Leftfield / Experimental / Electronic Recommendations October 2016

Review: You'll probably already be acquainted with the name Manuel Gottsching - and you should be - but just in case you aren't, he was a pillar of Ash Ra Tempel's golden years and, among other of his contemporaries, was a pioneer of the genre that is often dubbed 'new age'. E2-E4 was a 1984 solo album from the man, and is certainly up there with the likes of Steve Reich's best minimal material, although it has often gone relatively unnoticed. MG Art from Germany have done us the favour of reissuing this monumental release, and we're utterly awestruck by how contemporary and fresh this album still is. In fact, one could say that a tune like "31'38" is the basis for the sound championed by new labels like Mood Hut, where a significantly danceable beat is laid above placid, warm harmonics. Similarly, "23'00" is just as balearic and phased out but, once again, we just can't believe how great this music still sounds more than thirty years later. Warmly recommended.

Review: Soundtrack reissues specialists Death Waltz finally deliver what everyone has been waiting for; a newly remastered edition of Angelo Badalamenti's timeless score for Twin Peaks. A project that was first announced back in 2014, Death Waltz have really put the work in here on this double LP presentation. Seeking out engineer Tal Miller to remaster the score, getting the approval of David Lynch on the artwork, sleeve notes from Badalamenti and of course the music itself pressed up on "damn fine coffee" coloured vinyl. Musically speaking, do we really need to describe what is a classic selection of compositions from the American? Both the foreboding "Twin Peaks Theme" and somewhat more soothing "Laura Palmer's Theme" should be singed on the cerebral cortex of any self-respecting fan of culture.

Review: Emotional Rescue pulls deep from the esoteric well with the first of several avant albums over the coming year. The self-styled 'Ethno-Industrial' Vox Populi! present their 1989 Aither album, remastered and repackaged with love nearly 30 years later. Initiated by artist Axel Kyrou in 1982, Vox Populi! was soon joined by long term collaborator Pacific 231 on a series of coldwave/industrial cassette only recordings. Things changed considerably, however, with the meeting of the siblings, Mitra and Arach in 1984.The consequential use of 'traditional' instruments and, especially, his wife Mitra's Persian folklore vocals gave a specific tonality, incorporating the band's expanding passion for oriental sounds, electronics and psychedelic music. Involving numerous musicians and friends in often-spontaneous studio sessions, the melting pot of varied cultural backgrounds added ethnic, electronic, concrete music, funk, dub and experimental flavours.This feeling of the subjective absence of the artist was achieved via a communal way for making music, but still with an aim to entertain while leading the listener to experience something unique - mind elevating, non-egotistical, ethereal music - all pushing the intellect towards a more artistic transparency. Welcome to Aither.

Review: Dominick Fernow presents another dark and confronting opus entitled Media In The Service Of Terror. Read between the lines of the titles then listen and learn via these harsh textural abrasions on offer. The sombre and brutalist opener "Ziad Jarrah Studied Mathematics" sets the scene well, the tunnelling slo-mo techno of "Take Vows" is great and follows the same path as Vactrol Park or L'estasi Dell'oro have in recent times. "Interrogation Mosaic" shows Fernow still has the knack for some chilling imaginary soundtracks while "More Of The Same (Tunisia)" has the classic outsider techno sound that Fernow has honed on previous efforts like Remember Your Black Day or Ghosts Of Chechnya.

Review: Last year, it was unofficially announced that Serbian musical misfit Nenad Markovic (AKA the snappily-named 33.10.3402) had delivered an album to L.I.E.S. While we're still waiting for that set, this 12" marks the experimental techno and ambient producer's third EP for Ron Morelli's prolific imprint. He begins in predictably creepy, otherworldly fashion, effortlessly blending backwards percussion, snatched field recordings, heavy bass and ghostly electronics on epic A-side "100 Drone Radio Passive Scape". Things get a little more upbeat on B1 cut "No Decline A (121 Roland MC303), where manipulated, acid-style electronic lines rise and fall over a metronomic kick-drum. Meanwhile, Markovic's innate ability to turn experimental productions into atmospheric ambient classics is once again showcased on closing track "O Tom Protom ST".

Review: Since releasing his second album in 2013, James Blake has become one of the most in-demand artists and producers on the planet, recently appearing on Beyonce's much-hyped "visual album", Lemonade. On The Colour In Anything, it's very much business as usual, with Blake only occasionally veering away from his drowsy, atmospheric, piano-and-vocal template. These variations on a theme - the subtle, 4/4 techno-pop of opener "Radio Silence", the autotune-sporting R&B pop of "I Need A Forest Fire", tactile warmth of "Always", and frankly quite odd accapella throw-down "Meet You In The Maze" - add interest, though Blake remains at his best when concentrating on his most emotion-rich and heart-aching songs.

Review: Norwegian producer Biosphere has released countless albums since his 1994 debut Microgravity on Origo Sound. The artist has been an important part of Jon Wozencroft's legendary Touch imprint, and that places him in a position of respect within the ambient landscape. He's up on Smalltown Supersound with a new album this time, and we're wondering how it took so long for him to reach this feat seeing as the label is native to his home country. But that's neither here nor there and, in reality, what's really here is a stunning collection of soundscapes that span a duration of seventeen tracks. You should think of this more as one piece of sound, a journey with a beginning, middle, and end. While it could work perfectly as a soundtrack piece, these sublime flurries of sound have been crafted to perfection and with the upmost attention; Biosphere's vision is concrete, full of movement and direction. What an album. Ambient pick of the week from us.

Review: Back in 1996, Richard D. James and Planet Mu boss Mike Paradinas collaborated on a bizarre self-titled album under the name Mike & Rich. A cult addition to their respective highly-regarded canons that saw the pair applying their braindance template to easy listening and funk, the album soon came to be known as Expert Knob Twiddlers thanks to the excellent cover art. Newly reissued on Planet Mu, the album has been "carefully cleaned up, re-edited and remastered from the original DAT tape [and] put into a more fitting order." Some twenty years on the album remains a playful listen made all the more compelling by the addition of seven previously unheard tracks. A must for any fans of Aphex Twin and u-ZIQ.

Review: Manuel Gottsching's legendary solo material from the mid '70s onwards is finally being reissued the way it deserves; full picture-sleeves unlike those tacky bootlegs that have been knocking about over the years. Thanks to Germany's MG Art we can now appreciate this wondrous music in all its glory and, we have to say, that 2016 feels just right for this music to be resurfaced once again. This is the Ash Ra Tempel producer's first solo LP from 1975, and we can clearly hear the krautrock influence deep in the tracks. However, much like his later material, there's an element of the desolate and purely electronic, a medium with which hie experienced and flourished. The masterful "Echo Waves" opens with a fluttering landscape that could make for the ultimate opener to just bout any DJ set, and "Quasarsphere" comes through next with its gentle waves of ambient delight. All incredibly forward-thinking, of course. "Pluralis" edges closer to what we'd term 'balearic' these days, but without all the gimmicky elements and, instead, full of psychedelic wonder and zeitgeist. This is so hotly recommended...

Review: Joe Williams' Motion Graphics was one of Andrew Field-Pickering's collaborators on the brilliant Lifted project (whose 1 album on PAN remains a modern day experimental, ambient-jazz classic), so it's little surprise to find him (or her) popping up on Future Times. "Brass Mechanic" is a brilliant chunk of head-spinning ambience, seemingly produced by painstakingly chopping up and rearranging clarinet, saxophone and synthesizer notes. Flip for "Traumhara", a similarly inclined chunk of manipulated, electronic ambient-jazz that pushes the (synthesized) clarinet lines to the fore. Both tracks are fiendishly experimental, but also undeniably ear pleasing. Watch out for the debut Motion Graphics LP coming on Domino if you like this 7".

Review: Veteran deep house producer John Daly first released material as The Smoke Clears back in 2013, delivering a deliciously evocative fusion of ambient and IDM tracks for Further Records. Three years on, he's finally finished the follow-up, an eponymous LP for All City. Taking cues from Selected Ambience Works era Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Pete Namlook, HOLOVR and John Beltran, The Smoke Clears is a sublime collection of beat-less and gently percussive tracks that are variously picturesque, life affirming, bittersweet and mournful. Naturally, it's all beautifully produced, with the shimmering IDM sparkle of "In Time", and the intergalactic ambience of "Heaven Sent" standing out.

Review: In more recent years, Mark Pritchard has moved further away from dubstep, and much closer to the smorgasbord of sounds and influences that is often referred to as 'electronica'. We don't mind the term because it gives us more room to interpret the music without any predefinitions, but "Beautiful People" is much more than that. Coming out courtesy of the mighty Warp, the tune is propelled forwards by Radiohead's Thom Yorke, where the legend's voice is perfectly infused with Pritchard's gentle Eastern chimes and tranquil beats. The whole track is a gentle walk into a far yet alluring sonic landscape, and this could well turn into a future classic. We already see it as a perfect accompaniment to a film, and if you're in the mood to totally zone out then you always have the instrumental cut to steer you further out into outer space.

Review: Dusseldorf imprint Offen Music present posthumous works unveiled by Serbian legend Rex Ilusivii aka Mitar Subotic, who passed away tragically in 1999 when his Sao Paulo, Brazil studio caught fire. As the label themselves best put it: "To this day Rex Ilusivii remains an enigma of the global music culture, caught between late cold war electronic spheres, classic and the power of found sound." These seven unearthed excursions run the gamut from dark industrial and creepy imaginary soundtracks to bizarro cosmic synth oddities. Highly recommended listening.

Review: Greek experimental techno producer in Berlin ANFS is a staple of the Inner Surface Music collective and presents another excursion in difficult greyscale listening. Starting out with the ultraviolence of "Blood Trophy" with its body bashing bass assault and overdriven drones washing over you with blatant fury, there's then the broken beat industrial techno onslaught of "VPA" which will appeal to fans of Talker or Simon Shreeve. By the way Repitch man D. Carbone aka Honzo steps up to deliver a seething and slow burning remix. Finally, strap yourself in for the abrasive soundscape of modular abuse on "Zevra".

Review: It's the 30th Anniversary of the Castlevania franchise and Austin, Texas based cinema retroverts Mondo are proud to celebrate with a premiere vinyl release of the original soundtrack to the 1986 Nintendo Entertainment System classic that started it all. Featuring all 12 BMG tracks from the video game by Konami Kukeiha Club (a collective name for the Konami sound production staff) and original artwork by Becky Cloonan. The first of a five-album campaign dedicated to the video game franchise, so get in on it!

Review:  Stephen James Wilkinson aka Bibio has been a big part of Warp's revival since the mid 2000's, and it's no surprise given the fact that this guy is as multi-talented as he is productive behind the mixing desk. "Why So Serious" is a chilled out, hazy boogie monster with gorgeous synth accompaniment and Olivier St Louis on the vocals, while "Make Up" goes more soulful thanks to its slow beat and St Louis' sublime singing. "Stress Me Out" heads back to the LA Boulevard for a ride around with the convertible, and "Night Falls" provides the gentle sort of cool down that's perfect for a night drive. Another cracker from Wilkinson, and also from London's Warp stable.

Review: More south Salento homeboys represent on Robert Crash's New Boy Shit Trax imprint; this time in the form of local stalwart Marco Erroi; the man behind the legendary Squat Party events (with Beppe Vivaz) and the Common Series label. Unpredictable as ever, Erroi presents four oddball grooves that defy categorisation but are pretty awesome in their own right. Starting out with the slo-mo, lo-fi techno of "I'm Just Getting' Fired Up", there's then some seriously tunnelling acid deconstruction on "Radio Interference" that'll really get you travelling without moving! On the flip, the title track presents an ensemble of rusty and dusted down drum machines working in perfect mayhem together. Finally "I Want You Back" is an odd recording from a wasted Sunday morning from way back, with some disco oddity playing in the background.