Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Composed and recorded in Los Angeles and San Francisco, "I" is the debut full-length album by Maxwell August Croy and Sean McCann. Croy is best known for his work in Bay Area duo En, wherein he processes koto, voice and other instrumentation into ecstatic and nuanced drone-based recordings; McCann is a solo artist whose work continues to undergo seismic evolutions, manifested most recently on the justly lauded "Music For Private Ensemble", an album of autodidactic modern composition that defies easy categorization.

Working as a duo, Croy and McCann synthesize compositional and aesthetic tropes from their respective discographies to produce something extraordinary. "Parting Light (Suite)" opens the album with a flurry of koto, cello and violin lines masterfully woven together; a complex movement that dissembles to reveal a more spacious environment in which each gesture takes on a heightened significance. Croy's koto lends the piece an Eastern aura complimented by McCann's playing, equal parts idiosyncratic and grandiose. Elsewhere, "Alexandria" finds the duo operating at their most celestial, working their instruments into a harrowing, beautiful dirge comprised of clarion tones and wide-eyed string arrangements.

Ultimately, Croy and McCann cultivate an utterly unique sensibility on "I", perhaps situated best somewhere among the soundworlds of Gavin Bryars, Taj Mahal Travellers and Richard Skelton. The LP was mastered by Rashad Becker and the jacket features exclusive monotypes by Andrew Chalk.

Review: There is real beauty and hope in the dark chaos of Petbrick's new album for Rocket Recordings. It is a compelling insight into the unhinged and occult minds of Wayne Adams (Big Lad and Iggor Cavalera (Soulwax) that manages to convey a real sense of musical lunacy and brain shredding electronic frenzy. Guests like Full Of Hell's Dylan Walker on "Radiation Facial" or Integrity's Dwid Hellion on "Some Semblance Of A Story" add more intensity and urgency to this most caustic of records. Dystopian and invigorating at every turn, this is treacherous music for treacherous times.

Review: Milan's Simone Trabucchi, whom we know by the name of Dracula Lewis thanks to a rich catalogue of related material, launches his new STILL moniker on Berlin's unfailingly explorative PAN label. The result, however, is something we haven't been exposed to before and, for Italian electronic music, it marks a fascinating new journey into the 'outernational' realm. Each one of these 9 sonic experiments is made up of peculiar ethnic blends that span from Rastafarian culture to Pan-Asian influences; most of them are tagged as 'riddims', attempting to form new and visceral forms of futuristic sound-system culture for the next century. We're not kidding when we say that this is the first time in a while that we've heard something genuinely different, genre-blending and in a sense, utterly mystifying. Dancehall is in all of these tunes' DNA, but the execution is peppered with all sorts of sci-fi-leaning tricks and electronics, making it the perfect sort of material for fans of both dance music cultures. Don't sleep on this one. It's another nutty episode of PAN.