New releases last eight weeks: Leftfield

Review: Oraculo Records, M.U.S.A Records and Ombra Festival have all come together to unveil Dr. Oso, the latest talent to emerge from the Megabreakz collective. This Argentinian producer follows in the footsteps of Candido (who was behind Megabreakz 7) to deliver his own raw and unapologetic take on the hard new beat style. His release is pure fire, with 'Hooligan Beat Edit' swinging sonic punches in every direction at once. 'Trench Flight' is jacked up and ken with a rugged low end, gun shots and fragment synths all making for a visceral groove. It is much the same on the rest of the EP with 'Lager Dance' really popping thanks to its chopped up sirens and caustic textures.

Review: The always excellent Minimal Wave presents a rare EP from Greek electronic pioneers In Trance 95 here. Alex Machairas and Nik Veliotis formed the duo in 1988 and very much helped define Greece's early electronic scene with their minimal synth and EBM-inspired sound, all of it usually marked by analogue warmth, hypnotic melodies and a futuristic sensibility. This release captures their innovative spirit and cult legacy across six unreleased tracks recorded between the late 80s and early 90s in Athens. It sounds magnificent and is a long-overdue glimpse into their visionary archive for new fans, or a fine reminder of their roots for those who have always been tuned in.

Review: Javier Marimon returns with a set of amb-immersers shaped by architecture, memory, and the shifting continguities of sound and physical space. Made during his time in Saigon in 2018, the tracks lean into absence, with subtle, bass-free constructions predominating over a musical space that exists to be inhabited. A further remix from Vand , meanwhile, reinterprets the original material through a thinner lens, offering a contrasting perspective without overwhelming the source. A quiet but affecting punctuation mark in an already rather grand artistic discography.

Review: Legendary Finnish label Sahko returns with a curveball on its sub-label Puu, meaning wood or tree. While the three artists featured on this EP may seem like unlikely bedfellows, American minimal producer Bruno Pronsato, French fourth world explorer Romeo Poirier & British ambient producer Memotone, their sounds are united in a quest for the organic, the tropical & the gaps between genres. Bruno Pronsato's 'Above The Laundrette (Manieres Bizarres mix)' is an exploration of organic percussion, treading similar paths to percussionist Eli Keszler. The second track is a welcome extended version of 'Thalassocratie' from Poirier's excellent Hotel Naga LP. The pick of the three goes to Memotone's 'The Way In(side)' which sounds like a lost balearic cut from Jon Hassell's seminal Dream Theory In Malaya.

Review: Breakcore don DJ Balli and tropical electro purveyor Sindaco team up on the aptly titled Mutant Goth Italo. True to its name, the Italian duo deliver a batch of oddball, high-energy Euro dance filtered through a nocturnal lens, with affecting vocals from Ossydiana. The twisted pop sensibilities of opener 'Pizzeria Brigada Rossa' set the tone i a feverish pace, shimmering synths, and a searing vocal top-line. The gorgeously sleazy 'Febbre' is a standout, driving yet restrained, while 'Ricatto' impresses with its sinister synths, crisp drums and undulating bass. Closer 'Fedeli Alle Linee' lets it all hang out, pairing singalong melodies with snappy rhythms and snarling bass arps.

Review: French Mahres sublabel Chandelle welcome two crazed newcomers to their darksynth techno fore, Stigma and Accessible Limits, both of whom are new to the game and yet make a precisely torturous, grotesque techno smash here. Thumbscrews tighten and stretching racks widen, as exquisite vanitas cover art tots up the second release in a series, which sees a differently coloured inner label depict an obscene objet d'enfer. Stigma insists we 'Take This Gun' on the A-side, hatching a devilish plan to city-map and computerise the underworld, while Accessible Limits somehow manages to chill the everlasting flames found thereunder with 'Dave Smith Va Estar Aqui' and 'Sant Roc Es Analogic', two tube-tastic flareups with a moodier feel compared to the A.

Review: Jakarta's Uwalmassa refine their singular language once again, deepening their reconstruction of Indonesian musical heritage with four stark, ritualistic pieces. 'Untitled 11' spirals through halting, dust-coated percussion loops, its groove collapsing in and out of time like a broken ceremony. 'Untitled 12' stretches further into abstraction, its dry, rattling timbres evoking brittle reeds and scorched earth. On the flip, 'Untitled 13' locks into a hypnotic, gamelan-inflected rhythm that sounds hand-played but digitally deconstructed, while 'Untitled 14' closes with detuned melodies and a low-slung bassline that suggests ancient dance music refracted through modernist minimalism. Each track seems built to evoke memory without nostalgiaideeply rooted yet future-facing. Their approach continues to resist both club functionality and ethnographic cliche, landing instead in a realm entirely of their own.