Back catalogue: Experimental/Electronic

Review: Chicago-based composer and underground mainstay Rob Mazurek has teamed up with modular synth expert and light artist Alberto Novello for this new collaboration on Hive Mind. The music was recorded in a single afternoon at Dobialab, an experimental artist space in Northern Italy where they cooked up an immersive, improvised journey into uncharted musical dimensions. Across all the coherent pieces, Novello provides a rhythmic and timbral foundation while Mazurek weaves delicate trumpet harmonies, bells and samples to build an atmospheric soundscape. The results veer from new age to psychedelic and are truly mesmerising, like an intense space ritual that explores new realms.

Review: London promoters Sagome continue their evolution and expansion into an essential label with their third release. This one comes from Italian duo Rain Text which comprises Giuseppe Ielasi, a renowned mastering engineer and one-half of Bellows, and Giovanni Civitenga, who hosts the long-running Skyapnea show on NTS. Their new album III offers sequentially titled, intricately detailed electronic compositions that blend abstract techno, glitchy sound design and experimental electronica. Comparable to Mika Vainio's sonic manipulation yet more densely layered, III nods to the fractured sounds of Actress and the decay-driven textures of late-period Jan Jelinek. It's engaging and unique, to say the least.

Review: Mind Express boss Refracted, AKA Berlin's Alex Moya, emerges from the depths of some murky, oily, opaque lake. A place unsettling and unnerving - the site of some unknown tension - but also wonderfully inimitable and hard to countenance. Powerful stuff, just not really in a way that immediately presents itself as such. Nevertheless, before you know it these tones have enveloped and ensnared. Call it ambient techno, call it ambient, call it pure futurism - parts here almost feel like the ambient noises of familiar things that haven't been invented yet. If that makes sense? A moody precog of a record, it whirs and drones, echoes and dissipates. There are moments when structure become more defined, like the mystery of 'Initiation', but for the most part these are aural infinity loops.

Review: This debut from the mysterious duo Atiq and dreadmaul is an immersive concept album which explores the ancient themes of transformation and initiation by blending mysticism and archaic rituals with modern electronic beats. Each track transports listeners into a haunting soundscape rich in organic elements like bone flutes, throat singing and shamanic invocations, all woven into intricate electronic arrangements. The album strikes a perfect balance between the ancient and contemporary with a feeling of ritual and cermet in the long form and immersive rhythms that are as unforgettable as they are hypotonic.

Review: Rivet's newest album for Editions Mego blends optimism and negation, emerging sanguinely from a period of personal tragedy and disillusionment undergone by the artist. Mika Hallback, a key figure in the Swedish underground, first gained attention with industrial techno as Grovskopa before shifting to experimental work, including On Feather and Wire (2020). After the loss of fellow musician Peter Rehberg and his dog Lilo, Hallback created the somber L+P-2 (2023), and now Peck Glamour marks his return, coming reinfused with hope and exploration. Drawing on punk, industrial, techno, and trauma, the album combines synthetic and organic elements, with 'Orbiting Empty Cocoon', with its tugging, metal ballistic sound-rooms sounding like an Au-technic, cybernetic ritual, a dance anthem 'Patitur Butcher' and 'We Left Before We Came' concluding on comparatively layered zoonotic notes; posthuman synthesis backed by birdsong.

Review: Robert Rental is back on the mighty Dark Entries as the cult label reissues his Mental Detentions album as an expanded double pack. Rental is a Scottish pioneer of DIY electronic music who played a key role in shaping the UK's countercultural sound alongside collaborators like Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Though he released little solo music, his 1979 cassette Mental Detentions was a standout of the era that featured raw demos made with budget equipment like a Roland drum machine and Stylophone keyboard. Tracks like 'Stuck' offer a distorted take on the classic motorik sound, while 'Vox' delivers an 18-minute ambient journey in which it is easy to get lost. Rental's work captures the spirit of experimentation and innovation in the face of limited resources.

Review: Samuel Rohrer's stylish new solo album is a fine advert for his expertise as a multi-instrumentalist as it blends percussion, modular synths and keys into lovely downtempo grooves. The title may suggest romantic simplicity, but the music delivers nuanced emotional and tonal complexity and is dedicated to "brave lovers" seeking truth. Tracks like 'The Parish Bell' reveal Rohrer's focused, unhurried style with ephemeral sounds emerging and fading gracefully and guest contributions like Nils Petter Molvaer's muted horn on 'The Gift' add layers of warmth at a record which rewards attentive listening.

Review: Polish audio artist and sound designer Wojciech Rubin apparently draws a lot of inspiration from gnostic texts. If that's your blank drawn, we're talking about a collection of religious beliefs that took root in the first century AD and pointed to humankind's salvation coming through knowledge, as oppose to faith. To quote South Park, "we didn't listen" and so we are where we are today. Thankfully, at least someone remembers this moment in the story of civilisation, although you'll need to listen pretty closely to spot how this has influenced Rusin. Nevertheless, Honey For The Ants is captivating stuff, giving us powerful and somewhat spiritual vocal solos, meandering piano wonders, droning didgeridoos, soft string movements and a sense of the fantastical, forgotten, and dreamt throughout.

Review: .Rian Treanor emerged from the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, seemingly in a blanket of otherworldly noises, flashing consoles and staunchly futurist musical ideas. The world didn't really know what had hit it, and in many ways a decade later it's still unprepared for what he brings to the space station. A true representative of his region's era and world-defining electronic music legacy, Action Potential speaks to this and his refusal to recreate rather than push forward. It also compiles the results of his workshops with an organisation that offers creative practice for adults with visual impairment. A simple concept - allow pension-age participants to get thoroughly stuck in with all manner of kit and explore the possibilities of deconstructed avant garde club music. It's hard to imagine how the results could be any more fascinating and commanding.