Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: It's pretty hard not to fall in love with Macadam Mambo at first contact. The French label represents the cream of Lyon's underground, a city that has for some time now been a quiet powerhouse of electronic and dance music, developing a reputation for strange, leftfield floor-filling sounds spanning slow burn chug, experimental tropicalism, Balearic and cosmic house.

Enter Axel Larson to prove our point with real precision. L'Ete Noir is an incredible EP, packing a generous six tracks on its wax, all of which are awesome. From the knife-edge atmosphere of poised and percussive rumbler 'Hygiene Du Squelette', to the downtempo joy of a track that feels like it's built largely on the sounds of dripping water and reversed rave keys ('Le Pyromane Du Chateau Rouge'), there are so many layers here you'll be busy for days.

Review: Worldwide Heavy Industries Vol.1 is the latest wax drop from Flux Musical Art and Brutal Forms and it makes for an immersive trip deep into industrial soundscapes and futuristic themes. Dominik Muller's intricate 'Too Many Posers' soon sucks you in followed by Ryuji Takeuchi's dynamic 'In Your Mind' with its unusual rhythmic innovation. On the B-side, 6SISS and Hypnoskull's intense 'Losss' gets super raw with an industrial edge, while Low Order's 'Taste My Venom' explores darker experimental territory. Skumring's atmospheric 'Corpse-Ridden' closes the album with a mood as dark as you would expect given the title.

Review: Laibach and A/political present Alamut, a new, symphonic album inspired by Vladimir Bartol's 1938 novel of the same name. Recounting an 11th-century Persian tale - centered on the charismatic and enigmatic Hassan-i Sabbah, leader of the Nizari Ismailis and founder of the Order of Assassins - this is a shadowy, ninja-black-wax initiation into an esoteric order of spies. Laibach's work blends classical Persian poetry, minimalist orchestral textures, and industrial elements, reflecting both historical propaganda tactics and Bartol's critique of rising Fascism in 1930s Italy. Released on double vinyl and CD box set through Mute, the album was recorded in 2022 at a former Crusader castle in Ljubljana; it features the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Tehran's Human-Voice Ensemble, the Gallina Women's Choir, and the women's accordion orchestra AccordiOna, conducted by Navid Goharib.

Review: Laibach revisits two iconic tracks from their 1987 opus, bringing new intensity to 'Leben heiBt Leben' and 'Geburt einer Nation.' Originally reworked for live performances, these versions merge theatrical drama with sharper sonic edges. The second disc ventures further, with original producer Rico Conning layering remixes that strip back and reimagine the band's audacious sound. This project doesn't just reframe the past; it grapples with it, offering both a homage and a provocative challenge to how we hear Laibach today.

Review: Bill Leeb is the Vancouver-based musician and mastermind behind electro-industrial scene mainstays Front Line Assembly and ambient-pop duo Delerium, as well as a key member of recording projects such as Noise Unit, Intermix and Cyberaktif. The first solo venture by Leeb takes the form of Model Kollapse: a mutative electro-metal odyssey of shocking proportions. Firmly footed in the 80s industrial zeitgeist while still bringing an ear to the sound that could've only been brought to it in the present era, the likes of 'Demons' and 'Terror Forms' are incredible retromorphoses, with heavy EBM and techno production shunning any hint of over-simplicity; precision editing, multiband attentiveness, and controlled caprice, all conjuring images of a seedy but frenetic future Cronenbergian or Gigerian rave, as the old human models collapse all around us.

Review: The respected DIY hero Xin Lie's reputation has spread far from his native Bangdung in the Indonesian province of West Java - and this eight track debut album will no doubt add to his international repute even further. Electronica is one of the hardest genres in which to forge an original, distinctive path but Lie does it here effortlessly, from the juddering bass-driven half speed groover 'Parat' and the frenetic, polymetric rhythmic riddle that is 'Ngalengkah', to the tribal percussiveness meets mangled robotics of 'Papait Nu Amis', it never settles into accepted ways of doing things, constantly challenging you to keep up. "Perhaps it's best imagined as the soundtrack to a multi-sensory art installation," Lie suggests, "or a performance staged not in a gallery but in an unassuming house down your street." Fine. Or just a really compelling record, you could equally argue.

Review: Wearing 1980s synth pop influences on their sleeve, and sounding exactly like they belong on the mighty DFA, Brooklyn's Light Asylum were rightly praised at the time they put out their debut - and, to this date - only studio album, circa 2012. Critics noted that, at a time when dance-punk crossover was everywhere, driven by LCD Soundsystem and many of the acts frontman James Murphy signed to DFA, the New Yorkers manage to differentiate themselves from the pack in several ways.

Taking a hint of Depeche Mode (well, maybe a bit more), a pinch of Nine Inch Nails, and parts of Throbbing Gristle, Gary Numan, and other pioneers, Light Asylum managed to introduce some much-needed light and spatiality into the often claustrophobically dark and oppressive industrial synth world. In doing so, they offer a sound that's somehow both universally accessible and niche, which is never an easy line to tread.

Review: Lundin Oil's latest effort is nothing if not powerful and, at times, intimidating. It's also rooted in an important message. People, by nature, have a habit of deducing things about each other. Or thinking they've deduced, when in reality they've assumed and presumed. Underneath the industrial mechanisms at the centre of these soundscapes, then, there's something vulnerable and human. It's challenging stuff, but also reassuring to be back in this particular experimental fold, with Exploit Divisions the first Lundin Oil album we've had since 2016. While fitting precisely into the back catalogue, you also can't help feel that this is up there with the broadest sonic palette painted by the artist yet. Spanning razor sharp, jagged rhythms and wider, more patient ambient refrains.