music Archives - Ex-Plain

28 min read 0

Sounds

What the Hell Is Keller Synth? A Guide to Tänzelcore and Basement Goblin Techno

Ex-Plain
March 10, 2026

A strange underground genre with roots in Germany involves blending dungeon synth, hardcore techno, and black metal aesthetics into something…

11 min read 0

Sounds

Behind the Beat: Inside the Homes Where Hip-Hop Is Made

Ex-Plain
February 20, 2026

Raph Rashid’s intimate photographs map the domestic environments where hip-hop producers build influential records, showing how constraint, routine, and personal…

105 min read 0

Pasts
Sounds

The Eccentric Soviet Composer Who Conducted a City: Arseny Avraamov and the Sound of a Future That Never Arrived

Ex-Plain
February 19, 2026

In September 1922, amid the fifth anniversary commemorations of the October Revolution in the capital of Azerbaijan, a little-known Russian…

27 min read 0

Visions

When Sci-Fi and Body Horror Found Advertising: Chris Cunningham’s Commercial Work

Ex-Plain
February 12, 2026

Before retreating from the spotlight, Chris Cunningham, the elusive director behind the music videos for Aphex Twin and Björk injected…

5 min read 0

Pasts
Sounds

The Australian Afterlife of Elvis Presley

Ex-Plain
February 10, 2026

Each year on August 16, Elvis fans gather at a Melbourne cemetery on the anniversary of his death, observing the…

9 min read 0

Sounds

A Loud Minority? Investigating the Subculture of Audiophiles in Japan

Ex-Plain
February 9, 2026

Stories of Japanese audiophiles installing personal utility poles have become legend, but behind the myth is a shrinking, aging subculture…

22 min read 0

Sounds

Longplayer: One Song, A Thousand Years, No Intermission

Ex-Plain
February 3, 2026

A quarter of a century ago, a Celtic punk musician started a performance of a song so absurdly long that…

8 min read 0

How a Forgotten German Expressionist Painting Influenced Iggy Pop and David Bowie’s Berlin Era

Ex-Plain
January 14, 2026

Moving to West Berlin, David Bowie and Iggy Pop found unexpected inspiration in German Expressionism, most notably in the form…

27 min read 1

Pasts
Sounds

X‑Rays You Can Hear: Soviet Bootleg Music’s Non-Clinical Birth, Death, and Rebirth

Ex-Plain
July 15, 2025

During the Cold War, access to music in the Soviet Union was tightly restricted by state censorship. Despite the risks,…

11 min read 0

Sounds

The Man Who Created a Record Store That Only Buys One Album: Rutherford Chang’s White Album Project

Ex-Plain
June 17, 2025

In an era when digital algorithms can summon nearly any song on demand, the late Rutherford Chang’s obsession with a…