Back catalogue: Balearic/Downtempo

Review: ?aru is a non-profit label from Romania that sits at the sharp edge of the minimal underground. This new double pack of striped back tech gems will see all proceeds donated to dog shelters and NGOs supporting stray pups. Sensek opens with a slithering and groaning groove, 'Machine Morality,' for shadowy afterparties and Gringow brings a haunting melody to 'Towards The Dark & Cold.' Broascka's 'Epitelius' is an abstract affair with microscopic details scattered over a deep, dubby grove and Dragomir closes with two cuts - 'Alone With You' is a woozy late-night roller and 'Illusions feat Adina Oros' is a blissed out downtempo sound for the post-club hours.

Review: You know we're all in trouble if Daniel Brandt starts making albums about the Doomsday Clock - now closer than ever to midnight, and Armageddon - and whether or not the Earth will survive us. More than just a record, not only does this reflect the darkest of the Brandt Brauer Frick legend's oeuvre, thematically and in moments aurally, it also represents the latest in his long list of defining work and groundbreaking projects from the artist. The LP is one aspect, an apocalyptic live rave show another, where fans and masochists alike can indulge in a multimedia presentation of end times. Sticking to the sounds, though, Brandt again shows himself to be a true electronic maestro here, from the earthy wooded percussive loops of 'Resistance', to the droning string funnels on 'Addicted', 'Steady''s rolling post-club depth, and the opening alarm call future tech-step of 'Paradise OD'. So, if it does all come down to this, at least we're bowing out on a sonic high.

Review: Virginia collective Butcher Brown flaunt their lapidary, multifaceted flair for transversal jazz on their new album for Concord Jazz, via a seamless blend of funk, r&b, soul, bossa nova and much, much else. Through the collective persona of Butcher Brown - an imagined philosopher jazzmaster king, whose grasp of music is said to owe much to legacies of garage punk and jazz funk - the smooth quintet say this "joint" was recorded with the intention of recreating the kind of music one might find oneself dancing to in a club in New York and the UK, attesting all of the band members' compounded skills as music producers. Chopping up samples whilst performing on the fly, the record takes its name from the fact that all members were "pulling samples from across the Atlantic", building their grooves around them.