Tags: Experimental Ambient

Review: Four Tet's live performance at Alexandra Palace delivers an immersive experience that blends intricate electronic soundscapes with undeniable dancefloor energy. The set opens with a subtle, hypnotic groove, gradually building in complexity and intensity as live drums and layered synths take centre stage. As the performance evolves, tracks like 'Sing' and 'Love Cry' explode with energy, effortlessly weaving between deep, ambient textures and vibrant, pulsing rhythms. The live setting offers a fresh dimension to the material, with each track feeling more expansive and dynamic. This is an exhilarating performance, showcasing Four Tet's ability to transform his recorded work into an electrifying live experience.

Review: Mood Hut's semi-regular forays into ambient-adjacent territory are always worth checking, largely for their preference for hallucinatory sounds, new age melodies and loved-up textures over academic concepts and po-faced experimentalism. Their latest chill-out room friendly missive, which comes courtesy of Chinese producer Knopha, embraces this approach while also offering nods to his own off-kilter dancefloor productions. So, opener 'Fizz', a languid, post-club shuffler, is followed by the jazz-flecked, opiate ambient soul of 'The Light', and the sun-bright joy of 'Mizu Le Gout', where loose-limbed breakbeats, star-burst melodies and cut-up vocal snippets catch the ear. Arguably best of all, though, is the EP-closing 'Corundrum', where Mediterranean guitar sounds and echoing electronic motifs cluster around a UK garage-influenced ambient house groove.

Review: Dreamlogicc and SW are two standouts in the outlier world of leftfield house music, and they find a perfect home on the equally out-there label that is Kimochi. This is the first time they have been on the same bit of wax (though both have been here many times as solo artists) and hopefully, it won't be the last. There is plenty of unusual rhythm work here with wonky grooves that are enriched with a world of superbly futuristic sound designs. All of these hard to define cuts are serious curveballs that bring a great element of WTF to any set, so do not sleep and add them to your arsenal ASAP.

Review: Having already caused a stir with their various solo releases, old friends Klein Zage (real name Sage Redman) and Joey G (Joe Gillick) have decided to join forces on an EP inspired by their time living together in South London. While the EP is musically varied, there's a sonic coherence to the three original tracks thanks to the presence of Redman's spoken word vocals throughout. We're particularly enjoying the deep, emotive beauty of 'A Little Dissonance', though punchy, shuffling and spacey opener 'Folks Not Guys' pushes it close. Over on the flip we're treated to a trio of remixes: Ariel Zetina's intense, trippy and high-tempo take on 'Folks Not Guys', Local Artist's warming and rolling, Rhodes-sporting 'Disco Dub' of the same track, and DJ Python's pleasingly weird, mind-mangling version of 'A Little Dissonance'.

Review: Albertan experimenter Dylan Khotin follows up last year's full-length with an equally impressionistic two-tracker and logical successor, 'Alterac Acid/Mornings II'. Both tracks here are curious digi-Balearic offerings, with spacious episcopies of sound cast across meandering landscapes once seemingly trawled by space invaders and/or deep-cosmos probes. A nearly aimless acid line unfurls across the A-side, locking things into a nice stasis, before a more subdued, dare say clipped stab-womp drives the action of the B-track, which hardly so much as teases its drum line, nor avails itself of a need to even use drums at all (at points) to compel the listener into a driven, awestruck state of bliss.

Review: Robert Witschakowski has been a man on an electro mission (as well as many other side mission, to be really quite honest) for as long as we can remember. His furtherment of electro knows no bounds and it has often come in association with Dutch label Clone and its offshoots, though here he has his They Arrive EP reissued by fellow Dutch label Creme Organization. It landed first back in 2011 but has aged like fine wine and sounds as good as ever - there are a mix of creepy and atmospheric pieces, sick dancefloor rhythms and plenty more to enjoy here.

Review: Sometimes we get some wonderfully enigmatic notes with new releases and this is one of them. Rather than share them all, enjoy this one line - "Protecting the past by projecting it into the future, preserving identities, encouraging conversations across generations, and above all, safeguarding the island of Procida's vast intangible cultural heritage from extinction." Now you can ponder the meaning of that while getting lost in a collection of global grooves that span dub, downtempo, ambient jungle, Balearic and more with plenty of humid atmospheres, whimsical melodies and a general sense of mystic aura that will keep you coming back for more.