Juno Recommends Balearic / Downtempo: September 2024

Review: Despite his years of dedication to the Balearic scene - not to mention a string of fine albums under the Cantoma alias - Phil Mison doesn't get nearly enough recognition for his achievements. Perhaps his latest album, the undeniably gorgeous See The Sun, will finally provide him with a wider breakthrough. Whether it does or not, it's a genuinely wonderful album that sees Mison wrap his usual uber-Balearic instrumentation - samba-soaked acoustic guitar chords, Flamenco style classic guitar solos, kaleidoscopic synth sounds, sweet male and female vocals, lilting French horn motifs and so on - around grooves that range from slow motion shufflers, and Latin tinged headiness, to organic house rhythms and luscious nu-disco beats. All of Mison's Cantoma albums are excellent but See The Sun really could be his best to date.

Review: This new one on Secrets of Sound has a rather grandiose title but the music is suitably accomplished to live up to it. Johnny Jewel gets things underway with a lavish and jazzy ambient scape turned gentle broken beat bliss-out. Elsewhere RAMZi's singular grasp of rhythms shines through with the rickety drums and cosmic moods of 'Existenz' and synth magician Legowelt cooks up a curious and whimsical sound on the escapist 'Nebia Vera Pelliccia'. Elsewhere, Lord Of The Isles slows things right down to late-night contemplation with 'Meet Me At The Portal.' A tasteful collection indeed.

Review: Lono Ritmo arrive at IIB HQ from some distant mysterious exotic land bringing a deeply authentic gypsy flamenco rhythm with them. Luz de Luna has a Spine tingling vocals and emotive guitar transporting you to a Spanish mountain side camp under the setting sun. Pablo's Groove highlights the percussion tracks. Ibiza legends Dj Pippi and Willie Graf turn the OG into a trademark deep dance floor groove that would sound right at home in their Ibiza dj sets The Dubstrumental drops the Vox and the hypnotic dance is on. Already roadtested on the white Isle last summer, Authentico!

Review: Vibe is back with more versions of Portishead classics from the mysterious Portishedd moniker. This latest 7" is a green slab with 'Glory' and 'Roads'. The A-side, like the B-side, is a remix from Kero Uno and it brings a swaying Latin feel and broken beats to the classic original vocal which rings out with a pained soul next to the eerie synths. 'Roads' is then a more late night and deep sound with the uneasy vocal whispers unfurling over lurching beats and swooning string sounds. It's a fine rework that is brilliantly atmospheric.

Review: Japanese downtempo master Calm has many a great album in his arenas, and plenty of tracks form them have been reworked into new and equally great forms. Hell Yeah has been responsible for a batch of them and the Italian label has more of them here. Willie Graff kicks off with his version of 'I Love You' which is all dreamy and mature Balearic bliss. Gallo's Tropical Hinterhof remix of the same tune is even more sultry with some sensuous sax notes, while live outfit Aura Safari offer a gorgeously melodic and beauty take on 'Feel It' and then a Daydream remix of 'Kunpoo' that is all widescreen synths and gently broken beats for sundown fun.

Review: The homonym "bender" is a revealing one. When we embark on an all-night bender, what do we bend, exactly? Rules? Gender? Truth? Whatever the case, the latest U-Bend release will, as the name suggests, insist that you bend, but not break, your sonic ossifications, your obstinacies, your set-in-your-wayses. On their third vinyl release, described as a crock of "certified benders" (we didn't know there existed an awarding body), we're urged to chug rather than gyrate, with both tracks, '50Peter20' and 'Bending You Bending Me', clocking in at 100BPM and 90BPM respectively. Both effortfully reconstructed 80s-ish new wave and pop tracks, the former chugs against a familiar, sample-riffic night-flight romp with the strength of a heavyweight imbiber; the latter peppers things out somewhat, with its piecemeal mallet ricochets and freqqy builds, coiling round a central five-note, sampled melody, again, whose origin is unknown. A thoroughly rewarding bender; we feel stretched, not torn.

Review: Zero 7's LateNightTales debut, Another Late Night, was first released in 2002, shortly after the electronica duo had been nominated for a Mercury Prize in light of their debut record Simple Things. The inevitable vaunting of their music reached its peak when one well-known pundit described their music as "the Sistine Chapels of music in a sea of affordable accommodation." Unlike their expertly crafted originals in the vein of trip-hop, downtempo and acid jazz, their LateNightTales album is of course a selectors' DJ compilation, which to this day incites its invitees (usually musicians as well as DJs) to select and remix tunes only as though they were sleepwalking through the dream fantasies made up by their own musical influences. Here, Zero 7 share various musical traumata, manifest and latent interpretations of songs, by the likes of The Cinematic Orchestra, Quasimoto, Jim O'Rourke, Serge Gainsbourg, Don Blackman, The Stylistics, Joy Zipper, Slum Village and Da Lata, all of which, as we can patently hear, fed into their relatively unpeggable, interwoven chillout sound.

Review: Out of many recent stirrings of hype (a sold-out Cafe OTO live show, numerous reissues of their Warp-era material, etc) Seefeel return with a renewed sense of solidity, delivering their first project since 2011. As ever with the pioneering electronica crossover band, Everything Squared combines the sonofantasmic dissociations of shoegaze and dream pop with the flashier and more sublime ends of Warp-era electronica and ambient dub. Mainly composed and performed by the core duo of Mark Clifford and Sarah Peacock, with bass on two tracks from Shigeru Ishihara, the record is a finely hewn intonarumori, working in original, but heavily pitch-bent vocals around light, but still scapular sound beds. An implied throwback to the chillout rooms of yore, the distinctively hoary hum of 90s analogue ambient still rings as truly as ever here.

Review: French illustrator, producer and owner of Astral Soda Records Albino offers up his second full-length album, Bamboo Night, following up his self-released 2016 album Santa Barbara. Returning to WRWTFWW for the second time now, Bamboo Night reflects something of a more dance-centric revolution in Albino's sound, but still brings his penchant for patented tape hues and ghostly exotics to the fore as ever. These tracks are just as suited for floor play as they are for home eso-chillaxing, fusing whispery dancehall flavours with dark jazz, Chicago deep house, and trembly international flavours.

Review: You can never really pin down what the excellent Emotional Repose label does and that is exactly the sinking behind the title of its superb All Trades show on NTS. The sheer eclecticism of that show is now reflected in this new two-part compilation, also called All Trades, which offers up little morsels of what they do, something like a sonic tasting menu at a fancy restaurant. There is chugging electronic dub from Apiento & Tepper, industrial clatter from Black Bones, cosmic ambient breakbeat from Paperclip Minimiser and blissed out dub from Yamila & SoFa Elsewhere amongst many more highlights.

Review: Brighton's Balearic Jukebox share their two latest blissouts, an original and alt version of 'We Love Spacemen'. It's as though a simple breakbeat hardcore tune made of vestigial Britpop sample-memories had been slowed to a festive amble, and yet still worked in the 'theque. Decisive bassline resolves and laid-back djembe meld with hollering loom-calls on this lei-donning saunterer. The Pianopella Mix is the highlight, amping up the ultra-echo'd piano to ecstatic effect, and pairing it with fervent "let's go" samples and power chords of the ichorous variety.

Review: Midnight Riot help the listener carve out their own personal Balearic headspaces with their new compilation Balearic Headspace, likening the "experience" of Balearic not just to a sound, but an affect, one that cannot be experienced without specific records or specific times and places. Do we believe it to be true? We may or may not, but that doesn't distract from the whopping curation job here, with most tunes on offer consisting of both total newness and reworks/revisions by the Midnight Riot crew; this 12" is a four-track selection of a wider 19-track digital comp. Our highlight has to be the ultra-smeary Tom Moulton mix of 'This Is Caribbean Disco' by Fsq, which floats atop a serious floe of stretched-out axe bubble and echoing crosstick, as its lyrics deal in word-painted themes of being held underwater. As mindfully, cognitively Balearic as it gets!

Review: Soela, the DJ and producer alias of Elina Shorokhova, channels her deep musical roots into Dark Portrait, an album that reflects both personal and global turmoil. Transitioning from her classical background into the electronic realm, Soela crafts a sonic journey that resonates with emotional depth and technical precision. The album begins with 'Unsuitable,' a track steeped in melancholic trip-hop vibes, setting an introspective tone. As Soela navigates the complex emotions surrounding her country's invasion of Ukraine, her music becomes a therapeutic outlet. This emotional intensity flows through tracks like 'Through the Windows' (featuring Francis Harris and Philipp Priebe) and 'Drowning' (with Module One), where intricate beats and ambient textures intertwine seamlessly. 'Spirits' and 'Lost In The Fog' offer haunting soundscapes that draw listeners into Soela's world, while 'February Is Not Going To Be Forever,' a collaboration with Lawrence, brings a dancefloor energy laced with a sense of urgency. The title track, 'Dark Portrait,' melds dubby rhythms with poignant melodies while the lead single, 'Even If I Ask You Stay,' showcases Soela's poignant vocal delivery amid a lush arrangement, addressing themes of escape and healing. The album concludes with 'The Darkest Hour Before Sunrise,' a hopeful and ethereal piece, blending subdued keys and strings with a sense of renewal. Dark Portrait is a deeply personal and powerful album, where Soela's rich musicality and emotional insight shine through, offering listeners both solace and inspiration.

Review: Seefeel's new album Everything Squared marks their first release since 2011, on which the "first ever shoegaze-electronica band" flex a positively retroactive take on the sound they sired. From the opening 'Sky Hooks' - a track which weaves an oxbow shape through small bankside groves of nymphlike-vocals in the peaks, and determined plods through ambient dub subterrains in the troughs - to the penultimate 'Hooked Paw', a similarly dubby but comparatively gnosis - a sophistic dream-blear for vocals and detuned atmoss at 140bpm, recalling the surreal ambient fort-das of HTRK or Clouds - this is not a record to be listened to lightly, despite its comeback status.

Review: Photay aka. Evan Shornstein makes a determined return with Windswept, his latest LP for Mexican Summer. Building on but also somewhat departing from a built repertoire of post-IDM come funky sonics, this latest outing moves in a slightly more new age direction, riffing on the many possible worlds implied by the episteme of "Balearic". On an album nominally about the wind, and with an express aim to "mimic the wind", Photay makes deft use here of everything from wind chimes to blustery transigent noise, working them all between chunks of girded downtempo and confident chugs. Still as percussive and tricksy as ever, Shornstein echoes the likes of Letherette and Throwing Snow, meeting both hot and cold fronts of thermostatic dance.

Review: Martina Topley-Bird's Quixotic, originally released in 2003 and now reissued, stands as a bold statement of her artistic independence. While known for her work with Tricky, Topley-Bird emerges from his shadow here, sowing off a versatile and compelling sound. The album opens with the captivating 'Intro,' which sets a unique tone with its a cappella style. 'Need One' follows, blending stoner rock with electronic elements, creating a gritty yet intriguing vibe. Tracks like 'Anything' and 'Soul Food' highlight her ability to fuse acoustic balladry with modern production, offering melodies that linger long after the songs end. Topley-Bird's vocals are a standout throughout, particularly on 'Ragga' and 'Lying,' where her delivery is both powerful and intimate. While Quixotic does explore a range of genres, it feels cohesive, each track contributing to the album's moody atmosphere. For fans of trip-hop, electronica and beyond, Quixotic is an engaging and worthy listen and purchase.

Review: Following the success of her cover of Mariya Takeuchi's 'Plastic Love' on BLESSYOU0021, Xiaolin returns with a new reinterpretation of Prudence Liew's 1990 hit, 'Afterwards.' This latest release showcases Xiaolin's impressive studio skill and the tune provides a dynamic backdrop for her powerful vocals. The package is rounded out with a dub version and two remixes by Tornado Wallace and Androo. It's a great and varied offering that blends nostalgia with fresh takes from some top talents.

Review: Years after his debut and a string of four further albums, American downtempo pop powerhouse Tycho aka. Scott Hansen presents his sixth record Infinite Health. Hansen says Infinite Health is "about hope for the future and a requiem for the past." He explains: "I kept thinking back to the high-water mark scene in Fear and Loathing, the author sitting at a typewriter looking out a window onto his past, trying to find meaning in the chaos. Infinite Health is about creating a space for healing and reflection, a mantra for spiritual, emotional, and physical healing." Working within a higher-tempo, haute house range, the likes of 'Phantom', 'Devices' and 'Green' bridge the divides of acoustic and electronic, effortlessly portraying the imaginary unity of both, offering pristine ambitronic lulls and eco-friendly highs.

Review: Toby Marks aka. Banco De Gaia is one of the foremost producers to ever operate in the crossover of breakbeat and 'tribal'. That pairing of associations might seem naff to some music fans now, but no performative dismissal on the grounds of any connotative problematic can ever detract from the inpourings of ardour and talent gone into his albums. Trauma is Marks' first record in nearly ten years, following on from The 9th Of Nine Hearts, and hears the esteemed trance-gressor continue to eke a sound rooted in the oblique, yet inspirationally powerful themes of global sufferance and idealism, both of which find their expression in the weighty, acidic dreamworlds of 'War' and 'The Dying Light', which are complex in mood and express a real ambivalence through their concurrent use of deep stereo padwork and poignant vocal sampleage. Far from indulging a mood of pure resignation, Marks crafts a dance-musical dreamworld that demands analysis, through which Trauma refers not to a wound, but to a dream.

Review: Shanghai-based producer Knopha lands on Mule Musiq after picking up plaudits for his Nothing Nil EP on Eating Music. What he turns out here is some beautiful stuff inspired by Oriental New Age. 'Water Play' imperfectly blissed out and liquid ambient house and dub fused into something soul-soothing. Kuniyuki turns out a magical remix that has shimmering melodies and organic drum sounds washing over you then 'Palm Warmth' is all glistening melodies, celestial pads and delicate hang drum patterns that suspend you amongst the clouds. 'Prairie' shuts down with bubbly broken beats and warped leads peppered with soft shakes and more heavenly harmonies.

Review: Upstairs P. is also known as Garrett Rowley) and is a DJ and producer who is currently based in Los Angeles. So far his sounds have come on the likes of Germany's Public Possession in the form of a collaboration with Baba Stiltz, who has contributed to part 2 on the flipside of this new 12" on Punchy & Friends. 'Grem Freche (part 1)' is a melon-twisting bit of psyched-out dark disco, chug and downtempo no wave with endless percussive evolutions and winding rhythms. 'Grem Freche (part 2)' has a more loose, DIY and dubbed out edge but is just as excellent

Review: By Scott Hansen's previously prolific standards, we've had to wait a fair old while for a new album. Infinite Health, the third Tycho album for Ninja Tune after years signed to Ghostly International, is by design something of a reset: a self-proclaimed meditation on "hope for the future" mixed with a "requiem for the past". Stylistically, that also means a return to his electronic roots, with colourful, melody-rich and sun-splashed synth sounds combined with unfussy beats and breaks, toasty basslines and glistening, AM radio-friendly guitar licks. It is then, regardless of the inspirations behind it, a classic-sounding Tycho album - as highlights 'Phantom', the instrumental deep synth-pop dreaminess of 'Devices' and the lo-fi, trip-hop influenced shuffle of 'Green' emphatically prove.

Review: 24 H Avant La Nuit is a new EP from Lord Ringard but anyone who has seen him play in the last couple of years will likely have heard these jams before. They have been out digitally in that time but never on wax, which is where music this good belongs. getting out in the deep and leggy grooves of 'Bis Repetita Placent' is as smooth as slipping into silk pyjamas. 'Il Vento Solare' slows things down further and douses you in synth-laced romance and optimism and 'IWYN' then gets deep with a gospel vocal cry over languid 90s house beats. 'SK's Sunrise' is a sugary and starry-eyed downtempo closer for late night lovers.

Review: Ghost Box present the CD edition of their latest record by freakish scene-dazzlers Beautify Junkyards, Nova. Despite the record's immediate imagism bringing together news clipping collage, and connotations of scrapheaps and salvaging indicated by the band's name, the sound of the record is anything but adjacent to these themes. The six-piece psychedelia/acid folk band command a wide foundry of instruments, smoothening any rough edge into a shared, sonically doughy dream, beautifying a well-sifted haul of believably, formerly scrapped instruments into a pristine assemblage. Though it builds on motifs heard in 60s and 70s film soundtracks, echoing spaghetti Westerns and early sci-fi, the record's best moments are its seemingly impossible electronica syntheses, such as the unassailed critical mass of trickling drum machine, spring reverb, tonal murmur and near-atonal noise reached on 'Raridade De Contrastes'.

Review: For his seventh studio release 'Dream in Dream', Cornelius (Keigo Oyamada) continues his genre-hopping streak, carving out new space for his sonic explorations. Best known for shaping Japan's alternative music scene and crafting intricate soundscapes, Oyamada's latest effort is a hazy, rhythmically adventurous blend that flirts with ambient jazz, r&b, and a dash of retro-futurist electronics. His knack for blending disparate elements into something cohesive remains intact. Opening the record, his signature use of angular guitars and tight synth layers dances around syncopated beats, pulling listeners into a dreamlike groove. But there's more at play than surface-level nostalgia or easy listening. While many might remember the cut-and-paste genius of 'Fantasma', or his remixes for artists like Blur and MGMT, here Oyamada seems more interested in texture and atmosphere than in outright hooks. Despite a nod to 70s synth influences, this isn't a direct callback to any specific era. 'Dream in Dream' unfolds like a wandering conversationiimprovised in parts, yet controlled in its overall direction. The songs balance bright, airy tones with moments of contemplation, capturing the warmth of the past while remaining firmly planted in today's soundscapes. A steady, thoughtful progression for Cornelius, offering something both familiar and unexpected.

Review: Keanu Nelson is a young Aboriginal Australian artist from the remote community of Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs. He paints in the Western Desert movement style and, on this album, sings poems from his notebook over minimalist Casio beats programmed by Yuta Matsumura. His debut album, which came on the Altered States label, now gets re-issued on a larger scale. Inspired by local gospel and reggae beats, Keanu's songs explore family, home, and loss and he sings in a blend of both Papunya Luritja and English. The result is a haunting, original sound that is part Francis Bebey, part Suicide, and one that feels both familiar and groundbreaking.

Review: Leya Touch and soFa elsewhere, known as Dream Baby Dream, merge their unconventional musical styles in their self-titled album, out now on the wonderful Hell Yeah . Their sound weaves occult synths and processed vocals over dubbed-out, mid-tempo rhythms to create a retro-futurist blend of cold wave, cosmic disco, dub, and trance. The duo, who see themselves as "two children who refused to grow up," offer a dreamlike journey through playful yet melancholic soundscapes from seductive melodies in 'Love Zone' to the eerie dub of 'Carpenter On The Beach, the album is a captivating mix of past, present, and future musical elements.