Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Legowelt is absolutely an artist unto himself. He makes a wide array of music always with equal skill and style, mostly designs his own covers and quite often devices weird and wonderful new aliases to do so. Here he returns under his most iconic moniker for A Field Guide To The Void, a superb sonic trip packed with great craft and subtle innovations. As always it's a fuzzy and fizzing kaleidoscope of retro-futuristic melodies, compelling grooves and proud analogue lines that soundtrack a cosmic adventure with happy moments, more introspective grooves and plenty in between.

Review: Austria band Lehnen embarks on something of a new beginning here as they unveil a new four-track work, Negative Space: Gradients, which comes on cassette via Past Inside The Present. This project was initially thought of as a four-song experiment and one that continues where the last album left off. That is to say with lots of lush synth layers and ambient textures of its parent album but all turned up a notch. It will still be familiar to fans but while the last album Negative Space funnelled post hardcore and post rock energy, this one joins things together and the result is a work full of healing compositions full of hope.

Review: Robert Leiner returns with Analog Days, a celebration of electronic craftsmanship released on De:tuned Records. Known for his influential work in the early 90s on R&S and Apollo, Leiner brings a fresh yet nostalgic sound with this ten-track album. Recorded between 2005 and 2015, Analog Days blends rhythmic complexity with serene atmospheres, showcasing Leiner's skill at balancing intensity and calm. Tracks like 'Echobox' stand out for their gritty, processed beats, while 'Session 0510' captures a more melodic side, almost touching on IDM. Fans of Leiner's classic Visions of the Past album will appreciate 'My Dream,' which echoes the ambient depth of his earlier work. The album flows effortlessly between dancefloor energy and introspective moments. 'Chords' is particularly radiant, its soaring harmonies evoking the spirit of 1993's golden era. This release is a well-rounded journey through electronica, perfect for listeners who appreciate both the past and the present of techno and ambient music.

Review: Stockholm sound architect Cari Lekebusch stops over on Lady Tazz's Mind Medizin with a four-sided EP of sleek, dark metallic, carbon-plated techno. Lekebusch's early outings on Drumcode and Planet Rhythm make for some of the best possible CV boosts you could add to such a document, and now 'XYZ' forms as the three-character update. Best among the tracks on this soon to be episodic EP series are 'Freakout' and 'Heritage', which are the two most abrasive onslaughts. Strategic sorties of sound, the tunes are placed in impeccable contrast to the relatively moving quellers 'Ninguno Es Uno' and 'Mind And Matter'.

Review: The Boston-based band The Post Pop Space Rock Be Bop Gospel Tabernacle Chorus and Orchestra was led by Webster Lewis and this album was recorded live in Oslo, Norway, in 1971. The original album was released in 1972 and this expanded edition includes previously unreleased songs, unseen photos and the full backstory of the historic concert. It is a rather rare recording that showcases spiritual and soul jazz at its finest and blends instrumental and vocal tracks for a unique, eclectic sound that has made it highly sought after. Newly transferred from the master tapes, it offers improved sound quality and is a must-buy for jazz cats.

Review: A stunning collection that blends The LimiNanas' signature French psychedelia with dynamic guest collaborations. The opening track, 'Spirale,' sets the tone with its hypnotic groove, pulling you into the album's atmospheric world. The duo enlists Bobby Gillespie for 'Prisoner of Beauty,' adding a layer of ethereal intensity. 'Shout,' featuring Rover, brings a punchier energy, while 'Degenerate Star,' featuring Jon Spencer and Pascal Comelade, introduces a gritty, garage rock edge. This album is a testament to the duo's ability to seamlessly incorporate diverse influences, with each track offering a fresh perspective while staying true to their unique sound.

Review: Lonnie Liston Smith's third LP with the Cosmic Echoes, from 1974, was the second to mark his discovery of the success-driving formula that was spiritual jazz-funk. The record's impact has indeed resounded through the decades, like a chakra-prodding gong. Though for all its crystal-clear recording and effortless performances, Expansions is perhaps best known as a precursory informant on clubland, prophesying some of the most storied developments in electronic dance music and its uses of jazz. The phasy drums on 'Shadows', zilling fills of 'Voodoo Woman', and of course the banging suspensions of 'Expansions', have been sampled the world over by electronica musicians - a trend which begun not long after the record's release on Flying Dutchman.

Review: Will Long aka Celer, Mississippi-born but now permanently resident in Tokyo, intensifies his investigation in personal house music with the fourth edition in his Long Trax series. A quartered circle of evolving textures of at first seemingly diminutive character, this manifest impression is dashed once we learn that each track on the record is given its own side, allowing each ample space to unfold within an economically restrained formula: dry drum machines, subtle chords, hygge bass. Clearly an ode to productive limitation: 'The Right Choice' tosses us the first chord against gambolling percs, while 'You Cannot Reform A Sin' brings marching, DC-offset acid. The release redresses historic wrongs too, using carefully extracted, recorded samples of key voices in the Afro-American civil rights movement.

Review: The debut album by performer and researcher of traditional Galician music, Carme Lopez, is an experimental work for the Galician bagpipe. Drawing inspiration from composers like Eliane Radigue and Pauline Oliveros, Lopez explores the bagpipe's sonic boundaries here and creates slowly evolving soundscapes that mean you hear the instrument in all new ways. The album is structured in four movements with a prologue and epilogue and decouples the bagpipe from its traditional roots instead offering a fresh, personal approach. With sounds ranging from subtle air passages to complex drones, Quintela pays homage to Lopez's past while venturing into new, unknown musical territory. It's unusual but alluring.

Review: A charged, limber ode to Britain's 90s outdoor free party stomping grounds, with which a young Low End Activist was all too familiar. Over nine evocatively named tracks, he fractures and reassembles early 90s hardcore shards (shardcore?) into wabi sabi sonic sculptures somewhat resembling similar rave reconstitutions from Skrs and Fracture. These feel more to the point than both though, foregoing free sample-bashing in favour of driving, sparse, repetitive hoover collage landing firmly within the hardcore continuum but still managing to sidestep cloying nostalgia. 'Ardkore nouveau posse assemble!

Review: Lupe Fiasco's Tetsuo & Youth marks a pivotal transition in his career, reflecting his evolving relevance in hip-hop. In his latest work, Lupe embraces a nuanced exploration of change, using seasonal interludesi"Summer," "Fall," "Winter," and "Spring"ito thematically structure the album. Each season encapsulates different moods, from the playful innocence of "Summer" to the dark realities of "Winter," culminating in a sense of renewal in "Spring." Highlights include the impressive 'Mural', where Lupe displays his talents with a nearly nine-minute verse, and 'Deliver', which poignantly addresses systemic issues through the metaphor of a delivery driver. The production, featuring contributions from DJ Dahi and others, provides a rich, musical backdrop that elevates his storytelling. Tetsuo & Youth is not just a comeback; it's a powerful statement of resilience and artistry in a genre often criticised for its complacency.

Review: Dimitri has been very generous with his edits this year, having unleashed some of his finest DJ weapons in the form of the "Brooklyn Edits" EP and this refreshed trilogy of classic Salsoul revisions. They need little introduction as we take off with the iconic harmonies and horns of "Ooh I Love It" land with the incredible soul fusion of Love Committee's oft-covered (never bettered) feels odyssey "Just As Long As I Got You". With trips to New York for silky disco with Skyy and a synth boogie freak-out from The Jammers, it's once again another reminder that no one does edits quite like the man from Paris.