Juno Recommends Experimental September 2021

Review: Founding member of Depeche Mode and celebrated singer songwriter in his own right, Martin Gore's The Third Chimpanzee EP is up there with some of the best solo work he has ever put out, with a particularly unique type of dance-synth vibe that you can't escape from no matter how hard you try. Now we have the remixes, which have a lot to live up to but come with plenty of promise.

After all, the chosen producers involved are all heavyweights in their own right, and were certainly ready to step up to the mantle here. Opening with a pair of tracks made different by two of Brazil's most revered techno heads - ANNA and Wehbba - from there we get Berghain bass experimentalist Barker, the fury of Rrose, and percussive wonder of JLin, and that's before we come to the likes of Chris Liebing and Kangding Ray.

Review: Moritz Von Oswald has always chosen his collaborators carefully, regularly changing the line-up of his "Trio" - a live performance-focused attempt to blur the boundaries between jazz and his trademark brand of deep, spaced out and hypnotic electronic music. On Dissent, the first MVO Trio album since 2015, the German veteran has been joined by Lauren Halo (an acclaimed electronic artist in her own right of course) and jazz drummer Heinrich. Musically, it's a typically hazy and immersive affair, with meandering electric piano motifs, echoing electronic textures and uneasy synthesizer chords rising above weighty, sub-heavy grooves that add a dash of jazz and Latin swing to Von Oswald's trademark dub techno sound.

Review: Exiles might be one of the most powerful and beautiful albums you'll hear all month, or maybe throughout 2021. It's Max Richter doing what he does best, channeling feelings from instruments and conjuring a kaleidoscope of vivid images in the process. In this case he's helped along no end by conductor Kristjan Jarvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, with the finished product recorded in Tallinn, Estonia, and a contemporary classical masterpiece worthy of any record collection.

Richter's die hard fans will recognise some of his early works here, re-read and re-treated by the full orchestra. But then part of this album is also the soundtrack to Sol Leon & Paul Lightfoot's ballet, 'Singuliere Odyssee', a particularly mesmerising score that stands up with or without the associated performance. Dive in, then, and prepare to be overwhelmed.

Review: Kraftwerk has made many terrific albums over the years, but we'd argue few better than 1981's Computerwelt (or, as we'd say in English, Computer World). Hugely influential on the emerging hip-hop scene in New York City - many now standard electro rhythms are based on those found on the album - and Detroit's techno pioneers, the album offers the right balance of far-sighted futurism, melodic brilliance and synth-pop style accessibility. It's an album that should be in everyone's collection, with this translucent yellow vinyl edition being particularly alluring. It boasts warm, heavy remastered sound and is presented in the original German form rather than the more familiar international edition with English lyrics.

Review: Jade is sold as a response to Pan Daijing's previous outings - and by that they mean intense, tense movements that make you feel something is impending, but we're never quite sure what. Dark, surreal, and often unnerving sonic places that seem to be completely removed from time itself. Elements are clearly born from electronic techniques, but often the atmospheres involved feel archaic, born in ages when demons were not to be trifled with.

The artist has certainly put a lot into the recording, crafting tracks that do away with traditional structures and introduce layers of drone, vocals and strange percussive accents, the combination of which makes for an almost spiritual experience, the kind of work that conjures images of flames dancing off stone walls, strobe lights disorientating in the thick darkness, and alien messages. If that's not too abstract a list to content with.

Review: Tomoko Sauvage and Francesco Cavaliere's new collaborative album Viridescens is as aquatic and luminous as ambient music gets. It is packed with hypnotic and mesmerising alchemical sounds made from porcelain bowls, water sounds and an array of hydrophones. Despite its quiet, contemplative nature it is hugely absorbing. Otherworldly yet very real and organic, the drawn-out arrangements carefully and slowly unfold with real narrative and allow the design and craft of each sound to really resonate. The 9 minute 'Twin Emerald Dolphins' is a real highlight.

Review: Bass Cleff lists the likes of Butoh, Lone Swordsmen and Acid Rain, as an inspiration on this album. He also says it has "Tubby-esque trap-doors" but what it doesn't have is the saw raw drum energy as many of his most searing 12s. This is a more meditative album, a study in ambient sound design and slow and suggestive rhythm. Tracks like 'A Glow On A Foe' get you in a trance with their pixelated keys and rich layers of pads. 'For Arthur At The Kitchen' is a DIY dub with tin-pot percussion and starry-eyed keys. 'Scintillater' feels like an ancient ritual and a futuristic vision. It all adds up to a sensational record.

Review: Nickodemus' 2005 debut album Endangered Species makes it not to vinyl for the first time ever here thanks to Wonderwheel Recordings. The album is rooted in the New York hip hop sound of 2005 with plenty of mad turntable skills of the sort that the DJ would showcase at parties on the Hudson. The music serves as a great snapshot of what was going on in the scnee back then, 16 years ago, and features a big list of great guests including the likes of Jay Rodriguez and Jonathan Maron of the Groove Collective, plus Carol C of Si Se, Will Holland aka Quantic) and Stimulus of The Real Live Show amongst many more.

Review: Den Osynliga Manteln is Swedish for The Invisible Cloak, an item of clothing that neither conceals the wearer from others nor can be seen itself. Perhaps a Nordic take on The Emperor's New Clothes, it's also rooted in science fiction and fantasy, as much part of folklore as it is dreams of future technology. And it's a fitting name for this project, born from the embers of the band KLANG.

Ola Sandberg and Fredrik Gronvall are the survivors in question, and here offer a playful take on sounds that are at once quite old school downtempo - strong nods to the likes of His Name Is Alive, early-Cinematic Orchestra, and King of Woolworths - with one eye on the path less trodden that lies ahead. Tracks that take you with them on an instrumental journey as they unfold and unfurl, we challenge you to find someone who can't get onboard.

Review: Martin Haidinger's Gimmik alias has given rise to many vital albums that fuse ambient and IDM into escapist listening experiences. Slow Motion Process in 2001 was arguably the best of the lot and so rightly gets an anniversary reissue on Wooky's Spanish label Lapsus. It's made up of glitchy sound design, glassy melodies and suggestive, barely there rhythms that all sound futuristic even now, two decades on. The likes of the beautiful 'Form2' and deep space cinema of 'Resonance' are utterly pure and brain cleansing meditations that leave you feeling refreshed.