THE EMPEROR MACHINE Vinilo y CD

Review: Andy Meecham has released a lot of fine music as The Emperor Machine, but little as perfect as his recent album, Island Boogie. Here a trio of cuts from that set are given the remix treatment. Hardway Brothers (AKA A Love From Outer Space co-founder Sean Johnston) will grab the headlines for his takes on 'Wanna Pop With You', and rightly so. His 'remix' (A2) cannily combines elements of Meecham's original - synth, bass, bits of Severtine Mouletin's vocal - with oodles of hallucinatory sounds, psychedelic guitars and a tough mid-tempo beat, while the 'Dub' strips things back further whilst upping the trippy vibe. Elsewhere, Tigerbalm delivers a rework of 'La Cassette' that sits somewhere between dub disco and proto-house, and Meecham provides a skeletal, dub-wise 'Version' of his fine La Fox cover, 'S-S-S-Single Bed'.

Review: Andy Meecham's forthcoming ninth album as the Emperor Machine, Island Boogie, is a genuine treat - a wonderfully colourful and effects-laden trip into what the former Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips man calls 'electronic cosmic disco-boogie'. To get us all in the Mood, Leng have served up this EP of dubs and remixes. In the latter category you'll find a superb, piano solo-laden proto-house rework of 'Devoilez-Vous' by fellow Stafford act T Kutt, and a typically warm, languid Balearic disco interpretation of 'Island Boogie' by Leng co-founder Mudd. Meecham delivers two wonderfully skeletal, wayward and trippy instrumental dubs, lightly transforming 'Devoilez-Vous' and 'La Cassette' in turn. In a word: essential.

Review: Andrew Meecham is one of the most widely respected figures in the Births underground music. He is a synth wizard who never repeats himself but has always managed to maintain a wigged out, psychedelic sound coughed in disco but with hints of acid, house and synth. This frankly bloody brilliant new single is another one packed with colour, tooting arps, cosmic rays, chugging bass and lush textures that is so vibrant and vivid you want to bath in it. Both an extended vocal mix and instrumental are included and both are faultless.

Review: Andrew 'Emperor Machine' Meecham and French vocalist Severine Moultin enjoyed working on their first collaborative single, 2021's 'Dance Par Amour', so last year reunited in the studio to record a follow-up. 'Your Own Style' follows a similar sonic template, with Mouletin singing in accented English atop a typically analogue-heavy Meecham backing track laden with bubbly bass, delay-laden electric piano motifs, layered percussion and the producer's trademark synth squiggles (a feature of his work since the days he was working with Dean Meredith as Chicken Lips). The song is presented in three variations: the stretched-out and pleasingly loose 'Alternative Mix'; the sparse, effects-laden and mid-80s influenced 'Dub Vocal'; and the warmer, subtly funkier 'Fun Dub'.

Review: Disco lovers Leng enlist enduring disco wizard and studio genius The Emperor Machine for a big new single here that was made alongside Severine Mouletin. It comes as two versions on this new 12", with the extended vocal going fist. It's a steamy and tropical bit of disco with feathery, whispered and seductive French language vocals over squelchy synth bass and hip swinging claps. Cosmic twinges finish it in style and on the flip side it gets a little more wild and tropical. An eco-system of synth daubs and neon colours bring the groove to life in a more interplanetary way.