Juno Recommends Leftfield May 2021

Review: RECOMMENDED
While everyone alive with working ears in the 1990s can remember the first time they heard 'Papua New Guinea', on the whole the work included on this, FSOL's second album, doesn't quite strike the same chords with non-obsessives. Nevertheless, give the LP one play and you'll realise this is seminal British rave on record, and arguably the finest moment in Garry Cobain (no relation to Kurt) and Brian Dougans' careers.

Which isn't to dismiss what came before or what would follow, more to say there's a reason why this is considered a landmark release by those in the know. Kissing frenetic breaks and chaotic sampling goodbye, Dead Cities ushered a new wave of lush tranquility into the band's formula, in turn helping establish a blueprint for the deep progressive tones that would come to dominate dance culture by the end of the 1990s. Now on vinyl for the first time, it's an essential investment.

Review: Shanghai-based label have been slipping out delicate, melodic electronics for a few years now, spreading their assembled roster's sound across tapes, 7"s and digital releases. This 12" from Knopha came out in 2018 and was gone shortly after, so it's high time a repress of this sumptuous new age synth dream got sorted. The vibe is distinctly 90s across Nothing Nil, revelling in FM synthesis and laid back atmospheres. Plush chords abound, and the beats fall in soft and sensual formations, even when a cheeky breakbeat slips into the slow-mo pulse of 'San'. A truly captivating 12" with the potential to create some real 'moments' at the right hour of the party.

Review: Having previously delivered ocean-deep compilations dedicated to Brazilian electronic music, '90s ambient and "deviant European pop" of the 1980s, Music From Memory has now joined forces with crate diggers Eji Taniguchi and Norio Sato to shine a light on leftfield Japanese pop, all of which was initially released on CD between 1989 and '96. The showcased music is actually far more diverse than you might expect; while undeniably synthesizer heavy with ample use of drum machines, stylistically the set flits between ambient, new age, electronica, deep synth-pop, breakbeat-sporting post-house dance-pop and what we in Europe might describe as "Balearica". It's an eye-opening collection all told, but one that's genuinely packed to the rafters with slept-on, must-have gems.

Review: The truly special thing about a track like 'Tainted Love' is its malleability over time. The original elements touch on New Romanticism, New Wave, electro, and synth pop, creating a twisted and mutated version of the crooning troubadour that smacks of sticky dancefloor heat in subterranean haunts.

With that in mind a remix collection could pretty much go anywhere, and in many ways this one does. Presenting several interpretations of this timeless and iconic tune, these range from the not-so-different instrumental and the strikingly powerful but simple acapella, through to DJ Hell's typically growly stomper, and the groovier, wavier Jack Ford and Jaimieson Hill cut. Oh, and don't forget the very DIY sounding bonus track, 'The Hungry Years', which is a whole different story in its own right, so we'll leave you to discover that one.

Review: To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Grauzone's sole, self-titled album, WRWTFWW Records has put together a luxuriously packaged, expanded edition. The original album - an inspired and unusual mixture of driving post-punk rock, icy coldwave, ambient soundscapes, Radiophonic Workshop style experiments and spaced-out new wave - resides on the first record, with the second platter gathering together everything else the Swiss band released during their all-too-brief career. The included insert also boasts a superb essay from Swiss music historian Lurker Grand, who not only tells the story of one of Switzerland's most forward-thinking bands of the post-punk era, but also puts their work in context. In a word: essential.

Review: Prometheus made a big impact in 2012. The science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott, had a start studded cast featuring the likes of Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Charlize Theron. It is the perfect fit for an epic soundtrack and so it proved. Set in the late 21st century, the move centres on the crew of the eponymous spaceship as they follow a star map discover din an ancient Earth culture. The music is eerie, sparse, alien. There is plenty of tension despite the subtleties, and even without the visuals you cannot help but have a movie play out in your mind while listening to this one.

Review: Burnski's Instinct alias has given rise to two full-length albums and a swathe of EPs in just the past two years alone, and now he's heralding spring with the launch of a new label, Abyla, and his most delicate, ambient record to date. Happening is a far cry from what you might know of Burnski or indeed the Instinct project overall, focusing as it does on orchestral ambience with a preference for plaintive piano lines at the front of the mix and ample drone matter backing it up. These short vignettes glide between moods, hovering in moments of tender minimalism or bursting with effervescence depending on the situation.

Review: If you're not up on your Scots Gaelic then the latest album title from Letter From Mouse will be something of a mystery. Which is rather fitting, considering the playful and often beguiling nature of this journey into deepest leftfield electronica. The translation into English reads The Garden, which is even more appropriate given the who record is conceived as an ode to nature's order of life into death into life, and dedicated to the lush vista of your back yard, the stream, and the woods over yonder.

Sonically it's far less organic that this may suggest - we are talking about noises created using a modular synth - but the sounds are as rich and textured as anything you might be able to play on more Earthen instruments. Tracks ebb and flow perfectly, developing and evolving in a way that also feels entirely natural. A wonderful, accomplished curveball.

Review: Enhet For Fri Musik is made up of Hugo Randulv, Sofie Herner, Gustaf Dicksson, Matthias Andersson and Dan Johansson. The band got together in 2020 and recorded this album between Malmo and Gothernburg in Sweden. It is a concept album focussed on the subject of family values, unkept promises and the general emotional turmoil of relationships. Free improvisation, folk meanders and empty space are the main features of a hugely thoughtful album which features spoken word passages and ominous passages of eerie darkness next to more pastoral and charming pieces.

Review: RECOMMENDED
The re-discovery and re-appraisal of Beverly Glenn-Copeland's work is one of the more surprising outcomes of the pandemic's great pause, which for some people at least meant having more time to dive into the archives of cultural history, from music to literature to movies. Not that the spotlight isn't wholly deserving. As this 1986 album shows, the artist was well ahead of their time, with this strange, heady brew of electronic exoticism, experimental ambient and percussive poetry easy to mistake for a contemporary record.

Glenn-Copeland's own story is also a pretty interesting one. Now 76 years old, the maestro spent years identifying as a lesbian woman, before investigations in gender discourse led to the revelation that a transgender man was a more comfortable identity for the music maker, who also lays claim to a catalogue of kids' TV scores, including Sesame Street and Shiny Time Station.

Review: Not to be confused with Alexandre Bazin, the Scottish philosopher, psychologist, logician and educational reformist who founded Mind, the world's first journal of analytical philosophy and psychology, this Alexandre Bazin - member of Parisian collective GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) - returns to Polytechnic Youth to follow up 2017's Sun Dog Trail LP. And by that we mean another record of deeply textured soundscapes moulded using analogue synthesisers.

Utilising, among other things, an EMS Synthi, Buchla Music Easel, Prophet and Moog, as you would expect this creates a vast feeling and wild variety of timbre. At times things feel rooted in classic rock 'n' roll sensibilities - 'Red Ochre', for example. In other moments we're closer to Can territory ('Dubes'), while the highest sonic peaks are arguably at similar altitude to bands like Explosions In The Sky ('It Comes In Waves'). Definitely not a record you'll forget in a hurry.

Review: Past Inside The Present marks the end of The Sky Trilogy by Purl with Holographic Prism. This triptych of works has sought to explore collective dreams of celestial origin. The ambient sounds are all deeply involving and here come remixed by SVLBRD, Lav, Slow Dancing Society, Coppice Halifax, Warmth, Deflektion, Innesti, & Svartholtet. There is lots to love, with the icy shimmers and late night chill of the opener to the more dark, dank and dubbed out version of 'Merope' by Lav. 'Celestial Entropy' gets two different but equally fascinating versions turned out to close this absorbing EP in style.

Review: French electronic music composer and sound pioneer JMJ delivers a 52-minute score dedicated to the Brazilian Amazon. The work is conceived as part of a wider undertaking by award-winning photographer and filmmaker Sebastiao Salgado, whose exhibition of the same name opens early-April 2021 at Philharmonie de Paris, before visiting Rome, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and London.

Suffice to say, travel bans and the whole End of Days thing means many won't get to see the full project, but even those who do will likely consider this record far more than a piece of memorabilia from their day of culture. Comprising nine individual tracks, some spanning upwards of seven minutes, the album is part orchestral instrumental symphony, an ode the majesty of its wilderness muse, part electronic adventure and part South American field recordings, making for an immersive and captivating journey into the heart of the world's lungs.

Review: The latest album from legendary French electronic adventurer Jean-Michel Jarre is a soundtrack of sorts. Amazonia was created as a 52-minute score to accompany a new "immersive exhibition" of photographs and films of the Brazilian Amazon region by award-winning snapper and videographer Sebastiao Salgado. Jarre's music, which comes wrapped in field recordings from the Amazon region (sounds of nature, of course, but also logging and deforestation), is typically symphonic and stirring, with his usual synthesizer sounds being joined by occasional orchestration and slivers of drum machine percussion. It's a hugely atmospheric and emotive concoction, as you'd expect from a composer, musician and producer of Jarre's stature.

Review: You may not be familiar with avant-garde composer Valentina Goncharova, but this incredible collection of rare home recordings is enough to answer any questions you might have as to how mind-blowing her work is. The sort of artist who needs to flee the Leningrad Conservatoire in order to have the space and freedom to fully explore ideas. Combining elements of musique concrete, drone, ambient and a kind of lo-fi classical, this is an expression of place - sanctuary of the home - and its ability to offer protection from creative oppressors. Using vocal mantras, curious refrains, amplified and distorted strings (cello in particular), you really get a sense of not only the where but the how behind these arrangements. Hushed but dense, they draw the listener in with surprising speed, so before you know it you're right there in that domestic studio watching a genius at work.

Review: A reissue of the third LP from Brian Leeds, an American DJ and producer based on Brooklyn, originally from Kansas City, if this is your first time coming across his work then prepare for a pretty deep dive into lush, dreamy soundscapes, otherworldly drone, and adventurous aural effects, all of which are realised with a musicality that goes well beyond many digital composers.


First unveiled to critical acclaim back in 2016, proof of concept is in the pudding here - one earful and you realise just how much here stands up to new productions today, explaining a little about why people were painting Huerco S as something of a visionary when the debut long form, Colonial Patterns, first arrived. Building on the blueprint laid out then, For Those Of You... is a rich and captivating ambient listening experience that's more than worthy of the spotlight second time round.

Review: Robert Rental is an artist as influential as he is overlooked. An anchor of the early British DIY and post-punk scene, his name is most frequently uttered alongside illustrious collaborators such as Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Dark Entries and Optimo ally to illuminate some of Rental's early solo works with an expanded reissue of his debut 7" Paralysis /A.C.C.. Both labels have previously excavated Rental's catalog; we reissued the collaborative LP with Glenn Wallis in 2017, and Optimo released a collection of demos in 2018.

Review: RECOMMENDED
With its cover plucked straight from the imagination of Salvador Dali, and running to no less than four individual vinyls, this retrospective collection of Apparat's various film score chapters to date clearly means serious conceptual business. But it's far more than an exercise in proving artistic ingenuity.

As an artist, the chap better known to some as Sasha Ring has always been able to capture the spectrum of human emotions in instrumental arrangements, and this has perhaps never been clearer and in these beautiful but brief slices of sound. Work like 'La Gravidanza' won't leave a dry eye in the house, despite the fact it shares as much in common with a pre-symphony tune-up than a track per se. 'Reconciliation' feels like a sweet testament to redemption and moving forward, but barely has tangible structure. In short, many works of micro genius.

Review: Emotional Response present something intriguing and oh so fresh from Cherrystones, who has most commonly been spotted recently lurking about labels like Bahnsteig 23, but in fact has a legacy reaching back to the late 90s. This new mini-album is reportedly the result of a pointed retreat to Scotland - a period of semi-isolation with minimal distractions from the serious business of analogue synths and reel-to-reel tape. There's a lot going on, from the slinky, boogie-licked groove of 'Amaziac' to the sludgy, wave tinted 'Rave Digger', but throughout the common theme is one of rough, upfront waveforms - maximal sounds with lashings of character, wielded with glee by an artist knee deep in their craft.