Juno Recommends Leftfield July 2020

Review: **Tracks 'Sixth Sequence' and 'Tenth Sequence' are bonus tracks & exclusive to the vinyl release only.**

Past Inside The Present is pleased to announce 'Wave Variations' which is a new mini-album by veteran ambient producer Dennis Huddleston AKA 36.

36 has often enjoyed exploring self-imposed restrictions, as it forces him to be creative, while allowing an inherently coherent sound between the different compositions. All the arrangements on Wave Variations use a limited pallete of mostly synth-based sounds, with particular focus on keys and melodies. Each track directly influenced the next one.

Dennis has kept almost every track around three minutes in length. He states, 'I feel like a lot of ambient music (including my own) is often unnecessarily long and these small vignettes work as a nice counter to that. Don't expect long build-ups or over-extended crescendos; These are short tracks that take you straight to Elysium and then dissolve into the ether.'

He further explains the output of Wave Variations, 'Ocean tides inspired the album. I think we've all felt that sense of longing and wonder while standing at the beach, staring at the waves and gazing into the endless horizon. I think it's something that transcends all generations of people. Like the waves, these tracks leave as quickly as they arrive. I feel it's one of the most minimal records I have made, with far fewer individual sound sources at my disposal. It keeps me on my toes and forces me to deeply explore the instruments I have available to me.'

This stripped-back sound gives the album a hypnotic quality to it. Like much of Dennis' work, there is a delicate balance between melancholic melodies and rich textures, resulting in an understated yet deeply exhilarating sound. Fans of emotional, melodic ambient music should find plenty to enjoy.

Review: Earlier in the year, experienced ambient producers 36 and Zake released two different versions of the same album, "Stasis Sounds for Long Distance Space Travel", with the vinyl and cassette releases featuring totally different mixes. Happily, they've now decided to compile all of these contrasting takes on one limited-edition CD. It's well worth a listen, because in our opinion it's one of the best ambient albums of 2020 to date. The included tracks mix echoing sonic tones, drifting sound effects, drone-style aural textures, slow-burn electronic melodies, swelling, near neo-classical musical movements and the kind of immersive, sustained chords that were once the preserve of the late, great Pete Namlook.

Review: Having spent the last couple of years establishing the Tessellate label via fine EPs from the likes of Aleksandir and Armless Kid, imprint co-founders Max van Dijk and Oli Hiam have decided the time is right to debut their new production project, The Trip. "Wet Your Whistle" is certainly a confident and quietly impressive debut, with the title track adding a little intergalactic futurism and acid-flecked psychedelia to a retro-futurist deep house groove. They continue to join the dots between the eras on "Miss The Point", where glitchy tech-house style electronics and acid flashes leap above a chunky groove and bold organ stabs. The flipside boasts two versions of "Friend Request": their own bouncy, bass-heavy, skipping and acid-flecked "Sax Mix", and the weighty, off-planet tech-house flex of the Mbius rework.

Review: As anyone who copped his 2016 debut album as Nullptr will attest, Eddie Symons' brand of electro is audibly more far-sighted and otherworldly than his peers. Given that electro is by its very nature a futurist artistic form, that's high praise indeed. Symons is naturally in fine form on the aptly titled "Future World", his first album for much-loved Sheffield imprint Central Processing Unit. Full of bustling beats, bold analogue melodies, shimmering chords, squelchy bass and undulating acid lines, the set offers a well-judged balance between angular, forthright club cuts - many of which are in a similar sonic vein to Drexciya - and deeper, more melodious moments that reminded us a little of Gerard Hanson's work as Convexion and Boris Bunnik's Versalife releases.

Review: Up until his death in 2003, Hiroshi Yoshimura spent decades offering up immaculate albums that blurred the boundaries between ambient, new age and minimalism. For those not versed in the Japanese ambient pioneer's vast catalogue, 1986's "Green" - which is here reissued by Light In The Attic - remains one of his most impressive works. Created using a minimal number of instruments (mostly synthesizers and electric pianos), the set is as quietly jazzy as it is relaxing. Highlights include the meditative, Terry Riley influenced bliss of "Feel", the pulsing organ stabs and blissful electronics of "Sheep", the garden-ready musical hug that is "Green" and the swelling opener "Creek".

Review: Attraktors originally surfaced back in 2015 with the Future Systems EP. Made up of members of Six.By.Seven, Bivouac, The Selecter and more besides. Now this eclectic group of coldwave connoisseurs fold that initial EP into a raft of new songs to make up a sterling debut album for Vivod. It's brittle, homespun stuff that opens up a wormhole to the bedroom studio explosion of the 1980s, when lo-fi new wave was king. But there are other dimensions to this record, like the dreamy synth pop of "Mensonge Et La Chute" and the cosmic rock stylings of "Theme From Unknown". For all lovers of the early to mid '80s era, this is an album you won't want to miss.

Review: Two Detroit labels meet for a special compilation: Explorations in electro, 80's wave and sounds pressed on clear vinyl.

Review: Venezuelan artist Alexander Molero took inspiration for this album from the way people imagine and eroticise worlds that are unknown to them. Using a Yamaha CS-60 Synthesizer, he set about contouring up the sort of sounds you'd expect to hear in the Amazonian jungle, and boy has he nailed it. From wispy insects to the sound of frogs, gently unfolding leaves to dewy forest mornings and slowing rising distant suns, it's all here in an album of endless discovery that takes you to another world and keeps you utterly mesmerised. It has a rich spirt and uplifting effect that keeps you coming back for more.

Review: Although the word 'liquid' has specific connotations in the electronic music world, none of which are really relevant here, there's a certain fluidity to Peter Graf's 'Expedition Bahn'. Channeling steamy effects, there's a flowing timbre running behind many of the tracks, creating a sense of depth and movement. Take the sparse, rhythmic 'E-Mail', or the trickling notes of 'VW Polo', as examples. Elsewhere weightlessness rises to the top, with 'What Happened' sounding like echoes of a rave once held, and 'Justice' basically a deconstructed bass track. The fact it drops straight into the low slung electro of 'Indonesia', one of the more up front dance tunes here, is nothing short of a club-style payoff - the much needed workout after all that knife-edge tension. A complete album, make no mistake.

Review: With its crackly, gravelled textures, subtle melodic details and off-beat rhythms it's no surprise comparisons have been drawn between 'Finomehanika', Vladislav Delay's 'Mulitia' and Autechre circa 'Confield'. Fittingly, those turn-of-the-millennia masterpieces also arrived around the same time Merlak's 'Albumski' landed, his most recent long form outing until unveiling this, his latest effort. Talk about a long time coming, while the stylistic similarities might suggest a lack of progression since 2001, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, what's here could be perhaps best described as avant-garde electronic warbles and shuffles, of the type you might hear after stepping into a capsule floating through blackest space. But although familiar, the album arguably represents the artist's deepest exploration of what can be done with a combination of synthesis, piano and field noises.