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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
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Played by: Juno Recommends Deep House
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
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Played by: Juno Recommends Trance
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Played by: Juno Recommends Ambient/Drone
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
Review: It's been some three years since the last Monolake transmission on Imbalance Computer Music - if you exclude this year's 'long edit' of the artist's much loved Gobi - and a further four years since the last Monolake LP. Constructed in 2020 by Robert Henke, Archaeopteryx presents a vastly complex album of sound design taking in curious technology like a modified Linn Drum, recordings of various orchestral percussions and 'a few modular things' amongst and arsenal of enviable analogue machinery, and of course Ableton Live, that only a head like Henke could program and remain sane. The result is a deeply conceptual offering that twinkles, gurgles and tolls as much it does breath, communicate and confuse. Find electronica-laced, European informed dubstep in "Specimen Fractal" to piano minimalism and left of field microhouse in "Orbit Incomplete" amid a swathe of undefinable beat making and ambient focused processes. At 19-tracks long, Archaeopteryx comes with a dedication to Serbian composer, mathematician and physicist, Marko Nicodijevic, adding yet more intrigue to the evolution of the Monolake sound.
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
Review: Platform 23 again explores the dense voids, this time with a touch of the funk with a reissue of Dutch experimentalists De Fabriek and two tracks from their Music For cassette series, this time calling all Hippies. Featuring both original and reinterpretations from modern-day heads Dunkeltier and Khidja, this EP is something of an oddity, showcasing the bands' expansive range, moving away from the noise, drone and industrial soundscape releases they had become known for and crafting here, free flowing, groovy longform jams. Active since the late 70s to today, De Fabriek (The Factory) have never considered themselves a real band, also being a label too, with an evolving and irregular line up centred around Richard van Dellen, they present their music and output as a kind of work-union. With literally four decades and dozens of releases across all formats, 1988's cassette release Music For Hippies has become something of a cult curio, with the long improvisational tracks, Lullabye and Coming Down eschewing the rougher, industrial experience for something completely different. In opener Lullabye, we go full leftfield P-Funk meets Motorik undertones. An incessant beat is laid from the start and doesn't cease for over 10 minutes, while spoken vocals call closer to the Krautrock realms of Can and hark to Liebezeit's stylised grooving best. Analog, echo washed, with touches of glam and wrapped in simple effects pedal work, the secrets are passed to Dresden / Berlin inhabitant Dunkeltier aka Sneaker DJ aka Thomas Smorek. His darker moniker, appearing on obscure edits for Macadam Mambo and the much-missed Bahnsteig 23, his Hey Robot mix adds bass, percussion, strings and synth to remold Lullabye into a late night, red light, basement denzien. This is followed by an additional, bonus reimagining, creating an all-new time piece, an ear worm of the best kind with Tik Tok Goes The Clock. Come Down is a more resembling De Fabriek werk, edited to fit, the darkness is entered as snapshot vocal quips, oscillations and synthesised mutations are laid over a lazy, relentless ostinato rhythm where cymbals crash on the bar. Inviting, calling, De Fabriek's aptly titled downer is in fact, a joyous journey. To complete, label affiliates, Khidja take a break from finalising their debut album to unfold their Psychebabble Mix, a dozen plus minutes of warped, twisted, cassette machinations that suck the listener further along the trip. Added bass propels their edit suddenly to a new direction, a hook for mind and for the open willed, the body.
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Played by: Juno Recommends Broken Beat Nu Jazz
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Played by: Juno Recommends Rock/Indie
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
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Review: London's corpulent Ninja Tune returns with a follow-up from Lee Bannon, another LP in a similarly washed out and ambient-heavy guise. Pattern Of Excel is positively abstract the whole way through, where watery shades of drone meet sparse bleeps and glitchy sonics. Many of the tracks within contain an almost free jazz feel to them - check "Good/Swimmer" and "Artificial Stasis" - making the whole album a long a complex journey into electro-acoustic treatment and experimentation. This is one you want on during a session of heavy meditation. Vast, wild and recommended.
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Review: This new album from Kevin Martin's band of enchanting doom-mongers forms part of a new series that pits King Midas Sound against various collaborators. In this instance, Martin and vocalist Roger Robinson were moved to link up with Austrian ambient champ Fennesz, whose laconic guitar tones lend an ethereal, orchestral quality to the haunted dub that KMS have always been known for. The ballads linger in an uneasy tension, both gentle in application but unsettling in tone, while Robinson and Kiki Hitomi once again share mic duties to round out the affecting situation in an unexpected but utterly magnificent meeting of minds.
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
Review: Since the dawn of the decade, A Winged Victory For The Sullen has delivered occasional albums for Erased Tapes that effortlessly blur the boundaries between ambient, electronic experimentalism and emotion-stirring neo-classical music. "The Undivided Five" marks their first appearance on mighty British independent Ninja Tune, and as a result seems a little more grandiose in scale and ambition than some of their earlier outings. It was recorded in eight different studios around Europe, with the pair combining atmospheric orchestration and traditional instrumentation with occasional glimpses of modular electronics. It feels like a stunning soundtrack to a movie we've not yet seen - unsurprising given that they have previously composed a number of scores - and genuinely gets better with each successive spin.
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Played by: Dj N◉va ▶ Rodon FM 95, Juno Recommends Experimental, Dexta, Mind Field Records, Juno Recommends Ambient/Drone
Review: In the period since the release of his late 2012 album Hardcourage, Drew Lustman has founded his own label as well as dropping singles on Swamp81 and Ninja Tune, slipped out the odd remix and kept up a busy touring schedule. Where he managed to fit in the studio time for a fourth album In The Wild is not clear but a new FaltyDL long player will always be welcome. At 17 tracks long, In The Wild is Lustman's most comprehensive display of his production palette by some distance with the Brooklyn based artist using the afforded space to really go deep into his various creative impulses. It's a lot to take in immediately, but tracks such as "Frontin'" and "Ahead The Ship Sleeps" feel like FaltyDL on top form.
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
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Review: Wolverhampton based duo Richard Roberts and Andrew Harber aka Letherette return on Ninja Tune with their new full length: a 40-minute mix of previously unreleased productions have been unearthed in conjunction with their recently released second album for "Last Night On The Planet". This collection which explores ambient and deeper beats territory was originally released on a limited run cassette, but will see a digital release in 2017. Harber has stated that the tracks were "saturated onto cassette (Marantz CP430) a number of times to give it a crusty, aged and brittle edge, the playlist was conceived on a typically bleak night-bus ride through Birmingham."
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The Invisible feat Anna Calvi
Played by: Juno Recommends Ambient/Drone
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Played by: Juno Recommends Experimental
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Played by: Roel Funcken
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Played by: Juno Recommends Ambient/Drone
Review: Fake's Providence narrative continues with unique and innovative thrust as renowned experimental composer Olga Wojciechowska repurposes and re-orchestrates his most startling and original work to date. Rich, perplexing and full of drama, Nathan's signature abrasion is felt with even more emphasis and timeless scope as the eminent Polish composer works her magic. Also included is a breath-taking ambient twist from Konx-Om-Pax and live versions from Nathan himself. Providential.
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