Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: The collaboration between Chihei Hatakeyama and Shun Ishiwaka on their latest ambient release represents a convergence of diverse musical backgrounds. With over 70 albums under his belt since his debut in 2006, Hatakeyama brings a wealth of experience in ambient and experimental music, while Ishiwaka, known for his prolificacy in modern jazz, adds a dynamic rhythmic dimension. Their encounter, sparked by a radio appearance and cemented through live gigs, led to the creation of this two-volume epic recorded in March 2023. Drawing inspiration from a spectrum of genres including ambient, experimental, jazz and metal, the duo's sonic exploration is enriched by references ranging from My Bloody Valentine to Alice Coltrane. The album reflects their shared love for free jazz and spiritual jazz, evoking the improvisational spirit of Sun Ra and Coltrane's later works. Guided by psycho-acoustic considerations and embracing spontaneity, the musicians engage in a dialogue of sound where responses unfold in the heat of the moment. The result is a remarkable project brimming with creativity and mutual understanding.

Review: You had us at Sakamoto. Or rather you had us at "excerpts from Ryuichi Sakamoto's time working under Nippon Colombia's label, Better Days. First released in 1992, this 12-track compilation runs from tracks that appeared on the Japanese synth legend's debut album, Thousand Knives, first released in 1978, through to songs written with the iconic session group KYLYN, featuring celebrated guitar great Kazumi Watanabe. Ever the auteur, even if you didn't know this was Sakamoto in proper landmark mode, there's no chance the sounds here could really be confused for anyone or anything else. It's mature and intelligent, yet strangely - and typically - fun, childlike and a little cartoonish, sharing as much in common with experimental electronica that was emerging during the 1970s and 1980s as video game scores from the 1990s.

Review: Founded in 1979, Severed Heads - originally Mr and Mrs No Smoking Sign - never liked to do things by numbers. Spanning industrial, synthwave, coldwave, post-punk, electronic dance, synth pop and more, while wildly varied they might also be considered auteurs. Simply put, you can usually guess, or know, that you're listening to Severed Heads long before you actually find out you're listening to Severed Heads. Noisy arrangements overflowing with ideas, while at times things may border on overwhelming, for the most part the genius comes in how finely balanced the tracks are. Bad Mood Guy, first released in 1987, was their seventh studio album, described by some at the time as "punishing pop with crunching rhythms", and reflects them at their finest. Moody, at times angry, alway forward thinking and hard to compare.

Review: Claims have been made that Smog was among the first pieces of work written for four channel tape. It's almost impossible to back that up given the nature of music at the time this was made (1974) and indeed today. What's clear is that Kyriakos Sfetsas was and is a legendary pioneer of Greek electronic output, and this is one of his most acclaimed efforts.

Divided into five distinct parts, this score for the ballet of the same name is a patchwork of analogue synth noises, a sonic narrative told through what now sound like rudimentary modular tones and refrains akin to the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop's experiments in tune and structure. Yet, despite those retro references, Smog still has an air of something that has travelled back in time to show us where experimental tracks might get to in some distant future, providing we don't destroy ourselves first.

Review: US producer SSPS is a ram outsider who is well known to fans of the weird and the wonderful. His adventurous experiments have landed on labels like L.I.E.S. and Kode run by Traxx and collide punk, noise, wave, hardcore, slow beat and jakbeat. This is a retrospective release that brings together some of his many highlights and proves why he is so well-loved by a community of fans on the fringes of the underground mainstream. As well as this genre references there are plenty of odd vocals and smeared synths unifying the sounds which here included four tunes recorded live For Unlimited Nation Summer Of 2020.