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Review: Alluvium is the third in German experimental producer Stefan Goldmann's series of albums exploring the "first principles" research of metric asymmetry. Exploring new structural paths for machine rhythm in irregular metres, the album seems non-binary patterns running simultaneously, moving in and out of interlocking focus, across twelve offerings of "jagged polyrhythmic magic". With Veiki (2019) and Vector Rituals (2022) already gaining him a growing fan base for his unexpectedly constructed but melodically lush compositions, Alluvium is sure to be well received by those with an ear for the previously undiscovered terrains of leftfield electronics.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: There's something undeniably tactile about Japanese composer Ikeda's Ultratronics which here comes as a special Japanese Edition on CD. The bass is metallic and dense, the grainy and glitched-out synths ringing out in a mathematical tempo on tracks like 'ultratronics 05'. There's a philosophy of high art, a scene that Ikeda has dabbled in before with installations and exhibitions, that is a hallmark of Japanese electronica composers old and new. The album has just as many pared-back moments (like in 02 and 07, scattered throughout vocal samples of rocket and space radio transmissions) as it does hardcore electronic industrial thrashing (06 and 14 spring to mind for mind-blowing explosions of synths).

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: 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: Confusingly, two staggering out-there experimental albums arrived in 1992 bearing the same title: Thunder Perfect Mind. One came from Current 93, a group led by David Tibet featuring Nurse With Wound founder Steven Stapleton. The second was the latter's own experimental musical meditation on the same musical theme - a follow-up to the classic Soliloquy For Lilith that was, if anything, even darker, weirder and more intense than Current 93's paganistic LP. This expanded reissue presents a remastered version of the original two-track set on disc one - complete with musical contributions by Colin Potter and David Tibet - and a wealth of rare, unreleased and recently unearthed contemporaneous material on CD2. It's the ultimate version of an inspiringly out-there set.

Review: Seven arresting, original new exercises from E-Saggila aka Canadian producer Rita Mikhael. She wears her love of dub on her sleeve - see the slow motion skank of 'Amnesiac' aming others - but not in the usual reassuring, bubbling echoes of dub techno, aiming for something much more angular and alarming. "Breaks remain staccato hammers," says the blurb, with maximum accuracy, "and kicks are cast to negate cardiac systems," while the rhythms veer from off kilter to nailed down and the sonics vary from the lush to the caustic. This territory to the left(field) of electronica is over saturated with identikit productions, but Mikhael does it like you've never quite heard before.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Since he first emerged on Diagonal a decade ago, Powell has been associated with abstract rhythms, hard-edged electronics, modular madness and fearsome experimentation. Piano Music 1-7, then, is something of a departure: a set that's as equally as inspired by piano jazz and neo-classical musical movements as fractured electronica and the Radiophonic Workshop. Of course, this is not piano music in the Nils Frahm sense - much of the actual piano motifs are delivered on lo-fi keyboards and synthesizers, while his fluid, attractive and ultra-melodic refrains come wrapped in studio effects and occasional electronic textures. A great example of this hybrid sound is 'Piano Music 4' - all alien electronics, woozy piano riffs and unsettling experimental intent, while the raw beauty of shimmering ambient number 'Piano Music 7' is simply sublime.

Review: Jason Barton is one man, London based experimental project BArTc. Insubstantial As Ghosts is his 14 track debut album and it comes on the label run by Colin Potter, who is well known for weird electronics thanks to his time as a member of Nurse With Wound. Barton has said that influences include Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Chris Watson and industrial legends such as Coil, Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten. The music is built in many layers of synths, found sounds and environmental recordings. It results in organic and experimental sounds that are heavily distorted with various effects.

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: 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: Thanks to countless reissues of her impeccable new age ambient masterpiece, 'Through The Looking Glass', many more people are now familiar with the work of Japanese percussionist, producer and composer Midori Takada. Even so, 'Tree of Life' remains one of her lesser-celebrated albums - despite being a genuine masterpiece of minimalism and melodic percussion instrumentation. Here reissued on CD for the first time since the album's initial 1999 release in Japan - and this time with a new audiophile-friendly mix from Takada - the set blends xylophone, marimba, kalimba and other percussion instruments with Japanese style strings, strong melodies and nods towards the American minimalism of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

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: Given that he started experimenting with tape loops and electronics way back in 1965, Asmus Tietchens may well be one of the longest-serving avant-garde artists in the World. He has released a ridiculous number of albums over the years, with 'Ptomaine' originally appearing as a triple-vinyl affair in which each track was separated by a locked groove. The album has finally been reissued on CD but split into a number of different releases. This is the second and it's an undoubtedly adventurous affair - a suite of three movements (each split into multiple tracks) based around a combination of unusual, sometimes backwards, tape loops, discordant drones, unsettling soundscapes, decaying industrial beat-scapes and bizarre but inspired sound collages.

Review: Nosaj Thing's fifth studio album, 'Continua' - his first full-length excursion since 2017 - earned plenty of plaudits when it first appeared on streaming platforms in the autumn. Listening to this belated CD edition, it's easy to see why. Warmer, deeper and dreamier than much of his work, it begins with the picturesque pianos-and-ambient pads of 'Continua' and ends with the drowsy, slow-motion electronic dream pop of 'Different Life' with vocalist Eyedress. In between, he shuffles between deep, breakbeat driven dreaminess ('My Soul or Something', with KAZ), chopped and screwed aquatic soul (the serpentwithfeet-sporting 'Woodland'), gently jazzy ambient soul ('Grasp', which features a trio of guests), ethereal hip-hop wooziness ('Look Both Ways' with Pink Siifu) and impeccable ambient pop (Panda Bear hook-up 'All Over').

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: 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: For the uninitiated, Robin Crutchfield was one of the key early figures in New York's infamous "no wave" music scene, first as part of influential band DNA and then as the leader of his own outfit, Dark Day. This essential three-CD set tells the story of the hard-to-pigeonhole outfit's original incarnation between 1979 and 1989, offering a chronological trip through the pitch-black corners of the unique combo's slim but perfectly formed catalogue. The Dark Day sound was undoubtedly unique, with Gary Numan-ish synth sounds and arty, stylised vocals being underpinned by heavy, loose-limbed rhythms provided by two drummers. The accompanying booklet tells the story of the band in decent detail, too, making it as much an introduction as a celebration.

Review: Back in 1977, former Tangerine Dream member Klaus Schulze wrote, recorded and subsequently released Body Love, the soundtrack to a now notorious German pornographic movie of the same name. He'd recorded too much material though, so this second volume appeared a few months later. As with previous reissues (it is considered one of Schulze's most accessible albums), the edition also contains bonus cut 'Buddy Laugh', though it's the first three cuts - and specifically the near half-hour opener 'Nowhere - Now Here' - that are the most satisfying. Entirely created using his beloved synthesizers, the music mixes rhythmic electronic pulses, mind-altering noises, and some seriously spacey, elongated solos - plus (in the shape of 'Moogetique') some ghostly, otherworldly ambient. If you loved Dark Entries' releases of Patrick Cowley's brilliant porn soundtracks, you'll love this.

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: Featuring material recorded 30 years ago, the 12th volume in the late Klaus Schulze's La Vie Electronique series features two full pieces (one split into three movements over two CDs) that first surfaced on the long-serving electronic experimentalist's 10-disc Silver Edition box set in 1993. 'Picasso Geht Spaziren' ("Picasso Goes For a Walk") holds the title of Schulze's longest released composition - a sublimely spacey, two-and-a-half hour synthesizer exploration that was initially intended to be used as the soundtrack to a German movie. The second piece is 'The Music Box', a warmer and more colourful journey through synthesizer-driven ambient which was named in honour of a Laurel and Hardy movie and was later used by one institution as part of music therapy sessions with serious alcoholics.

Review: Since its release way back in 1968, The Perfumed Garden has become a much-discussed cult classic. It's certainly a unique offering, with the whole thing built around Indian vocalist and poet Chitra Neogy's sultry and expressive spoken word interpretation of a centuries-old erotic text that has been likened to the better-known Karma-Sutra. Neogy's spoken word vocals, which often come drenched in reverb, are simply sublime, with some tracks consisting merely of these inspired readings. Where the album really comes alive, though, is when her words are given musical accompaniment - think sitar, tabla, strings and more - from an ensemble of experienced Indian musicians. An oddball gem that's well worth further investigation.

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: 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: Named in honour of an experimental silent movie of the early 1920s, Polish duo Nanook of the North are a unique proposition: a collaboration between composer/violionist Stefan Wesolowski and electronic musician/guitarist Piotr Kalinski that defies easy categorization. Heide, the pair's second album, was recorded pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and its' musical blend of effects-laden ambient electronics, simmering strings and acoustic guitar motifs was reportedly inspired by "wildness and untamedness". It's a genuinely brilliant, ultra-atmospheric affair that uses repetition magnificently (a nod, we'd argue, to American minimalism) and benefits from guest contributions from mezzo-soprano Margarita Slepakova.

Review: Harald Uunk's take on techno may be angular, electronic and refreshingly avant-garde, but his creative inspirations are far more natural. Unseen, his expansive debut album, was not - as some may assume given its sonics and largely dystopian feel - influenced by the urban environments in which he lives and works, but rather his frequent adventures in the countryside. That's not immediately evident, but if you close your eyes and listen intently, the various off-kilter polyrhythms, distorted electronic motifs, ghostly electronics and dubbed-out textures soon conjure mind images of stumbling around dark woods and fields in moonlight and pre-dawn drives down deserted rural roads in the Netherlands' most isolated spots. More importantly, it's a hugely enjoyable and evocative beast, even if it does tend towards the dark, intense and unsettling.

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: 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.

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