Juno Recommends Experimental September 2020

Review: Kraftwerk's Ralf Hutter has more or less disowned the krautrock-inspired music he and the late Florian Schneider recorded pre "Autobahn". From that album (1974) onwards, they became the electronic futurists we know and love today; before that, they swum in more organic musical pastures, mixing rudimentary synthesizer and other electronic instruments with guitars, drums, flutes and electric organ. It's this sound that's captured on "Soest Live", a rare recording captured for WDR-TV in 1970. Accompanied by drummer Klaus Dinger, Hutter and Schneider offered up a mixture of arty, proto-ambient experimentalism, and surprisingly funky, groove-based krautrock epics that combine prototype Kraftwerk grooves with the organic sounds of flute, violin and organ.

Review: Iconic dub and reggae "rhythm section" Sly and Robbie (AKA Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare) first worked with Vladislav Delay back in 2018, during the recording sessions for their collaborative album with trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, "Nordub". It's therefore not that surprising to see them once again join forces with the Finnish experimentalist for another joint full-length. "500 Push Up" is based on grooves, vocalizations and field recordings made at Dunbar and Shakespeare's Jamaican studio, which the Finn then chopped up, reworked and overdubbed in his studio. The result is a set of tracks that take dub in intoxicating new directions, adding heaps of hazy electronic sounds and a distinctive swing that's hugely alluring.

Review: International specialists Soundway provide some superbly soothing and cathartic electronic beats here from Reuben Vaun Smith. The debut album follows on from his vocal and production work on
Expositions's Yellow Haze EP early in the year on the First Jams label. The seven tracks that make it up are all different perspectives on chill, with mature musical motifs, seaside sounds and trips down to the beach at sunset all checked off the list. Spare a moment to admire the artwork, too, a seamless fusion of pastel colours, 80s graphic design and tropical escapism.

Review: Helios released his debut album Unomia on cult electronica label Merck back in 2004 to hushed acclaim, the toast of IDM message boards and blogs alike. While the limited runs of CDs have long been fawned over, now the album gets the reissue treatment from Unseen Music, who are pressing it to vinyl for the first time. Fans of Shigeto, Kiln and the overall bittersweet vibe of much Ghostly International output will find much to love here, as achingly beautiful harmonic interplay meets with crisply rendered digital rhythms that hold a pleasingly consistent mood across the album. Utterly easy to melt into, but with enough depth and careful construction to hold your attention, this is a wonderful slice of cult electronics given a much-deserved new lease of life.

Review: We welcome back extreme noise terror Cosmo Rhythmatic, the experimental offshoot from the Berlin-based Italians at Repitch. British luminary Shackleton is no stranger to the imprint, having appeared previously as as part of the trio Tunes Of Negation, but his latest offering entitled 'Primal Forms' sees him team up with Polish jazz clarinetist and co-curator of Tak Picture - Waclaw Zimpel. From droney exoticism morphing into hypnotic chiptune music on the 17 minute long title track, or the experimental folk of "Primal Drones" to the unholy, yet, not altogether unpleasant hybrid of bass, free jazz and classical minimalism on the final cut "Ruined Future".

Review: Fresh from an impressive outing on Lazare Hoche Records, rejuvenated duo Zoo Look pop up on E-Beamz with two righteous slabs of mystical peak-time goodness. A-side "Direct Contact" offers a near perfect blend of rugged, undulated acid lines, bustling hardcore-style breakbeats and shimmering, sci-fi inspired chords. While undeniably fresh sounding, there's no denying the early '90s rave influences at play. There's a similarly retro-futurist feel to flipside "Ravioli Ocean", a wonderfully glassy-eyed, sunrise-ready affair that smothers a driving beat in tactile chords, morning-fresh synthesizer flourishes and undulating piano lines that sent shivers up and down our spines.

Review: 18 months ago, the unlikely but dream team combo of electronic experimentalist Vladislav Delay and legendary Jamaican rhythm section Sly & Robbie came together for some studio sessions in the Caribbean. Now we are finally treated to the nine track resulting album, 500-Push-Up. Plenty of drums, bass, vocals and field recordings are all distilled into a hazy, lo-fi sound world where dusty rhythms and howling synths make for dark and menacing dubs that come from the dead of a dystopian night. This is the second record Sasu Ripatti has made with this cult dub outfit and is another winner that fuses the best of all members of the partnership into sometime entirely new.

Review: Lo Kindre's work in and around the Scottish scene has been exemplary thus far, and he returns to the Phase Group label he runs with Mr TC for a full-length EP that continues his trend of omnivorous electronics without too much regard for generic boundaries. "Dusk" is an expansive slab of melancholy electronica with nods to minimal wave and proto-trance, which isn't especially in line with his earlier works. "Grey Skies (i)" features similar synth voices, but comes on more like an ominous Giallo soundtrack off-cut in dub, which is a wonderful thing of course.

Review: Toulouse Low Trax has always skirted on the fringes of wider recognition compared to some of his Salon Des Amateurs counterparts (think Lena Wilikens, Wolf Muller and Vladimir Ivkovic), but his legacy to date plots a fascinating course through underground and experimental electronic music with a kosmische bent. This 2012 album on Karaoke Kalk has been highly prized since its initial run first sold out, and it's great to see it being made available again as more people get hip to the incredible body of work behind this maverick auteur. The mood across Jeidem Fall is consistently moody and provocative, capturing the essence of Muslimgauze but replacing the explicit ethnic motifs with a murky abstraction of the Fourth World aesthetic, all tumbling percussion and un-placeable instrumental motifs.

Review: Finder Keepers is probably the most appropriately-named label to carry this collection of rare recordings by one of the foremost electronically-minded composers of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Dating back to 1973, Ciani's 'Music For Denali' is a stunning example of sound design and, in album format, a series of arrangements that actually feel like a score looking for the movie. Or, more accurately, documentary. At the time the music was written, the aficionado was just starting out in the field of film composing via a non-fiction project about the first ever skier's descent down the tallest mountain in Alaska. As you might have guessed, the peak is Denali, and the soundtrack here entirely befitting for that scale. Combining her work as pioneering synthesist and revered pianist, it's an emotionally rousing story told through riveting movements.

Review: Russian has long been a world unto its own when it comes to electronic music. Often the sounds reflect what we think we know about the vast country and that is the case here on a blistering new 2 x 12" from Buttechno. "Xsaw" is a dense blizzard of white noise and buzz saw synths that gets you on edge. "The Big R" is fun of suspense and paranoia and "Sirenius" is mysterious synth melodies with arresting blasts of dystopian noise. There are plenty of other haunting and unsettling soundtracks, art noise sketches and bleak moments of musical cinema that are brilliantly beguiling.

Review: If this is your first meeting with Croatian Amor, AKA Loke Rahbek, then you couldn't have asked for a more fitting introduction. You've missed several seminal albums, not least 'Love Means Taking Action' and last year's 'Isa', serene composition work with Frederik Valentin, and ravey collaborations alongside Varg²™, but this stunning addition to his solo oeuvre will help you catch up pretty quickly. For the most part it's about blissful, relaxed electronic moods - for example the chillwave Spanish-esque guitars and delicate beats of 'Jonathan' , or 'New Morning' and its beat-less serenity. But then there are more than a few nods to the dancefloors we all miss so much, just take the broken beat euphoria of 'Yoyogi Park', or 'Fires In The Dark' and its sprawling, sparse-but definite free party snares and kick drums.

Review: The first four releases on Voiceless provide plenty of dance floor thrills and spills, but now the crew enlist a varied team of artists to lead us somewhere different entirely. V As Peace is a 50-plus minute journey to the cosmos, to beachy terrain, to horizontal afternoons gazing at the sky. It is a collection of ambient that ranges form celestial and airy to more ominous and dark, with endless synth drones detailed with distant bird call, warm solar winds drifting above gentle piano playing. It's plaintive and atmospheric from the off and sure to sooth the soul.

Review: There are tracks here that seem to seep into your veins - a lovely sort of poison that goes straight for the mind tank, rendering us intoxicated and unable to shake off images of late night walks through orange-hued city streets and smoke trails dancing in blue jazz club lights.

In case anyone had forgotten about the Dutch dark jazz crew, The Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble, and their crowdfunded 2014 stunner, 'From The Stairwell', this is a chance to get familiar again. Living up to their name on tracks like the tense and rather menacing 'Cocaine', perhaps the most theatrical and experimental thing on here (easily mistakable for a sci fi or avant-garde horror score), the unnerving moods are counterbalanced by tracks like the sombre but smooth 'White Eyes', the poised piano overture 'Celladoor' and the downtempo, broken beat joy of 'Cotard Delusion'.

Review: D. Tiffany's xpq? is rightly regarded as fertile breeding ground for electronic experimentations and Critical Amnesia's self-titled ode to weird and wonderful noises is certainly no exception. At times frantic, in other moments deeply atmospheric, it's hard to say whether it's primarily made with dancefloors or headphones in mind, the chaotic rhythms that lock you in only fully evident at heightened volume, but the bigger picture really becoming clear in less intense listening situations. '0Dsn2' represents the smoked out end of the spectrum, with its laidback broken beats and fizzing distortion. '0Sns.b1' offers full body contortion-worthy EBM pleasures, and '0Dsn1' brings more than a hint of amen rave to the table. Intelligent and wildly adventurous, nevertheless it's also built in such a way that delivers the simple satisfaction of 'proper' dance music.