Back catalogue: Experimental/Electronic

Review: American label Peoples Potential Unlimited has cared out its own superb niche in the world of heart aching, lo-fi funk. But here a new catalogue number seems to suggest a new series. It kicks off with French collective Spaced Out Krew and their timeless, boogie driven disco funk. The music was written during 2020 by Spleen3000 and Marius Cyrilou of Ceeofunk and right from the first note of 'Doudou Bourbon' it is pure class. There are starry-eyed melodies, rasping basslines and curious vocals that all add up to a nice cosmic disco sound.

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: Norwegian disco titan Prins Thomas returns to his regular stomping ground of Smalltown Supersound with this, his sixth solo studio album. Thomas is sounding as vibrant as ever, his musical ideas spilling forth in glorious arrangements of organic instrumentation and gentling bubbling electronics that melt into a mellow, groovy sonic realm. There are hazy, cosmic moments to be savoured on the likes of "Feel The Love", and more adventurous rhythmic trysts like the nagging, snaking percussive melee of "Ambitions". Thomas' studio proficiency is more than matched by his imagination and creative ambition - would you expect any less from such a titan of Scandinavian electronic music?

Review: Lithuanian DJ/producer Liudas Lazauskas aka Roe Deers first appeared on a radar several years back with some impressive releases on Nein and Sulk Magic. Since then, the Opium Club resident has appeared on Throne Of Blood and Turbo, leading up to his much anticipated debut album. Salt Town Boy is a leftfield collection of wild sonic tales filled with dusky moods and punk attitude and the first LP to be released on Good Skills - which he co-runs with Titas Motuzas. There's many collaborations throughout the album, like on the low-slung and off-kilter attitude of 'Trident' featuring C.A.R., the slo-mo deep chug of 'Late Night Story' featuring Israel's Niv Ast, as well as the playful indie-dance of 'Theme' (feat. Order89) and the druggy drums of 'Walking Down The Streets' (feat. Aquarius Heaven).

Review: Esteemed American IDM producer Drew Daniel is back with a new album under his The Soft Pink Truth alias titled Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? Of the title, Daniel explained it's an actual question proposed to him which has become a mantra of sorts, with the album created as a way to imagine possible musical responses to her question. Created during Covid lockdowns, Daniel recruited a virtual disco band from friends across the world and traversing many genres such as disco, minimalism, ambient, shoegaze and jazz, then pieced together in his Baltimore studio. Guests include Turkish arranger Ulas Kurugullu, Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xu, Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), Brooklyn techno artist Rose E Kross and Daniel Clark.

Review: When DFA Records first released 'Compilation #2' back in 2004, the label was arguably at the peak of its powers, consistently delivering killer cuts that blurred the boundaries between post-punk, early '80s NYC no wave, and more traditional forms of U.S dance music. It remains a brilliant snapshot of James Murphy's label (and, to a lesser degree, NYC's alternative punk-dance scene of the period), as this surprise first vinyl edition proves. Slimmed down to 18 tracks, all of which are presented in full length form (the original CD edition was mixed), and stretched across four weighty slabs of wax, it contains countless highlights from LCD Soundsystem, The Juan MacLean, Black Dice and the Rapture, as well as a handful of classic DFA remixes and a banger from original punk-funk heroes Liquid Liquid.

Review: Born in Algeria, when it was still among France's colonies, to French parents who themselves claimed Italian heritage, it makes perfect sense that Edouard Joseph Scotto Di Suoccio would wind up making music that seemed born out of a very different place to the one you're looking at. No matter what, or where, you're gazing upon. Strange tunes that take some describing, let's start at the beginning. Following his series of chanson singles released in the late-1960s under the pseudonym Ted Scotto, by the middle of the next decade he'd adopted the Tregger alias and was dipping toes into tones along the lines of what Space Oddities is packed with. First laidback jazz funk, things became more and more exploratory, sci-fi, disco, and kosmische influenced as the years went by. That legacy is remembered and honoured today on some of the world's finest groove-soaked dancefloors and the DJs that dominate them, with this collection giving an insight into the more experimental end of that oeuvre.