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: "It's like painting with button and sliders... Melting and dripping, seeping yourself liquid into the machinery." So said Darren Cunningham when discussing the creation of R.I.P, his long awaited follow up to Splazsh. It's a compelling image that works in practice too. R.I.P creates microcosmic sound worlds within each track: "Holy Water" for instance tumbles in on itself in a melange of shimmering sine wave droplets, while the pitch shifted waves of "Tree Of Knowledge" seem to inhale and exhale like a living being, crumpling inwards on itself to repeat the same motion ad infinitum. And although it uses much the same, occasionally abrasive sonic building blocks as Cunningham's been developing for many years, the pastoral tones of "Uriel's Black Harp" and the Alva Noto styles of "Jardin" make R.I.P a surprisingly graceful album. It may not be techno as many will know it, but Cunningham has never made techno in the traditional sense anyway - and it's clear on listening to R.I.P that he's only just beginning to realise the musical forms that have been swarming inside his brain for years.

Review: It has been almost two years since the Fatima Al Qadiri's debut LP dropped on Hyperdub, and we're as excited now for her follow-up as when we'd heard the first one. This is because Qadiri provides us with everything to satisfy our need states; through an awry and granular sound, the artist is able to transmit a whole spectrum of moods and feelings. This makes Brute an album for anyone, and it can be enjoyed both by the party-goers and the moody corner-dwellers. The intro is a detached sort of skit that distances itself form any sort of shape, but so we're dropped in a post-futuristic world of pseudo grime, broken, detuned techno and tropical electronica. To be honest, there would be no other place for it than the mighty Hyperdub. Big release.

Review: This set from the Future Sound of London's psychedelic rock-inspired Amorphous Androgynous project is extremely hard to pin down, thanks in no small part to its' boundary-blurring format. Officially a set of remixes of one song - 'We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal' - the album is formatted as a seamless, mixtape style musical journey in which recurring musical themes (think melodies, choral vocals, lyrical phrases and orchestral arrangements) slip in and out of ambient soundscapes, dub-influenced electronic beats, psych-rock workouts, crackly samples, field recordings and Lord knows what else. It features a stunningly epic cast of guest musicians, producers, remixes and obscure psychedelic bands, with the result being a brilliant collaborative work that sounds a little like a 21st century rock opera.

Review: Some 25 years after delivering his debut 12", Richard D James hasn't lost the ability to thrill or inspire. By his obtuse standards, the material that makes up the surprise Cheetah EP is actually rather laidback and melodious. "Cheetah2 (LD Spectrum)", for example, sounds like a slow house jam written by robots, while the even deeper "Cheetah7B" shuffles along in a metronomic fashion, seemingly oblivious to the increasingly aggressive World at large. Of course, those trademark skittish IDM rhythms are present and the Cornishman has thrown in a couple of hazy ambient cuts for good measure.

Review: In line with the timely reappraisal of all things R&S related, the resurgent Apollo have seen the opportunity to bring one of their most celebrated records back for another round on CD. Aphex Twin's ambient recordings mature magnificently with age, sounding ever richer and more emotive as the rest of electronic music continues to play catch up all around. From the gentle breakbeats of "Xtal" to the aquatic techno lure of "Tha", the airy rave of "Pulsewidth" to the heartwrenching composition of "Ageispolis", every track is a perennial example of how far ambient techno could reach even back then. It's just that no-one quite had the arm-span of Richard D. James.

Review: Last month, experienced experimentalists Arovane and Porya Hatami released their latest collaborative album, Organism_evolution. Billed as a "development" on the creepy, clandestine and hugely atmospheric vibes explored on last year's Organism, the set expanded on the original's fluttering, otherworldly ambience - created largely by layering and processing their own field recordings - with the addition of more electro-acoustic elements and a wider range of synthesis techniques. Here, you can judge the results for yourself, as both albums get bundled together on CD for the first time. If you take the time to sit and listen to both discs in sequence, you'll not only spot the subtle shifts in the pair's collective sound, but also feel like you're on a particularly memorable journey through a psychedelically enhanced imagination.

Review: German artist Uwe Zahn (Arovane) and 12k's Taylor Deupree join forces for the first time, having first become acquainted through a shared love of music tech. As Zahn recalls: "After a long email conversation, Taylor and I came up with the idea of recording an album only with sound sources from the Nonlinear Labs C15 synthesizer that we both own. The first sketches were made with an exchanging of C15 patches and a constantly growing shared sound pool that led to the structure of the first songs. Preferring to work in person, but hampered by the pandemic, we resorted to sending projects back and forth. and developed an organic method that inspired and excited us."
With a shared love of experimentation, the two partners took on different roles, Deupree offering the rough diamonds, organic loops and mixing skills, while Zahn took on the more fragile, miniscule sound design. Described as "deep and haunting", with massive worlds compacted into each sound and movement.

Review: Back in 2002, the Detroit Electronic Musical Festival concluded with something rather special: a rare live performance from the Aux Men - an expanded and upgraded version of legendary Motor City electro outfit Aux88. This must-have CD presents that performance, complete with the original introduction from Eddie Fowlkes and DJ Bone, from start to finish. Full of spacey synth sounds, heavy beats, weighty bass, it's effectively a whirlwind trip through the history of both electro and Detroit's contribution to electronic music history. Thus, we get killer versions of 'Planet Rock', 'Shari-Vari', YMO's 'Computer Games', tons of Kraftwerk classics, a breathtaking interpretation of Art of Noise's 'Moments in Love' and rip-roaring takes on foundational tunes by Cybotron and Funkadelic..

Review: Los Angeles based ambient husband and wife duo, awakened souls join with Reunion Island native, From Overseas to create Keep The Orange Sun. After hearing each other's individual music, a deeper conversation started about shared musical influences and inspiration leading to the creation of this album. Keep The Orange Sun guides the listener on a thoughtfully curated path. Starting with the certainty of life's changes (Certainty of Tides) to arising self-doubt (Release/Adapt) and celebrating immersion in the present moment as the gateway to deeper connection with nature and one's life (Keep The Orange Sun). The instrumentation present in each track channels elements of electronic, shoegaze & ambient with each artist's distinct musical fingerprint highlighted.

Review: Reportedly inspired by its' creator's thoughts about the impact of humans on the earth (and specifically the sentient life we share the planet with), Alexander Gluck's second album as Aware is an undeniably bittersweet affair. He's already proved adept at crafting atmospheric ambient pieces underscored by exceptional sound design, and Requiem For a Dying Animal takes this up a notch - not only by wresting every last drop of emotional weight from his chords, melodies and musical motifs, but also thanks to a subtle air of neo-classical grandiosity. The four cuts on show - with the near 18-minute closing cut offering a genuinely breath-taking conclusion - combine to create one evocative, slowly-shifting piece smothered in experimental sounds and tweaked field recordings.