Juno Recommends Experimental November 2021

Review: Regis and Female's Againstnature album from 2000 gets the full reissue treatment here by Berlin label, Tresor. Released under their given names Karl O'Connor and Peter Sutton, the record is a noted zenith of the Birmingham techno scene of the era. It has had a major influence on the music that was released in the years after and has here been remastered for a fresh double vinyl pack. As well as the original sounds, there is also 'Theme From Streetwalke,' a track that was previously released on a Tresor compilation. The tracks are heavy but relatively stripped back. They're packed with texture and atmosphere and never less than hugely compelling.

Review: Lisbon's Groovement label returns to its Organic Series once again, taking a trip across outernational plains with the delectable touch of Kaoru Inoue under his Chari Chari alias. From the sitar lilting on "Meandering River" to the pattering chimes of 'PEsta Malam', this is an album brimming with real-world beauty even as it glides through synthetically sculpted spaces. Inoue's touch is patient and poised, but it's certainly no background environmental music. Powered by purposeful percussion and offering a spectrum of moods for your contemplation and delectation, Suburban Ethnology Vol 1 is a beautifully rendered EP once again affirming Inoue's spellbinding craft as a multifaceted artist.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It's hard not to be very impressed by Glaswegian electronic experimenter Pub. According to mythology (well, the internet), he started making music at the tender age of 14, and within three years had started his own label, Ampoule Records, since going on to release for the likes of Talent Hoover, Earplug and Vertical Form, all of which should feel blessed to have him on board.

Single is basically a compendium of his trilogy of EPs on Ampoule, now 20 years young. To describe the contents as dub techno would be unfair and over-simplistic, but it's certainly not a million miles from that camp. Stripped down but strangely detailed, this is the sound of a great soundsystem revealing the hidden depths of tracks that might otherwise feel very minimal, ambient soundscapes that ebb and flow intertwined with the more dancefloor friendly efforts. In short, you will not tire of these tunes.

Review: Remember when James Blake first popped into the common conscience? Or slid, subtly, gently, barely-existing, like a thought without a mind, lost in the vast expanse of silence, trying to be heard? The originality of those early outings will always stand out as defining a moment in UK electronica where things began to change; post dubstep, haunted by the ghosts of garage, pre-techno takeover, genres starting to collapse back in on each other, paving the way today's label-less stuff.

In comparison, Friends That Break Your Heart is a far, far more traditional episode in the story of Blake. Those old fragments of tracks haven't just been glued back together, new parts have been added to create incredibly detailed and - dare it be said - busy collages. It's R&B infused, synth topped, pop balladry influenced electronic future soul. And we're really quite (very) into it.

Review: "Undoubtedly this album is one of the important discs of Japanese new wave and German krautrock history. ""Phew"" is Japanese female vocalist who is well known as a member of legendary punk band ""Aunt Sally"". She has been active in a wide range of projects and collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Seiichi Yamamoto, DAF, and Neubauten etc.
This was originally released in 1981 as her solo debut album, made in legendary Conny's Studio with Conny Plank, Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit from CAN. Not only highly demanded by vinyl collectors worldwide, but also this album is outstanding in the dimension of the music. By Plank's engineering, their never fading sound-making is still innovative and no one can stand next. Now we present it as reissued LP with OBI, you can listen to the monumental work of her career in vinyl after more than 30 years since the last time it was reissued for the first time."

Review: Sample-based music can be many things to many people. Few would ever expect it to sound quite as beautiful as this, though. For his latest addition to an increasingly weighty and extensive back catalogue, Susumu Yokota looks to hit the nail on the head in terms of answering the question 'what does Susumu Yokota sound like?'

On Symbol the bedroom composer takes a selection of often familiar, sometimes odd and relatively unknown classical movements, cuts them up and pastes them back together, creating brand new rhythms. In a lot of ways it's the epitome of sample music, but we've not heard many records that pull off the task and wind up with something that doesn't really sound as looped or fixed as it is, largely achieving this with original work that's a century old, if not (much) more.

Review: The master that is Fluxion is back with more introspections from deep inside his own musical world. It was only in May of last year that his last album was released and since then this has been his focus. It has paid off because once again this is an absorbing world of dub techno, gentle melodies and undulating rhythms that stretch and unfold at their own slow but inviting pace. There are hopeful moments like 'Correlation' with its soft beats and rising melodies, and moments of more lonesome reflection such as the sparse and seductive 'Settling Dust.' Of course, undermining it all is the trademark Fluxion sound we all know and love.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Definitely one for the collectors and historians, there's so much to talk about in terms of Rampton's significance you'll have to excuse sparse references to the actual music. Sorry not sorry and all that. First dropped in 1980, this was not only the first release on the cult and highly sought-after Come Organisation label, it was also one of the first pages in the story of William Bennet.

Leaving Essential Logic behind, the Come project stands as a stylistic bridge between the post punk that came before and the electronics that would follow with Whitehouse, and more latterly Cut Hands. It's weird, it's distorted, even today it's fresh and yet wholly retro. This is the sound of experimentation gone right, guitars, synthesisers and ideas colliding in a coherent mess.

Review: Greek electronic music legend Lena Platonos returns to Dark Entries with Balancers, an LP of previously unreleased material recorded between 1982-1985. Athens-based Platonos has worked with the label previously to reissue her three solo LPs - Gallop, Sun Masks, and Lepidoptera - as well as to release three accompanying 12" EPs featuring modern remixes of her work. She is renowned for her forays into cutting-edge electronic experimentation as well as her striking, impressionistic poetry and lyrics, always recited in Greek. Also included is an insert with lyrics in both Greek and English.

Review: RECCOMMENDED
Trying to find any information on Mneme is pretty difficult. What we can say, though, is that this almost definitely not a company with a "vision to become a world leader in AI powered healthcare solutions, improving lives and transforming the future of our society." Thank god. Not that we don't wish the firm we stumbled across on Facebook all the best in its efforts to get there.

Instead, Mneme the electronic artist name (or act?) belongs in a far less competitive place. Somewhere where warm pads, vacuum packed beats, and melodic flourishes can thrive together, creating a soundscape that's packed with inviting ambient moods, and feels at once sci-fi futuristic and yet strangely retro in flavour. We've been here before, and yet it's also hugely original stuff that we can't not recommend.

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: If you've not heard of Oregano, don't worry - it's a brand-new studio band comprised of multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee, Paul Elliott (JetTricks, Eleven76), RPS Surfers' Shay Landa and Markey Funk. This is their debut single and the fact that it's coming out on the psychedelia-inspired Delights label should give you a clue as to what it sounds like. Rooted in library music and psychedelic soundtrack jazz, with additional nods towards krautrock and Berlin School ambient, both instrumental compositions are richly musically detailed, wonderfully atmospheric and sound like they should be sound-tracking vivid, off-kilter and hallucinatory experimental films from the mid 1970s.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Listening to Helado Negro feels like you've finally had a shower, got changed, and made your way to the wooden veranda of your Air B&B on a lush tropical beachfront after a hard day adventuring. We're not going to tell you what you're drinking, though - it wouldn't be in keeping with Far In's attitude.

If all that sounds a little vague and abstract, let's move to the music itself. Slowly, woozily strolling out with 'Wake Up Tomorrow', this is downtempo, late night shadows dancing on walls, blues-tinged, jazz-infused chill out made with real instruments and plenty of emotions, with the odd slice of relaxed, warm, slow dance throw in for good measure. It's nice, beautiful and incredibly intelligent stuff, ideal for any occasion, and out of place nowhere.

Review: Spanish label Hivern Discs has never conformed to genre, and barely even conforms to its own sonic aesthetic. It is CPI who now continues to break the rules this new series of three remixes of Alianza. The first rework of 'Walking & Falling' is a haunting track with ghostly sound effects and crawling, predatory drums. The remix of 'Osera' is built on snappy, icy drums and sustained chords that keep you looking over your shoulder and finally, the 'Sol' rework is another hypnotic and rather spooky piece of ambient and drone laced goodness.