Leftfield / Experimental Recommendations March 2015

Review: **Repress** The Music From Memory label was launched by Redlight Records founders Tako Reyenga, Abel Nagenast and Jamie Tiller earlier this year, sporting a proud mantra of "giving overlooked and unreleased music that we love a second chance". The focus of attention for Music Of Memory's second release falls on the works of celebrated ambient composer Gigi Masin. Born in Venice, Masin's work has been sampled by the likes of Bjork and To Rococco Rot and his albums attract feverish acclaim, with Wind, Masin's privately pressed debut LP a desired rarity for the only the most well-heeled of second hand collectors. It's from this album and a selection of Masin's other released works that Music From Memory draw from for this stunningly meditative double LP retrospective Talk To The Sea, which also includes a healthy amount of unreleased material.

Review: New material from Throbbing Gristle's Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti should always be celebrated and their latest joint opus will be of particular delight to hardcore fans. Carter Tutti plays Chris & Cosey is a logical extension of the live show of the same name the pair have been performing and perfecting over the past three years, transferring revisited classics from the stage to the album format. Completed to heed requests for the release of a live album, this double LP features some eight CC classics like "Driving Blind" and "Obsession" newly reworked and recorded at their Norfolk studio. Of course it all sounds as imperious and industrially challenging as you'd expect. Excitingly for completists, there is a second LP included that houses remixes only previously available on a tour-only CD.

Review: Well, you can always count on Rabih Beaini's Morphine Doser to deliver the drip and send you peacefully into heaven. What's particularly incredible about the label is its diversity and continuous evolution - one moment releasing deranged, experimental house cuts by Madteo and then dropping the most abstract of sonic patchworks the next. This particular release is the third instalment of the Redose series, and these particular EPs just keep on getting wilder. The first track is by upcoming Morphine signees Senyawa - a hardcore band from Indonesia - and it's masterfully reinterpreted by the legendary Charles Cohen, an artist who has released some of the most cutting-edge electronic sounds known to man, and who has also contributed to the Morphine label with a sublime series of LPs last year. On the flip, one of Cohen's own track, "Conundrums", is torn apart by Robert Turnman, an experimental artist who needs no introduction thanks to his countless releases, some of them on highly coveted fringe labels such as Aaron Dilloway's Hanson Records. Essential, obviously.

Review: Matthew Herbert's return to the dancefloor, via the re-launched Part series (volume one landed way back in 1995, amazingly), has been one of the good news stories of 2014. Part 8 is the third instalment in the long-running series this year, and features another quartet of wonky, left-of-centre house cuts in his inimitable style. Naturally, there's much to admire, from the piano jazz-meets-outsider house swing of "Remember Ken" and the glitch-funk of "Ticket", to the acoustic-goes-electronic pulse of "Her Face". Arguably best of all, though, is "The Wrong Place", which boasts many of Herbert's aural trademarks - think cut-up vocal edits, tipsy electronics and a delightfully odd, low-slung groove.

Review: Seb Gainsborough aka VESSEL and Chester Giles are ASDA, a new pseudo-noise and demi-industrial outfit from the UK issued through the emergent Bristol label FuckPunk. The former should need no introduction, while the latter is just now making his debut as vocalist so we're pretty intrigued to hear what he has to say! "Spud-U-Like" is a booming, percussion-driven clusterbomb that sounds like the inside of a tank engine, while "Trash&Ready" takes blatant inspiration from the likes of Throbbing Gristle and the like, boasting Giles' dystopian words, an utterly broken arrangement and a distorted, poisonous bassline. "Bells" is the more abstract, however, where Vessel only inserts subtle flurries of sound among the noir beat poetry of Chester. Gorgeous stuff.

Review: When it comes to Swedish electronic music, few artists seem to be as inspired creatively right now as Jonas Ronnberg. A new week seems to herald the arrival of a new project or record from the man better known as Varg, with his latest endeavour on the Northern Electronics label the debut Fodd Dod release, a collaboration with the enigmatic figure known only as SARS. Translating roughly as Born Dead, Fodd Dod finds the Scandinavian pair burrowing into the depths of stripped back, spectral minimal synth across six tracks with the results quite distinct from Ronnberg's work as Varg. Fans of Tropic Of Cancer and Work (Work, Work) era HTRK should most definitely check out Studie I Narhet Langtan Och Besvikelse!

Review: After a string of EPs on labels like Important Records and PAN, it was inevitable Japan's Kouhei Matsunaga and Toshio Munehiro would end up on the Powell's Diagonal imprint - now a nest of the coldest in experimental, industrio-techno. There's a bit of everything on here, from the broken, percolating percussion of "218"; the gorgeous bassline supporting "845", and the freaky pseudo-acid of "Whispering Gallery". To finish things off, both literally and not, "234" is a noisy, shattered and uber distorted cut, whereas "The Spiral Of Babel" is a rolling, fast-paced drum shuffle fitting of any sci-fi flick. An excellent EP and a fine addition to the Diagonal dynasty.

Review: Pepijn Caudron aka Kreng presents his fourth LP for Miasmah, an utterly on-point experimental independent running strong since 2006. Much like the rest of his work, The Summoner travels between drone, musique concrete and modern classical, ending up sounding something like Bach on LSD, such as "Denial" and "Acceptance". However, it's really an album exploring the human condition and the psyche. This is both evident from the track titles ("Depression", "Anger" etc) and the meditative, trance-like mood of the music itself.

Review: This year sees Planet Mu celebrate its 20th anniversary at the forefront of UK electronics and in Excerpts the label has potentially secured one of the year's best albums. If you are unfamiliar with John T. Gast, that's not surprising as the London-based artist has largely preferred to operate in the shadows; he's been involved in music from erstwhile tricksters Hype Williams whilst his own music has largely appeared in limited CDr format. Planet Mu have given little away in advance of Excerpts being released, aside from a brief, obscure statement by Gast, and maybe that's a ploy to ensure you come to the album without expectations. Once you come out the other side, you'll be left dizzy with praise for a striking album that veers in many different directions yet sounds wholly cohesive.

Review: Crossing cultural and continental divides, this experiment from Bleep finds Shangaan Electro pioneer Nozinja bringing his South African soul to these shores in an exchange with Tessela, a producer whose sound is firmly rooted in the identity of UK electronica. Nozinja's original is a sprightly affair that will appeal to any fans of the Honest Jons Shangaan Electro series of 2012; rich in rapid-fire drum patterns and resplendent with sweet vocal harmonies. Tessela's version of "Wa Chacha" unsurprisingly gets much grubbier, pulling up a wealth of bass-loaded sound design and crafty rhythmic hooks without side-stepping some of the colour that makes Nozinja's source material so energised.

Review: San Fran-based multi-instrumentalist Jerfre-Cantu Ledesma pops up on Mexican Summer with an absolute peach of an LP! He's has been making music for no less than twenty years now, and has released on everything from Type to Last foundation and of course, his own excellent Root Strata label which has seen releases from the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Grouper. A Year With 13 Moons is a 16-track journey into the depths of electronic gorgeousity, where mammoth-like waves of feedback splurge onto more docile soundscapes. Tracks like "Love After Love" or "Interiors", although dark and foreboding in places, retain an element of peace and tranquillity, something which Ledesma is just so damn good at. It's music for the open mind, an adventure into the most treacherous of calm waters.

Review: Semtek's Don't Be Afraid imprint returns with a rather special little two-tracker for the Dubs series. Mystery producer Lily - who has quietly appeared on Spargel Trax, No Corner and Idle Hands in the past - drops "Memory Jacket, one of the strangest and most daring five minutes to emanate from the Bristol-based imprint. The tune is a stuttering, pseudo-house joint filled with flurries of FX and resembling something more like a post-punk B-side than a club number. Strangely enough, it's NY's Madteo who is the one to re-arrange the track back into some sort of regular shape and the Queens-based goes for a truly 'insider' house approach, where a stumbling 4/4 groove meets deadly, club-ready chords. Warmly recommended.

Review: French electronic music maverick Erwan Castex aka Rone drops an LP for his native InFine imprint! This, as one would expect from Castex by now, is an excursion into the deepest depth of the synthesizer. There are both moments of total abstraction, such as on "(OO)" and "Ouija", and of sheer delicacy on the wonderful "Acid Reflux" or "Memory". The most impressive aspect of the album is Rone's technical ability, a freedom to express even the wildest of ideas into a concrete groove and sonic structure. Recommended.

Review: Australia's Oren Ambarchi has seen something of a revival as of late, and it's no surprise given both his sheer talent as an expert purveyor of experimental music and his outstanding curriculum vitae. With releases on mythical labels such as Touch and Editions Mego, it was only a matter of time before he'd pop up on Bill Kouligas's wonderfully diverse PAN imprint. Live Knots is an LP consisting of three long jams, a gorgeous journey into the multi-talented mind of Ambarchi, who offers a little bit of everything - raucous guitar riffs, free-jazz drumming, drone-infested backdrops of sound and even some remnants of hardcore. We know that we say this quite often, but this is another stellar PAN release, and quite possibly one of Ambarchi's best in a long while. Tip!

Review: Killing Sound and Young Echo crew member El Kid comes through with his debut LP under the Sam Kidel monicker! Inspired by Henri Michaux's drawing of the same name, Untitled (Movements) is an abstract, largely drone-fuelled LP with plenty of gusto and enough conceptuality to have you reading all sorts of things into it. Made up of two long form productions, the album recalls the sounds of alien life and deep space, where fluttering gusts of LFO and metallic sonics meet eerie atmospherics and gorgeous blends of hollow soundscapes. More from Sam Kidel, please!

Review: Throbbing Gristle fans, watch out, because your panties are likely to be sent into a spin thanks to this latest reissue by the ever-impressive LA NYC label Dias Recordings. In 1981, Genesis P-Orridge collaborated with writer William S Burroughs in what would be the last ever release on Industrial and one which was also significantly different from the label's previous outings. There are fifteen tracks of Burroughs' voice cut up and twisted into a sort of patchwork of sounds. Coming from a mixture of readings and field recordings, the words have been moulded into a rather foreboding picture. Then again, you wouldn't expect anything else from the TG member. Limited to 1,000 copies and pretty darn essential.

Review: Mystery production unit UD returns to Kimochi, one of the more overlooked imprints of the last few years, with four new cuts and a rather fine selection of remixers to boot! The mood is pensive and the sounds are atmospheric throughout, where tracks like "Lollipop Robot" or "Adapter" stand somewhere between ambient and electro-acoustic. The remixes give the tracks slightly more dancefloor weight, and both Area Green Grass and label regular Skookum contribute with a set of pretty killer reinterpretations a-la outsider house, but the silent killer is most certainly SW's remix of "Pankow". The SUED records co-owner fixes up a wonderfully bizarre concoction of sounds and shapes, moulding them into a dubby, sparse and cinematic twister. Another fine slice of Kimochi, beautiful artwork and all.