Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The story of this unexpected collaboration dates back to the summer and autumn of 1998, when Bryn Jones aka. Muslimgauze, the politically conscious music genius from Manchester, discovered Species Of Fishes' albums through the Dutch label Staalplaat. Jones embarked on a journey of reinventing the Muscovites' tracks, infusing them with hypnotizing noise pulsations that were both harsh and sharp, yet profoundly humane, while evoking ethereal Arab echoes. The original remixes became the inaugural release on Species Of Fishes' self-titled label in 1999, with a limited circulation of 500 CDs. The first edition featured a selection edited from the original DAT cassette, accompanied by minor revisions, while the second one faithfully reproduced the entire studio session, providing insight into the creative process rather than focusing solely on the final result. In this new reissue, Species Of Fishes have curated the tracks, discarding repetitions, unsuccessful takes, and technical pauses. The result is a more dynamic compilation that retains the core elements of the original work while reducing the total duration by almost half.

Review: Sevdaliza's debut EP The Suspended Kid was first released in 2015. She put it out on her own Twisted Elegance label and at the time said that "The title is how people responded to me in social situations. I realised that those things that deflect me from social situations - not getting along with your coach or your boss or whatever - it made me realise I had to choose a different path."It is a highly creative work of experimental electronic which has since seen her go on to your 35 countries. Now for the fist time ever the album is pressed up to 2000 individually numbered copies of clear vinyl.

Review: Lord Of The Isles's Dusk Delay label kicked off with a bang and now carries on with a canter as Kimochi Sound and Hanagasumi regular Shine Grooves takes control of the second EP. It's one of his best yet with 'Picture Of Mood' layering up perfectly dreamy ambient keys and pads over a supple and minimal rhythm that is suggested more than solidified. There are more colourful cosmic soundscapes with the deep rolling 'Dance Ambient' then the experimental wonkiness of 'Sverdlovskaya Sonata'. Three further dreamy cuts complete the trip on the flip.

Review: American label Peoples Potential Unlimited has cared out its own superb niche in the world of heart aching, lo-fi funk. But here a new catalogue number seems to suggest a new series. It kicks off with French collective Spaced Out Krew and their timeless, boogie driven disco funk. The music was written during 2020 by Spleen3000 and Marius Cyrilou of Ceeofunk and right from the first note of 'Doudou Bourbon' it is pure class. There are starry-eyed melodies, rasping basslines and curious vocals that all add up to a nice cosmic disco sound.

Review: Music From Memory are spending some time exploring the world of music created for dance and performance. There's a common interest in experimentation between the mediums, but not at the cost of musicality, which comes here with a distinct 80s veneer. Gerard Stokkink has a thread of drama and poise about the vivid synthscapes of "Yellow Turtles" while the self-titled track from Ivory Playground calls to mind the delicate fingerpicking guitar you might expect to hear from Alexis Georgopoulos & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Atlantis Transit Project have a heavier tribal lilt to the percussion on "Bird Perspective", and Ramuntcho Matta's "Zoique III" holds a mirror up to the freaky disco drum work of Jan Schulte and Niklas Wandt.

Review: Voal is Shoal and Vand and is already a stamp of quality off this one EP alone if you like your techno deep. 'Carpet Crawler' is a great name for a track that is all about bendy bass and warped, low lying synth lines that creep like snakes thorough the undergrowth. 'Luficer' then has a more hiccupping deep tech rhythm that is embellished with spooky and watery sound effects. 'Saffron' is another mind melting trip through bendy techno brilliance and last of all, 'Take My Hand' slows things down and strips things back to more expert atmospherics.

Review: Even in its sparsest moments it's impossible to hide from the funk that 'Runden' seems to have been built upon, a bedrock of toe-tapping, head-nodding groove that's infectious as hell, making for some real ear worm tracks that take hold and refuse to let go - whether that's the laidback 1960s espionage movie score-worthy 'Mikado', the sparse plucks and stabs of 'Horch' or sexiest of the lot, 'Parallellen'.

It's hard to really put your finger on genres here - this entirely instrumental collection owes a debt to jazz and funk yet isn't really either. Its arrangements often follow the patterns set out in more open-mined and freewheeling electronica, but it's entirely organic and natural in sound. Perhaps oxymoronic, then, despite the obvious contradictions the recipe makes for a coherent and incredibly intelligent whole.

Review: It's eerie, deeply atmospheric, littered with what feel like found noises and strange abstract tones, but then rooted in impressive levels of musicality, possessing just enough form and structure to move beyond sound installation into full blown movements.

Or at least that's the case with the first part of this double release, Garden of Shadows & Light (Part 1), which sees melody used in almost abstract ways to bring emotional responses out of the listener. Meanwhile, Part 2 takes us into submerged realms that may or may not have something to do with whales. If all this sounds pretty out there then it should, after all this is Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Toop's live performance from The Silver Building in London in 2018, where the former performed sat at and inside a piano, while the latter used bone conduction and vibration motors among other things. Eccentric and innovative.

Review: Seoul-based duo Salamanda clearly struck upon a persuasive formula when they first cropped up on Good Morning Tapes in 2020. Somewhere between delicate ambient and a modern kind of deep house, their music carries a tenderness which feels absolutely at home on Facta and K-Lone's eminently soothing stable, Wisdom Teeth. In Parallel builds on the sound laid out on previous records for Human Pitch and Metron by presenting a more focused duo seemingly conscious of their rapidly grown audience and considering how to best build upon their tender sound without losing the charm. Threading subtle pop elements into their gossamer-light constructions, this is a rich, satisfying listen from a duo it's so easy to love.

Review: Never one to sit still, Sasha used the change in mindset that came with the lockdown to inspire his approach to music. LUZoSCURA (which means light and dark) is the new compilation that has resulted having evolved from the playlist of the same name. It's packed with new music from the man himself as well as newer names and more established artists. There are floaty, synth heavy ambient pieces like the 'Yin/Yang' opener, lush melodic electronic grooves from QRTR, symphonic garage cuts from MJ Cole and crunchy old breakbeats with more than a hint of Renaissance from Because Of Art.

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: 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: One of three Seefeel re-releases arriving together - shining light on the band's mid-90s 'Warp years' - St/Fr/Sp is the only one of these that has really never existed in the past. Comprising two EPs, Starethrough and Fracture/Tied, the outing also brings in a very rare Autechre remix of 'Spangle', making for a package that's got collector's item written all over it.

Musically, this is around the moment when Seefeel began to fully embrace the abstract and electronic, having just signed to Warp, and while the shoegaze of their past remains audible there are so many influences here plucked from beyond that spectrum. Embracing ambient, drone, rave chill-out, dub, acid, and psychedelia, this edition reflects two ends of that world - the blissful and largely astral first EP, and beat-driven and highly rhythmic second.

Review: Lorenzo Senni returns to the fray after a couple of years out with his highly advanced, emotionally charged electronics. After the scintillating run of EPs on Warp, he delivers his first album for the label he now calls home, and it builds on the sound he's established by fusing the heart-rending impact of trance with bold sequencing and processing that could only come from a smartly arranged tangle of internal computer processes. This is elegant computer music with guts, and exuberant blasts of personal expression rendered in glorious high definition. It's as good as everyone expects, and for that we should rejoice. Welcome back Lorenzo Senni!

Review: Music from Memory have coaxed a special one off long player out of the trio of talents that is Belgian producer soFa, German musician Houschyar and the legendary Turkish drummer and percussionist Okay Temiz. Second Circle is made from studio session that started back in 2018 and makes use of a number of homemade instruments. Plenty of overdubbing techniques have been sued to achieve the richly layered sound and each piece is an intoxicating and meditative study in otherworldly electronics and earthy percussion. A gloriously unique and original listen.

Review: Soffplaneten takes us deep into a world of downtempo delight with the Samlar Damm LP on Sunken Rock Recordings. It is an eight-track odyssey that veers from the gentle rhythms of the opener to the languid dub rotations of 'Kom Till Mitt Talt' complete with twanging guitars and soulful vocal seductions. 'Hoga Mamma Moln' is a more percussive and upbeat cut built from loose drums and tin pot percussion but held together with smeared and heat-damaged chords. 'Tunnelbanan' is a whacked-out and laid-back stoner joint while 'En Suddig Musik' gets more experimental and unusual in its sonic collage. A wonderfully irreverent new take on Balearic overall.

Review: Milan's Simone Trabucchi, whom we know by the name of Dracula Lewis thanks to a rich catalogue of related material, launches his new STILL moniker on Berlin's unfailingly explorative PAN label. The result, however, is something we haven't been exposed to before and, for Italian electronic music, it marks a fascinating new journey into the 'outernational' realm. Each one of these 9 sonic experiments is made up of peculiar ethnic blends that span from Rastafarian culture to Pan-Asian influences; most of them are tagged as 'riddims', attempting to form new and visceral forms of futuristic sound-system culture for the next century. We're not kidding when we say that this is the first time in a while that we've heard something genuinely different, genre-blending and in a sense, utterly mystifying. Dancehall is in all of these tunes' DNA, but the execution is peppered with all sorts of sci-fi-leaning tricks and electronics, making it the perfect sort of material for fans of both dance music cultures. Don't sleep on this one. It's another nutty episode of PAN.

Review: Alan Vega & Marty Rev's career as Suicide spanned an incredible four decades. During those years, they rarely if ever got much credit for their work but as is often the way, once time passed they started to get deserving plaudits and an ever growing status amongst fans and critics. Now said to be one of the most inspirational outfits of the 70s, they influenced everyone from Depeche Mode to Soft Cell. This brand new, remastered collection takes in tunes from all across the band's career and has plenty of big, raw, energetic and eclectic sounds with track from their first album in 1977 and most recent in 2002.

Review: Some six years after it first slipped out, Simon Hayes' third album of experimental techno as Swarm Intelligence returns to record stores. This is a welcome development, because Rust is a genuinely impressive full-length. It draws deeply on Hayes love of Industrial, EBM, murky instrumental hip-hop, dubstep and lo-fi techno, but is far more experimental in tone, with the producer cladding his fuzz-fuelled beats in all manner of heavily processed sounds, droning textures, unsettling noise and buzzing tones. For the most part it's intense musical paranoia, though there are frequent chinks of sonic light amongst the creaking doors, scattered rhythms and densely layered aural textures. As a result, it's a pleasingly balanced collection of cutting-edge compositions.