Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Los Angeles-based The Black Lodge began as an intimate gathering place and ritual organised around exploring, sharing and experimenting with diverse forms of electronic music. This is the fourth collection of cuts from various artists of The Black Lodge multiverse. The Poetic Painter M, an alias of Nation chief Traxx, opens up the A-side with the dark late night acid of 'Elusive Clarity Of 1 Mind', followed by Pablo R Ruiz from Detroit providing the spooky lo-fi/sci-fi groove 'El Rey De Amor'. Over on the flip, Michigan's Fashion Flesh serves up a harsh experimental soundscape on 'Kisses' and closes with the tunnelling industrial funk of Fauna53's 'Jam1' (Asymmetrical weirdo orchestra edit).

Review: Aaron J's Sure Thing kicks on towards its tenth release with a superb new 12" packed with fresh techno jams. Myriad different mods, grooves and tempos are on offer here starting with the puling rhythmic depths of Vardae's 'Pahlevan' then moving on to Kick21's 'Bright Interface', a dark and haunting low-end wobbler. Atavic's 'Subconscious' is a heady one with ambient cosmic pads over deeply hurried, supple rhythms then while Tammo Hesselink & DYL combine to mesmeric effect on the carefully curated broken beat brilliance of 'Accent Award.' A forward-thinking EP for sure.

Review: Of all the seas in the world, the Indian Ocean is up there with those that invoke the greatest sense of mystery. Filling the rather big bit between East Africa, South East Asia, Australia and Oceana, it's a vast expanse of water known for deceptively dangerous paradise islands, political uncertainty, incredible natural beauty and a somewhat wild west (or east?) seafaring culture. It's a place that feels far less familiar to us here in Britain even than the Pacific, and as such a record that looks to interpret cultures and scenes from this watery region is always going to be intriguing. This is the second thematic volume in the Aquapelagos series, split LPs that focus on societies surrounded by waves, and the communities therein. Mike Cooper and Pierre Bastien's interpretation of the Indian Ocean is mesmerising, and often sounds isolated, hypnotic noises ebbing and flowing, distant calls, percussive details, 'atmos' of bird sounds, oscillations, high pitched feedback. A place that is serene and yet disturbed, often by distinctly human elements.

Review: Over the years, Sam Shepheard's work as Floating Points has become increasingly ambitious, moving further away from his dancefloor roots and closer to spiritual jazz, new age and neo-classical. Even so, it was still a surprise when Shepheard announced Promises, a 46-minute piece in 10 "movements" featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It's an undeniably remarkable piece all told; a constantly evolving fusion of neo-classical ambience, spiritual jazz and starry, synthesizer-laden soundscapes notable not only for Sanders' sublime sax-playing and Shepheard's memorable melodic themes, but also the intricate, detailed nature of the musical arrangements. It's a stunningly beautiful and life-affirming piece all told, and one that deserves your full attention.

Review: Never heard of Zoroastrianism? Nothing to do with Zorro, this ancient religion is still practiced by a comparatively small number of people today, and has its roots on the Iranian plateau. Hugely overlooked in the modern world, not least given its incredible influence over may of the tropes we associate with recognisable creeds - heaven, hell, good, evil - here M Geddes Gengras and Psychic Reality pay homage to the history of what might be Western Asia's most mythologised and yet misunderstood nation, while also introducing modern sonic elements and effects.

The result is something that's unarguably original. Ambient work that is vivid and transportive, it's highly rhythmic stuff from start to finish, with tracks like 'The Incremental Spirit' taking that format to the nth degree, while the likes of 'Wilde Pastures' break with a more abstract idea of what these sounds can be.

Review: Estonia's capital, Tallinn, is close enough to Finland to have received FM radio waves, even when the city and state were trapped behind the Iron Curtain, meaning kids of the 1970s and 1980s grew up exposed to Western decadence, and more significantly in this context, pop music, while also being immersed in Communist culture. This might explain why Estonia is such a hotbed for unique talent - it's a place and people very much unto themselves. Misha Panfilov fits into that description nicely. Across Frutaria Electronica she deftly weaves these beautiful post rock melodic tapestries, at once lo-fi and yet subtly complex. Warm, inviting, life affirming and utterly absorbing. Chances are you won't hear much like this for the rest of the week, month, year.... Point made, grab a copy while you can.

Review: Mind-bogglingly prolific and eternally on the mark, Aleksi Perala has travelled a long way from his roots as Ovuca and Astrobotnia since embarking on his Colundi quest. Here we are with another wonderful set, this time presented on Trip which might well break his stellar sound to an even wider audience. There are theories behind Colundi which you would need to investigate yourself, but it might be simplest to just plunge into this immaculate techno creation and test the effects for yourself. Spine-tingling harmonic interplay, impeccably balanced sequences and a direct rhythmic approach make this so easy to latch on to, but there's something mystical bubbling away under the surface which elevates this beyond your average techno record.

Review: Kampala's Nyege Nyege is no longer a niche name in electronic music, having risen to become Africa's most prominent stable for experimental synthesised tracks, carving out not necessarily a sound - artists and albums vary pretty wildly - but a kind of aesthetic which, once recognised, can usually be identified in most output. Of course, there's a problem there, with so much light now being shone on Uganda and the label itself, meaning so much else is missed from nearby countries, let alone this vast continent. Nevertheless, all that attention is not without good reason, and this collaboration between Durban, South Africa-based gqom futurists Phelimuncasi and abstract sound system crew Metal Preyers is a case in point. At once rooted in authentic African dance genres, and yet staunchly determined to reconfigure them, it's pretty much unlike anything you'll hear this week/month/year.

Review: Picture Music's works are pining dedications to idealized, fragile beauty. At the same time, the 80s Brisbane duo's name functioned as a nice pun, with every one of their works intended as workable in film, hence "picture music". Here their groundbreaking yet lesser-spotted ambient debut album, first released in 1987 on tape, gets a wax reissue via Left Ear. We're thrown back to a candlelit array of twilit tunes, from the curious, marimba-ey narrative developer 'Ivory Coast' to the light yet evocative, heart chakra-affirming piece 'Landscape'.

Review: Perhaps slightly better known for his dancefloor-enlivening electro productions, this is actually the third full length ambient album from UK producer Emile Facey under the Plant43 moniker. He's been writing and storing up atmospheric synthesiser experiments alongside his dancefloor oriented output since his last ambient LP The Countless Stones released in 2020, and the eight tracks here are meditative, ethereal affairs, Facey carving out a beautiful set of vivid emotions out of crystal clear pure sounds and arpeggios rolling like gentle waves lapping at a shore. Imagine classic Tangerine Dream combined with the balance and poise of Global Communication and you're getting close.
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Review: Plastikman is in the glory years of his career, and the recognition of this of late has come in the form of various reissues and deluxe editions. One move we didn't expect Mr. Hawtin to take, however, was approving an entire 'semi-classical' reimagining of his original album 'Consumed', first released in 1998. 'Consumed In Key' is a new collaborative version made between Hawtin and pianist/producer Chilly Gonzales; every track found on the original 'Consumed' now features piano flourishings and other instruments peppered over each moody techno jam, fleshing out the pangs we could only previously imagine on first listen.

Review: Greek electronic music legend Lena Platonos returns to Dark Entries with Balancers, an LP of previously unreleased material recorded between 1982-1985. Athens-based Platonos has worked with the label previously to reissue her three solo LPs - Gallop, Sun Masks, and Lepidoptera - as well as to release three accompanying 12" EPs featuring modern remixes of her work. She is renowned for her forays into cutting-edge electronic experimentation as well as her striking, impressionistic poetry and lyrics, always recited in Greek. Also included is an insert with lyrics in both Greek and English.

Review: Mute Records expand their indie major empire with the announcement of yet another album by Stefan Betke aka. Pole, 'Tempus'. The title of the album refers to the Latin word for time, which was later co-opted into the German language to refer to grammatical tense - thus, Pole's seven-suite album is literally a meditation on linguistic time. In comparison to his earlier albums, Pole's sound is unusually urgent on 'Tempus' - implicitly urging us to reconsider our warped notion of time through effects like dub delay - and incorporates more motifs from jazz than ever before.

Review: Two of life's great escape artists, Polo & Pan, or Paul Armand-Delille and Alexandre Grynszpan, first bonded in the chronological hinterland of nightlife's operating hours, at the iconic Parisian nightclub, Le Baron. We weren't there, but in our minds they talked about quantum theories, and maybe came up with the phrase "everything everywhere all at once". But nobody can be sure. Apart from the artists. Since then, they've committed themselves to creating beautiful, weird, tropical house-synth-pop-electronica stuff which they say transcends moments and places, people and cultures. 22:22 is their triumphant return after four years without a full length, and it's every bit as good as fans were hoping for. Dive in, the water is lovely - wherever in the time-space continuum it is.

Review: Preston, UK-based Polypores (AKA Stephen James Buckley) is a great advertisement for just how fertile the North West England electronic music production scene is outside of Manchester, the region's sonic epicentre. Self-describing as "painting" sounds with synthesisers, suffice to say his a deep and patient aural world to step into, and one that reflects the rugged serenity of the region's stunning countryside. Multizonal Mindscramble is a case in point. With track titles like 'The Dream Incubator' and 'Machine Elves', it's clear these are computer sounds but made resolutely human through earthly and heavenly elements, gliding refrains, bubbling flourishes, and a vast, open feeling to arrangements. Naturally evolving, ebbing, and flowing, rather than being trapped in the regimented, hard-fixed loops and patterns that can often define output from musicians and their digital audio workstations.

Review: This 40th anniversary reissue of The Pop Group's seminal Y Live album is a timely reminder of what a game changer it was. Hugely inventive and original upon initial release in 1979, it is still an alarming and arresting record of experimental noise. Manic vocal samples, caustic guitars, detuned synths and dishevelled drums make it a tribal and dystopian fusion of unease and terror. It includes tracks recorded in New York, Manchester and Brussels and all re-cut to half speed vinyl, with a special 12" including "She Is Beyond Good & Evil" and "3'38" as well as a special poster.

Review: Since he first emerged on Diagonal a decade ago, Powell has been associated with abstract rhythms, hard-edged electronics, modular madness and fearsome experimentation. Piano Music 1-7, then, is something of a departure: a set that's as equally as inspired by piano jazz and neo-classical musical movements as fractured electronica and the Radiophonic Workshop. Of course, this is not piano music in the Nils Frahm sense - much of the actual piano motifs are delivered on lo-fi keyboards and synthesizers, while his fluid, attractive and ultra-melodic refrains come wrapped in studio effects and occasional electronic textures. A great example of this hybrid sound is 'Piano Music 4' - all alien electronics, woozy piano riffs and unsettling experimental intent, while the raw beauty of shimmering ambient number 'Piano Music 7' is simply sublime.

Review: Peter Power invites listeners deep into his unique world of rich soundscapes and potent grooves, hypnotic vocals and glitchy beats topped with fine melodies on his new album New Dance Energy. The innovative downtempo talent has a truly global musical perspective and finds inspiration in "organic motion and the alchemical forces of nature." He plays many instruments on the record and for this first dancefloor orientated sound in five years he also brings ecstatic dance forms and the spirit of cacao dance ceremonies to his work.

Review: Pretty Sneaky is an anonymous project about which nobody knows much of anything at all, though it has become synonymous with an image of a banana peel logo and self-released white label 12" EPs. We get more here, this time on Marionette. Marseille's Norman Levy aka Koldd has been enlisted as a collaborator on this one (the third time this has happened following his work on a couple of previous tunes) and it is a seductive mix of soothing sounds, laid-back atmospherics and gentle bird calls. This is slow-motion music for meditative periods of reflection and we love it.

Review: Samuel Rohrer's ArjunaMusic has been minimal in its output since 2012's debut from the label-head himself, but what he's put out has been of the highest quality. While both previous releases were strictly CD-only, Ambiq has also been pressed onto LP format. It seems strange that the deep, intricate music on the label hadn't been released on vinyl, but we're not here to question, merely to tell you how great this piece of music is. Buried in a complex shell compred of strands of free jazz, psyched-out electronics and ambient, this is as experimental as it gets. Starting from the opener, "Erdkern", we're thrown head-first into a melodic frenzy, one which expands and contracts from more rigid structures such as "Tund" and dissolves back into the abyss. The breaks on "Touching The Present" are stupendous. So great to see that the free jazz dynasty has evolved into brighter, more contemporary spheres.

Review: Back in 2016, Martin Jenkins unveiled the first instalment of a "loose trilogy" of vaguely conceptual albums for the Ghost Box label. Entangled Routes is the third and final part of this trilogy and lands two years after its predecessor, Hollow Earth. Though not expressly acknowledged within the music, Jenkins' inspiration this time round was apparently "mycorrhizal networks" - subterranean networks of funghi that transfer water, carbon and other minerals and nutrients to the roots of plants. Musically, what's on offer is intoxicating and far-sighted, with Jenkins mixing up trippy ambient psychedelia with modular-rich, melodious electronica, throbbing, arpeggio-driven dancefloor cuts and what would once have been called IDM. As usual, the album is full of great ideas, beautifully executed, and sequenced in such a way as to provide a genuine aural journey.