Review: Saint Etienne's latest release envelops listeners in a serene, ambient soundscape that gently guides the mind into a state of calm. The track 'Half Light' exemplifies this approach, with its ethereal melodies and soothing rhythms creating a tranquil atmosphere and the album - the their 11th since 1991's debut Fox Base Alpha - continues this theme, offering a cohesive journey through layered tranquillity. A testament to the band's ability to craft immersive experiences that resonate deeply with the listener.
Review: As a former member of Kraftwerk, Wolfgang Flur is never short of offers to collaborate. On Time, his first solo album for three years, he's once again taken up many of these offers. So alongside regular collaborators Peter Duggal, U96 and Miriam Suarez, you'll also find contributions from New Order bassist Peter Hook, Thomas Bangalter (aka Vangarde, taking his disco-making father's moniker surname here) Detroit electro and techno pioneer Juan Atkins (who appears on opener 'Posh'), and long-serving techno producers Anthony Rother and Fabrice Lig. As a result, Time is rooted in sharp electro, synth-pop and revivalist new wave, but also offers nods to techno, electroclash, acid house and proto-trance, with Suarez and Flur take it in turns to add their own atmospheric vocals. If you enjoyed Flur's previous album, Magazine, you'll lap this one up - it's an even stronger proposition.
A Shared Sense Of Purpose (1973 version - bonus track)
Review: Much like the enduring appeal of the Ghost Box label, there's an instant magnetism in the music and presentation of Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan which triggers nostalgia even for those who didn't grow up in the 70s. Subtly creepy but equally warm and wistful, Gordon Chapman-Fox's project continues its stellar run following last year's knockout success The Nation's Most Central Location, this time turning the focus on the idea of community hubs in new town developments. There's depth to the concept beyond the aesthetic appeal, but either way the spools of synth work say plenty on their own.
Review: Bristol trio Beak>, like their co-founder Geoff Barrow, have always had a tendency towards the obtuse, choosing to go where they please musically with an air of disenchanted veterans whose faith in the world is waning all the time. This dystopian streak was evident on their 2009 full-length debut, where they consciously avoided overdubs and studio trickery, and it has returned to the fore on their widely acclaimed fourth studio set - a collection of 'head music' that they insist should only be listened to in its entirety. If you do that - and you should - you'll be treated to a delightfully cosmic, psychedelic and otherworldly journey through organ-heavy dream pop ('Strawberry Line'), wide-eyed krautrock-influenced funkiness ('The Seal'), acid-fried soundtrack weirdness ('Windmill Hill'), gentler and more intergalactic excursions ('Bloody Miles') and much more besides.
Review: Laibach revisits two iconic tracks from their 1987 opus, bringing new intensity to 'Leben heiBt Leben' and 'Geburt einer Nation.' Originally reworked for live performances, these versions merge theatrical drama with sharper sonic edges. The second disc ventures further, with original producer Rico Conning layering remixes that strip back and reimagine the band's audacious sound. This project doesn't just reframe the past; it grapples with it, offering both a homage and a provocative challenge to how we hear Laibach today.
Review: After a run of reissues and a boundary-blurring fusion of classical music and electronica (January 2021's Angel's Flight), Norwegian ambient veteran Geir Jennsen AKA Biosphere has gone back to basics on Shortwave Memories. Ditching software and computers for analogue synths, drum machines and effects units, Jennsen has delivered album that he claims was inspired by the post-punk era electronics of Daniel Miller and Matin Hannett, but instead sounds like a new, less dancefloor-conscious take on the hybrid ambient/techno sound he was famous for in the early 1990s. The results are uniformly brilliant, making this one of the Norwegian trailblazer's most alluring and sonically comforting albums for decades.
Review: As he's moved further towards a career in soundtrack composition, Trentemoller's music has become increasingly widescreen and atmospheric, with the Danish artist drawing inspiration from dream-pop, the Cocteau Twins and Durutti Column as much as the ambient, electronica and immersive techno he was once famous for. All of these strands combine beautifully on 'Memoria', a picturesque and enveloping affair whose multitude of highlights include the yearning, string-laden and bittersweet brilliance of 'No More Kissing The Rain', the wall-of-sound dream pop shimmer of 'In The Gloaming', the mid-80s indie-pop haziness of 'Dead or Alive' and the glassy-eyed and tactile 'All Too Soon'.
Review: Since founding DiN in 1999, Ian Boddy has been driven by a passion for collaboration, particularly with artists connected to the pioneering German electronic scene of the 1970s. When a chance meeting with Harald Grosskopf at a Dutch music festival presented the opportunity to work together, Boddy eagerly embraced Grosskopf's ear; the latter's tutelage at the Berlin school spans decades, and he is most notably for his fellowship as a drummer with Klaus Schulze, whose influence looms large over Boddy's own work. But beyond percussion, Grosskopf's Synthesist album revealed his distinct melodic sensibilities, making him an ideal creative partner for Doppelganger. Blending Berlin-schooled sequencing with evocative grooves. Boddy's modular synth textures shine on tracks like 'Boulevard Horizon', while Grosskopf's rhythmic playfulness is evident in 'Livewire'.
Review: Originally released in 1984, this album remains one of the most experimental and groundbreaking albums in electronic music with Jarre's fans including everyone from Jeff Mills to Eno and Depeche Mode's Martin Gore. With its fusion of cutting-edge sampling techniques and rich, multicultural vocal work, the album stands out as a pivotal moment in both Jarre's career and in the history of music production. For its 40th anniversary, the album has been reissued in a remastered edition, with a bonus track, 'Moon Machine', making it an ideal time to revisit its timeless innovation. The album utilizes the Fairlight CMI sampler to manipulate vocal samples from over 25 languages, creating a truly unique soundscape. Tracks like 'Ethnicolor' and 'Diva' exhibit Jarre's use of avant-garde techniques, blending musique concrete influences with electronic textures and vivid, expressive vocals from artists like Laurie Anderson. The album's surreal qualities are further enriched by its diverse use of genres and influencesifrom the haunting 'Ethnicolor 1' to the funky, upbeat groove of 'Zoolookologie'. Though Zoolook diverges from the atmospheric, space-themed sound of Oxygene and Equinoxe, its experimental nature and complex structure push boundaries and make it an essential listen. While some tracks, like 'Woolloomooloo' and 'Blah Blah Kafe', slow the pace, they provide a contrast to the more intense moments, rounding out the album's broad, eclectic emotional range. Ultimately, Zoolook is a landmark in blending technology, culture and sound, and this anniversary edition is a fitting tribute to an album that helped shape the future of electronic music.
Review: This CD edition of X Mal Deutschland highlights the Hamburg formed band in its infancy. The band started making music in 1980 and this compilation gathers their first two singles worth of music along with two special tracks off other compilations they were featured on. The band sound is unqiue and powerful - goth rock, experimental and new wave are just a few styles the tracks can verge into. In just the two years that make up this CD, you can hear the band growing from a raw experimention with sound and structure to a powerful goth rock band. A special shout out to the Sacred Bones label for trusting in their music enough to release this.
Review: First released back in 2006, Electronic's on-point 'best of' collection returns in expanded, double-disc form. So, alongside the original collection (CD1), with its mix of singles and cuts plucked from Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr's three collaborative albums, we're treated to a second disc packed with rarities, lesser-known remixes and largely forgotten B-sides. There are some genuine treats to be found, including a swathe of club-focused mixes that showcase the project's dance music roots. Highlights include 808 State's majestic, breakbeat-driven 12" mix of Neil Tennant collaboration 'Disappointed', the piano-rich "peak-time at the Hacienda" 'DNA Groove Mix' of 'Get The Message', Graeme Park and Mike Pickering's similarly superb 'Vocal Remix' of 'Getting Away With It', and 'Idiot Country 2', a rushing club workout remixed by Stereo MCs under their forgotten Ultimatum alias.
Anthony Hobson Aka Tektron - "Future Perspectives"
Chameleon - "Waterfall"
James Asher - "Telecom"
Simon Park Aka Soul City Orchestra - "Eagle"
Alan Hawkshaw - "Astral Plain"
Paul Williams - "Drifting In Time"
Brian Bennett - "Earth Born"
Harry Forbes - "Soft Waves"
Astral Sounds - "Topaz"
Alan Hawkshaw - "Eternity"
John Cameron - "Infinity"
Andy Grossart & Paul Williams - "Morning Dew"
Review: In the 70s and 80s, nothing was as revolutionary as the synthesiser. Electronic sounds became essential for forward-thinking adverts, with TV producers and advertisers seeking music akin to 'Tubular Bells,' Tomita, and Jean Michel Jarre. Music libraries like De Wolfe, Bruton, Parry, and Chappell swiftly adapted. Bob Stanley's new album, 'Tomorrow's Fashions,' compiles advertising jingles, TV themes, and space exploration tracks with ambient beats from that era. Despite being 40-50 years old, the music feels fresh, featuring jazz veterans like Brian Bennett and John Cameron embracing synthesizers. This electronica predated new age and ambient music, influenced pop, early Human League, Warp Records, and has been sampled by MF Doom and Kendrick Lamar.
Review: Back in 2016, Martin Jenkins unveiled the first instalment of a "loose trilogy" of vaguely conceptual albums for the Ghost Box label. Entangled Routes is the third and final part of this trilogy and lands two years after its predecessor, Hollow Earth. Though not expressly acknowledged within the music, Jenkins' inspiration this time round was apparently "mycorrhizal networks" - subterranean networks of funghi that transfer water, carbon and other minerals and nutrients to the roots of plants. Musically, what's on offer is intoxicating and far-sighted, with Jenkins mixing up trippy ambient psychedelia with modular-rich, melodious electronica, throbbing, arpeggio-driven dancefloor cuts and what would once have been called IDM. As usual, the album is full of great ideas, beautifully executed, and sequenced in such a way as to provide a genuine aural journey.
Review: Back in the early-to-mid 1990s, Robert Fripp collaborated with numerous ambient house-era electronic artists, including the Orb (see the largely forgotten FFWD>> album) and The Grid, who invited the long-time Brian Eno collaborator to recording sessions back in 1992. While some of the latter material made it onto their '90s albums, much of Fripp's work - dreamy guitar textures, drone works and other electronic experiments -was left in their archive. Leviathan is based around these unissued recordings, with Dave Ball and Richard Norris adding their own new sounds to create a string of beautiful, meditative, and picturesque ambient compositions that sit somewhere between their own ambient works, Norris's recent modular electronic explorations, and the forementioned FFWD>> project.
Review: Sometime member of The Knife, Karin Dreijer, has excelled since they started delivering solo albums as Fever Ray. Sadly, releases have been rather thin on the ground, with 'Radical Romantics' - their third solo album - arriving almost six years after its predecessor. It has, though, been worth the wait, with the gender-fluid star unveiling a set of songs that consider love from a variety of angles - all while showcasing a musical style that takes glacial, off-kilter electro-pop in a variety of attractive directions. Highlights come thick and fast throughout, with our picks of a very strong bunch including 'What They Call Us', the mutant rhythms and sparkling, alien-sounding melodies of 'Kandy', and the future dancefloor rush of 'Carbon Dioxide'.
Review: Given her length of service (her first appearance as a guest vocalist was way back in 1992), it seems extraordinary that The Love Invention is officially Alison Goldfrapp's debut solo album. It's a typically sparkling, colourful and entertaining affair, taking the synth-pop sound that marked out her long collaboration with Will Gregory as Goldfrapp, and injecting it with a big dose of dance-pop energy. It's hardly a radical recalibration of her sound, though the influence of some of her collaborators - most notably co-producer Richard X (who was involved in some of the album's strongest moments) - is certainly evident. Goldfrapp naturally stars throughout, channelling her inner Roisin Murphy, with highlights including the sub-heavy, house-influenced synth-pop strut of 'So Hard So Hot', the vibrant 'The Love Injection' and catchy opener 'Never Stop'.
Review: 11 years after it first appeared in stores, sometime Kill Laura amd Misty Dixon member Jane Weaver's sixth solo album Silver Globe has been given the reissue treatment. This is undoubtedly a good thing, as it remains one of Weaver's most magical and consistent full length excursions - an inspired blend of neo-psych-folk, Elizabeth Fraser style vocals, kosmiche-influenced "motorik" grooves and cosmic effects. Lightly conceptual, it's packed with highlights, not least the driving and spaced-out 'Argent', the twisted cosmic pop meets jangly indie-pop of 'The Electric Mountain', the dubbed-out and densely layered 'Arrows', the glassy-eyed lo-fi dream pop of 'Mission Desire' and the effects-laden pastoral dreaminess of 'Your Time In This Life is Just Temporary'.
Review: Marie Davidson's sixth studio album finds her collaborating with Belgium bossmen Soulwax - previously responsible for the massive rework of her 'Work It' track - and Pierre Guerineau. It follows her fiery single 'Y.A.A.M. (Your Asses Are Mine)' and the intense club track 'Contrarian' and marks a return to the dance floor but reimagined with the artist's signature sense of evolution. Blending the techno punch and spoken-word edge of Working Class Woman with the melodic pop structures of Renegade Breakdown, City of Clowns delivers a striking sonic fusion that is inspired by her pre-pandemic roots yet shaped by fresh antagonism, all while Davidson confronts a new foe: Big Tech.
Review: Suicide are generally referenced in terms of their earth-shattering late 70s debut, but of course Martin Rev and Alan Vega did work together after that. A Way Of Life was their third album, released in 1988 when the world around them had changed so much from when they started out, and yet their sound was still devastating and imposing amidst the culture of bands they'd influenced. Recorded with The Cars' frontman Rip Ocasek, the resulting nine industrial pop songs are as brilliant as anything from their fabled earlier works, and in this special expanded edition we're also treated to a fully remastered version including a clutch of additional tracks including their live cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The USA'.
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