Laptronica

Keith Richards would doubtless be back on the cigs pronto at the sight of a group turning up to play a gig armed only with an arsenal of laptops. But that's a regular sight these days as the easy availability of sequencing and sampling technology has allowed a lo-fi, DIY electronic underground to flourish in the same manner as the indie movement of the early 1980s. Laptronica is a rather forced term, but it handily bands together a number of exciting artists creating music that's generally too obtuse for the dancefloor, but potentially more accessible than the sonic terrorism of Aphex Twin and his rave-influenced ilk. Four Tet, Schneider TM and Icelanders Mum all arrived here via indie and post-rock, and their music has been occasionally been classed as folktronica due to its embracing of traditional instrumentation and melody, combined with glitchy electronica. However you choose to define it, this is mechanical music with a fragile human soul.