Roll The Dice: In Dust (Leaf)

This is one of those albums that, two minutes into the first track, i knew i was onto something special. It begins with a low creaking noise interspersed with occasional industrial gongs,   then moves into a synth drone before slowly twisting into a throbbing  beating  heart and then.....it switches to an amazingly focussed piece of angular electronic beauty that proceeds to move between techno, dub and ambience. And that's just the first track. The album moves through an increasingly eclectic range of styles and moods - but is always utterly spot on in judging the correct twists and turns required next. A piano reoccurs time and again and this lends the whole thing a classical edge that takes it far above the kraut-synth-kosmiche-new disco netherworld inhabited by a lot of similar artists. I've played this album  more often than any other in the last month and it still surprises me each time i give it a spin. The lushness of the production enhances every sound and each note is completely necessary. I have no idea how long this took to put together but it sounds like a life's work. I recommend this album to all and sundry, you will not be disappointed. I promise. 

Bee Mask: Elegy for beach Friday (Spectrum Spools)

Another fine release on extremely interesting Spectrum Spools label, and a compilation of sorts, most of these tracks having been previously release on limited cassettes and cdr's, although said tracks have been toyed with and changed. Chris Madak is Bee Mask and he has produced a beguiling suite of electronic drone symphonies, overlayed with occasional guitar noise and tape loops of miscellaneous noise and atonal soundscapes. Interesting throughout but only periodically enjoyable, this works best in short bursts as the noisier parts can really grate after a while. When he takes his foot off the pedal marked 'atonal substrata' the washes and waves of synths are an outstanding contribution to the world of cosmic synth music and it's a shame that these pieces are often pushed under by noise.

Mark Kozelek: Live at Union Chapel & Sodra Teatern (Caldo Verde)

Another day another hideously limited slab of Koz vinyl. There's 200 of these clear vinyl  buggers and  all were sold on prerelease so good hunting on ebay if you really want one. But do you need one? Hmmmm, well it's a beautiful package in a letterpressed sleeve and hand numbered by the Koz, and the choice of songs are good, but do we really need another slice of solo Koz? Fucked if i know - i've never bought a record based on 'need' in my life but this is an album that holds no surprises (and it never promised to surprise either), is played impeccably, is recorded brilliantly, is sung in fine muttering style and is a great addition to your Koz collection - as was 'lost verses', the previous solo live release. Can we have a live full band album please Mr K? Just for a change.

Final: Reading all the right signals wrong (No Quarter)

Justin Broadrick has been a major part of my life since i saw Godflesh a few times  alongside Loop circa 'streetcleaner' and i have bought a great deal of his records in the last 20+ years since. Final is his exercise in ambient sound and has also been his longest running project - predating godflesh by a good few years, and this album is in a similar vein to his other Final recordings - guitar based drones flicker in and out of synth/found sounds and proceed very slowly towards a nothingness. Similar to some of Robert Hampson's 'Main' records in mood and construction, these four pieces fail to excite or to trouble the listener much. Which is precisely the point.

Subtle: Exiting Arm (Lex)

Subtle are a weird band/collective - too rocky to fit in with the hip hop heads , too beat-y for the rock fans, too impenetrable for pop fans and too musical for the avant-gardeners. Coming firmly out of the leftfield hiphop world of Clouddead, Doseone and friends have constructed this weird world where only they could fit in - a sort of little big planet with grooves. Colourfully packaged with a myriad of posters and paintings, this album is enjoyable on a very basic level but hugely cerebral once you delve a bit deeper and/or read the lyrics - which are as deliberately surreal as can be. At times the words follow a linear pattern but then they go off on a tangent that confuses all. Intentionally so i presume, but the tunes stand up so well on their own that you can't really get pissed off at the obtuseness of it all. Fun and fu(n)cking head-scratchingly odd. 

Motion sickness of time travel: Luminaries & synastry (Digitalis)

Second album this year and second vinyl release after a veritable shitload of cassette releases, this album is  a thousand times better than the last one (see review) and that one was pretty fucking special. Starting the album in an almost danceable techno mode, the album soon displaces itself  into complete and utter beautiful realms of ethereal deliciousness     and a spellbinding sense of perfection. The music floats around the room and the half-heard voices enter your consciousness like angels speaking your desires. I love this album and i can't wait for the next instalment in this ridiculously captivating series. The pink vinyl is gorgeously unnecessary but the addition of a cd copy (with extra tracks) is a great addition. Now i can enjoy the motion sickness in my car, for once.

Tin Man: Scared (White Denim)

Dark electropop with such a heavy low end that my speakers rattle the walls, Tin Man sings soporifically  only  sinister beats to create something that is enjoyable but oddly unsettling. The minimalist backing bring to mind early Cabaret Voltaire but with a more commercial edge - this aint no throbbing gristle but it aint no depeche either. This may well be what depeche always wanted to sound like when they went 'dark' - but just ended up sounding like a pop band pretending to skate on thin ice. Tin Man is the real deal.......whatever the fuck the 'real deal' is supposed to be.

M.A.L: The M.A.L tapes (Vinyl on Demand)

In true football parlance, this is a game of two halves. Side one features  7 short tracks of electro experimental  pop and one 11 minute psycho electronic industrial freakout, none of which really light my fire. All of these are from 1980's cassette releases and are pretty typical of a lot of stuff that came out in the post throbbing gristle world in that they are all interesting but not outstanding. The two lengthy tracks from the 1970's on side 2 are a huge improvement - ambient soundscapes using synth and guitars that bring to mind some of the late '70s Ashra Virgin albums, in that they are seemingly meandering but actually have a beautiful purpose. I like the fact that this album (ltd to 600) came with a certificate of ownership (!) but i have to say that i hate the sleeve and label graphics with a passion - they seem to be more suited to some horrible hiphop compilation rather than a (half) classy electronic album. A very bad artistic mistake.

Phosphorescent: Here's to taking it easy (Dead Oceans)

Dearlie was on about this album for bloody ages and, although i'd heard a few tracks, i'd never really given it much thought. Cue a day in Bristol and seeing it cheap in Head and i decided that i needed to see what the bugger was going on about. I'd previously thought of the band as a bit of Will Oldham with smoother vocals and a less bizarre facial appearance, but that's being a bit disingenuous to both of 'em really.  Mr Phos   has a much better voice, sure, but his songs are far more routed in the early '70s country-folk-rock tradition of The Band than in  the Appalachian Sister-banging of Mr Oldham and this is what sets them firmly apart. Slide guitar is all over the place but it has more of a rock feel to it than a country album and this makes it rises head and shoulders above a lot of the other Americana, as well as the quality of the song writing.  Oh, the song writing - fuck me, Mr Phos is a good songwriter - the songs are rarely immediate but, given a few listens, they start to bounce around your brain like familiar friends that you are always happy to see. Any guy that can create a piece like 'Hej, me i'm light' - whereby the lyrics are merely the title repeated endlessly whilst a simple handclap beats underneath and a guitar winds its way around the words, and turn it into a near-gospel near-godlike experience, well shee-it - that guy rules as far as i'm concerned. Weirdly enough, the least successful tracks are those that reference country the strongest - 'Heaven, sitting down', whilst still very enjoyable, is too fucking much in awe of Gram and needlessly so as Mr Phos has very much his own voice. Great, really great.

Various: Salsa Boricua De Chicago (Cult Cargo)

As much as i love it, i don't really have a fair amount of Cuban/Latin music - as i find a lot of the recorded stuff a bit too sanitised for my liking, but i heard about this collection (double LP + book) of Chicago street music, listened to a few samples, and took the plunge. And i'm really glad i did as it fulfils all the aspects of Latin music as far as the bits i like - great guitar work, amazing percussion work, dramatically emotional vocals and a shimmying rhythm that makes you shimmy your hips  in a manner most unbecoming to a white middle class bloke in Devon. Some of it is a bit roughly recorded but the emotional intensity it pushes across is undeniable and utterly captivating. A really great collection and one that makes me want to dance. And i'm a shit dancer.

Harmonia and Eno 76: Tracks and Traces (Gronland)

Originally recorded in 1976, this collaboration between the 2 members of Cluster, Michael Rother (Neu, Kraftwerk) and Mr Eno works beautifully - mixing Eno's ambient soundscapes with the others' sci-fi electronic bleeps and swooshes adding futuristic beats over the top. Although hugely nostalgic for a 44 year old who grew up on similar sounds emanating from the Radiophonic workshop, this is actually pretty timeless in production quality and electronic thrills. For a born again analog synth head, this touches all the right spots. Ignore the track where Eno sings though, as he fucks up the mood royally.

Howard Riley & Keith Tippett: Interchange (Turning Point)

As much as i love jazz, i rarely buy new jazz albums - preferring to search out original Impulse, Riverside & Blue Note pressings and paying an arm and a leg for them. This, however, was cheap in Norman records and i needed another record to get over the £50 'free postage' curb so i took the chance.

It wasn't really much of a chance as:
a) It had Keith Tippett on it
b) It was a piano duet
c) It had Howard Riley on it
d) It was a wholly improvised live performance
e) It was only about a fiver

Needless to say, it doesn't disappoint, the two of 'em play with each other - as opposed to against each other as so many of these improv duets tend to do. They give each other respect and space and it is this that lets each musician open up and let himself flow. Highly melodic, and never abrasive, this album gets up near some of the best Keith Jarrett improv albums in quality - which is a high recommendation indeed.

One little moan though - at nearly 30 minutes per side, the grooves are a little bit too tight, and this a bit quiet at times. But that's just me being an uptight twat, so don't worry (or take any notice).