Furthur Electronix Vinyl & CDs

Review: Michigan artist John Beltran has had a long and winding career that has seen him put out shimmering ambient electronics, organic techno and also find some of his tracks used on high-profile HBO TV shows. Aesthete is his latest offering and once again it pairs the synthetic with the natural in beautiful ways. His melodies are bright and beautiful, his drums float in mid-air and the overall mood of his music is painfully melancholic. This album marks the American's debut on the Furthur Electronix label and a fine one it is too.

Review: Thanks to a swathe of superb EPs over the last few years for the likes of 2020 Vision, Lunar Disko, Further Electronix, Altered Sense and Unknown to the Unknown, long-serving electro producer Cignol is enjoying something of a career renaissance. As a result, some of his earliest releases have become in-demand and hard-to-find - hence this reissue of his long-overlooked, but utterly brilliant, 2010 debut album, Switching For a Living. Offering an attractive mixture of sci-fi seeped, far-sighted tracks informed by 1990s IDM, deep electro, downtempo, ambient and acid, it's a coherent but varied affair that has well and trily lasted the test and time - thanks, in part, to Cignol's intention to make it a genuine "listening album". Recommended.