Juno Recommends Leftfield April 2020

Review: There's no sign of "suspect second album syndrome" on this sophomore set from Brendan "Chymera" Gregoriy's celebrated synthesizer-fired ambient project Merrin Karras. Drawing on his love of 1980s new age and ambient records, as well as a life spent fetishising over electronic hardware, Gregoriy has delivered a set of swelling, slow-burn delights that invite you to share an imaginary journey through the Northwest Passage, a legendary route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans via the Arctic Circle that's only accessible at certain times of the year. While some of the music is undeniably icy, there's genuine sonic warmth too; after all, when you can traverse the passage it's light 24 hours a day. In a word: gorgeous.

Review: Kris Baha had a big year in 2019 with the release of his debut album on CockTail d'Amore and an EP on Pinkman, and now the Australian body music man in Berlin is back with a high-pressure heater for [Emotional] Especial. "Barely Alive" is the kind of sinewy proto-industrial cut that will appeal to fans of Ministry's earlier work, when the synths reigned supreme and there was pop to match the noir. Especial then call on a cast of remixers to interpret the track in different ways, from Timothy J Fairplay amping up the dystopian disco tropes to Das Ding creating a sleek electro-funk twist with the original's gothic undertones intact.

Review: Reissues don't come more significant than this. Jon Hassell's work new and old has been enjoying plentiful appraisal in recent years, with his outlook on Fourth World music finding fresh relevance with a modern crop of artists. While much of his catalogue has been given a fresh lease of life, they've been saving one of his most seminal works. Vernal Equinox was originally released in 1978, one of Hassell's first albums alongside Earthquake Island. It's essentially the blueprint for outernational music - a heady brew of global signifiers stewing together in one unclassifiable pot marked out only by Hassell's inimitable trumpet style. From ambient heads to sonic explorers, you won't want to miss the chance to own this most precious of albums.

Review: There's a melancholic air running through this five-track collection of ambient overtures that is hard to escape from. Don't get us wrong, the music here - produced, recorded and mixed by Drew Sullivan - is peaceful and beautiful. But it's also destined to break hearts, encouraging refection on what has happened, and what may already have been lost to the sands of time. 'The Disappearing Collective' is, evidently, everyone who encounters this particular release. Track titles such as 'What We Knew As Children' certainly leave little to the imagination on that front. And yet each moment here feels as though made specifically for us to spend some time imagining things to. We can see a forever here, but what that forever looks like may not always be what we were hoping for.

Review: Sasu Ripatti's legendary Vladislav Delay alias has been at the forefront of experimental electronics since the late '90s. While the project shifts in style with every album, the lasting impact of "Multila" looms large over his discography. Originally released on seminal dub techno label Chain Reaction in 2000, Multila gathers together two 12"s that take the emergent dub techno blueprint of the time and disassemble it through a frankly mind-boggling ecosystem of sequencing and processing. The rhythms are frequently slippery, the sonics imbued with a grainy, tactile quality, and the mood is heady and evocative. As beguiling now as it was on release, this is a rightly hailed landmark in electronic music history - collectors and newcomers alike, don't sleep on this one.

Review: Based in Bristol, UK, experimental musician and vocalist Lucy Gooch is certainly a name to keep an eye on right now. While boasting little by way of discography, this being her debut EP which follows the self released 2018 record, 'Sun', she has all the hallmarks of an established synth-y siren. You heard it here first (possibly). Compris-ing five sumptuous tracks that are pared back but, upon closer inspection, incredibly deep and immersive, elements of Bjork and Imogen Heap are audible in the songs here. Warm notes, sensitive, ethereal vocals and a sense of real passion behind the work itself. The likes of 'Rushing' comes close to a sombre choral mood at times, 'There Is A Space In Between' could stand with the best ambient work, while 'Stalag-mites & Helictites' is a hypnotic journey into the inner mind. Or somewhere near.

Review: A Colourful Storm made the leap from online mix series to record label back in 2016, and they've been carrying some spectacular selections of lesser known electronica heads ever since. The vibe can alter quite drastically release to release, but on Still In My Arms there's a melodic tenderness and preference for delicate beats that makes this oh so pleasant to sink into. Even more fractured pieces like Bauri's excellent "Have No Fear" are ultimately defined by their gentle qualities. There's some emotive electro pleasantries from Num Num and spacious dub glitches from Boc Scadet amongst many other highlights in this soothing and sensitive gathering of digital souls.

Review: Third time around for Beverly Glenn-Copeland's superb 1986 LP Keyboard Fantasies, which Invisible City Editions reissued last year. Since copies of that pressing are hard to come back, this fresh reissue should be welcomed. Musically, it's something of a killer curio: a set that sees Copeland adding weary, folksy vocals to melodious, synthesizer-based backing tracks. Stylistically it's a little more diverse than that, sitting somewhere between art-rock, lo-fi synth-soul, '80s synth-wave and new age ambience. The looseness of the instrumentation and production is particularly alluring, as is the "home-made" feel of Glenn-Copeland's heart-aching songs.

Review: Japanese duo Inoyama Land's "Danzindan-Pojidon" is a cult experimental ambient classic from 1983. It has been reissued a number of times but always sells out fast, and for good reason: it's a beautifully crepuscular, pastoral musical landscape with sustained minimal synths hypnotising you with delicate keys bringing oriental flavours to gently propulsive ambience. It's organic, environmental and new age music with none of the cliches and will bring a smile to you face as well as warmth to your heart. "Glass Chime" is a particularly standout track of real melodic joy, while "Mizue" is gorgeously melancholic.

Review: James Ruskin and Mark Broom return with a third installment of their wayward electronica project, The Fear Ratio. Far from the bruising techno they normally throw down, "They Can't Be Saved" is an introspective trip into the knotted realms of hip-hop influenced machine music produced down to the nth degree. The beats crunch hard and the atmospheres come shrouded in mystery, slotting in perfectly on the legendary Manchester label Skam. Both a wonderful revival of leftfield electronica and a vital, fresh approach, this third album is another triumphant one. Slap this one on and revel in the sound of two hugely accomplished producers cutting loose and having fun in the studio.

Review: Leicestershire band In Embrace had a brief but productive run through the 80s that yielded a grip of albums and EPs, but Emotional Rescue have decided to focus on one track on particular. "The Living Daylights" originally came out in 1983, and here we get treated to two alternative mixes from a band who didn't take the transition from live band to studio project lightly. This is angular new wave with dubby undertones at its best. Timothy J Fairplay also steps up on the B side to deliver two choice remixes that vary the intensity from brooding disco dub to lysergic tripper without altering the groove.

Review: Brian and Roger Eno have their own accomplished legacies in music - Brian as a polymath producer and artist, and Roger as a composer. Now the brothers have pooled their talents into their first collaborative album, Mixing Colours, which has taken shape over a 15 year period. The overall process involved Roger recording piano parts in MIDI to send to his older brother for processing, resulting in a mass of work which they finally whittled down to this exquisite collection. Lovers of both artists will be immensely satisfied, as the fusion of classical piano composition and adventurous ambient electronics merge for an engaging, hypnagogic listening experience.

Review: Talk about calling a spade a spade. Bongo Joe have opted for a Ronseal approach to album titles with this compilation. If that reference means nothing let's just say it does exactly what it says on the tin. Various iterations of electronica, sometimes dark, in other moments really rather delightful, it's a vast - or at least 17 tracks - showcase of varied talent. 'Etudes' by Claudine Chirac could almost be part of a 1990s video game score (we're thinking more 'Final Fantasy' than 'Tekken'). Pete Philippe Weiss' 'Subway' punches with the unapologetic positivity of 1980s power pop. Opening number 'Untitled', by Andreas Hofer, is an uneasy, brooding mood setter that comes complete with reversed out vocals. D-Sire's 'Wintertime' is a slice of synth-y stepping stuff John Carpenter would be proud of (instrumentally at least). So much worth mentioning - such as stripped electro cut 'Rap Yourself' by Air Project - it's impossible not to find something to feel passionate about.

Review: UK-Polish duo Holden & Zimpel return with more adventures in Kraut-jazz-techno, if that's even a thing. The description certainly makes sense on 'Saturday', which opens the scoring here on a tip that is at once informed by Underground Resistance, drone-y avant-garde and something with flutes. Starting as it means to go on, to say the least. From there we run through days of the week in order to 'Wednesday', making this one of the longest weekends we can think of in some time. 'Sunday''s distorted strings sounding almost like a strange species communicating via fraught noises. 'Tuesday' is more rhythmically balanced, almost risking coming close to more standard electronica as its melodies reach ever higher, before the final number closes out with an air of euphoria and subtle drive.

Review: Following the death of his one-time Chi Factory partner J.Derwort in February 2019, Hanyo van Oosterom went back to Patmos, the magical island where they once recorded their most famous works, armed with some of the artefacts and hand-built instruments they'd collected together. While there, he made the field recordings and musical sketches that form the backbone of "Travel In Peace", Oosterorm's emotional final album as Chi Factory. Poignant, atmospheric, melancholic, dreamy and otherworldly with a genuine sense of time and place (you can almost smell the surrounding flora and fauna), the album's two lengthy tracks - collages of interlinked sketches and recurring musical motifs - are fittingly fantastic. As curtain calls go, we can think of few better.

Review: Dub techno magician Yagya (real name Aoalsteinn Guomundsson) has been releasing music on other people's labels for almost two decades. Now he's taken the logical step and launched one of his own: Small Plastic Animals. The debut release is an album from the man himself, his ninth in total. Many of the tracks on "Old Dreams & Melodies" are underpinned by metronomic, dub-fired techno and house grooves, but it's the various musical elements layered atop - string quartets, cheery synthesizer melodies, hushed spoken word vocals, fluid piano motifs, delay-laden clarinet lines and so on - that really catches the ear. It's a formula that results not only in a string of fine tracks, but also a strong album that's undoubtedly the Icelandic producer's most accessible and expansive set to date.

Review: Michael Mayer's Kompakt is at it again, delivering dance music that's unexpectedly different without being jarring. Or at least that's the case with opener 'Frame Dragging' - a track that feels like an electro-charged, disco-infused tech workout, but seems to disconnect its various elements with a beat set to the back of the arrangement. 'Gravity Well' belongs in the celebrated label's much-loved ambient ends, while 'Gamma Quadrant' delivers a bouncing kick drum set to soaring string refrains, giving the feeling of interstellar exploration, or at least constant cosmic build. Polished off with 'Protostar' and its downtempo, crystalline chords, packing stadia-filling atmosphere in abundance, it's a very good example of why Kompakt almost always means exceptional quality to experienced electronic heads. No anthems, just very, very good music.

Review: Music For Dreams' compilations are rarely less than essential, and this collection of recent Japanese music (2008-2018) is no different. Compiled by Ken Hidaka, Tokyo-based Max Essa and Test Pressing co-founder Dr Rob, the set starts with a beautiful and becalmed ambient piece by Yoshio Ojima (the sublime "Sealed") and ends with the lapping waves, vocal harmonies and twinkling pianos of Takashi Kokubo ("Quiet Inlet"). In between, you'll find the Steve Reich-ish marimba movements of Yoshiaki Ochi, the dubbed-out, piano-laden downtempo grooves of Little Tempo, the jazzy Balearic house of Schadaraparr, the sun-kissed dancefloor grooves of Little Big Bee and much more besides. As you'd expect, Hidaka, Essa and Dr Rob's selections are uniformly superb.

Review: New York cold wave pair Mixx Mann formed in 1981 and was made up of songwriter and vocalist Frank Oldham Jr and producer Paul Hamman. This is their debut album form the same year and it provides a real insight into the life of gay people at the times. Musically it is a slick and adventurous album with urgent beats, cold wave synths and neat guitar riffs all finished off with the involving vocals of Oldham Jr. For this first reissue, Dark Entries have added two bonus instrumental cuts alongside the original which makes it an essential addition to the ranks of any new wave lover's shelves.

Review: Emotional Response bring you some truly healing sounds from Polish producer Bartosz Kruczynski, who first teamed up with the label as The Phantom for the first round of the Schleissen series back in 2015. He's since delivered a debut album to Growing Bin and released as Earth Trax on Rhythm Section and others. The mood across this collection of pieces produced for Polish studio TVP Culture opens up a rich seam of inspiration around the ambient end of Kruczynski's work through short pieces rich in sonorous delights. From fluttering fourth world-isms to hazy dub soundscapes, this is pure listening pleasure from start to finish.

Review: Back in 2008, Asthmatic Kitty released Lowell Brams debut album, "Music For Insomnia" as part of their "Library Catalog Music" series of instrumental sets. While nominally a solo set, it was in fact co-produced by Brams' stepson, Sufjan Stevens. 12 years on, the pair has decided to join forces once more to deliver another set of emotive, evocative instrumentals. With its stirring synthesized strings, swooping cinematic themes, bold synth melodies, bubbly electronic beats and atmospheric chords, "Aporia" sounds like library music composed to soundtrack grandiose films that had yet to be made. It's lo-fi in tone, but epic in scale. More importantly, the collected compositions - some of which are ambient interludes - are hugely enjoyable.

Review: Kicking off, or rather easing in with the lush and absorbing 'Miya', it's hard not to imagine vast landscapes when exploring this effort from Slow Reels. Constant refrains of shimmering sounds seem to pervade most corners of the four tracks, which could be used for background atmosphere one moment, and then act as the driving forces behind a deep cognitive adventure the next. As with many ambient works of this kind, you can find beauty and heartbreak in equal measure, perhaps positioning this end of the canon among the most reflective of the human experience. 'Farewell' might not scream about this from the rooftops, but there's a tangible sense of time passing, thoughts and the thinkers closest to us leaving it all behind. Definitely aimed at inspiring ideas and imaginations, this will be a muse for many.

Review: In 2018, Nils Frahm initiated the "Encores" series: a trilogy of EPs exploring different aspects of his musical world. Here, those sets get gathered together on vinyl for the very first time. Listened to in sequence, it sees the Berlin-based pianist and composer offer up solo acoustic pieces for piano and harmonium (tracks 1 to 5), before layering up piano, processed field recordings and complimentary instrumentation on a suite of sublime ambient tracks (6 to 9). The final section of the album - originally "Encores 3" - sees him flip the script entirely, working almost exclusively with a combination of modular and analogue synthesizers and electronically processed voices. That the collection hangs together as a coherent album despite these stylistic shifts is testament to Frahm's abilities both as a performer and producer.

Review: Arpeggiated synth lines, sinister background refrains and distressed electronic voic-es. 'Human You Scare Me' is a dancefloor workout plucked straight from the heyday of edgy, slightly menacing electro house, or at least the version presented here - remixed by Silent Servant - fits that description. Comprising four alternative ver-sions of original material by Years of Denial (hence the title of this overall release), there's plenty for dance heads to get excited about. Alexey Volkov offers the most vis-cerally brooding, with a broken, darkroom techno workout. 'In Pain I Meditate', as taken on by Broken English Club, follows a close second, the revered UK act creating a sparse, industrial-edged bomb packed with dystopian atmosphere. Throw in the more euphoric, big room Orphx take on 'You Like It When It Hurts' and you've got a deal for sure.