Juno Recommends Experimental May 2021

Review: RECOMMENDED
While everyone alive with working ears in the 1990s can remember the first time they heard 'Papua New Guinea', on the whole the work included on this, FSOL's second album, doesn't quite strike the same chords with non-obsessives. Nevertheless, give the LP one play and you'll realise this is seminal British rave on record, and arguably the finest moment in Garry Cobain (no relation to Kurt) and Brian Dougans' careers.

Which isn't to dismiss what came before or what would follow, more to say there's a reason why this is considered a landmark release by those in the know. Kissing frenetic breaks and chaotic sampling goodbye, Dead Cities ushered a new wave of lush tranquility into the band's formula, in turn helping establish a blueprint for the deep progressive tones that would come to dominate dance culture by the end of the 1990s. Now on vinyl for the first time, it's an essential investment.

Review: Not to be confused with Alexandre Bazin, the Scottish philosopher, psychologist, logician and educational reformist who founded Mind, the world's first journal of analytical philosophy and psychology, this Alexandre Bazin - member of Parisian collective GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) - returns to Polytechnic Youth to follow up 2017's Sun Dog Trail LP. And by that we mean another record of deeply textured soundscapes moulded using analogue synthesisers.

Utilising, among other things, an EMS Synthi, Buchla Music Easel, Prophet and Moog, as you would expect this creates a vast feeling and wild variety of timbre. At times things feel rooted in classic rock 'n' roll sensibilities - 'Red Ochre', for example. In other moments we're closer to Can territory ('Dubes'), while the highest sonic peaks are arguably at similar altitude to bands like Explosions In The Sky ('It Comes In Waves'). Definitely not a record you'll forget in a hurry.

Review: Burnski's Instinct alias has given rise to two full-length albums and a swathe of EPs in just the past two years alone, and now he's heralding spring with the launch of a new label, Abyla, and his most delicate, ambient record to date. Happening is a far cry from what you might know of Burnski or indeed the Instinct project overall, focusing as it does on orchestral ambience with a preference for plaintive piano lines at the front of the mix and ample drone matter backing it up. These short vignettes glide between moods, hovering in moments of tender minimalism or bursting with effervescence depending on the situation.

Review: If you're not up on your Scots Gaelic then the latest album title from Letter From Mouse will be something of a mystery. Which is rather fitting, considering the playful and often beguiling nature of this journey into deepest leftfield electronica. The translation into English reads The Garden, which is even more appropriate given the who record is conceived as an ode to nature's order of life into death into life, and dedicated to the lush vista of your back yard, the stream, and the woods over yonder.

Sonically it's far less organic that this may suggest - we are talking about noises created using a modular synth - but the sounds are as rich and textured as anything you might be able to play on more Earthen instruments. Tracks ebb and flow perfectly, developing and evolving in a way that also feels entirely natural. A wonderful, accomplished curveball.

Review: Enhet For Fri Musik is made up of Hugo Randulv, Sofie Herner, Gustaf Dicksson, Matthias Andersson and Dan Johansson. The band got together in 2020 and recorded this album between Malmo and Gothernburg in Sweden. It is a concept album focussed on the subject of family values, unkept promises and the general emotional turmoil of relationships. Free improvisation, folk meanders and empty space are the main features of a hugely thoughtful album which features spoken word passages and ominous passages of eerie darkness next to more pastoral and charming pieces.

Review: French electronic music composer and sound pioneer JMJ delivers a 52-minute score dedicated to the Brazilian Amazon. The work is conceived as part of a wider undertaking by award-winning photographer and filmmaker Sebastiao Salgado, whose exhibition of the same name opens early-April 2021 at Philharmonie de Paris, before visiting Rome, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and London.

Suffice to say, travel bans and the whole End of Days thing means many won't get to see the full project, but even those who do will likely consider this record far more than a piece of memorabilia from their day of culture. Comprising nine individual tracks, some spanning upwards of seven minutes, the album is part orchestral instrumental symphony, an ode the majesty of its wilderness muse, part electronic adventure and part South American field recordings, making for an immersive and captivating journey into the heart of the world's lungs.

Review: It has been a busy old decade and a half for A Strangely Isolated Place. Growing from impassioned blog to mix series, by 2012 the explorations into deep-deep electronic spaces had formed into a grand voyage into the unknown as a digital (and soon after vinyl) imprint launched. They've barely looked back since.

This, for example, is the label's third LP of 2021 (not bad when we're only in month five) and the second long form outing from Comit for this crew in 18 months, give or take. How marvellous, then, that like the entire back catalogue nothing here sounds rushed despite the obvious work rates involved. Instead, we've given an expertly crafted, valium-dosed electro breaks journey through interstellar downtempo trance plains. You can almost see the stars shining through the speakers.

Review: The latest album from legendary French electronic adventurer Jean-Michel Jarre is a soundtrack of sorts. Amazonia was created as a 52-minute score to accompany a new "immersive exhibition" of photographs and films of the Brazilian Amazon region by award-winning snapper and videographer Sebastiao Salgado. Jarre's music, which comes wrapped in field recordings from the Amazon region (sounds of nature, of course, but also logging and deforestation), is typically symphonic and stirring, with his usual synthesizer sounds being joined by occasional orchestration and slivers of drum machine percussion. It's a hugely atmospheric and emotive concoction, as you'd expect from a composer, musician and producer of Jarre's stature.

Review: Exploratory Smoldering Rubble Dub.

Review: Robert Rental is an artist as influential as he is overlooked. An anchor of the early British DIY and post-punk scene, his name is most frequently uttered alongside illustrious collaborators such as Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Dark Entries and Optimo ally to illuminate some of Rental's early solo works with an expanded reissue of his debut 7" Paralysis /A.C.C.. Both labels have previously excavated Rental's catalog; we reissued the collaborative LP with Glenn Wallis in 2017, and Optimo released a collection of demos in 2018.

Review: The Cabaret Voltaire resurgence continues, not that Richard H. Kirk's groundbreaking electronic project every went away in the eyes and ears of disciples. Nevertheless, 2020's Shadow of Fear album was his first in 26 years under the celebrated moniker (now a solo show), and so it's no wonder people are lapping up every wave and ripple that record created.

Enter BN9Drone, the latest offspring to arrive after the long form, and a release that may or may not be inspired by a drone flying over the BN9 postcode in Brighton, UK. If that was the catalyst, we want to know the make and model of the drone, because it certainly makes some pretty out-there noises. Opening on what sounds like aural evidence there is life up there in the stars, it's classic Cab Vol art-as-noise, noise-as-art, atmospheric stuff, so let's leave it at that.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It's two exceptional albums in two for Yoshinori Hayashi, with the Tokyo-based producer's sophomore long player upping the ante on almost every level. Exceptional musicality, epic vision, tangible playfulness and plenty of dancefloor potential, this is one multifarious release to say the least. Not that we we didn't also love Ambivalence, the previous LP.


Pulse of Defiance is a beast unto itself, though, with so much worthy of discussion it's hard to know where to begin. Perhaps at the end, with the spatial, futurist jungle vibes of 'I Believe In You'. Or at the beginning, and the soft pianos and plodding downbeats of 'Collapse'. Betwixt those two you've got seductive jazz ('Twilight'), dubby techy techno ('Touch'), rude boy bass breakbeats topped with psyche accents ('Go With Us'), and galactic ambient symphonies ('Frequency'). That's really just for starters, too.