XL Vinyl & CDs

Review: Blawan is not only the most notable electronic producer to have ever come out of Barnsley (as far as we know, anyway_ but is also one of techno's most relentless innovators. He's done it all from heft, swinging bass to the most caustic and experimental techno. For this one on XL he aims at the club once more. 'Fires' is our pick - an unrelenting, tightly stacked rhythm with alluring vocal hooks swirling up top and weird synth sounds adding even more unusualness.

Review: Incoming! Clipz is subtly dropping his debut album but in true Hugh Pescod style, he's not settling for usual convention. His debut album as Clipz is a remix LP as he deconstructs Richard Russell's collaborative concept album Friday Forever and rebuilds it into a diesel powered, borderline cantankerous jungle album. These are three of the many highlights; the Dope Dragon style brukage of 'Walk Alone', the deeper piano-licked roll-out 'A Dream I Never Had' and the dubby, Bass Bin style bubbler 'The Night'. And this is just the tip of the version iceberg. Serious Saturday Specials fever.

Review: To mark the 15th birthday of Friendly Fires' breakthrough song, 'Paris' - a nu-rave-era chunk of sing-along indie dance hedonism - XL has decided to offer up a gold vinyl 12" reissue featuring the two most celebrated remixes of the track. Belgian nu-Balearic and nu-disco outfit Aeroplane's much-loved revision - a big club anthem at the time - sits on side A, offering a near perfect blend of loved-up vocals, jaunty synth stabs, kaleidoscopic chords, disco inspired synth-strings and rolling beats. It remains one of the best nu-disco/synth-pop crossover tracks of the last two decades. Over on the flip, there's a chance to admire Kompakt regular Justus Kohncke's tactile, dreamy and similarly colourful revision - a ten-minute blend of deep synth-pop and deep house that's just as good as Aeroplane's better-known mix.

Review: Peggy Gou has long since broken out of niche dance music circles out on to the wider world thanks to her pro and well crafted DJ sets and earned ties with plenty of high-end fashion brands. Including this, she does have some fine music making credentials as her hit single '(It Goes Like) Nanana' shows - its an inescapably catchy house cut with an iconic hook that is easy to sing along to. It now arrives, having first come via her own label, on XL which will only make it reach even higher levels of ubiquity. All hail the Gou!

Review: Hong-Kong-born, Utrecht-based Gyrofield aka Kiana Li is as diverse as they are prolific. They have proven that with a great NTS series and a great line of DIY electronic productions that explore glitch, dubstep, drum & bass and ambient techno. 'These Heavens' is a 12" on XL that builds on that early work across some fittingly refreshing and experimental sounds that go right for the heart of the dancefloor. 'Vega' is an electric opener, 'Occam's Razor' fizzes with dystopian energy and 'Lagrange' is a soulful, melody-laced stepper while 'Cold Cases' shuts down with a cacophony of percussive noise and busted synth lines.

Review: 'Love Story' is one of the most classic tunes in all of house music. It was written by Layo & Buschwaka who heard the original 'Finally' by Kings of Tomorrow and wanted to tweak it to their own ends so mashed it up with further samples from Dave, Nina Simone and Tati Quebra-Barraco. It's a rousing, heartwarming dancefloor trip of the highest order and who better to remix it than the always on fire Paul Woolford. His extended 2023 edit brings all the best bits to the fore and ensures we will be hearing this one all summer long. No complaints here.

Review: Baltimore's gothic synthpop golden child Nourished By Time (Marcus Brown) has made a wonderful name for himself so far, flaunting a blithe, nigh ghostly vocal talent, usually paired with a lo-fi alt-pop aesthetic. The 'Catching Chickens' EP, his debut record for XL Recordings, continues this trend with a brand new five-track EP, following up 2023's equally great LP Erotic Probiotic 2. Written between 2022 - 2023 in his home studio in Baltimore and along his world travels this past year, Catching Chickens is derived from the film Rocky, and the iconic scene in which Rocky's trainer makes him chase and catch a flock of chickens as a test of agility. Channelling Brown's per usual contemplation of late stage capitalism and post-pandemic loneliness, every song here is indicative of a well-earned artistic progression.

Review: The Smile's latest remix compendium is a striking one, with two eminent producers reimagining tracks from the British rock band/Radiohead offshoot's latest and third album, CUTOUTS. This remix-set takes the core of the band's genre-blend sound, from art rock to experimental electronica, and contorts it into yet another division of volatile allotropes, this time welcoming light show IDM extravaganzist James Holden and East Kent musician Robert Stillman. Both versions are full displays of productive talent, humanisti, but still cognitively vector-mapped out in digi-space ahead of time, mirroring the abstracted, rather listless and amoral lyrics heard in the title track ("And your force means nothing...")

Review: Colombian producer JP Lopez aka Verraco delivers full-throttle techno gritted up with grime influences on his new 'Basic Maneuvers' EP for Tra Tra Trax, the label he co-founded. His offbeat, chrome-plated and heavy style has been heard on Blawan's Voam and Batu's Tiemdance before now and here Verraco blends Latin club energy with signature rhythmic invention. The title track drives with mind-melting techno and ragga-infused bass, while 'Total' fuses gqom and dubstep with holographic vocals inspired by Arca. The grime-tinged 'Sobe Sobe' features Ugandan MC Yallah over Orbital-like pads and gritty, Coki-style midrange. Verraco's genre-blurring mastery knows no bounds.