March 2011

As one girl mounts a precariously high speaker stack a group of five shirtless ravers are moshing furiously beneath. Calvertron has just dropped the Dead Prez anthem ‘Hip Hop’ signalling the start of a Dubstep frenzy and what can only be described as some next level skanking. This is Dirt Box’s second party at Stereo and after selling out their launch party with Will Bailey in January, tonight had a lot to live up to...

It's been almost three weeks since Japan was devastated by one of the worst natural disasters in the countries history. And while coverage of the aftermath may be sliding further down the weekly news bulletins it doesn't mean things are getting any better. According to the latest figures the death toll has reached well over 20,000 with thousands more still unaccounted for.

Welcome to the new Synth website. After launching our Glasgow-based blog last summer, the interest in our writing has been steadily growing with views of the site increasing week on week. We thought it only right to develop the blog into a proper website where we can really take control of how we bring you the content while still maintaining the accessibility of our original blog.

Dance music is constantly evolving - it's constantly moving, constantly growing and never standing still. Over the past twenty years we've seen 2 Step collide with Dub to make Dubstep, Rave & Hardcore morphing in to Drum & Bass and more recently Dutch House & Reggaeton coming together to create Moombahton - dance music's freshest genre. It's this element of limitless development which keeps us hooked and creates the possibilities. And it's here that our fascination with Mia Dora begins.

INTERVIEW W/ Mia Dora

Glasgow based band Cinephile are new to us, but seemingly they've been producing quality lo-fi electronica for some time. Siting Portishead, Massive Attack and Tricky as influences, their latest single 'Masquerade' comes on like an emotional storm releasing it's absorbent power through a downpour of electric synths and menacing bass. A gripping listen from start to finish...

There does come a point in club land when you feel like you've seen it all, resident nights will no longer cut it, that promise of the 'finest dancefloor bangers' makes you yawn and you've had it up to HERE with the weekly avalanche of endless Facebook invites that all sound rather similar. It takes something (or someone) truly special to grab our attention now - a debut performance or a new venue is what gets us really excited. So when both these things come at once there is definitely an air of child-like anticipation.

It was a relatively quiet night at the Arches on Friday, which came as quite a surprise as Caspa is usually a big draw. There was a slight teething problem in the early stages and the doors didn’t open till 11.30, but no indication was given as to why this was. As the queue grew outside we could hear the guttural bass pumping through The Arches' mighty sound system and people were itching to be let in, with Caspa due on stage at the relatively early time of half past midnight folk were understandably anxious to get a few drinks inside them as soon as possible and warm up their dancing feet.

We listen to music a lot. A good portion of our day is spent reviewing music, sourcing obscurities from the internet or trawling through mixes. We're bombarded with so much promo hype that sometimes it can wash right over us without ever so much rendering an emotion. That is why, on a recent wet weekend in March we made a point of sitting down just to listen...