Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: The original 'Subterraneans', composed by David Bowie from their 1977 album 'Low', was an emotionally striking piece that illustrated the struggles of withdrawal. German legend Alva Noto teams up with Depeche Mode's Martin Gore and ambient wizard William Basinski to transform the piece into an ephemeral, ghostly number that is almost even more chilling - with ambient synths and vocal echoing that conjure being lost in a deep cave, something almost supernatural at every turn. A truly haunting, yet aurally astounding, cover.

Review: A collaborative new single by sampletronic master Kieran Hebden (aka. Four Tet) and guitarist and composer William Tyler, two acclaimed musicians and both longstanding friends. Part of a recent spewing-forth of Hebden-adjacent material to hit the shelves after the artist's oft-reported-upon "agent of chaos" phase, these two tracks, pressed to a furtive 12", provide a neat counterpoint to that assessment. Rather than a pair of riddim bangers, the record flaunts Hebden's signature electronic textures and Tyler's guitar into a hypnotic, nominally dark soundwhirl, reminiscent of the earliest days of Text, but with a unique edge - a sonic corner never quite scoured before by either artist.

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: Dark Entries are masters of reissuing the tunes that are out of the financial reach of many of us. This timeless and utterly singular slice of Italo disco magic was bootlegged originally back in around 2015 and then the label decided to reissue it properly in 2016, with a remastered set of tunes for maximum playback effect. They now issue a special 40th-anniversary version. The 1982 bombshell, originally out on Discomagic Records, goes by the name of 'The Man From Colours' and it is a special track indeed, one that's full of romantic charm, mystery and plenty of proto-house vibes. Its vocals will be embedded in your mind forever upon first listen, and you get an instrumental cut on the flip, too.

Review: There is a ton of sonic scuzz and frosty electronic texture to both cuts on this new limited 12" from Natural Sciences. And that is frankly to be expected when you are dealing with these two artists - the long-time LIEs associate Beau Wanzer goes first with the fucked up drums and gnarly synths, wiry electronics and dark vocal mutterings of 'The Table Scrap'. On the flip is Chicago noise specialist Hieroglyphic Being with 'This Is The Right Time In Human History 2 Be Stupid.' It's a lo-fi and fuzzy world of busted drum loops and anxious synths.

Review: One-off masterpiece release of German minimal synthpop from Gutersloh, Germany in 1984. Recorded in a DIY recording studio in a former prison for the mentally ill, located on the outskirts of a forest near the artists' homes, aptly named Prison Studio, in 1984, the release was privately pressed on 7" by the band itself, distributed in limited quantities and has changed hands only a few times on public marketplaces since its original release. Wave Shape's Transmission has always been as rare as it is good, to quote Basso. Now, the release is made available again to collectors and DJs as the first release on Average. Included in this 12" repress are two stunning new remixes by virtuoso producers and friends Alexander Arpeggio and Aradea Barandana, each bringing their own flavour to the table.

Review: Marking the start of an exciting new collaborative project, Wolf + Lamb proudly share the debut release of The Waves & Us. Formed out of
a creative meeting of minds between Maayan Nidam, Markus Nikolaus and Louis McGuire, theirs is a sound that strengthens the storied
approach of a live band with the experimental thrust of analogue electronics. Pop and rock fundamentals lend an earthly hook to the
tracks, but these are anything but straight-forward songs.
Maayan has already forged a formidable career in electronic music, both under her own name and as part of Mara Trax, scoring releases
on such celebrated labels as Perlon. Markus performs his own solo project Cunt Cunt Chanel, while Louis is part of Ballet School, a band
releasing on noted indie label Bella Union. The whirlwind of creativity that has whipped up around the trio has yielded an album which will
follow this single, made up of one-take recordings that capture the energy and adventure that powers The Waves & Us.
Maayan's electronics provide the atmospheric backdrop to the songs, running modular synthesisers and drum machines through detailed
chains of processing and effects with an emphasis on a warm, charmingly rough finish. Markus' guitar undergoes a similar fuzzy treatment
while his voice calls out introspective, abstract lyrics to set the mind racing. Louis' bass underpins the music with a dubby sensibility,
bringing a necessary balance to the frequency range.
Making the most of their in-the-room recording approach, the singles will feature alternative takes of the songs that will appear on the
album, providing a little insight into the flutters and fluctuations that shape the development of this project. With their eyes fixed on live
performances and an arresting sound already formed, this is a vital time for all three artists and the people that listen to them.

Review: British label Fire return with more retro antics. Virginias Wings perform a cover version of Suzanne Menzel's lost pop classic "It Starts Again" with Jane Weaver on vocals. Noveller Aka Brooklyn based Sarah Lipstate performs a rendition of John Carpenter's "The Thing" and Malmo based dream pop trio Death and Vanilla re-imagine Bert Janschs "Moonshine" on this first edition of the new Lost Library series: conceived by the label boss James Nicholls and designer Luke Drozd. Featuring new tracks from their acclaimed female fronted roster.

Review: Some serious UK electro history here, as Running Back delivers a fresh pressing of Equip's rare 1984 gem 'XXXO', which was previously only available as a single-sided 12" back in the early 2000s. It's an undeniably far-sighted concoction which was produced by Greg Wilson, Martin Jackson and Andy Connell for - but sadly never included on - the pioneering Streesounds UK Electro album the trio created. Although technically electro, the track's 4/4 beats and proto-acid sounds make it a contender for the elusive title of 'first ever house record made in Britain'. To back it up, Gerd Janson has re-edited two previously unreleased electro beats recorded by the trio for a breakdance performance at the I.C.A, both of which sound like mutant, extra-percussive fusions of electro and post-punk.

Review: Are Working Men's Club the best band to have emerged from northern England in the past decade? We'd say there's a very, very good chance. Catch them live on stage and Sydney Minsky-Sargeant, Liam Ogburn, Hannah Cobb and Mairead O'Connor are utterly captivating, and their combination of post punk, rock, electronica, and acid house transfers very well onto record too. Their DJ sets, for which 'Syd' leads the charge, are also nothing short of quality. Informed by genre-less masters such as Andrew Weatherall, Ivan Smagghe and Erol Alkan, as this latest Megamix goes to show, the idea is to create these deeply immersive cosmic soundscapes that aim directly for the dance floor, taking phrases and sounds from their songs, reworking, rethinking and rearranging them into something fresh and high energy. Impossible not to make an impact.

Review: DEL Records is back doing its thing - which is specifically unearthing exceptional electronic sounds discovered in the outer reaches of our galaxy while on a research mission. Enterprise crew, eat your heart out, the sci-fi feeling runs deep with this one, as we're taken on a deep and immersive journey through intergalactic tones as intellectual as they are immediately compelling.

The right ingredients for any strong narrative, German artist Woyke splices together IDM, electronica, movie-theme-worthy epic synthdom, ambient, downtempo and electro-breaks in a way that feels very fresh, not to mention reassuringly warm, considering the early-winter release date. An expansive journey to the other side of somewhere, it's impossible not to get overly immersed, presenting the very real risk of wormhole closing and getting stuck here forever. Still, there are worse places to end up.