Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: M Parent's penchant for texture is laid bare on this searing and arresting new EP for Zement. It opens with 'Gravel Pit' which sounds like an audio diary from a car-wrecking plant. Twisted metal, fizzing battery acid, and crushed glass all feature over a distorted baseline and broken rhythm. Those same scuzzy sounds define the rest of the EP from the acid-laced 'Ideal Future' to the coruscated funk of 'Acid Thirst' via the caustic intensity of closer Climb These Walls'. An impressively unique offering that very much has its own singularly sound palette.

Review: German artist Martin Matiske's musical journey began under the mentorship of DJ Hell, who introduced him to the decks at Gigolo label nights in Munich in 1999. Inspired by pioneers like Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre, Matiske started producing for International Deejay Gigolo Records and later for Frustrated Funk, Bordello A Parigi, and the Central Processing Unit. His new EP has already had support from Dave Clarke and Helena Hauff, including for the standout track 'Moments', which blends ice-cold snares with celestial pads and retro-future synths. Legowelt's remix of 'Moments' adds an astral electro vibe, while 'Dimensional Space Travel' and 'Analogue Being' explore cinematic electro with nostalgic, playful tones.

Review: Monochord, which is the duo of Vienna-based musicians Bernhard Hammer and Jakob Schneidewind, diverges from their Elektro Guzzi roots with electroacoustic experiments and cinematic elements. Their music unfolds organically here, propelled by a forward momentum that distinguishes it while minimalist compositions explore electronica, ambient, shoegaze, and modern classical influences, maximising potential to logical and sometimes illogical conclusions. Introspective and filmic, Monochord's quiet, non-confrontational nature traverses various realms with a subtle pulse and evocative, droning textures that make for music which defies easy categorisation and evokes deep introspection.

Review: Poet, librarian, Mancunian, father, husband, uncle, brother. Mike Garry is many things to many people, but tonight, Matthew, his voices guides our eyes upwards, inviting us to stargaze to one of Orbital's most emotionally resonant and timeless pieces of rave noise. Belfast Revisited would be one way to describe it, taking some of the classic and unmistakable elements of that anthem and turning it into something new. First and foremost freshness comes with the spoken word addition - a thoroughly positive, passionate and amorous declaration of unending love that could feel jarring depending on whether you always felt 'Belfast' was reflective and slightly melancholy, or not. Gone too are the breaks, replaced now by stadium-sized four-to-the-floor turning what was once the end of the night walking home at dawn into something that sounds way more 11PM at the concert.

Review: Berlin Atonal returned two years ago from a long hiatus, 23 years to be exact. After three tremendous festivals this decade, they now present us with their first recordings since 1984. These particular ones from the 2014 edition. Cabaret Voltaire (in this incarnation featuring only Richard H Kirk) was a true highlight and contributes "Microscopic Flesh Fragment" and "Universal Energy". One half of Demdike Stare Miles Whitaker went solo, presenting his truly unique take on techno, and the slow burning attitude of "Vagabond No. 7" is evidence of this. New Zealand's Fis also appears; rather uncategorisable as always on "Dist CL (Atonal Version)." On the third disc we have Northern Electronics main man and modern auteur Abdulla Rashim presenting two commissions from his captivating atmospheric set that year. Limited to 700 copies.

Review: Italian-born, Berlin-based. These details alone are enough to mark Velvet May out as a product of location. Italy has long-been obsessed with a distorted futurism, musically at least, with a slew of hugely respected noise pioneers calling the country home, particularly in northern areas around Torino. Meanwhile, Germany's capital is all about those dystopian aesthetics and technophile attitude. Fusing together industrial, rock, and electronic in a visceral, mechanical, human-trapped-in-machine amalgamation of sound, the grit of production lines meets the unbridled raw energy of punk, the sex droid seduction of electroclash steaming headfirst into the forward momentum of techno. It's angry, frustrated, perhaps even desperate, voices calling out from behind wires and controllers. Yet, in other moments ('Haven of Thrill', for example) it's positively life-affirming and, dare it be said, owes something to the euphoria of rave.

Review: Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg returns to Altin Village & Mine with Cosmic-Astral, his second album as Memory Pearl. Inspired by a 1970s psychotherapeutic music program used alongside LSD, he reimagines its classical compositions through electronic manipulation and using MIDI transformations of works by Strauss and Scriabi. He crafts new landscapes enriched by improvisations from Sam Prekop, Joseph Shabason and others and, as a psychotherapist and musician, he blends that expertise with musical creativity to shape a delicate trip across nine tracks that form a pathway to sonic healing.

Review: Berlin-based artist Pavel Milyakov collaborates with Yana Pavlova, Martyna Basta, Richie Culver and Torus on Enthropic Vision, an album-length collection of tracks spanning diverse genres. The A-side starts with the melancholic ambience of 'Moon Chant', featuring the ethereal vocals of Krakow experimental music scene veteran Martyna Basta, before 'Tesco' brings bleak trancey loops blended with British contemporary artist Richie Culver's spoken word poetry. 'Eternal Break', with Netherlands-based artist Torus, is all low subs, ecstatic pads and abrasive breaks, then the B-side kicks in with 'Gabba 17' - not a 170bpm gabba anthem, but rather a ghostly techno workout with an admittedly urgent 4/4 kick - and continues with another tune featuring Richie Culver's spoken word fused with breaks. The album closes with the grim beauty of 'The Thrill', recorded in collaboration with Ukrainian singer Yana Pavlova and transports more wised up listeners back to the hypnagogic universe of the duo's 2021 Blue LP.

Review: Russian titan Monokle is back to once again traverse many different sound worlds with his new album Ultraflowers. It is one of a number of superb albums landing on Constellation Tatsu this summer and one defined again by its warmth. The title track is a lo-fi, scruffy and deep opener with persuasive breakbeats, while 'Glassy Eyed' is an ambient jungle trip that drips with watery melody. 'Night Objects' offers some introspection and 'Moths' is a glitchy future techno cut with smeared synth soul. '1000Work' layer sup more breaks with elegant ambient melodies and 'Predteche' casts you admit in the deepest corners of space.

Review: Deerhunter co-founder and drummer Moses Archuleta works solo under the Moon Diagrams alias and here he impresses once more with a second album, Cemetery Classics. This 12-track release is a collaboration between Sonic Cathedral and Angus Andrew's new label No Gold adn it has been mixed by Simian Mobile Disco man James Ford. Guests like Anastasia Coope, Patrick Flegel and Josh Diamond from Gang Gang Dance all feature on what is Archuleta's first new music since 2019's Trappy Bats mini-album. The album spans several genres, as you would expect, from Basinski-esque degradation on 'Neptune' to industrial noise on 'Listen To Me,' with postmodern pop, trip-hop, shoegaze, and more. The man himself calls it a "graveyard disc" of songs for the afterlife.

Review: Planet Mu main man Mike 'Mu-ziq' Paradinas and Hannah Davidson AKA Mrs Jynx have long been friends, though it took shared grief (both had a parent who succumbed to cancer over the last couple of years) to finally get together in the studio and make some therapeutic music. The results, as showcased on Secret Garden, are nothing less than sublime; a set of highly emotive, picturesque tracks that mix bittersweet bliss and heart-aching musical melancholia with brief blasts of aural sunniness and rushing bliss. It's rooted in ambient and electronica, of course, but also includes a number of hypnotic, dancefloor ready excursions and rhythmic, soft-touch epics. Above all though, it's as melodious and colourful as it is poignant and thought-provoking, offering a surprisingly on-point musical translation of the grieving process.

Review: Even by the standards of the late, great Bryn Jones AKA Muslimgauze - an artist whose enormous catalogue has only grown since his death in 1999 - Rhiza Coil of Resin is something of an obscurity - a set previously only available as part of a rare box set. It was reportedly recorded at some point following the release of Narcotic (1997) and explores many of the same sonic themes. Here available as a standalone CD for the first time, the five tracks variously touch on lo-fi, delay-laden drum & bass ('Deceive For Yourself'), redlined bass and mangled breakbeats (both takes on the suitably heavy 'Arab Quarter'), experimental electronic noise meets ambient acid ('Why Iraq') and deep, dubbed-out trip-hop ('Effendi') - all peppered with his usual Arabic spoken word samples, field recordings and found sounds.