Search

Turntablist NikNak has a unique style, cutting and scratching field recordings and samples into ambient tracks — but her latest album finds her leaning into the dance music you might hear in one of her club sets. Ben Murphy speaks to her about Afrofuturist sci-fi, trip-hop, pop, and why she loves found sounds

Through its nurturing of new superstars like Aitch and other young local talent, Manchester’s NQ has become a veritable institution of modern UK rap, helping elevate regional artists across the UK. James Keith meets members of the crew during a recent takeover at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, and heads to NQ’s northern base to discover the secret to its success

Amapiano has become a world-conquering genre since emerging in South Africa over a decade ago, with the sound mutating in recent years to solidify its place as an embedded dance music culture. Here, Shiba Melissa Mazaza asks: who are the South African artists carrying the torch for amapiano right now?
 

Soaring ascents, the kind that can take an artist from obscurity to stardom in what seems to be the blink of an eye, don’t occur often, in dance music or elsewhere – those who are lucky enough to have that experience often disappear just as quickly. But there’s little chance of a quick fade for South Africa’s Palesa Desiree Shilabje, the DJ and producer known to the world as DESIREE, who in just a few short years has proved to be one of the international festival circuit’s most exciting new stars. Here, Bruce Tantum hears her story, and about how her evolution through music has been as organic as they come