Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: Beat Spacek aka Steve Spacek is a man who has seen it all and done it all. Well, not quite all because this latest project is quite possibly his best in recent years. Having worked with artists as diverse as J Dilla and dBridge, his sound is characterised by a hugely varied conglomeration of styles and influences, but also methods. For instance, we've been told that this LP is made up exclusively of sounds generated from iPhone and iPad apps, so it's easy to see the man's versatility and openness to new sonic territories. "Modern Streets" itself is an intricate cocktail of ideas, incorporating remnants of drum & bass, digital dancehall and curb-side poetry. The whole LP is a daring and successful view into Spacek's multifaceted mind as a musician. Recommended.

Review: Earlier in the year, modern minimal wave and coldwave hero Marie Davidson signed a high-profile deal with Ninja Tune. Here, she makes good on that contract, following a couple of killer singles with what could be her strongest album to date. After setting the tone with clandestine, tongue-in-cheek opener "Your Biggest Fan" - a creepy spoken word cut taking aim at stalker-line fans to the accompaniment of heavy analogue synth bass and creepy computer bleeps - Davidson giddily flits between elastic dancefloor workouts (the brilliantly sleazy "Work It" and mind-altering "Workaholic Paranoid Bitch"), attractive post-EBM instrumentals (the psychedelic and fizzing "Lara"), meditative ambient melodiousness ("Day Dreaming"), bizarre experimental weirdness (the suitable dystopian "The Tunnel"), and stylish analogue pop (the whispered vocals and off-kilter early morning funk of "So Right").

Review: Montreal-based producer Marie Davison's fourth full length was her most self-reflective to date. This reissue reminds us of how it found the artist serving up plenty of introspection after a year spent living in Berlin. It comments on the stresses and strains of working on the dance music world and of a life in club culture. It is an immersive and absorbing world of synth heavy beauty that builds on previous dance floor orientated material with new sounds. Italo disco, proto-industrial and electro all feature with plenty of hefty bottom ends.

Review: When Marie Davidson announced last year that she would be, "retiring from club music", many wondered what she'd do next. Renegade Breakdown, her first album recorded with a full band (L'Oeil Nu), answers that question. It sees the Canadian artist and her new collaborators deliver suitably arresting, personal and ear-catching songs built on mixing and matching a surprisingly wide variety of musical inspirations, from Blondie, classic disco and mutilated heavy metal guitars, to Kraftwerk, Billie Holiday, Fleetwood Mac and Daft Punk. It's a big shift for the previously highly experimental artist, but thanks to her skill as both a a producer and performer, one that works magnificently well.

Review: It is now five years since Nabihah Iqbal got widespread critical acclaim for her debut album Weighing Of The Heart, and finally, she is back with another. This one, Dreamer, was two years in the making and finds the London-born artist, curator, broadcaster and lecturer offering up her most reflective and raw work to date. This versatile talent has done everything from composing music for the Turner Prize to being involved in a performance as part of a major Basquiat retrospective. Here she reflects on pandemic experiences having let the ideas develop in her head before she even turned on her machines.

Review: It's incredible to think Blush is PVA's debut album. The South London band sound like they've been doing aggy, abrasive and regularly oddly beautiful cold synth wave stuff since it was invented, bringing their own edge and energy, influences and ideas to a table that - much as we love it - can often feel like it has become set in its ways. Then again, perhaps their breaking from some traditions is exactly what exposes their freshness.

Across 11 incredible sonic assaults we're dragged from pillar to post in the best way. 'Untethered' sounds like an alarm going off and panic setting in, opening the album without apology. 'Hero Man' takes things into a more rolling, wavy place, albeit wasp-in-jar keyboard lines underpin things. 'The Individual' slows us down and ups the nasty; spoken word style lyrics and grungy, grimy atmosphere making it a stand out. Meanwhile, 'Seven' drops just ahead of the finale for blissful, twisted but honest romance.