wouldn't dig us as we weren't straight-up rap. We weren't an indie group, or a rock group": Stereo MC Rob Birch on the making of classic '90s album Connected
Connected was the sound of the Stereo MCs' summer, but it became the soundtrack to dance music's year
Juno Reactor's Ben Watkins on the 1997 Goa trance classic Bible of Dreams: "What really gave the album its sound was the Raindirk Symphony desk. It was like another member of the band… suddenly we had a three-dimensional sound in the studio"
How the fusion of multiple genres and cultures helped inspire Juno Reactor's influential fourth album
Speedy J on the 30th anniversary of ambient techno classic Ginger: "My approach was to take more time for tracks to develop - be less focused on the impact of the drums, and give everything a bit more space"
Recently celebrating its 30th birthday, Speedy J tells us about the making of his 1993 Warp Records debut
Daniel Avery on Drone Logic: “I was taking synthesizers and drum machines and putting them through these effect pedals - it was techno with a shoegaze aesthetic”
Avery talks us through the making of his recently-reissued 2013 experimental electronica debut Drone Logic
Mo Kolours: "For basslines I’d use GarageBand, until I borrowed a microKORG off somebody. Man, I loved it so much - I was cranking out 20/30 beats a day"
Mo Kolours on crafting the electic melting pot of trip-hop/dub/jazz fusion that made up his 2014 debut
How a lightning storm fried Richie Hawtin's gear and created the sound of F.U.S.E.'s Dimension Intrusion: "My equipment glowed and then shut down. After that, there was something wrong with my Wavestation; it was even more distorted"
Hawtin talks us through the electrifying story behind the making of his 1993 ambient techno classic
K-Klass: "I used the redundancy payout to buy a Roland TR-505 and my dad kicked me out the house! He only apologised when we had a record in the charts..."
Paul Roberts and Russ Morgan join us to pull a rewind on one of UK dance music's most influential LPs, Universal
Fila Brazillia: "Growing up, we were super analogue – guitars, bass, drums; proper bands. But as we got into machines, we used the best of both worlds"
Steve Cobby and David ‘Man’ McSherry talk us through the making of their sample-happy 1995 album Maim That Tune
Attica Blues: "This album opened doors for other people. We played our part so the Little Simz of the world could come through"
Attica Blues' self-titled 1997 debut album coined a new sound in British Black music. We find out how it was made
DJ Sprinkles on Midtown 120 Blues: "The album is a critique of the commodification of old school deep house. A lot of people miss that point"
Terre Thaemlitz's 2009 LP calls out house music for the old lie of ‘life, love and happiness’ and tells the stories of the marginalised communities from which it emerged
Palm Skin Productions on Remilixir: "Virgin were hoping for a Daft Punk record, but what I thought was, ‘Now I’ve got a chance to go really deep!’ That’s how you get dropped after one album"
Fresh from Mo' Wax and signed to Virgin, Simon Richmond plundered the major-label coffers to produce his most daring release yet. Here's how the album was made
Classic album: Om Unit on Threads
Om Unit unravels the non-conformist DnB of Threads, his 2013 album that fused dubstep, jungle, and garage rhythms with progressive beatmaking and grandiose sound design
Classic album: Clark on Body Riddle
"I was really skint at the time, basically eating cabbage and bean soup. But, I was the happiest I think I’ve ever been, because I just knew I had this album"
Classic album - Underworld’s Rick Smith on Second Toughest in the Infants: "No plugins, no compressors, no gates… I don’t know how I did it!”
Back in 2010, Underworld’s production mainstay talked us through the band's seminal mid-’90s long player
Jazzy Jeff’s 6 top tips for scratch DJs
The legendary hip-hop DJ breaks down some hard-learned hints and tips that’ll have you cutting it up like a pro in no time.
Classic album: Fred Everything on Light of Day
The deep house maestro reflects on the making of his 2004 classic
