Leftfield / Experimental / Electronic Recommendations October 2015

Review: Last seen on regular home Optimo Music getting reworked by Dennis Bovell for one of the 12" releases of the year, Golden Teacher go the DIY route with other must-grip release on their own label. Matching the unpredictable nature of their live shows, the Sauciehall Enthrall 12" sees an evolution in sound for the Glasgow troupe, with a notable injection of dancehall attitude and dubwise sonics replacing the disco punk styles of previous releases. Clearly the mark of a band not wishing to tread water, this new direction is executed with just as much conviction as their highly prized 12"s for Optimo Music. If you enjoyed that aforementioned Dennis Bovell 12" then "No Hemos Vivido" will really resonate.

Review: Ian Wyatt first used the Slow Riffs moniker back in 2013, delivering a beautiful - if ludicrously limited edition - cassette of dreamy ambience, gentling droning textures and twinkling soundscapes for Mood Hut. Here he returns to the Vancouver stable for his first vinyl outing as Slow Riffs following some excellent 12"s under the Local Artist name. It explores similarly evocative, out-there territory to that cassette, from the stoned, freestyle jazz drums and classic ambient house melodies of "Peace Arch", to the becalmed textures, stretched-out chords and ghostly field recordings of "Virgo Dub". Best of all, though, is "Gong Bath", which wraps gently throbbing chords and subtle, barely audible rhythms in the calming sounds of lapping waves, running water, and deep space effects. It's utterly beguiling, and an interesting excursion from Mood Hut given their recent obsession with new age deep house.

Review: REPRESS ALERT: As well as being a resident at Moscow's Denis Simachev bar, Leonid Lipelis has been slowly making a name for himself as a producer for some time. There's a whole raft of Lipelis remixes for the nu-disco set dating back to 2006, but it feels like the Russian producer has stepped up his game of late. Inbetween some killer edits for LIES and an upcoming Public Possession 12" as TMO, Lipelis dons his Beard In Dust guise for the latest release from the mysterious Bahnsteig 23 label. If you were a fan of that aforementioned LIES release or any previous BAH 12 it's highly likely you will dig the four cuts here with Lipelis drawing for some obscure sources with eminently danceable results.

Review: "Delusion Men were here before time started to flow and it seems they will stretch out their existence way beyond doomsday; which probably explains their archaic impulses reverberating in a foggy, lost future. What they deliver are pieces of straightforward punk plunged into disco depths, kraut derailment and swirling drum machine melancholia. If you are looking for retro-future dystopias with no space for healthy minded horizons, this is the thing for you. Delusion Men walked together since the inception of Future Nuggets, although for them the time will never come, we snatched their debut EP. It feels as if through them " the Old Ones" are channeling the last messages of hopelessness for dance floors and dining rooms."

Review: RVNG come up trumps once again, delving much deeper into the Kerry Leimer archive for a most compelling collection of works the Seattle based musician released under the Savant banner during the rich 1980s period. Calling on a cast of local musicians, Leimer created Savant as an 'artificial band' if you will, using the project as an outlet to explore a wilder style of music to the loop-based minimalism he was focusing on in solitude. Some 14 tracks deep, Artificial Dance is a most compelling listen, with a series of odd percussive sketches and strange new age compositions that will leave a similar impression as the Byrne-Eno classic My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. A must if you enjoyed the Leimer retrospective on RVNG last year. One wonders what other Leimer-shaped treats the label has in store?

Review: Finally! We'd been waiting for Carter Tutti Void's follow-up to 2012's Transverse live recording, and hear it is, the trio's first official studio album in their familiarly distorted and cutting-edge style - and it's as sublime as you'd expect. After all, we are talking about a collaboration between Throbbing Gristle Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Factory Floor's Nick Void, a rather sublime line-up in our books and exactly the sort of fresh air that the electronic / pseudo techno pool needs at the moment. F(x) is a wide-eyed view of techno and all its offshoots; the beats flutter and stir across waves of broken guitar riffs and foreboding vocals, a cold image of the world rendered warmer by the outfit's choice of instruments. This LP embobies the true spirit of both techno and industrial music as a whole, cutting out all the club-centred bull and getting straight to the point: dance, sex, and decadence. Highly recommended, of course.

Review: This latest release on Lovefingers' admirable ESP Institute imprint is undeniably left-of-centre. Created by Black Merlin man George Thompson and Musicargo legend Gordon Pohl, it takes the form of 12 atmospheric, stretched-out compositions build around hypnotic synthesizers, droning textures and minimalist melodies. The tracks themselves range from beatless and spooky ("Ton 2"), to pulsating and industrial ("Ton 8"), via more robust, upbeat workouts (check, in particular, the hard-wired, proto-techno thrust of "Ton 4"). The krautrock influences are clear, but the dup also doffs a collective cap to classic ambient, drone, darkwave and, most pleasurably of all, blissful electronica (see the standout "Ton 11").

Review: After the splurge of Spaghetti Western compilations that they've put out over the last few years, the Semi Automatic labels is back with another heavy dosage of niche soundtrack action for the heads. Ranging from psych rock to prog and electronic, Library Of Sound Grooves focuses on the Italian cinema movement between 1967-1975, years when the European nation really knew how to put together films and scores. This excellent selection of music contains plenty of garage fun, spearheaded by the likes of The Sparrows, The Pawnshop and even Italy's own Gianni Marchetti, but there are also more experimental moments, like the percussive twist that is Luis Bacalov's "Boulders Movement 2", or master Bruno Nicolai's "Giano". It is a must-have for anyone interested in one of the finest cinema movements ever.

Review: The judicious Minimal Wave clan deliver another brilliant compilation of rare and wonderful music from the 1980's, this time an anthology of the best work from Japanese artiste Tomo Akikawabaya. Sourcing these songs in their original format has become harder and harder over the years, so they've really done us a favour with this effort. The double LP is made up of loneseom drones, lo-fi drum machine grooves and gorgeous synth work, all coated in Akikawabaya's wonderful vocal stance. The Japanese artiste has a unique style that borders on the melancholic, yet her music is always charged by a driving, proto techno feel. This is one to check if you weren't in the know.

Review: Melbourne trio F Ingers are formed of Tarcar pair Carla Dal Forno and Tarquin Manek along with Samuel Karmel and their Blackest Ever Black debut is some seriously drugged out, lo-fi electronics sounding like early Chris & Cosey crossed with Syd Barrett style psychedelia. Such examples of this are on tracks "Escape Into Bushes" and "Under The House Hard To Breathe". Likewise, tracks like "Blissful Cubby House" and "Useless Treasure" sound like CTI.. if they were joined by a guitarist! The perfect soundtrack for rainy Sunday afternoons after a big night out.

Review: Kevin 'The Bug' Martin and poet Roger Robinson join forces for another King Midas Sound tale and this time they've brought company: Experimental guitarist Fennesz. Exploring his vaults for textures and tones, and reinterpreting them into their own tonal brand of immersiveness, Fennesz's sounds act as a canvas for Roger's measured messages and Kevin's wizard-like ability to conjure up sense-arresting atmospheres... Just as the next collaborators will later on in this album series. With added evocative soul subversion from vocalist Kiki Hitomi, the result sits somewhere between Blue Lines, Kryptic Minds, Nils Frahm and David Lynch. We're looking forward to Edition 2.

Review: Berlin imprint The Gym has been making waves lately with releases by Brandt Brauer Frick, Nina Kraviz and Max Graef. This time they recruit local chanteuse Josa Peit for some some jazzy electronic business on The Constellation EP and there's some good tracks on here. Title track "Constellation" is a dark, dusty low slung groove featuring her haunting and soulful vocals. It gets the remix treatment too. Firstly by local heroes Max Graef and Glenn Astro who give it an injection of their typical low-fi urban soul. Then Dutch legend Dexter steps up to do a remix of said track that stays on the R&B tip in charming fashion complete with soaring keys and trap style snares to interesting effect.

Review: The Serbian representative of retirement synthesiser success Abul Mogard has a new release to impart which comes forth on Walls' own label Ecstatic. As with previous Mogard releases on VCO Records, there is a quiet, slow-burning intensity to this work, gently unfurling monstrous tones in a harmonious swell that manages to be both comforting and unsettling in the same stroke. With subtle processing at the heart of his sound, Mogard once again demonstrates just how powerful the right combination of signal paths can be at evoking strong emotions, using the most glacial sonic gestures possible as a throwdown to an impatient age.

Review: Acido continues to surprise and impress. Having taken a turn towards the club on Acido 21 which saw A Made Up Sound collaborating with Dresvn, this latest release is an album length affair featuring the collective talents of SVN, Dynamo Dreesen, and French artist Jean-Marc Foussat. Working under the name Departement D'Education Psychique, the genesis of this Musique Improvisee album was seemingly a mid-week event in Paris last year featuring Dreesen, SVN and Foussat and others. Inspired by that evening, the trio elected to jam some material together with the results pressed as two extended pieces of around 25 minutes. If you are a fan of musique concrete, Acido and the recent Busen LP on General Elektro you will want to check this delightful slab of electronics.