New releases last four weeks: Leftfield

Review: Was anyone ready for one of the most talked-about albums of the year to be Andre 3000 going ham on the flute? Probably not, but in a post-reality world New Blue Sun just slots right in. Of course the legions of Outkast fans are going to be split when an artist of such prominence takes a wild swerve into experimental musical pastures, but for those with an open mind or a pre-existing appreciation of ambient and leftfield music, this album is an easy sell. Teasing the tension between acoustic and electronic, ancient and hypermodern, grounded and ethereal, Andre has been bold and honest in presenting this album to the world and his gamble has paid off.

Review: Los Angeles-based ASHRR are back with a new cut which comes from their forthcoming Sunshine Low album which they have re-interpreted as their ASHRR Soundsystem alter ego, while System Olympia also steps up with a remix on this fine new package from 20/20 Vision. In the hands of the latter, 'What's Been Turning You' is a remix with plenty of hi-fidelity cosmic details over mid-tempo deep nu-disco drums. The version from ASHRR is a chugging and Italo-tinged classic with loose-limbed and jumbled drum funk and plenty of bright, shiny arps. A great collection then.

Review: Three lovely, carefully terraformed dub tekno sketches from new co:clear recruit Eden Aurelius. Both in title and soundworld, these pieces strongly evoke slow-panning aerial shots of undulating terrain, gusts of wind through glistening skyscrapers and diffused sunlight through striated cloud. A stretch maybe - but a stretch informed by years of dub techno semiotics from precursors like Rod Modell and Pub, whose visually evocative sonic staging doubtless laid some of the groundwork for records like this. There's a formalism and orthodoxy to Aurelius' work, marking it apart from the glut of neu-ambient ASMR-scapes from labels such as INDEX and 3XL. Take the cathartic pulse of title track 'Plateau', for instance, which deftly weaves cavernous swathes of vocals and band-passed chord stabs into something that would sound equally at home on SUED or echospace. Real nice.

Review: Finally, the debut Bochum Welt album Module 2 has been reissued after an initial run on Rephlex. Bochum Welt (Gianluigi Di Costanzo) has just recently celebrated 30 years of releasing music. His brand of IDM, electro and techno has been often copied but never equaled. His futuristic music seems to always be forward thinking and ultimately, timeless sounding. This edition is on matching green vinyl and includes all the classic material of the first release. Fans of AFX, Squarepusher and Cylob are sure to be aware of Bochum Welt. But for those who aren't....

Review: Danielle Boutet's Pieces is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Seeming to land squarely in the French no wave niche, yet nonetheless defying it through sinister inversions of the form, the reissued album comes as a reminder of Boutet's impressive command over atmosphere and narrative. Arabesque monologues in her native French soar over warblingly warm arpeggios, which sound ready-primed for traversals of Transylvania, while the more languid cuts make use of impressively synthetic emulations of what could otherwise sound like affectedly acoustic instruments, such as the "harmonica" on 'En attendant l'aube'. This is a welcome unearthing of an otherwise unconscious album, made in the space between REM sleep and authentic, out-of-the-limelight living.

Review: French outfit Chateau Flight have spent two years in the studio making music, playing around and experimenting and now the fruits of that work are presented on this new album La Folie Studio. It is full of the sound of analogue machines conversing and the artists themselves speaking through their darkened basslines or eerie pads. Occult worlds are crafted, ambient soundscapes are cooked up and leftfield cosmic explorations occur throughout a journeying album full of a wide range of emotions. This lovely record features guests on the odd track such as Johnny Nash on guitar, Cosmic Neman mumbling on 'Mange', John Cravache playing 'his special organ" and Bony Bikaye singing on 'Esika Molimo Ezali'. It's an occult world of left of centre sound that will keep you coming back for more.

Review: The cult favourite Dark Entries hits 15 in style here and celebrates in the only way it knows how - with more great music. This time it is the legendary synth-punk yahoos Crash Course in Science aka Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago, and Michael Zodorozny who are in the spotlight. The group formed back in 1979 and set out to make music using toy instruments and kitchen appliances. Their punk-y, aggressive, angular sound soon found a hardcore fan base and gave rise to big tunes like 'Cardboard Lamb' and 'Flying Turns.' In 1981 they recorded Near Marineland, a full-length that never actually saw the light of day but does now and shows the band moving into more diverse and polished territory.

Review: Earnest, atmospheric, romantic-gothic guitar pieces from Alain Goraguer, whose Rare Soundtracks & Lost Tapes hears a collection never heard before on vinyl. Goraguer is best known as a collaborator and ghostwriter of Serge Gainsbourg, as well as the scoring composer for the surrealist sci-fi animation film Fantastic Planet. At around the same time of the making of these two indelible compositions, Goraguer also wrote two similar, but less publicly-oriented scores, both of which appear on this record in a back-to-back fashion. An array of breathy flutes, eerie backing synth counterpoints, and shaky percussions all combine to cloud the glasses on this beautifully bittersweet album-length hypnosis.

Review: The arrival of Il Quadro di Troisi could not have been more ironic. Anything but new faces on the music scene, the Italian electronic partnership of Eva Geist and Donato Dozzy debuted as the reality of living in a pandemic really began to hit home - November 2020. A month that usually calls for their brand of dark, Ital-disco-cold-synth stuff was void of the situations you'd want to hear it in. No parties, no clubs, no concerts - not even an opportunity to stick it on when getting ready to do something. Nevertheless, we've more than made up for it now, and having grown incredibly close betwixt that waking nightmare and today's chaos, the arrival of a new LP is an enticing prospect. As the notes explain, "everything changes, all things evolve, nothing stays the same... La Commedia marks the band's embrace of a more traditional song form, shaped by a very personal and distinctive musical style. The distinguishing elements of Il Quadro di Troisi's music meld into a unique mix that is both seductive and eerie, elegant and earthy, contemporary and timeless."

Review: An iconic soundtrack to a classic blaxploitation flick, JJ Johnson and Martha Reeves & The Sweet Things turned a collective head when they simultaneously composed their core themes for Willie Dynamite, directed by obscure director Gilbert Moses. This ineluctable screen treat stars Roscoe Orman and Diana Sands in a quintessential portrayal of early '70s New York pimping, with the central character's foibles giving rise to a latent conscience when he comes into contact with a young social worker. As is often the case with the blaxploitation genre, Willie Dynamite begins with the lead character cruising down the streets of New York in some kind of fancy car, and 'tracked by the central theme: the theme of Reeves' 'Willie D' is clear as day, lyrically portraying D's hustle as 'magic', "never treating two girls the same", "it's no different from any other industry". 'Keep On Movin' On' contrasts this with a note of modesty, signaling the movie's inevitable tonal shift; nor should you miss the B-side instrumentals 'Willie Chase' and 'Parade Strut'.

Review: Ilian Tape's ITX Series provides another opportunity to sink into some deeply escapist ambient and drone soundscapes from the usually dance floor-focused breakbeat and techno label. MPU101 has served up a few of these EPs before and they always find them coax plenty of magic out of their analogue machines. 'TEAM 700_76' is a nice and bleary-eyed post-Blade Runner soundtrack, 'BLOCK-1_2AREA666' has a darker undercurrent of menace, 'TrailerparkBeauty' brings some twinkling celestial keys and 'Sunset Memories' closes on frazzled chords that speak of heat damage from a scorching sun.

Review: Earlier in the year, Miss You offered up a first ever 12-inch pressing of Patrizia Pellegrino obscurity 'Il Mondo Da Una Nuvola', an obscure Italo-disco B-side that they backed with their own tastefully executed extended mix. Here they repeat the trick with one of the Italian singer and actress's earlier B-sides, 1982 gem 'Musica Spaziale'. In its original form (track one), the song is a throbbing, heavily electronic chunk of infectious Italo-disco excellence topped off with a decidedly cosmic lead vocal from Pellegrino. It comes backed with a suitably moody, chugging and even more musically expansive 'Extended Mix', and a fine TB-303-laden Italo-meets-acid revision courtesy of the cheekily monikered 'DJ Asshole'. Space disco for the win!

Review: British jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings releases his sophomore album 'Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace', set to be another distinctive ribbon on top of his well-decorated jazz career including collaborations with Andre 3000 and being a member of Sons of Kemet. The LP marks Hutchings' return to music after giving up the saxophone a year ago. Here he returns to his original instrumental calling, the clarinet, but a wide array of wind and percussion punctuates his musings. Opening track 'End of Innocence', is a brief and understated clarinet and piano marriage. The reverberation of the keys softly drones behind the masterfully precise clarinet lead, with perfectly placed percussion sprinkled throughout. It's introspective, serene and understated - a supremely narrative feel that only instrumental jazz can give off. This pressing is the indie-exclusive red-coloured disc.

Review: SOLO 500 is back on their own self-titled label with the third entry in Galaxy Sound Company's series and again it digs deep into jazz-funk to turn out some killer breaks. Up first is the main theme from 1974's subway hijack movie The Taking Of The Pelham One Two Three and it is one with a funky, jazzy, high-octane sound that has been sampled by Company Flow, Mix Master Mike and many more. On the backside is an edit of a tune from Manfred Mann Chapter Three's self-titled 1969 LP. This one has been famously sampled by The Prodigy. Another great little 7".