Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: We've been swimming in Luke Abbott's debut album since it landed on our desks this week. As one would expect from a member of the vaulted Border Community family, it's a record steeped in melody, gentle yet strong, perfect for at-home headphone escapism. Abbott is a master of kosmische, and on Holkham Drones he creates a lush soundscape that is psychedelic and richly textured, with similarities to be found in the work of modern contemporaries James Holden, Allez Allez and Four Tet. "Whitebox" is an intense swirling track that showcases the Norfolk producer's love of analogue equipment, while "Trans Forest Alignment" starts like a moodier version of LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge" before submerging itself beneath a sea of melodic keys and atmospheric synth washes. Everything here is assembled using the most delicate of sounds, from the moody vibe of "Sirens For The Colour" through to "Brazil", which shines like a beacon of hope, while the ambient fuzz of "Dumb" offers one of the album's most moving moments. One of the finest releases of 2010 without a doubt.

Review: 'Fragments + Distancing' cultivates a profound sense of meditative stasis with the use of a Moog Mother 32, custom built filters, and various Eurorack modular sequencers, modules, and effects. James continues his proven and unique efforts in creating ethereal tones on this latest collection of songs. Fragments was created by using a method of composition James has been perfecting, where he takes small pieces of unreleased music that he has written stretching over the last 10 years, and runs them through different modes and methods of granular stretching and FFT processing. In some cases, the original audio source was no longer than 20-30 seconds long. PITP is honored to share this collection of music.

Review: To mark the one-year anniversary of Reveries, Sonic Cathedral drops a new two-tracker that brings a Detroit reimagining to 'Vale' and 'Cadere'. Produced by John Hanson, aka Saltbreaker, the project features live improvisations by saxophonists Yali Rivlin and Thalamus Morris and cellist Jordan Hamilton. Each of them did their thing in a single take with Hanson composing around their performances, and the result is a graceful blend of serene melancholy and rhythmic sophistication. Oodles of warmth and organic textured is added to the originals and these interpretations act as a fine tribute to Detroit's enduring uniqueness.

Review: Chewed Corners represents the first u-Ziq album from Mike Paradinas in six long years, a period where the electronic music landscape has shifted considerably. A shift thanks in no small part to his own role at the head of Planet Mu that has established itself as one of the most formidable names in electronic music, documenting the ever fracturing dubstep genre as well as steadfastly championing the Chicago footwork scene. This new album sees Paradinas embrace the dual influences of 80s synth pop and Chicago footwork across a suite of 14 tracks filled with luscious analogue sounds that feel like the logical extension of the sound explored on the recent u-Ziq EP XTEP.

Review: Given the amounts of collaborations he undertakes, Past Inside The Present boss zake is not so much musically sociable as utterly gregarious. He's also one to choose a good theme with which to imbue his musical productions with definable atmospherics. This collaborative effort with T.R. Jordan has water at its heart, with field recordings captured on the coast of Lake Erie - which straddles the US/Canadian border - fed into the mixes, giving them a distinctive psycho-geography. Spread over four slow moving tracks, including 'Stay With Me' with ghostly vocals by the aptly named marine eyes, the arrangements revolve around the sound of traditional and electronic pianos interplaying. That said, all the meticulous detail and sonic trimmings you'd expect from a Past Inside The Present release are in there too, working away in the background.