Leftfield Recommendations May 2013

Review: Essential repress from the Death Waltz Recording Co! Spencer Hickman's brilliant label have repressed several of their excellent soundtrack projects from 2012 this week due to popular demand and a clear highlight of them is this masterful presentation of John Carpenter's classic score for his own seminal 80s Kurt Russel vehicle Escape From New York. Released back in 1981, Carpenter's compositions for this score have equaled if not surpassed Vangelis' Bladerunner OST as a reference point for musicians and journalists alike and the chance to own this expanded edition should not be passed up a second time. In addition to the six extra tracks not included on the original score, Death Waltz have commissioned poster artist Jay Shaw aka Iron Jaiden to deliver some all new artwork and there are sleeve notes from Carpenter and his close friend and collaborator Alan Howarth. A film buff' dream!

Review: The Golden Lands EP marks the second release from Vivod, the limited pressing vinyl only boutique label from famed Cestrian Robot Ali Renault. Whilst Renault himself handled the Vivod debut - with meaty aplomb - this second release from the label turns to sometime Apartment Records artist NCW for two productions, the first of which features the distinctively named Piss. "Golden" evokes early wave and primitive synth sounds, with droning, delay laden vocals floating over a backdrop of gurgling analogues and gazey guitars - one for Minimal Wave fans! Complementing this "Lands" sees NCW draw out an expansive Cosmiche synth scape in a Steve Moore meets Michael Bundt style.

Review: The superb Light Sounds Dark return with perhaps our favourite release so far in the shape of Dark Matters Too: Tales Of Enlightenment. This 13 track collection was allegedly compiled with the august help and knowledge of Intergalactic Communication Network, a group said to include the following individuals; Rick Strassman (M.D) and Slawek Wojtowicz (M.D), Mutant Beat Dance and Beppe Loda. Whether we believe Light Sounds Dark or not, Dark Matters Too: Tales Of Enlightenment remains a superb compendium of rare and obscure dark wave, primitive electro and cosmic slop with not a artist the Juno review team recognises! The opening two tracks demonstrate the sheer variety here with ramshackle shamanic underworld funk of Dementia Precox followed by ultra-rare vocoder jam of Popsong's Factory (think a Japanese Felix Kubin). Beyond that CHBB's "Go Go Go" sounds like the pummeling prototype to the superb recent Streetwalker LP and "Giving Head To Kilian" could be mistaken for White Savage Dance era Karl O Connor.

Review: Soundtracks For No Film Vol. 1 is a rather charming mini album of outer-spatial, conceptual electronics from the always on point Acido Records label, seemingly tasking contributors to deliver arrangements worthy of soundtracking film. Madteo sets the tone with "Science Fiction" a haunting spectral cut with little regard for beat structures that could feasibly sit in alongside his brilliant LP for Sahko last year. Alongside this, the A Side features three short form productions, with 291out's "Urania (Titoli Di Coda)" the highlight, sounding very much like the music you might hear during the end credits of a forgotten 80s sci-fi drama. Complementing this, sometime Sex Tags Mania artist Doc L Junior is given the whole of the B Side to draw out an expansive, epic synthscapes "Modul 2".

Review: Stones Throw welcome new artist The Cyclist, and with him, a new and edgier type of electronics. "Feel Beauty" opens things up in shuffle mode, bridging together a house tempo with warm and luscious strings, off-kilter beats and airy atmospherics. The rest of the LP unfolds into an even deeper, more mesmeric medley of tones and influences, ranging from the bleepy, Omar-S style beats of "Bones In Motion", going to the more industrial extravagance of "The March", or the sloppy beat layout of "Black Train" - true heads-down mentalism! Its fifteen tracks are just spilling with magnificence from every angle; a great signing form an ever-impressive label that can do no wrong - highly recommended.

Review: Naturally, there's been a lot of hype surrounding this belated return from Swedish electro-pop oddballs The Knife, whose last studio set appeared way back in 2006 (their most recent effort, 2010's experimental Tomorrow, In A Year, was a collaboration with Mount Sims and Planningtorock). So, does Shaking The Habitual live up to its billing? Certainly, it's an impressive, interesting and enjoyable set, effortlessly moving between icy, leftfield experimentalism - see the 19- minute dark ambient drones of "Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realized" - vaguely pagan pop ("Without You My Life Would Be Boring"), maudlin atmospherics ("Raging Lung") and their usual subtly tropical pop ("A Tooth For An Eye").

Review: London producer Kelpe has built himself a reputation for heavily textured slant on instrumental beats, first surfacing on DC Recordings and releasing three LPs and numerous singles through the iconic label run by J Saul Kane. More recently found impressing for the likes of Black Acre and Svetlana Industries, Kelpe signals a sea change with the launch of DRUT Records, his own label through which he will release a new album, cannily titled Fourth: The Golden Eagle later this summer. DRUT opts for a soft launch with this three track Answered 12? which sets the tone nicely for Kelpe's new LP and arrives just as the first rays of spring sunshine beam through the Juno office. Listen to the title track and it's no mere coincidence, a breezy beataholic's delight that feels like fidgety, unstable cousin to FaltyDL's recent ubiquitous number "Straight & Arrow".

Review: PAN is a label which has grown to staggering heights over the last year, winning over music aficionados with its inherent diversity and sheer unpredictability thanks to the mind of the label boss Bill Kouligas. They provide a new name in the form of the Greek chamber music trio Mohammad, who provide an excellent addition to an increasingly stunning back catalogue of noise, power-electronics, techno and everything in between. Mohammad has thus far appeared on Barcelona's Antifrost label, and for their PAN debut Som Sakrifis, the trio have prepared something rather special across the record's three long form drone pieces: "Sakrifis" is a droned-out, grey-scaled expedition into guitar feedback and scuffling semi-percussion shots and whilst "Lapli Tero" coats itself in a considerably less tame surrounding, the concept remains similar and equally as detached from reality "Liberig Min" contains more field recordings and its seventeen-minute duration is a compelling display of sounds and sonic collage created by the trio's cello, contrabass and oscillators.

Review: Jesse Somfay's diversions into sound design and abstract techno take on a decidedly tangible form with this latest 12", heralding the start of the Anatomy label in fine style. "Fizzmint" is a captivating track that moves with the pace and precision of a peak time techno banger, but feels like an ambient tour into Eastern-inflected sound sources that merge into an overall haunting murmur. Coupled with the insistent kick drum it's something of a transcendental piece. Lakker are in an equally captivating mood on the flipside, remixing the original into a slower, more broken stalker bolstered by gaseous bass pulses and deliberately avoiding any heavy drums.

Review: Mannequin mainstay Mushy serves further notice of her clear talents with the unveiling of a new alias in Phantom Love on this eponymously titled 12" for the Rome based minimal synth label. The four tracks here have Mushy funnelling her love of everything from John Carpenter to Klaus Schulze through "a spectral yet dreamy haze of spacey psychedelia." The Carpenter influence is clear on opening 10 minute opus "Lotus" through the heavily delayed synths that chime with chilling effect throughout but this if far from mere pastiche, there's a definite fuzzy hue to what Mushy is doing here that truly captivates. "Odean Columns" begins in more contemplative fashion with the hazy mists of the opening minutes dissipating to let the arcane canvas of synths flourish. On the flip "Psychic June" growls with proto techno menace, whilst "Tropical Illness" nosedives into cavernous chamber Kosmiche. Really quite stunning!

Review: Appearing with increasing and ever-satisfying regularity on the far reaches of the electronic music radar, Mark Fell's Sensate Focus project returns for the cryptically number Sensate Focus 2, which actually marks the fifth 12" in the series for his eponymous label. The rules (if you can call them that) are much the same, plotting algorhythmic malfunctions through neon soul and finely diced percussion that snaps and whips with dexterity. However on first impressions much of the rhythmic irregularity that has made mixing earlier instalments a daunting task has been preserved for the lopsided vocal triggering, while the core groove itself comes on more tangible, at least for significant chunks of the roaming sides of this record.