Music

The Best Things We Saw on the Dance Music Internet This Week

Photo by Jackie Lee Young

1. The history of the smiley face

Columnist Michaelangelo Matos returns with a look at the history of the smiley face in rave culture for his regular column, Off the Record.

Videos by VICE

2. Nils Frahm’s Xmas Mix

“Every year a little bit cheesier, sweeter, cracklier, never banal but smooth as always,” Frahm says about his annual mix. This year, he includes selections from Billie Holliday, Miles Davis, and Beethoven, among others.

3. Vogueing and Texas

In the gorgeous feature, writer Dan Gentile spends a night out in Texas’ underground vogue scene.

4. Smalltown DJs Best of 2016 mix

Here hot tunes from throughout the year, featuring Romare, Jamie xx and Sampha.

5. Tom of Finland, Club Culture Hero

Our Josh Baines interviews DJ Hell about the infamous art work of Tom of Finland.

6. Bonobo on NTS

Besides featuring tracks from Clark, The Field and Shigeto, Bonobo also shares a number of unreleased tracks of his own. “I found these tunes that I made circa 1999 when I was making Animal Magic. They’ve never been heard before and none of them have names,” he said.

7. The best electronic music writing of 2016

Michaelangelo Matos makes a top 30 list looking at the best electronic music writing–from feature profiles to essays to interviews–in 2016. Dive in!

8. The dodeka

Interested in learning the keys? Donate to this new Kickstarter for an instrument called the dodeka, a keyboard that uses its own musical notation system.

9. Fatima Yamaha’s Araya EP

Bas Bron, aka Fatima Yamaha, returns with a new EP, Araya, for Dekmantel. Although it’s not set for release until February 2017, you can get a taste of the music right now.

10. River Tiber

The FADER introduces us to River Tiber, a Toronto-based musician and producer who frequently works with Drake, Kaytranada and BADBADNOTGOOD.