Skam Vinyl & CDs

Review: Boom! Finally another reissue of Boards Of Canada's seminal Hi Scores LP from 1996! Along with the likes of Aphex Twin, LFO and Squarepusher, these guys have helped to define how we see electronic music today and this particular LP is arguably their most complete when it comes to the dancefloor. The title track is a twisted, floaty bindle of breaks and beats, but it doesn't end there. Tracks like "Nlogax" are inherently Detroitian in nature thanks to the bleepy drum machines inside, and all we can say is that if you haven't laid hands on this album yet, you shouldn't miss the opportunity to cop it now. It's still so relevant and contemporary, it hurts.

Review: Boom! Finally another reissue of Boards Of Canada's seminal Hi Scores LP from 1996! Along with the likes of Aphex Twin, LFO and Squarepusher, these guys have helped to define how we see electronic music today and this particular LP is arguably their most complete when it comes to the dancefloor. The title track is a twisted, floaty bindle of breaks and beats, but it doesn't end there. Tracks like "Nlogax" are inherently Detroitian in nature thanks to the bleepy drum machines inside, and all we can say is that if you haven't laid hands on this album yet, you shouldn't miss the opportunity to cop it now. It's still so relevant and contemporary, it hurts.

Review: James Ruskin and Mark Broom return with a third installment of their wayward electronica project, The Fear Ratio. Far from the bruising techno they normally throw down, "They Can't Be Saved" is an introspective trip into the knotted realms of hip-hop influenced machine music produced down to the nth degree. The beats crunch hard and the atmospheres come shrouded in mystery, slotting in perfectly on the legendary Manchester label Skam. Both a wonderful revival of leftfield electronica and a vital, fresh approach, this third album is another triumphant one. Slap this one on and revel in the sound of two hugely accomplished producers cutting loose and having fun in the studio.

Review: As solo artists, James Ruskin and Mark Broom are celebrated for the uncompromising nature of their techno tracks. Yet when they come together as The Fear Ratio, the resulting off-kilter electronic music is much more akin to the angular, electro-influenced IDM work of fellow Skam associates Autechre, Gescom and Freeform. "They Can't Be Saved", their first full-length for five years, continues in this vein, delivering a distorted, mind-altering fusion of clanking, left-of-centre drum machine rhythms, otherworldly aural textures, alien electronics, ghostly chords and cybernetic melodies that more often that not skittishly race across the soundscape. Its impressive stuff all told and should appeal to all of those who appreciate the more skewed and unearthly end of the electronic spectrum.

Review: The reborn Skam comes through with an essential archival undertaking of one of the artists that helped establish them in the mid-'90s experimental electronic firmament. Dylan 'Jega' Nathan was highly lauded for his technically proficient, DSP-rich output on Skam and Planet Mu before sinking into the shadows to wide lamentation. Last seen on the latter label with the expansive album Variance back in 2009, Dylan pops his head back above the parapet with 1995, a double LP offering of early demos from the Skam archives. 1995 is made up of fifteen live, straight-to-tape jams from, oddly enough, 1995, mastered and collated together as a fine document of the flair Nathan possessed even in more technologically modest days.

Review: Ever since the label's formation in 1991, Skam has strived to support innovative artists based around its home in NW England. VHS Head - AKA Ade Blacow - fits into this category rather well; not only does he hail from Blackpool, but he also sources the majority of his sounds from old VHS tapes. This second album follows some four years after the VHS Head debut set Trademark Ribbons of Gold arrived and is a thoroughly enjoyable listen, delivering a quirky but attractive blend of cut-up electronic funk, bespoke IDM rhythms, vintage synth melodies and wayward electronics. If Dam Funk, Funkineven, Autechre and Boards of Canada got down in the studio together, it would probably sound like this.