Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: For the second release on New York City's Peace Anthem Records, Annie Garlid
Aka UCC Harlo - a viola player and singer from Connecticut, living in Berlin - joins NY Graffiti for what the label so eloquently described itself as 'Ketamine-paced grooves, baroque miniatures, hazy-humid sonics, and dub inflections'. On the A side, you've got UCC Harlo serving up the minimal atmospherics of 'Let's See' awash in shimmering FM synth aesthetics, followed over on the flip by the evocative breaks of 'UN' by NY Graffiti, not to mention each of them delivering a remix of the other's track.

Review: Zodiak Commune reaches right back into the early days of the Dutch acid techno and electro scene, and it remains an essential outlet for tough and gnarly rave gear for darkened souls. This new record is a split between Umwelt and Serge Geyzel, continuing a series of split discs pitting serious underground operators against each other. Umwelt's side kicks off with the blistering acid electro of 'The Wake Of The Anthropocene' and follows up with heavy but melodic pearler 'Cosmic Dancer'. Geyzel's 'Off The Ground' is a nervy slice of acid with sad-hearted undertones, and 'Hostage' completes the set with a moody, percussive throwdown.

Review: You don't often see a clavichord credited on the list instruments used on an album. The stringed, rectangular keyboard found favour in the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras, and while commonplace during the Middle Ages is, today, pretty obscure. That is, unless you're a musician with a penchant for recreating those historical periods in sound, or someone like Tori Amos or Bjork, both of who are among the

Review: Final Symphony II delves deeper into the cherished melodies of the Final Fantasy series. Renowned composers Roger Wanamo and Jonne Valtonen skillfully craft rich and intricate arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu's iconic compositions from FF5, 8 & 9. Additionally, Masashi Hamauzu offers a captivating suite inspired by his monumental original score for Final Fantasy XIII, while Valtonen sets the tone with his atmospheric opening piece 'In a Roundabout Way - Fanfare'. Pianist Mischa Cheung shines brightly in the spotlight, captivating audiences with his masterful performances in 'For the People of Gaia' and the emotive solo arrangement 'You Are Not Alone'.

Review: "Uffe's Words and Endings is a dub addled breach of sonic warfare." So says the officially approved text to accompany this release. Whoever wrote it isn't wrong, either. Long-since turning heads with releases on highly regarded but often unsung labels like Tartelet, Pets, and Delusions of Grandeur, we should already be expecting some special greatness from the artist in question. And yet Words & End-ings exceeds those expectations.

The juxtaposition between the soulful, jazz-driven, loose, 10PM atmospherics of 'Immortal' and 'The Moon''s sharp, stubby, staccato techiness is just one case in point. This is a dance music album that should be in album format, a night out on one record, all your memories and your current after party. At a point in time where we can all agree things are looking worrying, here is reassurance.

Review: The sixth studio album by British synth pop legends Ultravox landed in 1982, and peaked at an impressive number six in an albums chart that was still highly competitive. By December that year, the record had clocked up more than 100,000 copies, earning a Gold certificate from the BPI, while also ranking in US and German hit lists around the same time. Notable as it saw George Martin (affectionally known to some as The Fifth Beatle) stepping up to the helm, this veteran apparently claimed the band were "the most musical" he'd worked with in years. Agree or not, the record is bold and theatrical, at times taking us out on the town in bleep-happy Sheffield (or some such synth domain), in other moments inviting us to partake in a strange electronic cabaret.

Review: Freedom To Spend finally make available again the great 1992 debut album by Chaleur Humaine. It has been remastered for the occasion and is the first time it's been available for many years. This limited edition bundles also comes with a bonus 45 featuring the singles 'Maelstrom' and 'Human' which are two more gems form the arsenal of the French duo of musicians and siblings, Danielle and Didier Jean. This album came after two records of pop songs that no one really cared for and so the pair head off to build their own studio un Orsay, Paris, to create this newly liberated sound which is a mix of new age electronics and dreamy vocals.

Review: Once the leader of iconic and legendary Japanese New Wave rockers EX, Shigeru Umebayashi's Music For A Film compilation showcases the better-known work (in today's terms at least) of this multifaceted and multi-talented composer. 21 tracks of absolute beauty, all of which are taken from his 30-strong-plus oeuvre of movie scores, built over time since he first began writing tracks for screens in 1985, after said band called time.
Opening with what may be his most famous work of all time, 'Yumeji's Theme' (title piece from Siejun Suzuki's critically acclaimed 1991 movie, Yumeji) the playlist here really showcases the vision and musicality Umebayashi is renowned for, and removed from the context of movies the work is elevated to new heights. Classical, choral, quiet epics, and romantic mini-overtures rarely sound so good.

Review: Piero Umiliani is a cult electronic musician who released his greatest album 20 years ago on Easy Tempo. On it, Umiliani experimented in his Sound Work Shop studio on all sorts of analogue machines and now, decades later, his legacy lives on with this new record, L'Uomo Elettronico. It is made up of three previously unreleased tracks, plus rarities and hidden gems, all composed between 1972 and 1983 and remastered from the original analogue tapes. They show a lighter, more playful side to the artist with singing synths, hissing hi hats and snaking rhythms that make for fascinating listening.

Review: The Umlauts like to play by the rules about as much as you enjoy a needle in the eye. A formidable force of opposition against a music industry which has largely been lost to the corporates - big money is indeed coming for culture - the nine-piece coldwave mini-army kick against everything from labels to marketing, and have so far done pretty well by not adhering to those practices. Two EPs deep - U (2021) and Another Fact (2022) - and we land at Slags. Ten tracks that comprise the best of the preceding extended players, and equally captivating new material. From the Neo-Kosmische of 'Um Politik', to the gritty, synth punk of 'Mad Blue Love', the distorted, compressed throb and loops of 'Boiler Suits & Combat Boots', and the knife-edge atmosphere of epic closer 'Another Fact', here's a ride you won't forget in a hurry.

Review: Unchained is the longstanding solo project of Nathaniel Davis. Gabbeh is his latest offering to the world, a suite of blissfully introspective tracks that envelop the soul in a blanket of soft, delicate moods, their sole purpose to comfort aching heads. Remarkably, dedicated fans will know you can trace the artist's lineage to noise mix tapes on CD-R, although more recent excursions into Bossa nova influenced tones perhaps help bridge the gap between then and now. Recorded at home over a three year period, from 2020 to 2023, Grenoble, Switzerland, played a big part in end results here. "I think certain songs reflect, in ways, Grenoble's natural surroundings. 'Drac' is named after the river that flows from the mountains down to the city - 'Dru' is the name of a well-known peak near Chamonix," Davis has explained. That as may be, nevertheless there's something more transportive than that here - songs feel as though they would be at home anywhere green, slow and thoughtful.

Review: Harald Uunk's take on techno may be angular, electronic and refreshingly avant-garde, but his creative inspirations are far more natural. Unseen, his expansive debut album, was not - as some may assume given its sonics and largely dystopian feel - influenced by the urban environments in which he lives and works, but rather his frequent adventures in the countryside. That's not immediately evident, but if you close your eyes and listen intently, the various off-kilter polyrhythms, distorted electronic motifs, ghostly electronics and dubbed-out textures soon conjure mind images of stumbling around dark woods and fields in moonlight and pre-dawn drives down deserted rural roads in the Netherlands' most isolated spots. More importantly, it's a hugely enjoyable and evocative beast, even if it does tend towards the dark, intense and unsettling.