Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Worldwide Heavy Industries Vol.1 is the latest wax drop from Flux Musical Art and Brutal Forms and it makes for an immersive trip deep into industrial soundscapes and futuristic themes. Dominik Muller's intricate 'Too Many Posers' soon sucks you in followed by Ryuji Takeuchi's dynamic 'In Your Mind' with its unusual rhythmic innovation. On the B-side, 6SISS and Hypnoskull's intense 'Losss' gets super raw with an industrial edge, while Low Order's 'Taste My Venom' explores darker experimental territory. Skumring's atmospheric 'Corpse-Ridden' closes the album with a mood as dark as you would expect given the title.

Review: Leroy Se Meurt make a bold statement here with their new long player on the Mannequin label. It finds the Parisian pair keeping the foundational sounds of EBM, post-punk and electro at the core but also explores around the edges in fantastic fashion. The mood here is heavy and abrasive rock textures permeate the tracks next to electric synths and over worked samplers. The tracks feature lyrics sung in Turkish and French and are hard hitting affairs with floor facing, repetitive loop madness next to double-tempo cuts with chaotic guitars amongst much more.

Review: The respected DIY hero Xin Lie's reputation has spread far from his native Bangdung in the Indonesian province of West Java - and this eight track debut album will no doubt add to his international repute even further. Electronica is one of the hardest genres in which to forge an original, distinctive path but Lie does it here effortlessly, from the juddering bass-driven half speed groover 'Parat' and the frenetic, polymetric rhythmic riddle that is 'Ngalengkah', to the tribal percussiveness meets mangled robotics of 'Papait Nu Amis', it never settles into accepted ways of doing things, constantly challenging you to keep up. "Perhaps it's best imagined as the soundtrack to a multi-sensory art installation," Lie suggests, "or a performance staged not in a gallery but in an unassuming house down your street." Fine. Or just a really compelling record, you could equally argue.

Review: Wearing 1980s synth pop influences on their sleeve, and sounding exactly like they belong on the mighty DFA, Brooklyn's Light Asylum were rightly praised at the time they put out their debut - and, to this date - only studio album, circa 2012. Critics noted that, at a time when dance-punk crossover was everywhere, driven by LCD Soundsystem and many of the acts frontman James Murphy signed to DFA, the New Yorkers manage to differentiate themselves from the pack in several ways.

Taking a hint of Depeche Mode (well, maybe a bit more), a pinch of Nine Inch Nails, and parts of Throbbing Gristle, Gary Numan, and other pioneers, Light Asylum managed to introduce some much-needed light and spatiality into the often claustrophobically dark and oppressive industrial synth world. In doing so, they offer a sound that's somehow both universally accessible and niche, which is never an easy line to tread.

Review: Lundin Oil's latest effort is nothing if not powerful and, at times, intimidating. It's also rooted in an important message. People, by nature, have a habit of deducing things about each other. Or thinking they've deduced, when in reality they've assumed and presumed. Underneath the industrial mechanisms at the centre of these soundscapes, then, there's something vulnerable and human. It's challenging stuff, but also reassuring to be back in this particular experimental fold, with Exploit Divisions the first Lundin Oil album we've had since 2016. While fitting precisely into the back catalogue, you also can't help feel that this is up there with the broadest sonic palette painted by the artist yet. Spanning razor sharp, jagged rhythms and wider, more patient ambient refrains.