CONTROL VOLTAGE

April 23, 2012 – It's been 12 years since the Avalanches released their debut album, Since I Left You, a masterpiece of sample-based psychedelia, among other things, and a direct ancestor of chillwave; since then, rumors of a follow-up have swirled, but details have remained as hazy as the group's own music. What's been the hold-up?

April 20, 2012 – I recently stumbled upon a blog that, despite its newness and modest stature, might represent one of the most important conservation efforts in electronic dance music right now. Instead of preserving the past, however, it's focused on a far more critical project — securing the future. Okay, I'm being slightly hyperbolic, but the point stands.

April 20, 2012 – Frustratingly, and perhaps ironically, given my profession, I don't find time to listen to a lot of DJ mixes. There's always a promo to be checked out, an album to be reviewed, research to be done — and by "research" I mean an hour spent plummeting down a YouTube rabbit hole, until you've forgotten what you went looking for in the first place.

April 19, 2012 – Say what you will about the film itself, but if you're a fan of surreal casting, Johnny Mnemonic is the gift that keeps on giving.

April 18, 2012 – Record Store Day is great for indie fans, dad-rockers, and collectors of oddities. They've got their Beach House seven-inch, their vinyl reissue of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water," their Jimmy Fallon novelty single.

April 18, 2012 – With ornate tattoos crawling up her collarbones and a septum piercing glinting beneath her severely coiffed swathe of hair — sometimes peroxide, sometimes pink — Maya Jane Coles keeps up a tough, yet whimsical exterior.