Leftfield

Review: NX12X is the first in a new series of experimental records from this label and the artists given the keys for the inaugural release are Goldsmiths student and modular synth maestro Sam Hostettler and electronic innovator La Leif who tackle a pair of tracks each. Hostettler's sounds are the moody, heavy ambient atmospheres of 'Pointalims' and the more light and airy li-fi soundscapes of 'Opalescence.' La Leif offers broken beats with a skeletal feel and a burial-style synth aesthetic on 'Kyoto' and then crunchy breaks and fizzing, distorted synth malfunctions of 'Kimochi.'

Review: Second time around for Jean-Michel Jarre's 2022 album Oxymore, a loving tribute to French composer and 'music concrete' pioneer Pierre Henry. As the title suggests, this version features new remixes of album tracks (all of which feature sounds originally created by Henry) by a disparate group of musical talents. That makes for an interesting mix of interpretations, with armin Van Buuren's sizable trance translation of 'Epica' rubbing shoulders with a trippy, off-kilter electro take on 'Sex In The Machine' by Nina Kraviz, a moody Martin Gore interpretation of 'Brutalism', Irene Dresel's raw techno revision of 'Zeitgeist Botanica', and ambient pioneer Brian Eno putting his spin on 'Epica'.

Review: Kilometre Club lands on the Indianapolis label Healing Sound Propagandist with a collection of sounds made using only one piece of gear, the Squier Bass VI, with the assistance of guitar pedals. Each one is a pure and cathartic meditation on minimalist drones that are deft and wispy. The compositions are smartly layered up and slowly ascend to the heavens with subtle spaces between notes and long tails making their mark on your heat. Says the artist, "this is an album for floating away while calling out vowels in reverse alphabetical order" - and we love it.

Review: Tape Reworks Vol. 2 is the new 12" remix edition of the 2021 album Tape Works Vol. 1 (2021), by the UK's leading musique concrete ensemble Langham Research Centre. With the latter album following up the introductory Tape Works Vol. 1 (2017), which recollected the group's earliest experiments, the second album focused entirely on more recent, original splicings, cuttings and respoolings of the former modernist statement. Now, in turn, come two new remixes of the project by Kara Lis Coverdale and Beatriz Ferreyra, the former of 'Movable Fields' and the latter of 'Nachholbedurfnis'. Coverdale's version is an arresting, looming abstraction, capturing a sense of cosmic loneliness through exoplanetary whistles and deep subs gleaned from the original album's pickups of brutalist buildings; Ferreyra's is jerkier and stranger in palate, utilising glassy transitional sound effects and rapid, sped-up-slowed-down warbles.

Review: Los Sospechos first dropped 'Jano's Revenge' on Colemine back in 2010, and it's since gone on to become a stone-cold classic of heavy funk played by the most discerning DJs. Now it's finally getting a limited repress on green marbled vinyl, giving you a fresh opportunity to savour the sweet, soulful sound and share it with the world. There's a timeless quality to this instrumental and its spiritual cousin 'Mirror Door' on the flip, where the brass section takes the leads and hammers out hooks to sink your teeth into.

Review: This reissued version of Idyll from Marine Eyes is a newly expanded edition with plenty of new remixes of the original material included on the CD. Each of those asked to offer up remixes have been part of the original artists' "musical path, helping me believe in myself, encouraging me to share my art with the world, and inspiring me with their own art." Alongside those, there is also an alternative version of 'Roses All Alone' which is a window into how the original sessions sounded before the veil was stopped back. There is also a new B-side cut 'Make Amends' which wasn't on the original album which came out some two years ago now.

Review: Benoît Pioulard, Hotel Neon and Viul were given the original version of this CD sampler to sell while on a tour of the US's West Coast in Autumn 2022. Past Inside The Present has now secured the rights to issue it themselves on a new CD. The tracks are exclusive contributions from each of the artists and have never been available anywhere before with 'Rasping Descend' by Pioulard, 'The Quiet Road' from Hotel Neon and 'January 18' by Viul. The rest of the tunes that feature on it have all been on vinyl, digital or cassette tape before now so this is the first time they are all together on one CD.

Review: The 1990s was arguably the first 'golden age' of ambient - a time when the inherently atmospheric and laidback style not only exploded in popularity, but also became the post-club soundtrack of choice for a whole generation. This personal survey of the 90s ambient scene from journalist and author Jon Savage does a good job in gathering together a representative selection of genuine gems and overlooked classics, drifting between the bubbly, deep space brilliance of Richard H Kirk's Sandoz project ('Limbo'), bleeping ambient house ('Calm' by 2 Cabbages on a Drip), early progressive house (React 2 Rhythm), electronic psychedelia (the tabla rhythms and swirly noises of Rapoon), ambient blues (Underworld), IDM (U-ziq), and glacial, slow-motion bliss (Biosphere).

Review: Nadia Struiwigh's Pax Aurora was a standout ambient techno LP in 2022, and now Nous Klaer Audio have returned to the project to commission a grip of remixes which respond to the source material in distinctive ways. DJ Nobu takes a delicate, mesmerising approach to 'Nana', while Jakojako plumbs the depths of immersive, feathery techno. With Om Unit and Julia Gjertsen representing with equally hypnotic, elegant versions on the flip as well, this is the perfect example of a remix EP which truly adds weight to the original release.

Notes: Inside this brand new issue:

Releases of the Year: Wire asked their contributors to vote for their top ten records, CDs, streams and more, then added up the votes

Critics' Reflections: Wire's writers discuss their memorable cultural experiences of the year

Columnists' Charts: Wire's specialist critics delve deep into their musical niches from noise to modern composition

Archive Releases of the Year: Wire asked their contributors to vote for their top ten archive records, CDs, streams and more, then added up the votes.

Engineered Phantoms: AI for the masses. By Abi Bliss

Back to the Land: Strange as folk. By Louis Pattison

Rival Camps: Crossing the streams. By Britt Brown

Weapons of Mass Distraction: Artists and Gaza. By GAIKA

Invisible Jukebox: Linton Kwesi Johnson: The veteran reggae poet faces down The Wire's mystery record selection. Tested by Gabriel Bristow

Laetitia Sadier: The Stereolab founder promotes community and healing with her new solo work. By Claire Biddles

Fred Frith: The Henry Cow co-founder returns to his groundbreaking 1974 album Guitar Solos with a reissue and a new album. By Clive Bell

Unlimited Editions: Bead Records

Unofficial Channels: Lanner Chronicle

Phil Geraldi: Road head music. By Emily Bick

HUUUM: Viennese whirl. By Ilia Rogatchevski

Lisa Ullen: Piano magic. By Peter Margasak

Thomas Ignatius: Medieval synthpop. By Leah Kardos

Global Ear: Chicago Democracy and improv in the Midwest. By Levi Dayan

The Inner Sleeve: Vince Clarke on The Human League's Travelogue

Epiphanies: Mariam Rezaei on Persian pitch-shifting

Print Run: Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dance Culture by Beth Lesser; Lost In Room: Mark Perry, Alternative TV And Related, 1977-1981 by Richard Johnson; Deep Blues 1960-1988 by Val Wilmer; Ukrainian Field Notes edited by Gianmarco Del Re; At The Vanguard Of Vinyl by Darren Mueller; Too Much Too Young: Rude Boys, Racism And The Soundtrack Of A Generation - The 2 Tone Records Story by Daniel Rachel; NOTHING IS POSSIBLE NERVOUSNESS, OR IMMORALITY DON'T WAIT TO BE HUNTED TO HIDE/ SPOILT HEALTH by TRS: The Fucking Terrible Receding Shapes, Trading As TRIPLE NEGATIVE

On Screen: Midori Takada: Japan On Film; Robert Fantinatto Subotnick Portrait Of An Electronic Music Pioneer

On Location: Recombinant Festival, San Francisco, US; Sir Richard Bishop, Edinburgh, UK; Week-End Fest, Cologne, Germany; Black Industrial | Noise Event 4: Ain Bailey, London, UK; Out.Fest, Barreiro, Portugal; Gonerfest 20, Memphis, US; Sonica Surge, Glasgow, UK; People Like Us, London, UK; Loraine James, San Francisco, US; Usurper: That's That Then, Edinburgh, UK; Easter Margins Road 2 Redline Tour with OverMyBody Taipei, Taiwan; Donaueschinger Musiktage 2023, Donaueschingen, Germany

On Site: Val Wilmer Blue Moments, Black Sounds, London, UK; Meredith Monk: Calling, Munich, Germany; Barbara Ess Archives, New York, US

Soundcheck: Aesop Rock, Agitation Free, All Men Unto Me, Alternative TV, Chino Amobi, Andre 3000, Erlend Apneseth Trio & Maja SK Ratkje, Anenon, Daniel Bachman, BEAM SPLITTER + Eivind Lonning & Espen Reinertsen, Beans, Lea Bertucci, Better Corners, Galya Bisengalieva, Black To Comm, Andy Blade & Buddies, Danny Brown, Conflux Coldwell, Amelia Cuni/Werner Durand/Uli Hohmann, CZN, Angharad Davies & Phil Julian, Eartheater, Max Eastley/Terry Day/John Butcher, Carlos Ferreira, Peter Gabriel, Gruzja, Holy Tongue, Robert Hood & Femi Kuti, Idea Fire Company, Ed Jones/Dominic Lash/Mark Wastell, KAVARI, Kid Acne, Klein, Anysia Kym & Jadasea, Dominic Lash/Rachel Musson/Phil Durrant/Steve Noble, Joelle Leandre & Rodolphe Loubatiere, George Lewis/ICE, DJ Manny, Trevor Mathison, Myra Melford's Fire & Water Quintet, MHYSA, Moin, Maggie Nicols/Matilda Rolfsson/Mark Wastell, Steve Noble, Aki Onda, Ordeal, Aruan Ortiz, Tony Oxley, Eddie Prevost/NO Moore/James O'Sullivan/Ross Lambert, Janneke van der Putten, Lucy Railton, Maja SK Ratkje & Nordic Affect, Mike Reed, Marc Richter, Raphael Rogi?ski, Patrick Shiroishi, Timelash, David Toop & Tania Caroline Chen, Universal Harmonies & Frequencies, V/Z, Alex Ward Items 6 & 7, Teresa Winter, Various C-01 Compilation, Various Flux Gourmet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The Boomerang:

Barry Bermange/Delia Derbyshire/The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Earth, Khanate, Meat Puppets, Meshuggah, Het Pandorra Ensemble, Penny Rimbaud/Mikado Koko, Rudimentary Peni, Archie Shepp, Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit, War, Frank Zappa, Various The Complete Obscure Records Collection, Various One Mile From Heaven, Various Spectra Ex Machina: A Sound Anthology Of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol 2