Juno Recommends Experimental: July 2022

Review: Ever since the release of his first solo album more than 20 years ago, German musician and producer Christian Kleine has experimented with blending and contrasting the varying textures and approaches of post-rave IDM, breakbeats, shoegaze and punk. His latest album offering, Touch & Fuse, shows he's continued to refine and perfect that combination, which is less a conscious concoction and more of a natural outcome of the music he likes. From the edgy Aphex-isms of 'Val 2' and the heavily filtered breaks of 'Reverse Angle' to the slowed down grunge meets pure electronics of 'Return of the Underground', this is unique, accomplished stuff.

Review: Korean-American house DJ Yaeji has been a force to be reckoned with in the House scene for half a decade now, working with the likes of Charli XCX on 'February 2017' and remixing 'Dont Start Now' for Dua Lipa's 'Club Future Nostalgia'. She blends all of the subtle elements in the growing K-House scene with the tropes we all love from New York's scene. Celebrating the 5-year anniversary of her acclaimed EPs, this limited double-pressing is a thankyou to fans who have stuck around since the beginning. 'Yaeji' and 'EP2' feature high-class production that will make you instantly fall in love (The bass on 'After That' is killer) From fan favourite 'raingurl' to 'New York 93', this record is filled from start to finish with house perfection, married with Yaeji's subtle vocal stylings in a mixture of Korean and English.

Review: Given the atmospheric, hallucinatory and pleasingly otherworldly nature of Vasily Stepanov and Vlad Dobrovolski's work as S A D - which so far has resulted in a handful of limited LPs and ultra-limited cassettes - it's little surprise to see the pair pop up on 12th Isle with an album of solo tracks (some credited to alternative aliases) and collaborations. Musically, what's on offer draws much from the kosmiche world of 1970s Krautrock, dub, the intergalactic end of ambient and John Hassell's 'fourth world' music, but also doffs a cap towards music concrete, mystical percussion music and experimental electronica. It's inventive, enjoyable, odd and utterly brilliant. It's well worth checking.

Review: This is the debut album by Jack Wyllie, JQ and Richard Pike under Forgiveness (the former of which may be noted for their mercury-nominated work under Portico Quartet). With two singles released earlier this year 'Rainbird' and 'Mushroom Umbrella', being whimsical, Japanese-influenced pieces of new age, jazz and electronic instrumentals. The compositions are natural, light and spacious, with 'Rainbird' being a culmination of John Surman's 'Edges of Illusion' and Hiroshi Yoshimura's 'FEEL', both of which listed in the group's inspiration playlist 'Communiques from the Ocean Floor' which spans over eight hours. The beauty of the collaborative project is how it blends from the natural to the synthetic seamlessly, like on title track 'Next Time Could be Your Last Time' where flute passages give way to frantic synth patches that wouldn't feel out of place in a Royksopp song. It's the perfect blend of 3 incredibly talented artists.

Review: Spring has sprung, and for many, Vivaldi's original 'Spring' composition might have just as quickly sprung into the minds of most classical heads. But perhaps most of y'all didn't see this one coming. We were bowled over on hearing news of Max Richter's electronic recompositions of Vivaldi's 'Seasons' 10 years ago; there hadn't been a proper vogue for electronic resources of classical music since Wendy Carlos did 'Switched-On Bach'. Now it gets another 'alternative rendering' (keyword: rendering); performed by an ensemble that almost entirely consists of Black, Asian and ethnically diverse musicians, we hear yet another futuristic take on a stone cold classic, with Richter himself playing a vintage '70s Moog.

Review: Kelly Lee Owens's third album, LP 8, is another masterclass in building ambient layers into alluring noise. She herself calls the album "an outlier" as it makes a move towards more caustic and abrasive sonic textures and industrial sounds. It was written like many recent albums during lockdown after her tour of 2022 was cancelled. The Welsh singer, producer and songwriter hooked up in the studio with Norwegian avant-noise artist Lasse Marhaug and took cues from both Throbbing Gristle and Enya and the resulting record is intricate and emotive, with stone deco-messages in the final three tunes.

Review: The BBE label's next reissue project takes aim at this full length of brilliantly dreamy and synth laden pop which was first put ut in 1985. It's an almost impossible to find nugget awash with charm and naivety from Monica Rympa and is laced up with escapist ambient and off-kilter interludes. Rather than paying a fortune to source an original copy you can now pick up this reissue and dive deep into the new age sounds and electronic funk within. Brian Batie played the different instruments you can hear in each track and is a fine complement to Rypma's one and only appearance on an album.

Review: Mike Paradinas continues to be a prolific force in electronica after so many years helping push the scene forwards via Planet Mu. Magic Pony Ride is his first LP of new material on his own label since 2013, although Analogical Force did carry the excellent Scurlage LP last year while he's also been busy reviving the Tusken Raiders alias for more roughneck electro and jungle business. There's jungle to behold on this new record, too, but as with much of his u-Ziq work, Paradinas prefers a more melodious approach here. There's also a different element at play - dare we say a degree of maturity in the compositional aspect? Just check the haunting piano-led lilt of 'Goodbye' and you'll see what we mean.

Review: School Daze is a killer compilation put together by the Dark Entries label and the Honey Soundsystem crew, collating some of the early recordings produced by Patrick Cowley in the years between 1973-81 and were later used as soundtrack material in two gay porn films. You will probably know Cowley for his Hi-NRG output or 'that' Donna Summer remix or his behind the buttons work on Sylvester tracks. Be prepared for a surprise (well quite a few as the 'explicit content' warning on the cover lives up to its billing) as this collection presents Cowley as a producer capable of many styles and moods. The closest School Daze comes to the sound Cowley is most identified is opening track "Zygote" and from here the collection runs through primitive electronics, short bursts of wave and more with a few extended gems that highlight Cowley's talent for arrangement. One of the compilations of the year!

Review: One of the year's most highly anticipated electronic music albums finally arrives just in time for summer proper to kick in. Well, perhaps not in Flume's native Australia, where it's actually the middle of winter, but still, you get the point. The sun is definitely shining on this one, as it is in many of the regions the Grammy-nominated artist has found favour.

Palaces has been getting talked about for months now, with a slow release of names credited with collaborations on the track list - Caroline Polacheck, Oklou, Vergen Maria, to name but three - doing nothing to put people off. One listen proves it was worth the wait, tracks veering between the hyperactive cut and paste of 'ESCAPE', to the minimalistic low-end rumbles of 'Get U' and the beautiful 'Jasper's Song'.