Juno Recommends Experimental Best of 2020

Review: Amsterdam label Music from Memory started their 12" series in order to present music that "was never available in this format but might just feel more at home there". The debut in the series from obscure San Francisco artist Joel Graham set the bar high, and we are happy to report this latest 12" featuring the work of UK artist Michal Turtle is just as good! A precursor to a wider retrospective planned on MFM, Are You Psychic? features two tracks from the early 80s Turtle improvised in his parents living room using various bits of gear and will delight anyone with a taste for discovering obscure electronic music from days gone by. B side track "Astral Decoy" is a particularly delightful production!

Review: Robert Rental is an artist as influential as he is overlooked. An anchor of the early British DIY and post-punk scene, his name is most frequently uttered alongside illustrious collaborators such as Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Dark Entries and Optimo ally to illuminate some of Rental's early solo works with an expanded reissue of his debut 7" Paralysis /A.C.C.. Both labels have previously excavated Rental's catalog; we reissued the collaborative LP with Glenn Wallis in 2017, and Optimo released a collection of demos in 2018.

Review: Virtuoso musician Jon Hopkins and Kelly Lee Owens are a perfect compliment for each other on their new EP for Domino. Both are leaders in their field and used to exploring outside the usual lines, which is what they do here. "Luminous Spaces" was meant to be an Owens remix of a track from Hopkins' 2018 album SIngularity but instead she recorded new synths and vocals for it. The result is sparkling bit of melodic and astral techno that gets you lost in the lushness as you sink ever further into a trance. "Luminous Beings" is a deeper anymore thoughtful vision that makes a different but equally real impact.

Review: Despite suffering some significant losses in terms of infrastructure, specifically venues, the electronic music output of Glasgow hasn't faltered since rave first hit, and the city's current crop aren't letting the side down. Not that newcomers should really see 12th Isle as fresh faced; the ambient-downtempo-deep tech hypnosis crew have been doing all that and more for time already, with this 12" a fitting return to the release schedule. In the most part it's a tripped out, spatial and exotic EP. For proof, just check the solitary low ends of 'Mais Qu'est Ce Que', shuffling and breathy percussive roll on 'Spade Birthday', and the lush tropical vibes of 'La Plage Sous Les Arbres'. But there's also evidence of the more direct side this imprint and associated events are known for when you hear the progressive house heaven of 'Deep In Blue', a track that belies genre stereotypes by sounding fresh enough to drop into anything.

Review: Here's a rare treat for fans of the late, great Mika Vainio: the first ever release of a recently re-discovered soundtrack he created (both solo, as "O", and alongside Ilpo Vaisanen and Sami Salo as Pan Sonic) for Jimi Tenor's long-forgotten 1994 experimental film, "Sahko: The Movie". Fans will love it: the solo "O" material, showcased on the A side, is icy, hypnotic and often bleep-laden ambient techno of the sort Vainio excelled at earlier in his career. The Pan Sonic material on the flipside, meanwhile, is deep, droning and mind-altering electro-acoustic ambience that's up there with the very best of their work. In other words, you need this in your life.

Review: Music From Memory are spending some time exploring the world of music created for dance and performance. There's a common interest in experimentation between the mediums, but not at the cost of musicality, which comes here with a distinct 80s veneer. Gerard Stokkink has a thread of drama and poise about the vivid synthscapes of "Yellow Turtles" while the self-titled track from Ivory Playground calls to mind the delicate fingerpicking guitar you might expect to hear from Alexis Georgopoulos & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Atlantis Transit Project have a heavier tribal lilt to the percussion on "Bird Perspective", and Ramuntcho Matta's "Zoique III" holds a mirror up to the freaky disco drum work of Jan Schulte and Niklas Wandt.

Review: The mighty Tom Jenkinson follows up the rambunctious success of his recent "Be Up A Hello" LP with this wonderful EP of mind-bending electronics that show off his musical chops and programming genius alike. In particular, we're in thrall to "MIDI Sans Frontieres", a track created in response to the 2016 Brexit referendum which found Jenkinson reaching out to "sound makers, irrespective of what kind of music they make, where they live, their background or their age". The results rank among one of the most gorgeous tracks to emerge under the Squarepusher banner in recent memory - a powerful, melancholic lead and some deftly arranged breakbeats that become much greater than the sum of their parts, as a project like this should be. Top drawer stuff from one of the all-time greats.

Review: Aside from a handful of tracks made available via his own website, Mark Pritchard hasn't released much in the last few years - though as this first EP as MP Productions shows, he's kept himself busy. More sharply club-focused than many of his albums, the six-track set sees him bounce between his melodious and summery take on early noughties eight-bar grime ('Be Like Water'), dreamy, high-tempo post-IDM lusciousness ('In My Heart'), next level lo-fi acid jack ('J Is For...'), child-scaring Drexciyan electro heaviness ('One Way Mirror') and an insanely percussion and bass-heavy take on gqom ('Rakatak'). The EP also includes his infamous and sough- after re-wire of LFO's 'LFO', here titled 'LFO Special', which re-imagines the bleep & Bass classic as a future dancehall anthem.

Review: So, how long have you been waiting for this one to drop? The answer really depends on two things - whether you've just been waiting for new long form material from the UK IDM legends Autechre, or whether you've been waiting for Autechre to put a proper album together that stays true to the principles and format of a 'proper album', as this does.

Either way let's just say Sign has been some time in the making, and it's definitely a case of payoff for patience. For the most part it's the waves of space age melody that really stand out, tracks like 'Esc Desc' seem to fill the room with bands of sci-fi harmony. Of course there's plenty of glitch and bleep here, too - the stepping 'Au14' is a case in point - alongside rumbling, bass-heavy business like 'Si100', where playful drips of percussion create a juxtaposition of innocence and menace.

Review: Emotional Response bring you some truly healing sounds from Polish producer Bartosz Kruczynski, who first teamed up with the label as The Phantom for the first round of the Schleissen series back in 2015. He's since delivered a debut album to Growing Bin and released as Earth Trax on Rhythm Section and others. The mood across this collection of pieces produced for Polish studio TVP Culture opens up a rich seam of inspiration around the ambient end of Kruczynski's work through short pieces rich in sonorous delights. From fluttering fourth world-isms to hazy dub soundscapes, this is pure listening pleasure from start to finish.

Review: Sasu Ripatti's legendary Vladislav Delay alias has been at the forefront of experimental electronics since the late '90s. While the project shifts in style with every album, the lasting impact of "Multila" looms large over his discography. Originally released on seminal dub techno label Chain Reaction in 2000, Multila gathers together two 12"s that take the emergent dub techno blueprint of the time and disassemble it through a frankly mind-boggling ecosystem of sequencing and processing. The rhythms are frequently slippery, the sonics imbued with a grainy, tactile quality, and the mood is heady and evocative. As beguiling now as it was on release, this is a rightly hailed landmark in electronic music history - collectors and newcomers alike, don't sleep on this one.

Review: International specialists Soundway provide some superbly soothing and cathartic electronic beats here from Reuben Vaun Smith. The debut album follows on from his vocal and production work on
Expositions's Yellow Haze EP early in the year on the First Jams label. The seven tracks that make it up are all different perspectives on chill, with mature musical motifs, seaside sounds and trips down to the beach at sunset all checked off the list. Spare a moment to admire the artwork, too, a seamless fusion of pastel colours, 80s graphic design and tropical escapism.

Review: Kraftwerk's Ralf Hutter has more or less disowned the krautrock-inspired music he and the late Florian Schneider recorded pre "Autobahn". From that album (1974) onwards, they became the electronic futurists we know and love today; before that, they swum in more organic musical pastures, mixing rudimentary synthesizer and other electronic instruments with guitars, drums, flutes and electric organ. It's this sound that's captured on "Soest Live", a rare recording captured for WDR-TV in 1970. Accompanied by drummer Klaus Dinger, Hutter and Schneider offered up a mixture of arty, proto-ambient experimentalism, and surprisingly funky, groove-based krautrock epics that combine prototype Kraftwerk grooves with the organic sounds of flute, violin and organ.

Review: There isn't a more hit-packed Kraftwerk album than The Man Machine. First released in 1978 and here reissued on red vinyl accompanied by a fresh booklet of vintage images, the album boasts some of the German band's best loved songs, including 'The Robots', cheery sing-along 'The Model', the staggeringly good 'Neon Lights', and the bubbly title track. It shows how good the album is that such gems as 'Metropolis' and the picturesque 'Spacelab' - cuts that most other bands would kill to be able to write - tend to be ignored or overlooked. If you love electronic music, you need a copy of The Man Machine in your collection.

Review: For a long time, Nicolas Jaar kept quiet about the Against All Logic project, using it as a hype-free alias in which he could express the more forthright and fuzzy side of his artistic personality, free of the musical preconceptions that now come with his given name. The cat's out of the bag now though, and there will no doubt be additional interest in this sophomore set from the project. As the title suggests, it features material recorded between 2017 and 2019, delivering a thrilling blend of mutant, distorted future R&B, over-saturated leftfield house, skittish digi-dancehall drum jams, concrete-clad industrial beat-scapes, and the kind of inspired-but-wonky dancefloor workouts that are next to impossible to accurately describe.

Review: Amorphous Androgynous are back with something suitably epic in the form of this symphonic, 40-minute prog space-rock concept album, We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal. It is presented as five fantastic parts with the legendary Peter Hammill and Paul Weller both guesting, while the Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir and a 25-piece live orchestral string section provide the sumptuous sound that makes this most expansive and borderless record sound so meaningful. A cosmic trip of gigantic proportions with all the ups and downs you need to really feel moved, this is the definition of prog lavishness.

Review: Kraftwerk are a real red pill band; one taste and before you know it the rabbit hole grows ever deeper, more revealing and more mind-blowing. Even today, 50 years after inception, their contributions to krautrock, post-punk, techno and synth pop are as mesmerising as they are forward thinking, but this rare recording from a 1975 show really proves how innovative the inventors of the so-called Robotnik sound can be.

The opening, alternative interpretation of 'Autobahn', title track from their studio album released 12 months before this concert took place, is worth the price of the release on its own - spanning 25 minutes, it's a beguiling, twisting, turning, playful rendition that teases us into the far bolder 'Kometenmelodie' and the epic 'Ruckzuck'. Over far too quickly, at least this is one example of live prowess you can play over and over again.

Review: The latest must-check reissue from the admirable Be With label offers up a particularly obscure - but undeniably impressive - library music release from 1983. It was originally made available to subscribers to the "Coloursound Library" imprint, an outlet focused on "experimental and progressive" sounds. The material on "The Now Generation: Percussive Underscores" is certainly inventive, with composers Peter Ludemann and Pit Troja variously combining South American and African style hand percussion with spacey synthesizers, evocative fretless bass, Latin disco themes, a sprinkling of Chic style guitars and some suitably out-there electronics. It may be obscure, but as albums go it's rather special.

Review: As anyone who copped his 2016 debut album as Nullptr will attest, Eddie Symons' brand of electro is audibly more far-sighted and otherworldly than his peers. Given that electro is by its very nature a futurist artistic form, that's high praise indeed. Symons is naturally in fine form on the aptly titled "Future World", his first album for much-loved Sheffield imprint Central Processing Unit. Full of bustling beats, bold analogue melodies, shimmering chords, squelchy bass and undulating acid lines, the set offers a well-judged balance between angular, forthright club cuts - many of which are in a similar sonic vein to Drexciya - and deeper, more melodious moments that reminded us a little of Gerard Hanson's work as Convexion and Boris Bunnik's Versalife releases.

Review: Ole Mic Odd aka Michael Padgett is a hardware operator and DJ from Los Angeles and runs the wonderfully named label The New U.S. Government. Here he sweeps to power with four tracks across four sides of vinyl for the Zement label, two following a slower, punishing pulse that's like P-funk remade in a robot factory, only with tons of added bubbling acid, Drexciya-style filtering and Juan Arkins-like synthetic strings. The other two are way faster, Ice So Bright sounding like someone secretly spiked Kraftwerk's cocoa with something extremely sinister, sending them racing off on their bikes at treble speed. Echo Park has an even more distinct flanging acid flavour and hyper, hooligan electro foundations, again with those Model 500 misty clouds of synthesiser floating overhead. Absolutely cracking stuff.

Review: The generous run of Zero 7 reissues continues with the welcome return of their 2006 LP "The Garden". While it received something of a frosty reception on release, this album has refined with age to become a fan favourite and an all-round wonderfully accomplished work that highlights all the best qualities of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker. From lush, starry-eyed and '60s tinged psychedelia to bittersweet pop and plenty of lounge-ready moods, it's incredibly easy to sink into like all the Zero 7 material, but shot through with depth to keep you listening attentively. Sia also makes some standout appearances, not least "Throw It All Away" and "Waiting To Die", while Jose Gonzalez is on stunning form too. Fans have been waiting a long time for this, and no doubt there will be plenty more converts to the Zero 7 sound too.

Review: Autobhan, the 1974 album that began Kraftwerk's ascent to legendary status, is still capable of making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. The headline attraction remains the absorbing, mesmerising, 22-minute title track, a musical whizz down an imaginary three-lane highway that's as evocative and atmospheric as they come. That said, the album's lesser-celebrated, more experimental flip-side tracks (and in particular the jaunty 'Kometenmelodie 2'), are also inspired. Here it gets the 2020 reissue treatment via a tasty blue vinyl pressing that comes packaged with a 12-page booklet of historic photos and typically utilitarian imagery.

Review: A Colourful Storm made the leap from online mix series to record label back in 2016, and they've been carrying some spectacular selections of lesser known electronica heads ever since. The vibe can alter quite drastically release to release, but on Still In My Arms there's a melodic tenderness and preference for delicate beats that makes this oh so pleasant to sink into. Even more fractured pieces like Bauri's excellent "Have No Fear" are ultimately defined by their gentle qualities. There's some emotive electro pleasantries from Num Num and spacious dub glitches from Boc Scadet amongst many other highlights in this soothing and sensitive gathering of digital souls.

Review: As time passes, the increasingly prolific partnership of Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer moves farther into the wilderness, both artists emboldened by their shared sense of adventure and peerless skill. Here, on this LP for Mana, they're shrugging off all shackles in an exploration of synthesis on a molecular level. What's so thrilling is that patterns and rhythms do emerge from within this primordial soup, winding up in some of the most gorgeous and beguiling works we've tripped on for some time. Otherworldly, but somehow grounded with an earthly instinctive-ness, "The Clouds Know" will take time to wrap your head around, but therein lies the beauty.

Review: This collection of rare recordings were first recorded as part of the legendary Prescription label's 1990's album series. They led to the Astral Disaster album, which was recorded during Halloween 1998 at the studios belonging to Iron Maiden and was known for having been a debtors prison back in Victorian times, with plenty of spooky chains, iron doors and manacles still left laying around. However, there was plenty of material that never made the cut for whatever reason. They are now presented here on The Astral Disaster Sessions, with all previously unreleased versions and alternate mixes included.

Review: We won't make the obvious joke about buses - you know, the one about waiting ages for an Autechre album and then two turn up pretty much at the same time. But we will say this. If Plus, the second of Sean Booth and Rob Brown's two albums to drop within a fortnight of each other after a lengthy absence, were a bus, it wouldn't be headed out on any recognisable route that we know about. You might find the odd bit of scenery that feels vaguely familiar - the tension-laden strings of 'ii pre esc' or the scrambled drum & bass machinations of 'X4', but in the pair's hands they are splintered and re-assembled very much in their own image, one foot in the frenetic exhortations of electro and the other deeply planted in the land of industrial experimentation. Closing track 'TM1 might bear a slight resemblance to the squelchy acid of Drexciya, for instance, but its occasionally four-to-the-floor beats stop and start with a wonderfully disorientating playfulness. Brave and original, as ever, this is not for the faint hearted but at the same time takes you places you never thought you'd encounter.