Back catalogue:

Review: Original deep house pioneer Ron Trent is back with another new album, 35 years after his game-changing debut. And Lift Off marks a sophisticated evolution in his sonic journey as he echews the introspective downtempo of his 2022 LP What Do The Stars Say To You and deftly blends epic instrumentals, vocal collaborations and intricate arrangements that reflect his diverse influences. There is a great sense of musicality here as masterful percussion intertwines with exploratory tempos and elegant bridge dance music's past, present and future. The highlight is 'Just Another Love Song' which has a whiff of Womack and Womack about it.

Review: After spending much of the last five years confined to the United States, Ron Trent is off on tour this year. As a way of re-introducing himself - not the deep house legend needed to do that of course - he has partnered with Rush Hour to release Lift Off, a fresh double album of previously unheard music. More defiantly dancefloor-centric than his previous album, the decidedly cosmic and downtempo 'What Do The Stars Say To You' (as WARM), the two-disc set sees the Chicagoan combine his usual percussively-layered grooves, warming basslines and colourful synth sounds with nods to all manner of musical influences old and new. The results are uniformly superb, with our picks of a very strong bunch including the spacey future-boogie of Leroy Burgess collaboration 'Let Me See You Shining', the spaced-out, slow-motion epic that is 'Woman of Color', the AM radio-friendly Balearic pop of 'Just Another Love Song' and the undeniably gorgeous 'Street Wave'.

Review: Originally confined to CDia relic of a different timeiJorg Burger's early-2000s masterwork finally sees the vinyl treatment it deserves. Lush, transportive, and quietly radical, this is ambient techno at its most fluid, a body of work that drifts between nostalgia and movement, solitude and propulsion. 'Leuchtturm' remains untouched, its soft hand drums and hazy atmospheres still unfolding like a slow sunrise. Elsewhere, 'AG Penthouse' undergoes a transformation, its flute-like trills and glassy keys now fused to a churning rhythm that recalls Tangerine Dream's work on Thief, minus the guitar histrionics. Beat-driven yet deeply immersive, each track rises, crests and recedes in perfect sequence, a travelogue in the vein of Carl Craig's Landcruising or Model 500's Deep Space. What makes this release endure isn't just its shimmering detail but its refusal to conform. In a landscape where ambient techno so often leans on a specific nostalgia, Burger sidesteps the obvious, creating a listening experience that still feels singular, 21 years later.

Review: Tropicantesimo's Session 3 is the third in what is a trio of EPs that all come ahead of and tease a new Gitania album. This is a collection of sounds steeped in ritual, in healing and celebration of self through sound and dance. Tropicantesimo was originally a party in Rome that soon became a "collective listening experience" which now has its own studio. DJs Hugo Sanchez, Lola Kola, Rocco Mago, Gabor, and Egeeno are behind the sounds and they all bring a mix of world rhythms, messages and sounds that are steamy, deep, languid and alluring.

Review: Tropics - AKA singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chris Ward - deals in a smooth and spare electronic sound, in which the love of '80s Peter Gabriel and Arthur Russell that he grew up is parlayed into yearning songs that are both stylishly understated and emotionally engaging. Never less than inventive and melancholically melodious, 'Rapture', his second album, makes for an exquisite litany of heartache and regret, as Ward delivers the kind of late night tales that will be manna to anyone whose tastes veer in the direction of Sade, James Blake and The XX alike.

Review: Ulrich Troyer's Transit Tribe is a stunning nine-track ambient dub album that showcases his two-decade-long journey through diverse soundscapes. The album elegantly blends avant-garde, techno and field recordings, all underpinned by the warm, atmospheric aesthetics of futurist dub. Featuring a stellar lineup of collaborators from around the globe, including Mamadou Diabate, Reinhilde Gamper and British poet Roger Robinson, the album infuses a rich tapestry of soundsiranging from electric sax and zither to cello and flute. Each track is an exploration of rhythm and texture, with organic drums and deep basslines creating a fluid listening experience that transports the listener. Troyer'S ability to manipulate sound, crafting immersive layers of delay, reverb and echo that invite listeners to lose themselves in the music. From the melodic bounce of 'Latzfonser Kreuz' to the emotive vibes of 'Lago di Garda', Transit Tribe stands as a testament to Troyer's artistry and the collaborative spirit of modern music, evoking the essence of African Head Charge and other pioneering dub influences.

Review: There's something transportive about Odd Balade. The real question is, where does it take us to? Potentially very different places from the next listener, with much of what's here opaque enough to produce varying interpretations from a variety of ears. Even if we were all thinking and experience it in the same way, the sheer breadth of the tracks themselves would still invoke changeable responses. 1980s goth-wave, leftfield pop, haunting ethereality, medieval-hued folk tones, and that's really just off the top of our heads. Tiphaine Belin, AKA Trypheme, is certainly capable of conjuring a multitude of feelings, but Odd Balade makes more big statements than that - it reaffirms the artist as an esteemed producer and songwriter, not just an incredible vocalist. A record deserving of serious attention, to say the least.

Review: Hugh and Jackson performed together as Tunnel Dancers at Good God's 'Soft Future Piano Bar' at the Sydney Opera House in 2017. It was a year that was pivotal for both them and the Sydney music scene because the same year was when Mad Habitat hosted a DIY party in a tunnel near Sydney Airport, possibly the same tunnel that inspired Tunnel Dancers' name. Seven years later, the pair serve up this album which is a tribute to patience and understanding. They took their time, enjoying laksa lunches and quiet moments at The Babylon Sauna & Spa, and the lovely resulting sounds are warm, inviting, deftly derailed with rhythm and found sounds and as good for the mind as they are the body.

Review: Released at the height of chillwave, 'Dive' was a staple of early-2010s YouTube algorithm downtempo. While relatively few people were aware of Tycho before then, the artist (real name Scott Hansen) had already been working for nearly 20 years as a musician and graphic designer under the ame ISO50, which later led to sonic-visual mastery of 'minimal' in all its forms. Something between prog, electronic and washed out, the album struck a nerve among the net-nestled young, serving as one of the earliest examples of a kind of opiate music that would go on to influence the taste of a generation.

Review: By Scott Hansen's previously prolific standards, we've had to wait a fair old while for a new album. Infinite Health, the third Tycho album for Ninja Tune after years signed to Ghostly International, is by design something of a reset: a self-proclaimed meditation on "hope for the future" mixed with a "requiem for the past". Stylistically, that also means a return to his electronic roots, with colourful, melody-rich and sun-splashed synth sounds combined with unfussy beats and breaks, toasty basslines and glistening, AM radio-friendly guitar licks. It is then, regardless of the inspirations behind it, a classic-sounding Tycho album - as highlights 'Phantom', the instrumental deep synth-pop dreaminess of 'Devices' and the lo-fi, trip-hop influenced shuffle of 'Green' emphatically prove.

Review: Tyson's debut album is a captivating exploration of deep, soulful r&b infused with diverse sonic influences. Produced and co-written with Oscar Scheller, the album spans ten tracks that delve into homegrown bass cultureibreakbeats, street soul and trip-hopiwhile incorporating icy 80s synthpop and expansive 00s r&b. The result is a unique, boundary-pushing sound. Highlights include 'Jumpstart', a smooth, atmospheric piece that blends dub, drum & bass and trap into a mesmerising groove. 'Alien Romance' introduces futuristic elements with inventive soundscapes that merge r&b and hip-hop, creating an otherworldly yet accessible vibe. Meanwhile, 'Angel Dust' wraps listeners in a magical, ambient euphoria, showcasing Tyson's ability to craft deeply immersive tracks. Tyson's raw, emotive vocals and innovative production make this a seamless fusion of nostalgia and modernity that redefines contemporary urban music. Fans of experimental yet deeply soulful music will find plenty to love in this remarkable debut.

Review: The Mellophonia label offshoot Fusion Sequence won us over with its well-presented and great-sounding first EP, and now a quick follow-up does the same. This one is another various artists affair that starts with some nice futuristic robot disco from Vanity Project. There is more organic and lush Balearic from Bobby Bricks and Pacific Coliseum follows that spine-tingling Ibiza sunset vibe. On the flip side, there is everything from late-night electronic house to lazy disco via Sorcerer's blissed out 'Just For Love' which would entrance any dance floor. There's as much quality as there is variation on this one, which makes it a useful EP indeed.