Search dance music

Review: Over the years, Sam Shepheard's work as Floating Points has become increasingly ambitious, moving further away from his dancefloor roots and closer to spiritual jazz, new age and neo-classical. Even so, it was still a surprise when Shepheard announced Promises, a 46-minute piece in 10 "movements" featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It's an undeniably remarkable piece all told; a constantly evolving fusion of neo-classical ambience, spiritual jazz and starry, synthesizer-laden soundscapes notable not only for Sanders' sublime sax-playing and Shepheard's memorable melodic themes, but also the intricate, detailed nature of the musical arrangements. It's a stunningly beautiful and life-affirming piece all told, and one that deserves your full attention.

Review: Of all the artists past and present who claim to let their music do their talking for them, Burial is one of the elite band of whom this truly is the case. In fact, so reluctant is he to engage with the cult-of-personality hoopla that surrounds almost every modern producer and musician of merit, that he remains a genuine recluse; he has never appeared live, only one obliquely-angled publicity photograph is known to exist, and the number of interviews he has given can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet despite this, his music speaks loud and wide, and the world has been listening ever since his 'South London Boroughs' EP debut on Hyperdub in March 2005. His eponymous album, which began life as a low-key release in May 2006, is now widely regarded as the benchmark release of the ever-widening dubstep genre, picking up unanimous critical acclaim along the way, and ending the year heavily featured in many 'best of' polls. Now Burial returns with 'Untrue', a new record of weird soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. The album continues with the debut's crackle-drenched yearning and bustling syncopations, haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy. Kicking off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal science of 'Archangel', 'Near Dark' and 'Ghost Hardware', before long it descends into a space of radiant divas and ambience. Where 'Burial' first was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, 'Untrue' is less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic, underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines. Unlike the overpoweringly melancholic prevailing mood of before, Burial's sound is now better defined as a downcast euphoria typified by the epic, muted optimism of the album's last track 'Raver'. Forget central heating the radioactivity of this album is all that you'll need to keep you warm this winter. 'Untrue' is available as full 13 track digipack CD, including recent underground hit 'Ghost Hardware', and 9 track DJ friendly double vinyl set, from which some of the beatless pieces have been edited.

Review: In line with the timely reappraisal of all things R&S related, the resurgent Apollo have seen the opportunity to bring one of their most celebrated records back for another round on CD. Aphex Twin's ambient recordings mature magnificently with age, sounding ever richer and more emotive as the rest of electronic music continues to play catch up all around. From the gentle breakbeats of "Xtal" to the aquatic techno lure of "Tha", the airy rave of "Pulsewidth" to the heartwrenching composition of "Ageispolis", every track is a perennial example of how far ambient techno could reach even back then. It's just that no-one quite had the arm-span of Richard D. James.

Review: Back in 2016, Martin Jenkins unveiled the first instalment of a "loose trilogy" of vaguely conceptual albums for the Ghost Box label. Entangled Routes is the third and final part of this trilogy and lands two years after its predecessor, Hollow Earth. Though not expressly acknowledged within the music, Jenkins' inspiration this time round was apparently "mycorrhizal networks" - subterranean networks of funghi that transfer water, carbon and other minerals and nutrients to the roots of plants. Musically, what's on offer is intoxicating and far-sighted, with Jenkins mixing up trippy ambient psychedelia with modular-rich, melodious electronica, throbbing, arpeggio-driven dancefloor cuts and what would once have been called IDM. As usual, the album is full of great ideas, beautifully executed, and sequenced in such a way as to provide a genuine aural journey.

Review: Ace Records continue their series of compilations from Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, tapping into unique niches of British music culture under titles like English Weather and The Tears Of Technology to arrive at this latest joint, Fell From The Sun. This is a specific trip into the downtempo, after hours sounds prevalent in 1990-1991, as the acid house wave broke and Balearic selector ethics seeped into studio practice. The selections are absolutely on point, from The Orb's majestic remix of Primal Scream's 'Higher Than The Sun' to Saint Etienne's own moody roller, 'Speedwell'. It's bouncy and boundlessly optimistic as well as being supremely chill, absolutely of its time but still ringing with an eternal charm that feels ready for a revival. Let this compilation be your guide.

Review: The hype machine may have kicked into overdrive at the announcement of a new Aphex Twin EP, but after all there's a reason we all get so excited. Richard D. James is just a rare sort of artist - one who can wrench untold depth, detail and feeling from the oddest of angles and still keep it rave-ready in the process. It's been a while since we had some new material from the Cornish wonder, but now he's gifting us four fresh slabs of braindance par excellence which bristle with his distinctive touch. Those subtle microtonal shifts in the melodies, the particular flair with which the drums are dissected, the overall head-spinning tapestry of the whole thing - no one does it quite like Aphex, and this CD single gives you his considerable skills in the highest definition.

Review: The Future Sound of London keep their fans busy with a steady dispatch of music via the fsoldigital.com label, but it feels like there's a sense of occasion around this new album. Rituals E7.001 is purportedly the first part in a trilogy, and it already highly prized by the devoted followers of Brian Dougans and Garry Cobain's music. It's not hard to hear why on listening to the gorgeous strains of 'Hopiate', which harks back to some of the duo's most iconic music (we'll let you guess which one we mean). FSOL have always had a particular touch in their exploration of electronica, ambient and outernational sounds, and it sounds rich with inspiration on this new, expansive album.

Review: Given that Four Tet's recent 0181 LP was comprised of material from Kieran Hebden's archives, and last year's Pink was largely compiled of tracks from the previous 18 months of 12" releases, it seems fair to say that Beautiful Rewind is his first proper album since 2010's There Is Love In You, and as such, it arrives with some degree of expectation. The past few years have seen the producer engage increasingly with the dancefloor, and these rhythms are most definitely present across the LP, particularly in the jungle breaks of "Kool FM", pirate radio-influenced techno of "Buchla" and hesitant dubstep style rhythms of "Parallel Jalebi". For the most part however Beautiful Rewind is as varied as the likes of Rounds and There Is Love In You, with the minimalist kosmische of "Ba Teaches Yoga", analogue gurgles of "Crush" and dawn chorus sounds of closer "Your Body Feels" all as beautiful as his most enduring tracks.

Review: Given his innate ability to craft intensely atmospheric and often fundamentally unsettling music, it seems apt that Thom Yorke has finally got around to producing a film soundtrack. It's fitting, too, that said soundtrack is for Luca Guadagnino's weirdo remake of 1977 Italian horror flick "Suspiria". Yorke nails the brief, delivering a string of chilling, otherworldly instrumentals that not only draw on his well-established love of dark ambient and gruesome electronica, but also foreboding neo-classical movements and sparse, wide-eyed arrangements. There are a smattering of superb vocal moments, too, with recent single "Suspirio" - described by one broadsheet reviewer as "the saddest waltz you'll ever here" - standing out.

Review: We're asked to Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities. But the twist is, this plane of existence we somehow find ourselves in already is. Such is the overarching fable at the heart of James Holden's new album. The esteemed electronic musician and DJ knows as much, and is quoted to have said 'I want this to be my most open record, uncynical, naive, unguarded, the record teenage me wanted to make'. So, a high dimensional space of all possibilities can be found within us, right where we started - not some other dimension or higher plane of consciousness. All this is conveyed pretty neatly through Holden's crushed bitscapes, future techno ambientrancers, and exploration of revolutionary themes. Like exploring a bountiful rainforest full of bohemians and mushrooms, longtime fans and newcomers alike are sure to be delighted.

Review: It has taken five years for FKA Twigs to follow up her astonishing first album, "LP1". With that kind of timeframe, you can't help but have high expectations for the finished product, expectations "Magdalene" more than meets from the off. An artist in the truest sense - with every step and stage in the recording process controlled by her - it's an accomplished comeback for a woman who in the last half decade has experienced both personal loss and major physical challenges. Don't expect more of the same, then, but instead a talent finding new purpose and new confidence following difficult times. With the ever-impressive Nicolas Jaar giving a helping hand, the result is a raw, honest record that's deeply personal, full of self-reflection and, ultimately, accepting and positive. Not to mention destined to be on repeat. Her position as one of the UK's most vital and compelling acts re-confirmed.

Review: In interviews promoting Fossora, her tenth album, Bjork joked that it started life as "her Clarinet album" - a nod to the set's extensive (and sometimes experimental) use of regular and bass clarinet instrumentation. Really, though, it's her lockdown album, and one partly inspired by the grief she felt following the passing of her mother in 2018. In many ways it's an astonishing set, with the Icelandic artist adding her own distinctive lyrics and vocals - still effortlessly emotional and addictive after all these years - to tracks that brilliantly fuse, mix and mangle red-lined tribal drums, fuzzy IDM style electronics, brass band arrangements, jazz instrumentation and, on the inspired title track, increasingly intense, break-neck dancefloor rhythms that tend towards the gabber end of the spectrum. Unusual, entertaining and utterly beguiling; it's another brilliant album from a genuine one-off.

Review: Back in 2004, during their tour promoting their 'Tour De France Soundtracks' album, Kraftwerk's performance at Cirkus in Stockholm was recorded for broadcast on Swedish radio. This two-disc set presents that recording in full. It's more atmospheric than some of their 'official' live albums (the audience sounds more involved) and includes some killer versions of hits and album tracks. The spruced-up, fully digitised re-make of 'The Model' is a blast, 'Radioactivity' dually creepy and utterly joyous, and the 'Computer World' medley - which also includes 'Home Computer' and 'It's More Fun To Compute' - utterly brilliant. The riotous, ten-minute show-closing take on 'Musique Non-Stop' is also superb.

Review: Los Angeles based ambient husband and wife duo, awakened souls join with Reunion Island native, From Overseas to create Keep The Orange Sun. After hearing each other's individual music, a deeper conversation started about shared musical influences and inspiration leading to the creation of this album. Keep The Orange Sun guides the listener on a thoughtfully curated path. Starting with the certainty of life's changes (Certainty of Tides) to arising self-doubt (Release/Adapt) and celebrating immersion in the present moment as the gateway to deeper connection with nature and one's life (Keep The Orange Sun). The instrumentation present in each track channels elements of electronic, shoegaze & ambient with each artist's distinct musical fingerprint highlighted.

Review: Back in the early-to-mid 1990s, Robert Fripp collaborated with numerous ambient house-era electronic artists, including the Orb (see the largely forgotten FFWD>> album) and The Grid, who invited the long-time Brian Eno collaborator to recording sessions back in 1992. While some of the latter material made it onto their '90s albums, much of Fripp's work - dreamy guitar textures, drone works and other electronic experiments -was left in their archive. Leviathan is based around these unissued recordings, with Dave Ball and Richard Norris adding their own new sounds to create a string of beautiful, meditative, and picturesque ambient compositions that sit somewhere between their own ambient works, Norris's recent modular electronic explorations, and the forementioned FFWD>> project.

Review: Canadian composer Mort Garson enjoyed an eclectic career, though in electronic music circles he's most celebrated for a string of experimental electronic albums he produced using early Moog synthesizers. "Mother Earth's Plantasia" is a bizarre but brilliant beast: a 1976 set that was designed to be played to plants to help them grow (really) and was given away free at a Los Angeles garden store. As this first ever reissue proves it remains a dizzyingly far-sighted set. Sometimes symphonic, occasionally spacey and always intoxicating, much of the material is far quirkier than contemporaneous synthesizer-fired sets. Highlights include the pulsing ambient spaciousness of "Ode To An African Violet", the twinkling, cascading beauty of "Rhapsody In Green" and the jaunty cheeriness of "You Don't Have To Walk a Begonia".

Review: It wasn't so long ago we were writing about the joys of BVDUB's Fumika Fades, a new double pack in February that sunk us deep into moving ambient soundscapes. Now the Bay Area dub techno titan Brock van Wey is back once again with yet another album - he dropped plenty of them last year too so is clearly in a mad creative patch. Slowly Shifting Lakes comes in multiple formats, this one being a double CD. The ambient here is coarse and textured, fizzing synths stretching out over skittish rhythmic frameworks before sinking into calmer waters on cuts like the escapist 'Searching For Glowing Shores.' Another triumphant album for sure.

Review: Geir Jennsen returns as Biosphere, one of the most enduring names in Norwegian electronic music and by now synonymous with elegant, plaintive ambient of the highest calibre. Inland Delta is made up of nine new musical pieces recorded between 2022 and 2023, primarily focused on improvised performance on a range of vintage keyboards recently restored to pristine condition. As lead track 'Franklin's Dream' demonstrates, there's space for traditional piano as well as the looming drones we know and love Biosphere for, all composed on the fly with a keen sense of harmony that comes from Jenssen's vast experience in this corner of experimental music.

Review: As Biosphere, Norwegian producer Geir Jenssen pretty much defined a whole genre of ambient music across several seminal albums. In 2011, his N Plants outing was another critically acclaimed one that took inspiration from the Japanese post-war economic miracle. Every track on the album is named after a Japanese nuclear plant and features a warm, diffuse glow that never leaves you. Rhythms are suggested by the rippling of synths or tumbling of chords as distant hues, soft glow keys and fuzzy vinyl crackle all bring each track to life in a way that makes it as good in the foreground as the background.

Review: By this point it feels fairly safe to say that FSOL will never stop either reissuing or releasing albums, as long as they're alive that is. Brian Duogans and Garry Cobain's music is trailblazing, and they've had successes in both the underground and mainstream worlds since the late 1980s. 'Life In Moments', however, is a relatively recent release - the 2016 release aimed to explore, via their signature experimental electronic blends and synaptic glitchings, the alleged 'space/time/dimension' that exists, and to which we travel, when we die. Ambient, classical and chillout collide as ever on this eternal light-tunnel of an LP.

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: It's hard not to be impressed by everything Grimes touches. From the moment this album's trippy downtempo titular opener emerges from submerged depths of sound you know the latest from the Canadian is going to be a special moment in pop. As if to accentuate our point, "Delete Forever", two tracks later, introduces acoustic guitar tips while still retaining deep timbre and utilising effects to hypnotic ends on those hummed vocal loops. "IDORU", which closes out the record, feels far more playful, simple keyboard and whispered choral lyricism introduced with a backing track of bird song, before broken club beats fall in. It might be most fitting to finish a write up on the aptly-titled "You'll Miss Me When I'm Not Around", its guttural bass guitars and EDM-leaning vocal stabs not the only things reminding us the world would be weaker without this one.

Review: Veteran producer and the founder of Planet Mu, u-Ziq (real name Mike Paradinas) presents what is arguably his best album yet, though it will fly under the radar for those who are only interested in his early work. Like something between domestic house, beatific trance, and watery music for Atlantean holiday-letting, 1977 says it's a nostalgia trip to when Paradinas started making music under different monikers, when in actual fact it's the kind of thing we haven't ever heard him do to such an affecting extent. A family affair, Paradinas' partner Meemo Comma's voice peppers the album in a ripplingly soft manner, while a washed-out lounge mood, worthy of re-soundtracking the film Solaris, continues the album's instrumental charge.

Review: Back in 2002, the Detroit Electronic Musical Festival concluded with something rather special: a rare live performance from the Aux Men - an expanded and upgraded version of legendary Motor City electro outfit Aux88. This must-have CD presents that performance, complete with the original introduction from Eddie Fowlkes and DJ Bone, from start to finish. Full of spacey synth sounds, heavy beats, weighty bass, it's effectively a whirlwind trip through the history of both electro and Detroit's contribution to electronic music history. Thus, we get killer versions of 'Planet Rock', 'Shari-Vari', YMO's 'Computer Games', tons of Kraftwerk classics, a breathtaking interpretation of Art of Noise's 'Moments in Love' and rip-roaring takes on foundational tunes by Cybotron and Funkadelic..

Review: Stephan Betke has always pushed musical and conceptual boundaries with his work as Pole, perfecting a trademark sonic style that's both unmistakably his and fiendishly tricky to pin down. 'Tempus', his latest full-length excursion, is reportedly his attempt to "consider the connection between the past, present and future" and sees him pepper hazy, minimalistic electronic dub rhythms with a combination of classically fluid jazz instrumentation, enveloping ambient chords, wayward synthesiser sounds and heavily manipulated and processed instrumentation. The result is an album that sounds more human and emotionally rich than some of his more out-there excursions, whilst retaining the heady, dub-wise pulse that has always been one of his aural calling cards.

Review: After what seems like an eternity, Warp has finally decided to give Broadcast's Microtonics series a full release. Initially made available only to fans at gigs, the two-volume series saw the band experimenting not with their krautrock-influenced brand of trippy electronic pop, but rather the kind of music concrete and synthesizer experiments that were once the preserve of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Peter Zinovieff and the various modular synthesis fetishists that came in their wake. For that reason, it's not Broadcast at their most accessible, but if you're into vintage synth sounds and admirable experimental electronica, Microtonics makes for hugely enjoyable listening.

Review: Actress (Darren Cunningham) releases his ninth album to date, 'LXXXVIII', coming as the very first presentation of the artist's voyage into "luxury sonics". ?A lifetime in the making, 'LXXXVIII' is the culmination of 25 years' honing mind-shorting, soul-igniting audio infusions for dancefloors, rave dens, festivals and concert halls. Less grainy than earlier works like Ghettoville or more recent albums like XX2RME, this one recalls a more immediate approach, the same onee heard on his forum-bound free downloadable albums, working in a wider stylistic gamut from minimal to glitch.

Review: Over the last couple of years, author Justin Hopper has joined folk musician Sharron Kraus and vintage synthesizer fetishists Belbury Poly on stage to narrate sections of his 2017 novel "Old Weird Albion" - a "poetical, autobiographical and psycho-geographical account" of his experiences at Chanctonbury Ring in West Sussex. This album is, in effect, an extended re-recording of those performances, with Hopper reading choice excerpts from his book over an inspired fusion of traditional folk tropes - think recorder, flute, and drifting female vocals - atmospheric field recordings and 1970s style electronic instrumentation. Given that these synths have largely been used to re-record tudor style Baroque tunes (think "Greensleeves" and you're close), the results are not only delightfully eccentric but also admirably unique.

Review: It's nice to get a new edition of Muslimgauze's 'Emia Bakia', a long out-of-print and hard to find album from 1994, because the album remains one of the most unique in the late, great producer's vast catalogue. The set's uniqueness lies in the surprising shape and focus of the rhythms that Muslimgauze utilised on the album; while as percussion-rich as ever, and often cloaked in his usual dark ambient sounds, dub-influenced basslines and Eastern exoticism, the beats are regularly far more dancefloor-focused than you'd expect. This isn't otherworldly ambient dub, but rather some mind-altering mutation of psychedelic house music that still sounds like nothing else around.

Review: Past Inside The Present welcomes back accomplished and prolific ambient master zake, this time alongside Oss and Fax who released the original featured track, 'Polymorph' on Module. Here it gets revisited by a top contemporary team after the hazy and absorbing extended mix kicks things off. ASC then goes dark with his mood rework and Zake himself remixes with a more optimistic sense of crepuscular synth lushness. Aural Imbalance layers in some fizzing and malfunctioning electronic sounds, Ossa suspends you amongst his heavenly rays and Influx brings gently broken beats. Fax shuts down this varied offering with a more edgy ambient sound.

Review: Alan Myson's latest album as Ital Tek - his eighth for Planet Mu since debuting in 2008 - is an album of contrasts, offering aural darkness and light, intensity and becalmed beauty - and sometimes within the same track. It's rooted in ambient, experimental electronica and what would once be called IDM, but Myson has gone to great efforts to avoid stylistic cliches and well-worn tropes. As a result, it's unpredictable but addictive, with distorted creep-outs ('Heart String') and unsettling soundscapes ('Darking') sitting side by side with cuts smothered in glacial beauty ('The Next Time You Day') and melancholic, slowly unfurling sonic bliss ('Shattered').

Review: Since the release of his last album as Oneohtrix Point Never in 2020, Daniel Lopatin has kept himself busy. Yet for all the high-profile projects - scoring films, producing other artists albums and conjuring up The Weeknd's 2021 half-time show - fans have missed his solo work. Again, his 14th (we think) solo album, is therefore not only big news, but also a pleasingly grandiose conceptual affair - a musical "speculative autobiography" which reportedly imagines "what might have been". Musically, it's typically adventurous, constantly shifting between sounds, styles and instrumental textures; one minute you're hearing star-fall electronics mixed with choirs of children, the next neo-trance style riffs mixed with luscious strings or cinematic style orchestration. Like much of Lopatin's work, it inhibits its' own musical world, and there are very few artists capable of achieving that.

Review: Given the uniqueness of his madcap and mind-altering trademark sound, the release of any new album from Tom Jenkinson AKA Squarepusher is big news. Given that his last new full-length landed four years ago, the arrival of Dostrotime has got an awful lot of experimentalists in a bit of a lather. Like many albums that have surfaced in the last couple of years, it was apparently inspired by the "novel, eerie, sublime silence of lockdown", with the title being a reference to "how time passed differently". Quite how this plays out within the music itself is open to interpretation; for the most part, what's on offer is prime Squarepusher - all distorted, full-throttle acid lines, mutilated experimental D&B beats, analogue electronics and rasping, strobe-lit nods to raves,

Review: La Planete Sauvage, or Fantastic Planet to give its Anglicised name, is a landmark of animation. In technical terms, it's perhaps not the most advanced film to have come out in 1973, but the creative vision, storyline and atmosphere of Rene Laloux's film remains an enduring influence, and that's helped no end by Alain Goraguer's surrealist, expressive score. As the film celebrates its 50th anniversary, Decca are pulling out the stops for a high-end reissue that remixes and remasters Goraguer's score from the recently discovered multi-track tapes, including seven previously unreleased pieces and three alternative mixes.

Review: Tom Knapp has been skirting around the fringes of crunchy electronica for some time now, but he's really been hitting his stride as SDEM in more recent times. Having dropped some choice wares on the likes of CPU, Opal Tapes and Seagrave, now he makes the move to Skam, a label with a clear influence on the scuffed and gnarled machine funk he wrenches from his studio. It's music which takes cues from electro and hip-hop but comes on like futuristic matter pinged back a century or so and left to rust in the North Western drizzle for a couple of decades. Bursting with inventive approaches and packing a mean swagger, SDEM is the real deal for all beat freaks who like it crispy.

Review: Suicide are generally referenced in terms of their earth-shattering late 70s debut, but of course Martin Rev and Alan Vega did work together after that. A Way Of Life was their third album, released in 1988 when the world around them had changed so much from when they started out, and yet their sound was still devastating and imposing amidst the culture of bands they'd influenced. Recorded with The Cars' frontman Rip Ocasek, the resulting nine industrial pop songs are as brilliant as anything from their fabled earlier works, and in this special expanded edition we're also treated to a fully remastered version including a clutch of additional tracks including their live cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The USA'.

Review: Sean Bowie's fifth full-length as Yves Tumor arrives with an epic title (the academically minded will be debating its meaning for years to come), a grandiose electro-rock/post-punk goes-electroclash sound, and a bagful of valedictory reviews. It's basically an extension of Bowie's previous work with a few twists, but that's no bad thing; after all, the artist's distinctive sound and strong songs have always been an impressive calling card. Highlights are plentiful, from the fizzing, 21st century punk-funk of 'Lovely Sewer', and the Prince-does-Nine Inch Nails-flex of 'Parody', to the alternately jangling and sleazy 'Operator', and the post-ESG dancefloor heaviness of 'Fear Evil Like Fire'.

Review: During recent interviews, James Blake framed Playing Robots Into Heaven, his sixth album, as a kind of return to his club roots - an idea borne out by his decision to structure the album as a kind of imaginary "night out raving". Of course, this is Blake we're talking about, and while the album does lean heavily on the post-dubstep sound that made him famous (which itself drew as much from experimental electronica and outsider pop as dubstep, house or techno), it's not like he's suddenly turned into Ben UFO, Scuba or Mala. It's a highly enjoyable album, though, and one that combines his most familiar and cherished elements - heavily treated, emotive vocals, piano motifs, woozy electronics and ghostly chords - with grooves rooted in techno, house and UK bass. If you're a fan, you'll love it.

Review: Minamo (Keiichi Sugimoto and Tetsuro Yasunaga) returns to 12k following 2020's Superstition where they paried up with singer/songwriter Moskitoo. On Tail of Diffraction the duo joins long-time friend Asuna. A new name to 12k but not to the world of ambient and experimental music where Asuna's 100 Keyboards has toured stages around the world. Minamo and Asuna have shared the stage many times in concerts and tours over years, however, this is their first recording together. These artists are well known for their mix of electronic and acoustic instruments. Minamo often employs guitars, melodicas and small percussion instruments and Asuna's recordings with toy keyboards and reed organs are phenomenal. But on Tail of Diffraction they exchanged instruments for each song and played those they weren't familiar with, approaching each one with a naivete that spawned new discoveries. The familiarity of playing live together combined with surprising new instrument combinations resulted in a freshness and excitement much needed to them in a world that has been so shuttered. There is a soaring, almost optimistic quality to Tail of Diffraction. The timbres are very present and alive. The pads arc through sunlight with glittering gold edges and the guitars are tactile and seem to be exploring hidden possibilities. The final track features Reiko Seizo with a flickering vocal performance that further feeds the idea that this album is a ray of hope. Visual artist Michiko Fujita, whose work with silk thread that expresses delicate light and shadow, provided the artwork for the album which encompasses both the playfulness and desire to search that Tail of Diffraction so beautifully embodies.

Review: Richard H Kirk was rightly praised for 2020's Shadow of Fear, his first album since turning Cabaret Voltaire into a solo project back in 2014, and his recently follow-up EP, Shadow of Funk. Both distilled the essence of the Cabs' club-friendly industrial funk sound, re-formatting it for the 21st century. Dekadrone, though, is a different proposition altogether. Focused not on clubs but on immersive home listening, the four-phase, single track set removes Kirk's clanking, often paranoid beats in favour of dystopian aural textures (think dark, droning tones, abstract electronics, apocalyptic ambience and dirt-encrusted samples). Those who prefer the Cabs' more experimental, ambient-leaning works will love it.

Review: Standers is the second album by anonymous musician Craven Faults, amounting to a pilgrimage through sound to the ancient stone monuments that dot the region of northern England - known as standing stones or standers. Using vintage synthesizers and tape machines, the producer plunges the depths of English folk mysticism, coinciding with the nascent pagan revival that has cropped up in recent times. Sonically, meanwhile, each track moves through cinematic pulses, arpeggiating and filter-sweeping through nods to different eras and years; 1213, 1908, 1966.

Review: mSometime Coil affiliate CoH has spent the last few years combing his cutting-edge experimental techniques and love of mind-altering electronics with what counts - in his sphere of interest at least - as traditional rock and pop song structures. He continues that theme on WYGG: While Your Guitar Gently, a collection whose laudable attempts at accessibility are partially countered by his experimental instructs and love of curiously processed, otherworldly sounds. In truth, it's a very enjoyable and entertaining listen, with the long-serving producer combining fractured, manipulated guitar sounds with bullish, glitchy electronic rhythms, pulsating electronic motifs, copious amounts of mind-altering effects and a genuine sense of wide-eyed excitement. In other words, it's off-kilter minimalism dialled up to the max, with added musical vibrancy.

Review: As much as we all love vinyl, it's refreshing to see an artist who still wants to put out their music on CD, which is what we get here from Romare. His latest album Fantasy finds the widely admired artist take something of a new approach to his work. The man born Archie Fairhurst gets nice and abstract with his samples as he also layers in his own vocals and instrumentation. He has said the album was inspired by log walks and watching films doing lockdowns, and it shows. Hints of 70s fantasy cinema also features and his trademark off-kilter electronic rhythms and kinetic grooves also play a big part in making this one another winner.

Review: Although arguably best known for her angular, industrial-influenced techno output, Siliva Jimenez Alvarez AKA Jasss has proved adept at delivering oddball electronica, modular-rich ambient and the kind of scuzzy industrial pop of which Trent Reznor would undoubtedly prove. A World of Service, her sophomore album and first for Ostgut Ton, builds on the latter side of her sound while expanding into new musical territory such as autotune-sporting future R&B ('Luis'), buzzing downtempo darkness (the immersive and intoxicating, percussion-rich 'Busto'), leftfield 21st century synth-pop (the curious but excellent 'A World Of Service') and even a dash of jangling, radio-friendly cheeriness ('In Your Mouth'). An impossible album to pigeonhole, but one that's consistently excellent and genuinely worthy of further inspection.

Review: The latest Nurse With Wound release takes a deep dive into Stephen Stapleton's arhives and returns with a radically expanded version of 1990 set The Ladies Home Tickler, a typically eccentric and out-there blast of sonic surrealism crafted from tape loops, spoken word samples, weird noises, fractured electronics, and shards of bass, synth and guitar. In this edition, the original album's two lengthy tracks ('Duelling Banjos' and 'Registered Nurse') come accompanied by six previously unreleased cuts recorded during the same sessions, but previously unreleased. While one of these is an alternative take on 'Registered Nurse', the rest are increasingly wild and pleasingly freeform soundscapes in Stepleton's distinctive style. An essential purchase for dedicated NWW fans.

Review: It is now 23 years since Jeff Mills dropped his seminal Metropolis album, which was a shortened version of his electronic soundtrack for Fritz Lang's Metropolis movie from 1927. Mills is a famous futurist but his sounds work perfectly on this project which is a symbiotic mix of compositions that makes for a nuanced representation of the plot and storyline. It's a testament to his skill that his album is utterly timeless and wholly absorbing, and likely always will be.

Review: The latest artist to delve into Conrad Schnitzler's vast archive of synthesizer sounds and Con-Struct new tracks is Pole, AKA dub-tronica stalwart Stefan Betke. In the liner notes, Betke admits to never warming to Schnitzler's brand of synthesizer experimentalism, despite respecting the German pioneer's vast body of work. Yet despite these misgivings, Betke has produced an impressive set which melds some of Schnitzler's trademark electronics - woozy, evocative, out-there and occasionally hugely challenging - with his own glitch-heavy rhythms and dub techno inspired textures. The result is a collection of finely tuned tracks that effortlessly joins the dots between 1970s electronica, '90s IDM, and Betke's distinctly dub-wise production style.

Review: Klamm is the new label dedicated to the artistic output of Saele Valese. After "Ivic", a collection of old and new materials published on Alva Noto's label (NOTON) at the beginning of the year, Saele Valese releases now his first real album "A White, White Day". Written and recorded between 2018 and 2021 the material of this work was sliced, glued and recreated several times, just like a filmmaker in the editing process, before finding its final form. Inspired indeed by the most poetic cinema, 'A White, White Day' represents, in the form of a non-linear and enigmatic narrative, a personal and psychological reflection on time, memory and dreams. Mastered by Rashad Becker.

Review: Loraine James continues to trust her instincts and serve us some of the most honest and original music within the leftfield electronic sphere right now. Having recently paid tribute to the work of Julius Eastman on Build Something Beautiful For Me, now she retunes to Hyperdub with the record she claims the teenage version of her would have made. The label text makes explicit reference to the likes of DNTEL and Telefon Tel Aviv as well as math rock, but James is also way out in her own zone metabolising such influences into unique expression. There are some wonderful guest spots from the likes of RiTchie, Marina Herlop and Eden Samara, while James herself centres her voice for some of the album's most poignant moments. Gentle Confrontation is another outstanding chapter in James' ever-intriguing story.

Review: Ten years after she made her debut on Greco-Roman, singer-songwriter Tirzah drops her third studio album, a collection of imaginative and sugar-free love songs crafted with the help of frequent collaborator Mica Levi. Trip9Love, which was recorded over the course of a year at their homes and "various studios around South-East London and Kent", is relatively minimalistic in terms of the musical elements employed - think looped piano motifs, beats that sit somewhere between lo-fi hip-hop and hyper-pop, and Tirzah's now familiar voice - but still sounds surprisingly "big". It's a great example of a simple idea, executed brilliantly, with standout cuts including the infectious 'You All The Time', the ambient pop style 'Their Love', the gritty and crunchy 'Stars', and the flash-fried '2 D I C U V', where Polly Jean Harvey-esque guitars catch the ear.