Well, the big news is obviously the forthcoming Boards of Canada album, their first in 13 years, the ‘Inferno’ will be on us in less than a month! (cue a million fire-based descriptors in the reviews and any interview headlines). If you caught the ‘Tape 05’ video teaser you’ll know it’s going to be good. Angine De Poitrine are still rocking my world and album No.2 doesn’t disappoint, their rise is seemingly unstoppable although Boards did turn a few heads away from their microtonal loop riffs this month. Another new favourite is Studio Kosmische with their ‘Electronic Meditation for Inner Space Travel’ album which mixes ambience with saxophones and shouldn’t work but does exactly what it says on the tin. I’m slowly checking out the rest of the Dreamlord Recordings catalogue and there are some gems there. Nihiloxica are back with a stomping remix EP, heavy on the beats, and I slid a little Tom Scott reconstructed edit out last month that chops it into oblivion.

In the wake of Angine de Poitrine, several people started posting ‘if you like this then you’ll love this’-type pieces across the web and at least one of them measured up at least in part for me. Meule are really closer to what King Gizzard were doing five years ago than Angine but a microtonal guitar and two drummers is always going to sound interesting. I wasn’t sure about the lyrics first time round but it’s growing on me. Turbulent Space is a new project by Brian ‘Humanoid/FSOL/Yage’ Dougans, that runs the gamut between trip hop, acid jazz and, dare I say it? big beat in places. Cate Brooks has got the 303 out and seems to be conjuering up an album of business funk electronica from the three tracks previewed. Finally, Luke Vibert unearths another stash of unreleased mid-90s Plug cuts across a triple vinyl set for De:tuned. I had the pleasure of assembling the artwork with good friend and stencil artist supreme, Pablo Fiasco – look him up, he’s doing something very unique.

A bit later to this site this month but lots of great music around right now or just on the horizon and the list is boosted to 12 this month. From the top, The Def Boys are Awkward & MC Roughneck Jihad, the beats and scratches are lo-fi the tracks short and sweet. Angine De Poitrine’s second album dropped last Friday and I am excited! Their internet infamy seems to grow by the day and they’ve just announced more UK dates, I hope they don’t burn out. A new album on Astral Industries is always welcome and even more so by Multicast Dynamics, no previews as yet but past glories bode well.

Hawksmoor’s latest is a trip in every sense of the word, his experiments with a form of DMT informed the album and he underwent ‘a complete reset’ in his own words. Look up current interviews with him, there’s a great backstory to go with this one. Clocolan’s latest is darkly beautiful as ever and Dor Wand’s ‘Alchemy of Being’ dovetails nicely with the intent of Hawksmoor’s in that it’s a meditational drift.

On completely the opposite end of the spectrum, Lone’s new LP, ‘Hyperphantasia’ is rave-tastic, turned up to 11, multi-coloured, vocal-tinged, happy hardcore filtered through a sparkling prism. Chilled out it is not, contender for album of the year it is. Graham Dunning’s new tape is out soon so I have to give him the big up for his inspirational mechanical techno creations plus he’s just completed his PhD so I can call him ‘Dr. Dunning’ now. We have a rare outing together this July in Brighton at the Rose Hill Tavern alongside Furrowed and Duplokit. 310 are back with a new album, the first since member Joseph Dierker passed away, completing material he worked on and their music is always worth your time.

The ‘Part Time Archivists / Part Time Forgers’ compilation comes out of Thessaloniki, Greece on a new label, Necessary Unfold, and showcases contemporary techno and acid from the scene over there. Cavs from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard releases his second solo album in late April and, as you’d imagine, it’s drum-heavy but previews include bass, guitar and synths so I’m interested to hear the full thing. Seefeel return to Warp for the first new material since 2024 and the sole preview track sounds very promising.

This month has been all about Angine de Poitrine, discovering their music (and unique look) was a bit of a revelation and I immediately hoovered up everything on Bandcamp. There’s a new album coming in April and UK live dates in May. The main problem after hearing their music is that there’s not much of it and not a lot else like it so I’ve found myself going back to earlier King Gizzard albums to get a fix of similar sounds rather than listen to them on a loop. Not to diminish other releases this month but there’s been a nice selection of breaks and acid forthcoming; last month’s Radiamax release finally made it to Bandcamp a few days after BC Friday and good friends Fundamental Frequencies released two long lost UK Breakcore 12″s, my favourite being 2XDEF‘s ‘First & Last’. Two legends of the rave scene teamed up for a 12″ on De:tuned that I had the honour of designing – 808 State vs Humanoid‘s ‘In Place of Language’ is a 4 track release that spans all areas of electronica with standout track ‘Raid’ coming off like the son of ‘Cubik’. Jem Stone is at it again with the 3 track Boneshaker EP, my favourite being the moody ‘Wish Bone’.

There’s another release I can’t add to the playlist for some reason (Buy Music Club does this sometimes when there’s no streamable digital audio as part of the package) and that’s a cassette version of my Kraftwerk Kover Kollektion mix from 2004. First made for Solid Steel and showcasing cover versions, tributes and tracks that heavily sample the German four-piece, it became the first of eight (so far, there will be more) volumes of the weird, wonderful world of music inspired by the band. For this I’ve gone back to the original audio and made a logical split in the middle – not just a fade out – and reworked the original cover art I’d designed to fit the cassette format. Along the way I’ve updated and corrected several track listing errors now that we have the beauty of Discogs at our disposal to check these things. You can pre-order the very limited tape from Delic Records here

That was a long month and a little bit quiet on the music front for me but I’ve managed to find nine things that touched a nerve musically in the grey, wet January of 2026.
First up is David Harrow‘s rendition of Terry Riley‘s ‘In C’ which, although it has been around for some years now (the edition on Bandcamp is from 2020), has just got a vinyl release on Transmat of all labels! No wonder as it’s a fantastic electronic interpretation that flitters all over the place and is ranked high in my list of favourite versions. Heliochrome is the second release from new label Silkzoo and channels 90’s electronica in fine style whilst Ruth Anderson‘s name popped up in two different places over the Xmas period, leading me to Bandcamp to purchase. Firstly she was mentioned in Matthew Blackwell‘s excellent Plunderphonics book which just snuck onto my end of year list at the 11th hour, then a track from her turned up on Jon Nelson‘s Some Assembly Required show, a repository of everything cut up and sample-based. Check her work out, tape collages and drones from the 1970s. A wonderful 45 by Penza Penza turned up on Misha Panfilov‘s label mid December and the event release of Jan was undoubtedly the long-awaited James Adrian Brown album on Castles In Space. I like its grit and nothing outstays its welcome, I think James benefits from coming to electronic music via a live band scenario, a very original record.

I have to highlight my friend Forsaj‘s new release with Lu_x2 under the name Radiamax on Never B Alone Records, it’s a 3-tracker of the best retro breakbeat acid I’ve heard in a long time, imagine Meat Beat Manifesto mixed with LFO and a good dose of 303 action. I really hope this is getting a vinyl release but at the moment it’s digital only. John Davis aka Datasette released the second volume of his ‘Offal’ compilations recently and this one is a huge 200 tracks(!) covering a smorgasbord of experiments, remixes, mashups, versions and lost oddities going back to the 90s in some cases, you have to dig but there’s gold in there. Graham Dunning and I have finally put the recordings of our first collaborations onto a cassette tape on my Infinite Illectrik label. Entitled ‘E-x-t-e-n-d-e-d Turntablism’ (also the name of a short burst of shows coming later this year) it features highlights from the Fogfest 2023 set plus unheard rehearsal jams and is the first in several volumes we’re preparing for release. Lastly, Tristan Perich & James McVinnie released their ‘Infinity Gradient’ opus last year, consisting of hundred speakers wired to the Royal Festival Hall organ, relaying an unfurling minimalist piece in seven movements, it’s got to be heard with no distractions.