Review: Moony Tunes is one of five new 12" LPs recently unveiled by David Tibet aka. Current 93, mad witch doctor of the post-80s industrial continuum. An ever-morphing project, Current 93 always implies motifs of apocalyptic folk, dream logic, and esoteric revelations, and this volume, subtitled Preparing To Sleep In Menstrual Night, feels like a whispered dispatch from the edge of sleep and symbol. True to C93's nature, it resists easy description, lullabying eerily through hoveringly attentive drones and spellcasting vocals. Each pressing includes a riso print of Tibet's painting Moony Toons, hand-signed in pencil, thus hand-stamping an album best received as a kind of ritual, and shaped by the occult aurae of Tibet's performances in London and Hastings earlier this year.
Review: Dawn Yawns is one of five new 12" records released at the same time, documenting one or two - if not more - furtive live sets performed by Current 93 (David Tibet) between London and Hastings in early 2025. On this quintet of new transmissions, dream and daylight are heard in grisly merger, on the back of an umbral awakening from a polar slumber, where the blood moon never sets, known to C93 fans only as the "Menstrual Night". Be warned, however, these eerie recordings have a sure capacity to mark the soul in unprecedented ways.
Review: English experimental group, Current 93, was founded in 1982 by David Tibet and set out to explore industrial music with abrasive tape loops, droning noises and distorted vocals. As Real As ScareCrows is a haunting new chapter in Tibet's arcane vision, and it was released alongside four other LPs to mark recent Channellings in London and Hastings. Ritualistic and esoteric, the album feels like a spectral transmission or "ScareCrow scaring crows away after Menstrual Night," as Tibet describes it. It's a deeply unsettling and bleakly poetic work that is unmistakably C93 in its mood and mystique. Each copy includes a signed risograph print of Tibet's painting, making it as much an art object as a musical release. A beautifully eerie offering from one of Britain's most enduring and enigmatic cult acts.
Review: Another of five LPs by Current 93 (David Tibet) through his own audio-esoterica label Cashen's Gap, this brilliant yellow and green hued LP nods to the universally recognised colour of earth-ground wire, and comes in the wake of a recent two part set of "channellings" (live performances) in both London and Hastings. As ever, Tibet steers the dream ship through surreal poetics and creaking soundscapes, and offers us a risograph print of his artwork, titled MayBe Skeletal RainBow, or perhaps Building The RainBow PainBow Preparing For Menstrual Night (we're not sure).
Review: As we hapless reviewers make our way through these five new experimental LPs by Current 93, we cannot help but feel increasing torment and terror at the figures portrayed on the front covers of each record: hand-painted by David Tibet himself (the artist has increasingly indulged such formal solo trend-buckings through his own Cashen's Gap imprint in recent years) they appear like sleep paralytic demons or the ghosts of cancelled English folk yore. All the records are apparently ritually connected to a recent string of live appearances between London and Hastings, and Tibet's penchant for demonologic peerage titles such as GreenSleeve Drakon and Gnostic Sketch - blurring a sense of self-referentiality and occult otherworldliness - leave us bewildered and slack-jawed.
Review: Huffin' Rag Blues by Nurse With Wound is a highly unique the Steven Stapleton discography, and that really is saying something since it really can be quite hard to stand out if you're an album shaped by his hand. Originally released as a three-sided LP, this expanded edition now features all four audio sides for the first time; a chaotic fusion of exotica, lounge, blues, jazz, and more, created by Stapleton with collaborator Andrew Liles, this one verges on the lighter side of eerie, confusing elements of Dadaism and narrative waltz, and echoing variety entertainments of the 40s and 50s. Longtime friends Colin Potter and Matt Waldron add to the surreality, resulting in a delightful mess of surreal, dynamic tension full of humorous asides and suggestive epithets. Setting itself apart with more live instrumentation and vocals than typical NWW releases, Huffin' Rag Blues is a world of comparative eccentricity; it might happily alienate those avant-garde purists who prefer things dimmed a little more dark ambient.
Review: Bristol label-turned-blog Innate launches a new sub-label, Innate Editions, which it says is dedicated to timeless UK techno, IDM, electro and ambient music, and it'll all come on heavyweight vinyl to boot. The first release revives Connective Zone's Palm Palm, a millennium-era cult classic and Ben UFO favourite that first came out on Mark Broom and Dave Hill's Unexplored Beats in 2001. Now, this long-out-of-print, expensive and hard to find gem has been remastered by Jamie Anderson and so sounds superb with many lavish electronic layers, richly emotive melodies and dynamic drums that lean on UK techno, IDM, and deep electro. Sounds as good now as it ever did.
Review: Monolake's defining third LP Gravity was the second album to be released through the artist's own Imbalance Computer Music, as well as the first to feature Robert Henke predominately, as his former partner Gerhard Behles became increasingly consumed by the foundations of what become the Abelton Live empire. Tense, percussive digital minimal techno ensues, setting steady beats against rattling, materially modelled sound design - the record's resonant overtones sound like sprockets undergoing tidal to-and-fros of suspension and release - this record sought thematic refuge in a universal force of natural law: gravity itself. After a recent reissue of Monolake's first album Hongkong, this turn-of-the-century affair - appearing on vinyl for the very first time - offers a shattered, breathy brand of minimalism, perfect for shrunken heads and demanding DJs alike.
Review: New 13 track album via Columba Records. LP vinyl is ltd to 500 copies & the CD format will increase in price to £7.77 after 30 days. This U.S. 3-piece will bring their heavyweight sonic intensity to the UK for an eight date tour of major cities in May-June. Strong press support across NME, Q, Uncut, Mojo, Clash & other music mags. Specialist radio support (XFM/6 Music).
Review: Foam On A Wave is a brand new London-based reissue label. Its first offering is a carefully dug out delight from Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond aka Ultramarine, one of the UK's foremost ambient techno artists. Folk is a seamless weaving together of "unique instrumentation and sonic influences into rich, ethereal soundscapes" that have all been fully remastered for this 30th anniversary release. Mixing up organic and synthetic sound is what this pair did best and this album has a kaleidoscopic pallet drawn from Canterbury's jazz-infused psychedelia, the contemporary Benelux scene, and plenty in between. It manages to be both thoughtful and playful, serious yet irreverent, and has aged as well as a fine wine.
The Horse He's Sick - "Projectile Fascination" (2:15)
M Nomized - "Nitsed" (4:20)
John J Lafia - "Life Is Short" (3:57)
Interaccion - "Newton" (3:16)
Die Mysteriosen - "Spurhund" (3:42)
Homage A Brinkmann - "Franzosisch" (4:05)
Solanaceae Tau - "Tekno Pop" (1:29)
Ob Ovo + Sha 261 - "The CIA, It Dances" (5:27)
Collectionism - "We Are All Children Of God" (4:20)
UPM - "Anstalt" (3:55)
Wolfgang Wiggers - "Slightly Mental" (3:56)
Review: "Rich-poor divide widens. Unemployment soars. The East and West eyeball each other on the brink. 2022 isn't too far off the 1980s. Contort Yourself know this." A second collection of distortion soaked didactics from across the globe, all created specifically and exclusively to express wanton abandonment; marginalisatioan and alientation via tiny tape runs, but lovingly rustled up into a 21 track gem of a compilation. Rusted guitar strings, cobbled drum machines and fire in the belly - a soundtrack of despondent despair, a lament of languid lechery, an anthem of what was then and still is now.
Review: It's the album that redefined ambient music, not least for a generation of parasympathetic ravers. Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II marked a stylistic shift away from the first edition in the infamous ambient LP 'series', Selected Ambient Works 85-92. Volume II differed substantially; this time, there would be no 'techno' addendum to 'ambient', and all tracks thereupon would lack the usual indulgence of beats, however easy-on-the-ears these had been beforehand. Known for its many numbered tracks - which on the original edition, rather than track names, denoted references to images of natural forms, textures and geologic readymades, all bathed in orange, and from which fans had to infer the written names - this expanded edition stays faithful to this origin. Even so, it adds two unreleased D Jamesian treats - provided you don't count the massive Soundcloud dump of 2015 as a release - 'th1 [evnslower]' and a reversed version of 'Rhubarb' - as well as a the previously vinyl only '#19'.
Review: 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk, released in 1974, is a seminal track that redefined the future of electronic music. Its significance lies not only in its innovative use of synthesisers and electronic instruments but also in its ability to evoke a specific visual and emotional landscape. Here, the song's repetitive, motorik rhythms are given an overhaul - or more specifically three - by Jim Rider, a regular at Lee Burridge's All Day I Dream parties. They're beefed up for the floor, certainly, but maintain the kind of delicate touches that makew the original such a great listen.
Jean-Michel Jarre X Armin Van Buuren - "Epica Maxima" (5:16)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Nina Kraviz - "Sex In The Machine" (take 2) (5:04)
Jean-Michel Jarre X NSDOS - "Zeitgeist" (take 2) (5:08)
Jean-Michel Jarre X Irene Dresel - "Zeitgeist Botanica" (5:45)
Review: He might be in the autumn of his career but Jean Michel Jarre remains an innovator in the field of electronic music. His last album in 2022, Oxymore, was another pioneering exploration of rhythm and sound that has now been reworked alongside a series of collaborators all picked by the man himself. The nine-track selection brings wholly new perspectives to the originals which he calls "a vibrant collection of musical dialogues." An immediate standout for us is the track with Nina Kraviz which is crunchy, distorted minimal techno, while 'Epica Extension' with Brian Eno is laced up with otherworldly melodies. A great work from a mix of great artists.
Review: For over 20 years, Clay Emerson and Ian Pullman aka Loess have quietly built a reputation for crafting intricate, deeply atmospheric electronica and Battens, their fifth album on Califonrian label n5MD, sees them refining their signature aestheticistill grayscale and shadowy, but now imbued with a subtle warmth. The Opener 'Strake' features layered static hums and a slow, hypnotic beat that cycles like waves against a submerged structure. 'Halyard' introduces brittle textures and crisp rhythms, evoking wind-swept landscapes. 'Crowhurst' builds tension with submerged chords and fractured percussion. The haunting 'Koepcke' carries a sense of disorientation and search for stability, while 'Endoctamb' recalls Chain Reaction's most introspective moments, yet with a looser, more organic quality. Closing with 'Rime', Battens embraces silence, with glacial melodies fading into the ether. Throughout, the duo masterfully manipulates sound and space, allowing moments of stillness to breathe between pulsing rhythms and submerged harmonies. There's an undeniable human element in how these tracks moveilike the slow, inevitable shift of nature itself. More than just an exercise in sound design, Battens is a transportive experience, cold yet comforting, stark yet alive recording.
Review: This release, which was recorded for Bremen Radio in 1971, features four extended tracks showcasing German pioneers Kraftwerk in a very different light from their later work. The short-lived lineup of Schneider, Rother and Dinger fused electric guitar with their then-signature electronic sounds and it gives rise to unusual, exciting and innovative music. Half of the tracks here, as hardcore fans will recognise, are drawn from their debut album, Kraftwerk 1, and the recording quality is excellent. This release also includes full recording details along with extensive sleeve notes that help offer a fascinating glimpse into Kraftwerk's early, experimental sound before their more iconic and pioneering electronic phase.
Review: Ezekiel Honig is a New York City-based artist who founded two vital labels, Anticipate Recordings and Microcosm, and now he is back with a new album on 12K. Unmapping The Distance Keeps Getting Closer is a tender and honest work of art that wears its heart on its sleeve with piano, horns and broken rhythms all characterising the palette. Field recordings are also worked into the arrangements to add a real narrative and to really evoke a sense of place. Add in plenty of textural and tactile motives and you have a journeying album full of melancholy but also a sense of hope.
Review: Berlin-based producer and DJ Barker has long been an underground innovator associated with plenty of vital labels but he hasn't dropped a new solo EP for a couple of years now. Thankfully he rights that wrong and and steps up to the 30 year strong Smalltown Supersound out of Oslo with a new four track offering that "sees him inverting the musical equation and exploring both the variability and sonic possibilities of a kick-drum." Opener 'Birmingham Screwdriver' will rewire your brain with its fizzing frequencies and skewed bass, 'Wick and Wax' is bright and hyperactive techno-pop and the flipside gets much more raw and dark. A fine return.
Review: The 50th anniversary edition of Kraftwerk's Autobahn finally completes its decennial German interstate journey and lands in our drool-covered laps. With founding Kraftwerk member Ralf Hutter revisiting the record's original 16-track master tapes with engineer Fritz Hilpert, the group not only made a brand new Dolby Atmos mix for the CD edition, but have also reissued the original record in the never-seen-before picture disc form you see here. A cosmic pop overland journey, the vinyl remaster also lends the record an extra-dimensionality we didn't know possible; recumbent across it, and brought out to swelling prominence, are its tweezed, filter-cutoff sine chords, evoking the continual movement of rustic landscapes streaming past our eyes. Though at first received only to mixed acclaim, Kraftwerk's fourth LP was rightly hailed in hindsight for its simple automotive theme and change in sound, away from the Robots' emergent kosmische and into self-reflexive electropop. All this emboldened Kraftwerk as a band that could somehow cruise in the fast lane, accelerating with ease through the shifting stylistic sands of the mid 1970s.
Review: In 2020, Nicolas Jaar composed Piedras for a concert at the Museum of Memory & Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, which honoured the many victims of Pinochet's dictatorship. The project evolved into Archivos de Radio Piedras, a radio play shared via Telegram between 2022 and 2023. In 2024, it became a 24-channel installation at MUAC in Mexico City. The music, partly attributed to the fictional Salinas Hasbun, explores themes of memory and identity. The play unfolds in a future with an internet blackout, where characters use DIY radio to mourn Hasbun's disappearance, with the unstable radio frequencies symbolising shifting truths. Now served up on vinyl, the album is a blend of ambient, found sounds, experimental rhythms and eerie synth design.
Review: There isn't a more hit-packed Kraftwerk album than The Man Machine. First released in 1978 and here reissued on red vinyl accompanied by a fresh booklet of vintage images, the album boasts some of the German band's best loved songs, including 'The Robots', cheery sing-along 'The Model', the staggeringly good 'Neon Lights', and the bubbly title track. It shows how good the album is that such gems as 'Metropolis' and the picturesque 'Spacelab' - cuts that most other bands would kill to be able to write - tend to be ignored or overlooked. If you love electronic music, you need a copy of The Man Machine in your collection.
Review: The Avidya label arrives with a bold new concept that sees it push itself to "step out of comfort zones to release a series of EPs of broad, challenging and deep music." The first affair is a fine one from four artists, the first of which is Lyon based procure A Strange Wedding from the Worst label. His slow trance locks you in and then Gothenburg trio Datasal come through with a prog rock and post funk and dance fusion. 84PC's contribution is peak time gold and Barcelona's Iro Aka arrive with another debut to round out this fine offering.
Review: Hailing from Singapore and with a vivid and curious artistic identity swirling around them, Nat Cmiel releases their latest album as yeule in a swirl of hypermodern synth pop. There's a dreamy, slightly sad quality to Cmiel's songs, but that only adds to their charm as those sweet melodic refrains get under your skin. This latest album on Bayonet is called Glitch Princess - a fitting title for an artist who seems so vitally defined by the internet age. When so many fear the future and our tense relationship with technology, yeule appears to be OK with the state of play, recognising the flaws but embracing the positives as we slip into a digital way of being.
Review: Kraftwerk first toyed with the idea of making a concept album based on the Tour De France in the early 1980s, so it was probably inevitable that the cycling-mad group would eventually deliver on that promised. First released in 2003 and now reissued in re-mastered form on red and blue vinyl, the album is the most techno-centric set in the band's discography. While it still boasts their usual recurring melodic themes, tuneful motifs and robotic vocoder vocals, many of its hypnotic and euphoric tracks (particularly the three-part title track that dominates the first half of the album) are far weightier and more club-focused than their earlier releases. For that reason alone, it's worth a place in your collection.
Review: Trauma Collective returns to shock your system on their fifth release, which comes courtesy of Spain's Rafael M. Espinosa aka Geistform. The Barcelona-based artist, also known for his exploits under the Univac alias, has crafted a singular style that exists at the interzone of IDM, digital noise and electro and having earned him releases on Pi Electronics, Femur and Hands Productions in recent years.
Espinosa executes four programs in sonic warfare on the Antena EP, all sounding akin to complex bitstream amplification. A multi-level barrage of frequencies play offense on opening cut "Proxima B", which sets the theme for more widescreen pulsations that gash the senses, as heard on the syntax error of "Note Repeat" and building up to a climax on the monochromatic soundstage of "Norc" - a jagged and angular exploration in bass artefacts and static redux.
Since unleashing the austere techno of Birmingham legend Mick Harris (as Monrella) and hometown hero Kwartz on unsuspecting ears, the Madrid-based collective has now ventured into more experimental spheres, as heard on the off-kilter mentalism of ASC's Loop Research and the brooding atmosphere of Makunaimadama's limited cassette release last year. Antena is the logical progression for the label's next chapter, where it continues to push the threshold of electronic music's outer limits.
Review: You've always been able to hear the West Coast in Monocoastal, but it's particularly present when you shut your eyes after 12 months of lockdown stopping you from visiting the region. Less active L.A., and more observing in Oregon, Fischer's career didn't end with this in 2011 and the multi-disciplinary artist has produced great things since, but the album is certainly one of turning points in terms of reputation and note.
The idea of slowly watching time unfold in un-rushed places is also highly appropriate. Among the washes of tape and the waves of refrain that make up this beautiful, meditative outing, you'll hear takes and half-harmonies from found instruments including a piano and xylophone. Overall, it feels like a place removed from linearity. A liminal masterpiece, if you are that way inclined.
Review: Robert Rental is an artist as influential as he is overlooked. An anchor of the early British DIY and post-punk scene, his name is most frequently uttered alongside illustrious collaborators such as Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Dark Entries and Optimo ally to illuminate some of Rental's early solo works with an expanded reissue of his debut 7" Paralysis /A.C.C.. Both labels have previously excavated Rental's catalog; we reissued the collaborative LP with Glenn Wallis in 2017, and Optimo released a collection of demos in 2018.
Sit Around The Fire (with Ram Dass, East Forest) (8:24)
Singing Bowl (Ascension) (19:46)
Review: At this stage in his career, Jon Hopkins should be able to do whatever the hell he likes. After proving his synaesthetic abilities throughout the 2010s - with masterpieces like 'Light Through The Veins' and his last album 'Singularity'- it's clear this climactic electronica artist knows no bounds. Now he debuts a new full guided meditation-style LP documenting his ketamine-fulled revelations realised in a remote Ecuadorian cave. Relinquishing beats and drum sounds, this is a fully ambient affair from Hopkins, and routinely features soothing, sampled vocal snippets from the late yogi and guru Baba Ram Daas, as well as collabs with producer and psychedelic ceremony guide East Forest.
Aboutface: Small Hands & Feet In The Sand Show You The Great Illusion (feat Taro) (7:54)
Aboutface: Coutata Couyata Save Couyata (feat Taro) (13:01)
Aboutface: We Flee Whilst The Wild Smoking Horses Swim Among Us (12:19)
Aboutface: The Water That Glows Like Dancing Glass Cuts Crimson (feat Taro) (11:19)
Review: A master of sonic art, music, photography, sound for images, and conceptual performances, Ben Kelly's Aboutface project has found favour with some serious tastemakers, and if this is your first visit to his vivid, trance-inducing world, it shouldn't be that hard to understand why without going much further into the back catalogue. Not that we don't implore you to do just that.
Opening on 'Small Hands & Feet In the Sand Who You The Great Illusion', the penchant for long titles should already be clear. As such a deft ability to make tunes that are lush, peaceful and packed with meditate qualities. But anyone expecting this to be all tranquility should think again, 'We Flee Whilst the Wild Smoking Horses Swim Among Us' layers spirals of sound and refrains in such a way you feel the energy rippling from its arrangement, while 'The Water That Glows' is a joyous, leftfield downtempo-into-neo-dnb outing. Exceptional.
Morfogenesis Incluye Yachay & Monada Y Pleuroma (11:13)
Vegetal (6:41)
Invierno Mesmerizing Incluye Nocturnalia Y Session De Espiritismo (6:57)
Cuesta E Magia ! La Vita Reale Se Atende (8:38)
Ultratom Vrs La Momia (8:21)
Menguante Creciente (7:03)
A La Puerta Del Tempio Sin Vocal (8:24)
Bello Como Tabula Parlante Incluye E Sigilo Y Escala (7:29)
Review: Digregorius is back on the My Own Jupiter label with an adventurous double album that features plenty of rather epic electro workouts. Many of them even have adventurous track titles such as opener 'Morfogenesis Incluye Yachay & Monada Y Pleuroma', which is a dark and broody scene setter that drops you deep into outer space. 'Vegetal' has intriguing melodies and busy rhythms flecked with Latin percussive flair and soundtrack motifs. 'Invierno Mesmerizing Incluye Nocturnalia Y Session De Espiritismo' is a mind warping mix of talk box vocals, chattery drums, busted kick and wonky synths. The hard to define madness continues across a land more wild and wonderful electro experiments.
SC Sharma - "Electronic Sounds Created On Moog I" (2:48)
SC Sharma - "Dance Music II" (8:45)
IS Mathur - "My Birds" (3:13)
IS Mathur - "Moogsical Forms" (2:18)
Gita Sarabhai - "Gitaben's Composition II" (1:19)
IS Mathur - "Once I Played A Tanpura" (1:08)
SC Sharma - "Electronic Sounds Created On Moog II" (2:46)
Atul Desai - "Recordings For Osaka Expo 70" (2:52)
SC Sharma - "Wind & Bubbles" (3:12)
SC Sharma - "Dance Music III" (3:06)
Jinraj Joshipura - "Space Liner 2001 II" (1:03)
IS Mathur - "Shadows Of The Snow" (5:56)
IS Mathur - "Soundtrack Of Shadow Play" (3:11)
Review: The NID Tapes is a collection of early Indian electronic music uncovered at the archives of the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, India. The compilation includes works by Gita Sarabhai, I.S. Mathur, Atul Desai, S.C. Shama and Jinraj Joshipura, who worked at India's first electronic music studio founded at the NID in 1969, with support from the New York composer David Tudor. A throwback to the early days of analog composition, the compilation escapes the usual tendency towards Eurocentrism in championing this field, and showcases the collective's experiments with Moog synthesizer, tape collage, vocal techniques and field recordings - creating a unique fusion of Western and Indian avant-garde traditions.
Review: A titanic one-off clash LP between Japan's head brain David Sylvian and electroacoustic extraordinaire Stephan Mathieu, Wandermude is a slow and sublime classic for real ambient heads. Reissued for the first time since its release in 2012, the album charts a wealth of mutual interest between both artists; the pair both collaborated first as part of a dual live performance at Noway's Punkt festival, during which Mathieu performed a live remix of Sylvian's song 'Plight And Premonition'. This LP is the result of the same creative thread - whooshing, mysterious and full of raw instrumental material translated into audacious oddities.
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