Polytechnic Youth Vinyl & CDs

Review: Israeli analogue synthesizer fetishists Group Modular could hardly be described as prolific, but the music they have released is rarely less than inspired. Time Masters, their long-promised second album (the first appeared eight years ago), builds on their undeniably intergalactic blueprint, offering a retro-futurist take on otherworldly electronic funk that combines modular synthesizer motifs and alien-sounding electronic textures with nods to 1970s krautrock, jazz, post-punk and obscure B-movie horror film soundtracks. It's an arresting and surprisingly loose-limbed concoction, with highlights including the Pierre Henry-esque 'The Big Hunt', the cacophonous and intense 'Ignition', the Stereolab-on-speed flex of 'Chatterbird' and the low-slung creepiness of 'Black Sphere'.

Review: Big week for Polytechnic Youth, with a new one by Hologram Teen as well as this full length by Preston-based modular synthesis explorer Stephen James Buckley aka Polypores. He presents more sonic sculptures on his fourth album for the label. Taking influence from ambient, new age and experimental electronics, Buckley creates a dozen dream environments on Chaos Blooms: 'The Computer' sounds like a cross between BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Boards Of Canada, 'Destroyer' explores the beauty in chaos using randomly generated voltages, while the wonky offworld improv stylings of 'Machine Jazz' are much like the name suggests. Towards the end 'Moontangle' was a definite highlight, this one is a bittersweet and all immersive ambient drone epic.

Review: North London label Polytechnic Youth return with a veritable blissed-out breaks raver from Self Modifier (real name Peter Duggal). A posthuman breakbeat transcension if we've ever heard one (the artist name Self Modifier really says it all), 'Lozells Drone Survey' is oddly blissful when juxtaposed with its clinical, machinic name, as well as the knowledge that Duggal is the current partner-in-crime of ex-Kraftwerk legend Wolfgang Flur. With the EP recalling Duggal's childhood spent growing up in inner city Birmingham during the Thatcher years, 'Edifices' and 'Flyover Lament' are two affirmations of the escape into musical flights of fancy, amid a climate of fear and imminent nuclear threats. So take heed, contemporary subjects of dystopia; the lessons learned then may apply to now; sit back and soak in the string-laden nostalgia of this wonderwork.

Review: As the title suggests, all of the material on this new album from Shibuya Station was recorded at the eponymous station in Japan. The music has previously been flawed as part of various compilations but has never been in one place before. It's leftfield minimal synth with an electronic brightness and cold but alluring rhythms made on gear such as various Korgs, Moog Little Phatty, Moog Voyager, various Roland keyboards and VST synthesisers such as the ARP Odyssey. All that defines the vintage textures of the sounds across six captivating tracks.

Review: Since making their debut in 2016, Glaswegian outfit Tomorrow Syndicate has become one of the most reliable artists on retro-futurist electronic imprint Polytechnic Youth. Their latest missive comes on an unusual format - a mini-album squeezed onto a 10" record - but is every bit as alluring as their previous outings. What you get is a blend of krautrock-influenced grooves, vintage analogue synthesizer sounds, modular electronics and synth-wave soundscapes that are so spacey they could have been recorded light years away. Highlights include the shoegaze influenced kraut-pop of "Captain, I Am Fading", the intergalactic ambient trip of "Contact" and the spiraling synthesizer melodies of fabulous closing cut "Exit Guide".