Strandz, the Renaissance Man

London rapper Strandz pours romance and grit into a nostalgic, 2000s hip-hop sound for a new generation – but he’s always pushing forward. He chats with Rahel Aklilu for the October issue

Shy One: Higher Frequencies

Starting off as a grime DJ in her teens, Shy One has since become a luminary in UK nightlife. Gearing up for a second album, she’s never sounded more sure of herself. Read the October issue cover story

Joji Koyama and Tujiko Noriko on filmmaking, friendship and artistic fusion

Ahead of an upcoming audiovisual performance at Portuguese festival Semibreve, the longtime collaborators connect here for a chat about their work together thus far, the show, and the future

Cosey Fanni Tutti on the musical awakening that catapulted her into another world

The industrial pioneer and author recalls a revelatory period of creativity and experimentation – and it all began at a pub in Hull 

BCUC are finding strength in numbers

For spirited South African seven-piece BCUC, music is not just the motor behind their mind-blowing improvisational live shows, but language for communal understanding

Slipknot’s Corey Taylor on hitting rock bottom and the live performance that helped him back up

CW: suicide. This feature is part of The Click series, taken from our print magazine

Simo Cell is powering up

Known for his unconventional approach to club bangers, the French producer and DJ is swapping the instant hit for the long game as he readies his debut album, ‘Cuspide des Sirènes’

L’Rain is moving closer

After her searingly emotional debut in 2017, and its critically lauded follow-up, L’Rain is striving to bring some fun and self-invention to the po-faced world of experimental music

Rising: Enter the searing soundworlds of Plattenbau

Plattenbau offer a take on contemporary life that’s anything but prefabricated. We meet the spirited post-punk four-piece to discuss their new record, ‘Net Prophet’

Connecting… Oneohtrix Point Never

The music of Oneohtrix Point Never cleaves to a dream logic. For a glowing tenth album, pop’s resident disruptor and the Weeknd collaborator is revisiting past selves. Sasha Geffen learns more for the September cover story

50 years of Lavender Country: the radical history of the first queer country album

Lavender Country released their eponymous debut album in 1973. 50 years on, the album stands as a landmark within queer history and country music

Scrapper director Charlotte Regan recounts her favourite music videos

The ‘Scrapper’ director talks us through five music videos that have had a formative influence on the fizzy debut feature film, or her career

Grim Determination: Inside the Rise of Dungeon Rap

They say difficult times beget difficult music. From his home in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Alex Yatsun has pioneered a bleak but irresistible subgenre that resonates far beyond the borders of his home country

Smerz on writing ASAP and producing for NewJeans

Kez Cochrane talks spontaneous studio sessions, trust and producing NewJeans bop ‘ASAP’ with Smerz, the Norwegian duo tapped for the K-pop girl group’s new EP ‘Get Up’

Mercury is shifting her sound into overdrive

Atlanta rapper Mercury has earned star-studded co-signs, sold-out shows and a growing community of collaborators. For her new EP, ‘Heaven’, she’s pushing her sound into overdrive – while keeping her feet on the ground. She chats to Daisy Jones for the August issue

Rising: PYTKO is pushing herself into bold new worlds

PYTKO’s dream-pop meditations soothe and unsettle in equal measure. For the Rising series, she speaks to April Clare Welsh about field recording, Polish sea shanties and taking her sound in a lighter, more playful direction