<p><span><span>- What a decade it's been for Autechre. The British electronic titans, <strong>Rob Brown</strong> and <strong>Sean Booth</strong>, have spent the last ten years delving ever-deeper into unexplored territory of sound synthesis and generative improv. From the melodic elegance of 2010's <em>Oversteps</em> came 2013's <em>Exai</em>, a cavernous double LP offering seventeen shadowy, experimental dance cryptids waiting to be unraveled.

<p><span><span>- Forty-seven years on from his debut, Bruce Springsteen is back with <em>Letter To You</em>, his 20th studio album. Coming just a year after the last one, the 71 year old is showing no signs of slowing down. But while the orchestral country crooning of last year’s <em>Western Stars</em> was a bit of a musical departure, <em>Letter To You</em> finds Springsteen back with his old comrades in the E Street Band and back in familiar classic rock territory.</span></span></p>

- Queensland’s Gold Coast trades on an image of fun. It’s sunny all the time, the blue water throws curving, tubular swells into the shore, and the beaches are a lengthy stretch of sandy playgrounds. Then there is the nightlife which is a brightly coloured, neon lit wonderland that screams party, party, party! So what it is about “Australia’s Playground” that produces artists who create music that seems to be somewhat off-piste, if not an antithesis of that marketing image?