Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Inspired by the immeasurable depths of the abyss, Milanese DJ and producer Joseph Tagliabue fosters a dense and intense soundscape on his latest EP 'Abisso', evoking a submerged world of cosmic frequencies nay high-freq, post-techno experiments. Unafraid of the wet and subnautical, 'Abisso' dives headfirst into the lower yonders of the abyss, with the title track inspiring visions of a pulsating humanoid submersible confidently plunging into the fishy midsts of an underwater nowhere; while 'Venula' hears our main character chancing on an underwater acid rave, and 'Insidie' finding a rare pocket-vacuum of air. Finally, 'Santra' rounds off on an incredible halfstep stomp, gated vocals and resonant lows aplenty.

Review: Vodkast Records continues to put a focus on Georgian musicians here with a new EP composed and performed by Tedi, while Zesknel also offers up three remixes. These are experimental sounds from the word go: 'Peru' is all fizzing textures and live jazz drums with moody spoken words, 'Upper Manuality' is a raw techno stomper with a sense of dystopian menace and 'Saturn' is a lithe, dubby and deep space techno interlude. 'Detunator' brings curious, clean synth modulations and shuffling rhythms. The remixes all bring dark energy and otherworldly motifs.

Review: Spclnch kicks off a brand new sub-series here with Toki Fuko at the helm. It comes with a conceptual back story that says in 2045, MindTech researchers discovered a phenomenon in neural networks called "Phantom Scripts." These glitches occur when a person sleeps or closes their eyes, causing the brain to generate images and phrases in response to internal impulses from the neuro-interface. Musically this is full-fat ambient with cinematic and evocative sounds packed into the slowly snaking rhythms. It's creepy, unsettling, but deeply absorbing.

Review: Rhode Island post-metal avant-garde duo The Body have made a name for themselves due to their caustic maelstrom of harsh, brutalist experimentalism as well as their prolific output and collaborative nature, releasing collab albums with the likes of Full Of Hell, Thou, Uniform, and most recently, Dis Fig. Their latest endeavour sees the pair link up with another duo of musical extremity, Toronto, Canada's recently reformed industrial two-piece Intensive Care. Was I Good Enough? has been on the cards since the artists first began making plans as far back as 2018, trading, warping and ruining mutual sessions with layers of loops, distortion, samples and even dubs, constantly striving to find the ideal haunting balance between both of their sonically hideous, oppressive worlds. For all of our ears' sakes, they just might have succeeded.

Review: Born and raised in Bern, Switzerland, Michael Antener spent most of the 1980s concerned with interpreting the subconsciously and overtly apocalyptic discourse of that time through the medium of industrial-edged, dark feeling music. "I found a niche where I could express myself, along with other people who were not afraid of dark themes," he's quoted as saying in retrospect, before going on to explain that singing about love would have been more difficult than using "cries of pain taken from horror movies". This triple vinyl collector's item celebrates that fertile, if angry and dystopian period in Antener's life. Bringing together work from two of his formative projects, The Stranger of the Swamp and Bande Berne Crematoire, what's here is captivating. Electroclash with groove, distressed collages of noise, a certain sense of sonic expressionism - all brooding shadows, menacing arrangements and deeply unsettling moods.

Review: This reissued gem offers meticulously crafted aural rituals that delve into sensual electronic music and human sexuality. Founded by Adi Newton in 1978 to merge art, science and sonology while embracing innovative, multidisciplinary approaches, The Anti Group served as a platform for exploring psycho-acoustic research and this 1994 album was recorded over three years. It is among their more accessible works - never more so than now when it debuts on vinyl after 30 years. As well as the original pieces, it comes with four bonus tracks including a film soundtrack and a remix.

Review: Blume Records return to the forefront of the contemporary experimental canon with the first ever vinyl edition of (a study of) James Tenney's infamous Fluxus suite, Postal Pieces. The storied composer and music theorist was an alpine fixture of the modern music compositional world, with his various writings - both notated on the stave and prosaically penned in the journal - amounting to exquisitely impenetrable tracts on every isolable facet of music theory from harmonic perception to process music to sound synthesis to spectral music. Originally a set of 11 pieces but truncated to five here, drawing on a set of live recordings laid down in 2003, Postal Pieces is one of many of Tenney's works emphasising process over end result. Perhaps the emphasis on process was an attempt to treat the sufferances of "schizophonia", which had plagued musicologists since the 1930s as one of many fussed-over consequences of recorded music obscuring the original source of the sounds heard through an extended medium. The album's sonic pentagram - of long sequences resembling air-raid sirens, its basal textural swells and backroomed feedback loops - might sound doomy to the glib ear. Ultimately, though, this album could also be read as a simple formal exercise, one intended to divert Tenney's own aversion to writing letters (despite his wont to write music theory). Ironically enough, we're sure that, in the wake of this reissue and its hot demand, the postal system itself will thank Tenney for the boost in revenue.

Review: This eight-track release plunges listeners into a world of sci-fi techno, where melodic interludes meet deep, atmospheric edges. Side-1 opens with 'Fukaeri', a track defined by its broken deep beats and ambient drift, evoking a sense of floating through a distant galaxy. 'The Increasing Past' follows with gentle IDM beats, rich colo, and masterful productioniperfect for deep, immersive listening.'Tela' delivers a serene ambient experience, holding the quiet beauty of a rising sun with its delicate textures and evolving warmth. 'Gyeon' shifts into a slow breakbeat with a gentler, deeper approach that feels both introspective and expansive. 'We Are Not Alone' closes the side with cloud-like ambient soundscapes, hazy and airy, as rising vocal arcs add to its otherworldly aura. Lush, cosmic soundscapes and intricate beats create a masterful blend of ambient and techno elements, perfect for those seeking both depth and escapism.

Review: Bonafide and veteran Japanese house legend Satoshi Tommie is back with a second taste of his upcoming new album Magic Hour alongside a selection of fine remixes. First is a Freund der Familie Reshape of 'N01' which is deep, atmospheric and mid tempo techno, while the album's title cut then becomes a swamp, deep, menacing rework from Andrey Pushkarev. Freund der Familie Rewire Fix of 'Phase Space' makes it into a deft, loopy, stuttering workout for the mind and the Satoshi Tommie's Alternate Cut of 'Fast Track' is a killer slow track steeped in dub dynamics.

Review:  Immortal Ventures is a magnificently well-rounded new album from Torn on the mighty Samurai Music. All 13 of the cuts are fantastically well crafted and mix up a range of moods from broody and mediative to deep and hypnotic. 'Knowledge' kicks off with dark and unsettling ambience and 'Reckless' then melts the mind with deft percussive loops over groaning sounds of a depraved underworld. There is more cinematic atmosphere to 'Invisible Turmoil' with its creepy sense of open space and 'Inner Battle' is a kinetic jungle cut with thunderous energy and dystopian eeriness. This is the sort of music that works as well away from the club as it does in it.

Review: Frankfurt's Gregor Tresher returns with his first album in eight years. The 16-track LP offers up his famously dynamic techno sound and rich synth designs with element of dance floor clout underpinning each tune. From his beginnings in Frankfurt's 90s techno scene to collaborations with icons like Depeche Mode, Moby and Extrawelt, Tresher's career has been marked by critically acclaimed releases and False Gods is one of his most ambitious projects yet. It's an accomplished and introspective journey through modern electronic music enriched by collaborations with some notable friends.

Review: Synth-pop, cold wave, dark wave, EBM, future pop. Whatever label you want to give Joyland, the second studio album from Canadian electronic music project TR/ST, one truth is undeniable - this is unashamedly overt and unapologetically futurist in sound, and the tracks big enough to fill a main stage and then some. Opening on 'Slightly Floating', a rare moment of calm before the storm, once second tune 'Geryon' drops it's game over in many ways. You're in, and there's no way out. That said, it's not all rave horn synths and bounding kicks drums. 'Are We Arc' is as weird, trippy and opiate as they come, like the twisted fever dream of a cabaret duet. Or something similar. 'Four Gut' is a wobbly tech-hued workout, and the title track probably owes as much to hardcore as anything else.