Leng Vinyl & CDs

Review: Cosmic disco legend Daniele Baldelli is enjoying recognition these days like never before, and now he's back alongside Marco Fratty with his first album in five years. As you would expect from something with Baldelli's magic touch, there's a warm '70s flavour to the music on offer here, but it's also rendered in pristine modern production quality. Particular highlights across this two disc set include the sweet flute-riffing of "Jasmine Flavour" and the freaky vocoder trip outs of "Slinky Funk", but truthfully the bar remains high throughout this impeccably executed slice of spaced-out disco business.

Review: Cantoma is of course the solo project of Balearic stalwart Phil Mison and his second album under the name, Out Of Town, was originally released on Leng back in 2010. At the time Out Of Town came only in CD and Digital formats and after some four years of public pressing, Leng have elected to grant the album the format it truly deserves with this sumptuous double vinyl pressing. Mison fans will of course be more than familiar with the supple, languid groove maintained throughout the album, with age seemingly treating Out Of Town all the better.

Review: Ali Kuru took a decision some years ago not to seek publicity, preferring instead to let his music speak for itself. Egzotik, his long awaited debut album, seems to have a fair few stories to tell. Smothered in evocative field recordings made around his home city of Istanbul, the album is notable for fusing exotic Persian instrumentation with grooves and sounds more readily associated with cosmic disco, krautrock, dub, Balearica and Detroit beatdown. On paper, it's an unusual combination that should sound forced or contrived. In reality, it's a brilliant example of an artist with a singular artistic vision achieving his goals. Put it this way: it's amongst the most inspired and enjoyable debut albums we've heard this year.

Review: Greek DJ/producer Lex has been part of the scene in his home city of Athens since the dawn of the millennium, though it's only in the last few years that he's focused more on making music. The results of his efforts, which were previously showcased on 12" singles for Leng and Samosa Records, amongst others, have been quietly impressive. His debut album, Waving, continues in the same vein, utilising a pool of musician friends to craft cuts that blur the boundaries between sun-kissed, sofa-friendly Balearic warmth and subtly funk-fuelled, dub disco-framed dancefloor shufflers. The plentiful highlights include the stunning, tropical-tinged opener, 'Punta Allen', the organ-sporting vocal squelch-along 'Window Spells', acid-flecked nu-disco-meets-cosmic disco workout 'Silver Peace' and high-octane number 'Down My Soul'.

Review: Out Of The Blue, Phil Mison's first compilation for some time, was apparently inspired by his first few trips to the White Isle of Ibiza, and specifically the unlikely set of circumstances that led to him filling in for Jose Padilla at Cafe Del Mar. Musically, it's reflective of the story, joining the dots between impossible-to-find rarities (see the loved-up instrumental jazz-rock of "Jelly" by The Cactus Rose Project and the life-affirming fusion business of Christoph Spendel Group's "Forever", for starters), huggable Balearic synth-pop, flamenco-inspired sunset gems, and a smattering of head-in-the-clouds Italian dream house killers. Given Mison's heritage and status as one of Balearica's top selectors, it's perhaps unsurprising that Out Of The Blue is undeniably brilliant.

Review: There are few record collectors and DJs with crates quite as deep as Psychemagik. They've already proved this beyond doubt via a trio of brilliant Magik compilations for Paul Murphy and Simon Purnell's Leng label. Magik Sunset Part 2 continues this run, gathering together another double-album's worth of fantastic obscurities from the worlds of stoner disco, left-of-centre rock, psychedelia and Balearica. As usual, there are some genuine "how did I not know about this record" moments, from the star-kissed Balearic jazz of Fabio Fabor and saucer-eyed white boy reggae-rock of the Trepidants, to the Flamenco-tinged AOR disco shuffle of Jack Adkins' "Sunset Beach".

Review: Paul 'Mudd' Murphy and Simon Purnell's Leng Records turned ten earlier in the year, so they've decided to mark the occasion by drawing together tracks from the last decade - most previously released, but some unheard - that deftly showcase the label's ear-pleasing mix of psychedelic, Balearic, cosmic and dub disco influences. Highlights come thick and fast, from the dubbed-out insanity of the Idjut Boys vintage remix of 'Golden Chalk' by Mountaineer and Mudd's chugging, acid-fired 'Slow Rave Mix' of Tiago's 'The Source', to the hypnotic pscyh-disco exotica of Ali Kuru's 'Luna' and the hazy Bay Area disco-chug of 40 Thieves 'Backwards Love'. Vinyl copies of the album come shipped with a bonus 10-inch containing cuts from recent label signings Lex (not to be confused with Lexx) and Harvey Couture.