Juno Recommends Experimental November 2020

Review: So, how long have you been waiting for this one to drop? The answer really depends on two things - whether you've just been waiting for new long form material from the UK IDM legends Autechre, or whether you've been waiting for Autechre to put a proper album together that stays true to the principles and format of a 'proper album', as this does.

Either way let's just say Sign has been some time in the making, and it's definitely a case of payoff for patience. For the most part it's the waves of space age melody that really stand out, tracks like 'Esc Desc' seem to fill the room with bands of sci-fi harmony. Of course there's plenty of glitch and bleep here, too - the stepping 'Au14' is a case in point - alongside rumbling, bass-heavy business like 'Si100', where playful drips of percussion create a juxtaposition of innocence and menace.

Review: Meitei is a Japanese artist who started out as a freelance composer and made all sorts fo weird and wonderful sounds across the whole musical spectrum. After eight years he stared working on his own music and now we get to hear the results. Kwaidan is a style of Japanese ghost stories and this album aims to translate that mood into music. It does so perfectly well, and hugely evocatively, with skills compositions and unsettling darkness sitting next to lush ambiance that keeps you enchanted throughout. Check out the awesome artwork, too, which is perfectly spooky as we head into witching season.

Review: The seventh album from South London-based producer and experimental maverick Darren Cunningham and it's a beauty. The last time we heard from him, in 2018, he was collaborating with the London Contemporary Orchestra and improvising a score for a Stockhausen opera and he's taken an element of that work with him and married it to disorientating, otherworldly electronics. 'Karma & Desire' has a real feel of escapism, almost to the extent of feeling like an out of body experience, as dislocated and disembodied melodies float around in the ether. There are the first proper vocal collaborations he's undertaken here, but the two tracks are no pop bangers, songstress Zsela's efforts sounding more like some beguiling abstract poetry. Travelling further and further, creatively, from the normal environs of dancefloor culture, he's not lost any of his spellbinding musicality or sonic storytelling skills.

Review: A career retrospective release featuring music over the last 50 years by American born musician Beverly-Glenn Copeland. He started his career as a folk singer, incorporating jazz, classical and blues elements, and performed on albums by Ken Friesen, Bruce Cockburn, Gene Murtynec, Bob Disalle and Kathryn Moses. Features 'In The Image' first released in 2004 under the moniker Phynix , 'Sunset Village' first released on the Keyboard Fantasies album in 1986, 'Colour Of Anyhow' (CBC q live version) recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Commission 2011, 'Deep River' recorded live at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht 2018, 'The Netherlands and Montreal Main' (The Buddha In The Palm) first released on At Last! EP in 1983. All tracks remastered by Guy Davie at Electric Mastering.

Review: New York art-house outfit Gray might not be the most famous to come from America's biggest, loudest and proudest city, but their oeuvre is definitely worth taking the time to discover. Fronted by the more recognisable name of Jean-Michel Basquait, as this two-tracker goes to show the outfit can teach us all a thing or two about how to encapsulate the life that exists on your doorstep.

Comprising previously unreleased and very rare work, the centre point is 'Never Gonna Leave New York City', which could almost be seen as a counterargument to LCD Soundsystem's 'New York, I Love You'. There we had James Murphy lamenting the loss of the old dirty side of the Big Apple, but here Basquait is celebrating that chaos and intensity as it still existed back in the 1980s. A vivid spoken word homage to scenes we all know from movies, if not reality.

Review: Oliver Coates is a London-based cellist, composer and producer. He has contributed to the recordings of Radiohead, collaborated on composition with Laurie Spiegel and John Luther Adams, and performed as an improviser with Dean Blunt and Micachu. His in-depth understanding of the relationship with classical cello is met with his exploration and pleasure in electronic audio and synthesis. Two years after the previous full-length Shelley's on Zenn, he returns to RVNG Intl for his third release entitled Skins N Slime. The 11 compositions pursue an experimental direction influenced by the architecture of Gordon Matta-Clark, the musical numerology of Hanne Darboven and the electronics of Enno Velthuys, as well as the experience gained during the numerous live shows in support of Thom Yorke.

Review: On an album which cites the influence of American minimalist composers, Danish industrial noise veteran Christian Stadsgaard presents his third LP under the Vanity Productions alias on Posh Isolation - the label and project that he runs with Loke Rahbek. Featuring five expressions of haunting and desolate ambient music, But All Spiked is meditative whilst at once dynamic, and undoubtedly the most absolute realisation of his tendencies and processes captured thus far. Here he skillfully applies compositional practices towards his particular context and oeuvre.

Review: Originally released in 1985 on cassette, this sel- titled record from Flaming Tunes was their only one. It's a cult home recording that came after collaborative time spent together by childhood friends Gareth Williams and Mary Currie and is influenced by Williams's time spent travelling India and studying classical Kathakali dance. The music was recorded in a house in South London and makes use of piano, bells, clarinets and percussive sounds that are layered up into simple arrangements. The lo-fi melodies, oblique rhythms and hypnotic qualities of it make it a gold standard for anyone who prides themselves on unearthing the more outlier albums out there.