Fuzzy Logic

Recently read: Dilla Time, by Dan Charnas

2026-03-20T21:48:00Z

Dan Charnas’s “Dilla Time”

Loved this account of the life and legacy of a hip-hop producer who changed the game.

This joined so many dots for me regarding music I love and music I’m interested in, so I had the same kind of great reading experience as with Join the Future.

I enjoyed learning more about The Soulquarians. And as a fan of Flying Lotus, I also loved the later sections which helped me realise how influenced he was by Jay Dee too. This prompted me to think about Dabrye too, and although he isn’t mentioned in the book I did some digging and found a nice interview about his collaboration with Dilla for Game Over.

I highly recommended you grab a copy!

PS the accompanying Dilla Time website, inc. Listening Guide is great, too.

Fuzzy Logic show, 7/3/2026 on Radio Buena Vida

2026-03-08T18:41:00Z

The excellent “past present” LP by Mark de Clive-Lowe

I was back playing in the RBV cafe window for the first time since 2023, and it was a blast!

Listen to the show on Soundcloud.

For this mix I went from Japanese electronics and reggae into blissed out new Wah Wah Wino gear and my favourite from Tortoise’s amazing Touch LP, before an upbeat finale.

Here’s what I played:

Mark de Clive-Lowe – Present Past (Impressive Collective)
Izumi “Mimi” Kobayashi & Tokyo Riddim Band – Lazy Love (Time Capsule)
Man Prince – Everyone has got to go (Snowball)
Officer John – Handle (Wah Wah Wino)
Tokio Ono – Mr Maric (Accidental)
Motorbremsen – Gloria (Born to shine)
YAYA – My Diner (Shinjuku tracks)
Photay – Derecho (Mexican Summer)
Tortoise – Organesson (International Anthem)
Jimi Tenor – Release Me! (Fluid Ounce)
Track Abdullah Rock – Night Rockers, Pt. I (72 Voksenmusik)
Recloose – Like it used to be (100 Limousines)
The Cool Notes – Natural Energy (Abstract Dance)
Abacus – Music for table tennis (D3 Elements)
Kyle Hall – Ghost Dog (Forget the clock)
Psyance - Andromeda’s Dance
Larry P. Rauson – Music Mental #4 (New Generation)
Romaal Kultan – Lock (Self-released)

Thanks to Speedy, Susan and the RBV team for having me. Great also to catch up with Tom who was on before me, Aldo 2Sox and Paul McGuire who were hanging out, and Jason who popped in too.

Recently read: Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver

2026-02-15T21:48:00Z

Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead”

This retelling of Dickens’ David Copperfield set in Appalachia was a long but brilliant read.

Demon is a likeable character and his resilience in the face of a life-long struggle against the odds makes for an addictive read. I loved his pride in and sense of belonging to his home. I was struck by the anger that he and his mentors felt about how their region had been mistreated, plundered and stigmatised.

And I found it a really clever choice to set this version of the story against the backdrop of the OxyContin scandal and opioid addiction epidemic in the United States, although some sections were heartbreaking.

Thanks to Anna for yet another excellent recommendation.

css.properties, a resource from John Kreitlow

2026-02-04T07:39:00Z

A nice modern resource listing the now huge range of CSS properties on one page. There’s a neat search with autosuggest and each listed property links to a page with a short description plus MDN browser support data.

As mentioned on the recent Shop Talk Show episode with Jeremy Keith.

Jeff Mills at SWG3: Live At The Liquid Room 30th Anniversary Tour

2025-12-14T19:40:00Z

Photo by Jason Brunton

There was a heavy whiff of nostalgia about this gig for me. Jeff Mills is currently on a 30th anniversary tour of his mix album Live at the Liquid Room. I bought that album on cassette tape back then and was blown away by it. I subsequently first saw him DJ at the Arena in Glasgow in 1996. Since then I’ve experienced Jeff doing his thing many times and in various places around the world. His sets are the stuff of legend!

We started our night at Chinaskis which provided a good spot for our ten-strong party to meet, eat and get excited about the night ahead. And we really were excited. Jason, for example, had been attending the gym religiously for months in order to be able dance all night! There was also a hint of deja vu as many of our group were also on my stag do at Dekmantel in 2016 where, again, Jeff was performing.

We arrived at SWG3 early in order to see a documentary film about the Live at the Liquid Room recording. In it, Jeff described how he played a lot of brand new music including some on reel-to-reel and copper discs; how he used certain tones and frequencies to elicit big crowd reactions; and how the set paved the way for how a generation of producers and DJs would conceive, produce and program techno in the future.

The end of the film gave way to the silhouette of the man himself behind a curtain (he likes a bit of drama). Excitingly, Jeff was back to playing vinyl for this gig just like in 1995. So – more crackles, more oomph, more risk and – yes – more mistakes. Exactly the kind of edge-of-the-seat energy that was key to his 90s signature style that I loved.

In his first set Jeff flew through lots of the tracks he played on the 1995 mix album: plenty of Axis and Purpose Maker favourites; the brilliant Luke Slater remix of Ken Ishii’s Extra; Surgeon’s Magneze. I also loved hearing other nineties belters like Fuse’s Substance Abuse and Circuit Breaker’s Overkill.

We had a great position up near the front, and it was a treat to once again enjoy signature Jeff moves like leaving two records live in the mix while turning around to rifle through his record box. Iconic stuff that brings a smile to your face.

Jeff played for what felt like a couple of hours and at this point the night had delivered exactly what it said on the tin and most folks would have gone home happy. However this was the night that kept giving.

Next, local DJ and good guy Mark Maxwell (aka Mother) took to the decks, giving Jeff a one-hour break. I can’t think of a much harder act to follow but Mark managed it. In delivering a serious set of heads-down techno he held the crowd and the mood brilliantly. No lazy selections, either. I can’t say I knew much of what I heard but at least one track sounded a bit like the Ancient Methods label. Bravo, Mark.

When Jeff returned to the decks he shifted to a different sound from his previous set: more stripped back and hypnotic, building layers upon layers of sound. It was less his nineties vibe and more the one he’d settled into in the 2000s. When he gets this right it’s just different gravy. The combination of rhythms and tones and the way it’s mixed burrows deep into your head and under your skin. This section was sublime.

At one point when Jeff had taken the music to its most intense, it was accompanied by piercing green light and smoke surrounding the DJ booth – a really memorable audiovisual experience. To top it off, with the crowd practically on its knees Jeff pulls a handbreak turn into a huge piano vocal track and sends the place into orbit. (I didn’t recognise the track but its very much in the vein of vintage Detroit house from Yolanda or Bridgett Grace). From there he heads into soulful UR classics like Timeline and even Hi-tech Jazz. I really appreciate when a DJ takes you from deep into one mood to another completely – “angels and devils” as Derrick Carter once said – and Jeff is a master at that.

Another vintage set from Jeff Mills, and a brilliant night with great friends. Big up Jason, Tom, Craig, Alan, Gillian, Rob, Kirsty, Mark J, Andy P, Jamie, Jonathon, Marco, Steven B and all the other pals I bumped into on the night. This one will live long in the memory!

Sidenotes

I noticed that one of the previous sets on the tour (in Tokyo, as far as I can tell) has had a recording and partial tracklist uploaded to mixesdb:

Jeff Mills at Liquid Room, Tokyo, 2025

I’ve also added below a few videos from the night which I’ve found around the internet. I don’t own any so I guess the links might only last for a while.

What’s an interactive element? by Manuel Matuzovic

2025-12-14T18:05:00Z

Manuel sensed a general misunderstanding of what an interactive element is and what focusable really means. He wasn’t totally sure himself either, so did some research. It’s a long post but the summary is that:

an important characteristic of all interactive elements is they are natively focusable;
focusable doesn't necessarily mean sequentially focusable (tabbable). Some interactive elements including dialog are click-focusable, and these are not tabbable but can be focused programmatically or via click.
it’s also worth knowing that it's perfectly acceptable to place tabindex on a non-interactive element to aid with accessibility. But prefer applying it to semantic elements rather than divs.

Aside: is `dialog` an interactive element?

Interestingly, Manuel was motivated to do this research after feeling confused when reading some guidance on MDN’s Dialog element docs. He refers to the following note: “Do not add the tabindex property to the <dialog> element as it is not interactive and does not receive focus.” He takes issue with the second part of that sentence, saying that the dialog element does receive focus because it is an interactive element.

Here’s how he goes about proving his assertion.

Firstly he points to the HTML Spec’s section on Focus which specifically includes “dialog boxes” within a list of “interactive widgets”.

Secondly he describes how interactive elements can be focused which makes them focusable areas. (To put it another way: interactive elements are focusable.) He explains what qualifies as a focusable area and that dialog meets the qualifying criteria. Specifically this criterion: “the user agent determines the element to be focusable”.

He continues by explaining what focusable means:

An element is focusable when it can be focused programmatically, e.g. via the focus() method or the autofocus attribute.

Focusable elements can either be sequentially focusable, click focusable, both, or none of them.

Users can reach sequentially focusable elements by pressing the Tab key.

And Manuel provides practical proof of the browser regarding dialog as being focusable via two demos.

His first demo shows that when you launch a dialog via a button that fires myDialog.showModal() and that dialog contains no interactive elements, the dialog element itself has focus. He outputs the value of document.activeElement.tagName to the screen and it is DIALOG.

His second demo shows that an open dialog element (<dialog open>) is click focusable (or sequentially focusable depending on your choice of browser).

All of which backs up Manuel’s assertion that dialog is an interactive element.

Recently read: My Phantoms, by Gwendoline Riley

2025-12-07T13:26:00Z

This was a weird, mixed reading experience for me. It’s a short book and it’s good – it had me locked in really quickly and I was finished after a few nights. But it was an uneasy read.

Firstly, it focuses on awkward family relationships and the emotions these stir over years and decades. I imagine that parts of it are relatable to many readers; that was certainly true for me. Secondly I read it while my elderly uncle was having a rough time in hospital, with the strong chance he wouldn’t make it out. I was spending time with him, mum and dad in that context which I guess has beneath-the-surface effects while you’re trying to maintain a brave face. As it happened, I finished the book the night before he passed away.

I found it interesting how as the book progresses it shifts your opinion of the narrator, Bridget. Initially as she recounts her relationship with her mum, Hen, you feel that although they often rub each other up the wrong way, it’s fairly typical intergenerational and parent-child tension. There’s wry humour and it feels harmless.

Her father, meanwhile, was a boor and her exasperation at his previous behaviour is entirely warranted.

(I’ve since learned that Riley is interested in how people are incorrigible and she explores that brilliantly in the book)

Later, we learn how Bridget has shut Hen out of important parts of her life. She lacks empathy for her mum’s needs and state of mind. Rather than seeing Hen’s foibles and loving her regardless, she only tolerates and humours her.

Bridget’s relationship with her sister, Michelle, is also cold. It seems Michelle tries better to understand Hen and takes more responsibility to maintain a good relationship with her. The sisters are not on the same page and their interactions are infrequent and terse.

Our relationships with our parents and siblings can at times be awkward, and can go through ups and downs. I’ve experienced this and there are times when, on reflection, I wished I’d acted differently. The book led me to reflect on this. Happily, my immediate family’s interrelationships are on the whole good. We too have rubbed each other up the wrong way at times, but unlike Bridget and Hen we understand each others’ foibles and accept them, even laugh about them.

I’ve also known other, more strained relationships in wider family circles. It’s all too easy for things to drift and go awry.

Loads to think about after reading this one. I think it will stick with me for a while.

Thanks to Anna for the recommendation.

The Ethics of Design Systems (on “The Question”)

2025-11-30T11:29:00Z

This episode of The Question is – like they say during the conversation – one that doesn’t yet have any ready answers. Right now it’s just important that we’re asking the question and starting to move forward, establish goals and build vocabulary.

There was a section where they discussed a spectrum of alignment between company and design system team, and that you can have situations where their ethical positions are not aligned. I’ve definitely felt this when trying to achieve wider buy-in to accessible practices.

Another interesting topic was the idea of the design system team having the right to refuse certain components, for example because they are inaccessible. I’ve previously been on this battleground with Toggles. And I see that GitHub’s Primer design system recently announced they’ve stopped using Toasts.

I’m interested to see where this conversation ends up.

Radiohead gig in Bologna, November 15th 2025

2025-11-18T10:07:00Z

Great gig abroad for four pals who were equally excited to be there!

Highlights for me included:

the crackling pre-gig atmosphere: lovely ambient sounds followed by a fun audiovisual performance via motorised black panels that called to mind Close Encounters of the Third Kind;
when Thom nimbly moved from standing mic to the piano for the chords at the end of All I Need;
how beautiful the glockenspiel parts sounded throughout;
Thom’s atmospheric solo effort on Exit Music and the applause from Colin; and
the amazing The Daily Mail.

The set-list was as follows:

2 + 2 = 5
Airbag
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
All I Need
Ful Stop
Nude
Reckoner
The Bends
Separator
Pyramid Song
You and Whose Army?
Sit Down. Stand Up.
Myxomatosis
No Surprises
Optimistic
There There
Exit Music (for a Film)
Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Encore:

Let Down
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
(Nice Dream)
Present Tense
The Daily Mail
Paranoid Android
Everything in Its Right Place

Source: Radiohead setlist at Unipol Arena, Casalecchio di Reno, Italy

Something, Somewhere (mix, Nov 2025)

2025-11-14T18:19:00Z

Photo by Clair Irwin

Over the last few years I’ve played some radio shows but hadn’t done a mix of my own. I managed to rectify that the other night.

This mix is a selection of my favourite house-ish records of recent years, plus a few oldies. It includes plenty of my evergreen favourite artists and labels including Abacus, Legowelt and Dance Mania. I reckon my friend Davie would enjoy these tunes, so I’ll dedicate this one to him.

Listen to the show on mixcloud.

Or download the mix in higher quality.

The tracklist is:

Other Lands - The Caged Mind
Reflection - Cube Loop (Morgan Geist mix)
Suzanne Kraft - Dj Safety Track
DJ Joe Lewis – Midnight Dancing
Ryan Spencer – Between Dreams
Two the hardway – Who said?
Beam Up – Zweimal Steppers
2000 Black – Straight forward side steps
Benedek – Donkey Konga
Abacus – Music for Table Tennis
Ossie – I hurt you
2-Bit Project – Rock the house yaul
Logic1000 – toldmyself
Legowelt – I shat my yoga pants
The Return – New Day