ANNIE HALL Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Second time around for Annie Hall and Plant 43's fabulous Elephant Road mini-album, which first appeared in stores way back in 2009 and has become a sought-after record in recent years. It's the quality of music on show that makes it such an essential purchase. Hall handles side A, sashaying between the dancefloor-ready IDM beauty of 'Ansia (featuring Aracnoid)', the bustling, Autechre-do-'80s electrofunk flex of 'Natron', and the deeper, more immersive 'Wine & Beats'. Plant43's side is equally as inspired and sees him flit between spooky, rolling club cuts (the bleeping 'The Eldrich Meadow'), sun-soaked IDM positivity ('Extra Solar') and deep space electro (the sparkling and shimmering 'Corporeal Boundaries').

Review: Some three years after making her first appearance on Central Processing Unit, storied electro star Annie Hall (real name Ana Artalejo Moreno) returns to the Sheffield-based label with another fabulous four-track missive. It's a pleasingly varied affair, with the sometime Semantica contributor confidently striding between deep, melodious, laidback, IDM-influenced fare (the undeniably emotive, occasionally bittersweet 'Memories That Never Happened'), shimmering and sparkling, sci-fi-seeped 21st century electrofunk ('Problematic Tape Recorder'), Autechre-influenced glacial IDM excellence ('Subsequent Experiments') and warm and dreamy downtempo electro bliss (the sustained chords, gentle melodies and slipped hip-hop beats of 'Unparalleled Comfort').

Review: Annie Hall has been on a blinding run of late, appearing on the likes of 20:20 Vision, CPU and many other bastions of quality modern electro. Now she's landing on Orson with another four track which spell out why she's one of the most essential talents in the contemporary scene, laying down a captivating MO on 'Kellner' in which the kinetic rhythmic elements are offset by some frankly staggering synth sweeps. 'Nagler' keeps the drums tightly packed while exploring a parallel universe of atmospheric textures, and 'Erfle' dips into a pool of nervy lead blips with an almost jazzy quality. 'Plossi' rounds things off with some of the most expressive synthesis on the whole record, confirming Hall's distinctive qualities as an artist bringing something fresh to the well-worn electro template.

Review: Sheffield's Central Processing Unit's good work continues with a return to the label for Annie Hall. It comes four years after her last and is another sleek electro offering from the future. "Verd Mar" is an edgy affair with glass melodies that keep you in suspense as heavy bass trudges below, but the pace picks up with the superb Detroit electro funk of "D'Un Altre Planeta". The title track gets more into it with its razor edge synths and hall of mirrors effects, before "Promeses De Fusta" closes out with a serene atmosphere that has you gazing far off into the distance.

Review: 20/20 Vision continue to celebrate their renewed electro vigour with the third part in the Exit Planet Earth series, once again calling on a crack team of machine funkers to deliver the robo-goods. Radioactive Man is up first with 'One Out', which finds the original Lone Swordsman on impeccable form teasing and testing his rubbery synth flex around a needlepoint groove. Annie Hall follows up in fine style with the dreamy lilt of 'Invisible Dust', while Sansibar locks into something a little dirtier on the dungeon boogie of 'Tamagotchi'. VC-118A's 'Moss' completes the set in a spellbinding fashion, dropping the tempo for something a little more exploratory with plenty of mystical atmospheres and tweaked FX fills marking out an evocative soundscape.