
CZN‘s ‘Parallel Commutator’ is just about the freshest thing I’ve heard all month, this is their fourth album and if you enjoy percussion records then this is for you. Valentina Magaletti battles João Pais Filipe on the skins whilst Leon Marks adds minimal studio magic, it’s both exhilarating and calming in equal measure, just two long tracks but it blows the cobwebs away.Vanishing Twin‘s new album, ‘Archives’ apparently isn’t old music at all but new tracks from the trio (also including Valentina as a member, when does she sleep?) and they return to song-based compositions as opposed to the previous more experimental record. It’s Halloween so it’s time for a new Delights record and, true to form, a new 7″ is up for pre-order from Markey Funk and JJ Whitefield under the Mosaik Ses moniker. B-side, ‘Wormhole’ wins again for me with an unexpected tempo switch up in the middle of the track.
Just up for pre-order is the new 12″ by Dopplereffekt on De:tuned, two tracks of pure electro techno as only they do. I had the pleasure of working with them on the sleeve, an absolute privilege and one of my more minimal covers. Appearing for the second time in two months is the ‘Filaments’ compilation from the Silver Threads label, basically because it only came out a week or so ago and I haven’t stopped playing it as more tracks were revealed online. A master class in current ambient music from Jo Johnson‘s label and she’ll have a stall at this Sunday’s Moonbuilding Label Market at the Heavenly Social if you want to get your hands on physical copies.

I saw a chart the other week that showed that Operator Sound Inc.‘s ‘Esoteric Audio for Spaceage Witchcraft’ album was #17 in the Download charts! Well done Library of the Occult, for a record of lounge-y space exotica that’s some feat. The new Balloonist album starts out all Boards of Canada with saturated tape wobble and detuned synths before moving into more guitar-based compositions drenched with effects. A new album from Cujo? What is this, 1996? Amon Tobin breaks out the, errr… breaks and resurrects his Cujo alias for an album of material collected from subscriber exclusives. Not had time to fully absorb yet but the production is top notch as always.
A mention also for the new Steven Wilson album, ‘Requiem for a Village’ on Fiction, which is sadly not on Bandcamp but is utterly fantastic and on the best of the year list. He’s gone all hauntological meets microtonal creating a prog concept album around a fictitious village with spoken interludes read by David Tennant. Worth it for the title track alone of which you can hear a live version of here alongside the Beach Boys meets prog ‘A Basket of Bees’.

Another plug for a project Wilson is involved with (and also not on Bandcamp); ‘Relax: Big Banned & Beautiful’, a double LP of the many versions of Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s classic debut single, out this coming Black Friday via Universal. I was thrilled to be on the team involved with this release, one of my favourite bands and songs, ever. Steven provides two new mixes for the fourth side, polishing up an unreleased demo of the song and creating a huge megamix of versions which also uncovers previously unheard vocals for the original 12″ by Holly Johnson. Just when you think there can’t be any more in the vaults, this appears. I co-curated, wrote the sleeve notes and had an eye on the design alongside Philip Marshall who, as always, does a sterling job updating the original XL layouts from the band’s classic era.














































































































