Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Outlier experimental label Eating Music brings back more for us to chew on here in the form of a varied four tracker from various artists. It is Mindexxx that opens with 'Track 1' which layers up snaking synths and deeply buried dark bass that grows in intensity and washes over you like a Tsunami. Laughing Ears then cuts back to a tender mood with soft piano chords and slowly unfolding rhythms that are warm and lithe. Gooooose's 'The Dusk Of Digital Age' is a churchy affair with textured drones shot through with beams of synth light and Knopha's 'Off-Peak Season Tourists' layers up choral vocals and jumbled drum sounds into something hypnotic and escapist.

Review: The second solo releases from Edward Ka-Spel to appear on the Lumberton Trading Company label offers eight spectacularly original compositions from the outsider artist. These are tracks that bore their way into the heart and mind through startlingly personal moods and meanings. The atmosphere is often tense, and, when it's not, 'surreal' is the word that springs to mind - albeit more unusual hallucination than comical experiment. 'Platform 5' might be the best example of how unnerving things can get, the low, rumbling synth bassline underpinning spoken word, distant, almost inaudible harmonic refrain and eerie chorus. 'No Show Tomorrow' asks "what if they had a war and nobody showed up' to seemingly disconnected tones, notes and noises. 'They Seek Her Here' ups the tempo with a synth-wave-breaks trip through dystopian spaces.

Review: As fans of the Berlin-based live trio formed around producer and songwriter Edmund Kenny will know, Light West has been a long time coming - six releases and three years on the road, or thereabouts. Finally turning their attention to a longer project, there's a windswept, worldly feeling underpinning the full record, which calls upon myriad influences to realise the complete Kerala vision.

Invoking artists like Matthew Dear in terms of vocal delivery, not least on the Bolero-hued 'Amsterdam' and the laidback, hushed minimal tech-blues of 'Phoebe', from beginning to end we're given guitar driven house grooves, immersive ambient, chunky basement beats and darkroom, techno-infused rumbles. The overall result being a long form outing that the confirmed faithful will feel was well worth waiting for, and newbies will struggle not to fall in love with.

Review: Khalab's new album Layers comes on his own Hyperjazz Records and signifies a culmination of sorts. His musical journey started back in 2015 with this first EP on Black Acre Records and has then evolved through Afro-future sounds like his Black Noise 2084 album through On The Corner Records in 2018. His development has continued at pace after that and this record shows how across a series of deeply musical and spiritual tracks full of rich layers, jazz freedom and electronic rhythms. Top shelf guests help elevate the record with multi-instrumentalist Tenderlonious jazz singer Alessia Obino and Burkinabe guitarist and kora player Gabin Dabire just some of those adding extra magic.

Review: The debut album from founding members Jason Kohnen and Gideon Kiehrs, the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (now a sextet) was originally conceived as a means to realise imaginary scores for classic silent films, such as Nosferatu and Metropolis. Often made and played together with fragments from these films to help intensify the impact of the audio, each song here is a brooding noir slinker, not lacking in its heady supply of drum brushes, trombone drones and chromatics. The album is also a semi-synthetic affair, with Kiers providing synths, visuals and sequencing on this romantic yet mildly creepy 2xLP - a reissue of the original from 2006.

Review: After the success of their 2021 release 'The Bent Bow Must Wait to Be Released', musician, writer and filmmaker Sunik Kim is back with more brilliance. This time this second crucial album comes as two side-ing pieces that pair playful synth innovation with "a touch of slapstick humour, a la Henry Cow." It has been crafted using MIDI instrumentation and is about the art of fining beauty and order in chaos. Complex structures and regularly breaking rhythms intertwine with harsh clusters of keys and sweeping orchestral manoeuvres all making this as intense as it is rewarding.

Review: Given that he's been delivering DIY releases as Kitchen Cynics since the late 1980s, it can be to know where to start with Alan Davidson's vast back catalogue. Happily, the Trilogy Tapes has come up with a solution: Beads Upon an Abacus, a career retrospective compiled by Jack Murphy that offers an excellent introduction to the Aberdeen-based artist's distinctive work. It's well worth checking, too, because Davidson's trademark style -a lo-fi and hissing blend of rudimentary electronics, hazy folk revivalism, layered guitar-scapes and oddly traditional instrument choices - is never less than invigorating, alluring and hugely entertaining. If you've yet to bathe in his unique musical explorations, don't sleep on this fine compilation.

Review: Layer is the new label from Berlin techno favourite Berghain for the music released by its residents. Ben Klock is one of the most celebrated of those and here he links up with Fadi Mohem for an album that eschews his famous techno sounds in favour of a new blend of IDM, ambient and experimental sounds. 'Layer One' comes on double vinyl and opens with 'Ultimate (feat Coby Set)' which is an atmospheric opener with icy synths and sparse landscapes, then 'Escape Valley' explores kinetic rhythms and glitchy synths, 'The Vanishing' is another exploration of a distant corner of the cosmos and 'The Machine' brings more cinematic and evocative electronic designs.

Review: Transporting us to a waking dream of Los Angeles, two enigmatic music makers from the City of (Fallen) Angels present a truly stunning journey into hazy half-memories, afternoon fantasies, borrowed recollections and thoughts of things yet to happen. In many ways, Salt & Sugar Look The Same feels incomplete; tracks, half-tracks, movements, bits and pieces feel like our minds often work. Was that what we think it was? Did this happen? According to the official release burb, these 18 brief but beautiful compositions combine finger-plucked guitar work, the lens flare of electronica, and warped samples to create a take on the American primitivism music movement. The result is something that transcends boundaries of sound, time and place, and exists in a world of its own creation.

Review: Electronic music owes much to legendary synth makers like Roland, Yamaha and Sequential Circuits and now Rack Sessions explores their unique sonic identities by dedicating each track to a single synth. From the cinematic grandeur of 'The D' (Roland D-550) to the nostalgic warmth of 'MiR' (Korg M1R), each composition is shaped by its instrument's distinct character while beats take a backseat as atmospheric soundscapes unfold-'802 Nights' (Yamaha TX802) evokes open highways, while 'SOB' (Oberheim Matrix-6) channels sci-fi tension. These are carefully crafted and deeply evocative sounds.

Review: South Korean-born and Toronto-based musician Jessica Chao aka Korea Town Acid spans the divide between disparate musical cultures with her new record Metamorphosis. It is a collaborative work with DESIIRE from Toronto, Korean pianist and rapper Pianwooo, as well as Seoul rapper PNSB, LA producer Dreamdave and New Jersey MC, L.J The Alien. Glitch, home, jungle, boom bap and trap are all distilled into the 10 tracks, with sultry grooves next to more dark and stark instrumentals, often with carefully deployed raps and whispers elevating each tune above mere ear chewing gum status.

Review: KU?KA's second album for LUCKYME, Can You Hear Me Dreaming?, showcases over a decade of studio expertise across 12 majestic tracks. Known for her laser-cut electronic production and irresistible pop songwriting, she transcends autobiographical themes to explore a 'Cartoon Brain'. Inspired by surreal creatures, rainy cityscapes, tattoos, and 'cute-ugly' pottery, KU?KA's sonic journey is a personal moodboard. Originating from Western Australia and now based in Los Angeles with roots in Northwest England, Laura Jane Lowther drives KU?KA as a self-sufficient producer, songwriter, and vocalist. Her electrifying debut EP in 2012 paved the way for collaborations with Flume, SOPHIE, Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Mount Kimbie, and Vince Staples and this long awaited follow up comes on nice clear wax.

Review: "The Next World Sound Series is a collection of work by contemporary sound artists working in long form instrumental composition and translated to the tangible medium of vinyl. These modern day offerings capture the analog quality and experience of last century electronic recordings, presented to you with today's technological advances in home playback, for your environmental listening pleasure." Or so say heads at the iconic and truly enigmatic label Dark Entries of this latest addition to their catalogue. A collection of work that spans the strangely frantic sci-fi tones of 'Oberenginen 0930' to the almost monastic drone of 'Soma', dubbed and muffled drums and vocals on 'Lixsm', club-ready broken beats of 'Destruct', and the evocative futurist refrains and samples of 'John Gore'. As expansive as it is exploratory and adventurous, you'll need to set aside some serious listening time for your first play here.