Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Well Curated is a series of releases and parties that - in its own words - "reflects the ethnomusicology of the last 50 years of music" - and aims to reach into all genres, merging classic styles and breaking down barriers. Steve Spacek occupies the A-side with the breezy broken beat and soul-in-space of 'Alone In Da Sun', while Lukid's 'Hair Of The Dog' is a more intense counterpart, with wobbling sub-bass and swirling, surging atmospherics hovering above.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface marks ***


Chapelle XIV Music, Yoyaku's art gallery label, signs up Shaun Soomro for this beautiful EP which combines elements for mind, body and soul. 'Rage & Harmony' kicks off with some dusty breakbeats and is doused in silky pads awash with subtle euphoria. 'The Laughing Heart' is a blissful ambient interlude full of texture and timbre and 'Illusions Of You (dub)' is a moment of go-slow loveliness on a codeine-paced rhythm. 'Dusk God' shuts down with more misty, grainy, lo-fi ambient and dub fusions.

Review: Independent radio institution NTS has a lot to answer for. Not least introducing its legions of loyal listeners across the world to the mighty (or, perhaps more appropriately, curious Staalfagel). The result of some serious crate digging, as per usual for the platform, the Swedish post punk and New Wave outfit - Erik Fritjofsson, Petter Brundell and Micke Kjell - reflect how broad the digital station's music policy can be, and how important it is for things to be rediscovered and saved from obscurity.
Forming in 1980, the three piece only released two full length records in their time, alongside a handful of singles and EPs. Utan Rymddrakt Pa Uranus is among the most enigmatic and delightful, here presented in two parts with an edit by Gary The Tall. As early adopters of synths and drum machines, the cosmic dance-pop sound here might be rudimentary today, but also has this real sense of adventure and breaking new ground about it.

Review: Over the last couple of years, author Justin Hopper has joined folk musician Sharron Kraus and vintage synthesizer fetishists Belbury Poly on stage to narrate sections of his 2017 novel "Old Weird Albion" - a "poetical, autobiographical and psycho-geographical account" of his experiences at Chanctonbury Ring in West Sussex. This album is, in effect, an extended re-recording of those performances, with Hopper reading choice excerpts from his book over an inspired fusion of traditional folk tropes - think recorder, flute, and drifting female vocals - atmospheric field recordings and 1970s style electronic instrumentation. Given that these synths have largely been used to re-record tudor style Baroque tunes (think "Greensleeves" and you're close), the results are not only delightfully eccentric but also admirably unique.

Review: 3 years after SOPHIE Xeon's tragic, untimely death in Greece, her estate - managed by her brother - has finally fulfilled their promise of putting the finishing touches on, and releasing, "nearly finished" tracks from a vault of "hundreds of songs". In the family's official statement, they said "It feels only right to share with the world the music she hoped to release, in the belief that we can all connect with her in this, the form she loved most," and, so, to the shock of fans worldwide 'Reason Why' released on the 25th June in its final form after five years of leaked demos and live performance videos to go by. It's SOPHIE at some of her best, rich textural and multilayered production backing one of the popstars of a generation - where it usually tended to be Charli XCX, whom SOPHIE created the 'Vroom Vroom' EP with, here Kim Petras takes the mic, another of SOPHIE's close circle of collaborators.