Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: There's a delightfully celebratory feel about this debut volume of Cititrax Tracks, a new 12" series from Minimal Wave offshoot Cititrax. As beautifully presented as we've come to expect, Tracks Volume 1 boasts a quartet of dancefloor-ready smashers from a blend of new faces and label stalwarts. Amato (aka The Hacker) kicks things off with the glistening EBM funk of "Physique" - all restless synth refrains and pounding bottom end - before LIES affiliate Tsuzing go all dark, psychedelic and twisted on the thrillingly intense, acid-flecked "King of System". An-I go all DAF (with a touch of Front 242) on the fuzzy and dystopian stomper "Mutter", before Cititrax regulars Broken English Club delivers a storming chunk of industrial-tinged analogue funk ("Glass"). Bravo!

Review: Well Curated is a series of releases and parties that - in its own words - "reflects the ethnomusicology of the last 50 years of music" - and aims to reach into all genres, merging classic styles and breaking down barriers. Steve Spacek occupies the A-side with the breezy broken beat and soul-in-space of 'Alone In Da Sun', while Lukid's 'Hair Of The Dog' is a more intense counterpart, with wobbling sub-bass and swirling, surging atmospherics hovering above.

Review: John Beltran's label debut sees the maestro flexing and showcasing the full spectrum of his composing and production skills over four diverse tracks.

Review: Sam Binga has established himself with boundary-pushing club tracks on labels like Critical and Exit and for this one teamed up with Welfare, a junglist and the Rua Sound label boss. Together they were inspired by the rugged beauty of Conamara, County Galway and began the project in a 300-year-old cottage overlooking the sea in a place free of creature comforts but rich in inspiration. Using a handheld recorder, the duo explored tidal caves, ruins and windswept coastlines while recording the ambient sounds they heard on the way and then turned them into these deeply textured dub compositions through live desk mixing at Dubkasm's studio.

Review: Bluets' debut on Kimochi Sound seamlessly integrates into the label's well established and distinctive style. This one, with a hand-sprayed sleeve as always, opens with "if you can imagine," a confident bit of microhouse that mixes rich melodies and a lively bassline. 'Action Potential' echoes RDMA's aesthetic with its precise beats and on the B-side you will find a vaporous melody that weaves through sparse downbeat house grooves to make for a dreamlike atmosphere. Closing the EP, 'Buong Bilog' features distorted IDM rhythms and a poignant refrain that balances twitchy textures with melancholic tones. This carefully crafted release bridges home-listening electronics with dancefloor clout.

Review: Rampant and 'up for it' as usual, the Cititrax label is back with a new set of wayward technoid experiments for the more trained ears on the dancefloors. This time it's Romania's Borusiade and newcomer The Sixteen Steps who share two sides of a wax plate and, of course, proceed to annihilate any idea of a quiet night in. The former sets off with the mechanical acid bumps of "Infatuation", guided by an eerie set of vocal blurs, and that's followed by the comparatively more beat-centric techno of the apocalyptic "Confutation". On the flip, The Sixteen Steps first lands on "Signals From The South", a house banger with noxious levels of mutant bass at its core, followed by the single-minded industrialism and sheer techno brutality of "Promises On The Run". WOWZAH!

Review: Third part of the compilation celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Milanese record shop. This collection is entirely composed of previously unreleased music, exclusively produced for the occasion by many artists of great relevance in the worldwide music scene, who supported the store over the last ten years. The artists who produced the music for this compilation are Egyptian Lover, Ellen Allien, Thomas Brinkmann, Neil Landstrumm, JD Twitch, Matias Aguayo, San Proper, Tolouse Low Trax, Jay Glass Dubs, Dj Marcelle, Jorge Velez, Tamburi Neri, Fabrizio Mammarella, Heith, Itinerant Dubs, Timeslip89, Kreggo and Intersezioni Ensemble. The entire work is composed of 4 x 12", plus a bonus EP.

Review: Sure Thing presents Well of Sand, its second compilation. Six tracks from the label's friends and favourites, each new to the roster, offer bold, untempered explorations of tempo and weight, a concise yet expansive collection recalling the deliberate cadence of rippling sand and the sheen of shimmering oases. From Command D's subtly groundswelling, but snappy 'Half Blue (Violet Mix)', to Foreign Material's alarmingly alien 'The Living Planet' and Third Space's supremely stereoized, lowercase opus 'Push (Part 2)', this is a release for that large intersection of audiophiles and techno-philes.

Review: B12's 1993 debut album, Electro-Soma, has long been regarded as one of intelligent dance music's "must-have releases". Offering a decidedly intergalactic blend of otherworldly techno, ambient and deep space electronica, it remains a brilliant piece of work. Here, Warp Records give it the reissue treatment, packaging the peerless original album with a second disc of early B12 rarities and hard-to-find cuts recorded during the same period. There's naturally plenty to admire on this bonus disc, from the shimmering electro bustle of "Transient Pathways" and Motor City futurism of "Debris", to the intoxicating ambient brilliance of "Go With The Hiss". That this material is every bit as good as the tracks included on Electro-Soma is testament to the (then) duo's rarely matched brilliance.

Review: Barker's latest release is a masterclass in fluid experimentation, embracing unpredictability with a delicate balance of harmony and controlled chaos. Following his acclaimed previous work, this new collection of tracks finds him refining his craft while allowing for spontaneity to take the lead. Opening with 'Force of Habit', the project immediately sets a tone of shifting momentum, while Reframingithe serotonin-laced lead singleispirals through shimmering arpeggios, evoking echoes of classic trance before drifting into uncharted territory. Tracks like 'Difference' and 'Repetition' and 'The Remembering Self' showcase Barker's intricate layering, weaving together mechanical precision with an organic sense of movement. A deep dive into mechanical instrumentation lies at the heart of this work, with Barker exploring the possibilities of automation not as a replacement for human touch, but as a tool for new forms of expression. The result is a body of work that mirrors the uncertainty of its time, embracing change rather than resisting it. As the final moments of this LP fade out, Barker leaves us with a feeling of transformationimusic that adapts to the moment in which it exists.

Review: Science, Art And Ritual chronicles the musical journey of Kingsuk Biswas, known as Bedouin Ascent. Growing up in Harrow during the 70s and 80s, Biswas was influenced by David Rodigan's dub shows and the post-punk experimentation of the era. His eclectic tastes spanned punk, free jazz, noise, and Indian Classical music, which he fused with his ever expanding record collection. By 1987, his music prefigured what would become techno and gave rise to this album which was released in 1994 by Rising High Records. Science, Art And Ritual now celebrates its 30th anniversary with a deluxe 3LP reissue featuring restored tracks and some bonus new material.

Review: After his superlative and rather unexpected foray into Afro and Latin fusion with his Sol Set project, John Beltran returns to more familiar territory with a rendition of his classic mid-90s album 'Ten Days of Blue' recorded at this year's Dekmantel in Amsterdam. We get a real feel for the whole gig experience, from the sound of murmured anticipation and intro tape to the resolution at the outro and the main meat of the music itself - lively, optimistic, groovy but understated and chilled at the same time - sits somewhere between his ambient and harder techno work. Among Beltran's very finest output.

Review: Geir Jensson's debut album under the now familiar Biosphere alias, Microgravity, has long been considered something of a classic of the early '90s ambient boom. First released in 1991, it offered an icy but suitably atmospheric mix of chilly ambience, British-style "intelligent techno" and crystalline IDM. To celebrate 25 years since it was recorded (it was released a year later, in 1991), Geir Jensson has re-mastered it and, with the help of a successful crowd-funding campaign, pressed it onto a double CD minus the cross-fades and sound effects featured on the original pressing. Happily, Microgravity has lost none of its allure.

Review: After a run of reissues and a boundary-blurring fusion of classical music and electronica (January 2021's Angel's Flight), Norwegian ambient veteran Geir Jennsen AKA Biosphere has gone back to basics on Shortwave Memories. Ditching software and computers for analogue synths, drum machines and effects units, Jennsen has delivered album that he claims was inspired by the post-punk era electronics of Daniel Miller and Matin Hannett, but instead sounds like a new, less dancefloor-conscious take on the hybrid ambient/techno sound he was famous for in the early 1990s. The results are uniformly brilliant, making this one of the Norwegian trailblazer's most alluring and sonically comforting albums for decades.

Review: Straddling the worlds of dancefloor techno and leftfield experimentation - very often in the same track - The Black Dog aka Black Dog Productions was made up of Ed Handley, Andy Turner and Ken Downie, and on this one the trio appear in various combinations under various guises such as Atypic, I.A.O, Close Up Over, Balil, Xeper, Discordian Popes and Plaid. They released Bytes 30 years ago this year, the third album in Warp's Artificial Intelligence series and this anniversary repress comes on gatefold double vinyl with original artwork. It has been re-cut for the occasion and is as immersive and widescreen now as it ever was.

Review: The Black Dog were one of the core early Warp acts, and their Spanners album - the third full length of their career at the time - is one of their best. Despite its roots in the early IDM scene, the album managed to climb to number 30 in the UK charts back when it arrived in January 1995. It's a great mix of unexpected experimental oddness and dancefloor rhythms that makes for a superb trip through what was then the modern world. Pitchfork have rated it one of the 50 best IDM albums ever and this reissue reminds us why.

Review: Album number six from Sheffield's electronic heroes The Black Dog was closer to their debut, Bytes, than anything that came in between. "We never set out to make it like Bytes," group member Martin Dust has since explained. "My idea was to create something you could come home to after you'd just ben to a club or gig, that would start at the right pace and then just wind down into a great album and just chill out." Suffice to say, they achieved that and then some. Silenced is an example of downtempo that still feels like it has one foot in the rave, sounds informed by 4AM highs and 10AM quiet, here made precious through the use of blissful and complex tones that envelop and encase your mind. A record everyone should own.

Review: When Magda and Jay Ahearn first unveiled the Blotter Trax project - rather mysteriously, it should be noted - the showcased cuts tended towards the more psychedelic end of the techno and electro spectrum. They've flipped the script on debut album Superconductor, a genuinely brilliant collection of funkier, far-sighted workouts that draws more on their joint love of Arthur Russell, early 80s NYC downtown disco, leftfield new-wave pop and flash-fried punk-funk. The addition of bass and guitar (from new third member Hannes Strobl and guest axe-slinger Shigeru Tanabu) adds an organic element, with lead vocals (courtesy of principal songwriter and singer Nina Hynes) humanising their sound further. A triumphant, if surprising, full-length debut that could turn out to be one of the electronic LPs of 2023.

Review: It's been a delight to see Oliver Ho's Broken English Club project develop artistically over recent times, with some fine records for Jealous God and Veronica Vasicka's Cititrax label along the way. Suburban Hunting sees Ho deliver his debut Broken English Club album, featuring some 11 tracks of primitive electronics and cinematic pseudo techno cuts. Tunes like "Vacant", "Derelict", or "Scum" all share a loose techno framework, but the real aesthetic is much vaster than that, verging on remnants of post-punk, industrial and all that goodness and hybrid class that came out of the late 1980's. It's another fine addition to the sublime Cititrax discography, and we recommended it just as much as the previous numbers.

Review: BT Gate X-138 returns to Greyscale with Gravitational Grooves, deepening his relationship with the label following 2023's kV Pylon. Ten sousing sonorities hear him reshape his signature dub techno sound with growth-mental finesse, emitting foggy atmospheres and slicing percs. 'Inertia' leans into soft chords and faint crackle before giving way to the stripped-down shuffle and understated melodic turns of 'Gravity', while 'Orbit' builds over and delay-heavy phrasing; 'Float' offers a breather with its ambient drift, while an embossed 'Mass' sears the ears with churlish mood-texture. Touchstones such as Konigsforst and In Moll are alluded to most subtly.

Review: BVDUB's Fumika Fades is a glorious new double pack that is again stuffed with inspired sonic detail and moving ambient soundscapes. The subtle complexity of his sound is laid bare again here with just eight long and involving pieces that ebb and flow, rise and fall, pull you in and push you out. It follows on from a busy 2022 in which Bay Area dub techno titan Brock van Wey put out several great double packs. This one comes with beautiful artwork, too, and is another great addition to the shelves from this man's ever-more spotless catalogue.