Teenage Engineering’s New Pocket Operators

Adding three new members to the affordable, miniature synth family

Miniature, inexpensive and incredibly addictive: the Pocket Operator series has electronic music producers and fans furiously making music on the go with dexterous thumbs. The Swedish collaboration between audio tech nerds Teenage Engineering and fashion brand Cheap Monday has just been expanded, adding three new members to the Gameboy-like Pocket Operator family. While the debut three products (Rhythm, Sub and Factory) covered the bases in …

Rihanna: Same Ol’ Mistakes

For those who don’t have a TIDAL subscription, Rihanna’s album ANTI is now available on Spotify. Whether you’re tearing down the highway to “Desperado” or grooving to the nostalgic, soulful “Love on the Brain” the tracks are delightfully diverse. It’s her rendition of Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” (from their most recent album Currents) that sticks immediately, despite the similarity in accompaniment. With …

Moderat: Reminder

Originating in Berlin, German electronic music explorers Modeselektor and Apparat are back with their third album as power trio Moderat. From III, they release the single, “Reminder,” which opens with Apparat (Sascha Ring) revealing something intimate through his bare voice, accompanied by a light, breakbeat percussion pattern. Moderat has well-earned a reputation for balancing the experimental with the dancefloor rockout, and all of the subtleties …