Archive - Microplastics

The collapse of big tunes in the platform era

In the post-algorithmic age, are club anthems an endangered species?

Jun 9 • Ray Philp

March 2026

What comes after Techno Twitter?

The power that online activists once held over institutions and artists is fading – with strange consequences.

Mar 26 • Ray Philp

December 2025

"Perfection" and the ennui of milennial taste

Vincenzo Latronico's Berlin expats are paralysed by algorithmic abundance. Could a fictional Scottish post-punk band show them a better way to live?

Dec 18, 2025 • Ray Philp

September 2025

Last night a writer saved my life

What would you play to rescue a dance floor? Eight music journalists cue up the platters that matter

Sep 3, 2025 • Ray Philp

May 2025

When club culture sells out to private equity

Grassroots campaigns against big finance highlight the moral maze in which dance music has lost itself.

May 15, 2025 • Ray Philp

December 2024

Did trance ruin the "special" music of Goa?

A global scene that began in India gave birth to some of dance music's trippiest records—and a few of its worst.

Dec 5, 2024 • Ray Philp

July 2024

The durian scheme, or what's wrong with "experimental" music

What could today's avant-garde learn from a notoriously smelly fruit?

Jul 23, 2024 • Ray Philp

January 2024

Wiping the moistness from music criticism

Music journalism is in crisis, again. Can it be rescued from its wet, deferential present?

Jan 31, 2024 • Ray Philp

November 2023

Surfing the Inglish channel

The sound of public space is getting worse. What's at stake if we decide to ignore it?

Nov 30, 2023 • Ray Philp

October 2023

Introducing Microplastics

Your new, all-consuming obsession

Oct 17, 2023 • Ray Philp