Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Aus-based label Southern Lights welcomes Michal Wolski for an avant-garde techno outing here that takes you into futuristic sound worlds. 'Stargaze' opens with suspensory synth loops that take you into celestial worlds and 'Moonless Night' then lays down light, airy patterns and motifs with a ritualistic edge. 'Return To The (Dis)Comfort Zone' detailed minimal techno for deep excursions and 'Rainfall' has a fantastically warped bassline. 'Omen' is another atmospheric and cinematic closer that sounds like a trip through an underwater cavern.

Review: The legendary German producer behind such mythical techno names like Acid Jesus and Alter Ego delivers an eclectic exploration of electro and acid with 'Pan Sonic Youth'. This release shows his ability to create genre-bending soundscapes and analogue textures, each of the four mixes offering a unique perspective on the original. Side-1 starts with the acid version which is a deep, addictive dive into heavily drenched acid sounds. Harnessing the spirit of 80s electro, its bold, immersive energy demands attention. The original version follows, delivering strong electro rhythms and a sharp, immediate impact. Both versions are sure to wow any listener. Side-2 opens with the drone version, where heavily processed analogue tones create a dense, experimental atmosphere. Jorn's 'Thee Church Ov Acid House Balearic Mix' reimagines the track as a chill-out anthem, blending beachy vibes and lounge influences while retaining the original's spirit. Closing the release, the 'Sampledica Dub' deconstructs the original into abstract fragments, offering a more avant-garde, interpretive take. Wuttke's ability to create so many different versions of one track is truly amazing in itself, and add the extra demension that a true veteran brings and you have one unmissable piece of vinyl.

Review: Wild Up continue their exploration of Julius Eastman's work with Julius Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence, out June 21, 2024, via New Amsterdam Records. Opening with Our Father, a haunting duet performed by Davone Tines, the album delves deep into his spiritual side, blending choral elements with his signature avant-garde style. This release highlights Eastman's unique, mystically charged compositions, including The Holy Presence of Joan D'Arc, with cellist Seth Parker Woods' multi-tracked performance showcasing Wild Up's profound dedication to Eastman's powerful legacy.

Review: Long-time European techno innovator Joachim Spieth has hooked up with Agustin Mena aka Warmth for a debut collaborative album that blends their shared love for expansive soundscapes and atmospheric compositions. Warmth is the Spanish ambient producer who is also behind the SVLBRD alias so these two know a thing or two about how to get the most out of their machines and so they prove here across an album of seven immersive tracks. They are rife with organic textures and evoke a sense of space and timeless longing, all with a gently persuasive sense of movement.

Review: There are immersive experiences that inspire artists to do great things. Then there's Aboutface heading to the Wampis Territory, in the Peruvian Amazon, to live with the local community, learn a little of how they live and their relationship with the Lungs of the Planet, capturing field recordings collaboratively with those people, and trying to articulate their world through an electronic-organic deep dive album. After you've got over the jealousy about how life-changing that trip was, let's focus on the fundamentals. This is seriously escapist stuff that seems to have been made using every root, branch, and animal encountered during those weeks. The synthesised elements are audible, but take a backseat to what was and is actually there. Or here. Quite unlike anything we've heard this year, it's a stunning way to raise awareness and support for Indigenous-led conservation and initiatives trying to stop illegal deforestation and ecocide.

Review: This deluxe vinyl reissue presents the original Bride of Frankenstein soundtrack featuring remastered audio, new artwork, and estate-approved likenesses of Elsa Lanchester. Directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff and Lanchester, the 1935 horror classic is widely regarded as one of cinema's greatest sequels and was rightly celebrated as Whale's masterpiece. The movie was added to the U.S. National Film Registry in 1998 for its cultural significance and this historic release has been sourced from master acetates at Syracuse University and Universal's archives and marks the first time the film's original score is available on vinyl.

Review: This project began in 2018 when Jonny Campos was on a break from playing guitar with Grammy-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers and recorded ambient pedal steel passages at Kirkland Middleton's house. The resulting tracks are named after vanished Southern Louisiana waterways and evoke a sense of impermanence. The music flows like a dream, slipping into consciousness as a serene, meditative experience or a deeply resonant one. The album first came digitally and on cassette via Nouveau Electric Records in 2020 but now lands on vinyl thanks to DFA.

Review: London's Loraine James has built her signature sound through a mix of refined composition, gritty experimentation and intricate electronic programming. Under her Ghostly International alias Whatever The Weather, she explores emotional temperature and environment. Her second full-length offers a warmer tone compared to its predecessor by moving from an arctic cover photo to a desert scene. Mastered by Josh Eustis, the album blends hypnotic atmospheres and rhythmic textures with diaristic field recordings. The lead single, '12-C,' weaves melody and texture into a soul-stirring groove and is exemplary of James' imaginative and genre-defying approach.

Review: "One might thus regard the Welsh rarebit as a Machine in which a process is applied to the conditioning and perception of the world of bread and cheese." Suffice to say, John White might not have had the same ideas about what constitutes Machine Music back in 1976 as you do today. This is also the first time we've ever managed to get a reference to Welsh rarebit into the first line of writing about a record, so everyone is learning something today. "The Machines" White refers to are the individual tracks themselves, all recorded between 1967 and 1972 and all comprising different combinations of a thing. Six pairs of "bass melody instruments" made 'Autumn Countdown Machine', different permutations of "the articulations 'ging, gang, gong, gung, ho!'" comprise 'Jews Harp Machine'. And 'Son of Gothic Chord' is crafted from the sequential chord progression of four keyboard players, spanning an octave. Conceptual experimental and wildly imaginative stuff on the borderline of electronica, abstract, mathematical and something otherworldly.

Review: Wladimir Manshanden and Wladimir M is something of a Dutch techno legend for those who know. He is an Eevo Lute originator and now makes his latest mark on the venerated Delsin label with 2024. It's an evocative and widescreen work of techno poetry with deft rhythms and rich sound designs making for an otherworldly feel. Spoken words detail each piece next to lush ambient pads and widescreen synthscapes as supple and deep rhythms unfurl and evolved down low. It's an intriguing, personal work that draws you in close and keeps you there throughout