<p><span><span><span>- I am totally not buying into the metaverse (which doesn’t exist), NFTs (which are a scam) or crypto (...well I have no real money to buy pretend money). There is one synthetic obsession, however, that I can never say no to: the most sugary and euphoric extremes of synthwave always get my blood pumping. I want to live in that neon universe of power-glove toting, big-hair heroes, busting keytar solos on the backs of pixelated rainbows.

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>- Aarti Jadu is hard to pin down. It would be kinda played out to say she’s the archetypal restless artist. Sure she’s started her own art-rock five-piece, did an acoustic guitar and Indian folk-classical duo, has re-constructed early 1900’s Australian piano music for sampler and voice, has a drone-singing workshop practice that hires into the wellness industry, has run an all-night ambient sleep-over music festival and regularly does the seemingly-impossible with her four-voice improv.

<p><span><span>- Etran de L'Aïr<span> are the latest in an abundant stream of Tuareg guitar bands to come out of the Sahara Desert in north-West Africa. The family band started gigging in the 90’s, but made their recorded debut in 2018 with an album captured entirely on a mobile phone. </span><em>Agadez</em><span> is their first entry into the world of high-fidelity recording; and it comes out, like a lot of great music from the region, on the Sahel Sounds label.</span></span></span></p>