Electronic Beats Magazine Winter 2013 is out December 5th

Holly Johnson, the legendary singer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, once said: “I get buzzed off the fact that Andy Warhol’s heard of us, because he gets buzzed off the fact that Picasso had heard of him.” A few months ago, Electronic Beats editor-in-chief Max Dax wondered if H.P. Baxxter gets buzzed off the fact that renowned German painter Albert Oehlen had not only heard of him, but also uses the Scooter frontman’s chants and slogans in his paintings. This led to gathering the two pillars of high and low art for our cover story. Hopefully, the other interviews and conversations in this issue will be as edifying.

Appropriately, they focus on artistic balance—not only the aforementioned high with the low, but also the hallucinogenic with the sober, the functional with the academic, and  the self-aggrandizing with the painfully shy. Here’s an overview:

– Louise Brailey interviews Laurel Halo on reality television and her latest album of experimental techno Chance Of Rain.

– A.J. Samuels visits Mark Fell in Sheffield to discuss philosophical perspectives on dance music and Margaret Thatcher’s affect on British alternative culture.

– Max Dax learns talks to Gary Numan about how the synth legend overcame his Asperger’s syndrome to come out the other end of a long dark tunnel.

– Darkside’s Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington meet up with psychedelic figurehead Daniel Pinchbeck to discuss ayahuasca rituals, musical manifestations of shamanism and telepathic communication.

– Rabih Beaini argues for the continuing relevance of Afro-futurist ideals in his review of NRSB-11’s Commodified.

– The New Yorker’s Richard Brody praises Claude Lanzmann’s The Last of The Unjust for rehabilitating controversial figure Benjamin Murmelstein.

– Ricardo Villalobos decries Babylonian tendencies and needless categorization in thinking about music.

– We report on our 72 hours in Hamburg, including interviews with Dial/Smallville’s Lawrence & Small People, Bureau B’s Gunther Buskies, FSK and HFBK’s Michaela Melián, ethnomusicologist and mafia music expert Francesco Sbano, ZickZack’s Alfred Hilsberg and more.

– Dr. Charles S. Grob describes his research administering psilocybin to terminally ill cancer patients.

– Cosey Fanni Tutti tells all, from A to Z.

– Trent Reznor tells us how Johnny Cash became his style icon.

The new EB Magazine is out in just a few weeks, so why not order a copy (or four)? We hope you love it, because we had a blast putting it together. It may not keep your body warm this winter, but it should definitely heat up your brain. ~

Published November 21, 2013.