Back catalogue: Balearic/Downtempo

Review: Check classic dance music books of the 1990s - and even some later music texts, such as Richard King's The Lark Ascending - and you'll find plenty of praise for Ultramarine's work of the early 1990s, which added pastoral and folk-rock inspired sounds to the sample-heavy pulse of dance music. What you won't find is any reference to their final album of the decade, A User's Guide. Yet it may well be their best album. A conscious exploration of techno and IDM shot through with references to Detroit, Berlin and Sheffield (well, Warp Records at least), it reportedly took the duo almost two years to record. A largely unheralded British techno classic, it has been painstakingly remastered for this first ever vinyl reissue and boasts extensive contextualising liner notes from UK techno historian (and sometime Juno writer) Matt Anniss.

Review: In this collection, Luke curates music with the perfect blend, inviting listeners on an esoteric journey of enlightenment through sound. Exploring late-night, after-hours musings; Everything Above The Sky (Astral Travelling with Luke Una) is a new compilation by the enigmatic DJ, promoter, and cultural curator. Following the E Soul Cultura phenomenon, this compilation comes at a pivotal moment in Luke's career as he travels the globe. Avoiding any chance of his sound being pigeonholed, Luke has assembled a tracklist that feels transcendental, stepping off the grid and back to source. Luke's Everything Above The Sky manifesto describes the music as Astral Travelling in the meadowlands with acid folk, spiritual jazz, midnight hocus pocus, cosmic psychedelic soul, magical whirling love songs, Brazilian ballads of light into machine soul gospel dreaming, Balearic bossa and Outer Space ancient African drums. Expect something different and highly unique with this listen.

Review: There's so much to admire about the borderless musical inclinations of the one and only Luke Una. A longstanding standard-bearer for nocturnal eclecticism, he's made an art out of pigeon-hole dodging, via event series like Electric Chair/Elephant and Homoelectric, his Worldwide FM residency, and E Soul Cultura compilations. His latest comp sees him explore sonic transcendence, selecting a body of musical curios based on their ability to transport the listener to higher realms. As expected, the album bursts with delightful, lesser-known morsels that make it more than worthy of attention. Opening with the psychedelic guitar swells of John Martyn's masterful 'Small Hours' before meandering into the blissful meditations of Stephen Whynott's 'A Better Way', drifting into the staccato whimsy of Sylvain Kassap's 'Plancoe' and arresting with the aching soul of Michael Gregory Jackson's 'Unspoken Magic', there are too many standouts to mention. This is an album to savour from start to finish, a means of cultivating inner peace and astral escapism. When it comes to digging chops, there aren't too many who measure up to Luke, and this selection serves as a case in point.