Back catalogue: Experimental/Electronic

Review: While his AR antics and massive stage shows might be a far cry from the subversive rave culture he came up in, Aphex Twin remains one of the most fascinating and gifted electronic dance music producers of his generation. Get past the fanfare and bluster, and it's still an incredibly exciting prospect to be opening up a new box of his charms, and he's as generous as he's ever been on this new four-track EP. As a key architect of the braindance sound (whether he likes the tag or not), Richard D. James demonstrates his gift for uncanny emotionality and dexterous drum programming on the lead single 'Blackbox Life Recorder 21f', hitting a spot not too far from the realm of his last album Syro and The Tuss material. With a lush fold-out sleeve to house it all in, it's another fine addition to the canon of a true cult phenomenon.

Review: The hype machine may have kicked into overdrive at the announcement of a new Aphex Twin EP, but after all there's a reason we all get so excited. Richard D. James is just a rare sort of artist - one who can wrench untold depth, detail and feeling from the oddest of angles and still keep it rave-ready in the process. It's been a while since we had some new material from the Cornish wonder, but now he's gifting us four fresh slabs of braindance par excellence which bristle with his distinctive touch. Those subtle microtonal shifts in the melodies, the particular flair with which the drums are dissected, the overall head-spinning tapestry of the whole thing - no one does it quite like Aphex, and this CD single gives you his considerable skills in the highest definition.

Review: Straddling the worlds of dancefloor techno and leftfield experimentation - very often in the same track - The Black Dog aka Black Dog Productions was made up of Ed Handley, Andy Turner and Ken Downie, and on this one the trio appear in various combinations under various guises such as Atypic, I.A.O, Close Up Over, Balil, Xeper, Discordian Popes and Plaid. They released Bytes 30 years ago this year, the third album in Warp's Artificial Intelligence series and this anniversary repress comes on gatefold double vinyl with original artwork. It has been re-cut for the occasion and is as immersive and widescreen now as it ever was.

Review: The Black Dog were one of the core early Warp acts, and their Spanners album - the third full length of their career at the time - is one of their best. Despite its roots in the early IDM scene, the album managed to climb to number 30 in the UK charts back when it arrived in January 1995. It's a great mix of unexpected experimental oddness and dancefloor rhythms that makes for a superb trip through what was then the modern world. Pitchfork have rated it one of the 50 best IDM albums ever and this reissue reminds us why.

Review: Among the many hot takes about the recent London romance film Rye Lane is that it is the UK's Amelie, contributing further to the continued coolification of South London's Peckham, in which the film is set. Whatever your take on the film is, it's certainly far less controversial to consider its stellar soundtrack work by Kwesi Sey aka Kwes, a longtime fixture of London's musical spirit. A curveball compared to his wholly original releases with Warp, Kwes took a detour here, in part taking on the image of his collaborator Mica Levi by debuting his first ever soundtrack. Quirky, pink and full of the ideal spirit of the film, Kwes' chosen sound is unfiltered, opting for ear-to-the-ground neo-soul motifs and clear-eyed ballads written with his friends Tirzah and Sampha.

Review: Few bands have sidestepped expectations as cannily as Mount Kimbie. Initially a duo but now expanded into a quartet, the British band has previously excelled in mixing, matching and fusing a wide range of experimental and left of centre electronic music influences. On The Sunset Violet, their first full-length as a quartet, they've shifted sonically once more, leaning into their indie-rock influences on a set recorded in California. The latter aspect - and the impact of being surrounded by sunshine and desert - is reflected in the warmth and haziness of the sound, which draws on the layered vocals and guitars of vintage shoegaze while also reaching for more familiar aspects of the band's previous experimental electronic sounds (for proof, check the ghostly musical vision that is King Krule collaboration 'Boxing').

Review: Given his recent stint producing The Weeknd, you might have been expecting a drastic turn towards the mainstream on this LP, but Again is as complex and challenging a listen as ever, spanning everything from Mingus-in-space double bass reflection to walls of blazing, My Bloody Valentine-style guitar textures. It's the kind of album that'll take a few listens to really get your head around, but it's more than worth it, a proper trip.

Review: Daniel Lopatin is not a new name to clued-in electronic fans at all, the American MIDI magician has been operating under the alias Oneohtrix Point Never for almost a decade and a half at this point. From working the keys for The Weeknd, going back and forth with artistic adoration to Caroline Polachek and having the late Ryuichi Sakamoto's official stamp of approval, OPN is just as impressive in the shadows as he is in the light. Again is the follow-up record to fan favourite Magic and his main focus after serving as executive producer for The Weeknd's 80s synth-wave smash 'Dawn FM'. A pared-back rollout has given way to just one single, album closer 'A Barely Lit Path'. Pretty-as-can-be strings bend the knee to blasts of digitised noise, the two dancing back and forth with one another across the rollercoaster six-minute runtime. Grandiose operatics and revered choir vocals glide over a swelling string section, pinned together with a throbbing electronic rhythm patch before collapsing into emptiness. It is majestic, emotional and nothing less than to be expected from OPN.

Review: Since the release of his last album as Oneohtrix Point Never in 2020, Daniel Lopatin has kept himself busy. Yet for all the high-profile projects - scoring films, producing other artists albums and conjuring up The Weeknd's 2021 half-time show - fans have missed his solo work. Again, his 14th (we think) solo album, is therefore not only big news, but also a pleasingly grandiose conceptual affair - a musical "speculative autobiography" which reportedly imagines "what might have been". Musically, it's typically adventurous, constantly shifting between sounds, styles and instrumental textures; one minute you're hearing star-fall electronics mixed with choirs of children, the next neo-trance style riffs mixed with luscious strings or cinematic style orchestration. Like much of Lopatin's work, it inhibits its' own musical world, and there are very few artists capable of achieving that.

Review: Warp continues to comb back through the landmark Artificial Intelligence series with this landmark record from Jochem Paap, aka Speedy J. Alongside a tandem reissue of Richie Hawtin's F.U.S.E. album Dimension Intrusion, this remastered edition of Ginger takes us back into the heart of early 90s techno innovation, when new ideas were developing globally at a rate of knots. Paap had already established himself in the harder end of the techno pool, but Ginger flipped the script with an immersive, meditative exploration of minimalism and melodic structure. Amongst the eternal classics are some dazzling miniatures deemed 'Fills' which make for some of the most compelling listening on this seminal slice of early 90s techno.

Review: Not too many artists can create a buzz quite like when word spreads of a new album more than Squarepusher. Dostrotime is the first album for Tom Jenkinson in nearly four years, one of his longest breaks between albums. Proceeding the album release, the video for the hardcore acid banger Wendorlan has been making the rounds on the internet. If this is any indication of the rest of the album, then expect some serious heat. Audio samples have been tightly secured to protect leaks online until the release date. This album will be spread over a 2x12 and nicely packaged in gatefold form and no doubt contain some great gallops through the genre spectrum like only Squarepusher can do.

Review: Given the uniqueness of his madcap and mind-altering trademark sound, the release of any new album from Tom Jenkinson AKA Squarepusher is big news. Given that his last new full-length landed four years ago, the arrival of Dostrotime has got an awful lot of experimentalists in a bit of a lather. Like many albums that have surfaced in the last couple of years, it was apparently inspired by the "novel, eerie, sublime silence of lockdown", with the title being a reference to "how time passed differently". Quite how this plays out within the music itself is open to interpretation; for the most part, what's on offer is prime Squarepusher - all distorted, full-throttle acid lines, mutilated experimental D&B beats, analogue electronics and rasping, strobe-lit nods to raves,

Review: Is it rock? Is it metal? Is it synth pop? How about art noise? Someone, somewhere, is trying to pen a thesis on how you define the mighty and mysterious Yves Tumor. Best leave it to them, then. Wonder aside, the Knoxville, Tennessee outsider has finally delivered the follow up to Heaven To A Tortured Mind and it's every bit another masterpiece that grabs listeners by the jugular and challenges them, while delivering exactly what they didn't realise they wanted to hear.
While it's difficult to find much genuinely surprising in music today, the sheer breadth of Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply Hot Between Worlds) is in itself a shock. Over the course of 12 tracks, we hit grinding electroclash ('God Is A Circle'), seductive operatic pop ('Lovely Sewer'), main stage heavy rock ('Parody'), distorted and pained metal ('Meteora Blues'), and high-paced, rousing indie ('In Spite of War'), among other styles, all realised via a unique musical identity some would kill to possess.

Review: Art-rock auteur Yves Tumor occupies a headspace like no other, putting experimental noise, r&b and glam rock together in a bold, ever-escalating fusion, showing off a flair for simply making powerful Frankensteins out of their favourite styles. Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) adds yet once more this pot: it's a glistening, richly detailed, arguably ultimate expression of their vision, mixing such far-flung influences as My Bloody Valentine, Prince and The Smashing Pumpkins into a deep affector for the Gen Z-eitgeist.

Review: Yves Tumor's capacity to constantly stylistically evolve between each album once more makes itself evident on Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume. Everything from goth-pop to experimental noise rock (usual styles for Yves Tumor) crop up here, hammering home ther increasingly crazed world after a directional shift following the EP 'Heaven To A Tortured Mind'.

Review: Sean Bowie's fifth full-length as Yves Tumor arrives with an epic title (the academically minded will be debating its meaning for years to come), a grandiose electro-rock/post-punk goes-electroclash sound, and a bagful of valedictory reviews. It's basically an extension of Bowie's previous work with a few twists, but that's no bad thing; after all, the artist's distinctive sound and strong songs have always been an impressive calling card. Highlights are plentiful, from the fizzing, 21st century punk-funk of 'Lovely Sewer', and the Prince-does-Nine Inch Nails-flex of 'Parody', to the alternately jangling and sleazy 'Operator', and the post-ESG dancefloor heaviness of 'Fear Evil Like Fire'.