Blog
Fresh stories and practical insight from the ghost production world.
Pirate Radio and the Underground Sound
Before streaming, the UK underground built its own broadcast network on tower-block roofs. This is the story of pirate radio as an institution: the rigs, the raids and the sounds it made possible.
Tresor and the Berlin-Detroit Axis
The story of Tresor Berlin: the vault club and record label that turned an abandoned strongroom into a bridge between two post-industrial cities.
Jamaican Sound Systems and UK Bass
The story of sound system culture, from 1940s Kingston to Windrush-era Britain, and how one mobile institution seeded jungle, garage, dubstep and grime.
Castlemorton and the Free Party Reckoning
In May 1992, up to 40,000 people descended on an English common. The free party movement it crowned would be answered by a law that defined dance music itself.
How Ibiza Became Clubbing's Capital
From hippie fincas to superclubs, this is the story of Ibiza clubbing: the island, its residents and the Balearic ethos that turned Eivissa into the global capital of club culture.
The Second Summer of Love
The story of Britain's acid house explosion, from an Ibiza revelation to London basements, orbital raves, a tabloid moral panic and the laws it provoked.
The Hacienda and Madchester's Rise
The story of FAC 51, the Manchester club funded by New Order that lost a fortune, embraced acid house and ecstasy, and lit the fuse on Madchester.
Inside the Mystique of Berghain
The story of Berghain: from the queer fetish parties of Ostgut to a cathedral of concrete and bass whose secrecy, sound and door made it techno's temple.
Burial and the Ghost of Dubstep
A profile of Burial, the reclusive producer behind Untrue: his anonymity, his hand-built method, his key records and his lasting influence.
Wiley and the Birth of Grime
A profile of Wiley, the self-styled godfather of grime whose eskibeat instrumentals gave the genre its sound and whose restlessness and later conduct complicated his legacy.
Giorgio Moroder, the Father of Disco
The story of Giorgio Moroder, from South Tyrol to Munich to Hollywood, and how I Feel Love wrote the blueprint for nearly all modern electronic dance music.
The Prodigy and Rave Gone Punk
The story of The Prodigy: from Braintree warehouse raves to global number ones, the Firestarter firestorm, an unmatched live reputation and life after Keith Flint.
Richie Hawtin and the Plastikman Era
The story of Richie Hawtin: from the Windsor-Detroit river to Plastikman's acid squelch, the Minus empire, and the DJ technology he helped invent.
Carl Cox: The People's Techno Hero
The story of Carl Cox: from Barbadian-British house parties and three-deck rave wizardry to a 15-year Space Ibiza residency and a late-career reinvention as a live artist.
Jeff Mills, the Wizard of Techno
From late-night Detroit radio to the Louvre, Jeff Mills spent four decades proving techno could be both a dancefloor weapon and serious conceptual art.
Goldie: From Graffiti to Drum and Bass
The story of Goldie: care-system kid, graffiti writer, Metalheadz founder and the man whose album Timeless carried jungle into the mainstream.
Daft Punk and the Robots' Reign
The full story of Daft Punk: from a scathing Melody Maker review to a glowing pyramid, a Grammy sweep, and a silent goodbye in the desert.
Charanjit Singh: Acid House Before Acid House
In 1982 Charanjit Singh set Indian ragas to a TB-303 and a TR-808 and made a record that sounds uncannily like acid house, years before the genre had a name.
Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage
The story of Larry Levan, the Paradise Garage and the New York nights that invented the modern idea of a DJ, and of what a night out could be.
Underground Resistance and Techno's Rebellion
The story of Underground Resistance, Detroit's militant, anonymous techno collective, and how it kept the music radical, independent and rooted in its Black origins.
Aphex Twin and the Sound of Genius
The story of Richard D. James: his Cornwall origins, landmark albums, restless invention across ambient and IDM, and the mythology he built himself.
Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of House
The story of Frankie Knuckles, the Warehouse DJ who rebuilt disco with tape edits and a drum machine and gave house music its name.
Kraftwerk: The Blueprint for Electronic Music
The story of Kraftwerk: their formation, classic albums, man-machine aesthetic and the staggering influence that made them the ancestors of nearly all electronic music.
Hi-NRG and the Sound of the Clubs
The story of hi-NRG: the octave-jumping, machine-made disco that powered gay clubs in San Francisco, New York and London, and quietly seeded house, Eurodance and modern pop.
Slap House and the Brazilian Bass Wave
Slap house began as Brazilian bass, was refined in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, and briefly conquered streaming and short-form video before formula fatigue set in.
Footwork and Chicago's Fastest Dance
The story of footwork music: the dance that came first, the ghetto-house lineage, the battle circles, and the global breakout carried forward after DJ Rashad.
Dub Techno and the Berlin Blueprint
The story of dub techno: how Basic Channel fused Detroit techno's pulse with Jamaican dub's cavernous space in 1990s Berlin, and built an ecosystem that still echoes today.
Disco's Death and the Birth of House
The story of Disco Demolition Night, the ugly backlash against disco, and how the music didn't die but mutated into house in Chicago's underground.
Trip-Hop and the Bristol Sound
The story of trip hop: the smoky, sample-built, melancholy sound born from Bristol's sound-system culture, crystallised by Massive Attack and defined by Portishead and Tricky.
Electro and the Planet Rock Moment
The story of electro-funk: the 808-driven, robot-voiced sound born when Kraftwerk met the block party, crystallised by Planet Rock in 1982.
