electronic

The opening track (coincidentally the title track) of AFX’s now legendary first entry in his Analogue Bubblebath series, will always live rent free in my head. It is, in my humble opinion, one of those tunes that just possesses a permanent timelessness quality. Yeah, sure, you can tell that this thing was recorded in the early 90s, as it smacks of those vibes, but that aside, I hope they will play this shit in museums…

This has to be one of the greatest game soundtracks of all time (I probably say that about every game soundtrack to be honest). It is very difficult for me to not look back at stuff like this with rose-tinted glasses on. These games were a huge part of a childhood that was perhaps misspent playing silly games instead of being outside playing (although to be fair I did a good amount of both, I…

I feel like I’ve heard multiple different iterations of this “best of” collection over the years, but it doesn’t really matter because everyone knows what tracks are always going to be on these things. Whether you’ve seen the movies that these tracks appear in or not, Goblin are such an unique band that listening to these compositions is always an enjoyable experience. The atmosphere is tangible, the instrumentation weird and tense. I mean, I guess…

I really enjoyed Cosmogramma and its odd mix of jazz tropes and disconnected electronic elements. It was a refreshing mix of styles (not to mention a mix of styles that has failed to mix well in the past). I appreciate that in the dense world of electronic music (and jazz, for that matter), FlyLo is able to give himself an unique, stand-out sound. But, there is something about You’re Dead that just does not gel…

An album that defines the sound of the 90s for me. I was just a kid, but fuck me, these sounds are just forever burned into my head. It’s the closing epic “Halcyon + On + On” which for me just absolutely blows my mind apart every time I hear it, taking me back to the times where the world seemed like a less scary place (of course it wasn’t, I was just ignorant to…

I fell in love with Sarah Barthel after hearing the Big Grams album (a collab project between Phantogram and Big Boi from Outkast). The problem I have with Phantogram themselves however is a similar ailment that strikes me when I listen to The Chromatics (although perhaps not so much there, the problem is worse here with Phantogram). And the problem that I am talking about is… well, I could be listening to just about absolutely…

I’ll listen to anything by Kevin Martin or Justin Broadrick, so put them together we are absolutely cooking on gas. Having thusfar made it to 2023 without ever hearing Ice, my first layman’s impression of them is that the vibe and sound here is very similar to the latter Bullen-era Scorn; spacey, acid-head dirges consisting of sub-bass, electronic beats and wailing guitars, all lead by dead-pan, haunting vocals. This record is a monster; all the…

Admittedly, at the time of writing I’ve not actually seen Creepshow. However, through a combination of Waxworks releases being really awesome to look at, and John Harrison doing the blinder of an OST for Day Of The Dead, I ended up checking this out anyway. If anything, it’ll be a sweet little primer for when I finally do get around to watching the film. I was going to say that perhaps this isn’t as iconic…

So this is the first time I’ve sat down with a Lustmord record. Honestly, I got bored very quickly. This was nowhere near as crushing or as oppressive in its weight as I was expecting. Then again, what was I expecting? I don’t think I know and perhaps this is part of the problem. This record just came across like a standard movie soundtrack with nothing that really stood out. I guess if I return…

Every now and then I check in on Shpongle and am blown away that they are still making records. On top of that, the records are of the same consistent quality, with the same kind of brain-tweaking production. I don’t know how the duo continue to cook up such beautiful explorative compositions, but they have definitely found their place in the world of music and I really hope that they continue to release music. I…

This is a project that involves Andrea Meyer who performed mainly as Nebelhexe and also appeared on the first Cradle Of Filth record. Unfortunately, as I was really looking forward to this one, this is pretty boring to me. It kinda goes nowhere, and whilst there are a few moments of pizazz in this evil atmospheric pieces, most of the record’s run time does nothing for me. It works as cool spooky background music, but…

Hyper mental fuckin’ electronics? Why not. Wlfgrl has seen a re-release that I’ve been meaning to look at for a long time, with an extended run time. Personally, I prefer the shorter, sharp jolt of the original but fans of this carnage will no doubt be happy with the extra material here.

When you wake up in a empty house and the weather outside stops you from going anywhere, and you’re trapped staring at the dull light of your work-issued laptop… its time for a listen of something as heavy and as involving as William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops. Or in this case, part 1 of the 4 part series. Getting stuck into this is a massive undertaking, but not as massive as say, The Caretaker and his…

Well then, what a terrible album title. Also, unfortunately on this release Machine Girl fluctuates between sounding like the Ridge Racer OST on acid or just generally being super fucking irritating. Won’t be back. Sorry lol.

Bizarre electronic album from the mid nineties, with a mixed bag of vibes. It’s easy to be put off by that horrendous cover art, but this is a deep and unusual journey through the medium of electronic music.

Music that will put you into a waking dream state. A lot of this kinda stuff ends up in movies, of which I have definitely not seen, but isolated alone like this, makes for some beautiful and relaxing synthesizer music.

I’ve listened to this many times over the years where instead perhaps I should have branched out a bit more into other Psychic TV stuff (there’s so much of it!). This is a fantastic piece of work, though; a very thorough exercise in sinister and brooding atmospheric music. Not quite on the knife-edge of noise, Cathedral Engine definitely uses a “less is more” approach compared to some of the other projects by those involved, but…

I can’t remember where | picked this up or how this record entered my sphere of vision as it were, but I’ve had this thing knocking about and have been meaning to write about it since 2014. Being a droney, ambient affair, my listens of it usually accompany some sort of other activity such as working or writing and I never get around to writing about the record itself. Until today, finally, let’s address the…

I think Necro Deathmort are super underrated. Volume 2.5 is a shorter release, an EP of sorts, comprising more of their spacier, explorative material as opposed to the earlier heaviness they were into. Volume 2.5 is still a dark record however, with subtle menace dripping from every song.

2-Bulah-Bell 2: Bak 2 Da Belle was an unexpected drop from Mike Oldfield. And by unexpected, I mean, it was not expected for me when I found there was a sequel, a third, and a bunch of crappy remix albums all riding off the success of the first record in this series. Now, I love Mike Oldfield, anyone who can play that many different guitars is good in my book, but 2-Bulah-Bell 2 gets way…

Pickled stuff here from the long-running Venetian Snares project. Think breakbeat but with strings and mental vocals, to break it down to its most basic level. This one has perplexed me since it came out, and I find it quite impenetrable, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Ridiculous, pointless, absurd CD single from the gods of narco goregrind. I picked this up at a festival for next to nothing and its worth owning just because its so bizarre, but hey – this shit happened! The version of “Matando Gueros” as the b-side is also pretty cool.

Remix albums are always a dark art, purely by the nature of their individual component parts usually being submitted by multiple different artists. It is hard to make it work, at least as an enjoyable coherent listen. Telegram is all over the place and doesn’t flow very well at all, but there are some excellent stand outs. First up, it is worth mentioning the stand-alone original track “My Spine”, which is an out-take or a…

Holy fucking mother of Kazan, what in the great creeping shit is this!? The cover art screams of an upset boomer wanted to piss off the “normies” by uploading a baiting profile pic. The messages in both the pink triangle whiphand and the slogan printed onto the COVID mask might be subversive and purposefully contradictory in that good ol’ Di6 way, but this cover selection proves that Douglas is definitely losing his subtly when it…

A lovely little 4-track EP from the AFX project. The first two tracks are remixes and flow together nicely, conjuring up a few variations on the same theme. “Nightmail” cuts in and changes the pace with a low-key breakbeat energy and chattering vocal sample before the final track gives us some ploinky synth padding to close.  In all, it’s a nice little cross section of styles, and a fun snapshot into the works of RDJ.

The Bug has collaborated with Warrior Queen many times now, but this EP is one of the earlier efforts. Backed with the tune “World War 3”, “Aktion Pak” itself is a fair ol’ banger. The rest of the release contains extensive dubs/remixes of the title track by The Bug himself, as well as a completely unrelated track at the end. A strange one.

2015 – The Fall Of Newport is the “lost” Sanguelia album that was originally meant to come out years ago. Unlike the project’s first record, a recording of real-life drumming was never placed over the synth work, so years laterx sole-remaining member Linus programmed the drums himself, and this finally saw the light of day in 2022. Personally, I prefer this over the first record (although I might be biased), I love the bubbling bass…

I love Neptune Towers. Part of me wants Fenriz to resuscitate the project, but another wants it to remain dead so we just have these two perfect gems. I’ve written about the other album some time ago, so it’s time to talk about this one. I love how Tangerine Dream had this low-key influence on the black metal guys, with Mortiis doing Fata Morgana and Fenriz doing this. This is far dreamier and stretched out…

Dune-inspired remix record for the first Fear Factory album. Probably a stretch to call this an album too, it’s more of an EP. Either way, it shows the techno and / or industrial elements have been there since the start, even when the group were more in line with death metal than anything else.

The first thing to notice about this second Rx remix offering from ANB is how insanely ferocious it is out of the gate. There was some harsh sounds on the first volume, but also a ton of moody offerings. Here, the entire ship is steered by none other than Delta 9, and only using (I believe) material from Altered States. So, taking both those things on board, it is hardly surprising that this thing rips…

Onwards through the Analord universe! The opening track to this one always lights me up with energy, it’s like something out of an old Sonic The Hedgehog game but in an acid techno style. Track 3 has always stuck with me, with its haunting, warbling synth lead.

The earlier Berzerker stuff just got harder and harder the closer we got to the “band” Self-Titled (although, to be fair, Luke has always gone hard). Broken (or Untitled EP, depending on your source), is a harsh and head-pounding listen, where all the speedcore craziness gets dialled up every further.  It’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of the earlier full-band stuff but don’t expect any grindcore or death metal here. It’s straight up…

Interesting take on some of the self-titled stuff, with a completely different running order and some omissions / changes. The funniest thing about this for me is that the original working title for “Ignorance” is “Black Metal”.  This little disc is definitely one for the die-hards to hunt down though, and everyone else should go straight to the excellent self-titled release from 2000.

Inextricable Zenith is a notable entry into the evolution of the Berzerker because it was on this EP that the cover version or remix of Deicide’s “Once Upon The Cross” first appeared. It starts to make more sense, upon hearing this, and the EP in general, which is super aggressive, as to how the Berzerker migrated from being a gabba project into a grindcore band. If I had one complaint about this EP though is…

This ambient piece seems to be revered online, and I suppose with good reason. Towers presents 4 enormous atmospheric chunks, where the sounds of life and – I guess – the city, are mangled and distorted into surreal passages of relaxing noise. It is as equally daunting in parts as it is uplifting. Words can only do so much for this kind of cerebral recording; it’s best to just listen to it.

We’re about to drop a new Sanguelia album on our label Two Man Tape Co, so it was cool to look back several years to this debut. Inspired by the music present in Italian horrors and giallos, and driven thematically by a similar horror aesthetic, Sanguelia combine synthesizers with real live drumming for a performance that reminds of Goblin or Zombi, if I could make such bold comparisons.

Following on from my recent foray back into Oxygen (a classic), I followed up with Chronology, which is perfect music for keeping your mind sharp whilst reading or engaging in some other task of concentration. To say Chronology is not “spacey” would be a lie, there is just a different vibe here.

Low key, posthumous release from Godflesh during their initial break up, or just before. I think it was recorded in the early 90s originally. Anyway, here are 4 tracks of stunning introspective industrial metal, followed by 4 dub remixes of those same tracks. It gives Messiah a circular feel, as themes you hear at the start are reprised in the dubs at the end. It’s a great mix of stuff.

I was recommended this off the back of finding Lunar Womb’s Planets record. There I was in awe of the vaporwave-decades-before-vaporwave sound mixed with dark ambient (or dungeon synth to you modern kids). Watering A Flower is however, a different creature. There is a similarity in floating synthesisers and dreamlike pacing, but otherwise Haruomi Hosono invokes an entirely different listening experience. One I admittedly enjoyed in all its minimal, trance-inducing goodness, and I will seek…

Ah, Oxygène, one of the greats of the chill-out electronic genre, no? Before everything chilled out became house hi hats and moody loops, the genre was more attributed to “Mike Oldfield shit” – by which I mean huge 4 or 5 CD box sets of wishy washy hippy synthesizer music. You could guarantee a radio edit of Oxygène would be included on any one of those compilations worth its salt. I am of course doing…

What an absolute beauty of an EP. I first marked this down for LIW’ing in 2020, so it was a pleasure to come back and check it out for this review. I absolutely love the mix of jazz, noise and I suppose, even grindcore. There are muted electronic passages that invoke the realms of vaporwave and 80s nostalgia, before the madness comes back and smacks you upside the head. A topsy turvy listen, for sure.

The Doom II Master Levels is a mixed bag. One of the most irritating things about it, is that whilst a lot of the files occupy map slot 01, you get the same soundtrack over and over and over as you play. Thank any metaphorical heavens then, for the Doom community. Megasphere has popped up a few times in regards to soundtracking WADs, but this was my first encounter with his work. Honestly, he puts…

I’ve heard the name Jah Wobble many, many times, but have never had the pleasure of partaking in any of his music. Thank the dub heavens then, for this collab with the legendary Bill Laswell. A Dub Transmission takes you on an hour of ticking, chill-out beats underpinned by intense, fat sub-bass. It won’t blow a hole in your speaker cone, but you can definitely feel its presence, which is fantastic. A bit later on,…

Hrmmmm. This is a rare misstep for Burial. Let me preface this by saying that the music here isn’t bad, nor is its production inferior. Everything is above board. I’m just…. confused by the vibes. The name Rival Dealer of course conjures the usual Burial magic of urban grit filtered through fractured and almost ambient dance/dub sound pieces. All of them are unique yet united as a whole. On Rival Dealer however, which contains some…

I’m not the biggest club guy, Londoner or even electronic music enthusiast (although that does grow over time, judging by the burgeoning ‘electronic’ tag here on this site), but Untrue has to be one of the greatest albums ever made, all the same. I’ve read many stories about its inception, but the general one I like the most is that Burial is trying to pay tribute to the sounds and atmospheres he grew up in….

I saw Uiutna supporting Jarboe on one of her solo tours, I think back in 2013. I picked up this cassette because the dude’s set was really cool. Splitting here with Druss, both artists present something in the form of long-winding, experimental electronic fuckery. Not quite as out-there as say, Tangerine Dream, but allowing the same sort of droning electronica to morph and shape in its own unique, dark way. I think the Druss side…

Okay, so – before I begin, how tf is this 10 years old? Damn! The time, she flies! The Money Store is the record that brought Death Grips into the mainstream, introducing the band to a new generation of music rabid fans, who no doubt lapped up the aural carnage and abrasive experimental hip hop like rabid dogs. I find a lot of the later Death Grips records get a little too obtuse, but here…

Another excellent band/project I have had the pleasure of recently unearthing, Offermose offer the most (lol) stunning mixture of Tangerine Dream style Berlin School synth meandering, punctuated with vibes and call backs to the dungeon synth movement of the 90s, with shimmering, moving passages and spooky, almost black metal style vocals. Stilhedens Tårn presents a cold and morose atmosphere, but one that is peaceful and beautiful in its own way. One in which you can…

Ah, more lovely electronic weirdness, just what the doctor ordered. I love this thing. It’s a strange mixed bag of vibes, with some being pleasant and others being a bit more disturbing, which is par for the course considering who is involved. The production is an absolute marvel to listen to however and the sound leaps out best whilst listening on headphones. It’s a bit strange, but it’s worth sticking with, consumed as a whole…

Spooky, dark yet somewhat blissful and meandering ambient tunes are the order of the day. To say they don’t really go anywhere would possibly be a low blow – this is ambient music after all – but I can’t get rid of the nagging feeling that I’m listening to a boatload of build-up and then not much else. This is despite the mixed bag of different vibes and textures that Rapoon throws at us. However,…

One that’s been on the to-do list for a fucking decade, would you believe? Anyways, I missed the 12″ release of this but have heard it many times over the last ten years. Street Halo (the song, as well as the EP in general) is super danceable for Burial, but still retains that dark, urban sprawl. The music conjures mental images of street lights, rain on the bus window, clandestine clubs, and walls covered in…

I stumbled onto Kim Larson’s White Chamber after hearing her contribution to Offermose’s Stilhedens Tårn record (the first track, I believe). As with many times before, Discogs led me down the garden path, where I found this little EP resting next to a (digital) pond. Similar to Offermose, White Chamber is initially coming across like a mix of a foundational base of Berlin School, coupled with the spooky, folky electronics of earlier Death In June…

Flux is a sublime journey through laid back and mesmerizing lo-fi electronic soundscapes. Robert Turman is an expert at conjuring moods from minimal and subtle sound design. Flux is not a hundred miles away from Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1, an album that is often praised as one of the greatest electronic works of all time. However, to compare the two to give some idea of the sound here, Flux lurks more in the shadows,…

This is a fantastic collection of tunes from the 90s, which YouTube insisted on forcing down my gullet. Honestly, this thing has been in my recommended for what seems like a year or so. Now that I’ve heard it, I want to go out and get a copy of the actual cassette. This is some chilled out shit. It doesn’t quite fall into “house” territory, but the drum and bass beats are more a laid…

Well this is an absolute banger of a track. I tend to focus on albums rather than singles here on LIW, but every now and then I’ll hear one so have to write about it. This has an absolutely stomper of a beat to it, backed up with some clean and stunning synthesizers and robotic vocals. I believe this guy has done some work with Kamasi Washington so I’ll have to try and hunt that…

Drukqs has always eluded me. I’m not really sure why, but it just has. Maybe it was the length of it? I would be speculating, to give any more reasons. Well, I finally listened to it, and after completing it, I exclaimed: “Oh OK, cool”. Of course, the maddening Aphex “acid” is on par as per always, but as far as some of the mellower moments go… They seemed to drag a bit, I won’t…

This is a fantastic 4-track EP from JK Flesh, released on 12″ by the Downwards label. Expect less of the guitar-orientated tracks of the early 2010s and instead embrace the body-moving, cerebral techno explosions that we have surely come to know and love from the project. My favourite track on this thing has to be “Bullied By Love”, but to be honest, all 4 are absolute corkers. One for the late nights when the weed…

I saw this ensemble live in Roadburn Festival, at either the 2011 or 2012 edition. The work they performed there was much more ambient, downtempo and minimal than this self-titled record. It is an album that reminds me of Ulver’s Perdition City, yet of course sounds nothing like Perdition City. The self-titled offering of Darkjazz here however is a cinematic, urban offering that flitters between traditional instrumentation and pulsing electronic passages; one works off the…

I have no idea why this is on my To Do list, as this breed of 90s “industrial” really just fills me with rage. I could go off on one here, but I’ll keep it short – how did industrial get from Throbbing Gristle, to Godflesh… to something like this? I often jest how the 90s saw industrial turn from an outsider genre into a tag that basically means “crap dance music for goths”. KMFDM…

Is this a concept album? I should probably look it up but I can’t be bothered. Anyways, I love all eras of Ulver and its been a while since I’ve written about the later stuff so I decided to spin this up. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a toploader of an album, with all the good shit stacked at the front. It also doesn’t really bring anything new to the table in regards to Ulver’s…

One could easily call this album boring, but that would mean one has truly missed the point of such an album as this. In fact, even with its run time, to call it an album feels odd. This is two stand-alone singular tracks (just one in the 1993 release), a single mood in each, left to ring out for an enormous length of time. It really pushes the boundary of what can be considered music,…

I love it when you find something that you have never heard before. Yes, I’ve heard Lunar Womb before, but hear me out. The blend of styles on this record are incredibly perplexing. Think dungeon synth mixed with vaporwave. Both are fairly obscure electronic subgenres with little crossover (the runescape.wav (sp?) project the only outlier I can think of), but their unintentional mixture on this 25 year old demo is perplexing and thought provoking. Vaporwave…

I was never that big a fan of Demon Days when it first came out. It seemed to lack the dub stylings of the Gorillaz self-titled album. It could not be argued however, that Demon Days is not packed with fantastic singles. From “Dirty Harry” to “Kids With Guns” to “Dare” or even all the way through to the abstract “Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head”, Demon Days is loaded with low key banger…

Burial has always been sparse, low key and understated. This double A side (at least I believe its an AA due to the title) 12″ is Burial stripped back even further than I have ever heard before. I am, yes, slowly catching up with the man’s discography (I have fallen off in recent years), but this is easily the most bare bones thing I’ve heard him do.

I love Boy Harsher. Both their album (Yr Body Is Nothing) and this original demo/EP/whatever are absolutely fantastic slices of dark electronica. Here on Lesser Man, themes and imagery of the dark industrial or noise worlds is used with warbling analogue synthesizer sounds and cold, sparse and tense vocals, to create a danceable yet thought-provoking series of compositions. One of the best!

Stunning, dreamy, nostalgic – these are a few words that spring to mind with this album playing. In fact this is so good I threw down on a copy of the cassette release off the strength of the first track alone. I can’t wait for it to arrive so I can listen to it again on an analogue format (dec 2021 update: it sounds amazing). Mixing the treacle-like haunted nostalgia vibes of vaporwave with morose…

Of all the Ice And Fire characters to base your project name off, Qyburn is probably one of the sketchiest. Anyway, Wax Mask isn’t particularly amazing I’m afraid to say. I found it quite disappointing. I’ll leave it at that because I don’t want to take swings at this thing. I wish the Qyburn project all the best.

Flux Information Sciences were admittedly a band I only ever heard of because they had an album out on Michael Gira’s Young God Records. The Last Mixes is a compilation of well, some of the last stuff the band ever did. Apparently. It’s not listed anywhere as an official release, and one of the band members has commented on the YouTube upload of this saying he doesn’t know where the hell the uploader got these…

I played the fuck out of this thing when I was a teenager. I loved the big beats and the livelier remixes of some of the, dare I say, duller tracks on Love And Hate. Not to shit on that album, but there’s a few snoozers on there. I also had the CD (doubled with In All Languages DVD) and the vinyl version, each of which I think had a different track listing. “Time, Death…

Oi oi! A split between Justin Broadrick and Mick Harris? I don’t mind if I do. JK Flesh is fuckin’ top drawer as always, but Monrella is new to me, despite my flurry through the deck of cards that Mick Harris has as projects last year. Head-thumping, cerebral techno is the order of the day (all round actually). So get ready to stomp, but get ready for the tunes to be really dark too. Banging.

Ah yes, more horrible electronics from Godflesh. Just what the doctor ordered, and a welcome distraction from awaiting a new studio album. Pretty sure I’ve heard a bunch of these tracks before on the Japanese versions of “New Flesh” albums, but this release alone is consistent and filled with all sorts of nasty vibes. If JK Flesh doesn’t bring the crushing metal with GC Green, you can of course rely on him to bring the…

We played this on a night shift last year, after reading online about how its one of the evilist things ever recorded, or some such overblown statement. A Cool Dark Place To Die is, frankly, comical in its concept and delivery. Coming across like a mix of shit dungeon synth and even shitter “death-rock” like Christian Death and the like, Theatre Of Ice ham it up in every way possible, and then obscure everything with…

Gar Hoover is a musician from the Detroit area who seems to specialise in fannying about with PO-33s, in amongst, I’m sure, other devices too. However, he has released two albums of tunes comprised entirely of creations from the pocket-sized PO-33. There’s a ton of vibes and grooves here, but the quality is consistent and the craftsmanship is second to none. My tape label Two Man Tape Co is doing a limited run of Vol….

Thumpin’ underground techno to get you out of the clubs in the toon and into some rusty, damp shithole of a warehouse on a shady industrial estate 5 miles away, where many sweaty, half naked bodies writhe away in some sort of unison; each like a head of the hydra, unique but connected by one source and one purpose. The center of this hive mind is of course, body-movement commanding electronic barrages by the likes…

A twisted, zany approach to electronic / synthpop! And the best part, is that these guys are just from down’t road, as it were. On the Two Man Tape Co. label we’ve recently done a compilation of these guys’ best material (as picked by them!), which sold incredibly well. Consequential Quasars was the album I listened to when scouting out bands to approach with the label, and it was the record that sold me on…

It’s nice to see Scorn back again with yet another puzzlingly-sleeved record. What on earth is going on here? What a mixed bag of vibes! The art of course jarrs heavily with the intense and paranoid slow-mo beatscapes (is that a word?) that the wizard Mick Harris has cooked up for us this time. He’s back with his mixing-desk-as-a-weapon approach to dark electronic music, and of course I will always welcome more Scorn here on…

Nothing Lasts…. has always been my least favourite Shpongle release. I’m not entirely sure where the decision was made to split the record into smaller tracks, but I don’t think it paid off. Sure, Nothing Lasts… flows like one giant session more than anything, but the small little fades between track switch overs only damages the timeless flow and feeling of most Shpongle tracks. That isn’t to say that this record is bad by any…

Unfortunately I had played the Plutonia WAD before I realised there was a glorious 90 minute fan-made OST for it. I thought at the time, “damn, why doesn’t this fucking WAD have its own OST like TNT did?”, and obviously I can’t have been the only Doomer to have thought this, otherwise this beautiful creation wouldn’t exist. There’s a mixed bag here, of styles more than quality, due to the number of composers on board,…

I’ve always wanted to like Ascension but I’ve always found the mix to be impenetrable. Outside of opening track “Fools” I’ve found the whole thing blurs together into one forgettable haze. I can’t be the only one who had thoughts similar to this, as a completely new mix has been released by the man himself, JK Broadrick. It’s called a remaster but they clearly went back to the drawing board on this one. I know…

Miss Melanoma is probably the best stand-alone Libido Airbag release. It was the first time, I think, where they stepped away from murky sounds and production and went for a full studio-quality production. Honestly, this is fucking huge, and the electronics are so fucking nasty. The vocals… well, I guess those are up to the individual to decide on! Haha

Shpongle’s sophomore record is a lot more texturally rich than its beat-focussed debut, and would define how the group would go on to evolve in their subsequent recordings. The artwork is a bit crap on a scale of 0 to Shpongled-as-fuck, but in a way it kinda suits the chilled out psytrance on display here. In fact, calling Shpongle “psytrance” almost feels like forcing them into a narrow box into which they don’t really fit….

The uhh, subtly named Barrel Blow Job was the first Libido Airbag record that I heard, I think when I was 16 or 17. Honestly, it really spun me out, as it was like nothing I had ever heard before. Sure, I’d heard reams of crappy pornogrind / cybergrind on MySpace, stuff which I suppose ripped this kinda thing off but just really badly, but I’d never heard anything quite so dirgy and heavy, with…

I remember this record coming out as if it was yesterday. It marked a turn in direction for Björk, who I understand was going through a lot of personal stuff at the time. Not only is the tone and content darker, the songs are impenetrable and sprawling. Björk has released plenty of difficult or challenging records, but this album is almost painful an experience when listening from start to finish. I guess in some regards…

Alpha Centauri is one of the records that caused me to fall in love with Tangerine Dream in the first place. Truly, what a magical performance of synth-work, one which I am sure I can do no justice. Phaedra is the early record that seems to get all the hype, but truly this is the god tier TD stuff. Hunt it down and have a goosey if you don’t believe me.

Frequent readers of the site may have noticed that I’ve started accumulating a few posts about Doom WADs. What became a nostalgic plan to replay the original Doom games in the recent version of Brutal Doom (Google it!) has now become a frequent past time for me. Its the perfect way for me to unwind from life, work, and the adult responsibilities of being a dad. For an hour or so every few nights, I…

Carnival Of Peculiarities is a new EP from the lovely people in Shpongle. Now that I stop and think about it, I’ve never come across a Shpongle EP before. The format seems almost as if it is not long-form enough for the group and the kind of trip/journey approach they take with their trance music. Nevertheless, here we are, and whilst this does end up feeling more like half an album rather than an EP,…

RxAxPxEx did this absurdly noisy split with Absurd God. I got given this years ago, so passed on the love and gave it away to a colleague who was collecting cassettes in my previous job. It had a lovely yellow colour to the cassette. Nowadays I’m back to collecting cassettes, so it sucks I gave this away, but what can you do? This is blocked on the Discogs website, which made me worry if someone…

One of the most chilled out things in a while. Related somewhat to the vaporwave movement, Voyage Futur’s Secret Earth is a lush, celebral trip filled with all-encompassing compositions of dense electronic noises (which makes it sound like a power electronics record lol). I spent seemingly forever staring at the artwork as this washed over me. Great stuff.

G-Sides is a collection of tracks from the Gorillaz self titled era, and asides from the (frankly, pointless) single version of “Rock The House”, is rammed to the gills with excellent content. I always loved the dub undercurrent to the group’s early work and there are plenty of odd tracks here catering in this regard, “Dracula” and “Left Hand Suzuki Method” spring to mind as favourites. G-Sides is not as good as the album that…

The Wrath Of Code is a pulsing journey through a world of synthwave and big, dense production. The colourful and perplexing cover art drew me in, but I stayed for the tunes, which is what you want, I suppose! LOL If you like music such as Perturbator or Carpenter Brut then its worth checking out Dan Terminus. None of this stuff is spectacularly my cup of tea but its all gloriously well made electronic music.

Artificial Intelligence is a stunning compilation by the wonderful people at Warp Records. All the greats of the electronic music scene at the time are here, but honestly, I don’t really pay much mind to the individual track credits per se, I just let this wonderful series of compilations wash over me. Even now, in 2021, this is the perfect ambience music for working, driving, or even for music being piped into a trendy bottleshop…

Remixed is a cool and calm release for the most part. I suppose there is not much of a temptation to turn a winding Shpongle trip into a club banger or a hardcore 909 stomper, but I’d be onboard to hear that either way. Haha! So if mostly ethereal or, sadly, typical trance re-workings of Shpongle big tunes is your idea of a party, get in on this. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother.

Came across this record when scouting for stuff to release with the new Two Man Tape Co. that I have running with my ol’ mucka and LIW contributor Gareth, and whilst this is well polished and nicely assembled dubstep, there is very little to the release at all. That is part and parcel with the genre I suppose; single track drops to Soundcloud profiles is more common than a good ol’ fashioned record or EP.

Another plinky ploinky weirdo addition to the legendary AFX series, Analord. I’ve listened to this whole or in part so many times I’ve kinda forgotten what goes where. All I know, is that my brain loves this stuff. It instantly puts me in “get busy” mode (no, not THAT get busy, ya dirty fuckers) and has me inspired to do pretty much anything. I’m glad to be alive and to be able to hear stuff…

Shpongle’s debut album is a heady trip through pulsing electronic beats and samples. Whilst not as “far out” or as rich in its palette of colours as some of the later Shpongle offerings (this is a band that has really has gone all-out in some cases), there is something of a trippy and mesmerising quality in the more beat-focussed songs. It almost sounds binaural in some places, and with a good set on your head,…

Haraam can always be relied upon to bring the dense and horrible atmospheric noise. The electronics pummel you, yet almost fall into a rhythm here or there, which I find really exciting – where does techno end and noise begin? Where indeed! This effort from Haraam toes the line expertly, for a noisy head-scraping experience.

I was sold on Priest when I checked out “The Pit” single. Admittedly it was the art that got me, promising dark and sadistic techno, and whilst its not as sleazy as I would have expected from a single with a studded gimp mask on the front, it did deliver the stunning, dark techno pop I was looking for. Thankfully, the band is not a one hit wonder, there are tons of stunning tracks here,…

Music For Being is a lengthy, intense trip that I checked out off the back of the fantastic Sweetface EP, Mighty Atom. Ranging from atmospheric ambient tracks, beatwork akin to the more spaced-out Scorn output, and harsh explosions of power electronics, Music For Being is a mixed bag. I suppose its part of the fun, not knowing where its going to turn next, but I also can’t help but shake the feeling that the record…

I’ve always know that Atomck’s Linus created his own electronic music, but I never knew just how good that it was. Clear The Level is so good in fact, that I immediately shared the record with my good friend and LIW contributor Burra and we released it on cassette under our Two Man Tape Co. label (there’s one or two left at the time of writing, if you want one!). Expect fantastic synthesiser pop music,…

I can’t decide if this is genius or just downright awful. Either way, I respect the guts to pull off this kind of experiment, even though listening now in 2021, there is nothing futuristic about this album. If anything, it sounds like a relic from the past, from the days of proto electronic music, suffering the same fate as some of Miles Davis’ records from this era.