Juno Recommends Leftfield: May 2022

Review: Ryusuke Hamaguchi's film version of Haruki Murakami's novel Drive My Car has never before seen an official soundtrack release, until now. Afflicted by neon atmospheres and emotive piano, every piece found on this melancholic masterwork contains instruments played and produced entirely by composer Eiko Ishibashi: synths, flutes, melodion, vibraphone, foley. Rock legendf Jim O'Rourke lends a hand on everything guitar, making this a multifaceted greasers' trip through a whirlwind sonic romance.

Review: Pye Corner Audio headlined Sonic Cathedral's 15th birthday bash at The Social in London back in late 2019. It was a fiery gig which had the artist reworking his own material in impressive improvisational fashion. Now the recording has been remastered by Antony Ryan and makes its way on to wax for the first time. Says Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins, "this is a recording of a gig in a small space with a big heart." At the same gig, Martin made pals with Andy Bell, with whom he has since gone on to collaborate.

Review: Encanto is the latest smash hit musical animation to emerge from the Disney studios. Speaking from personal experience, it has gone down incredibly well with young people who sure do love the bright colours and charming characters of the film, but only secondary to the music. It is big, non-stop, high energy, laden with positive messaging and catchy hooks. The entire soundtrack is pressed up here on vinyl but word of warning to parents: is certainly not one that is suited to early morning hangovers.

Review: After much clamour from fans, Four Flies has managed to put together a reissue of this golden bit of sunny Balearic funk. The special 7" marked Azzuro's debut on the label and takes inspiration from the 80s Library scene as much as gentle sunset dances on the Med. It manages to sound retro yet future, with its analogue synth waves and jazz-funk rhythms, catchy pop hooks and warm grooves. After the dance-y opener 'Agip,' comes a more zoned out and horizontal groove with 'Telefono Giallo' while 'Astrotensione' closes on another celestial ambient vibe.

Review: Drum & Lace, aka Sofia degli Alessandri-Hultquist, is an Italian composer, sound artist and performer that writes and creates music for film and media. 'Natura' is her debut Past Inside the Present release, in addition to it being her first formal full-length album. Natura pays homage to intelligent electronica and will no doubt be a defining album in the ambient/IDM genre.

Review: Made in 1984 but unfairly left to fester, unreleased, by way of the sheer amorality of the '80s music market, we sure hope this release of Yasuaki Shimizu's 'Kiren' finally gives this body of work the recognition it deserves. Following up his albums 'Kakashi' and 'Utakata No Hibi', this is the composer's one-off foray into experimental dance music, further showing off his work with fellow jazzers the Saxophonettes. From the cold, juddering ambience of 'Momo No Hana' to the post-punky sample dance of 'Peruvian Punk', this one's a rare and odd tidbit for the eclectic digger.

Review: Prepare yourself for a crazy but wonderful deep dive into the legendary world of cult French outfit Vox Populi!, focusing primarily on their 'big years' of 1986-1990, inverted commas used to hopefully articulate that these guys are yet another example of why music consistently fails to give outsider artists the widespread recognition they deserve. Nevertheless, those who know VP know just how incredible their music is.

In the first three tracks alone the breadth of their output becomes clear. Opener 'Caballo Blanco' could be And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead meeting Primal Scream at a Goan festival in the late-1960s. 'Mush Dub Gnarls & Vrooms' takes us into downtempo electronica with an undercurrent of bite, nodding to Andrew Weatherall's Sabres of Paradise project. Meanwhile, 'Holistikoholic' almost seems to reprogram the mind to the court of some king or other, with its jaunty flutes and wooden percussion.

Review: Creating a strong identity around his music with each subsequent release, Brainwaltzera builds on killer releases for Furthur Electronix and Analogical Force to release an anticipated new album of electronica goodness on regular stomping ground Film. This double album features everything we love about the anonymous artist's sound - delicately sculpted beats that can bite when it counts, mind-tickling synth lines that balance melody and sound design without overdoing either, and labyrinthe compositions which take you far and wide like any good home-listening electronics should. Whoever they are, they're fast becoming one of the leading lights in modern braindance, which seems to be precisely the point given their name.

Review: Following on from the excellent "Scene In Mirage" reissue that broke O Yuki Conjugate to a whole new crowd, Emotional Rescue return to the archives of the over-looked Nottingham "dirty ambient" outfit. Their second LP "Into Dark Water", originally released in 1987, is just as powerful as the first - a hypnagogic journey fuelled by a global stew of sound, feeding into elegant, evocative pieces. Fans of classic Jon Hassell will find much to enjoy here, but equally those appreciating the exotic post punk undercurrents of 23 Skidoo et al will easily find themselves drawn to the likes of "Ba-makala". Stunning, borderless musings from a hidden treasure of the UK's post-industrial heritage.

Review: Nine tracks of 'life-affirming downer music' by Swedish duo Charlott Malmenholt and Joakim Karlsson aka Treasury Of Puppies. Mitt Stora Nu is the Gothenburg-based duo's second album, following last year's titled Lollos Dagbok and their eponymous debut back in 2020. A collection of lo-fi and quirky indie-pop ditties, all said to have been influenced by Edgar Allan Poe as much as Britney Spears. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and pressed in an edition of 1000 copies. Comes with insert.

Review: British crime television series Sherlock has proved hugely popular in recent years. The latest adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writings have also been hugely enhanced by the soundtrack. That score has been composed by David Arnold and Michael Price, and has won the pair numerous awards including a 2014 EMMY as well as two further nominations for an EMMY and a BAFTA nomination. Their contribution to Sherlock is immeasurable as exemplified by this soundtrack which is thrilling and sinister, playful and suspenseful in equal measure. The music from all three of the first series is captured here on this limited blue vinyl.

Review: It's been a minute since we last heard something new from Luca Venezia's Curses! Project. In stark contrast to his work as Drop The Lime, Curses! is betrothed to minimal wave melancholy, and after he put together the awesome Next Wave Acid Punx compilation for Eskimo last year we finally have an outright new EP on Oraculo. Lead track 'Gina Lollobrigida' is a darkly romantic thrummer with washed out vocals from Cici, which then gets suitably ghoulish, club-ready remixes from Zero Call and Nabta. Venezia then finishes things off with 'Anni Fa', a steely piece of lo-fi wave with chilling piano and the toughest of snares.

Review: Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2 was the 2000 studio album from Coil and, as Part 1, it was described by the band as "moon musick." This contrasts to earlier work which was solar rather than lunar inspired, but either way, it was another classic from Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson and John Balance. Their partnership remains one of electronic music's most magically alchemic and after a quiet start, this album slowly but surely takes its hold on listeners. 'Ether' and 'Paranoid Inlay' are confessional tone in tone while the final two 'Where Are You?' and 'Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)' are brilliantly haunting. Fact fans might know that the latter was actually played at John Balance's funeral service.

Review: Despite what you might assume, O Yuki Conjugate are actually an English duo. Hailing from the country's renowned hinterland somewhere between ambient and industrial, the pair - better known as Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme - first started the project in 1982, a time in the nation's history that was particularly fertile for sonic experiments of the synthesised kind.

A Tension of Opposites is proof they have lost little of their imagination and creative spark, even decades later. Born in the first year of the pandemic, 2020, both artists worked in isolation and therefore both had different ideas about how a sonic response to the most batshit crazy situation in living memory should sound. The result, then, is a lush, intoxicating, and thoughtful journey through tonalities, resonance, and deep refrains that offers two sides of the same terrifying, traumatic, and life-changing story.

Review: Ricardo Villalobos and Samuel Rohrer have never failed to cook up real magic in the studio over the years. They have been working together again closely and the fruits of their labours form this new MICROGESTURES album. It is made up of five tracks that are all mind blowing detailed when you listen in close. Each one is constructed from infinitesimally small details that all coalesce into stringing minimal techno rhythms of the sort that will boggle brains at 5am in the club or get you lost in the deepest recesses of your own mind if you listen intently on headphones.

Review: Tracing The Future Sound of London's back catalogue right back to 1988, when 'Stakker Humanoid' blew minds with a blueprint that would go on to define the standard formulas for British electro and breakbeat before either had been drawn, you quickly realise the journey back to where we are today involves passing landmark after landmark. It's hard not to consider Rituals as another. Marking a return of the outfit's Environments series, which already had six innovative instalments preceding this, hit play on opening number 'Hopiate' and you're immediately transported to every great morning after a night of amazing hedonism before. Pretty, reflective refrains and warm, Earthly details parting for a moment of silence before unifying rolling drums kick in - soundtrack to the best rave at 9AM you've either been to or not. Cue another 12 tracks that are equally transportive and explain so much about why, decades after these tones first hypnotised youth, we're still lining up for more.

Review: Cascate Emozionali comes to Early Sounds in a flurry of Italian library music splendour, all studio session funk and high-end synth scapes for the discerning groover. Keeping things compact on a 7", this single easily stands up to any classic deep digs from the golden age of library music in the 70s and 80s. There are thrumming arps, slinky basslines, funky clavi and plenty more, all rendered in honey-coated tones that suggest serious care and vintage gear in the signal chain. Early Sounds excel at these kinds of records, and any lover of library music will want to add this nugget to their archives.

Review: Nils Frahm once told us that he practices his piano every single day whether he likes it or not. we imagine that, given the huge amounts of music he puts on out the regular, he must record most of those sessions with a view to pressing them to wax. This month alone his has two albums out, for example, both on the LEITER label. This one is not new though - it is a vinyl return for Streichelfisch in its original 2055 form but with a couple of extra tracks from his 2006 digital only EP My First. It is material that has all aged well.

Review: Next up on Dusseldorf's Themes For Great Cities is the debut LP from local trio Folie 2, comprised of vocalist Marlene Kollender, Gregor Darman (aka Rasputin) and Sebastian Welicki (LSW/Trashlagoon). Anyone who caught their great podcast on LYL Radio full of slow, trancey music knows what to expect on this one. There's a strong nod to '80s pop for the most part, but also taking in chugging dark disco slow burners ('Confrontation') neon-lit boogie down numbers ('Night Times') and taking influence from sounds of their homeland circa the '70s ('Fullness Of My Heart').

Review: Penguin Cafe's A Matter of Life album is 10 years old in 2022 so gets this loving assembled anniversary reissue on clear wax via Erased Tapes. This was their debut album after the band was formed by composer Arthur Jeffes to commemorate his late father's own avant-pop project, Penguin Cafe Orchestra. It has been remastered for this edition and has an all new recording of the lead single 'Harry Piers.' It is a joyous record that is run through with British charm and pastoral feels. Tracks like 'Finland' are beautifully melancholic.

Review: Italy's cosmic adventurer Tagliabue packs his synths, drum machines, and science fiction literature, ready for another excursion into the great black beyond by way of a record that packs as much nostalgia as it does ideas for future sounds. Following in the footsteps of pioneers like Franco Battiato, Klaus Schulze, Boards of Canada, and Plaid, it's a place where lights blink in rhythmic time, basslines warble enough to satisfy dance fans, and nothing is quite as it seems.

Below the electronica flight deck, things are even denser and more difficult to unpack. Ethereality makes itself more than known on tracks like 'Galassie Lontane', nodding to label rosters such as 4AD back in the day. A psychedelic adventure into vivid, colourful universes, slow motion trippy weirdness constantly visible through the ether.