Staff Picks w / c2nd October 2020

Review: Vancouver has long been a hotbed for electronic talent, a city with a score that's as sharp as it is deep, noises that feel submerged in the post-rave, post-techno, post-ambient and post-whatever else underground we've now grown accustomed to as the melting pot of modern dance culture. Khotin isn't letting his hometown down here, nor Ghostly International, the label carrying this release.

The downtempo, space-y 'Heavyball' comes with a particularly pleasing sort of crunch to the beat. Its running mate, 'Groove 32', follows up with a low-stepping groove. 'Ivory Tower' briefly resurfaces into jazz-inflected, dusty house-influenced downbeat. 'Outside Light' takes us into complex, melodic ambient places perhaps most definitive of what this record sounds like overall, and certainly in keeping with its predecessor, Beautiful You.

Review: Former Moloko singer Roisin Murphy proves with this new album she is still a force to be reckoned with. It bristles with dance floor kinetics and fizzing electronic synths that come laden with her outsider pop vocals. Roisin Machine is a collaboration with Sheffield producer Richard Barratt and the results include tracks that touch on feelings of frustration and romance, modern Britain and plenty more besides, all with plenty of his rugged production, bit also plenty of super sweet rolling grooves and funky bass riffs. The hip-swinging 'Murphy's Law' is a particular highlight from, this perennially underrated artist.

Review: World Standard is an alias of Suzuki Sohichiro, a prolific Japanese artist who started releasing albums in the eighties and continues to this day. His fusions of folk, world, pop, county and experimental ambient have defined his homeland's sound output and latest effort Asagao continues with that trend. Across two sides of vinyl he bewitches and beguiles with his widescreen sonic visions, deft oriental melodies and lullaby like sounds. This is one to put on, drift into and forget your worries.

Review: Fresh from fine outings on Port Neuf and Carpets & Snares, Fabian Appolaire dons the Saudade moniker once more for a first outing on Negonthropy's new sister imprint, Thisisnegonthropy.com (try saying that after a few too many light ales). There's much to admire across the EP's four formidable tracks, from the off-kilter Afro-Latin polyrhythms, tight stabs, wonky vocal snippets and deep bass of title track 'Choices', to the undulating tech-house glitch-funk of 'Implications' and the deep, sub-heavy early morning hypnotism of 'Liquid Fluid'. Arguably best of all though is A2 cut 'Con Amore, Como Diz', a fine fusion of densely layered Brazilian drums, fluttering and spacey synthesizer riffs, and jumpy, body-popping tech-house electronics.

Review: Those who lived through the 1990s will happily tell you that few ambient and electronica outfits of the period could match the emotive, life-affirming majesty of Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton's Global Communication project. Transmissions, the pair's first retrospective of their work under the alias, offers plenty of supporting evidence for this view. It features painstakingly re-mastered - and, we will add, brilliant-sounding - versions of two full-length releases: 1993's Blood Music: Pentamerous Metamorphosis, a radical set of lengthy ambient "translations" of tracks by forgotten shoegaze outfit Chapterhouse, and their peerless debut album 76:14, which remains one of the greatest ambient sets of all time. Throw in a third CD featuring collected singles and remixes, and you have a thoroughly essential three-disc set.

Review: If you've been keeping an eye on the COVID-19 musical landscape a few things will be clear by now - much is in pieces, and Working Men's Club's debut album, arguably this year's most anticipated, has been postponed until October. You might also have picked up on the fact they made this pandemic party megamix available to stream for free for one week over summer, meaning it's probably scored a few living room moments already.

The release is basically 21-minutes of seamlessly melded synthdom taken from a full record which, as yet, hasn't really been heard save for a few tasters. And the result is perhaps the best example of the intensity, energy and drive that defines every one of the band's fabled live performances. Synth-punk-elec-indie packing huge sounds, finely tuned details and an overall forward atmosphere.

Review: Alien Recordings has decided to launch a new sub-label, Alien Imprints, which it says has been created to, "showcase various artists from around the globe". Fittingly, the new offering's debut release - a collection of electro-breaks themed excursions from newcomers and rising stars - is called First Impressions. It seems right and proper then that Juno Laser Machine's EP opener is a starting, ear-catching slab of raw, angular and spacey, acid-powered electro/breaks fusion, while the cut that follows, Marocs Coya and Cosmonaut's 'Ultimatum', is a deeper and hazier, but no less impactful, peak-time electro workout. Elsewhere, Paddy Thorne's 'Coll' is a pleasingly bubbly, intergalactic affair rich in deep bass, enveloping chords and metallic percussion hits, while Peshka's 'Spacecraft' is a deep, rumbling, sample-laden treat.

Review: Trauma Collective returns with four cuts of decidedly hypnotic and abstract techno from ever-prolific ASC. Rounding out the last decade with a string of stand-out releases on his own imprint, Auxiliary, the San Diego producer brings his cerebral sonic aesthetic to the fledgling Madrid label. "Loop Research" showcases a singular artist unbound by tempo and at the top of their game.

Review: Given that Mildlife's 2018 debut album Phase was both rather brilliant and a rip-roaring commercial success, this hotly anticipated follow-up will get plenty of attention. And rightly so, because Automatic may well be even better than its illustrious predecessor. Musically, it features the same unique mix of vintage krautrock synths, jazz-funk instrumentation and enjoyably organic grooves, just this time round they've stepped it up another notch or two. The Aussie combo is in fine form throughout, dotting between the Steely Dan style warmth of 'Rare Air', the Brit Funk style weightiness of 'Vapour', the cosmic, art-rock influenced haziness of 'Downstream', the almost horizontal bliss of nine-minute epic 'Citations', the colourful live nu-disco goodness of 'Memory Palace' and the seductive sweetness of 'Automatic'.

Review: When Marie Davidson announced last year that she would be, "retiring from club music", many wondered what she'd do next. Renegade Breakdown, her first album recorded with a full band (L'Oeil Nu), answers that question. It sees the Canadian artist and her new collaborators deliver suitably arresting, personal and ear-catching songs built on mixing and matching a surprisingly wide variety of musical inspirations, from Blondie, classic disco and mutilated heavy metal guitars, to Kraftwerk, Billie Holiday, Fleetwood Mac and Daft Punk. It's a big shift for the previously highly experimental artist, but thanks to her skill as both a a producer and performer, one that works magnificently well.

Review: Stockholm label Omena raise a glass to celebrate one year of business with this special RSD 7" from the ubiquitous HNNY. Johan Cederberg was responsible for the label's debut release so it seems quite fitting he's back with more sweet HNNY business to usher in the second year of Omena. Up top, "Cheer Up My Brother" finds HNNY in laid back form, adding some subtle downbeat funk touches to the lazy afternoon groove of "Farther Along", transforming the gospel staple into an essential summer sizzler. It's complemented well by the B-side track "There Is No One Else" which ups both the tempo and temperature into something of a French Touch stunner.

Review: If you've not already picked up a copy of Mutaksuku Records' superb reissue of two of reggae musician Devon Russell's greatest Curtis Mayfield covers, we'd suggest grabbing one of these Juno exclusive white vinyl versions, which also happens to ship with a tasty wooden "45" adaptor. You may already know Russell's incredible '84 version of 'Move on Up', which re-imagines it as a languid, post-disco reggae-soul anthem that just oozes sun-soaked positivity. On this seven-inch, it comes backed by something equally as essential: the artist's lesser-known 1993 take on 'Give Me Your Love', which turns the much-loved song into a colourful, synth-laden trip through Balearic reggae territory. In a word: essential.

Review: The inimitable Theo Parrish is in a class of one. His brand of music is impossible to categorise as it draws on so many unique sounds in so many unique ways. This new album is another spellbinding affair that takes scuffed up house rhythms and intertwines them with freeform percussive patterns and off-grid synths that get pulled apart then rebuilt before your very ears. It is experimental music with an improvised jazz mindset that can range from complex and dense tapestries like 'Radar Detector' to the more upbeat and playful 'Hennyweed Buckdance' via fucked up drum sketches like 'All Your Boys Are Biters.'

Review: On its initial release in 1994, "Sceneries Not Songs" became deep house legend Larry Heard's first solo album under his given name. At the time, it caused quite a stir on the electronic underground, in part because it saw the Chicago veteran showcase the depth and variety of his musical personality whilst retaining the emotive dreaminess and jazzy inflections that had always been a big part of his work. As this much-needed vinyl reissue proves, it remains a stunning album. Highlights include the sparkling synthesizers, slo-mo grooves and twinkling pianos of "Tahiti Dusk", the classic Heard deep house warmth of "Midnight Movement", the head-nodding trip-hop-goes-ambient jazz flex of "Summertime Breeze" and the luscious beauty of bonus cut "Question of Time".

Review: Having kept his silence for much of the past four years, Nicolas Jaar has finally broken cover to release not one but two new albums under his given name. Telas, which follows the highly personal and critically acclaimed Cenizas, was recorded largely in isolation and consists of four lengthy aural tracts strewn across four sides of wax. Almost entirely beat-free and ambient, it sees Jaar make use of all manner of custom-made instruments, squally jazz horns, unusual instrumentation (a bass clarinet features heavily on one cut) and his usual evocative electronics to create slowly-shifting epics that variously doff a cap to Reich/Riley/Glass style minimalism, Stockhausen-esque sound collage, the ambient works of Brian Eno and, most impressively, the 'Fourth World' sounds of Jon Hassell.

Review: You might think that you could cop a copy of New Order's seminal hit 'Blue Monday' fairly easily and cheaply given its ubiquity over the years. But no, copies in good condition still fetch around 50 quid, so this remastered reissue is well worth a cop. The single's iconic bassline and twitchy synth modulations very much soundtrack a generation, if not an entire youth revolution, but still enliven any dance floor many years later. What's more, the de-humanised vocals will always provide real singalong joy. On the flip is a 'The Beach', which is drenched in echo and reverb and general sonic filth.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: Aubrey's status as a pillar of underground UK techno comes into focus with this reissue of a 1995 classic from the Solid Groove archives. 'Ginger Biscuit' is a riotous party starter, riding a funked up loop and feverish percussion to make for techno perfection. 'Long Player' is a trippier affair awash with heavy reverb, pads and submerged acid bleeps. 'Shimmer' goes even further out with some shimmering dub techno chords riding elongated filter sweeps for pure eyes closed transcendence. 'U Be Dick' seals the deal with a micro-dub excursion that nudges towards house territory with soaring synth strings to boot. Seminal stuff.

Review: Everyone's favourite cartoon band marked Record Store Day 2020 by serving up a UK release of a collection of tunes the was previously only available in Japan, and later in the US of A. It pulls together a wealth of b-sides from the studio sessions around their first album Gorillaz, and the Tomorrow Comes Today EP. It is limited to just 2000 copies and harks back to a time when the band - lead by Daman Albarn - was at the peak of its powers. The self titled debut album was such a hit it earned the band an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Successful Virtual Band."