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Review: Brothers in sounds (and lineage) Mark and Clive Ives deal with two of the biggest issues impacting music right now on one incredible record.WOO have a reputation for taking parts of archived sounds and formulating new things from those segments, and in this case the work is born from excerpts of four-track tape recordings made in the late-1980s. They then began reflecting on the "imminent nature of humanoid robots", and starting to create Xylophonics/Robot X. From artificial intelligence to reuse and sample politics and economics, these themes seem to guide the sounds themselves, which feel strangely nostalgic and futuristic, a vision of tomorrow that is inseprtable from the humans that made it - their understanding of the unfolding machine age through weird distorted jazz tech, deconstructed dub and psychedelic electronica. So, remembering all this is a reconfigured version of stuff made almost 35 years ago is truly mind-blowing.

Review: Mad-heads, rave veterans and lovers of having their brains rewired by previously unexplored sonic realms unite, because here comes the first of four, yes four, new albums from the fantastic freak of nature that is Special Request. His 'What Time Is Love? Sessions' arrives in several different formats this month and across six sizzling tracks that re-wire the KLF's hit of that name, he taps into everything from "ephemeral ambiance to barnstorming hardcore, pummelling house to pointillist trance" and does so with a mix of the surreal and the psychotic, the psychedelic and the downright ridiculous. It's mental, and we love it.

Review: As you know if you have followed the work of Special Request aka Paul Woolford, it often comes in huge bursts and across several releases at once. So it is that this year the one-man production machine is to drop not one but a four-album run over the next 12 months, all independently. Quite what he runs on we do not know but we need some because once again on this limited clear vinyl version of his 'What Time Is Love? Sessions' he taps into the future as he rewires the musical DNA of rave, techno, bass and jungle into tracks that make your brain fizz and your body move. Unreal work once more from this unstoppable force.

Review: Turin's reputation as an enclave of Italian alternative music and culture is well known. Southern Europe's Motor City has the stunning piazzas and palazzos we want from its country, but also the huge industrial areas, many now in decline or waiting to be redeveloped, that catalyse so much in electronic and industrial music. Meanwhile, a few miles beyond town we find spectacular countryside, national parks, mountain ranges, and inspiration for deep ambient. SabaSaba were born from and into this, and the duo have established themselves as one of the region's foremost purveyors of unusual tunes. Unknown City is a like a blueprint for what a contemporary horror score could be, whether that's the slow release of the John Carpenter-esque 'Night Plotters', haunting chants and shimmers of 'Wrists Free', eerie atmospheres of 'False Speech', or anything in between.

Review: Sergey Dmitriev and Nikita Chepurnoi resurface as Amkarahoi, the experimental project which, the release notes tell us, have prepared an album that "conjures ghosts of 90s chill out tents, aqueous ambient, exploratory turn of the century IDM and echoes of jammy dub." Borne from a largely improvised show that took place in Saint Petersburg, overdubbed and mixed down, it's patient yet wildly exploratory stuff. Amkarahoi is the name of a remote Siberian region and it's easy to see why the pair picked it for this project's name. Uncle Reed In The Purple Mine sounds desolate and sparse, but once we hone in on the details we realise it's taking us though cold, barren atmospheres and into warm, E-hued soundscapes. A thoughtful yet spontaneous slice of immersive ambient you won't regret committing to.

Review: Confusingly, two staggering out-there experimental albums arrived in 1992 bearing the same title: Thunder Perfect Mind. One came from Current 93, a group led by David Tibet featuring Nurse With Wound founder Steven Stapleton. The second was the latter's own experimental musical meditation on the same musical theme - a follow-up to the classic Soliloquy For Lilith that was, if anything, even darker, weirder and more intense than Current 93's paganistic LP. This expanded reissue presents a remastered version of the original two-track set on disc one - complete with musical contributions by Colin Potter and David Tibet - and a wealth of rare, unreleased and recently unearthed contemporaneous material on CD2. It's the ultimate version of an inspiringly out-there set.

Review: Who, or perhaps what, was Tomo Akikawabaya? In truth, nobody really seems to sure on the answer, other than the fact this mysterious Japanese artists decided to release a serious of incredible synth-driven singles during the 1980s, before vanishing back into the dry ice of whatever smoke machine they escaped from. A musical genie, here only to bestow a limited number of gems on us, and then disappear forever. Swerving interviews and photos doesn't help the search, but The Castle II at least allows us to explore his work in depth, across several tracks. These range from the twisted cabaret weirds of 'Objet D'Amour', to the driving electro-punk of 'Le Voleur', grand and decidedly 1980s-sounding synth rock on 'The April', and New Romantic-esque pop on The Castle (II). Essential stuff.

Review: The second solo releases from Edward Ka-Spel to appear on the Lumberton Trading Company label offers eight spectacularly original compositions from the outsider artist. These are tracks that bore their way into the heart and mind through startlingly personal moods and meanings. The atmosphere is often tense, and, when it's not, 'surreal' is the word that springs to mind - albeit more unusual hallucination than comical experiment. 'Platform 5' might be the best example of how unnerving things can get, the low, rumbling synth bassline underpinning spoken word, distant, almost inaudible harmonic refrain and eerie chorus. 'No Show Tomorrow' asks "what if they had a war and nobody showed up' to seemingly disconnected tones, notes and noises. 'They Seek Her Here' ups the tempo with a synth-wave-breaks trip through dystopian spaces.

Review: Foodman is now well known for his left-of-centre sounds having toured the world plenty of times. Back when his debut album arrived in 2012 though he was barely known at all. It came on Orange Milk and was a wonky fusion leftfield experimentation and beat music inspired by Chicago juke. It came back then on cassette only but now the same label has pressed it up to vinyl and that means it is sure to become a cult classic all over again. The often sorts, sketchy tracks are full of wonderful ideas, a lot of MIDI sounds, bizarre designs and great use of negative space.

Review: Forged in the darkness that exists beyond shadows, Scope Neglect opens up a new chapter in the storied career of cult producer, musician, and artist Ben Frost. A record of almost-unfathomable ferocity, taking inspiration from the blackness of industrial and metal, core elements of these scenes are untethered, taking us to a stylistic unknown - abstract, brooding and unflinching. Seven years after his last LP, at which point he told The Guardian 'I don't know if I have any more records left in me', the enigmatic polymath - a celebrated underground icon whose work spans film, visual art, and opera - proves his own doubts were unfounded. Scope Neglect is a spectacular powerhouse of sound that feels made for spaces bigger than any room, hall, or stadium. Left unrestricted, it could be capable of reaching the ends of the universe itself.

Review: .Rhetorical Islands was originally pieced together from Giuseppe Ielasi's work for l'Audible Festival in Paris. An event dedicated to pushing forward thinking, mind-expanding, experimental and just plain strange sounds, his efforts certainly fit in with all of those terms. Presented here as ten standalone tracks, all without name and many without the usual elements we expect from a 'track', this first vinyl pressing of the work is really an extension of the original idea, rather than a time capsule of it. "Isolated sound worlds" is the phrase Ielasi used to describe what's happening here, and it's certainly true that the individual parts stand alone and can each be heard as autonomous. But together they also make a strange kind of sense, complementing, almost feeding into each other, even at the most stark juxtaposition. Ultimately, then, it's about interpretation, making what we choose from the ingredients.

Review: Kevin Drum is often cryptic in his work and that didn't change here on OG23, a record on Streamline that after a long wait for fans now arrives, at last, on vinyl. It features just two pieces of music, one on each side, and both are isolated soundscapes from deep under the surface of the sea. The Chicago artist layers up subtle drones and spaced-out electro signifiers, otherworldly ambiance and deft sound designs that all empty your mind and allow a little paranoid to seep in, such is the creepiness of their atmosphere. It's a magnificent work of quiet artists that is stuffed with evocative sonic imagery.

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: Arv & Miljo's new album delves into radical environmental activism and draws from the Swedish Plogbill movement's early 90s actions alongside Earth First! and Earth Liberation Front. Mixing monologues, interviews, protest songs, and site recordings with raw kosmische synth music, the pair crafts a mesmerising audio collage. Chaotic yet harmonious, disorienting yet soothing, the album reflects dedication, passion, and the spirit of change. Originally a limited CDR release in 2021, it quickly became a highlight in Arv & Miljo's discography. Now on, Jorden Forst offers a multi-faceted journey through environmental activism and the human spirit's resilience.

Review: If this is your initial encounter with Omit then buckle up and prepare for some first contact stuff. The South Island New Zealander has been creating otherworldly arrangements since 1990, taking listeners on deep space explorations via sounds that are as inviting and alluring as they are strange and disconcerting. Humans, after all, tend to feel very wary (to put it mildly) about stepping into unknowns. On Insec this is particularly pronounced. The sense of vast is omnipresent throughout the four mammoth tracks, distant tones sound as though they're refracted rays of light bouncing off some satellite or other, or solar sails deployed on a ship exploring a far off cluster of exoplanets. The individual pieces blend perfectly and lead into one another to create a sense of epic odyssey. An adventure through noises that are impactful because of the surrounding silence and their own innate qualities.

Review: Prince Istari's earliest memories are of his mother playing the tranquil melodies of Erik Satie's pieces on the piano. Skipping school, he'd bask in the sun, absorbed by the serene tunes and years later in 2024, rediscovering his mother's sheet music sparked a creative resurgence. He transformed them into dub versions, crafting a tapestry of sound, and each piece's form dictated its direction, evolving from heavy dub to delicate piano and synthesiser blends. The finale, a relic from his past as Istari Lasterfahrer, features a distorted recording of his mother playing Satie to complete the circle. This special record comes in limited quantities of just 200 copies.

Review: Despite the title, Hyu's Inaudible Works 1994-2008 album is not actually a collection of silence. It is instead a trip into the world of Osaka-born artist Hyu who recorded these 16 pieces of hard-to-classify music over a four year period. The collection showcases HYU's unparalleled talent and innovation in crafting intricate soundscapes that push the boundaries of auditory perception. From ambient textures to glitchy rhythms, each track offers a glimpse into his singular creative process and artistic vision. With its diverse range of compositions and experimental approach, this is an inquisitive record that questions everything while exploring uncharted territories of sound and the listening experience.

Review: At least one person has described Scythe's work as "expertly modulated space blues and isolationist architectures." First emerging from the ether (or at least that's how we like to think of it) through a series of clandestine cassette releases on Low Company in 2019 and 2020, Head X'Change almost feels like the culmination of all that has come before. A weird and truly wonderful place to spend time. A collaborative project between David West and R.A. Jones, elements of kosmische intermingle with a kind of earthy ambience, DIY electronics leading into white noise moments or new age melodies. At times it's so joyfully opiate you wonder if there's any way of getting back up off the pillow. In other moments, there's tension, eeriness, and uncertainty. Once you're in, it's a wild ride indeed.

Review: Brainfeeder looks back to Japanese hybridist Hakushi Hasegawa's first album Air Ni Ni here and reissues it on limited grey marbled vinyl. Although on the surface it might be thought of as pop, get in between the beats and you will find a challenging record that fused everything from bubblegum pop to breakcore, prog jazz to video games and much more besides. The record first came in 2019 and remains astonishingly diverse and new in the way it mashes up traditional genre boundaries and draws on alt-rock. Fans of label head Flying Lotus are sure to love it as is anyone who heard it first tie round.

Review: Four years after his acclaimed Brame long player, Julien Chastagnol aka Ruby My Dear returns with his fourth album, A dada. It is another experimental sound world that is a joyous yet intricate fusion of drill 'n' bass and IDM, akin to what the artist himself says is "a breakcore lullaby." Across all four sides of wax, he goes in hard on the breakbeats and tightly programmed drums, with layers of scuzzy heavy metal sounds, looped and warped vocals and mind-melting synths that fizz and spin, explode and impulse on a constant basis to leave you feeling exhausted mentally and physically.