Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Despite what you might assume, O Yuki Conjugate are actually an English duo. Hailing from the country's renowned hinterland somewhere between ambient and industrial, the pair - better known as Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme - first started the project in 1982, a time in the nation's history that was particularly fertile for sonic experiments of the synthesised kind.

A Tension of Opposites is proof they have lost little of their imagination and creative spark, even decades later. Born in the first year of the pandemic, 2020, both artists worked in isolation and therefore both had different ideas about how a sonic response to the most batshit crazy situation in living memory should sound. The result, then, is a lush, intoxicating, and thoughtful journey through tonalities, resonance, and deep refrains that offers two sides of the same terrifying, traumatic, and life-changing story.

Review: In the right circles,, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori are living legends. Working with the iconic US video game company Bungie Inc, the pair put their names on the map - or maybe maps? - by creating soundtracks to a number of high profile titles, either as a duo or individually. O'Donnell is arguably the better known, or at least has the bigger online persona, but both composers deserve plenty of credit. Halo: Combat Evolved was the first title in what is now a huge and genre-defining first person shooter franchise, and the score reflects the emergence of video game music as an integral part of the on-screen action. O'Donnell and Savatori's efforts to ensure instrumentation dramatically changed with events in the game, which is by nature relatively non-linear, was a revelation. While their efforts to separate these into individual suites foresaw the rise of playable stories as films in their own right.

Review: Having firmly established himself as one of the foremost experimental producers of the past decade with albums like Replica, Returnal, and Rifts, Daniel Lopatin here makes the logical move to electronic music bastion Warp Records. On first listen R Plus Seven is quite unlike any of his other records, largely eschewing the arpeggiated drones of his early work and sample-based collages of his last album for something much more vivid. Coming across like a combination of the emotive minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich, and the hyperreality of James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual, R Plus Seven nevertheless stakes its own claim in the world of post-everything electronic music, combining delicate, introspective moods with shocking moments of recognisable sonic signification. Quite possibly Lopatin's best album to date.

Review: "The idea was simply to make an ambient album", Dr Alex Paterson has said of The Orb's new album entitled Chill Out, World!. With partner in crime Thomas Fehlmann, the duo resisted looking back and studying their earlier (seminal) recordings and opted for a more spontaneous approach: a focus on where they are at today in 2016. COW is said to have been completed over the course of five sessions in only six months, between a relentless touring schedule which they also credit as being hugely influential on the album's sound. As always, strap yourself in for an immersive sound experience and possibly expect to hear some of the more courageous DJs dropping likes likes of "4am Exhale (Chill Out, World!)" or perhaps "Just Because I Really Really Luv Ya". Oh and the track titles are as baffling as ever too.

Review: Sit back, relax, stick on Albert Alan Owen's new album Chorales and allow yourself to sink into a deeply spiritual and emotional record that is both minimal and intimate. A meditation of piano that is coated in vinyl crackle, and manages to captivate you from front to back with its sheer melodic beauty. Owen's ability to turn you in on your inner self is second to none. As you get lost in deep thoughts you will not want to come back to the real world. Our suggestion? Don't. Simply put it on again from the start.

Review: Esteemed ambient auteurs, zake and ossa's collaborative output continues to soothe and delight in equal measure. After Syntheticopia in August 2022 and the dark long-player 'A Pale Shelter' in 2021 between zake, ossa, and City of Dawn comes Module, a collaboration that includes seasoned electronic producer Ruben A. Tamayo, under the alias FAX. The power trio brings forth an eight-track excursion into heavy ambient atmospheres with moody soundscapes and a real weight of melancholy. As always, the textures are grainy and lo-fi, the drones long-held, and the chords which poke through the clouds, bring subtle rays of hope and optimism. It is the latest and maybe the greatest chapter in this ongoing story from zake and ossa with featured collaborators.