Esp Institute 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Contemporary classical seems to be having a bit of a moment in the sun right now as it breaks out of its traditional confines and makes a mark on the wider world. Bartellow, who is one-third of the Tambien project and also goes by the name Beni Brachtel in the classical scene, is back on ESP Institute with a second full-length. Noosphere brings together parts of some of his theatrical scores for WUT, Odipus and Antigone and Der Zauberberg amongst others. It takes in cues from Baroque and Impressionism with plenty of sweeping drama and moments of intense emotionality across four sides of sound.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It's hard not to sound like Patrick Conway is paying us to say glowing things when writing about Cellular Housekeeping. Few albums have been released this year that manage to celebrate the multifarious nature of dance music right now compared with this triumph, which casts its stylistic net pretty wide without ever coming across as an artist's performative attempt to look (or sound) like they can make multiple genres.

For the most part, these tunes occupy a kind of hybrid space, somewhere between drum & bass, techno, house, and breaks. They're not committed to any of those, but nor are they ever inauthentic. Work such as 'Eat Thyself, Sustain Thyself', offer a great summation of the small print here - pinpoint precision on the drums, clear innovation in the arrangement. Beats that can make you dance, but not without asking one constant question - just what the f*!k is this?

Review: This latest release on Lovefingers' admirable ESP Institute imprint is undeniably left-of-centre. Created by Black Merlin man George Thompson and Musicargo legend Gordon Pohl, it takes the form of 12 atmospheric, stretched-out compositions build around hypnotic synthesizers, droning textures and minimalist melodies. The tracks themselves range from beatless and spooky ("Ton 2"), to pulsating and industrial ("Ton 8"), via more robust, upbeat workouts (check, in particular, the hard-wired, proto-techno thrust of "Ton 4"). The krautrock influences are clear, but the dup also doffs a collective cap to classic ambient, drone, darkwave and, most pleasurably of all, blissful electronica (see the standout "Ton 11").

Review: You wait ages for a Lord of the Isles album, and two come along at once! 'Night of the Endless Beyond', the Scottish producer's second full-length excursion for ESP Institute, follows hot on the heels of the inspired (if shorter) 'Subtle Thoughts' on Lapsus. While that was almost entirely made up of typically atmospheric ambient sketches, this epic goes further, complimenting his usual beat-free brilliance with forays into dubbed-out, deep space ambient techno ('Endless Beyond'), analogue-rich emotive techno (the star-fall brilliance of 'Strato'), ambient house ('Together' and the wonderfully trippy 'Quadralogue'), crackly IDM ('Truth') and picturesque, soft-focus dancefloor hypnotism ('Wonder').