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Review: Well Curated is a series of releases and parties that - in its own words - "reflects the ethnomusicology of the last 50 years of music" - and aims to reach into all genres, merging classic styles and breaking down barriers. Steve Spacek occupies the A-side with the breezy broken beat and soul-in-space of 'Alone In Da Sun', while Lukid's 'Hair Of The Dog' is a more intense counterpart, with wobbling sub-bass and swirling, surging atmospherics hovering above.

Review: Analogue synth spooks rejoice, Pye Corner Audio is back with further explorations of the sweet spot between nostalgic fuzz and circuit-borne futurism. Ghost Box is a spiritual home for Martin Jenkins' flagship project, and he continues to edge out the scope of the Pye Corner sound without derailing the fundamental atmosphere. On The Endless Echo, warm, pulsing melodics set to eerie keys abound, and there's a fine balance between gorgeous ambient atmospheric pieces and sinewy, danceable rhythms, but Jenkins manages to sound fresh and inspired even while reliably holding true to the overall project aesthetic.

Review: The fledgling Detach label continues to show it means business with a new 12" in a lovely screen-printed sleeve. Romanian artist Dyl is the one in charge and has been serving up consistently excellent and innovative sounds now for serval years. All of these cuts mix up great sound design with languid rhythms - the first is eerie, with watery droplets and glassy tinkles hanging in the air, while 'Glasshouse 2' has a percolating rhythm down low. 'Glasshouse 3' gets a little more dynamic with a shimmering low end and freaky abstract life forms and 'Glasshouse 4' layers in more intense and ever-shifting synth lines while the closer sounds like it's roaming through a deserted factory long after it shut down.

Review: Lempuyang makes it to release number 15 with a devastatingly deep new EP from Deepchord Records co-founder Mike Schommer. He kicks off with 'Scapegoat' featuring the alluring vocals of Milly James which echo out over super slow-motion dub rhythms and icy pads. The Pole rework brings more crisp hits and distant eerie drones over a more pronounced rhythm but one that remains devilishly sparse. On the flip, 'Deceivers' has more hypotonic drive - a fleshy dub stepper to lock in any 'floor and then 'Believers' slows it down to a crawl once more. An essential dub EP that promises no represses.

Review: Vincent Fenton's FKJ project has been a delight to melt away in since first appearing some time back in 2013. His body of work has been measured but meaningful since then, with just his self-titled album to his name aside from a scattered selection of singles. The last we heard from the French artist was the Ylang Ylang EP, released in 2019 digitally on Mom + Pop. Given the EP's warm reception, FKJ has decided to put out a vinyl edition himself, and truth be told his smoky, soulful blend is perfectly suited to wax.

Review: Here's something to stir the hearts of all fans of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen's Panasonic/Pansonic project: a trio of long-lost remixes that were created, but for some reason never released, way back in 1996. Side A boasts an epic revision from long-serving Newcastle experimentalists Zoviet France, who turn an untitled Panasonic production into a ghostly trip through hypnotic, minimalist techno territory - all unearthly aural textures, drifting synth sounds and hazy, locked-in drums. Over on side B there's a pair of rare remix outings from the sadly departed Bryn Jones AKA Muslimgauze. He first wraps vocal sounds and twisted electronics around a raw analogue techno groove, before offering up one of his impeccable experimental ambient dub workouts. Of the two, this is undoubtedly the most mesmerising.

Review: Back in 2016, legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen approached techno pioneer Jeff Mills with the idea of working together. A series of live gigs and off-the-radar studio sessions followed, with the first fruits of their joint efforts finally appearing on this must-have 10". As you'd expect, the duo's collaborative work combines Allen's traditional Nigerian polyrhythms, traditional Afrobeat instrumentation, and the far-sighted, sci-fi inspired electronic futurism that has always marked out Mills' work. The result is a quartet of cuts that could arguably be described as retro-futurist Afro-tech - all delay-laden beats, basslines and organs subtly sparring with gentle acid lines, Motor City electronics, beguiling deep space textures and shimmering, 31st century motifs. It's arguably Allen's stylistic contributions that dominate, but that's no bad thing.

Review: Originally released in 2005, Silenced captures the essence of The Black Dog's enigmatic allure, transporting listeners to otherworldly realms with its lush, tuneful compositions and angular genius. Each track on the album is a testament to the group's unparalleled ability to surprise and entrance, evoking a sense of both unease and beauty. For fans of The Black Dog, Silenced serves as a welcome treat, while also serving as an entry point for those new to the group's mesmerising soundscapes. Definitelt one of their best full length albums yet to date.

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: The third full-length studio album from Singaporean singer-songwriter-producer Nat Cmiel (aka yeule) released to rave reviews earlier this September, following an ethereal rollout with singles 'dazies', 'ghosts' and 'inferno' showcasing exactly what yeule excels at: worldbuilding. 'softscars' is now the 3rd instalment in one of the most exciting album runs in modern alt-pop, shifting away from the glitchy, electronic ambience of predecessor 'Glitch Princess', moving in a more rock-centric, brighter direction. This isn't to say the album doesn't have its soul-crushing moments, opening track 'x w x' closes with a defiant scream of frustration, whilst the drums, guitar and synths fight each other for dominance - bottoming out into a gentle outro sequence. The calm after the storm. We could go on about this album for hours, as a yeule fan it feels so fresh but so perfect with it's oscillating directness in delivery. Whereas 'Glitch Princess' felt like travelling through a clastrophobia-inducing tunnel at time, 'softscars' is that moment you burst out of the tunnel and are hit with a huge green vista. It's my album of the year but, hey, what do I know?

Review: Burial drops his latest two-tracker on XL, two chaotic breakbeat balancing acts firmly rooted in rushy UK 'ardkore and day-glo 80s freestyle respectively. The A is a nail-biting, cavernous tweak out, which Burial pipes out into the darkest, most paranoid corners of the rave, exhuming frazzled dancers and inducing a queasy euphoria that any seasoned hedonists will recognise all too well. 'Boy Sent From Above', on the other hand seems to chart the passage of an obsessive, icy winter graff mission, with tinny drum machines, saccharine squarewave arpeggio hooks and spraycan samples harking back to the heyday of B-Boy electro, Miami freestyle and NYC breaking with devastating efficacy, albeit seen through Burial's unmistakeable misty-eyed LDN gauze; chrome and black over day-glo. Dreamfear marks yet another welcome switch up in Burial's artistic direction, and makes for one of the most evocative, moving and transporting entries in his much pored-over catalogue.

Review: Emotional Response has described soFa's fourth compilation for the label as "internationalism for the adventurous DJ", full of club music for the open-minded. It's basically an eclectic, esoteric musical travelogue that serves of intriguing, entertaining and admirable electronic music for those of a leftfield persuasion. There's much to enjoy, from the undulating melodies, off-kilter beats and mind-soothing chords of Infuso Giallo's 'Torus', and the moody techno-not-techno wave minimalism of Puma & The Dolphin ('Grass Drum'), to the analogue-heavy cold-wave dystopia of Houschyar ('Intercontinental'), the dark ambient techno of Lamusa II ('Artificial') and the tribal tinged electronic psychedelia of Bolva ('Rite II').

Review: Few bands have sidestepped expectations as cannily as Mount Kimbie. Initially a duo but now expanded into a quartet, the British band has previously excelled in mixing, matching and fusing a wide range of experimental and left of centre electronic music influences. On The Sunset Violet, their first full-length as a quartet, they've shifted sonically once more, leaning into their indie-rock influences on a set recorded in California. The latter aspect - and the impact of being surrounded by sunshine and desert - is reflected in the warmth and haziness of the sound, which draws on the layered vocals and guitars of vintage shoegaze while also reaching for more familiar aspects of the band's previous experimental electronic sounds (for proof, check the ghostly musical vision that is King Krule collaboration 'Boxing').

Review: Last year Burial and the Bug joined forces as Flame 1, delivering an in-demand EP on the latter's Pressure label featuring two sizable slabs of industrial strength soundsystem science. Here they return as Flame 2, once again offering up a pair of weighty dancefloor excursions. A-side "Dive" is a loud and claustrophobic affair, as the duo wraps dystopian dub bass and sparse, mutilated post-drill rhythms in layers of apocalyptic aural textures and mind-altering dub techno style processed noise. Flipside "Rain" is arguably more suitable for dancefloor plays and sees the esteemed twosome combine pulverizing sub-bass heaviness with dancehall style drums that come smothered in mind-melting effects and paranoia-inducing aural smoke.

Review: Composer, sound designer, musician, artist. Vienna-based Ulrich Troyer has a number of strings to his bow, all of which have played into a world-building process deeply rooted in dub and sound system culture. Releases on the likes of Deep Midi Musik are a good reference point for newcomers. Here, though, we're in less structured and formalised places, with two pieces - well, one and a bit - of abstraction waiting for you to get lost in. 'Track 1' certainly comes with the kind of low reverberations and effects that call to mind huge speaker stacks in smoke-filled places. But it's also kind of deconstructed journey, it harmonises distorted beats and rhythms with beautiful melodic motifs in a way that's as innovative and beguiling as it is instantly pleasing. Flip it to find something we won't even bother trying to define, a celebration of the remnants of that opening arrangement, perhaps.

Review: While Ben Frost's work has long been marked out by deft-touch dark ambient, experimental instincts and clandestine aural textures, he's always thrown in surprise excursions and drawn on musical inspirations that other like-minded producers would fear to embrace. This latter characteristic comes to the fore on Scope Neglect, his first solo set for six years. Remarkably, it utilises the moodiness, weight and ten-ton guitar licks of metal - played by Car Bombs guitarist Greg Kubacki and bass-slinger Liam Andrews of My Disco fame - as a starting point. Frost naturally puts these through the sonic wringer, combining them with his own skittish, IDM-influenced beats, dark ambient soundscapes and razor-sharp electronics. The results are unusual, impressive and emphatically enjoyable, sitting somewhere between timeless electronica, Nine Inch Nails and experimental metal.

Review: Perhaps slightly better known for his dancefloor-enlivening electro productions, this is actually the third full length ambient album from UK producer Emile Facey under the Plant43 moniker. He's been writing and storing up atmospheric synthesiser experiments alongside his dancefloor oriented output since his last ambient LP The Countless Stones released in 2020, and the eight tracks here are meditative, ethereal affairs, Facey carving out a beautiful set of vivid emotions out of crystal clear pure sounds and arpeggios rolling like gentle waves lapping at a shore. Imagine classic Tangerine Dream combined with the balance and poise of Global Communication and you're getting close.
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Review: This one has been a very long time coming indeed. Work on Hapticality began, whether Phataphysical really knew it or not, back in 2013, with tracks crafted between then and 2021. Not that you'd necessarily guess this was an eight year writing process, such is the coherency between the pieces, and the overall sense of being one complete work.

A deep dive to say the least, perhaps what's most astounding is the tangible atmosphere that each track creates individually, all of which contributes to a wider feeling. Hardly easy to achieve, die-hard fans of the ambient outfit, who claim so much more than mere reverence in the scene, will likely contest that point, and argue that they would expect nothing less from these masters of dream-like electronic adventures.

Review: In recent interviews, Justice explained that fourth album Hyperdrama - the wildly successful French duo's first for seven years - was born out of the idea of getting elements of disco, funk and electronic music to "fight with each other" (rather than smoother co-existence). Given the forthright and sometimes abrasive nature of their work, it's an idea in keeping with their career to date. Musically, what we get is a mixture of their usual electroclash and rave-inspired riffs and motifs, and basslines, strings and other instrumentation rooted in black dance music of the 1970s and '80s. When the fusion lands - as it does much of the time - it's a unique and thrilling fusion. For proof, check Tama Impala hook-up 'One Night/All Night', the Italo disco/jazz-funk/electro-house fusion of 'Incognito', and the wonderful slow-boogie mutation 'Saturine'.

Review: 
After his surprise drop with music writer and producer Blackdown on the Keysound label last month, the enigmatic Burial is now back with a fresh new EP all of his own. It comes on his longtime home of Hyperdub and features two more of his deft designed, ghostly deep dubstep post-nightbus joints. 'Chemz' is a strict raver filled with rushed up sounds, plenty of dance floor love and big hooks that is many different tracks, moods and vibes all rolled into one. As always, these Burial sounds look back to go forwards and do so in thrilling fashion.

Review: The first anyone heard from Robert Fleck was an early drop on Well Street back in 2018, and it's been quiet since then. Anyone following Well Street knows it's a hot tip for upfront artists in the fractured fissures of the UK underground, and Fleck makes a welcome return to prove the point. There's a lot of different touchstones you could point to on this release, from nimble-footed broken beat and a whiff of nu jazz orchestration, not to mention a bass music sensibility and an appreciation for deeper strains of UK techno. But more than all that, Fleck merges his unique spread of influences into something fresh and unique, comfortably slipping between conventional genre markings with the kind of flair we've come to expect from Well Street.

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: Burial's first full-length EP since 2012's 'Rival Dealer' hears the South London enigma plunge the depths of his newest dark ambient sound, wrenching the emo essences of rave from their breakbeats to produce a purely ambient affair. Spanning every emotion from depression to triumph, 'Antidawn' opens with a cough, in a seeming nod to the COVID lockdowns of recent years. Meanwhile, disparate sections buzz and weave in and out of one another on 'Shadow Paradise' and 'Strange Neighbourhood', never quite landing on their feet before being whisked away again. One of Burial's most defining world-building works.

Review: A collaborative new single by sampletronic master Kieran Hebden (aka. Four Tet) and guitarist and composer William Tyler, two acclaimed musicians and both longstanding friends. Part of a recent spewing-forth of Hebden-adjacent material to hit the shelves after the artist's oft-reported-upon "agent of chaos" phase, these two tracks, pressed to a furtive 12", provide a neat counterpoint to that assessment. Rather than a pair of riddim bangers, the record flaunts Hebden's signature electronic textures and Tyler's guitar into a hypnotic, nominally dark soundwhirl, reminiscent of the earliest days of Text, but with a unique edge - a sonic corner never quite scoured before by either artist.

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: British electronic duo Future Sound Of London celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2018. In From The Archives Vol 9, unpublished tracks from their extensive archives see the light of day for the first time spanning the period from the early 1990s to present day. Discover progressive electronic experiments from the depths of the FSOL catalogue - timeless and innovative expressions in IDM such as "Semi Conscious Participant" or "Super Tide" could have been created during any era, through to sublime ambient house excursions like "Ocea" or "Riverbed". Upbeat moments can be heard on the drum 'n' bass influenced "Without You It's Meaningless" or the blustering beats of "Oska Traveller.

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: Apart from having one of the best and most singular names in electronic dance music, The Future Sound Of London have been one of the pillars of modern UK dance music, pushing through a mixture of house, techno, and breaks since the early 1990s - and, in fact, some of their tunes like "Papua New Guinea" are still getting regular play time in clubs today. While they have released a huge amount of music over the last 25 years, they've got an equally vast amount of unreleased gold in their treasure chest, a collection of tracks that have seen the light of day thanks to the present Archived series. This week it's time for the series' eighth instalment, another twelve unmissable bundles of electronic delight. However, this is a lot more than just a compilation, and the tunes work their fine mixture of melodies, breaks and electronic beats into a sublime collection of sounds. If you're into vast and explorative music with a cutting-edge, you needn't look any further.

Review: 'Cutetronica' (for want of a better pun, perhaps) has been making recent waves in experimental electronic music circles, with artists like Boy Lucid, Toiret Status, Dialect or any other number of net-bound trailblazers building convincing, glitzy-shiny soundworlds. Mari Maurice, aka. More Eaze, is another expert in the field. Her latest eight-track LP nods to something between acoustic folk and slippery-plastic fantasy; from the off of 'Gentle Pets', it's as if a small child had gone wandering in a field and dropped their Nintendogs cartridge with such force that it caused the game's virtual universe to spill over into our world, with veritably soul-quelling results. The album errs off into darker and more emotive moments, as on 'Suped' or 'Goodnight', but this is for the most part a light-hearted yet emotionally complex LP, neither for the faint or the heavy of heart - it strikes just the right balance.

Review: Melodies International is a real favourite label here at Juno HQ, headed up famously by Floating Points and finds including Mafalda. The third volume of their Melodies record Club is as good as anything the label has put out to date: it features a trio of jazz cuts selected by the one and only Hunee. First is Digital Justice's 'Theme From "It's All Gone Pearshaped"', a 13 minute live jam packed with synth action. On the flip is a spiritual piece from harpist Dorothy Ashby and Frantz Tuernal's 'Koultans'. Says Hunee, "these three distinct pieces of music tap into different layers of my memory."

Review: Uganda keeps on giving, with the country currently at the forefront of sub-Saharan Africa's electronic underground: a fertile corner of the world in terms of emerging and established talent. Enter Hibotep, a Kampala-based rising star who was born and raised in Ethiopia but grew up in Somalia. Joining her on this EP, another one to know from the Ugandan capital, Hibo Elmi, a DJ, filmmaker, fashion designer, installation artist, rapper and studio head considered to be one of the most important female dance music makers on the continent right now. Running the gamut from 'Amber''s dark, hypnotising dub-hop moves, through 'Ebwino's sparse, weightless tones, which eventually give way to playful stepping rhythm beneath the relentless microphone skills of MC Will'stone, and 'Saffron' with its slow mo, exotic shuffle, if those responsible for this EP themselves reflect the incredible diversity of the city's scene, the sounds do the same.