Back in stock: Experimental/Electronic

Review: Last year, regular collaborators Ian Boddy (a Sunderland-based electronics wizard who founded the ambient-focused DiN imprint years ago) and Erik Wallo (a long-serving Norwegian guitarist primiarly known for his experimental and ambient releases) performed their first joint concert for a decade. It's that performance, where they jammed out extended and much-changed versions of tracks featured on some of their prior studio sets, which forms the basis of their latest full-length, Transmissions. As you'd expect, it's a wonderfully atmospheric and evocative affair that gets the most out of both artists, with highlights including the wonderfully creepy 'Uncharted', the krautrock-style hypnotism of 'Aboena', the icy and ethereal 'Ice Station' and the slow-burn bliss of 'Salvage'.

Review: Since Radiohead went on hiatus a few years back, Thom Yorke has thrown himself into all sorts of solo and collaborative projects. His latest sees him join forces with Sydney-based British electronic music stalwart Mark Pritchard for an album that expands on their previous collaboration (the superb 'Beautiful People' from Pritchard's 2018 album Under The Sun). It's a breathtakingly brilliant concoction all told, with the pair conjuring ethereal, oddball and immersive songs in which Yorke's distinctive vocals - sometimes delivered as you'd expect, other times layered-up, mutilated or utilised as textures - rise above backing tracks made with unusual synths and drum machines, and variously indebted to ambient, IDM, ghostly electronica, lo-fi beat-scapes and the gripping intensity of horror soundtracks. A modern electronic classic in the making.

Review: As the title suggests, this vast, triple-CD box set from Cherry Red is an attempt to chronicle one of the most productive periods in the history of British experimental and avant-garde music: the years between the rise of punk in 1976 and the unofficial end of the post-punk era in 1984. It does a rather good job of it if truth be told, with the unnamed curators offering a brilliant mixture of guitar-based noise, trippy early electronica, weirdo ambient, dubbed-out jazz, spoken word oddness and clanking industrial music. There are plenty of big names present - Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV, Test Department, Robert Fripp, 23 Skidoo, Clock DVA etc - alongside lesser-celebrated experimental heroes.