Leftfield charts

Review: The now ten year old 'Acid Test 09' sees a special tenth Anniversary Edition repress with a new vocal mix of the track 'Test 3'. The original EP, released in 2014, saw acid nomad Tin Man team up with techno dreamweaver Donato Dozzy for three slices of deep acid and dubby, bleepy ambient; this special anniversary version adds a surprise new vocal mix on the A2, with either Dozzy or Tin Man himself gracing the beats with a set of carefree, moony phonic impressions, lyrically concerning the object of his affections looking oh so good on the dancefloor. We already know and love the rest; it's up to you to put the new addition to the test.

Review: In line with the timely reappraisal of all things R&S related, the resurgent Apollo have seen the opportunity to bring one of their most celebrated records back for another round. Aphex Twin's ambient recordings mature magnificently with age, sounding ever richer and more emotive as the rest of electronic music continues to play catch up all around. From the gentle breakbeats of "Xtal" to the aquatic techno lure of "Tha", the airy rave of "Pulsewidth" to the heartwrenching composition of "Ageispolis", every track is a perennial example of how far ambient techno could reach even back then. It's just that no-one quite had the arm-span of Richard D. James.

Review: Much loved doom monger emo kids Depeche Mode have always been ripe for remixing by new generations of electronic music artists and so it is that there 'My Favourite Stranger' gets a series of re-rubs here on Columbia. Tech house mainstay Boris Brejcha remixes first and elongates the grooves with mournful pads up top. The Ela Minus remix of the same tune brings some extra textured and darker moods and the best is saved till the last if you ask us. The Lond Island Sound remix is high speed and tinged with electro synth work as the moody vocals echo about the mix to trippy effect.

Review: Back in 2016, legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen approached techno pioneer Jeff Mills with the idea of working together. A series of live gigs and off-the-radar studio sessions followed, with the first fruits of their joint efforts finally appearing on this must-have 10". As you'd expect, the duo's collaborative work combines Allen's traditional Nigerian polyrhythms, traditional Afrobeat instrumentation, and the far-sighted, sci-fi inspired electronic futurism that has always marked out Mills' work. The result is a quartet of cuts that could arguably be described as retro-futurist Afro-tech - all delay-laden beats, basslines and organs subtly sparring with gentle acid lines, Motor City electronics, beguiling deep space textures and shimmering, 31st century motifs. It's arguably Allen's stylistic contributions that dominate, but that's no bad thing.

Review: Roy Of The Ravers takes a break from his mischievious outings on Acid Waxa et al to lay down some of his braindance tackle on Emotional Response. White Line Sunrise II.I (Le Roy Soleil) can rightly be considered a follow-up to White Line Sunrise II and indeed it represents a similar kind of spectrum of electronica. Roy's sound is edging further into the kind of 'artist' territory where slower, softer tracks, odd vocal diversions and some pop sensibilities merge with the acid, electro, breakbeat and other well-established tropes of his sound. It's the kind of record which could easily broach this quirky fringe operator of UK electronics to a broader fan base, and there's no doubt he's got the melodic, emotional heft on tracks like 'Versace 101624' to get everyone on board.

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: After many years of waiting, CV313 (Stephen Hitchell) brings out blue vinyl editions of some of his cherished dub techno classics. Originally released in 2007 and again in 2009, 'Subtraktive' took the M7 formula and deepened it even further becoming the blueprint for CV313 and the Echospace label for years to come. Comes with the live in Japan version also. This reissue is a warm welcome for those concerned about ever getting a copy.

Review: Poetic Hovering Synth Tinkerer.

Review: We've extensively covered the work of Greek electronic music project Neural Network for a long time now, thanks to their compelling fusion of experimental techno and industrial music with themes of malevolent AI and/or cyborg takeover. Mostly active during the 1990s, the trio were instrumental in bringing robotic ideas to EU techno. This reissue of 'Cybernetics' is a big curio, with four new alternate takes on classic neuromantic cuts including 'Authentic' and 'Mechanic'. For those who like to sprinkle a bit of dystopianism into their DJ sets, this EP littered with sinister vocal samples scraped from future-facing TV documentaries abut cyborgs.

Review: Chicago trio Purelink prove themselves to be sonic alchemists once more as they serve up a bewitching brew that pulls apart the essence of ambient, dub tech and electronica to rebuild all new musical forms. Ever since forming first in 2020, Tommy Paslaski (aka Concave Reflection), Ben Paulson (aka Kindtree), and Akeem Asani (aka Millia) have regularly got together in a studio workshop to explore "the endless possibilities of a laptop" armed with banks of samples. Now they distill those sessions into music that is beautifully delicate yet captivating - slow and subtle rhythms, deft chords and icy minimalism all unfurl into a richly immersive soundscape here.

Review: Charlou is the solo alias of a French producer who here takes charge of the fourth fantastic outing from Flight Mode. Hr opens up in thumping fashion with 'Death Hypnosis' which has synths fired from a gun like laser rays and throwback acid bass. 'Sacrilege' is even more hard-assed with further retro sci-fi signifiers over hulking great kicks. 'Passive Power' brings more teeth-clenching retro-future techno sounds shot through with synth electricity and the EP highlight comes at the last with 'Crashed On The Space Road' setting off at high speed through the stars and never letting up.

Review: When it comes to wresting maximum emotion and energy from analogue electronic instruments, few artists can match acid revivalists Paranoid London. They've certainly made their machines sing on Arseholes, Liars & Electronic Pioneers, their third full length excursion. Kicking off with the EBM-meets-acid growl of Joe Lewis hook-up 'Love One Self', the set includes such gems as 'People (Ah Yeah)' (an ambient acid number featuring Bobby Gillespie on vocals), the hard-wired acid trippiness of 'Up Is Down' (with DJ Genesis), the squelchy and spacey excellence of 'Start To Fade' (with Josh Caffe), the acid-electro brilliance of 'GRINDR' and a genuine future anthem in Mutado Pintado collab 'The Motion'.

Review: The fledgling Detach label continues to show it means business with a new 12" in a lovely screen-printed sleeve. Romanian artist Dyl is the one in charge and has been serving up consistently excellent and innovative sounds now for serval years. All of these cuts mix up great sound design with languid rhythms - the first is eerie, with watery droplets and glassy tinkles hanging in the air, while 'Glasshouse 2' has a percolating rhythm down low. 'Glasshouse 3' gets a little more dynamic with a shimmering low end and freaky abstract life forms and 'Glasshouse 4' layers in more intense and ever-shifting synth lines while the closer sounds like it's roaming through a deserted factory long after it shut down.

Review: Container is a long-running project from Ren Schofield but he has hasn't released anything since back in 2021 when he delighted techno heads with his Creamer EP. His manic sound has recently taken him to some sold out shows around the world and now comes Tacker, a new album that fuses rock with electronic stylings on Alter. Nirvana's 'Oh, The Guilt', Mindflayer's album 'It's Always 1999', and the Rah Bras song 'Sooop Toe Pump Girls' have all been given as points of inspiration for this most brain-fizzing, hardcore collision of worlds.

Review: Originally released in 2005, Silenced captures the essence of The Black Dog's enigmatic allure, transporting listeners to otherworldly realms with its lush, tuneful compositions and angular genius. Each track on the album is a testament to the group's unparalleled ability to surprise and entrance, evoking a sense of both unease and beauty. For fans of The Black Dog, Silenced serves as a welcome treat, while also serving as an entry point for those new to the group's mesmerising soundscapes. Definitelt one of their best full length albums yet to date.

Review: Thankfully, Richard D. James has decided to finally release at least some of the output that he's been banging on about since mid-2000s. In a number of interviews, the might Aphex Twin hinted that he has vast artilleries of tracks stacked up and unreleased, probably more on purpose than out of laziness...or maybe not. What we do know is that AFX is reborn after the string of acid 12"s released about 10 years ago on Rephlex, that saw the alias become one of the most popular of James' alter egos. Orphaned Deejay Selek is a collection of tunes that contain all of the Twin's magic and unpredictably, but that also cut straight to the point and head to the middle of the dance floor. This is banging brain dynamite coated in the man's iconic style and flair. Welcome back AFX, and many hats off to Warp for making it happen.

Review: Rampant and 'up for it' as usual, the Cititrax label is back with a new set of wayward technoid experiments for the more trained ears on the dancefloors. This time it's Romania's Borusiade and newcomer The Sixteen Steps who share two sides of a wax plate and, of course, proceed to annihilate any idea of a quiet night in. The former sets off with the mechanical acid bumps of "Infatuation", guided by an eerie set of vocal blurs, and that's followed by the comparatively more beat-centric techno of the apocalyptic "Confutation". On the flip, The Sixteen Steps first lands on "Signals From The South", a house banger with noxious levels of mutant bass at its core, followed by the single-minded industrialism and sheer techno brutality of "Promises On The Run". WOWZAH!

Review: This first album from Sons proves them adept at a range of techno soundscapes, It was written as the soundtrack to a movie that does not exists and it plays out with a great sense of narrative because of that. It tells the story of Anna and her escape from earth to a new planet, Seylanide. The record features well-received singles such as 'Identity' (ft. Sun) and 'Eternity' (ft. OCB), complete with plenty of rich layers of emotive pads, deep basslines and melodic vibes that have your mind cast adrift in a cosmic abyss.

Review: These days, we're all familiar with Jan Jelinek's trademark brand of dusty, dubbed-out, jazz-sampling downtempo explorations. That wasn't the case when Loop Finding Jazz Records, his acclaimed debut album, first appeared back in 2001. It has since become an in-demand item, making this reissue more than handy. It remains a fine album; a blazed shuffle through a sonic world where dub techno, ambient, minimal house, jazz and downtempo grooves and seductive vinyl crackle merge into one intoxicating hybrid sound. It's not showy and over-the-top, but rather becalmed and subtly seductive. In other words, it's still a brilliant album and if you don't own already own a copy, you should add this to your cart sharpish.

Review: There is a great selection of reissues of Future Sound of London's back catalogue going on right now. It goes all the way back to 1988 when they first started chaining the game with their forward facing electronics and mix of rave, breaks, hardcore and ambient into something utterly fresh. It still resonates today, hence these reissues, and this one is a 25th Anniversary edition of Accelerator. This one was, at the time, seen as the group's most "commercially-minded" album but that takes nothing way from its visionary sonics and immersive sonic landscapes.

Review: Two key pushers of New York tactile ambient-techno, Anthony Naples and DJ Python, here present a fittingly named compilation (and the third in the series) curating only the best found in that style and scene: 'Air Texture VIII'. Spurred on by a cost of living crisis in Manhattan, areas further afield in neighbouring Brooklyn have become much more central to artists such as Beta Librae, Downstairs J and 5AM, spurring their rise and that of producers like them. Don't miss this important chronicling of the scene, which still unfolds in real time.

Review: On their latest deep dive into the archives, Re:discovery Records has dipped into the vaults of techno producer Dietrich Schonemann, serving up selected tracks from two projects active between 1993 and '95: Portotype 909 (a trio that also included Jason Szostek and Taylor Deupree) and Facil (a collaboration with Abe Duque). Two tracks from the latter take pride of place on side A: the sparse, creepy, sub-heavy, ambient techno-goes-electro shuffle of 'Tree Frog' and the gorgeously sparkling, slow-motion IDM dreaminess of '700x7'. Prototype 909 is celebrated on side B, with the dreamy deep space chords, bustling breakbeats and psychedelic acid lines of 'Transit' being followed by the pitched-down TB-303 chug of 'Planet S' and the intergalactic IDM laziness of 'Same Place'.

Review: Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' compilation, a ground-breaking and wildly popular collection of "home listening music" that helped introduce the world to ambient techno and IDM, turns 30 this year. As this remastered anniversary reissue proves, the release has lost none of its charm in the three decades that have passed since it first appeared in stores. Highlights appear thick and fast throughout, from the immersive ambient techno creepiness of The Dice Man's 'Polygon Window' (an early Richard D James production) and deep space electro shuffle of Autechre's 'Crystel', to the bleeping bliss of Speedy J's gorgeous 'De Orbit', the acid-flecked Detroit-isms of 'Spiritual High' by Up (a barely used alias of Richie Hawtin) and the horizontal headiness of Dr Alex Paterson's 'Loving You Live', an alternative pass on the Orb's ambient house masterpiece 'A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain'.

Review: The sixth album from JK Flesh, Sewer Bait is a slo-mo, lo-fi, noise-inflected journey through the dirtier, grittier side of techno. The opening track, 'Soaked to the Skin' is a corroded, corrupted chugger - pulsing demonically, brushing against increasingly rougher textures, this is a track where everything is obscured yet each component comes together to create a groove that is intensely hypnotic. The titular track 'Sewerbait' feels more closely aligned to the industrial techno tradition - slamming drums meet searing synths to create a track that is powerfully alluring. The final track, 'Washed Up', is driven by a relentless, propulsive core - like an engine revving up, this track feels ready to take off. JK Flesh has a masterful skill for making the rough shine and highlighting the delicate amongst the rubble.

Review: Berlin-based maverick Stefan Goldmann returns after the exquisite and sonically spatial delights of his Vector Rituals album with two more upbeat tracks that nod to techno but nevertheless steadfastly refuse to follow its stricter rules. 'In Aggregate' and flip track 'Carob' both throb and surge their way to the run out groove, eschewing the usual array of drum sounds to leave the rhythmic urgency down to other elements and turning the genre's on its head. Which is, let's face it, what he does best.

Review: Following on from last year's impressive Redlight debut, Scott Hess is back on his Adeen label with another selection of warm and inventive house cuts splashed with colour and analogue wobbles precision-engineered to catch your ear. Lead track 'Sirius City' leans on a harmonically rich lead line and plenty of off-kilter wriggles to appeal to those who want some cheekiness in their tunes. 'UFO' sports a tasteful acid tweak running in between plush pads and snappy drums, while 'Call Me, Acid' plays around with telephone tropes to make a bleepy jam that will have the ID requests flying in. 'Stars' offers something sweeter to complete the set, spacing out the beats to leave the synths plenty of room to cavort around a celestial name-checking session for deep house dreamers.

Review: Carcass Identity are Matthieu Levet and Ernesto Gonzaalez, two heroes of the Brussels underground for over 10 years. Following up their 2018 debut for Bologna-based label Random Numbers, the duo present their next collaboration for Glasgow's Phase Group which once again infuses dub electronics with cosmic and psychedelic influences. Tracks such as 'Things To Forget' explore freefall tribal trance, while the contorted techno derivatives heard on tracks such as 'Freedom Principle' or the meditative polyrhythmic futurism of 'Desultory' were highlights. Highly recommended for fans of slo-mo ritual techno in the vein of Black Merlin or Vactrol Park - tip!

Review: Wanderwelle & Bandhagens Musikforening's masterful Victory Over The Sun album gets skilfully reinterpreted by some of techno's most forward thinking protagonists. Amsterdam pair Wanderwelle themselves go first with a misty ambient take of 'An Unusual Sunrise' that sets a perfectly dramatic scene. Label boss Sverca serves up one of the highlights with his deep, pulsing hypnotic version of the title track and Anthony Linell sinks us way down below the ocean surface on his meditative dub roller. There is more energy to the busted beats and hidden vocal sounds of Celestial Crusade (E-Saggila remix) and plenty more greatness through the other tracks.

Review: Past Inside the Present's 'Pulse' series is an investigation into ambient tech and beat-driven ambient sounds. Who better for the job on this second edition than master craftsmen ASC and Joachim Spieth? ASC opens up with 'Tidal Disruption Event', an understated, underwater rhythm with jittery percussive patterns and bright shards of melodic light piercing through the mix as more coarse soundwaves break over the top. Spieth's 'Subtle' is just as artful and delicate a mix of persuasive rhythm and melodic beauty. A classy Nitechord remix closes out this fascinating EP.

Review: Civilistjavel's most recent album, 2022's Janmatter, was a predictably atmospheric and out-there affair that blended suspenseful ambient moods and melodies with occasional IDM rhythms and plenty of experimental chops. Here two giants of leftfield electronic music and experimental techno give their interpretations of the album, crafting 'remixes' based on stems from a variety of different album tracks. Dave Huismans dons his familiar A MAde Up Sound alias on side A, re-imagining Civilistjavel's work as a hybrid deep techno/dub techno/ambient techno epic - all densely layered ambient textures, deep and distant beats, and waves of effects-laden synth sounds. Ossia takes a different approach on his 'Disconnected Dub', delivering an immersive sound design experience built around creepy, effects-laden ambient chords, unsettling rumbles and echoing bleeps.

Review: Otis and Intheismah inaugurate the new Satelliet Studio label with some punchy, electro-tinted techno that should be of great interest to fans of artists like The Hacker. Otis has previously been spotted on labels like Partisan and EYA, which should give you some idea of his sound, while Andrea 'Intheismah' Sbardella makes a debut appearance on this release. There's an analogue warmth to the productions which is instantly engaging, not least on stand out EBM cut 'Evil (Is Going On)'. Swapping between solo tracks and joint efforts, the pair share a vision for darkly seductive machine music crying out for a basement cast in red light and an appropriately gnarly soundsystem.

Review: Irish artist Outlier is in fine form here as he sets out n a mission to explore a panoply of genres in a new double 12" for Appian Sounds. Alaya is an immediately immersive listen from the first moment the first pads of 'Suspend' smear out around you. There is a deftness to the barely there dub rhythms of 'Moabit, 022017' which means the track plays out like a half remembered dream and 'Worshipper' is suspensory ambient with only the lightest cosmic signifiers for company. That reserved and tender artistry continues even on more beat driven cuts like the gorgeous 'Svagatam'.

Review: Straddling the worlds of dancefloor techno and leftfield experimentation - very often in the same track - The Black Dog aka Black Dog Productions was made up of Ed Handley, Andy Turner and Ken Downie, and on this one the trio appear in various combinations under various guises such as Atypic, I.A.O, Close Up Over, Balil, Xeper, Discordian Popes and Plaid. They released Bytes 30 years ago this year, the third album in Warp's Artificial Intelligence series and this anniversary repress comes on gatefold double vinyl with original artwork. It has been re-cut for the occasion and is as immersive and widescreen now as it ever was.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corners of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent working condition***


Multidisciplinary artist Seth Horvitz aka Rrose returns to their own EAUX label here with a new album, Please Touch, which comes after their Lotus Eater collaboration with Lucy and a number of influential EPs on the likes of Sandwell District and Stroboscopic Artefacts over the years. These potent, stripped back and synth-laden techno cuts explore new vistas while building on what has come before. Rose has studied with West Coast avant-garde trailblazers at Mills College and feeds their sounds through "elaborate webs of interrelated audio processing" which means a change in every element of the music has a knock-on effect on all the others. It means this is music in constant mutation.

Review: Second time around for Jean-Michel Jarre's 2022 album Oxymore, a loving tribute to French composer and 'music concrete' pioneer Pierre Henry. As the title suggests, this version features new remixes of album tracks (all of which feature sounds originally created by Henry) by a disparate group of musical talents. That makes for an interesting mix of interpretations, with armin Van Buuren's sizable trance translation of 'Epica' rubbing shoulders with a trippy, off-kilter electro take on 'Sex In The Machine' by Nina Kraviz, a moody Martin Gore interpretation of 'Brutalism', Irene Dresel's raw techno revision of 'Zeitgeist Botanica', and ambient pioneer Brian Eno putting his spin on 'Epica'.

Review: Lempuyang makes it to release number 15 with a devastatingly deep new EP from Deepchord Records co-founder Mike Schommer. He kicks off with 'Scapegoat' featuring the alluring vocals of Milly James which echo out over super slow-motion dub rhythms and icy pads. The Pole rework brings more crisp hits and distant eerie drones over a more pronounced rhythm but one that remains devilishly sparse. On the flip, 'Deceivers' has more hypotonic drive - a fleshy dub stepper to lock in any 'floor and then 'Believers' slows it down to a crawl once more. An essential dub EP that promises no represses.

Review: Sawf doesn't strike us as the type of producer who suffers fools gladly. Or indeed at all. The Greek music maker has a reputation for uncompromising and unforgiving electronic beats at the harsher end of the spectrum, one foot in industrial and another in techno, but with enough respect for both genres to make sure he's never made anything that feels as though it's destined for a TikTok video of 5,000 people pretending to find groove in sledgehammers. Kafas is exemplary of this, four tracks that sound as though the machines are rising up but in a way that's infinitely danceable, even if you don't normally gravitate towards dark, single strobe-lit rooms. From 'Bordo''s stepping, broken, minimalist workout, through to the stomp, clang, march and whips of 'Tsirita', this is heavy, heavy stuff but also very good indeed.

Review: After four appearances on Lithuania's Greyscale, Ajnkana delivers his first long player Integers Equations, with more than an hour of "tangibly eerie, atmospheric chords", ambience but not ambient-edged beats and dubby effects either destined for play on deeper dancefloors or comedown soundtracking post-party living room sessions. The titles may be blank as anything, all binary and consisting of 1s and 0s in slightly different orders, but the instrumental, slowly-enveloping tracks have plenty of personality. Fans of Sahko, Chain Reaction and Ilian Tape's more esoteric offerings will love it.

Review: Ten year anniversary? Has it really already been ten years since Recondite's sophomore album 'Hinterland' came out?! Recondite almost single-handedly was responsible in many peoples eyes for the resurgence in techno during the early 2010s. After beating down the doors of Ghostly International for many years, the fans finally get their wish in the shape a new, shiny reissue. Coming on smokey black vinyl this time, nobody has a reason to not have this record in their collection. Included are legendary tracks like 'Stems', 'Clouded' and 'Leafs'. Many think that not only is this the best Recondite album but one of the best techno albums of the year 2013.

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.