Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Outlier experimental label Eating Music brings back more for us to chew on here in the form of a varied four tracker from various artists. It is Mindexxx that opens with 'Track 1' which layers up snaking synths and deeply buried dark bass that grows in intensity and washes over you like a Tsunami. Laughing Ears then cuts back to a tender mood with soft piano chords and slowly unfolding rhythms that are warm and lithe. Gooooose's 'The Dusk Of Digital Age' is a churchy affair with textured drones shot through with beams of synth light and Knopha's 'Off-Peak Season Tourists' layers up choral vocals and jumbled drum sounds into something hypnotic and escapist.

Review: Lisbon's Rui Maia has turned his hand to many different styles over a long and winding career, shoring up on Bear Funk, Optimus Discos and Belong over the years and also recording as Mirror People, Noise Reduction and X-Wife. After a few years silence, he re-emerged on the Groovement Organic Series label last year, and makes a swift return with another illustrious set of plaintive electronics for mellow reflection and headphone reveries. From the sombre refrains of 'Metade' to the strafing arps and sprightly chimes of 'Okino', there's vintage warmth rubbed into every inch of this release, but it doesn't feel disposably retro. Rather, Maia creates a space out of time for you to recline in, surrounded by dulcet synth shapes and the occasional tickle of a drum machine. Is there any better place to be?

Review: Non-Stop Healing Frequency is music designed to soothe you. It is the second album from Ruth Mascelli, aka one quarter of Special Interest, and is a progression from their debut album in that it is a "carefully constructed sequence of electronic mood pieces, tender ballads, kosmische disco tracks and industrial symphonies" Using synth, drum machine and piano, as well as Mascelli's own voice, these 11 pieces explore themes like new age and self-help scams, gnostic mysticism and different ways of working through grief. It's an exploration of how we all get through life, basically, and by listening to you will, in fact, get through life a little easier.

Review: Second time around for David Sylvian's inspired full-length collaboration with German mastering engineer-turned-electro-acoustic experimentalist Stephan Mathieu. Wandermude won plenty of plaudits on its initial 2012 release, with critics highlighting the immersive beauty and sonic detail of the duo's hybrid drone and ambient works. It still sounds superb all these years on, too - all evocative aural textures (often provided by Sylvian on guitar or synth, though Mathieu did contribute some organ sounds), impeccable sound design (Mathieu is a master at this and reportedly constructed most of the showcased tracks) and sustained sound-washes. If you love ambient music, you need it in your life.

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: Ilian Tape's ITX Series provides another opportunity to sink into some deeply escapist ambient and drone soundscapes from the usually dance floor-focused breakbeat and techno label. MPU101 has served up a few of these EPs before and they always find them coax plenty of magic out of their analogue machines. 'TEAM 700_76' is a nice and bleary-eyed post-Blade Runner soundtrack, 'BLOCK-1_2AREA666' has a darker undercurrent of menace, 'TrailerparkBeauty' brings some twinkling celestial keys and 'Sunset Memories' closes on frazzled chords that speak of heat damage from a scorching sun.

Review: Revered dub techno don Rod Modell has joined forces with Astral Industries label founder Ario Farahani for this brand new collaboration and stunning debut album. It was devised as an immersive fictional soundtrack and is beautifully rich with layers of FX, mystic motifs and stoner overtones that skink you in deep. Old Iranian records have been used as sample court material which lends it a real world cinematise and ancient charm with Persian sounds filtering through the hazy soundscapes. A fantastic album for mind, body and soul.

Review: This new one from our favourite US ambient outlet takes the form of a selection of long-form compositions from artists who are close to the label. As such it's a perfect reflection of its signature sound - deeply immersive soundscapes, slowly shifting synths and meditative moods made with a mix of hardware tools, guitars, pedals and even baritone vocals. It's named after a Norwegian term for warmth and intimacy, which certainly plays out from the evolving loops of 'A Whisper' to the textured melancholy of 'Canaan' and the reverberant drift of 'Coronation Ring'.

Review: Deep Valley is a new collaborative work by Australian artists Seaworthy aka Cameron Webb and Matt Rosner and they came together for it during a week-long residency at Bundanon Art Museum in New South Wales. The property which was gifted to the Australian public by artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in the 1990s offers a unique landscape along the Shoalhaven River and is surrounded by sandstone cliffs and diverse wildlife. Drawing inspiration from Boyd's belief that "you can't own a landscape," Deep Valley combines the inspiration of that setting with environmental recordings, guitars, piano, and electronic processing all of which aim to highlight the transient nature of ecosystems and encourage you to reconnect with the sounds of nature.

Review: Joseph Shabason, Matthew Sage, and Nicholas Krgovich form a harmonious triangle, both musically and geographically. Hailing from Toronto, Colorado, and Vancouver respectively, they converged at Sage's barn studio nestled at the foot of the Rockies to explore their shared talent for finding beauty in life's mundane moments. Shabason, known for blending late 80s adult-contemporary and smooth jazz aesthetics into ethereal soundscapes, joins forces with Sage, who combines instrumental prowess with synthesis and field recordings to evoke the natural world's whimsy and profundity. Completing the trio is Krgovich, whose observational poetics add a relatable touch to their calm expressionism. Their collaborative album, warmly Shabason, Krgovich, Sage extends the wry and melancholic micro-miracles established in their previous works.