Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Jason B.Bernard's Peripheral Minimal is one of those labels which rarely disappoints, especially when the release concerns a collaborative effort from some of the most sought-after names in the electronic sphere. Beta Evers, a legendary coldwave Goddess from the 70s and 80s, rolls through with two magnetic slices of electro-infused gnarliness that take the genre back to its core roots, and she's backed by Drexciya's legendary Heinrich Muller on "Innerhalb Der Zeit". On the flip, Spatial Relation is armed with three further shots of cold-blooded drum machine funk with that inimitable warehouse feel... sounding a bit like Berlin back in the mid 80s. Heavy and tipped!

Review: A 12" split meeting of the minds between two equally iconic alt rock punk-lifers, this EP brings together Gainesville, Florida's Hot Water Music and New York City's Quicksand (brainchild of Gorilla Biscuits hardcore hero and Rival Schools emo-grunge auteur Walter Schreifels), covering each other's classic tracks with renditions of 'Fazer' from the Quicksand 1993 debut LP Slip and 'Free Radio Gainesville' off of Hot Water Music's 1999 third full-length No Division. Filling out the tracklist are the unreleased 'Supercollider' which marks the first new cut of Quicksand material since 2021's Distant Populations, and the b-side 'Undertow', originally recorded during sessions from Hot Water Music's latest 2024 LP Vows. With simple cover art featuring Hot Water Music's Chuck Ragan on one side, and Quicksand's Alan Cage on the other, it perfectly summarises this playful, mutual celebration of one another's work, some new, some old, all great.

Review: A meeting of minds between two seminal punk-lifer alternative rock acts of the 90s, this split EP showcases Gainesville, Florida's Hot Water Music and New York City's Quicksand (the brainchild of Gorilla Biscuits hardcore veteran and Rival Schools emo-grunge pioneer Walter Schreifels), covering some of each other's classic tracks with a rendition of 'Fazer' from Quicksand's legendary 1993 debut full-length Slip complimented by a reimagining of 'Free Radio Gainesville' from Hot Water Music's career height 1999 third album No Division. Also featured are the unreleased track 'Supercollider' which marks the first new piece of Quicksand material since the release of 2021's Distant Populations, and 'Undertow', a B-side taken from the recording sessions from Hot Water Music's 2024 Vows LP. A respectful, playful collection illustrated succinctly by the cover art featuring Hot Water Music's Chuck Ragan on one side, and Quicksand's Alan Cage on the other.

Review: Dave House and Jenny Owen Youngs are on number four in a series of coloured vinyl split 10"s, strictly limited to 500 copies.

Review: Uganda keeps on giving, with the country currently at the forefront of sub-Saharan Africa's electronic underground: a fertile corner of the world in terms of emerging and established talent. Enter Hibotep, a Kampala-based rising star who was born and raised in Ethiopia but grew up in Somalia. Joining her on this EP, another one to know from the Ugandan capital, Hibo Elmi, a DJ, filmmaker, fashion designer, installation artist, rapper and studio head considered to be one of the most important female dance music makers on the continent right now. Running the gamut from 'Amber''s dark, hypnotising dub-hop moves, through 'Ebwino's sparse, weightless tones, which eventually give way to playful stepping rhythm beneath the relentless microphone skills of MC Will'stone, and 'Saffron' with its slow mo, exotic shuffle, if those responsible for this EP themselves reflect the incredible diversity of the city's scene, the sounds do the same.

Review: DJ Python is a real firm favourite here at Juno HQ. His slow motion and dubbed out reggaeton rhythms just do something to us. He takes care of the B-side of the second release from Worldwide Unlimited. 'I'm Tired' is sleepy and drowsy dub with wispy synths that reflect light like fireflies as the ever-tumbling rhythms take you down deep. 'Uwu' has a tropical feel with layers of watery droplets and jungle sounds, humidity and percussion. Nick Leon's offerings are just as lean and inviting, with a crisp, tech-edged opener then a more broken beat on 'Love Potion.'

Review: Sushi tech Records has always been a favourite of ours but, looking back at the entirety of its catalogue and more recent releases, we have too admit that we slightly underestimated the label over the last ten years. not anymore; each and every release that Yossi Amoyal drops is better than the last, and their most recent compilation is still proudly turning at 33RPM on our HQ turntable. It's a new two-tracker this time, led by Ion Ludwig and Monoaware, both interesting deep house producers who know the meaning of subtlety. The former delivers a fine, dubbed-out house tune called "Be Fifty Times Two" - most certainly one for the dub techno enthusiasts or fans of the Workshop latel - while the latter's "Side Stepper" takes a more minimalist approach in the same vein as the Villalobos school of thought. All in all, a masterful and beautifully executed EP.

Review: Coming from the Mr Sam album, and being played by the trance majors of the World, "Split" finally got the dancefloor upgrade everybody was waiting for. Remixer's T4L and Jonas Steur (Estuera) do a fine job and boost the original.

Review: "Split" is number 5 in a series of coloured vinyl split 10"s, strictly limited to 500 copies. This features tracks from Scottish indie/emo/whatevercore quartet Orko and My Awesome Compilation who specialise in infectious, hook-laden rock songs.

Review: Spain's Slow Town rarely fails to deliver the goods. Split, so called because it contains tracks from numerous artists, more than lives up to the label's rising reputation. It probably helps that the A-side comes from former Bent man and longtime East Midlands deep house stalwart Nail. His "Shake Back" explores similar sonic territory to Pepe Bradock's "Deep Burnt", whilst retaining the chunky, bass-heavy bottom-end recognizable from his releases for Classic, Shabby Doll and Robsoul Recordings. On the flip, there's an equally assured cut from London stalwarts Jonno & Tommo. "Wolf Spirit" is an altogether more tech-tinged affair, built around a restless electronic bassline, hypnotic percussion and woozy, late night chords.

Review: Lucerne based Prasens Editionen was founded in 2011 to give home to Zweikommasieben Magazin. Ever since, a bunch of magazines, books, zines, records, tapes and oddities have been published. After digging deep into their vast archive, they found two gems that are particularly striking: a live recording from a collaborative project (on Side A) in the form of the the textural industrial/noise journey by Nilbog entitled "Liverecording 02/11/16". On the flip Mr Pena's "TMC" (The Markt Chronicles) is a three minute gabba onslught. Mr. Pena lets loose, aiming at hardcore dancefloors while balancing between fight-or-flight terror and pacifying joy. Edition of 300.

Review: Feral Child reissues an earlier 45 that allegedly “came and went in a day” on first release: a coruscating pair of instrumental folk gems from Will Sergeant and Paul Simpson. Each artist sharing one side respectively, ‘Toy Piano Mantra / Ghosts Of The Karelia Forest’ was only released last year in 2023, and indeed became little less than an insta-cop; original pressings still go for hundreds. Sergeant’s ‘Toy Piano Mantra’ is culled from the English’s guitarist and Echo & The Bunnymen songwriter’s 2020 album Things Inside, and is a wilful exercise in acoustic guitar and harmonium composition, where the artist avows his own aversion to acoustic instruments in usual favour of the electric guitar. Paul’s side features the formerly unreleased ‘Ghosts Of The Karelia Forest’, a complementarily slow-building and haunting solo piano piece from the Wild Swans and Teardrop Explodes keyboardist. Now reissued on transparent vinyl 7”, you can be certain this one will fly like the first editions.

Review: For the uninitiated, the term "egg-punk" is basically what the kids call Devo-core these days; an internet microgenre of glitchy, lo-fi, new wave-tinged scuzz-punk that doesn't take itself too seriously. This transcontinental split EP sees two of the finest modern examples on either side of the Atlantic, with Nashville's Snooper delivering three cuts of cutesy, chaotic twee-fuzz (one of which was even recorded on a Tascam 48), while the flipside contributed by Barcelona's Prison Affair lowers the tone with murkier, impenetrable garage-machine-punk, coming off like Big Black covering The Cramps. Jagged, incomprehensible, bizarre and oh so fun, let's get eggy.

Review: Stand by for a seriously deadly EP from Hakuna Kuala. It might only be a 7", but both tracks pack serious heat. Swordman Kitala is a Hakuna Kulala resident and one of the most creative dancehall Mcs in Uganda, and here he offers his vision of future hall madness in association with Japanese producer Scotch Egg under his new Scotch Rolex monicker. "Moto Nyama" is all terror fuelled bass, wherein claps and paranoid hits, and "Batufitina" is an exercise in banging drum programming and vocal acrobatics of the sort you don't hear all too often.

Review: Important Records recently described this release as featuring "two sound poems". There's certainly something poetic about the fluid ebb and flow on both pieces, both of which were crafted with the use of analogue and modular synthesizers and tend towards the epic. On the A-side you'll find a new piece by Italian sound designer and composer Caterina Barbieri. "Bestie Infinite" somehow manages to be both mournful and strangely positive, with fluctuating modal melodies slowly emerging from the backbreaking weight of Barbieri's droning chords. Minimal analogue synthesis specialist ELEH handles side B, casting a spell via held church organ chords, off-key melodies and cascading electronics on stunning, 16-minute opus "Wear Patterns".

Review: One side is a throwback of sorts for fans of the crude, Fluxus-certified tape collage of early Dylan Nyoukis. Here he combines the spontaneity and natural course of direction of his bellyaches with straight-no-chaser editing. On the flip, Gastric Female Reflex founder and visual artist Andrew Zukerman side-steps his ironic didactic collage and dives into traditional tape music techniques, modified electronics, and Ciat-Lonbarde interfaces, like Pierre Henry without the inheritance. Marbled vinyl edition of 300 copies in a screen-printed three-colour sleeve.

Review: In terms of mental Swedish techno reissues, you can't do better this week than this reappraisal of the Frak and Smea split LP from Borft Records. Initially released jointly by Jan Svensson's label and TE Records back in 2003, Split was only one of two releases through Borft that year; given the avalanche of material the label has released over the years such a fact should not be overlooked and listening to the material it's understandable why this period in the Borft discography is described as "very silent and strange". Tobias Ekberg's SMEA project lines the A Side with two sprawling freeform new beat in "Koala Grip" and "Gott Medd Kaffe" bookending a pair of abstracted compositions. On the Frak side, "Svett 2" finds Jan Svensson and friends dabbling in pitch shifting minimal sounds, whilst "Malad" is much closer to the deranged electronics we all now love them for.

Review: Not just a catchy name, German crew Phantom Horse take on one side of this split EP, while Belgian oddities Innercity (nothing to do with 'Good Life', just in case that wasn't already clear) handle the flip. Not quite a tale of two extremities, nevertheless the A and B feel very different and invoke diverse feelings, opening on the strange robotic melodies of 'Pink Star' before taking us into darker terrain. If the opener feels glittery, like we're doing external inspections of a space craft littered with flashing buttons and bleeping consoles, 'Ali' goes for something much more sinister. That low end refrain - the most dominant thing on the piece - coupled with hypnotic hi hat loops, can't help but make us feel like something ominous has entered the room.