Back catalogue: Experimental/Electronic

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: Third part of the compilation celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Milanese record shop. This collection is entirely composed of previously unreleased music, exclusively produced for the occasion by many artists of great relevance in the worldwide music scene, who supported the store over the last ten years. The artists who produced the music for this compilation are Egyptian Lover, Ellen Allien, Thomas Brinkmann, Neil Landstrumm, JD Twitch, Matias Aguayo, San Proper, Tolouse Low Trax, Jay Glass Dubs, Dj Marcelle, Jorge Velez, Tamburi Neri, Fabrizio Mammarella, Heith, Itinerant Dubs, Timeslip89, Kreggo and Intersezioni Ensemble. The entire work is composed of 4 x 12", plus a bonus EP.

Review: Berlin's Cocktail d'Amore and Tokyo's Ene Records have come together once again to present the music of Solidair. The duo of Cocktail alumni Luigi Di Venere and Jules Etienne present three tracks aimed to induce a dance floor hypnosis. Orgonite (Riding the Waves) does just that, a slow build awash in the ebb and flow of acid tinges, just enough to wet your whistle on a Saturday night. The original mix keeps the skeletal support but throws in a life preserver of 8 bit gaming synthesis. Frisky arps call and respond to each other before making way for sinewy pads to lift off. Tiger's Eye sets itself onto cruising speed incorporating elements of late 90's acid techno with the sleek and smooth clubbing aesthetics of modern day Berlin.

Review: Burnt Friedman and Joao Pais Filipe's collaborative efforts began back in 2018. The former using synthesis and electronics to paint subtly but incredibly specific aural pictures, the latter focusing on the drum and rhythmic end of things. At times their music feels entirely designed for the dancefloors of underground electronic clubs, in other moments it's something very different indeed.


This latest EP lives up to those broad brushstrokes. '21-30' is a lush, almost tropical sounding workout that offers a complex percussive pattern, and combines these with gentle shades of melody, harmony, hook and distorted note. '22-105' brings elements of glitchiness and robotics into the mix. Meanwhile, '18-140' would work well as a brooding building tool (or section) of a 'proper techno' mix, with '23-130' bridging gaps between the lot.

Review: When it comes to heavy chug, Multi Culti has always known exactly where to strike to make the most memorable or - more accurately - inescapable impact. Thomas Jackson's 'Slow Train' is just the latest case in point, then, drawing dancers and listeners alike in with its warm-hued, hypnotic synth lines, stabs and warbles in all the right places to ensure that while not that much happens, you'll be stomping about like everything was going on at once. Far from a one-track-wonder, Calypso Cult II is the label setting out all its stalls with aplomb. 'Jungle Tungle' is a strange, somewhat shrill, constantly building and percussively dominated workout that's tough and yet not actually that tough. 'Big Plastic Room' is peak time acid meets Kraut oddness, while 'Hipocampos' brings things to a beautiful close with beguiling, downtempo sludge.

Review: Expanding on the ever-present fervour for classic industrial music, CTI's Elemental 7 lands in our laps, a reissue of the soundtrack to their 1982 film of the same name. Devastating and brutal sound effects are paired with haunting vocal performances on this two-suite clanker for the ages, while the accompanying video features cut-up video clips and dancing ghosts, while nods in the titles refer to seances and exorcisms. Don't pass on this one, as it's not just any old soundtrack; underwater worlds and vaporeal explosions make up its more unusual sonics.

Review: Generations of modular might fold in on themselves as legendary Buchla pioneer Suzanne Ciani patches into accomplished French synthesist Jonathan Fitoussi for this outstanding album on Obliques. The title is clearly a tribute to Morton Subotnick, whose own Silver Apples Of The Moon is a true ground zero for West Coast synth albums and as you might surmise Ciani and Fitoussi opt to create something more shapely and inviting than the wild, brilliantly alien tonal mutations Subotnick conjured up back in the 60s. If you're familiar with either artist's work you won't be disappointed, as exquisitely rendered melodic flourishes, delicate spatial processing and subtle textural shifts unfurl around your ears across these eight beautiful pieces of synth perfection.

Review: The third album by IDM's next-gen darling Loraine James is here and similarly to her last works, Gentle Confrontation is an ever-shifting, collaboratively-focused album. If the name is anything to go by, then the aim of the game is to offer a sonic blueprint for artists trying to quietly, subtly, resist the status quo, while also keeping the family close and remaining level-headed and happy. Examining her past and present, James offers with everything from transstep trances made with RiTchie and George Riley, to math-rock and emo-infleuenced tracks ('One Way Ticket...') and even self-sung ballads ('2003').

Review: Loraine James continues to trust her instincts and serve us some of the most honest and original music within the leftfield electronic sphere right now. Having recently paid tribute to the work of Julius Eastman on Build Something Beautiful For Me, now she retunes to Hyperdub with the record she claims the teenage version of her would have made. The label text makes explicit reference to the likes of DNTEL and Telefon Tel Aviv as well as math rock, but James is also way out in her own zone metabolising such influences into unique expression. There are some wonderful guest spots from the likes of RiTchie, Marina Herlop and Eden Samara, while James herself centres her voice for some of the album's most poignant moments. Gentle Confrontation is another outstanding chapter in James' ever-intriguing story.

Review: If there's one thing you can count on Jean Michel Jarre for, it's testing the limits of technology and seeing where he can take things further. The Oxygene synth wizard is back at it with a revolutionary new record which seeks to offer his fans a sonic experience like they've never had before. Oxymore has been recorded as a multi-channel, 3D binaural album, and while that might sound a bit vague for the uninitiated, the idea is that it gives the producers and engineers greater control over placing sounds within a three-dimensional, or even 360 degree space. Anyone listening on headphones will be able to experience this new revelation in sound design and hear it for themselves.

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: The acclaimed Kito Jempere joins Cherrystones and DJN4 on the label for 2020, with an album full of international minds. Working with array of collaborators across a cast of friends including Jimi Tenor, Wolfram, Hard Ton, Lipelis, Rich Thair (Red Snapper), Ruf Dug, Cedric Gasaida (Azari & III) and many more, presenting this, his third long play.

A hail of freedom of thoughts and voices before these changed times, recorded and shared across continents. Kito - following releases with DFA, Lo Recordings, Bordello A Parigi, Hell Yeah and Duca Bianco - acts as curator rather than conductor, the idea not to transform the contributions but allow them absolute.

Sending music and receiving back, nothing was touched to keep the truth and honour. From Tokyo to London, Berlin to his base in St Petersburg, trusting the chosen artists led to a broad palette, as his 4/4 driven funk expands with Jazz horns to Motorik percussion, Avant-Reich vocals to White Isle melodies, J Pop Balearics to Chanson stories wrapped around Club memories.

A true world meeting, crossing borders and genres. An eye on the dance floor and week long chill outs. With remixes from the likes of Samo DJ, Lipelis, Cable Toy and more to follow, this is more than Yet Another Kito Jempere Album.

Review: Not-so-simply put, Green Monster is what might happen if Ennio Morricone, Weezer, The Beatles, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jaga Jazzist, Massive Attack, Jimi Tenor, Hans Zimmerman and Aphex Twin got together to celibate the movies of Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Dziga Vertov, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Swerving the ridiculous question - is all that clear enough? - let's cut to the chase. Jempere's fourth studio LP sees the enigmatic visionary welcome a cast of more than 26 collaborators across 14 tracks. Together, they run the gamut from dark hip hop to light operatics, electronic balladry to sticky evening aired R&B-jazz, electro-trap and (other)world building soundscapes. Something that Jempere clearly takes very seriously, with the record itself packaged alongside booklets of lyrics and objects from the imagined visual realm of the green monster. A vivid, eclectic and diverse place packing as many surprises as rewards, overflowing with possibilities, big, bold ideas, and unique identities.

Review: Still sounding eons ahead of its time - or this present time - Jigen's 1998 album Blood's Finality enjoys a long-awaited repress having only been available on limited import CD for all these years. Taking jazz, experimental contemporary and the most leftfield jungle and breakbeat you can imagine and bringing it all together in an uncompromising, freeform body of work that skates, skitters, jumps and twists with no respect for formula or arrangement, Jigen created a one of kind document that joins dots frantically while sounding like nothing else on the planet. Catch us again for another repress in another 24 years and we'll feel the same way then, too.

Review: Guillaume Lespinasse should be a familiar name to fans of the Brothers From Different Mothers label and the alternative French electronic/dance music scene that has been in rude health for ages now. As one half of celebrated live duo The Pilotwings, regulars on said label, we can safely consider him a master of the immersive slo mo sound, veering towards a more cosmic, almost tropical end as oppose to the heavier, progressive tones many opt for at that tempo.
Here he's stepping out alone to offer this richly detailed collection of ambience and obscurity, packed with the kind of noises that really make you want to stay in a moment forever. In many ways, the arrangements opt for a maximalist approach to serenity. And tracks don't stand still - they evolve, and develop, switch and change things up, at times sounding like opiate drone, in other moments 1980s movie accidentals.

Review: Brittany's Julien Hairon spent some ten years travelling the world gathering sonic artefacts from field recordings to obscure cassettes before arriving at the point of his musical project, Judgitzu. It's not often a Western artist appears on Nyege Nyege Tapes, but Hairon's extended time spent in Tanzania was influential, where the sound of singeli got under his skin and now manifests in his visceral productions. The relentless 175+ bpms of the pioneers like Sisso, Jay Mitta and Duke are very apparent on this wild ride of a record, where avant-garde sonic approaches collide with the energetic eruptions of East Africa's most forward thinking producers.

Review: Sam Prekop and John McEntire made their debut as a collaborative partnership on Thrill Jockey with this album. Sons Of came on CD and limited, long since sold out cassette in 2022 and now it arrives on wax as a double LP that also includes the bonus cut 'A Drink At The Banquet.' Their experimental sound is a nimble mix of supple synth work an involving beats. Texture and timbre plays heavily across each freeform cut as moods build and grooves grow. There are rueful, far sighted star-gazers like 'Ascending By Night' and more lush dancers such as 'A Yellow Robe" (part 1)'.