Review: Burnt Friedman and Joao Pais Filipe's collaborative efforts began back in 2018. The former using synthesis and electronics to paint subtly but incredibly specific aural pictures, the latter focusing on the drum and rhythmic end of things. At times their music feels entirely designed for the dancefloors of underground electronic clubs, in other moments it's something very different indeed.
This latest EP lives up to those broad brushstrokes. '21-30' is a lush, almost tropical sounding workout that offers a complex percussive pattern, and combines these with gentle shades of melody, harmony, hook and distorted note. '22-105' brings elements of glitchiness and robotics into the mix. Meanwhile, '18-140' would work well as a brooding building tool (or section) of a 'proper techno' mix, with '23-130' bridging gaps between the lot.
Review: The first of two EPs leading up to The Future Sound of London's much anticipated 2025 album only serves to build anticipated cause they're as good as you would hope. Side A is a dark ambient odyssey that drifts through ethereal choirs into ritualistic rhythms before landing in a surreal suburban dreamscape. It's immersive, haunting and unpredictably brilliant. Side B begins with a more introspective tone but gradually shifts into unease with baroque minimalism with modular synths, breakbeats and drum machines coming totters with ambient field recordings and meticulously curated samples. It's as intricate as you would expect of this pair and is a masterclass in an atmosphere full of depth and surprise.
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: French musician Julienne Dessagne is behind Fantastic Twins and here presents a new album inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Adapted from her composition for the dance piece Meandres, the record is a textural world of leftfield techno, kosmische influences and cinematic soundscapes across five tracks. Along the way, we're told the artist explores mythology and symbolism while drawing from opera, film scores and literary works. Her set up included modular synthesis and layered vocals which lend things a rather psychedelic edge next to the strikingly atmospheric synths and subtle sense of unpredictability.
Review: Before his work became reduced to a fine slither and he shifted into experimental, concept-driven realms, Jan Jelinek dropped some of the finest early doors micro house as Farben. Originally released on Klang Elektronik and now reissued by Jelinek's own Faitiche label, Textstar is a masterpiece of glitchy sample-based electronics with a subtle, implied funk. In some ways the sound has dated - it's very much of the late 90s-early 00s era it was first crafted in. But it's a sound that still engrosses and intrigues, reveling in microscopic detail and subdued moods while retaining a groove that comes through the best on eternally magnificent cut 'Beautone'.
Review: It's absolutely mind-blowing that Faust released this in 1973. Well, if you know Faust then you know when they became active, and as such it's perfectly logical that they were putting records out when this was unveiled. However, the sounds it contains are so beyond the realms of what we associate with that age it's hard to understand how they ever conceived them.
Having said that, some tracks here are more 'normal'. For example the sweet acoustic folk-ish-ness of 'Flashback Caruso', or the strange, trippy jazz blues on 'Hermanns Lament'. But even these seem to have been born in a different world. Or parallel universe. Then you're given the cut and paste broken beat numbers like 'Don't!', and you realise just how ahead of its time this is.
Review: Berlin's Felix K has always made an art form of techno. His take on the genre is about space, weight and sound design as much as anything. He shows that on the Nullpunkt label with a double pack of expertly realised cuts. 'Sudbaism' is a dubby and cavernous opener with plenty of atmosphere to it then 'Noism' darts about the stereo field with jerking rhythms and snatched vocal yells underpinned by vast bass. Elsewhere there is plenty of moody menace to the empty underground caverns of 'Loss' while 'Life' is like being trapped in the middle of a factory production line in full flow. An evocative work, for sure.
Review: This reissued LP from 1984 follows Strangelove's previous issue of Sjunne Ferger's early singles and soundtrack work on Children's Mind. Restored and fully remastered from the original tapes, it comes with new liner notes and photography. A sonic snapshot of Scandinavia's early '80s electronic/progressive movements, Mindgames is a singular album with a Balearic outcome that showcases a lifetime of musical and personal exploration by the Orebro native. As a child jazz drummer prodigy, arts venue operator, music teacher and Aikido practitioner, a bewildering array of personal and creative influences are channeled into Ferger's only long player.
Algumas Pessoas Olharam O Sul E Viram Deserto (6:04)
Um Som, Seguido De Uma Cena Negra E Malva (6:16)
This Is Music, As It Was Expected (11:02)
O Verao Nasceu Da Paixao De 1921 (10:37)
Review: Holuzam reissues Toze Ferreira's groundbreaking 1988 sound art LP Musica de Baixa Fidelidade long after it has been heralded as a pivotal release in Portugal's experimental music scene. It was created during Ferreira's time at the Institute of Sonology and plays with musique concrete, noise and abstract sound across masterful compositions like 'More Adult Music' and 'This Is Music, As It Was Expected.' With elements of piano, bells, and processed voices, it creates a tactile, immersive experience that challenges conventional music structures. This first-ever vinyl reissue includes the original artwork and a new insert with remastering done by Taylor Deupree. Ferreira's blend of technical skill and emotional depth is mesmerising here.
Review: This reissued album from Justin K. Broadrick follows the sold-out 2022 CD release from Fourth Dimension Records. Since 1983, Broadrick has worked under the Final moniker, evolving from power electronics to a more expansive yet still intense sound over the years. This record features nine tracks all named and numbered after the title and they delve into murky textures, crepuscular guitars, harsh noise and dissonant bursts. The relentless, unforgiving sound captures anger and despair and prove Broadrick's ability to transform early power electronics into contemporary, boundary-pushing forms with deeper emotional resonance.
Review: "Tracks play out like beatless symphonies of wayward folk music who's basement transmissions have been intercepted from the ether; a stirring limbo of grotty emotions that inspire and conflict in equal measure. Portals into zones of sampladelic oddities, haunted vocals and scatty euphoria that is collectively driven by an (un)willingness to straddle familiar pastures." Firnis DC certainly paint a pretty vivid picture of their latest album, on which things are stripped back to the basics, allowing each individual element to breathe properly. This space really works, creating the sensation of endlessness in sound, and a depth of ideas that you can fall through, slowly descending into a world of strange post-rave ambience, looking up at fluffy clouds passing overhead the morning after that night before.
Review: You've always been able to hear the West Coast in Monocoastal, but it's particularly present when you shut your eyes after 12 months of lockdown stopping you from visiting the region. Less active L.A., and more observing in Oregon, Fischer's career didn't end with this in 2011 and the multi-disciplinary artist has produced great things since, but the album is certainly one of turning points in terms of reputation and note.
The idea of slowly watching time unfold in un-rushed places is also highly appropriate. Among the washes of tape and the waves of refrain that make up this beautiful, meditative outing, you'll hear takes and half-harmonies from found instruments including a piano and xylophone. Overall, it feels like a place removed from linearity. A liminal masterpiece, if you are that way inclined.
Review: Renowned composer Simon Fisher Turner's new album Instability of the Signal comes on limited edition black vinyl with extensive sleeve notes. It was produced with Francine Perry and across 13 tracks it delves into sound exploration inspired by Breda Beban, Hrvoje Horvatic, and poet Harold Pinter, whose works appear on the record. The artist integrates four elements: slivers, sounds, strings, and Singing where 'slivers" are brief audio snippets from Salford Electronics reimagined into track foundations. The album also features string arrangements by the Elysian Collective and overall the record reflects Fisher Turner's rich career as it blends experience with introspective soundscapes and personal expression.
Review: FKA Twigs' latest LP 'Caprisongs', widely known as her poptimist opus (contrasting to her earlier experiments) now gets a luminous vinyl pressing via Young. It does well to justify her reinvention after breaking up with a disgraced actor whose name we shan't name: the album is a colossal collaborative affair, and even come with a carnivalesque duet with pop king The Weeknd ('Tears In The Club'). The melodic abandon that follows is just as apt.
Review: Originally released in 1985 on cassette, this sel- titled record from Flaming Tunes was their only one. It's a cult home recording that came after collaborative time spent together by childhood friends Gareth Williams and Mary Currie and is influenced by Williams's time spent travelling India and studying classical Kathakali dance. The music was recorded in a house in South London and makes use of piano, bells, clarinets and percussive sounds that are layered up into simple arrangements. The lo-fi melodies, oblique rhythms and hypnotic qualities of it make it a gold standard for anyone who prides themselves on unearthing the more outlier albums out there.
Review: The aural aesthetics of Flying Lotus go hand-in-hand with film scores. There was the original music contributed to the Blade Runner 2049 anime prequel, tunes for Carole & Tuesday, and the small matter of his label Brainfeeder's new film division. Now we have Yasuke, his first full score.
If you're unaware, Yasuke is the Japanese animated series that's been a hit among fans of Far Eastern cartoons since arriving on Netflix. So far so factual, what about the actual tracks themselves? Well, this collection of arrangements is at once very FlyLo, and then not that FlyLo at all. Yes, there's plenty of deep genre diving going on, nodding to freewheeling jazz, prog rock, trap and more. But here it's much more minimalistic than many might be used to - resulting in a thoroughly original approach to soundtracking a samurai story, void of stereotypes, while never fully breaking from tradition.
Dead Man's Tetris (feat Captain Murphy & Snoop Dogg)
Turkey Dog Coma
Stirring
Coronus, The Terminator
Siren Song (feat Angel Deradoorian)
Turtles
Ready Err Not
Eyes Above
Moment Of Hesitation (feat Herbie Hancock)
Descent Into Madness (feat Thundercat)
The Boys Who Died In Their Sleep (feat Captain Murphy)
Obligatory Cadence
Your Potential/The Beyond (feat Niki Randa)
The Protest
Review: Arriving with some truly mind bending artwork from controversial guro manga artist Shintaro Kago, the new Flying Lotus album You're Dead! Is quite alot to take in upon first listen. Some nineteen tracks deep, Steven Ellison uses all the available space to draw you deep into the afterlife as he sees it, veering through heavily psychedelic jazz passages and next level beat explorations that demand you pay full attention. The iconic Herbie Hancock leads a high profile cast of contributing artists to Fly Lo's fifth studio LP and his most ambitious to date with Kendrick Lamar, Captain Murphy, Snoop Dogg, Angel Deradoorian, Thundercat and Niki Randa also adding to what is a transcendental listening experience.
Review: Ryan James Ford returns to Clone with an album that was written in his new home of Berlin, but that is inspired by his life growing up in Canada. It is full of the sot of rave sounds he heard back then and distil some of the atmospheres of the places he visited and experiences he had, from swimming in cold rivers to exploring supposedly haunting areas and of course being lost int he rave. It is a visceral 14 track affair that combines electors techno, IDM and ambient in complex and rewarding fashion.
Hands, No More Mosquitos, Calamine, Tangle (live in Copenhagen)
Review: Released back in 2003, Rounds was the third LP from Kieran Hebden as Four Tet and perhaps the first long player that widely established him as a pioneering voice within electronic music. Though it doesn't feel like a decade since it was released, Domino celebrate the album's tenth anniversary in requisite fashion here, reissuing it in double LP format and slipping in a CD of Four Tet performing live in Copenhagen in 2004. Listening back now, it's easy to understand why Rounds is viewed as an early classic in the Four Tet canon, transferring his love for free jazz records to a beat template that's more palatable on the ear (Fact pickers might want to know that Hebden recently revealed to Pitchfork the LP was made entirely from samples) "She Moves She" still sounds absolutely haunting too!
Review: While the mythical The Future Sound Of London duo are usually associated with the late 80s and early 90s wave of techno and acid house, they two producers haven't exactly been quiet over the last five years. Their original material is what made them famous, larger than life personalities within the electronic music world but, over the last five years, their Environment series have taken developed - and even matured - their style significantly. That's because they're free to experiment here, just as they did back in the golden years of club music, except that they're now doing this without the restriction of 4/4 patterns, Roland drum machines of acid baselines. The sixth volume of Environment is is a work of beauty, an all-out journey into the deepest reaches of electronica, downtempo, and and drone. Seen through the lens of two veritable pioneers of modern, experimental music. Don't miss it.
Review: Legend has it that around 1997, The Future Sound of London decided to make an album that combined the electronic and broken trance-inducing acid the outfit were already renowned for, and progressive rock. As work continued, a decision was made to go full psyche rock, and the result was The Isness by The Amorphous Androgynous. Had the original idea come to fruition, the hybrid sounds therein might be similar to Life In Moments. Originally released in 2015, this record is one of those very special instances in which you're presented with something that genuinely sounds new. Of course, there's plenty owed, too, with moments definitely nodding to the likes of Sabres of Paradise, slow mo dark room chug and other leftfield dance. On the whole, though, the combination of late night jazz, otherworldly electronica, tripped-out space rock, ambient and movie-esque scores is pretty incomparable.
The Far Out Son Of Lung & The Ramblings Of A Madman
Appendage
Slider
Smokin' Japanese Babe
You're Creeping Me Out
Eyes Pop-skin Explodes - Everybody Dead
It's My Mind That Works
Dirty Shadows
Tired
Egypt
Are They Fightin' Us
Hot Knives
Kai
Amoeba
A Study Of Six Guitars
Snake Hips
An End Of Sorts
Review: Something of ground-breaking album on its initial release in December 1994, ISDN is one of Future Sound of London's most name-checked sets. It's effectively a re-edited and rearranged collection of live recordings - jammed out tracks that were initially broadcast to the world via ISDN links to clubs and radio stations, which FSOL brilliantly moulded into a mind-mangling journey through IDM, trip-hop, proto-big beat, dub, ambient, found sounds, field recordings and wayward electronica. To celebrate the album's 30th birthday, it returns as a two-disc set, freshly 'amalgamated and re-sequenced' by FSOL to include material from both previous editions of the album. It is, then, a kind of 'definitive version' of the LP, and one that still sounds as joyously weird, trippy and psychedelic as it did first time around.
Review: Layer is the new label from Berlin techno favourite Berghain for the music released by its residents. Ben Klock is one of the most celebrated of those and here he links up with Fadi Mohem for an album that eschews his famous techno sounds in favour of a new blend of IDM, ambient and experimental sounds. 'Layer One' comes on double vinyl and opens with 'Ultimate (feat Coby Set)' which is an atmospheric opener with icy synths and sparse landscapes, then 'Escape Valley' explores kinetic rhythms and glitchy synths, 'The Vanishing' is another exploration of a distant corner of the cosmos and 'The Machine' brings more cinematic and evocative electronic designs.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.