Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Another collaborative effort from the consistently fascinating US ambient kings Past Inside The President, this time with Hendrix - not that one - and Wayne Robert Thomas, whose atmospheric guitar-led work has featured several times on the label before. If the average ambient album has its head in the clouds, this is more grounding, more gamboling in the fields perhaps than floating in the ether, with gentle flute and guitar giving the walls of synth sounds some perspective. That said, the closing track of the four, 'Retract R (Type K)', sizzles away like something by Growing or even Spaceman 3 left to fry in the sun. Magnificent stuff..

Review: Florida based Wave Temples returns with a new EP that takes the form of four new and reworked tunes all pressed up to a great little 7". This is deeply absorbing ambient that take sou to new worlds. In the case of the opener it's like being washed up on the shores of some tiny atoll in the Asia-Pacific. This most dreamy and exotic trip contuses through the indigenous rhythms and howling wind sounds of 'Bikini Oracle' and 'Forbidden Ritual (Jungle Desire)' sounds like just that with its mystic melodic magic and homemade percussive sounds.

Review: Aus-based label Southern Lights welcomes Michal Wolski for an avant-garde techno outing here that takes you into futuristic sound worlds. 'Stargaze' opens with suspensory synth loops that take you into celestial worlds and 'Moonless Night' then lays down light, airy patterns and motifs with a ritualistic edge. 'Return To The (Dis)Comfort Zone' detailed minimal techno for deep excursions and 'Rainfall' has a fantastically warped bassline. 'Omen' is another atmospheric and cinematic closer that sounds like a trip through an underwater cavern.

Review: It only seems like yesterday when Nick Cave delivered his wonderfully captivating joint piece with fellow-Australian Bad Seed Warren Ellis. In fact it was early March, and since then we've all likely been through the kinds of highs and lows this record reflects so accurately. There's a lot of space to Carnage, but it's also an album of intensity, in a refined and sophisticated way.

Packed with incredibly cinematic, theatrical and dramatic moments, at its loudest 'White Elephant' is bordering on a genuinely euphoric religious experience, one rousing and hugely emotional crescendo of chorus and big stage notes after another. At its quietest, 'Shattered Ground' sounds like one man alone with a piano and eternal sadness. Meanwhile, the title track is classic troubadour business. In summary, a grand, mesmerising and personal voyage.

Review: Past Inside The Present go big with this Winter 2022 Deluxe Boxset across three cassette tapes. It's a superb showcase of the talents on their roster and includes a collection of music made by Italian composer Sofia degli Alessandri-Hultquist aka Drum & Lace between 2016 and 2019. There is also an album by London-based Will Bolton which finds the "beauty in ruins, decay and the details and textures of everyday scenes" and an album from People Galan and David Cordero which saw the pair send sound fragments back and forth over the internet and develop them until they both liked what they heard. It all adds up to a brilliant snapshot of some of ambient's best current practitioners.

Review: This new one from our favourite US ambient outlet takes the form of a selection of long-form compositions from artists who are close to the label. As such it's a perfect reflection of its signature sound - deeply immersive soundscapes, slowly shifting synths and meditative moods made with a mix of hardware tools, guitars, pedals and even baritone vocals. It's named after a Norwegian term for warmth and intimacy, which certainly plays out from the evolving loops of 'A Whisper' to the textured melancholy of 'Canaan' and the reverberant drift of 'Coronation Ring'.

Review: Mutant has hooked up with Hollywood Records and 20th Century Studios to offer up the first ever physical release of Benjamin Wallfisch's score for Alien: Romulus. Wallfisch's masterful score successfully revives the chilling atmosphere of the original Alien films with the dissonant, atonal soundscapes of Jerry Goldsmith and melodies from later sequels creating a uniquely immersive listen. This limited edition release captures Wallfisch's remarkable craft and is a fine tribute to the franchise's legacy while adding his own distinct voice. It includes liner notes by director Fede Alvarez for an ever fuller experience.

Review: Sydney-based friends MP Hopkins and Mary MacDougall bring a haunting edge to folk music here. 'Weeds' is like lo-fi horror film music with tape-recorded radio static giving a foreboding atmosphere. 'Clay Graffiti' sounds like a post-apocalyptic ghost story with the spoken word conjuring images of landscapes tormented by wind and life dissolved. The group clearly have a knack for sequencing and the finer details of what makes a great album. After the intense end-of-the-world feel of the track that closes side A, Side B opens with 'Yellow Rose', which feels like spring; lyrically, in the bright piano, guitar and through the vocal timbre. It gives a sense of renewal that wouldn't have the same impact if it wasn't for the harsh winter feel of the track before it. But don't mistake this for anything twee - experimental folk is taking over the underground cultural zeitgeist and Warm Currency are an important part of that. This is the band's third release on the Horn of Plenty label and it's a solid follow-up to Returns (2022) and Live at the Petersham Bowling Club (2023).

Review: Virtuoso contemporary jazz star Kamasi Washington got involved with the hit Netflix documentary Becoming right at the early stages. The film is a four time Emmy-nominated glimpse into the life of Michelle Obama, filled with as many profound moments as tender and vulnerable ones. All of those are perfectly translated into gentle jazz, sweeping symphonies and empowering passages of sound that tell a very real story even without seeing the movie. Fans of the Los Angeles saxophonist will recognise a dialling back in the scale of his usual sound, but that is never to the detriment of the work here, which is maybe his most accessible work yet.

Review: Kamasi Washington's latest effort is a little different from his previous releases, which delighted in taking spiritual and post-bop jazz in a myriad of thrilling new directions. Befitting its status as a soundtrack - the music on Becoming was written to feature on Nadia Hallgren's Netflix documentary of the same name on Michelle Obama - the compositions unveiled by Washington are breezy, accessible and seeped in musical positivity. There are lots of memorable melodic themes throughout the album, with bold and catchy, up-beat jazz numbers being joined by melancholic, contemplative compositions and even nods towards soul-jazz, Motown style soul and cheery jazz-funk.

Review: Recorded live at London's Savoy Theatre, the stunning Sunset Boulevard stars Nicole Scherzinger in a critically acclaimed reimagining by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jamie Lloyd. This bold revival has captivated audiences with its fresh take on the classic musical. Now, with the launch of the cast album coinciding with the show's Broadway debut, fans beyond the theatre can experience the production's musical brilliance for the first time. Featuring powerful performances and a reimagined score, this recording captures the magic of the live production in all its glory.

Review: This project began in 2018 when Jonny Campos was on a break from playing guitar with Grammy-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers and recorded ambient pedal steel passages at Kirkland Middleton's house. The resulting tracks are named after vanished Southern Louisiana waterways and evoke a sense of impermanence. The music flows like a dream, slipping into consciousness as a serene, meditative experience or a deeply resonant one. The album first came digitally and on cassette via Nouveau Electric Records in 2020 but now lands on vinyl thanks to DFA.

Review: London's Loraine James has built her signature sound through a mix of refined composition, gritty experimentation and intricate electronic programming. Under her Ghostly International alias Whatever The Weather, she explores emotional temperature and environment. Her second full-length offers a warmer tone compared to its predecessor by moving from an arctic cover photo to a desert scene. Mastered by Josh Eustis, the album blends hypnotic atmospheres and rhythmic textures with diaristic field recordings. The lead single, '12-C,' weaves melody and texture into a soul-stirring groove and is exemplary of James' imaginative and genre-defying approach.

Review: "One might thus regard the Welsh rarebit as a Machine in which a process is applied to the conditioning and perception of the world of bread and cheese." Suffice to say, John White might not have had the same ideas about what constitutes Machine Music back in 1976 as you do today. This is also the first time we've ever managed to get a reference to Welsh rarebit into the first line of writing about a record, so everyone is learning something today. "The Machines" White refers to are the individual tracks themselves, all recorded between 1967 and 1972 and all comprising different combinations of a thing. Six pairs of "bass melody instruments" made 'Autumn Countdown Machine', different permutations of "the articulations 'ging, gang, gong, gung, ho!'" comprise 'Jews Harp Machine'. And 'Son of Gothic Chord' is crafted from the sequential chord progression of four keyboard players, spanning an octave. Conceptual experimental and wildly imaginative stuff on the borderline of electronica, abstract, mathematical and something otherworldly.

Review: There is something instantly settling about this record. Wilson Tanner are intent on making sure our worries and concerns vanish into the ether, or more accurately float away on a gentle tide under a war evening sun. You might feel the record invokes different imagery, but given the duo - Andrew Wilson and John Tanner - put their acclaimed debut together "over" a shared love of seafood and wine, we think the coastal iconography goes well.

Not least as 69 was recorded in Perth, a city renowned for its spectacular coastline and a resurgent cultural scene. Digressions aside, the producers describe their sound as 'provincial ambient' and you can understand why relatively easily. It's an incredibly organic, understated, and in many ways highly familiar set of tones, not necessarily intent on rewriting any rule books, but certainly assured that everything it offers is of the highest quality, and with the most heart possible.

Review: Adam Wiltzie is an American-born, Belgium-based ambient composer, sound designer, film soundtracker and one half of A Winged Victory For The Sullen. His latest album-length suite was inspired by two things: a recurring dream in which people die after listening to his music, and a fascination with sodium pentathol, a barbiturate routinely used as a general anaesthetic. It's a kind of musical exploration of - to paraphrase his label's accompanying press release - tiptoeing between beauty and oblivion, or sleepiness and wakefulness. Mixed by Loop man Robert Hampson and featuring strings recorded in Budapest, the album ebbs and flows majestically, with billowing orchestral moments nestling side by side with creepy ambience, immersive and dream-like soundscapes, simmering melodic motifs and the kind of arty but enveloping fare that reminded us a little of the Orb and Robert Fripp's mid-90s FFWD project.

Review: Wladimir Manshanden and Wladimir M is something of a Dutch techno legend for those who know. He is an Eevo Lute originator and now makes his latest mark on the venerated Delsin label with 2024. It's an evocative and widescreen work of techno poetry with deft rhythms and rich sound designs making for an otherworldly feel. Spoken words detail each piece next to lush ambient pads and widescreen synthscapes as supple and deep rhythms unfurl and evolved down low. It's an intriguing, personal work that draws you in close and keeps you there throughout

Review: It's always fascinating to discover a completely different side to an artist like Gerald Woodruff. Jezz to most, he's best known for his spell with the mighty Black Sabbath, appearing on the Technical Ecstasy album, and performing on both that tour and the dates in support of landmark LP Sabotage. He also recorded with Robert Plant and Phil Collins on the former's debut album, Pictures at Eleven. As such he's probably not the first artist you'd expect to have made an underwater soundtrack to a forgotten marine life epic, Wonders of the Underwater World. A production two years in the making, Woodroffe's accompaniment uses a number of synths and electronic instruments that Vangelis was fond of at the time, lending a sense of the miraculous and unknown to the score, while the crew at Trunk Record have also created a retro sleeve complete with sticker sheet, meaning you can create your own seabed scene on the cover

Review: 'No Beauty In The World' is a reflection of how in a world so cruel we can find beauty, with its music bouncing between beautiful ambience and piano loops, modular synth melodies to darker textural and feedback driven drones. Unlike other wounds records where the fluidity of the entire album tells a story, 'No Beauty In The World' explore various sonic possibilities and territories. This is a culmination of over 2 years of writing and recording, constantly driven by the uncertainty and darkness in the world that we live in. Despite it all, the sonic arc of the album gives us something to hope for, maybe there is beauty in the end. The record was engineered and mixed by Diogo Strausz (Far Out Recordings) in France and mastered (digital and vinyl) by Lawrence English (Room40). The record features collaborations from guitarist Carlos Ferreira and drummer / synthesist Phillip Stosberg.

Review: zake & Wayne Robert Thomas come together to serve up a thoughtful and healing deep dive into "what it means to continue living life in the face of loss and uncertainty." Their album is one of great depth emotional and full of subtle struggles that we can all relate to. 'To Those Who Dwelt in a Land of Deep Darkness' was first put out as a 10" lathe but now gets pressed dup properly to 12" vinyl with three extra tracks taken from the original recording sessions. They say the best art comes out of adversity and that is certainly true here.