Electronic Sound Issue 121 (Grassroots Electronica 2025)

We're kicking off 2025 with a special issue to celebrate UK Grassroots Electronica – the ever-growing number of bedroom producers and independent record labels across the country – and we're bundling the magazine with an exclusive double CD featuring 30 killer tracks from some of the most exciting underground artists on our radar. You won't find our usual run of interviews in this month's Electronic Sound. Instead, we are devoting almost half of the issue to amplifying the thrilling and unstoppable buzz of UK grassroots electronica at the start of the second quarter of the 21st century, doing our best to include as many of the artists and labels that make up the scene as we possibly can. Brighton EDM duo Massive Luxury Overdose, Cardiff dreampopper Yellow Belly, Leeds acid freak Ray The Binman, Belfast synthwaver Tripp Mirror, and Aberdeen cassette imprint Ice Cream For Crow, for instance, as well as scores of other new names. There are lots of great recommendations in our 10 Regional Reports, which take us from South-West England to North-East Scotland, with lots more in our 25 Labels For 2025 feature and our packed-to-bursting 101 Bandcamp Picks. Prepare to spend the next little while down some incredible musical rabbit holes. We have a Round Table Discussion involving 17 key players too, including Mute owner Daniel Miller, Radio 6 Music presenter Deb Grant, Electronic Music Open Mic founder Martin Christie, Girls Twiddling Knobs podcast host Isobel Anderson, and Bandcamp label rep Aly Gillani. We're bundling this month's issue with ‘2025: UK Grassroots Electronic Music’, a superb double CD featuring tracks from 30 underground artists and clocking in at almost three hours. A panoramic snapshot of an endlessly exciting scene, get ready for a trip that takes you from known names such as Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Polypores, The Hardy Tree, Ian Boddy and Veryan, to new and electrifying acts like Das Rollerball, Surgeons Girl and Soon. The latter is a collaboration between Adi Newton and Jack Dangers. There’s minimal electronica, paranoid pop, machine-driven post-punk, slick avant-lounge, radiophonic psychedelia and most points in between.

DISC 1
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – ‘All Mod Cons’
Collins – ‘Mr Midnight (1983)’
Andy Bell Featuring Dot Allison And Michael Rother – ‘I’m In Love... (Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s Remix)’
Numün – ‘Reverence (Basic Design’s Reverent Roller Disco Remix)’
Autumns – ‘Digital Swing’
Hologram Teen – ‘Connection Transpaci que’
Polypores – ‘Headlessness’
Andrew Brenza/Alka – ‘Chapter 3’
Megalithic Transport Network – ‘A Controlled Experiment Pt 1’
Studio Kosmische – ‘Lucifer Rising Rescored (Excerpt)’
Patricia Wolf – ‘The Secret Lives Of Birds’
Bartholomew – ‘Land Fracture’
Yuching Huang – ‘The Song Of Summer’
Dream Division & Ivan The Tolerable – ‘Electric Church’
Echo Party – ‘Peeeeel’

DISC 2
The Hardy Tree – ‘Deep Snow’
Ogle – ‘Sacred Lake’
Surgeons Girl – ‘Sequence Of A Time’
Field Lines Cartographer – ‘Shorter Waves’
Ian Boddy – ‘Smaller World’
Veryan – ‘One Universal Breath’
Kayla Painter – ‘Callisto (Clipper Voyage)’
Slowfoam – ‘Of Data And Delight’ 30 Door Key – ‘Yz Klömidjia’
Soon – ‘Mirage Of Spectres Rising’
Das Rollerball – ‘Corporate’
Adult Entertainment – ‘Banned From This Country’
Fingerwolf – ‘Nasty Sex Pond’
Children Of The Bong – 'UVF (Ultraviolet Frequencies)’
Veins Full Of Static – ‘Luminous Void’