Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Following up last year's production with Baltimore techno legend Maurice Fulton on 'Jigoo', the next release on Gudu is the first of two songs by label boss Peggy Gou that she will release over the coming months. Her first single in over two years, it translates to 'Butterfly' and is another collaboration. This time with fellow Korean sensation OHHYUK who is the lead singer and guitarist in the band Hyukoh. 'Nabi' is a downtempo, pop-inflected number said to be inspired by '80s synth classics and '90s Korean songs that Gou's mother used to play at home during her childhood.

Review: O! Kult was a post-punk and industrial band from Yugoslavia that was active in the 1980s. Like many of their peers at the time, they were censored by the communist party that was in charge but that didn't stop them from making music and gaining a cult following. Their cut 'Zvestoba' has been found in old Radio student archives and brought back to life here and then remixed by modern luminaries Silent Servant, Christian Kroupa (who is one half of Black Dot) and 198319831983. They add weighty tech, EBM and moody electro vibes to make for a strong package.

Review: The latest EP by noise and industrial maverick Oxymosoon delves into the intricate interplay of ego, vulnerability and self-reflection. This genre-defying release combines haunting electronic textures with evocative melodies and poignant lyrics to create a sonic narrative that challenges conventional perceptions of self-identity. Each track flows seamlessly while blending ambient atmospheres with bold beats and experimental soundscapes. Oxymosoon's signature style shines through with compelling production and emotional depth all drawing you ever deeper into an introspective journey that explores the beauty and complexity of the human psyche.

Review: Kobe-based trio o'summer vacation returns with their second full-length of industrial noise fusions in the form of Electronic Eye. After several trips to Berlin and Munich, they've found a home with the Alien Transistor label and now drop plenty of guitarless noise punk with production by Shinji Masuko. It makes for an unmatched, hard-hitting barrage that leaves listeners breathless right from the opener, '(Shuku - A)' with its sizzling hi-hats and a unique lullaby from vocalist Ami. Tracks like 'Luna' and 'Anti-Christ Super Star' shift the album from mosh-inducing chaos to 30-second noise punk anthems, all of which embody the band's anti-racist, anti-war sentiments.

Review: 'Power Starved/Human Waste' is as scary to hear as it is to read the track title. As far as album openers go, it certainly sets the scene vividly. A dark, dystopian, murky futurism where people - or at least their ears - listen from beneath the boot of oppressive forces, inaudible vocals echoing and expanding, reverberating and dissipating into a distance we can never really hear because of how forceful foregrounded sounds are. Industrial, EBM, noise, elektro-punk. There are many ways to describe what's here but they all point to a 21st Century cloaked in darkness and anxiety. The irony, of course, is that this is a very human expressionism, despite the harsh machines that seem to dominate the soundscapes. The distorted screams and thumping bass drums of 'Safety Net' perfectly summarise the point.

Review: Citirax's next outing takes the form of a debut album from Los Angeles-based duo OP-ART. This pair, like so much great music of recent times, is born out of the creative isolation of lockdown and features Andrew Clinco, who you may know for his work with Drab Majesty. The alias they have adopted is an acronym of "Oblique Pleasures Amidst Rough Times" which they say reflected the challenges of their formation. Musically the duo is inspired by the 1960s visual art movement so embraces layered, psychedelic soundscapes with a minimalist approach and takes cues from New Wave artists like John Foxx and early OMD. OP-ART in particular focuses on analogue synthesis and gear like the Arp Odyssey and Moog Rogue while exploring time, romance, and existential themes with real emotional depth.

Review: Named after dazzle camouflage, an approach to painting naval vessels in ways that would make it difficult for them to be targeted with the naked eye (used extensively in World War I, less so in World War II), OMD's fourth studio album also arrived on Telegraph, an imprint that never existed and was instead a fictitious platform backed by Virgin Records. There's no mistaking the fact this is Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, though, with the tracks here defining the band perfectly.
By that, we mean grand, epic overtures, a strange - at the time, groundbreaking - hybrid of electronic synth stuff with classical, Neo-operatics and rock & roll. It's evocative, immediately captivating and very difficult to make many assumptions about, with techniques such as sampling, looping and layering employed to incredible effect, without overshadowing the song craft itself. Which, it's safe to say, is approaching their artistic peak at this point.

Review: Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. We don't need to cite examples why. In contrast, retrospect is important and retro sounds are, today, often capable of making us think about how we saw the future in the past. In some cases, that means staring down the barrel of the big question: did we heed any warnings, or has all the artwork and movies and music that sought to raise flags over the disappearance of humanity and individuality at the hands of 'progress' been for nought? Summoning the spirit of Depeche Mode, Eurythmics and more, Orphia present a stunning synth album which is at once catchy and poppy, even dance floor ready, but saturated in a kind of melancholy and juxtaposition of electronic and human. Robotic rhythms topped with organic emotions, there's a feeling of spiralling headfirst into lightning paced chaos and disorientation as the collection plays out. And that's about as apt as things get right now.

Review: Dispatches From Solitude is their latest album from Ortrotasce on the mighty Dark Entries. For over a decade, the man behind this project, Nic Hamersly, has been making brooding yet propulsive darkwave anthems that draw on the similarities and differences between industrial and synth-pop, all while connecting past and present sounds. He recorded this album during the Covid and post-Covid era and it captures some of the prevailing moods of those times across eight expertly crafted synth-pop tracks that delve into grief, romance, and the weird and wonderful nature of our modern world.