The Grammy Award-winning producer behind scores of massive hits traces his signature sound to his Roland beginnings.
Submerge yourself in this starting point for an experimental genre of rock music that floats, swirls, and unfolds.
9 mins read
The prolific percussionist shares how an insatiable curiosity for rhythm fueled his journey from Helsinki to Hollywood.
Meet the man on the throne for the Josh Homme supergroup and learn how he uses V-Drums with traditional percussion to create sonic landscapes.
FEATURES
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Explore the enduring influence of the R-8 Human Rhythm Composer on a host of musical styles in Mexico, a land of deep tradition.
6 mins read
The outfit's latest rekindles its bond with the Metropole Orkest, as Bill Laurance’s harmonic style enters new orchestral and jazz frontiers.
An intimate quest for connection, the latest release from TEED is a shimmering, memory-soaked blend of tender synths and emotional clarity.
For these Edmonton synth provocateurs, punk is more than a genre. Find out how the term grounds them in decades of DIY efforts.
DEEP DIVES
The Roland and BOSS Lifetime Achievement Awards honor artists while providing a timeline of how these musicians and instruments shaped music.
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the TR-808 and 808 Day, Tadao Kikumoto graciously offered his time for this exclusive conversation.
With the world hit by a pandemic, live events were postponed or canceled. In the Coronavirus Era, virtual concerts have taken their place.
Linafornia’s childhood and teenage years contained a broad range of melodies and tones.
It’s been a long journey for the tech house genre. We trace its history and development from the earliest days to the present.
SOUND BEHIND THE SONG
At the heart of Tangerine Dream’s hypnotic “White Eagle” lies a secret—one kept between the band and a pair of JUPITER-8s.
Leftfield came from the same primordial soup as the greatest British dance acts. Explore this iconic track and the TB-303's role in it.
Detroit’s enigmatic duo Drexciya submerged themselves in Afrofuturist myth. "Rublicks Cube" is a transcendent TR-606 classic.
Here's how the artist's omnipresent '90s hit "Praise You" harnessed the Roland TB-303 to become a radio and dancefloor sensation.
SPOTLIGHT
Here's how the 1984 Queen single flipped the script on their musical direction, ushering in a new wave of success for the group.
8 mins read
Our Contributors
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Gino Sorcinelli is the writer, creator, and editor of Micro-Chop, a Substack newsletter that dissects beatmaking, DJing, music production, rapping, and sampling. His articles have appeared on Ableton, HipHopDX, Okayplayer, Passion of the Weiss, Red Bull Music Academy, and Reverb.
Jamie is Artist Relations Manager for Roland Europe Group. A walking musical encyclopedia, he's also an avid trivia fan with interests in numerous areas.
Jordan Blum resides in Philadelphia and holds an MFA in Fiction. He’s Editor-in-Chief of The Bookends Review, author of Jethro Tull: Every Album, Every Song and Dream Theater: Every Album, Every Song, Associate Editor at PopMatters and a contributor to CoS, Kerrang!, Metal Injection, and PROG.
Shay Leonia is a singer and songwriter from Englewood, NJ. She is a music industry consultant and social media manager at 44th Minute Media. Shay is obsessed with great music and decent coffee and hopes to one day perfect the art of Szechuan cooking.
TECH AND TREND
From oil paintings to digital illustration, sculptures to industrial design, synthesizers as art are finally shining in the limelight.
We’re spending more time than ever in front of computers and need a screen break. It can feel like we’re bouncing between platforms all day.
There are specific things musicians can do to foster wellness and stay creative, despite the challenges we all face right now.
K-pop groups increasingly claim the spotlight on the world stage. Industry insiders give us insights into what makes the style so popular.
The video game industry is moving ever closer to cloud storage, digital distribution, and other online possibilities.