Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Way back in 1995, the late Susuma Yokota joined forces with Ray Castle, an Australian producer then based in Japan, for an album of 'tribal-ritual ambient' tracks as Mantaray. For whatever reason, the trippy, partially mixed patchwork of effects-laden percussion, mind-altering electronics, dreamy chords and mind-altering vocal samples was not released on vinyl first time round - hence this edition from archival release specialists Transmigration. It's a genuinely unique album that's alternately becalmed and unsettling, offering a psychedelic drift through hallucinatory, dawn-ready soundscapes that features plenty of subtle nods towards Japanese and Indigenous Australian musical culture. It's basically a slept-on 90s ambient classic, so this vinyl reissue is well worth picking up.

Review: Truly living up to its name, Venusia - a word that has three meanings; a genus of moth, town in Italy, and the Roman goddess of love (who, as it happens, was named after the planet, Venus) - is essentially an homage to the fragile beauty of life, and the sense that our being present in this existence is something of a marvel. A one in a billion gamble that paid off without us even having to decide if the odds looked good enough to bet.

A collaborative work from four friends, with Henrik Meierkord on cello, Pawel Kobak playing flute, Marco Lucchi in charge of electronics, and Rocco Saviano on guitar duties, this atmospheric and cinematic ambient soundscape is grand and small, expansive and intimate, but overwhelmingly emotionally captivating in each of those modes. Complimented by gorgeous butterfly artwork by Valerii Bogorod, it's impossible not to fall for this intoxicating experience.

Review: Electronic icon Jeff Mills links up with fellow Detroit talent Rafael Leafar for this one on his own Axis, and it is yet another sublime exploration of the cosmos through the medium of techno. Leafar brings all his next level multi-instrumentalist skills and strong love of jazz to the duo and when combined with Mills' ability to speak through his machines, it makes for a unique record. The icy percussion rolls deep, taking you into another dimension each and every time while the noodling sax brings sombreness and soul. Big, splashy cymbals, dark chords and a real sense of mystery and intrigue keep you utterly locked throughout.

Review: Space Oddities (1972 - 1982) are the results of Frenchman Georges Achille Teperino aka Nino Nardini, fellow countryman Roger Roger and German Eddie Warner's collaborations over ten years at Ganaro recording studio. Given some underground recognition in the late nineties by the likes of Barry 7 of Add N to (X) (with his Connectors series) or UK electronica legend Luke Vibert, they can now add Alexis Le-Tan (Les Edits Du Golem) and Jess as devotees, who made the effort of compiling the release. As Born Bad stated quite succinctly, the trio used their "strange instruments to sketch out the beginnings of something that resembled the future of music. This collection presents some of the highlights from their light-hearted, electronic pop sessions."

Review: Eliane Radigue's In Memoriam Ostinato album is "a game of mirroring symbols which glide into a non-measured, bendy and elastic, temporality." It is the last in this label's series which has focused on serving up unreleased tape and feedback experiments from the revolutionary electro-acoustic composer. She is widely heralded as a trailblazer in her genre and joined the dots between electroacoustic music, industrial noise, and meditative drone. The flipside of this one is an even more weird and wonderful piece, 'Danse des Dakinis'. made back in college in 1998 from recordings made in previous decades.

Review: British duo Raime are back with the first album since 2012's brilliant Quarter Turns A Living Line and their signature style of dark ambience and haunting imaginary soundtracks which incorporate jungle, dub and post-punk influences into the mix also. The album is said to be largely influenced by their side project Moin which incorporates rock and metal influences too. According to Blackest Ever Black "the DNA of dub-techno, garage/grime and post-hardcore rock music spliced into sleek and predatory new forms." Highlights include the moody subtractive rock of "Dialling In, Falling Out", the dub and post punk crossover of "Dead Heat" and the brooding mood-lighting of "Cold Cain".

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: 2014 was a tumultuous period for Polachek as she and her band grew apart; She wanted to create an aesthetic world, make the band dress better and invest in visuals. Needless to say, the 2010s indie band Chairlift wasn't entirely on board. Polachek was creatively parched and set about a production career, producing 'Arcadia' on her laptop whilst on tour using only MIDI instruments, laptop microphone and field recordings (like on the atmospheric 'Hissing Pipes at Dawn'). This period continued with Polachek beginning to perform in small venues in New York under different names, donning a blonde fringed wig and creating an expansive, yet quaint universe that would unquestionably influence the creating of her breakout solo debut 'Pang' 5 years later. Arcadia spans from ambient medieval-esque wind sections to zany strings that conjure up gusts billowing through green pastures with blue skies overhead. 'Dominic' has stood the test of time as the most popular of the tracks, a relationship that's a 'perfect disaster'. Highlights are the organ-led 'Backwards & Upwards' on purging infatuation, stepping backwards to move upwards as Polachek puts it, and 'Lady's Got Gills' with its whistles and what may be a blend of harp, yangqin and guzheng that backs a story of a woman contained. Arcadia is lo-fi cinematic, in a sentence, and a must listen to Polachek fans.

Review: Phoebe Guillemot's world-building as RAMZi has yielded us a plethora of exquisite albums since she first emerged in the tape-oriented scene around 2013. She's gone on to helm different projects, tour the world and generally blossom as a singular and gifted artist. After a string of self-released LPs, she's popped up on Music From Memory with one of her most refined works to date. Hyphea unmistakably belongs in the RAMZi-verse, full of the same mystical, softly shaped flora and fauna which makes her music so inviting, but there's also a sense of structure and purpose here which suggests she was honing her expressions - a natural progression for an artist who can make electronic music sound so very natural indeed.

Review: We are honored to release 'A Boy Alone', a double LP set from Manchester electronic music pioneer Eric Random. Best known for his early recordings for New Hormones and Les Disques du Crepuscule and collaborations with Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks), Cabaret Voltaire and Nico. As an original member of The Tiller Boys with Shelley, Random injected a healthy dose of Krautrock into the dour Manchester post-punk scene in 1978/79 before going solo the following year. Random's first 7" "Subliminal"/"23 Skidoo" was released in 1981 via Les Disques du Crepuscule and explored ominous sonic surrounds. That same year also saw the release of a second 7" single on New Hormones, "Dow Chemical Company"/ "Skin Deep". Both tracks offered bubbling, rhythmic sound patterns, and were the first to feature other musicians that would become know as The Bedlamites. Consisting of Lynn Walton on vocals, Ian Runacres and Andy Diagram of Dislocation Dance, and bassist Wayne Worm, aka Wayne Sedgeman. Their debut 12" single "Subliminal Seduction"/"Bedlam-a-Go-Go" was released in 1982 through Plurex, mixing arid funk textures and sparse melodies. That same year the group contributed proto chill-out track "6.55" to Plurex compilation 'Hours' and the highly filmic track "In Cassette Conference" to the Touch cassette package 'Feature Mist'. In 1983, Random spent several months in the Himalayas with a group of musicians from the Kulu Valley and studied non-Western instruments such as tabla. On returning to Manchester, Random convened a new group of Belamites including Walton, Sedgeman and drummer Graham Dowdall aka Dids of Ludus. They released the 12" single "Mad As Mankind"/"Dream Web Of Maya" in 1984 on Cabaret Voltaire's Doublevision, embracing electronic, industrial and dub styles. In 1985 they contributed the soothing "Pure Power" to Food Records' "Imminent Episode One" compilation. Our reissue also includes 4 unreleased bonus tracks from Eric's archives recorded between 1981-1984. The whole set adds up to 115 minutes of sinister, somnambulant Random music. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Each copy is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a spread of ephemera, photos with liner notes by James Nice of LTM.

Review: This is the CD version of Ghosts, the third solo album from Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani, courtesy of Mathew Halsall's Gondwana. It comes after an artist residency in Switzerland in an abandoned sanitarium amongst the mountains so is inspired by the numerous rumoured ghosts that inhabit the hills. Lead singles 'Hello' and 'Dancing with Ghosts' take drastically different approaches, with the former being an electro-ambient take on lounge jazz sensibilities and 'Dancing with Ghosts' being a moody and grumbling duet ballad with Patrick Whatson. The whole album has a lingering sense of finality and creeping doom and is another absorbing listen from front to back.

Review: Ghosts is the third solo album from Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani. It comes after an artist residency in Switzerland in an abandoned sanitarium amongst the mountains so is inspired by the numerous rumoured ghosts that inhabit the hills. Lead singles 'Hello' and 'Dancing with Ghosts' take drastically different approaches, with the former being an electro-ambient take on lounge jazz sensibilities and 'Dancing with Ghosts' being a moody and grumbling duet ballad with Patrick Whatson. The whole album has a lingering sense of finality and creeping doom, but with keys, strings and layered vocals making for a brilliantly atmospheric and moving listen.