Back catalogue: All genres

Review: NX12X is the first in a new series of experimental records from this label and the artists given the keys for the inaugural release are Goldsmiths student and modular synth maestro Sam Hostettler and electronic innovator La Leif who tackle a pair of tracks each. Hostettler's sounds are the moody, heavy ambient atmospheres of 'Pointalims' and the more light and airy li-fi soundscapes of 'Opalescence.' La Leif offers broken beats with a skeletal feel and a burial-style synth aesthetic on 'Kyoto' and then crunchy breaks and fizzing, distorted synth malfunctions of 'Kimochi.'

Review: Neil Landstrumm is one of the UK's most underrated but high-achieving artists if you ask us. He's done it all over the years and has been pivotal to a number of different in-between sounds flourishing into scenes. Here he lands on a fellow UK institution in Swamp 81, once a home to cutting-edge bass and now offering an outlet for Landstrumm to explore the cosmos. He does so with his usual mix of quirky sound designs and heavy grooves on 'Minimoo' which is both serious body music but also playful and charming. 'Aintgotnojob' is a twisted juke-inspired B-side with reverberating low ends and tightly looped vocal phrasings that melt the mind.

Review: Le Motel, le hotel, les Holiday Inns. Wherever you choose to stay after your raving trip, be sure to pack this wonderful collection from the innovative Belgian craftsman Le Motel. Delivered by the ever-impressive Yuku collective, the whole EP flexes the spectrum in terms of tempos and influences. From the deep ploughman techno swing of 'Raving Crew' to the electroid funk and percussive fire of 'Helix' via the cumbia-inspired and turns of the minimal head-bender '429 Too Many Requests', this is an exceptional journey into the more esoteric side of breaks and club music. Essential.

Review: Two proper peaches from the melodic end of the house/techno spectrum from Samantha Poulter aka Logic1000. 'Perfume' sees the Sydney-born, Berlin-based DJ and producer adding several layers of bittersweet vocals to a chunky and lightly-embellished-breaks house groove. Flip track 'Blossom' comes up equally smelling of roses with a more progressive-slanted instrumental vibe that's equally playable. The sweet smell - and sound - of success.

Review: Matt Cutler has made many great records as Lone, with recent album Always Inside Your Head being particularly impressive. This similarly laudable EP offers fresh, alternative takes on album tracks. The headline attraction is arguably SHERELLE's B-side opening take on 'Visited By Astronauts', a wonderfully dancefloor-centric fusion of pulsing ambient chords, bittersweet lead lines and skewed D&B beats. Predictably, Cutler hits the spot on each of his three reworks too. The 'Mouth of God Part 2' version of 'Nautical Aerials' is a rush-inducing slab of colourful breakbeat dreaminess - sunrise-ready for sure - while the 'One Thirty Mix' of 'InLove2' adds ambient techno style acid motifs and stirring pads to an extra-percussive house beat. Throw in a terrifically meditative ambient mix of 'Echo Paths' and you have a great all-round EP.

Review: Lurka ended the year on a high with a kick-ass new EP on his own new label Make Your Own Meaning. He is now set to start 2023 in an equally strong fashion with four more futuristic bass fusions. 'Wire' is a minimal stepper with bursts of bass and flitting percussive lines. 'Molten Drum' is another twitchy mix of malfunctioning computer sounds, refracted vocals and fizzing synths that keep you on edge then 'Machine' picks ups the pace with jumpy rhythms and militant snare work. 'Zone (Packet)' rounds out with a double-speed workout and juke patterns that head out on a cosmic journey.

Review: Pangaea and Leonce's collaboration feels like a natural evolution of their respective sounds. 'Dusted' takes the more energetic route, drawing from UKG's signature drum patterns and crisp, chopped-up vocals. There's a weightlessness to it that feels characteristic of Pangaea's style, with the track riding that fine line between chaos and precision. It's rapid but controlled, capturing the essence of the UKG sound without resorting to tired cliches. On the other hand, 'Stuck' leans into a more understated vibe, pulling from the foundation of 90s US club music. It's relaxed, more patient in its progression, with a warm, spacious quality that contrasts nicely with the jitteriness of 'Dusted.' The contrast between the two tracks showcases the range of both artists: while they're clearly rooted in different scenes, they've found a way to merge their influences in a way that feels both fresh and familiar.

Review: Frequent Jeremy Greenspan and Morgan Geist collaborator Jessy Lanza was hailed as a future star on the release of her 2013 debut album, Pull My Hair Back. That album projected her as some kind of New York freestyle chanteuse dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, backed by an all-electronic band fascinated with the potential of future R&B and left-of-centre synth-pop. This belated follow-up, which was once again produced in cahoots with Jeremy Greenspan, is even better. Colourful, vibrant and attractive, the ten songs are truthful to their '80s NYC inspirations, but smartly avoid the pitfalls of such blatant retro-futurism. In other words, it's a superb collection of future R&B and pop gems.

Review: Hyperdub continues to stamp its authority down on a wide variety of electronic music, in this case throwing the light, bouncing club-ready sounds of Canada's Jessy Lanza into the mix of a back catalogue that touches on everything from ambient to dubstep and footwork. But, while we open on the snare-happy garage-house of 'Don't Leave Me Now', and tracks like 'Drive' also look to the dancefloor, things don't stay there long. 'Don't Cry On My Pillow', for example, is a low stepping piece of alternative electronic soul. 'Big Pink Rose' opts for synth refrains and staccato drums to create a steamy, heady neon r&b brew with added yacht. 'Double Time' deconstructs pop balladry and makes it sound lo-fi yet huge, 'I Hate Myself' seems to take a lead from tropicalia-hued, leftfield electronica.

Review: While punk imprint-turned-electro and bass outfit Bunker Records specialises in 'dark electronic music for mutants' (as they put it), the Den Haag-based imprint is not averse to offering up oddball excursions and releases that are formidably hard to pigeonhole. We perhaps shouldn't be too surprised, then, to find them offering up a first label outing from Lunatika, a trap and drill rapper from the Hague whose Split Second Origins Part 1 LP is restlessly brilliant and impossible to describe. His raps - sometimes doused in auto-tune - are a constant, as is a lo-fi sound that pushes booming basslines and lo-fi beats to the fore. Bolted onto this framework are nods to mutant hip-hop, chopped and screwed R&B, dub, UK bass and his beloved drill and trap.

Review: Making their debut on Warp, Hudson Mohawke and Lunice proudly cross their beams to rain down a sick and slick kind of future-crunk, aptly demonstrated in in the introductory nature of bass-rich teaser "Top Floor" with its juke leanings and menacing posture. There's a detuned nature to the recognisable bleeps and wails on offer here while the beats remain crunchy and steadfast. "Higher Ground" is more overt in its use of juke to create a twisted kind of hype, while "Bugg'n" drips and drops in a loping vat of sub bass and slow-mo strangeness, leaving you with one of the oddest takes on the contemporary mess of electronic beats.