Once upon a time, electropop was fresh and new. Having wrested synthesisers out of the 'progressive' hands of Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd and Emerson Lake and Palmer, a generation of producers used their new toys to produce plastic, disposable music, which celebrated mass production, consumer culture and the synthetic pleasures of modern living. Everyone remembers Kraftwerk, but hard on their heels were a lesser-known Belgian act by the name of Telex.

Hari Kunzru on the evolution of electronic music

Spending their prime in a small village in Bavaria, The Notwist have been producing one record after another since the early ‘90s. All of them have appeared on Hausmusik, a label famous (in Bavaria) for the high quality of its output, the cheapness of its vinyl and the beauty of its sleeves.

James Flint explores the connection between environmentalism and techno

This is something the folks at The Economist might not understand about globalisation. Enrico Crivellaro lives in Verona, where he works in the marketing department of his father’s company during the daytime. In Milan he operates his labels Neroli and Archive – the latter of which was set up three years ago in London, where most of his artists live, whose records are big in Japan and Northern Europe.