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Review: Who, or perhaps what, was Tomo Akikawabaya? In truth, nobody really seems to sure on the answer, other than the fact this mysterious Japanese artists decided to release a serious of incredible synth-driven singles during the 1980s, before vanishing back into the dry ice of whatever smoke machine they escaped from. A musical genie, here only to bestow a limited number of gems on us, and then disappear forever. Swerving interviews and photos doesn't help the search, but The Castle II at least allows us to explore his work in depth, across several tracks. These range from the twisted cabaret weirds of 'Objet D'Amour', to the driving electro-punk of 'Le Voleur', grand and decidedly 1980s-sounding synth rock on 'The April', and New Romantic-esque pop on The Castle (II). Essential stuff.

Review: Kevin Drum is often cryptic in his work and that didn't change here on OG23, a record on Streamline that after a long wait for fans now arrives, at last, on vinyl. It features just two pieces of music, one on each side, and both are isolated soundscapes from deep under the surface of the sea. The Chicago artist layers up subtle drones and spaced-out electro signifiers, otherworldly ambiance and deft sound designs that all empty your mind and allow a little paranoid to seep in, such is the creepiness of their atmosphere. It's a magnificent work of quiet artists that is stuffed with evocative sonic imagery.

Review: Peak Oil welcomes UK duo Wrecked Lightship for 'Antiposition', a debut EP on the label from the pair of Laurie Osborne (once known as Appleblim) and Adam Winchester aka Dot Product. The pair refine their sound and bring a range of innovative rhythms here with elements of dub, d&b, tribal sounds and deft sound design across hard-to-define cuts. 'Hex' is a cosmic broken techno trip, 'Bizarre Servants' is a slower and heavier dub and 'Sunken Skies' is prickly and kinetic as it flirts with live sounding drum & bass tropes and 'Diminished Ark' as well as with wispy sine waves, refracted melodies and barely there rhythms.

Review: Here we have the remastered edition of Robert Lippok's Open Close Open. Originally released in 2001 on the well-respected German glitch ambient label Raster Noton, the release has built a strong buzz about it. Late last year, the decision was to remaster the EP to the delight of the fans. The first 'Open' is very minimal with a very sparse beat to it. Glitch ambient and the cuts and click style of that period is wonderfully represented by this sound. To most fans of the release, 'Close' is the reason for the buzz. The combination of field recordings, glitch and a beautiful almost movie like soundtrack to it, makes this piece one of the most beautiful ambient pieces in the genre of glitch ambient. Hearing this remastered, really brings out the beauty even more so. This new version also features the very worthy piece 'Licht' to close out the release. It is very fitting that the amazing Morr Music honor this piece by releasing it.

Review: Arv & Miljo's new album delves into radical environmental activism and draws from the Swedish Plogbill movement's early 90s actions alongside Earth First! and Earth Liberation Front. Mixing monologues, interviews, protest songs, and site recordings with raw kosmische synth music, the pair crafts a mesmerising audio collage. Chaotic yet harmonious, disorienting yet soothing, the album reflects dedication, passion, and the spirit of change. Originally a limited CDR release in 2021, it quickly became a highlight in Arv & Miljo's discography. Now on, Jorden Forst offers a multi-faceted journey through environmental activism and the human spirit's resilience.

Review: Sergey Dmitriev and Nikita Chepurnoi resurface as Amkarahoi, the experimental project which, the release notes tell us, have prepared an album that "conjures ghosts of 90s chill out tents, aqueous ambient, exploratory turn of the century IDM and echoes of jammy dub." Borne from a largely improvised show that took place in Saint Petersburg, overdubbed and mixed down, it's patient yet wildly exploratory stuff. Amkarahoi is the name of a remote Siberian region and it's easy to see why the pair picked it for this project's name. Uncle Reed In The Purple Mine sounds desolate and sparse, but once we hone in on the details we realise it's taking us though cold, barren atmospheres and into warm, E-hued soundscapes. A thoughtful yet spontaneous slice of immersive ambient you won't regret committing to.

Review: Scottish electronic oddity Murray Collier returns on his own Real Landscape imprint - the sole preserve of this production alias - for a self-titled outing. His fifth release under the moniker certainly confirms what we already knew; this project is the work of a musical auteur, and is every bit as unique to the talent behind it as the label and EP name. Attempting to describe what's here isn't easy, then. 'The Conversation' uses mechanically precise percussion to lay out its otherworldly groove. 'Thin Ayrshire' goes lo fi and psychedelic, a track that sounds almost like a rural ritual being performed by a lost humanoid species. 'I'll Get To Hiding' is delightfully lackadaisical in vibe, strutting, shuffling, and stepping its way through what could be categorised as pop-r&b fed through the weird machine, and even that wouldn't come close.

Review: The enigmatic Light Sounds Dark label often seem nigh but murmurers of the electronic music underground, though they're best known for their reissue compilations of 80s synth rarities. Though that's not their entire scope, with no end of new solo LPs in the vein of textural dub, wilfully obscure ambient and new wave also gracing their register. Ever mysterious, but not having released new label material since 2018, they're now back on their business with the first volume of their Intersection On The Point Of Parallel, consisting of 14 unnamed, gothic glimpses of the dark, melted-ice sublime. Beginning on a note of cacophony before teasing later chord-driven emotes and ersatz falls into droning hell and temperate acid rainforests, there's a sonic biome here for every musical temperament, from open pearl to hard-cased extremophile.

Review: Intersection On The Points Of Parallel Vol. II is the second volume in the eponymous series from mysterious, largely new wave and post-punk oddity reissues label, Light Sounds Dark. Fittingly, and perhaps as it should be, very little info accompanies this incredible new release, allowing us to figuratively melt into the music here. With nineteen tracks of excess wonderment - teased out through found object tinkerings, circuit-bent synths, and pre-DAW hardware wringouts - you can be sure that every track here was sourced from the deepest, darkest depths of '70s-80s tape-bound Tartarus. Notable moments include the B1 and B2, both droning, but one serving as the rhythmical counterpoint to the doomy other, and the C3, an impossible-to-place coldwave experiment that sounds like something between a Dillinja throwaway and a DZ Lectric lost cut.

Review: There's something special in the water here. The Knife's Olof Dreijer presents three sprawling tracks on a new EP marking the start of a fresh chapter in his career, with the opener, 'Coral', starting the scoring with a strange and captivating bit of what you might call micro-techno. A lo-fi kind of workout that marries beautiful harmonic tones with a hoover bass in a way that almost calls to mind 'Rainforest' era Mathew Johnson, only more organic and live feeling. Overleaf, so to speak, 'Flora' invites us to sit on a cloud of gentle strings and mesmerising noises, like reliving a precious but now-faint memory, delicate enough to break. Meanwhile, 'Hazel' takes us back down to Earth, its slowly unfolding, muffled steel drum melodies feeling strangely homely while also not of this place, this here and now.

Review: Ilian Tape's ITX Series provides another opportunity to sink into some deeply escapist ambient and drone soundscapes from the usually dance floor-focused breakbeat and techno label. MPU101 has served up a few of these EPs before and they always find them coax plenty of magic out of their analogue machines. 'TEAM 700_76' is a nice and bleary-eyed post-Blade Runner soundtrack, 'BLOCK-1_2AREA666' has a darker undercurrent of menace, 'TrailerparkBeauty' brings some twinkling celestial keys and 'Sunset Memories' closes on frazzled chords that speak of heat damage from a scorching sun.

Review: Finally, the debut Bochum Welt album Module 2 has been reissued after an initial run on Rephlex. Bochum Welt (Gianluigi Di Costanzo) has just recently celebrated 30 years of releasing music. His brand of IDM, electro and techno has been often copied but never equaled. His futuristic music seems to always be forward thinking and ultimately, timeless sounding. This edition is on matching green vinyl and includes all the classic material of the first release. Fans of AFX, Squarepusher and Cylob are sure to be aware of Bochum Welt. But for those who aren't....

Review: French outfit Chateau Flight have spent two years in the studio making music, playing around and experimenting and now the fruits of that work are presented on this new album La Folie Studio. It is full of the sound of analogue machines conversing and the artists themselves speaking through their darkened basslines or eerie pads. Occult worlds are crafted, ambient soundscapes are cooked up and leftfield cosmic explorations occur throughout a journeying album full of a wide range of emotions. This lovely record features guests on the odd track such as Johnny Nash on guitar, Cosmic Neman mumbling on 'Mange', John Cravache playing 'his special organ" and Bony Bikaye singing on 'Esika Molimo Ezali'. It's an occult world of left of centre sound that will keep you coming back for more.