Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: In 1984, Gary Numan launched Numa Records and started a new phase in his career with the release of Berserker. This album introduced a harder-edged digital sound into his canon while maintaining the analogue textures of his earlier work. It's a testament to the fact that Numan's creative evolution never stopped and blends both personal and fictional narratives into haunting tracks like 'My Dying Machine,' 'This Is New Love' and 'Berserker.' The remastered double vinyl edition includes the original album with bonus tracks that add extra perspective to this pivotal period in his career.

Review: There has been a steady stream of Nurse With Wound material released and reissued recently, with the fathomless creaks of Salt Marie Celeste still looming in our lower registers. Now Dirter are digging right back to the start to present a definitive version of the very first Nurse With Wound venture, originally recorded back in 1980 with a line-up of Steven Stapleton, Jim Thirlwell and William Bennett. Although it wasn't released until 10 years later, this amalgam of tape cut ups, sludge and noise make for a compelling time capsule on the various extremes of sonic exploration that were to come from all three. As you might well expect, there are additional tracks included here you would never have heard before, making this one for long time fans as well as those just beginning their NWW journey.

Review: Carefully remastered by Andrew Liles, Nurse With Wound's Cooloorta Moon/Brained By Falling Masonry arrives on a unique picture disc with a die-cut sleeve and might be some of the most definitive sounds the cult outfit ever recorded. They are certainly ever-green favourites with fans and now appear for the first time on one album. These two EPs ushered in something of a stylistic shift for the Nurse - Brained came in 1984 with relentlessly churning sounds and the eccentric mania of JG Thirlwell's vocals. Cooloorta Moon from 1989 is more whimsical, a freely creative work that used more traditional instruments.

Review: When the now defunct British music magazine Sounds took on Nurse With Wound's startling debut album, Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table of Sewing Machines & An Umbrella, the critic decided to abandon the usual star rating. Instead, they awarded the record a 'maximum' five questions marks - ????? - nodding to the fact it's very difficult to know how to engage with it, let alone describe it. Since then, Chance Meeting has been reappraised and lauded by many, with FACT considering this among the Top 50 Albums of the 1970s. It's a wild ride, even if at times the 'noise' is actually more disquiet than anything else. Crackling, fuzzy, plucked, echoed, reverberated, refrained and made with a breadth of textures that go beyond most other listening experiences, this is a priceless and rare example of music as a tool of genuine, bold sonic exploration.

Review: Nurse With Wound's She And Me Fall Together In Free Death originally came in 2003 and like much of Steven Stapleton's music it is not made with a specific setting or audience in mind. It is abstract and experimental and challenging though this one is slightly more accessible than some of his more mad works. It's a musical listen a strange concept that sees him wedding together trance-inducing Krautrock grooves with a traditional jazz standard some signature atonal musique concrete. This version comes across six sides of silver vinyl.

Review: This is a special black version of a sublime album from Nurse With Wound across three slabs of vinyl. The original She And Me Fall Together In Free Death originally came in 2003 and like much of Steven Stapleton's music it is not made with a specific setting or audience in mind. It takes the form of a strange concept that sees him wedding together trance-inducing Krautrock grooves with a traditional jazz standard some signature atonal musique concrete. As such it is abstract and experimental and challenging throughout.

Review: Do we really want to know What You Should Know About Yourself? There's a high chance we find out something we don't want to hear but alas, the NX1 duo poses the question anyway across a broad selection of techno sounds on 11 different tracks. The moods are often introspective and provide an opportunity to get lost in deep thought and challenge yourself. The dramatic ambient start makes way for crunchy drums and fizzing synth disruption on 'Based In Lies', then dark and hard drums define the monstrous menace of Polarized Soul' and industrial clatter brings the heat on the militant and marching grooves of 'Cosmos Inside You.' A fierce album of uncompromising techno.

Review: A Monster's Expedition + Earlier Adventures is a double disc collection of music from four different video games (namely A Monster's Expedition, Sokobond, Cosmic Express and A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build) all composed by Eli Rainsberry, Allison Walker, Nick Dymond, and Priscilla Snow. Each one is utterly unique to the game and each one comes laden with beautiful soothing atmospheres delicately coloured with ponderous and whimsical melodies that will distract you from whatever you are doing they are so gorgeous. This is music to get lost in and it comes with superbly serene artwork from Andre Rodrigues.

Review: Nokbient and Save Point's Video Game LoFi: Yoshi is a playful and charming electronic covers tribute to the classic video game character. A mix of chiptune-inspired synths and lo-fi beats, crafted delicately and softly for the modern listener, combine to create this lovely ode to everybody's favourite green, giant-nosed reptile. Yoshi's greatest character themes - including those from Mario Kart, Super Mario World, and Yoshi's Story - all combine in an unequivocally cute mood here.

Review: Singer, songwriter and author Ali Sethi had been entranced by Nicolas Jaar's music long before they began collaborating. He'd absorbed the sounds over a number of years, listening casually and taking in their subtleties in bars and rooftop parties across Lahore and London. "It felt familiar to me, that sense of adventure you have when you hear his music, like a tale that teases you and plays with your expectations as it unfolds," says Sethi. "In that sense it resembled the leisurely improvised ghazals and qawwalis I grew up hearing in Pakistan." When the two were finally introduced by Indian visual artist Somnath Bhatt, a regular Jaar collaborator who also handled the album's artwork, Sethi was well prepared. He began to sketch out voice notes using loops snipped from Jaar's acclaimed 2020 album 'Telas', improvising vocalizations and seductive Urdu poems over Jaar's weightless, time-bending productions.

Review: Joseph Shabason, Matthew Sage, and Nicholas Krgovich form a harmonious triangle, both musically and geographically. Hailing from Toronto, Colorado, and Vancouver respectively, they converged at Sage's barn studio nestled at the foot of the Rockies to explore their shared talent for finding beauty in life's mundane moments. Shabason, known for blending late 80s adult-contemporary and smooth jazz aesthetics into ethereal soundscapes, joins forces with Sage, who combines instrumental prowess with synthesis and field recordings to evoke the natural world's whimsy and profundity. Completing the trio is Krgovich, whose observational poetics add a relatable touch to their calm expressionism. Their collaborative album, warmly Shabason, Krgovich, Sage extends the wry and melancholic micro-miracles established in their previous works.

Review: In celebration of its 45th anniversary, Paste Magazine's esteemed #1 synth-pop album, Sparks' No. 1 in Heaven, receives an exclusive double vinyl release this Record Store Day. This seminal work, produced by Giorgio Moroder, set an early standard for electronic music. Accompanying this masterpiece is Sparks' lesser-known gem, 'Is There More to Life Than Dancing?' produced for LA-based singer Noel in 1979. Together, these albums epitomise the Maels' innovative electronic spirit and visionary foresight into the next decade. Revered by bands like Joy Division and Duran Duran, No. 1 in Heaven was hailed as the greatest synth-pop album ever by Paste Magazine. The anniversary release comes on coloured vinyl and rightly commemorates Sparks' enduring creativity.