Juno Recommends Experimental: April 2022

Review: We have no idea who or what CIVILISTJAVEL! are or is, so let us know if you do. Until then lets all revel in the majesty of this alluring 4th + 5th transmission of ambient dub. It is an introspective record of brooding synth lines, thoughtful melodies and introspective rhythms from deepest Scandinavia. These longform sounds suck you in deep and offer up wintry horizons underpinned by busted drum sounds and calming subs. Just like all previous instalments of music from whoever this is, these are tracks steeped in a mystic sense of nostalgia and a record that oozes beauty.

Review: Loopsel throws a tapey curveball our way, reissuing the cassette that put their duo project on the map, this time in vinyl / digital format. The wooshing, minimal, and cold mood of this album, hailing from Gothenburg, reflects the moody production approach of the band Monokultur's Elin and Skiftande Enheter, the two artists that make it up. All sounds on this hazy-horizonned hisser formed the soundtrack for The Spiral, a 'multimedia spatial installation' by the artists Last Oblivion. Post-punky tape distortion bury swathes of radio-surfing sample and great planes of synth pad on 'The Spiral', which truly does sound like exactly that.

Review: Finnish studio wonder Sasu Ripatti returns under his Vladislav Delay moniker, arguably both his most recognised and obscure, universally adored and specialist. Opening on the logically titled and wholly immersive 'Track 1', these tunes are as rich as they are steely, combining white noise, distortion, and the clanging of surface on surface with tangibly eerie, atmospheric melodies.

Wherever you join things, the immediate impact is going to be significant. 'Track 4', for example, takes the elements that made its preceding numbers so spin-tingling, and finally builds those into something that packs inescapable rhythm while refusing to drop a beat, the culmination of that which has come before, marking this as a kind of set, leaving us with just that hint of the reassuring warm up, rather than purely an ambient album.

Review: Malian percussionist Sidiki Camara, jazz clarinetist Andreas Roysum and noise rocker Linn Nystadnes jump into bed with global music group Sex Judas feat. Ricky, who return to Optimo Music as a full six piece band for another trip into the strange and often sleazy, leftfield ends of disco, post punk, African drum, and Balearic. A complex but easy-to-enjoy collection of tracks that ooze funk. Well, perhaps jazz would be more apt. After all, Night Songs is nothing if not freewheeling, albeit perhaps stopping just short of freeform. It's a record that's never going anywhere close to boring, while positioning all its tracks in the heart of a sound that feels completely of the outfit's own devising, cast in their own image. Simply put, this is pretty incomparable stuff.

Review: We all know 'country', in some circles, is an uncool genre term. But on this album, legendary post-punker industrialists Zoviet France have attempted to delegitimize this association, homing in on the genre's progression over the years through a different lens. Manifesting as a cleaner, more platonic form of country, 'The Decriminalisation Of Coutnry Music' is like the essence of bluegrass twang having been ripped from its historical context and shot into a never-ending space vacuum. Ambericana, if you will. At the same time, the band aren't shy of the genre's classic tropes and reference points, making this more of a thought provoking listen than that coinage might make out...

Review: Egor is the fourth album released by The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation. The group is an experimental offshoot of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, and in 2011 they recorded this four-track monster at the DOM Theatre in Moscow. Taking a more avant-garde approach compared to their principal project, the album deals in nervy ambient passages where texture takes precedent over melody, albeit still performed by a rich troupe of performers. The live session featured Charlotte Cegarra on vocals, Eelco Bosman on guitar, Ron Goris on drums, Sarah Anderson on violin, Hilary Jeffery on trombone, Jason Kohnen on bass and Gideon Kiers on electronics.

Review: A Mountain Is An Idea is Pablo's Eye's first album of original music in over two decades. It is a soothing and immersive mix of ambient, spoken word and cinematic sound designs with various different languages drifting in and out. There are exotic instrumentals that ate you to the Middle East, purely cosmic passages of escapist sound and mindful musical movements that disarm and liberate in equal measure. The record sounds at once ancient and organic, but also futuristic and synthetic. It's a beguiling listen.

Review: Leon Vynhell has made some of the most interesting albums of the last few years. He's a prolific producer with a very different take on things, and a DJ who reaches just as far into the unknown. He proves that here with a super mix for the Fabric Present's series. His own 'Sugar Slip' opens with a hunched, stripped back but killer garage house rhythm then tunes from Or:la get percussive,
Skee Mask's 'Untitled 279' layer up the breakbeats and Piero Umiliani's 'Produzione' is a wild and wonderful Latin tinged rhythm that never lets up.

Review: Following on from his 2020 album, Mirage, Ben Lukas Boyson is back to prove once again that he's up there with the greatest contemporary classical-electronic crossover composers of all time. The Berlin-based studio and on-stage wizard has crafted six track that straddle strange, otherworldly places that are both calming and exploratory, old and new, pre-existing and still waiting to be discovered.

The original work here is incredibly strong, and fans will also look favourable at the bonus material, with three very special remixes on offer. Icelandic techno duo and Erased Tapes label mates Janus Rasmussen and olafur Arnalds steps into the mix for a deep, trance-infused house proggy workout. Legendary Scottish post-rock troupe Mogwai turn 'Love' into something truly serene and atmospheric, low slung, pared back breakbeat underpinning synth refrains, while .Hyperdub producer Foodman opts to up the percussive ante

Review: Originally released in 1997, just two years before his untimely passing, Farouk Enjineer is one of Muslimgauze's most celebrated albums and arrived at a time when the concept behind this production project had been fully realised. It also landed at a point when his output was best described as relentless (the artist would put out 96 titles before his death), which only serves to accentuate how incredibly consistent he was, and the kind of work rate he had achieved.

One of Muslimgauze's 'power noise' epics, tracks are made from some incredibly vivid and strange parts, but these are used as building blocks for much more recognisable overall arrangements. Some of the work here defines downtempo late night breaks, other parts share more in common with the traditional sounds of the regions the artist looked to for inspiration. All are essentially crafted from abstract sounds.

Review: There's a lot of Maisie By The Sea that sounds like you're floating through uncharted waters, or perhaps outer space. The artist, who has regularly graced institution-sized dance imprints like Tectonic, Kaizen, and Hyperdub, has an uncanny ability to create deep but immediate tunes, tracks that give instant impact but then proceed to expand, develop, and progress into layered and complex masterpieces.

Take 'Working Title', for example - a broken, trance-tipped slice of progressive something, percussion rattling atop twinkling synths that wouldn't sound out of place on Sasha's Airdrawndagger. Or the dramatic sci-fi odyssey 'Sirens', which uses the sparseness almost audible behind its soaring vocal refrains and thunderous but occasional percussion in truly powerful ways, developing an atmosphere most producers can only really ever hope to achieve.