Review: UK producer Trevor Huddleston aka 36 and the Indiana-based Past Inside The Present label's head Zake return to their Stasis Sounds For Long Distance Space Travel project, a universe that suspends the listener in time across glacial soundscapes and a general sense of cosmic awe. Soft, slow-moving drones and textural washes drift like solar winds through the vacuum, suggesting the boundless calm of deep space. The production is rich, gentle with tonal shifts and barely-there harmonics that evoke both distance and intimacy, wonder and melancholy. It feels like music beamed in from the edges of the known universe. If you fancy a contemplative journey from the edge of Earth's thermosphere into the unknowable beyond, tune into Stasis Sounds on your best headphones.
Review: Alien D is the NYC-based producer Daniel Creahan, and he's back with a debut on Theory Therapy that taps into widescreen worlds of techno immersion. Departing from the ambient abstraction of his previous work, this album as a subtle kinetic pulse with tracks like 'Soil Dub' and 'Sleepy's Gambit' propel listeners forward with dubwise rhythms crafted for deep dancefloors. The album builds on an infectious, steady groove with repeating phrases and subtle shifts that keep the music in constant motion. Conceived in the first days after the COVID lockdown, these sounds exude a hopeful quality and capture the transcendent moments of early-morning parties when the moment is full of unbridled hope for what might come.
Review: The first recorded meeting of Pierre Bastien (compositeur Parisien) and Casper Van De Velde's (Belgian drummer known for his outings on Qeerecords) documents two days of lowkey live-performed regalia at Werkplaats Walter in Brussels. Set up by Blickwinkel, the residency saw Bastien's "miniature mechanical orchestras" - trumpets, motors, Meccano arms, all of which make up the former artist's trademark live machinic draw - click into orbit with Van De Velde's loose-limbed, textural percussion. Both artists work in detail and gesture before volume, moving gently but unpredictably, index finger tracing part-clockwork, part-creature pattern cuts.
Review: Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) marks his AD93 debut with The Way Of Time, wrapping elucted echo and looping synth drift around spoken fragments of Elizabeth Madox Roberts' great 1926 novel The Time Of Man. A Midwestern gothic literary staple, Roberts' novel is about the daughter of a Kentucky tenant farmer, and Jenssen's haunting use of Joan Lorring's voice from the 1951 radio play adaptation readapts his usual icy predilections for suitably huger desert horizons. Rather than treating the vocal as ornament, he folds it deep into the mix, letting it dissolve into the melodic architecture.
Review: Elizabeth Madox Roberts' The Time Of Man (1926) is an episodic modern novel, tracing the life of Ellen Chesser, the daughter of poor white tenant farmers in rural Kentucky. Roberts treats the main character's movement through different landscapes and seasons waveringly, grappling with poverty, loss, love, and the push-pull between solitude and connection by way of a lytic narrative that shifts and resolves atemporally. Biosphere's new record carries the transmission chain further, naming itself after the novel while interspersing its hiss-topped drum machine actions with vocal snippets from Joan Lorring's radio play version. Slowly transcendent, Biosphere presides with arid royalty over a slow but satiating new six-track release.
Review: Hamburg's Helena Hauff and F#X return resurrect their darkly experimental Black Sites project after an 11 year hiatus. Their first full length LP - for Berlin's techno institution Tresor Records, no less - pulls about as few punches as any of their material, improvised live and recorded straight to tape with minimal editing and post-production buffing up. 'BLOKK' has a touch of the distorted glories of Aphex's early Polygon Window work, 'C4' has a low slung bassline throb and supercharged kick meets radioactive cymbal rhythm track, and elsewhere skeletal electro and Throbbing Gristle-style industrial noise either does battle or teams up. Maximum toxicity!
Review: Originally released in April 2017, this is a reissue that reaffirms the album's pivotal role in modern darkwave. Crafted by Sydney-based Marc Dwyer, Chroma pulses with a brooding energy that fuses stark minimalism with unexpected pop leanings. Across its runtime, jagged synths and relentless drum programming frame a series of emotionally charged compositions, each one dissecting states of isolation, longing, and inner turbulence. Far from being just a genre exercise, Chroma pushes the boundaries of synth wave and post-punk, threading glimmers of melody through layers of tension and shadow. Dwyer's delivery is cold and commanding, yet there's an underlying vulnerability in how he constructs each track, always rooted in personal reflection but never static. The production is raw but intentional, giving it an immediacy that still hits with force today. Since its release, Chroma has gained a cult following, inspiring peers in the darker corners of electronic music. With two additional albums and several international tours under his belt, Dwyer has grown into a spectral mainstay of the global goth underground. The long-awaited reissue brings Chroma back into circulation where it belongs. Restored, relevant and just as magnetic as it was eight years ago.
Review: And the award for best box set idea of the year goes to Ghostly International, who've recognised the untapped crossover market potential between tape culture and architecturally minded 3D sandbox gaming. Both Minecraft and cassettes offer unequivocal home downtime experiences, so what better way than to celebrate such ingenious associations than with a mammoth expansion of Daniel Rosenfeld's original soundtrack under the name C418? After many vinyl and CD reissues became fanatic cult favorites, with several sold-out color variants, now both volumes Alpha and Beta appear in opaque green; assuming the rewind button functions properly and the reels haven't garbled round the spools, you're in for a degradable lo-fi treat and analogue alternative listening experience; mute the laptop output and fire up the Nakamichi, you wally.
Review: Oblique Records offers a four-track vinyl-only selection of stripped, club-ready house cuts shaped by UKG inflections and percussive detail. Velvet Velour's 'Make It Hot' leads with a swung rhythm, vocal stabs, and a warm bassline that keeps the energy tight without crowding the mix. Eli Atala's 'Fat Albert' runs deeper, with clipped low-end and a sharper rhythmic frame. The Velvet Velour remix of the same track adds glide and bounce, pushing the groove forward while softening some of the original's edges. On the B-side, MTTY's 'Wally' closes the set with swung drums and sparse atmospherics - minimal in structure but tuned for pace. Each track is functional without sounding generic, keeping arrangement changes minimal and geared for blend. A direct, neatly cut pack of tools with just enough variation to stretch across a warm-up or mid-set.
Review: Different Rooms finds its footing in the blurs between studio process and improvisation; lived space and constructed sound. Made across late 2024 and early 2025, it hears LA-London-Hamburgers Jeremiah Chu and Marta Sofia Honer fold field recordings, granular textures, and multi-layered viola sessions into a viscous yet meticulous shape. Core material stemmed from real-time editing and in-studio performances, interwoven with improvisations recorded back in 2023 alongside Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson. Compared to the outward gaze of their debut, Recordings From The Aland Islands, this second one turns inward, coming rooted in urban soundscapes: train stations, streets, domestic interiors.
Review: Throbbing Gristle co-founder and all round British experimental electronic institution, Cosey Fanni Tutti returns with 2t2, a new full-length set for release through her own Conspiracy International label. The new nine-tracker extends the tracked terrains of 2019's Tutti, blurring personal reflections on years of loss and upheaval into prosthetic electronic soundscapes. The record unfolds over two contrasting halves, one beat-driven, the other more introspective, yet it also keeps anchored to a certain ground point emphasising resilience and focus. Lead cut 'Stound' features overtone chanting, which Cosey describes as a way to channel inner strength: "allowing the sounds to permeate and soothe as well as create a sense of power."
I Can Never Say Goodbye (Paul Oakenfold 'Cinematic' remix)
Endsong (Orbital remix)
Drone:no Drone (Daniel Avery remix)
All I Ever Am (Meera remix)
A Fragile Thing (Ame remix)
And Nothing Is Forever (Danny Briottet & Rico Conning remix)
Warsong (Daybreakers remix)
Alone (Four Tet remix)
I Can Never Say Goodbye (Mental Overdrive remix)
And Nothing Is Forever (Cosmodelica Electric Eden remix)
A Fragile Thing (Sally C remix)
Endsong (Gregor Tresher remix)
Warsong (Omid 16B remix)
Drone:no Drone (Anja Schneider remix)
Alone (Shanti Celeste 'February Blues' remix)
All I Ever Am (Mura Masa remix)
Review: A four sided selection of remixes of the goth kingpins' widely acclaimed and long awaited latest album Songs of a Lost World. From the moment Paul Oakenfold's 'I Can Never Say Goodbye' rework opens proceedings i lush strings, half-submerged vocals, and a cinematic pace i it's clear that curation, not just contribution, has shaped the form. Orbital turn 'Endsong' into a glistening spiral of sequencers and tension, while Sally C's raw house take on 'A Fragile Thing' ups the pulse without disturbing the gloom. Smith i still unmistakably the same outsider from Crawley, West Sussex i guides things with restraint, letting the space speak louder than the noise. Four Tet's version of 'Alone' closes the first disc like a forgotten lullaby, cracked and glinting. You don't get every remix i the more textural, post-rock turns are gone i but you do get a sharp cross-section that keeps faith with both atmosphere and momentum. It's the kind of record that feels designed for the night: not to lift it, exactly, but to sink into it willingly, track by track.
I Can Never Say Goodbye (Paul Oakenfold 'Cinematic' remix)
Endsong (Orbital remix)
Drone:nodrone (Daniel Avery remix)
All I Ever Am (Meera remix)
A Fragile Thing (Ame remix)
And Nothing Is Forever (Danny Briottet & Rico Conning remix)
Warsong (Daybreakers remix)
Alone (Four Tet remix)
I Can Never Say Goodbye (Mental Overdrive remix)
And Nothing Is Forever (Cosmodelica Electric Eden remix)
A Fragile Thing (Sally C remix)
Endsong (Gregor Tresher remix)
Warsong (Omid 16B remix)
Drone:nodrone (Anja Schneider remix)
Alone (Shanti Celeste 'February Blues' remix)
All I Ever Am (Mura Masa remix)
I Can Never Say Goodbye (Craven Faults rework)
Drone:nodrone (Joycut 'Anti-Gravitational' remix)
And Nothing Is Forever (Trentemoller rework)
Warsong (Chino Moreno remix)
Alone (Ex-Easter Island Head remix)
All I Ever Am (65daysofstatic remix)
A Fragile Thing (The Twilight Sad remix)
Endsong (Mogwai remix)
Review: Robert Smith has always treated remixing less like revision, more like ritual i a habit that's followed him since his days in Crawley, West Sussex and then surfacing officially on the first Cure remix album, 1990's Mixed Up. This triple-disc release of reworkings from the band's latest LP Songs of a Lost World feels assembled with obsessive care, mapping out every possible mood lurking beneath the surface. There are club-ready flips, yes i Sally C, Danny Briottet and Gregor Tresher all push the rhythm forward i but they sit beside glacial pieces that feel more like haunted sketches than reworks. Mura Masa's take on 'All I Ever Am' is disintegrated almost beyond recognition, its vocal a flickering memory. Mogwai's 'Endsong' feels like the end of the world in slow motion. Even Chino Moreno turns in something striking i 'WarSong' morphs into a sludgy howl with heat-warped edges. But it's the sequencing that surprises: these aren't bolted together, but grouped in arcs, as though Smith were arranging the bones of an old idea into something still alive. Four Tet's version of 'Alone' is a high point i deeply textured but featherlight. Like all The Cure's output, what really matters is the feeling of being drawn somewhere, and Smith's hand never letting go.
I CAN NEVER SAY GOODBYE (Paul Oakenfold "Cinematic' remix)
ENDSONG (Orbital remix)
DRONE:NODRONE (Daniel Avery remix)
ALL I EVER AM (Meera remix)
A FRAGILE THING (AME remix)
& NOTHING IS FOREVER (Danny Briottet & Rico Conning remix)
WARSONG (Daybreakers remix)
ALONE (Four Tet remix)
I CAN NEVER SAY GOODBYE (Mental Overdrive remix)
& NOTHING IS FOREVER (Cosmodelica Electric Eden remix)
A FRAGILE THING (Sally C remix)
ENDSONG (Gregor Tresher remix)
WARSONG (Omid 16B remix)
DRONE:NODRONE (Anja Schneider remix)
ALONE (Shanti Celeste 'February Blues' remix)
ALL I EVER AM (Mura Masa remix)
Review: More than four decades after he first appeared in smudged eyeliner and a mop of jet-black hair, Robert Smith is still finding new ways to pull his music apart and stitch it back together. This new remix collection i assembled and curated by Smith himself i feels less like a victory lap and more like a restless dissection of a legacy he's still actively shaping. The collaborators here are hardly incidental: Four Tet, Orbital, Ame, Chino Moreno, Mura Masa, Trentemoller, Mogwai. It reads like a list built by someone still hungrily tuned into the present, not stuck in the past. And true to form, the results are all over the place i a feature, not a flaw. Some tracks lean into grandeur: Paul Oakenfold's take on 'I Can Never Say Goodbye' opens with all the sweeping melodrama you'd expect, while Daybreakers stretch 'WarSong' into widescreen synthwork. Elsewhere, Shanti Celeste and Ex-Easter Island Head bring a strange intimacy to 'Alone', teasing out its ache with a different kind of spaciousness. At times, you wonder if Smith enjoys seeing how far his work can be bent before it breaks. But it never does i even filtered through others' hands, his sense of tension, drama and deep emotional unease holds everything together.
Review: Richard Fearless, London-based DJ and producer, returns with a daring reinvention of his electronic vision, delivering an unpolished, analogue-driven techno masterpiece. Stripping away any semblance of commercial sheen, he dives headfirst into a world of disintegration and overload, where every track feels like it's teetering on the edge of collapse. Drawing on his deep affinity for the rough textures of underground techno, the work channels influences ranging from the industrial growl of Ramleh to the acidic pulse of TM404, with moments that recall the claustrophobic minimalism of Mika Vainio and the haunting drones of Loop. Fearless is unafraid of pushing boundaries, his machinesifed by years of use and a tangled web of circuitryiemitting strange, almost sentient sounds, as if alive in their own right. What emerges is an album that doesn't simply reflect the artist's influences, but speaks with a distinct, personal voice. Tracks like 'While My Machines Gently Weep' and 'Death Mask' bear the hallamrks of live takes and dub-inspired mixing, creating a haunting, almost otherworldly quality, the machine noise blending with echoes of the past. Fearless has long been obsessed with dub and here, he allows its principles to guide him, distilling decades of musical history into something that feels deeply present. A vivid portrait of an artist grappling with his own sonic ghosts and the fractured landscape of modern dance music, it's quite the spectacular.
Review: Oraculo Records, M.U.S.A Records and Ombra Festival have all come together to unveil Dr. Oso, the latest talent to emerge from the Megabreakz collective. This Argentinian producer follows in the footsteps of Candido (who was behind Megabreakz 7) to deliver his own raw and unapologetic take on the hard new beat style. His release is pure fire, with 'Hooligan Beat Edit' swinging sonic punches in every direction at once. 'Trench Flight' is jacked up and ken with a rugged low end, gun shots and fragment synths all making for a visceral groove. It is much the same on the rest of the EP with 'Lager Dance' really popping thanks to its chopped up sirens and caustic textures.
Review: E-bony's Digital Dawn album is about "defining his identity as an artist" and it comes through INDUSTRIAS MEKANIKAS. This 12-tracker welds together electro and techno with plenty of personal sound perspective and dark textures that keep it decidedly underground. Collaborating with Noamm on four tracks, their creative synergy adds depth and elevates the record's complexity with the likes of 'Matrix Kod' getting gritty and eerie, 'Aurora Noir' bringing snappy kicks and coruscated acid lines and 'Data Delight' fizzing with pixelated synth sugariness.
Review: The electrifying second LP from Ensemble Nist-Nah is another gem from the hybrid percussion group led by Will Guthrie. Drawing on the textures of Javanese Gamelan, modern jazz and even trap, Spilla is a mesmeric and shape-shifting listen. Highlights like 'Gerak Maju' deliver breakbeat complexity through gongs and bells, while 'Ghostly Klang' balances jittery drumkit interplay with majestic melody. The closer is a Roscoe Mitchell rework that transforms deep melody into atmospheric density. Both intricate and raw, this album isn't an exercise in genre study or pastiche; it's an original voice in contemporary percussion music that makes for one of the year's most vital listens.
Review: Fashion Flesh aka John Talaga debuts on ESP Institute with two mind-bending tracks crafted from homemade electronics, circuit-bent gear and tape manipulations. Side A's 'Atoms Revolt' explores the secret lives of machines while channelling chaotic energy into controlled sonic accidents, layered distortion and surreal textures. Side B's 'New Freedom' evokes a dystopian adventure into Detroit's decaying industrial sprawl while fusing Geiger-like pulses and eerie oscillations with fragmented voices into a dark rhythmic storm. Talaga's ability to extract soul from machines is remarkable here in what is a visceral and cerebral EP.
Review: New music from LA resident Fields of Mist is always worth hearing. He's previously proven to be a master of bringing a hip-hop sensibility to his work, as well as a jazzy and broken beat bone on his 2022 album Iluminated60. This latest turn to Illian Tape is another standout with a mix of dreamy, suspenseful pads and killer rhythms. 'Dreams Of The Lost Moon' isa fine example of that with its far-sighted gaze but body popping drums and 'Darkstar System M312' then gets more moody with a speedy low end and astral pads. 'Moss Nebula Tidal Dance' is another blend of deep space ambience with minimal but impactful rhythms.
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