Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: For a four track electronic music EP, there's a lot here. Opening with 'Burning Fields' by Aphonia, the uninitiated might expect the whole package to nod to that classic electro sound, highly detailed but lo-fi, packed with dark atmosphere but all about dance floor energy. Skip to track two, though, and Angles of Pompeii present mutant indie-punk-dance in the vein of Detroit Grand Pubahs at their most guitar-y, and minimalistic.

Elsewhere, 'Retreat' is a slow mo maximalist triumph, acid lines flailing over the top of a muffled cacophony of noise that places the emphasis on a lunging, head-nodding bassline. Add 'Athma', Odopt's sinister low end and drum machine tune up that could almost be an accidental piece from the movie They Live and you've got not only a complex release, but one boasting replay value set to last for years after the investment.

Review: Aussie larrikin DJ WHPRSNPR is back on his very own Nerang Recordings with a motley crew of upstarts on this one. Fittingly titled Freaky Friends 2, it features DJ Swagger with some off-kilter UK bass on 'Hotice Water' and Low Tape with the NSFW booty bass of 'So Delicious' on the A side, followed over on the flip by Ole Mic Odd's sci-fi electro funk jam 'In The House' and Berlin's Nasty King Krule doing his best Dopplereffekt impression on 'Stop Talkin Boy' among others.

Review: Following up last year's production with Baltimore techno legend Maurice Fulton on 'Jigoo', the next release on Gudu is the first of two songs by label boss Peggy Gou that she will release over the coming months. Her first single in over two years, it translates to 'Butterfly' and is another collaboration. This time with fellow Korean sensation OHHYUK who is the lead singer and guitarist in the band Hyukoh. 'Nabi' is a downtempo, pop-inflected number said to be inspired by '80s synth classics and '90s Korean songs that Gou's mother used to play at home during her childhood.

Review: Despite the title sounding like an archive collection, 1994 is actually the debut album from OKRAA. It has an emphasis on live performance and makes for a gorgeously immersive and even evolving listen from the aways excellent A Strangely Isolated Place label. All four pieces are over with minutes but they are worthy of their playing time for the way so much unfolds in such engaging fashion. Synths are cold and innocent on 'Ola De Luz' while 'Heartless' is more textural, dark, heavy in its mood. The title track is another heavy and introspective one while 'Plasma' has a more optimistic feel that lifts the spirts.

Review: Minimal Wave has put together a special 18th-anniversary reissue of its first release, namely Oppenheimer Analysis's self-titled EP. It now comes on limited and hand-numbered 180-gram vinyl with a poster and makes just as much of an indelible mark as it did almost two decades ago. It has been rather elusive since then and features the original remastered version of 'The Devil's Dancers', some tracks from the pair's 1982 cassette 'New Mexico' and two previously unreleased tracks that are all presented as a tribute to the late Martin Lloyd, one half of Oppenheimer Analysis, who passed away back in 2013.

Review: "Hello. My name is Ohama, and I live on a potato farm in Western Canada" went the memorably deadpan opening to "The Drum", Ohama's contribution to Minimal Wave Tapes Vol 2 earlier this year, and it's also the opening track on this full length exploration of the Canadian producer's work from Minimal Wave. What's most striking about The Potato Farm Tapes however is the sense of paranoia and detachment that Ohama clearly felt recording these tracks from his studio basement beneath his parents' potato farm in Rainier, Alberta, during the latter stages of The Cold War. Intriguingly, Ohama's lyrics are heavily focused on technophobia and the subversive power of television and mass media which stands in stark contrast to the techno centric nature - with keyboards, drum machines, vocoders and analogue reel tape all utilised to create complex productions that blended found sounds with audio lifted from TV. Some of Ohama's earliest recordings from his first cassette only release Midnite News form the basis of The Potato Farm Tapes along with rare tracks that previously appeared on compilations. Furthermore, the label have printed a must read interview between Ohama and Brandon Hocura on the inner sleeve that offers some brilliant insight into this collection.

Review: Daniel Lopatin is not a new name to clued-in electronic fans at all, the American MIDI magician has been operating under the alias Oneohtrix Point Never for almost a decade and a half at this point. From working the keys for The Weeknd, going back and forth with artistic adoration to Caroline Polachek and having the late Ryuichi Sakamoto's official stamp of approval, OPN is just as impressive in the shadows as he is in the light. Again is the follow-up record to fan favourite Magic and his main focus after serving as executive producer for The Weeknd's 80s synth-wave smash 'Dawn FM'. A pared-back rollout has given way to just one single, album closer 'A Barely Lit Path'. Pretty-as-can-be strings bend the knee to blasts of digitised noise, the two dancing back and forth with one another across the rollercoaster six-minute runtime. Grandiose operatics and revered choir vocals glide over a swelling string section, pinned together with a throbbing electronic rhythm patch before collapsing into emptiness. It is majestic, emotional and nothing less than to be expected from OPN.

Review: For fans of minimal wave and DIY electronic pop, Oppenheimer Analysis's self-released 1982 debut cassette, New Mexico - little more than an extended demo cassette - has become something of a collector's item. While it has been reissued digitally since, it never received a vinyl release. In tribute to Martin Lloyd (the other half of the duo, alongside Andy Oppenheimer), who passed away recently, Minimal Wave has decided to make New Mexico available on wax for the first time. While the sound quality is appropriately dusty (it was badly recorded in the first place, of course), the music remains magical - bubbling, evocative, left-of-centre leftfield pop created with home-made synthesizers, modular hardware and little else. It's no wonder many consider it a classic album (even if was never officially released first time round).

Review: Unusually, Optimo's JD Twitch and Jonny Wilkes have taken the unusual step of not announcing the tracklist for their two-part 25th anniversary compilation ahead of release. Ordering, then, requires a leap of faith, but given the sheer breadth, diversity and quality of the music they've been playing over the last quarter of a decade, there's no doubt we're in safe hands. It's not a 'best of Optimo anthems' collection, or merely a bunch of peak-time favourites; instead, we're promised a mixture of unusual warm-up favourites and confirmed dancefloor workouts in a wide range of style that have long been favourites of the two Glasgow-based DJs - many of which will, inevitably, be slept-on, forgotten or under-appreciated gems.

Review: Optimo's JD Twitch and Jonny Wilkes, undoubtedly the UK's most fearless and on-point 'anything goes' DJs, have spent a quarter of a decade building trust with their audience. You can never tell what they might play when you turn up at one of their events, but you know it will be inspired, high-quality, and most likely make you want to dance. With their two-part 25th anniversary compilation (this is part two), they've taken a similar approach, keeping the track-list under wraps until release day while promising a mix of oddball warm-up favourites and floor-focused tracks they love and have played at various points since the start of the century. Given their track record, we can expect forgotten gems, left-of-centre anti-anthems, and unusual party-starting delights.

Review: Music from Memory have coaxed a special one off long player out of the trio of talents that is Belgian producer soFa, German musician Houschyar and the legendary Turkish drummer and percussionist Okay Temiz. Second Circle is made from studio session that started back in 2018 and makes use of a number of homemade instruments. Plenty of overdubbing techniques have been sued to achieve the richly layered sound and each piece is an intoxicating and meditative study in otherworldly electronics and earthy percussion. A gloriously unique and original listen.