Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Finnish studio wonder Sasu Ripatti returns under his Vladislav Delay moniker, arguably both his most recognised and obscure, universally adored and specialist. Opening on the logically titled and wholly immersive 'Track 1', these tunes are as rich as they are steely, combining white noise, distortion, and the clanging of surface on surface with tangibly eerie, atmospheric melodies.

Wherever you join things, the immediate impact is going to be significant. 'Track 4', for example, takes the elements that made its preceding numbers so spin-tingling, and finally builds those into something that packs inescapable rhythm while refusing to drop a beat, the culmination of that which has come before, marking this as a kind of set, leaving us with just that hint of the reassuring warm up, rather than purely an ambient album.

Review: Voices From The Lake is the pairing of Italian techno craftsmen and sound sculptors Donato Dozzy and Neel. They came together to do a live show at the famed Labyrinth festival in Japan and that's what gave rise to this new now seminal album. It's a deeply meditative and dubbed-out world of delicate synths and rolling drums that change only slightly and slowly but manage to keep you utterly locked in for the duration. It's pure techno that has been remastered for this new edition across eight sides of wax. An absolute modern classic for sure.

Review: The latest project from Basic Channel pioneer Moritz Von Oswald examines the sonic relationships between human voice and synthetic tones. The initial outline of the album was shaped out in Von Oswald's studio on an assortment of synths, before Finnish composer Jarkko Riihimaki wrote the compositions out as sheet music to be interpreted by Berlin-based choral group Vocalconsort. Recorded in a nearby church, these austere compositions strike a neo-classical note, but they also naturally align with Von Oswald's accomplished legacy in the realm of minimal music while pushing the renowned artist and his listeners in challenging new directions.

Review: Cult French outfit Vox Populi! have already put out a subversive and superb album this year back in April on Touch Sensitive. Here it is the good folk at Emotional Rescue who snap up another one in the form of Aither, which has been remastered and repackaged 30 years after it first landed. We're told it is the first of many to come in 2022 and that's good news because it's class - numerous musicians played as part of the band and traditional instrumental paired with folklore vocals make for a majestic melting pot of sound from the world of dub, funk, soul, psyche and oriental.

Review: Prepare yourself for a crazy but wonderful deep dive into the legendary world of cult French outfit Vox Populi!, focusing primarily on their 'big years' of 1986-1990, inverted commas used to hopefully articulate that these guys are yet another example of why music consistently fails to give outsider artists the widespread recognition they deserve. Nevertheless, those who know VP know just how incredible their music is.

In the first three tracks alone the breadth of their output becomes clear. Opener 'Caballo Blanco' could be And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead meeting Primal Scream at a Goan festival in the late-1960s. 'Mush Dub Gnarls & Vrooms' takes us into downtempo electronica with an undercurrent of bite, nodding to Andrew Weatherall's Sabres of Paradise project. Meanwhile, 'Holistikoholic' almost seems to reprogram the mind to the court of some king or other, with its jaunty flutes and wooden percussion.

Review: Another week, another new release from the unstoppable ambient powerhouse that is zake. His latest full-length LL has two new cuts by the American maestro with remixes from a hefty selection of equally prolific producers all served up on his home label Past Inside the Present and no fewer than six sides of vinyl. Across this immersive two hours of music, there is a mix of ambient, drone, drum & bass, electronica, and deep techno from Warmth, Aural Imbalance, ASC and Bvdub. It is yet another essential release from zake and co.