Back catalogue: Leftfield

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: My Own Mirror To Stay is a brand new and first-ever compilation from the Sure Thing label. It finds them carefully curating six new artists and welcome them to the family, each with their own personal reflections of the dance floor. Lukas Urban kicks off with supple, seductive and stripped back techno while Soreab layers up prickly percussive layers and Sanguine sinks you into a dream state with his lush ambient pads and skeletal rhythms. The flip side features three more elegantly designed and meticulous bits of techno sound sculpture. The always exceptional Neel has mastered this one too.

Review: Aside from the one Pinch 12", Cold Recordings has largely operated as a platform for the Tectonic boss to promote a new breed of bass fusionist talent; Elmono, Batu, Acre and Ipman have all had early releases on the label. This latest Cold 12" is quite the proposition, introducing the unheralded Latvian talent W3C, whose four-track single, Atmospheric Entry, is the equivalent of an aural slap to the chops. W3C engages us with a deadly quartet of cuts that see industrial techno meet rolling UK-style broken rhythms - how this sounds on a decent soundsystem is something we will be investigating this weekend. If you are a fan of Mumdance and Logos you need to get on this.

Review: Mr Beau Wanzer has already been responsible for some memorable music in 2013 as part of both Mutant Beat Dance and Streetwalker, issuing releases on Light Sounds Dark and Cititrax that rank amongst the favourites of the Juno review staff. Having previously appeared on LIES as part of MBD, Wanzer now makes his full debut with this much awaited self titled three track EP. Ever since Ron Morelli dropped it on a Benji B show earlier this year, the clamour for "Balls Of Steel" has steadily grown to boiling point and the track sounds all the more impressive running up the stylus of a 1210 than it does on shoddy iPlayer bitrate. Based around a unique vocal hook, Wanzer's basically done a Florian Kupfer and delivered unto LIES a hit track that shouldn't really be a hit track. The functional rhythmic nature of "Balls Of Steel" is replicated in the scratchy "Two Orders" whilst "Outside Auto" is a lumbering EBM number reminiscent of Wanzer's work with Traxx.

Review: Hallucinating Gnarly Spring Breakers.Following a swathe of rock-solid EPs from Walton and Pessimist, Ilian Tape ITX sub-label welcomes back Munich man Konrad Wehrmeister for the first time in three years. What's on offer is a mini album of hazy and occasionally dubby techno mutations, some of which sound like they were designed for the deepest of dancefloors. Many of the melodic elements on show are built around abstract electronic textures, while the rhythms flit between bold and brassy (see the breathless techno-jack of 'Senking' and bustling, breakbeat-driven IDM of 'TR10'), and sparse and spaced-out ('Ous' and '80L', both of which put a new, off-kilter spin on dub techno). Throw in a couple of woozy ambient numbers and you've got a great EP on undulating electronic goodness.

Review: Haunter Records, the Milanese experimental threshold pushers and the mob behind the city's notorious Macau squat parties. are back with Weightausend aka Matthias Gerrardi, his second release for the label. "Green Death" in its original form is fairly restrained yet a cleverly executed system of bass therapy. But it's the industrial strength polyrhythms of "Meet Your Doom!" where he really finds his sound. The remix by Christoph De Babalon draws the track out with a long and nefarious dark ambient intro until the drums come in, in spectacular fashion.

Review: From their Philadelphia base, the Great Circles label has proved a worthy if intermittent outlet for the region's ever vibrant experimental electronic scene, with founder Justin Gibbon's having created the label out of the momentum built up from the long running Inciting events series he's been involved in. Perhaps the label's greatest achievement to date is shining a light on the underscore loving _moonraker project that Metasplice's Kenneth_Lay does with Jason Carr, exposing them to the keen ear of TTT boss Will Bankhead who issued their Lowjit Vagrants EP earlier this year. Gibbon himself has been experimenting with production for some time, previously working as Pandemix, and he makes his Great Circles debut here as Westov Temple with a four track EP that typifies the label's self styled shifty take on house and techno, offering a keen balance between improvisational electronics and a definite sense of meditativeness.

Review: Until now, Cologne artist and selector Lena Willikens has largely been know for her Djing skills, both the range and dynamism shown when she is in a club, or the more conceptual approach taken with her Sentimental Flashbacks show for Comeme Radio. It's the Cologne label overseen by Matias Aguayo that facilitates the first tangible productions from Willikens in the shape of the dark and dystopian Phantom Delia. Produced with the assistance of Aguayo, the six tracks here are a perfect balance of the rhythmic quirkiness that seems to characterise many a Comeme release and Willikens' own grasp of the odder strains of club music. Traxx's Nation label is offered as a comparison by Comeme, and it's probably Beau Wanzer whose music is closest in spirit to the sound Willikens explores here - excellent music for those selectors that like to strange up the dancefloor.

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: The second vinyl issue from Opal Tapes presents the label's most singularly sounding release in its twenty plus discography, Piss Fell Out Like Sunlight from caps lock abusing Twitter user WANDA GROUP. This is the current alias of Brighton-based Louis Johnstone, a producer whose output for Astro:Dynamics, NNA Tapes, Vlek and Further has established him as one of the most intriguing voices in contemporary electronic music. Piss Fell Out Like Sunlight consists of two long form productions of gauzy weightless electronics that like some of Actress' work disregard any notion of forward momentum, instead focusing on short bursts of cryptic sonics that catch creative fire for 30 seconds before descending into the mists of time as Johnstone moves onto the next. Think of this as a swift mixtape through crunched, mulchy detritus.

Review: Wanderwelle & Bandhagens Musikforening's masterful Victory Over The Sun album gets skilfully reinterpreted by some of techno's most forward thinking protagonists. Amsterdam pair Wanderwelle themselves go first with a misty ambient take of 'An Unusual Sunrise' that sets a perfectly dramatic scene. Label boss Sverca serves up one of the highlights with his deep, pulsing hypnotic version of the title track and Anthony Linell sinks us way down below the ocean surface on his meditative dub roller. There is more energy to the busted beats and hidden vocal sounds of Celestial Crusade (E-Saggila remix) and plenty more greatness through the other tracks.

Review: Yes! Nation affiliate Beau Wanzer comes through with a self released collection of archival cuts drawn from his personal vat of recordings made between 2002-08 and it's basically 12 examples of how to rule. For the most part, Wanzer draws from a similar palette to the recent Power Outage 10" for Traxx's Nation, delivering short and sharp experiments in mangled hardware and dizzying vocals that have a clear nod to early wave and primitive electronics but still retain that distinct Beau Wanzer charm. Wedged in amongst them are a few cuts the more fearless selectors out there will totally love, such as "I Don't Even Want To" and "23132", whilst the fuzzy kosmiche of closing track "Headspace" is a true palate cleanser.

Review: Wave Arising is former Spiral Tribe man Sebastian Vaughan with vocalist Kynsie and they are a duo that likes to eplxore body, mind and soul "through intuitive listening of senses and inner energies by means of music , workshops and gatherings." This is their debut album and is an otherworldly mix of deep grooves and occult sonic landscapes. It has been made from various improvisations and avoids there use of sampling and as an album, this is one that feels very much alive. There are cinematic dub techno workouts, cascading synths and alien sound designs, menacing low ends and moments of majestic melodic beauty such as on 'Ronde Cinetique'. A brilliant debut.

Review: BertBert's boundary-free TOPO imprint returns with a fascinating body of work from one of his nearest and dearest influences; Windu. A collection honed from hundreds of sketches, grooves and soundscapes written over the last eight years, Juxtapose is a beguiling blend of ambient textures, gritty technoid grooves and thunderous showers of breaks. At points bubbling with aggy rave energy ('Deck 16'), at others entirely disarming and likely to knock you horizontal ('Ti Si Isceljenje'), Windu (which stands for wave is not defined) has a refreshing ability to completely negate DJ formula, arrangement and genre trappings. A debut dispatch built up over years before unleashed into the wild on vinyl, this is a truly unique album.

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