Visionary Road Maps: my electronic picks for Primavera Sound 2025
Plus Stereolab, Guedra Guedra, Impérieux and more
Next week is Primavera Sound. I’m going; I hope you’re going.
Last week I put together a Line Noise podcast with my guide to the best electronic music of the week. And then it struck me: I had written about / interviewed most of the artists I was recommending, be it for the Line Noise Substack, the Line Noise podcast or Pitchfork. So why not use them?
And so here it is, my (non exhaustive) guide to the electronic music of Primavera Sound 2025. I hope you enjoy my picks and the festival, if you’re going. And if so, do say hello. I will be at the Radio Primavera Sound studio for most of the time. We’ve got loads of Line Noise-friendly interviews.
And if you’re not going to Primavera and not interested in my selections, well you can skip right to the end of this newsletter, where I have some song reviews, including the Stereolab tour single.
Normal service resumes next week.
My Primavera Sound 2025 picks
Classics
Armand van Helden, Thursday June 5 at 04.30, Cupra
In praise of Armand van Helden and his house hit machine
“Van Helden is, pretty much anyway you want to look at it, one of the best and most overlooked house producers of the last 30 years. Overlooked critically, that is, not commercially. Because van Helden is one of those brilliantly sticky producers who, every few years, pops up with yet another chart-topping hit. In the 90s he had The Witch Doktor, a NY tribal house classic; his remix of Tori Amos’s Professional Widow, which hit number one in the UK; his Dark Garage take on Sneaker Pimps’ Spin Spin Sugar, which was a London anthem and helped invent UK Garage; and You Don’t Know Me, a French Touch-tinged global hit.* Not bad for one decade.”
Kittin, Friday June 6 at 00.30, Plenitude by NITSA
“For a few months in the early 2000s, no self-respecting arty dance party was complete without the glacial, if faintly amused, Mitteleuropean tones of Miss Kittin, aka French DJ, producer, and vocalist Caroline Hervé. Songs like “Frank Sinatra,” with the Hacker, and “Silver Screen Shower Scene,” with Felix da Housecat, were at the brief populist peak of electroclash, a short-lived genre that brought alien glamour, DIY showmanship, and a sly sense of humour to rattling electro beats before collapsing under the weight of its own vaingloriousness around 2003.”
Sabres of Paradise, Thursday June 5 at 2.35, Schwarzkopf
Sabres of Paradise’s Haunted Dancehall: Weatherall’s unearthly masterpiece
“So what the hell were Sabres of Paradise? It’s not an easy question to answer. Sabresonic suggested a dance band; but Haunted Dancehall was wilder and more universal, both poppier and more experimental than their debut, the kind of record that demands its own slot in record shops. (And, given the number of remixes that Sabres of Paradise did around this time, they could have probably filled it.)”
Moritz von Oswald, Thursday June 5 at 16h, Paral.lel 62
Line Noise Episode 80 (Moritz Von Oswald)
“German techno legend Moritz Von Oswald is our very special guest on Line Noise this month, as we celebrate the release of Dissent, the new album by his Moritz von Oswald Trio. He talks about visiting Stockhausen in his studio, working with Tony Allen and Juan Atkins, his history with dub techno and collaborating with Laurel Halo and Heinrich Köbberling on the new album.”
Dance your behind off
Sherelle, Saturday June 7 at 03.45, Plenitude by NITSA
Line Noise Episode 110 (Sherelle)
“Line Noise brings you 22 minutes in the company of Sherelle, a London DJ who brought her 160 BPM madness to Primavera LA. We discussed the return of jungle, the art of DJing and becoming big during Covid.”
Danny L Harle, live Friday June 6 at 04.50, Schwarzkopf; DJ Saturday June 7 at 04.30, Cupra
Line Noise Episode 42 (Danny L Harle and perfect pop)
“On the 42nd episode of Line Noise (aka Episode 17 for Radio Primavera Sound) Ben Cardew talks to pop / rave / weird / house / baroque rave lord supremo Danny L Harle about the secrets of pop songwriting and his impressive contacts book, before Harle's 2019 Primavera Sound set.”
Experimental
Barker, Thursday June 5 at 23.05, The Levis Warehouse
““Stochastic” means “having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analysed statistically but may not be predicted precisely”. But so what, you say? Well, Barker’s new album is called “Stochastic Drift” and it is a ravishing ode to letting things kind of get away from you, of abandoning fixed goals and seeing where life takes you. Reframing, the gorgeous first single, is a brilliant example of this technique-non-technique, with the song’s pointillist riff wafting across the mix like it has absolutely nothing better to be doing and has realised it is entirely the right place. It reminds me a little of lying on a float in a swimming pool on a hot day and just letting go, something I really don’t do enough of.”
Beatrice Dillon, Saturday June 7 at 22h, The Levis Warehouse
“As I sat watching the torrential rain outside the window, nerves slightly jangled, Beatrice Dillon’s new single with contemporary classical sextet Explore Ensemble felt just about perfect. The music is somewhere magical between calming and slightly on edge, a piano part like jittering waves meeting subtle percussion and the passing drone of a bass clarinet, every listen revealing new layers and complexities.”
Toumba, Thursday June 5 at 00.10, The Levis Warehouse
“Far from the strained dichotomy espoused by the “f*ck art, let’s dance” brigade, much of the greatest dance music is shot through with a wildly experimental instinct, from jungle to footwork to singeli’s galloping club deconstructions. Toumba, a producer and DJ from Amman, Jordan, knows this well. Petals, his debut EP for forward-thinking UK label Hessle Audio, is a record of dextrous rhythms, advanced sound design, and microtonal melody that is shot through with the joy of communal celebration.”
DjRUM, Thursday June 5 at 03.25, The Levis Warehouse
“DjRUM’s forthcoming album, Under Tangled Silence, is an utter jewel of a record. It follows the success of DjRUM’s December 2024 EP Meaning’s Edge and it is vaguely in line with that record’s finely spun web, albeit recorded in a more analogue manner, with real live instruments. Three Foxes Chasing Each Other - and pat yourself on the back for that title, DjRUM - is typical(ish) of the album’s approach, joining a frantic mbira (I think) riff, to drums that beautifully combine organic thump with electronic assault, to the point where the listener is uncertain where the line has been crossed and if, indeed, there was even a line in the first place.”
Very 2025
DJ Python, Thursday June 5 at 21h, Plenitude by NITSA
DJ Python - i was put on this earth EP
“If DJ Python wants to tell us something important on his new EP, then he seems a little shy about spitting it out. The record’s title is a declaration - or the start of one? - hedged in lowercase letters, offered without further explanation. Buried among the EP’s invited guests, the producer sings for the first time on a solo Python record, like a reluctant child being pushed into the spotlight.”
Joy Orbison, Saturday June 7 at 02.15, Plenitude by NITSA
“As an electronic music producer I can’t imagine there is any greater joy than finding a big, f*ck off stupid noise that you just know is going to absolutely kill on any dance floor. And that, pretty much, is what Joy Orbison has done with the ridiculous descending bass growl on flight fm. The producer apparently made the track while waiting for a lift to perform at last year's Lost Village Festival and this immediacy comes rumbling across in a song of pure, stupid joy.”
Kelly Lee Owens, Thursday June 5 at 00.30, Schwarzkopf
Line Noise Episode 61 (Kelly Lee Owens)
“Ben Cardew talks to the divinely talented Welsh producer Kelly Lee Owens about death doulas, disco, John Cale and grandmothers, ahead of the release of her second album Inner Song.”
PLUS: CRYSTALLMESS, 4am Kru, D’Arcangelo (and more) (who I haven’t written about but very much recommend nonetheless.)
And OBVIOUSLY Stereolab.
Some listening
Manuela - Coniine (featuring Laetitia Sadier)
There is, as you can read elsewhere, a new Stereolab album. But there is also this, a deeply lovely, rather mysterious new song from Manuela Gernedel, an Austrian artist who is supporting Stereolab on their current tour and has persuaded Laetitia Sadier to add her divine vocal skills to Coniine. Sadier doesn’t do a lot here - a few backing vocals, which lap at the song like lazy waves at the shore - but combined with Gernedel’s slightly elfish, idiosyncratic vocals and the romantic twang of Nick McCarthy’s guitar the result is a sunset anthem for sailing off into the sun.
Had Cloud Land - a tour single in the grand Stereolab tradition - been on Instant Holograms on Metal Film, it would have been the album’s fourth best song. There’s no evidence of this. But it is scientific fact. Instead, Cloud Land drifts around on its glorious lonesome, seven minutes of airy, Motorik glide, that reminds me of classic Cluster or Tangerine Dream being amiably prodded into life. In keeping with the overall feel of the new album, Cloud Land is gently melancholic but with the vaguest suggestion of hope among its filtered electronic effects.
Guedra Guedra - Drift of Drummer
Drums, drums and yet more glorious drums combine on the new single from Moroccan producer Abdellah M. Hassak, who has signed to Domino’s Smugglers Way imprint. The modus operandi behind Guedra Guedra’s forthcoming albums is to mix analogue synths and drum machines, with field recordings (often of percussive fragments) that Hassak has made on his travels across Morocco, Tanzania, Guinea and more. The perfectly named Drift of Drummer is a little like Sheffield bleep meets the percussive tap of fingers on drums, where you can actually feel the sweat dripping off the grooves.
…. not too far removed, sonically, is Fena by Bulgarian artist Alper Durmush aka Impérieux, who makes his debut on Hessle Audio with a track inspired by a word that his mum used to call Durmush as a kid. “The name comes from Turkish, but with a Balkan twist, it means a mischievous rascal - wild, unpredictable, a bit too much at times.” It’s a very well named track: there is definitely something rascal-y about Fena, something more naughty than dark about its weirdly scratching, swirling sawtooth synth noises that burst out of the track with the unsettling energy of an ill-judged fireworks display. And the EP that it comes from is even better.
Patricia Wolf - Early Memories
Patricia Wolf’s music is so gently evocative on this track, taken from the soundtrack to Hrafnamynd, a new documentary by filmmaker Edward Pack Davee, that you can feel the mind gently peeling off memories of a long-lost youth. The album was made using the UDO Super 6 synthesiser and there is very little to this song beyond the barely-there whisper of electronic tones. But somehow it speaks volumes in its gently-toned stroll.
Simo Cell - Paris Funk Express
Last time I reviewed Simo Cell I wondered what on earth was the bizarre croaking noise that ran through Circuits. The answer - and it is one that is repeated here - “a guttural, croaking mechanoid creature know as FL Louis, who delivers what can very loosely be described as vocals”. Good to know. Here, the result of that is a twisting, conniving slice of house that splits the difference between French House, Jersey club and good old electro, ultimately ending up like Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger under a serious dose of the bends.
Rihanna really has reached the imperial phase of doing whatever the hell she wants, a prime example being this Junior Vasquez-esque, shirts-off-and-beefy tribal house number that comes from the soundtrack to the new Smurfs film, of all things. A lot of Rihanna fans are very disappointed by this song - which does, admittedly sound like it was recorded at the bottom of a dusty bucket - but I love it for its warped New York energy and sheer unlikeliness. Viva Rihanna. (And, yes, I probably should use this space to recommend music you might not know but I bet you haven’t listen to this, have you?)
Things I’ve done
Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
I’ve been writing A LOT about Stereolab of late, so it was a real pleasure to review the band’s new album for Pitchfork. And it’s great! “Stereolab have a reputation as a cerebral band, but as these songs show, their braininess never comes at the expense of emotion: These are angry, sad, hopeful songs that offer catharsis and solidarity. This mixture - of pulsating brains and jangling nerves, beating hearts and open minds - may be the closest we get to the essence of Stereolab; and in this, Instant Holograms on Metal Film is a laudable comeback.”
Line Noise - The best electronic music at Primavera Sound 2025
In which Sergi Cuxart and I bring you our totally subjective picks of the best electronic music at Primavera Sound 2025.
Look I totally love Luke Haines; I first got into his music when I saw The Auteurs supporting Suede in 1992 (I think) and I have long considered him to be one of the most interesting people in music. So it was a total joy to interview him for Radio Primavera Sound a few weeks ago about his new album with Peter Buck, Going Down To The River ...To Blow My Mind. We talked about why Shiny Happy People is a banger, Buck’s dislike of Lieutenant Pigeon, the Supreme Being, girls running classic rock music, octopus love, Britpop, nuclear war, getting old and where the duo go now, after completing their psychiatric trilogy of records.
…. and then a few days after that, I interview Peter Buck FFS! And he was also utterly charming and we ALSO spoke about Shiny Happy People working with Luke, The Auteurs, R.E.M., song titles, dying tonight and much more.
The playlists
“We don't stop playlisting because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playlisting.” So said George Bernard Shaw and who am I to disagree with the great man? Luckily, I have two playlists: The newest and bestest 2025; and The newest and the bestest (unharried by time). Do follow them for all the best new music.
ok, wow, i am not sure if i would have listened to the Rihanna track if you hadn't mentioned it...such an interestingly odd poppy mashup and love the murky-undergroundy-wordlessness riff sections between her singing