Back in stock: Leftfield

Review: Poetic Hovering Synth Tinkerer.

Review: Canadian electro-industrialists FLA really do understand what consistency is. Having put out 12 official studio albums since their inception in 1986, they have remained at the top of their niche game since first landing on the scene, making tracks with this dystopian dancefloor energy, rooted in the cold and unfeeling factories of the future and deceptive humanism of warm synth work.

Nerve War was their now-legendary first mixtape, released the year they got together, and it set the bar so high its any wonder any of what followed managed to live up to these standards. Suffice to say, the fact subsequent stuff did is testament to the band's genius. Presenting everything from strange and unnerving sonic collages ('Thy Glory'), to gritty slo-mo builders ('To The World') and grand sci-fi themes with shades of neo-Gothicism ('Front Line').

Review: Experiment Defined is a cult classic of electro by Gedankenexperiment, a collaboration between two legends of the genre: Gerald Donald and Beta Evers. Fitting right into the niche of electro that only these artists alone can be said to have properly found, the EP is a sonic exploration scientific concepts and philosophical questions, but delivered with a cold and clinical precision combined with an unmistakable eeriness. Particularly cold and janky comes 'Experiment', while the A-sider 'Conclusion' also features a haunting vocal contribution from Evers - as if to repetitively ponder why someone would arrive at any conclusion in the first place, ever.

Review: L.F.T. lands on Pinkman with a six-tracker of conceptual electro and dungeon synth, aimed squarely at the dancefloor. 'Electric Vampire' is the contemporary counterpart to Nosferatu; rather than transforming into a bat, this hematophagic harpy has no problem traversing the fibre-optic cables and electric wiring that make up our telecoms and wi-fi systems. The idea of an electric vampire, a version of the 'energy vampire' trope that pervades folk consciousness at the moment, likewise pervades the six tracks on this blood-boiler. The EP mutates progressively into more and more grotesque forms; by the time we reach track five, 'Demonic Toys', we're deep into the blood sacrifice, having lost fourteen pints, provided nothing resembling a tourniquet. How could you possibly stem this badboy record's flow?.