Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Seven years after he gave us the spectacularly beautiful Asleep Versions, Jon Hopkins presents four minimal piano stunners to help us return to those half-awake moments of absolute bliss. The bit before the dark in the back of your eyes turns red and you realise it's going to be another 12 hours or so before you're climbing back into the sack and returning to a place where, let's face it, most of us are pretty happy.

In terms of the music itself, this is Hopkins and therefore you know the score in terms of vision. Opening on the tranquility of 'Heron', which sounds as though it was recorded by a lakeside in southern England complete with wildlife on tape, from here things only get more intoxicating, until the delicate pitter pattered notes of 'Wintergreen' close us out on a subtle but moving air.

Review: Ensemble Modern and experimental, Berlin-based music composer and sound artist Hainbach come together for Primer, an album sourced from their 2022 Checkpoint concert and reworked in the studio with bassist Paul Cannon. The record transforms their fine live performance into a rich, immersive home listening experience with Hainbach's signature use of nuclear research gear, tape loops and vintage electronics weaving haunting, ever-shifting textures throughout. As such the pieces pulse with a sonic spark that captures the spirit of experimentation and collaboration and is taps into plenty of avant-garde thinking in its approach to drone and ambient.

Review: Back in the depths of the global Coronavirus pandemic, Nick Hoppner and Alex Kassian decided to join forces to record an album, one that would set aside their club credentials and instead focus on their collective love of krautrock, ambient and 'guitar-driven music'. The result is The Big Melt, the duo's first missive as H.A.N.K. Beginning with the immersive, enveloping sound world that is 'Cruise' - a slow-build, effects-laden dreamscape that offers nods to classic Tangerine Dream, shoegaze and 1990s ambient electronica - the album bobs along attractively, with exotic rhythms and intoxicated electronics ('A Useful Fever') sitting side by side with shuffling Balearic instrumentals ('Azul's Garden'), kosmiche epics ('Jag Aar Jag'), sitar-laden wonders ('While My Tar Gently Weeps'), and analogue-rich nods to Neu!, Can and Dunkelziffer ('No Harm').

Review: Steve Hauschildt is no newcomer to the blossoming ambient scene, having released his first album almost a decade ago. In that time, he's earned a reputation for crafting genuinely poignant electronic music that neatly sidesteps ambient's various stylistic cliches. There's plenty to get excited about on this latest full-length - his fourth for venerable Chicago institution Kranky - starting with the sun-bright, Tangerine Dream style synthesizer arpeggios of the brilliant "Same River Twice". Elsewhere, he gets stunningly melancholic on the drifting beauty of "A False Seeming", doffs a cap to Global Communication and Steve Hillage on the glistening positivity of "Ketracel", and gives Pete Namlook a run for his money on the spacey wonder of "Strands".

Review: The latest addition to the catalogue of Swiss label, Second Thoughts, John Haycock's Dorian Portrait is a striking fusion of jazz and ambient. Showcasing Haycock's Kora specialism - the 21 stringed instrument that has its roots in West Africa - this is an impressive debut studio album from the Manchester-based artist. The opening track, 'Mykes', fans out onto a rippling melody where the plucked strings of the Kora melt into the twin tones of Haycock's electronic components, striking an intriguing balance between a sound that feels age old yet resolutely new. Another standout track, 'Dissolution', grows out from a more prominent bassline, like a plant pushing through soil - leaves unfurling, stretching out towards the sun. This is a beautifully reflective album for quiet introspection and shared listening alike.

Review: On the fringes of Paris, Helen Island's latest LP invites listeners into a world of intrigue and contradiction, where tropical wave, ethereal shoegaze, and abstract pop collide in unexpected ways. It's a journey through shadowy streets and late-night hums, where every track feels like an exploration of the space between clarity and chaos. The record opens with 'Me Who,' a track that sets the tone with its distant, pulsating rhythms and layered vocals, creating a sense of detached introspection. The city's quiet hum is always just under the surface, occasionally breaking through with an almost manic urgency, like the pull of something just out of reach. On 'Hot Zone Regular Day' and 'Fame Gang,' Helen Island leans further into experimental territory, blending tropical textures with subtle shoegaze, constructing a sound that's both familiar and strange. Tracks like 'Invincibl' and 'Ghost Guns' offer a glimpse of a more polished side, with melodies that gently float above the murky depths of the record's darker moments. As the album progresses, you can hear echoes of artists like James Ferraro and Dean Blunt, but Helen Island still manages to chart their own course, never quite conforming to what you expect. It's an album that thrives in paradox the sound of a world half-lit, full of tension, but also a certain kind of quiet. One to get lost in, if you let it.

Review: It is always a joy to hear from the Music For Dreams label. Not only is it a musically interesting outlet but also one that digs deep into plenty of fascinating different scenes. And this is one such case as the project is centered around 99-year-old Iboja Wandall-Holm who sings about memories from her childhood growing up in Eastern Europe. The record plays out like a musical encounter where the songs are worked into magical forms by Danish musician Mikkel Hess and other members of his Hess Is More band with extra collaborative input from label head and producer Kenneth Bager.

Review: Guitarist and composer Patrick Higgins moves out of his comfort zone for a high concept record that pushes boundaries in many directions. As emotionally charged as it is expansive, the title track itself premiered at Monom Studios, Berlin, on a 75 surround speaker setup, giving some idea as to how bold and high spec the ideas are behind the collection as a whole. Versus has plenty of fingers on live instrumentation, but it's also concerned with totems of electronic production - the seamless interweaving of musical textures and layers, free improvisation and an appreciation for bridging styles within and between tracks themselves. Avant garde, ambient, experimental, and installation-worthy stuff from a true great, these are less tracks and more sonic moments contributing to a wider, singular work that's good enough to fully immerse you.

Review: WRWTFWW Records is back with a third collaboration with Japanese electronic, ambient and synth-pop group Interior. This time they reissue a forgotten 1989 solo gem by band member Daisuke Hinata that very much deserves more spotlight. Tarzanland captures the essence of late-'80s California with sun-soaked kanky? ongaku, minimalistic proto-chillwave and breezy synth melodies all washing over you in delightful fashion. Its lush soundscapes evoke the likes of Steve Winwood and Steely Dan as it is infused with nostalgia and serene electronic sounds. They make for a blissful journey through simple pleasures, where ocean waves and warm breezes empty your mind of all but the nicest of thoughts.

Review: It's been seven years since Holden's debut album The Idiots Are Winning was released on his own Border Community imprint, and in that time new material has been scarce to say the least. Thankfully, The Inheritors was well worth the wait; produced with a combination of Holden's extensive analogue modular system and his own self-coded software, the album takes in influences as wide as The KLF, Elgar, ceilidh music, pentatonic folk scales and ancient pagan rituals, with each track recorded in one take with no overdubs. Border Community cohort Luke Abbott's Holkham Drones album would be the closest comparison, but even that superb record doesn't come close to the sprawling marvel that is The Inheritors, with highlights like the jazz sax of "The Caterpillar's Intervention" and twisting analogue techno of "Gone Feral" coming thick and fast.

Review: British ambient producer Jimmy Billingham aka HOLOVR has previously flaunted his wares on respected imprints such as Opal Tapes, Firecracker and Indole where he presented the brilliant Line Of Flight LP last year. "Into Light" or "Apparent Motion" could pass for The Orb or even CTI's early ambient electronica experiments, both awash in soothing analogue pads, hypnotic bleeps and faint 303 acid flourishes. On the flip, there's more quality to be found on the cosmic journey "Involution" that's full of vintage analogue synth flair, screeching and squealing all over the place; it's pure bliss.

Review: Ezekiel Honig is a New York City-based artist who founded two vital labels, Anticipate Recordings and Microcosm, and now he is back with a new album on 12K. Unmapping The Distance Keeps Getting Closer is a tender and honest work of art that wears its heart on its sleeve with piano, horns and broken rhythms all characterising the palette. Field recordings are also worked into the arrangements to add a real narrative and to really evoke a sense of place. Add in plenty of textural and tactile motives and you have a journeying album full of melancholy but also a sense of hope.

Review: A reissue of the third LP from Brian Leeds, an American DJ and producer based on Brooklyn, originally from Kansas City, if this is your first time coming across his work then prepare for a pretty deep dive into lush, dreamy soundscapes, otherworldly drone, and adventurous aural effects, all of which are realised with a musicality that goes well beyond many digital composers.


First unveiled to critical acclaim back in 2016, proof of concept is in the pudding here - one earful and you realise just how much here stands up to new productions today, explaining a little about why people were painting Huerco S as something of a visionary when the debut long form, Colonial Patterns, first arrived. Building on the blueprint laid out then, For Those Of You... is a rich and captivating ambient listening experience that's more than worthy of the spotlight second time round.

Review: Trumpeter Chris Ryan Williams and cellist Lester St. Louis form HxH (H by H) are a boundary-pushing electroacoustic duo who work with acoustic instruments and electronics in real-time. Their debut album, released on KMRU's label OFNOT captures their expansive, sculptural sound, and it is one rooted in jazz, noise, classical and Black experimental traditions. Drawing comparisons to Sun Ra or Laurel Halo, their music is fluid, unpredictable and emotionally resonant. Tracks like 'Pyrex Vision' and 'BEACH' showcase a dynamic interplay between form and freedom and are influenced by visual artists like Torkwase Dyson. HxH's sonic world is both daring and intimate and is an ever-shifting architecture of sound.

Review: Some albums deserve to stay buried, but Hydroplane's 1997 debut album is not one of those. An alternative project from shoegaze-influenced indie band The Cat's Miaow, the self-titled album offered a uniquely hazy, spaced-out blend of lo-fi dream pop vocals, atmospheric guitar textures, DJ Shadow style sample collage, stoned beats, Radoiphonic Workshop style electronic experiments and '90s ambient tropes. It's an unusual but hugely alluring musical melting pot that went largely overlooked at the time - hence this first ever vinyl pressing of the previously CD-only set. We'd recommend giving it a listen because it really is in a genre sub-category all of its own.