Review: Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel III concludes a five-year journey by unrelenting ambient don zake and 36 as they once again cook up ambient soundscapes with real emotional depth. Inspired by a fan who said, "I was terrified of space travel, until I heard this album," the series explores the tension between isolation and wonder and this third volume shifts from drifting to arrival, where melancholic piano and deep synths mirror descent, landing and the quiet awe of beginning anew. With tracks like 'Final Approach' and 'Blue New World,' the duo crafts cinematic, immersive music for inner and outer voyages that are full of warmth, weight and the haunting beauty of the cosmic unknown.
Review: Almost An Island unites Kenneth James Gibson with James and Cynthia Bernard (aka marine eyes) for a quietly stunning ambient collaboration (would you really expect anything less on this fine label?) Blending tape hiss, vaporous textures, pedal steel and delicate guitar work, the album evokes themes of impermanence and emotional connection and hints of Americana ripple through tracks like 'In Light Of' and 'Wide Open' while the lead single 'What Got Us To Our Feet' swells into an aching crescendo of voice and strings. It is a deeply introspective yet expansive record that demands you carve out a tranquil sonic space in which to hear it, and the results are intimate, cinematic and beautiful.
Review: Past Inside The Present is back with another of its quietly powerful ambient records, this time from Almost An Island, which is a collaboration between Kenneth James Gibson and husband and wife duo James and Cynthia Bernard. This black version of the self-titled oeuvre drifts through ambient, Americana and experimental soundscapes with musical elegance and tasteful restraint. Muted textures, swirling guitar, pedal steel and subtle vocals create a mood that draws you in close but is also grand in scale. Tracks like 'Quadrivium' and 'What Got Us To Our Feet' blur the line between memory and melody, while 'Palo Verde' and 'Promise to Fade' linger like a half-remembered dream. This isn't ambient as background-it's a fully formed emotional landscape that is both meditative and melancholic.
Review: In celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Naruto, 22d Music top up their excitations with a new, symphonic rendition of the music of the famous anime series. Beginning with a eureka moment shared between musician Jerome Leclercq and licensing company Mediatoon, the initial idea was to recreate the entire soundtrack for a live-streamable cinema concert in celebration of the imminent anniversary. Originally composed by Toshio Masuda, Naruto's OST is at its core a fusion project, blending traditional Japanese folk instruments such as the Shakuhachi and Shamisen with the familiar stylings of pop rock, effortlessly portraying the series' coming-of-age angst and ninja-starring energy and delivering it to an international audience, all while bottling the essence of the musical heritage of Japan. Reinterpreted by a 50-strong orchestra, and accompanied by an original montage of the best moments from the anime, this is a must-have for all the Naruto ultrafans out there.
Review: The undoable Coffy (1973) is a landmark blaxploitation film, directed by Jack Hill and starring legendary actor Pam Grier in her breakthrough role. Grier plays a nurse who turns vigilante to fight drug dealers and corruption in her community, blending affective grit and cool unapologetics to signal the tide of black woman empowerment. The film helped define the blaxploitation genre, with Grier emerging as one of its most enduring figures: Vibes ledge Roy Ayers' soundtrack, now reissued here through Anagram, matches the determinateness of the film's message, its grip-tight funk jazz fusions forging a vibraphonic propellerhead against which Dee Dee Bridgewater's vocals might flow with the force of rapids. The music is thus seen as as great, in its own right, as the movie.
Review: Like a diamond washed ashore next to pebbles, only occasionally do records like Novo and artists like Laurent Boudic appear. The French producer has been hailed many times over as a pioneer in 80s synth, EBM and techno going without recognition. While much of his earlier work explored various strands of techno, his project Novo has always leant more heavily on classic, vintage-style EBM, yet tinged with a technoid edge. After his 5th transmission The Shortwaves surfaced in 2016, he's back in action again to brave new SF frontiers: just look at that floating terra-drome on the front cover. 'Cassiopee', 'Dyson Sphere' and 'Erbium Rekonztrukt' are best-of-the-best electro explorations of new worlds, expressing alien possibilities otherwise inexpressible in words.
Review: Originally emerging from London's politically-charged underground, Bourbonese Qualk's defiant 1989 release remains an unyielding manifesto of experimental dissent. Forged during Thatcher-era Britain, this searing album combines relentless industrial rhythms, tape-loop distortion, and minimal synth arrangements, underscored by urgent spoken-word declarations against authoritarianism and neoliberal decay. Highlights include the pulsating intensity of 'Guilt', the hypnotic tension of 'Ton Ton Macoute', and the stark resolve of 'Let It Go'. Reflecting influences from minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass, the album's intricate arrangements are simultaneously abrasive and mesmerizing. This remastered reissue vividly resurrects a pivotal chapter in British experimental music-still fiercely relevant in today's climate of surveillance and mass disinformation.
Review: A key figure in 80s electronic pop as the voice of Dusseldorf's Propaganda - early ZTT signees alongside Art Of Noise and Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Claudia Brucken helped define a particular strand of sharp, cinematic synth music with unsmudgeable singles like 'Duel' and 'Dr Mabuse'. She now returns with Night Mirror, her first solo album in nearly a decade and a continuation of the creative partnership with producer (but not the Star Wars soundtracker) John Williams. Written in London across 2023-2025, the record deals in clear-eyed optimism and the emotional afterglow of looking back, with the likes of 'Rosebud' and 'Sincerely' emphasising wide-scope room acoustics and divey synthpop, live-and-die wild-west guitar licks effortlessly mingling with tender arpeggios.
Review: Born in Lviv and now based in London, harpist and composer Alina Bzhezhinska teams up with Ibiza-based producer Tulshi for a striking collaborative release on Tru Thoughts. Known for her work with legends like Brian Jackson and Chaka Khan, Bzhezhinska approaches the harp with a rhythmic, jazz-rooted sensibility that's both meditative and exploratory. Here, she pairs her instrument's crystalline textures with lush electronics, drawing on a rich palette of soul, spiritual jazz, and ambient beat science. Tracks like 'Reflections of the Heart' and 'Whispers of Rain' balance melodic clarity with layered production, while 'Raindrops Prelude' and 'Inner Fire' highlight the record's emotional nuance and narrative depth. Though instrumental for the most part, the album never feels abstract-it's direct, lyrical, and emotionally present. Rain becomes more than a theme; it's a structuring force that evokes renewal, memory, and impermanence. A focused and atmospheric offering, this marks Bzhezhinska's Tru Thoughts debut, and signals a compelling new phase in her evolving practice.
Review: Released in 1972, this turning-point work from German duo Cluster sees them move away from the abrasive chaos of their Kluster origins into something more controlled, spatial and tonal. With Conny Plank now focused on production rather than performance, the pair hone their approach into six named pieces-more concise, but still rich in mood and texture. 'Plas' and 'Georgel' simmer with soft modulations and bubbling loops, while 'Im Suden' stretches into blissfully uneasy territory, evoking desolation and calm in equal measure. 'Live in der Fabrik' is the set's centre of gravity, a longform pulse of metallic resonance and oscillating feedback that swells into kosmische abstraction. Less confrontational than its predecessor, it remains an essential document of early 70s electronic drift-weightless, eerie and always on the edge of collapse.
Review: Cluster II was released in 1972 and was an immediately pivotal work in electronic and experimental music. Created by German musician and composer Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Swiss-born musician and composer Dieter Moebius, the album blends urban chaos with raw and intuitive soundcraft. Recorded in Hamburg but born from Berlin's underground scene, its fusion of tape loops, sine tones and improvised analogue textures forged a new path for ambient, krautrock and early synth music. With shorter, more focused tracks than many peers, this album rejected excess and embraced risk and was produced with sonic visionary Conny Plank. The album still resonates as a bold and genre-defiant milestone that showed electronic music can have both structure and soul.
Review: Ohio-based producer Leroi Conroy finally steps into the spotlight with his debut LP after years behind the scenes running Colemine Records and producing for others. Drawing heavily from golden-age hip-hop textures and 60s/70s film scores, this instrumental release imagines a parallel Jungle Book narrative, flipping the script on man vs. nature. Tracks like 'Shere's Theme' and 'Snowcat' evoke that blunted, cinematic mood, full of Hammond organ swells, vibraphone motifs and dusty Tascam tape grit. Elsewhere, wah-soaked guitar and lo-fi drums lock into grooves tailor-made for sampling. Contributions from Kelly Finnigan and Jimmy James reinforce the familial Colemine vibe, but it's Rob Houk's drumming that anchors the record throughout. Having previously been sampled by DJ Premier and Raekwon, Conroy now serves a full suite of material for beatmakers and soundtrack heads alike. It's a cohesive, dramatic record that bridges funk, soul and hip-hop, packed with storytelling and smoked-out rhythm. Expect these tracks to live on through samplers for years to come.
Review: Leroi Conroy - the studio alias of Colemine Records founder Terry Cole - finally steps out from the ambush with a roaring bang: A Tiger's Tale, a debut LP nearly a decade in the works, was conceived as an alternate soundtrack to Kipling's The Jungle Book, and deals in themes of humanity's conquest over nature: be this done through its snarling brass, lo-fi drum grit, and Hammond cinematics. Much of the rhythm section was recorded as early as 2016 on a trusty Tascam 388, and the first two cuts dropped as a 45 in 2017, which surprisingly did the Wu Tang clan a solid, the latter track ending up sampled by DJ Premier, Raekwon and Ghostface. Now with cameos from Colemine regulars Kelly Finnigan and Jimmy James, and drums from longtime collaborator Rob Houk, this is a raw roar, and a striping, tigrine suite of funk and soul.
Review: Two immaculate cuts of soulful, genre-blurring pop from the singular Dawuna, aka Brooklyn's Ian Mugerwa. His return for Sun Royalle is a doozy that opens with the A-side, 'Love Jaunt', a tune that glows like a hazy summer daydream and is all syrupy synths, layered vocals and sultry D'Angelo-esque charm. It was written, apparently, for his "current shortie." Flip it over for 'Feel in Real Time', a slow-burning, acoustic-tinged lament dripping with raw emotion, tender regret and Dawuna's signature lo-fi vulnerability. This is modern soul at its most vital and wearing its heart on its sleeve while staying effortlessly cool.
Review: Initially released in 2010, Minimal Wave's retrospective of obscure French '80s outfit Deux remains one of the label's most sought-after compilations. Here, it gets a deserved re-press, allowing a whole new generation of listeners to fall in love with the quirky works of the Lyon-based duo. The album's ten tracks, which were drawn from various obscure cassettes and seven-inch singles, effortlessly join the dots between moody electro, cold-wave, new wave and eccentric synth-pop, reflecting the pair's esoteric approach to wayward electronic pop. This second edition comes in a hand-numbered edition of 999 copies, with Minimal Wave's usual attention to detail present on the weighty packaging.
Review: If there is anyone who knows about chill out music, it's Alex Paterson, who helms Orbscure Records as well as being the man behind The Orb. San Francisco's DF Tram has long been known for his intricate sound collages and deep storytelling and this new album pushes even further into ambient and experimental territory, merging hazy textures with personal reflections and lush production. Its first single, 'The Librarian', is a window into the album's distinct mood, blending folk-tinged guitar with a soft psychedelic haze, conjuring a 70s-style daydream with a mellow groove. 'Separate Ways' introduces chillwave and light pop elements, expanding the sonic palette while maintaining a laid-back atmosphere, while 'Flashbulb Memory' stands out with its delicate guitar strums layered over environmental field recordings and synth washes. The album also sees DF Tram stepping into the foreground with his own vocals and lullaby-like melodies. Written across studios in Zagreb and Vienna during the pandemic, Bittersweet Afternoon is a cinematic journey and a fitting continuation of DF Tram's ever-evolving exploration of sound and memory.
Review: One of the premier downtempo artists, Vienna's DF Tram, returns with a an exciting new album on Orbscure Records, the label run by chill-out pioneer Alex Paterson of The Orb. Known for his unique sound collages and cinematic style, DF Tram expands his sonic boundaries here, pushing further into ambient and experimental realms while maintaining his signature sense of calm introspection. Written during the pandemic across studios in Zagreb and Vienna, the album feels like a personal diary rendered in sound. DF Tram takes a bold step forward by incorporating his own vocals and gentle lullaby-like melodies, adding a new emotional layer to his storytelling. Tracks like 'Flashbulb Memory' give off fleeting moments of beauty, weaving delicate guitar with field recordings and glowing synth textures that blur the lines between natural and urban landscapes. The album's first single, 'The Librarian', is a warm, folk-inflected guitar and soft psychedelic haze, evoking the gentle drift of a sunlit afternoon. 'Separate Ways' brings in elements of chillwave and breezy pop while preserving the meditative spirit at the heart of the record. Bittersweet Afternoon is a dreamlike listening experience that transcends genres.
Review: Djrum (Felix Manuel) presents his latest full album in six years, in what has been described as a "literal creative rebirth". Beginning in earnest in the 2020 COVID lockdown, this a record whose creation treads a path of almost archetypal infamy: all the best electronica albums, in our view, are born of hard-drive losses. And Djrum's hard-drive meltdown, of course, seemed to correspond to a literal collapse and renewal; such ostensible catastrophes are painful at first, but they tend to breed re-incarnal transformations. Reflecting in the shaking disaster-piece stutters of 'Three Foxes Chasing Each Other' to the ambi-spatially adept 'A Tune For Us', the record spans prodigious instrumentality and electronica abstractions, verging on speedcore, jazz and techno-halftime in places. From vinyl DJ to reckoner of hardcore musicianship.
Review: British musician and synth pioneer Thomas Dolby always leaned closer to code than chords, so this early 90s soundtrack project i made for a CGI film i plays to his strengths. Across nine tracks he switches between ambient electronics, playful digital funk and a 1930s-style pastiche that somehow made it past quality control. Five tracks have vocals with Dolby fronting most of them and sharing space with astrophysicist Dr Fiorella Terenzi on two. 'Armageddon' and 'Big Bang Backwards' toy with cinematic tension via arpeggiators and brooding pads. 'N.E.O.' and 'Planet of Lost Souls' operate in mood-setting mode, light on hooks, heavy on reverb. 'The Ascent of Man' unfolds over six short movements, each varying in form but consistent in palette. By the time 'Moonbase' wraps up with its soft-techno optimism, the tone feels locked in: speculative, slightly smug and unmistakably Dolby. It's not as sharp as The Golden Age of Wireless, or as brooding as The Flat Earth but it still lands somewhere in that familiar zone between curiosity and concept.
To Believe In Something (Redshifted version) (5:26)
Review: In a move that may be seen as The Eden House warming up their catalogue ahead of a new studio album, the trip-hop, prog rock and goth-rock supergroup are putting out their 2009 debut album on vinyl - in a bigger, better and bolder form than before. It's been remastered and features six tracks of rarities. The group is masterminded by Steve Carey (guitar) and Fields of Nephilim's Tony Pettitt (bass), who were in the goth rock band NFD but needed an outlet for their wider tastes. And quite prolifically managed to entice vocals and songs from Julianne Regan (All About Eve), Monica Richards (Faith & the Muse), Evi Vine and Amandine Ferrari for a beautiful, haunting epic.
Review: There is a delightful lightness of touch to these deep dubwise explorations on the newly emerging False Aralia label, set up by Brian Foote, who founded US leftfield institution Peak Oil. Drums lap like gentle waves, synths unfurl as softly as passing clouds and smudged, ghostly vocals from Loveshadow's Anya Prisk bring romance. 'Externalism 02' is brilliantly wistful - barely there pads hint at emotional pain but dissipate before you hurt too much. 'Externalism 03' is a more lo-fi and minimal work with shuffling drums and murky low ends coalescing into a tender and bubbling soundscape then 'Externalism 04' is a sonic collage that is always shifting its focus from flickering candles to blurry pads. Hugely experimental but warmly comforting sounds.
Talk (Beneath Your Dreams) (feat Matthew Dear) (4:52)
Changelings (feat Gazelle Twin) (3:55)
My Town (2:56)
Have A Cigar (4:08)
A Falling Star (feat Gazelle Twin) (6:30)
Walk (3:38)
Only Lovers Left Alive (4:47)
Review: Released in 2012 to much comeback acclaim, John Foxx & The Maths' Evidence is one of few 2010s synth records whose brilliance doesn't require an evidence base. The long admired collaboration of Foxx (Ultravox) and Benjamin Davis Edwards (Benge), the 2012 incarnation saw the lineup addition of electronicist Hannah Peel, which is likely the reason behind a good chunk of its exploratory darkness, away from the earlier electropop attempts of Interplay and The Shape Of Things. Foxx's vocals ex-aspirate, in and out, like iron lungs, as modular moods pitter away in sequential automotion.
Review: Remastered from the original Wax Trax! reel-to-reel tapes, this 40th anniversary edition of Front 242's landmark 1984 album is a great reminder of why they remain the undisputed masters of electronic body music, or EBM. Cold, synthetic and relentlessly danceable, the record spits out the raw energy and mechanical precision that defined their sound and set the standard for the genre. A pivotal release in the electronic underground, it showcases Front 242 at their most influential and blending industrial edge with rhythmic drive. This reissue is a nostalgic trip for fans but also underlines the band's enduring impact.
Review: Celebrating 40 years of Front 242's groundbreaking sound, this remastered edition of the Belgian group's 1984 classic brings the cold, pulsating heart of EBM back to life. Cut from the original Wax Trax! reel-to-reel masters and pressed on a limited "Belgian Ale" coloured vinyl LP, it's a visceral reminder of the band's mechanical precision and early genre-defining style. This album was the moment Front 242 crystallised their vision of icy synths, driving rhythms and industrial tension into pure dancefloor power. It's a vital listen for longtime fans and new ears alike, especially as EBM is very much back en vogue right now.
Future Sound Of London - "Lifeless In Limo" (3:52)
Yage - "Over Zealous" (3:49)
Review: In 2024, the legendary Future Sound of London surprised everyone with Pulse Five, a CD installation continuing their iconic Pulse EP series from more than three decades ago. Now, they've gone back to the vaults to curate The Pulse EP - Volume 5, a six-track extension of the original UK 12? collection. This release features previously unreleased DAT material from the early 90s and B-sides from the era of their acclaimed Accelerator album and sought-after singles. These vintage recordings offer a glimpse into FSOL's creative peak and are packed with the fearless innovation and experimentation that defined their early work. A must-have, whether you are new or old to their work.
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