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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: 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: 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 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: 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 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: 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: 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?