Temples Of Jura 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Last year Tsuba Records and Isle of Jura founder Kevin Griffiths returned to the studio, eschewing his house and techno past to create deliciously warm, Balearic-minded grooves under the Jura Soundsystem alias. It was, it seems, a smart move, because the music contained on "Monster Skies", his first ever full-length, is undoubtedly the best he's made to date. Warm, humid and wonderfully horizontal, the album sees him fuse a variety of influences - most notably dub, turn-of-the-'90s ambient house, Italian dream house, new age, synth-boogie and those hard-to-define mid 1980s cuts that turn up on Music From Memory compilations - in a myriad of colourful, saucer-eyed ways. The results are uniformly superb, making "Monster Skies" a superb, must-check set.

Review: Sit back, relax, and sink into a faraway world thanks to the evocative sounds of Jura Soundsystem. It is an idyllic place with the sound of distant bird calls, humid jungle atmospheres and life-affirming melodies. Everything from ambient house to new age, Balearic bliss to downtempo corpus the perfectly escapist grooves with the gentle patter of 'Linn Fun' an early highlight. There is a playful sense of boogie funk to 'King Of Aldinga' while 'Freediving In The Tropical Zone' has a 90s feel with its scuffed-up and lazy drums and seductive bassline. A lovely album indeed.

Review: The Kyoto Connection's gorgeous Postcards album was actually composed, produced and recorded by Argentinian producer Facundo Arena. It is a real love letter to ambient from the Far East and was released in 2018. Facundo is a self-trained musician and digital synths enthusiast but he absolutely nails this one with its found sounds, lush harmonies and sublime tonal range. There is a delicacy and environmental feel to the music that makes it all the more cathartic. Amazingly the whole thing was written on plugins and used sequencing software on his iPad. What an achievement.