Strangelove New Zealand Vinilo y CD

Review: Composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Frank Harris has enjoyed a long and varied career. During the 1980s, he was one of the world's most esteemed Synclavier synthesiser programmers, and also recorded extensively with singer-songwriter Maria Marquez - though it took until 2019 for much of that music to be released (on the album Echoes). This 12" boasts fresh reworks of tracks from that set. Frankie Deluxe handles side A, first delivering a deliciously slow-burn revision of 'Loveroom' - all sparse, undulating synth melodies, whispers of percussion and beautiful lead vocals - before offering up a seductively summery shuffle through the samba-seeped shuffle of 'Down By The Rio'. That track is twice more remixed on the flip. First Frakas supplies a tactile, deep Balearic nu-disco tweak, before Julian Dyne offers up a deep, dubbed-out, slow-motion house take.

Review: Elsewhere Jr 1 is aims to bring "something a little different, something a little out there" to the listener, and indeed it does. This double LP compilation brings together both new and old compositions from a wide range of countries, with the unique twist that they were all made for young'uns; kids; children; tykes; little ones. 2.5 years in the making, this international project heard its makers thoroughly scour the archives for every strange children's music curio, from Belgium to Denmark, extracting a surprising amount of cosmic weirdness from the works.