KI Germany Vinilo y CD

Review: Colo's debut single, the wonderfully wonky slo-mo dream-house throb of "Holidays", promised great things. Pleasingly, on this debut album, the London-based duo has delivered on that early promise. Variously fusing the raw emotional fragility of James Blake with the tactile atmospherics of classic ambient, and the evocative electronic melodies of Junior Boys with the head nodding beats of trip-hop, UR is an impressive study in the near limitless potential of leftfield downtempo synth-pop. There are occasional forays into enveloping ultra-deep house pastures - see the rhythmic pulse and cascading synths of "The View From Nowhere" - but for the most part UR operates at a much more horizontal tempo. This variety, though, greatly enhances the experience.

Review: Christian Loffler's 2012 debut album, A Forest, was something of a gem; a yearning collection of shuffling, melodic, occasionally introspective compositions that offered a headphone-friendly take on deep house and hypnotic Germanic techno. This follow-up, said by Loffler to have been recorded while on tour and "semi-autobiographical" in nature, delivers more of the same. Given that Loffler's enveloping, immersive production style is particularly attractive, this is undoubtedly good news. Highlights are plentiful, from the woozy, scratchy, building tech-house bliss of "Mt Grace", and twinkling pianos of "Alpine Sketch", to the heart aching melancholy of the sublime "Notes".

Review: Christian Loffler has been producing pensive, cinematic electronic soundscapes for a long time now. 10 years since his first EP landed, the German producer presents his third studio album on his own Ki Records label. Once again Loffler has continued to grow through the album recording process, embracing more adventurous textural and sound design practices whilst also enriching his songwriting chops. The vocal turns from Josephine Philip and Mohna help deepen the seductive melancholy of his compositions, but even in its instrumental moments the pensive synth lines sing their own heartfelt messages. If you're a fan of Jon Hopkins, Nathan Fake and other such emotionally charged electronica artists, you won't want to miss this album.

Review: Three years on from his well-received Saints full-length, Russian fusionist Monokle returns to action with Rings, his fifth solo album. As usual, he pays little attention to genre boundaries or accepted stylistic norms, delivering dreamy, textured, soft-focus tracks that variously touch on ambient, IDM, deep house, post-dubstep bass music, folktronica, glistening IDM, and, on the sublime "Holytin", the energetic, freestyle rhythms of jazz. The results are uniformly impressive, with Monokle frequently showcasing a keen grasp of both mood and melody. It may take a few listens for the full complexity to sink in, but Rings is well worth investing your time in.