You might remember I wrote a while back (this time last year, in fact) about selling a load of my old records, and wanting my own little record shop to do so from.

My wife always tells me “nothing happens if nothing happens”, so with her encouragement, and the realisation that I have too many records sitting around taking up space in our home I’ve taken the plunge and decided to set up an online record shop.

So, without further ado I’d like to present to you In Strict Tempo Records.

It’s going to be a mixture of second hand titles and some selected new stock that I really like. I’m never going to compete with the established giants but I hope to be able to add that personal touch, like you’d get when going into an actual, physical record shop. I want it to be like all the best record shops I’ve ever visited, and I want it to be a place where out-there and overlooked music can find a champion. You might not find all the big-hitters here, but I trust my taste and judgement enough to really get behind the records I’m stocking. As I hope you enjoy the record reviews here I hope you’ll find something there.

I’ve given it the slightly tongue-in-cheek tagline ‘interesting music for interesting people’ because that’s what I want it to stock.

Will it be a moderate success or a resounding failure? Only time will tell, but I’m going to really enjoy doing it. Selling music has been in my blood for a long time, behind the counter at Music & Video Exchange and HMV, and working at labels and distributors selling in to DSPs and shops alike, so why not give it a go, eh?

Any feedback (good and bad) will be really gratefully received!

New Music

This week I’m going to share a few selected titles that are in stock now, hope you find something you enjoy! Normal service will resume next week!

Andy Stott - Late Loop [Modern Love]

Andy Stott returns to his spiritual home of Modern Love after a five year hiatus and a poppier outlook on things. Still drawing from the cold, concrete-romantic palate he’s known for, this album sees Stott bring a new vocal collaborator to the fold, in Elanie Howey, who’s voice joins long-time muse Alison Skidmore in providing a softness to Stott’s sometimes hard-edged music.

Late Loop sees another change in tack for Stott, as he experiments with recording through a microphone rather than the tried-and-tested straight into the machine format - this has the effect of adding a dreamlike sheen to the whole thing, bringing more life to the drums, and allowing Howey & Skidmore’s vocals to hover above in the ether. Really, you have to be in the mood to sit and listen to this one, it’s something that’s going to work best when you’re in the headspace to really give it your full attention as it embeds itself in your senses one by one. Stereo up, lights down, sit back and enjoy.

Miles J Paralysis - Fell & Fen [Long Gone]

Okay, now this something special. Heavier than a tonne of rocks pressing down upon your chest, the pressure on this one has to be heard to be believed. Roughcut elements of dub, post-punk and what the end of the world is gonna sound like we might just have a new contender for all yr end of year lists.

DJ Old Rat - China Underground 2002-2011 [Accidental Meetings]

DJ Old Rat - aka music aficionado extraordinaire Steve Barker (host of the long-running On The Wire radio show) compiles this hour and a half long trip through underground Chinese music from earlier this century. We kind of forget that despite the ease of access we have to seemingly everything in the world these days, that there's still a huge cultural underground out there, existing offline and in the margins. For most of us, and indeed for many Chinese people, this stuff is destined to remain unheard by all but the most committed sonic adventurers. To be honest, there's nothing (other than the language) that explicitly marks these tunes out as having come from China, with Western influences spanning from SF to Naarm and everywhere in between combining with the kind of free expression you can only get from a local scene operating entirely within it's own boundaries.

Eric Kramer - Where The Fish Are As Fine As The Color of Colors [Not on Label]

This is one of those tapes you wish you had discovered yonks ago - I certainly do, wishing that the comforting abstract folk of this tape could have seen me through some of the tougher points of this charmed life. Although based in the US, Eric Kramer is part of the All Night Flight extended universe, so you know you're only getting the highest-grade in delightful, mind-altering music here. Shout out indeed.

The Wolfgang Press - Asylum Variations [Downwards]

It took everyone by surprise when Downwards announced the return of The Wolfgang Press a year or so ago, but really if anyone was gonna tempt the 4AD OG’s out of retirement it was Karl O’Connor.

Well, he’s done it again, coaxing a second album out of the post-punk legends, and you could quite easily believe this had been sitting in the vaults for 40 odd years such is the way they’ve picked up exactly as they were at their peak. You know when certain albums have that “aura”? Well this has it in spades. Sleazier and sexier than Jarvis at his sleaziest and sexiest it’s never going to have you running for the dancefloor, but will have you reaching for your phone to find out what it is whilst ordering another can of Red Stripe at the bar.

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Welcome to this weeks In Strict Tempo - first a confession: I promised music reviews would return this week, but they haven’t. The reason should soon become clear. Secondly - if your company is a member of the Association for Electronic Music, then I’m standing for the Executive Board this year. There’s a lot of ‘behind-the-scenes’ folk in this industry who’s voices don’t get heard, and I think that needs to change. Voting closes next week, and I’d appreciate your vote if you’re able to. Anyway, on to this weeks essay, which is quite a personal one… and apologies for the clickbaity nature of the title this week!

Cast your mind back to late 1996, the awfulness of “Cool Britannia” was in full swing, Britpop was at it’s peak, England had suffered another international tournament defeat. Ready for the big Q4 period and Christmas #1 race, Virgin/EMI released their bi-annual Now That’s What I Call Music compilation, the 35th edition of the series.

For whatever reason I didn’t get Now 35 that Christmas. I can’t remember what I did get, probably the Trainspotting Soundtrack and a PlayStation game or the latest Cambridge United shirt, but I was 13 and my memory isn’t what it was…

Fast forward to the Summer of ’97, and my school organised one of those PGL adventure trips to the South of France. Setting off from Suffolk, our coach went first to Dover, and then overnight through France until we arrived in the Ardeche region. For the trip, I’d packed all my favourite tapes and my walkman, including a new one I’d bought from Woolworths in town: Now 35.

I’ve always loved road travel, either by coach or driving. It allows you to see a country pass by at a decent pace, with the option to stop more or less where you want. I’ve driven to the South of France a few times as an adult and really enjoy it. For me it beats flying, and the large windows of a coach are a great way to experience somewhere new. I stayed up most of that coach journey (as great as they are, a coach full of teenagers isn’t exactly the best place to get a decent sleep) listening to music letting it soundtrack my journey. Eventually the time came to put Now 35 into my Walkman.

Despite the first cassette kicking off with The Spice Girls, George Michael, Peter Andre and East 17, it soon improved, and Pet Shop Boys and The Beautiful South lead us into the second side which featured more Britpop type stuff, some of which I enjoyed including Ocean Colour Scene (sorry, but The Riverboat Song is a banger), Pulp and Suede.

The first side of second tape got off to a bad start and didn’t really get any better, mostly cheesy pop stuff I can imagine I skipped through, mindful of conserving precious battery life, but Tape 2 side 2 is where it got interesting. Faithless’ Insomnia - a tune made for late-night European coach trips if there ever was one was followed by another trance classic, BBE’s Seven Days & One Week, which fitted the journey perfectly. Stretch N Vern’s Earth Wind & Fire-sampling I’m Alive was an upbeat tune that had me imagining if that was what Ibiza would sound like, before tunes from Healy & Amos, Livin’ Joy and Wildchild continued in a more commercial dance vein. Then, oh my God, then… my mind was blown. Pearl’s Girl, the track that changed my life. I was aware of Underworld through Born Slippy (which I loved) and Dark & Long (which I didn’t really like at the time due to the intensity of the scene) from Trainspotting, but this new (to me) track Pearl’s Girl sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before. Was this music? Could music be like this? Just drums and a weird repeated vocal sound in the background? Can drums be that heavy, that intense? No one could play this live could they? And the lyrics? Crazycrazycrazycrazy, they were nonsense. This can’t be music, this isn’t a song? Where’s the structure? Where’s the guitars? What are these machines? What do these lyrics mean?

As the coach drove through some industrial French edgeland I was looking out the window at the sodium lights in a trance. God knows how many times I rewound that track. It was amazing. Music shouldn’t sound like this, but it does. What else sounded like this? Where could I find it? I was already vaguely familiar with dance music, certainly on the more commercial, Radio 1 friendly side of dance music, but hearing this felt like an opening into another world. Faithless & BBE were good, but Pearl’s Girl was even better.

The holiday itself was good, canoeing, windsurfing, canyoning and discovering those little French beers were cheap and easy to get hold of from the shop just over from the campsite. Some people find themselves on these kind of trips, or discover a lifelong passion for adventure sports, but I found something better.

On returning to the UK I threw myself into ‘dance music’. Obviously still being too young to go to the clubs (not that there was anything remotely near to us in small-town Suffolk) I’d use our dial-up internet connection to find out everything I could about Underworld and other acts like them. I discovered Orbital, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and so on. I’d download everything I could find (in low-res late 90’s MP3 format) and burn it to CD. Tunes, live sets, radio shows all of it. I was a vessel waiting to be filled with all this music, and it felt like my little secret. No-one at school was really into it, but eventually my friendship group from the local estate started to come round towards it, and as we got older we’d start to go out to local clubs and parties.

The following year we went to New York for my dad’s 40th birthday. In Tower Records I found a CD of Pearl’s Girl with two new mixes and a number of other tracks on it. I snapped it up, and and had my mind blown again. A band remixing their own tracks? Six amazing tracks that aren’t on an album? What was this? I’ve still got that CD today, it still sounds incredible.

It’s easy to sneer at ‘pop music’ and these kind of compilations, but for many of us they were a gateway to discovering all kinds of new music, and the new worlds that lay beyond.

In a way, In Strict Tempo owes a debt to Now 35 (Tape 2, Side 2). It might not be the coolest, or most credible tape ever released, but sometimes inspiration comes from the most unlikely places.

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One thing I mentioned briefly before I went away was the upcoming reissue of seminal 1990’s progressive house compilation Northern Exposure, mixed by Sasha & John Digweed, and that it deserved a deeper article.

Northern Exposure came out in 1996, following the previous year’s Renaissance: The Mix Collection. Sasha was probably the biggest DJ in the world at the time, although it was a few years before my clubbing exploits started, it landed as I really started to dig into dance music, although it was probably a year or two later when I got my hands on a copy, from the much missed Parrot Records in Cambridge.

I’ll admit I didn’t really recognise any of the artists on the track listing at the time except for Underworld and perhaps William Orbit, but such is often the case with compilation records. I can still vividly remember putting it on and being blown away by the whole thing, the tunes, the mastering, the mixing. The artwork too, a stormy mountain scene, suited it perfectly.

If you wanna call it Progressive house I’m cool with that, but of course there were elements of trance in it - there’s always been fairly blurred lines between the two, progressive maybe missing some of the ‘sheen’ of trance, with a more UK vibe to it, darker, against the more futuristic European sounds of trance. Hard to explain, but I think you know what I mean?

The oft-used cliche of a journey really suits this style of music, be it progressive, trance or whatever else you deem it: the mix, the buildup, the breakdown, the second breakdown, many of the tracks ran to 7 or 8 minutes, often longer, and the beauty of Northern Exposure is that it used the dynamics of the genre to really complement the listeners journey. As well as the proggy elements the mix leans into the “chillout” and ambient, kicking off with the familiar voice of David Attenborough before a lucid guitar solo begins to transport the listener. Eventually we get our first kick drums, and it’s onwards from there at a gentle pace. The first disc ends with Banco de Gaia’s Last Train To Lhasa, one of those tracks you hear for the first time that rearranges what you think music can be.

The second disc takes it up a notch, and so much has been said about it already so we’ll skip straight to the last track - Dark & Long (Dark Train) by Underworld. It was already pretty well-known at the time due to it’s inclusion on the Trainspotting soundtrack, so it’s inclusion felt a bold move on a CD that was all about showcasing the artists favourites. But tell me: have you ever heard a tune with a bigger drop? I’ve seen Underworld 100 times, and nothing hits like it, especially on occasions when they’ve teased and teased the intro and build up for a long time.

This year Darren Emerson provided a remix of Dark Train for the reissued version of Northern Exposure, and luckily he didn’t really mess around with it too much. Really it sounds like he’s just nudged the pitch up a little bit, the arrangement and sounds all seem to be much as they were on release.

My CD copy lives pretty much permanently in my car (not because it’s the only place I have a CD player these days) but because music made to take you on a journey is often best played when you’re on a journey yourself. I’ve lost count of the number of trips that CD soundtracked, whether it was jaunts down to Southend on a Saturday night, holidays to the South of France, or trips back to see my family the other side of Cambridge. Those that know me know that I love driving, and much prefer it to taking the train or flying where I can. There’s nothing better than having 100 miles of empty motorway open ahead of you at night - the headlights pointing the way and the soft orange glow of your cars stereo illuminating a progressive soundtrack. I guess the clue’s in the name progressive isn’t it? It’s music for making progress, and as you watch your speedo needle wind up to 70mph (or more) and your fuel gauge slowly move to empty, a steady rhythm matching the streetlights passing is as close to bliss as it’s possible to get.

In Strict Tempo News:

The long-promised offline In Strict Tempo project is almost ready. It feels like I’ve been teasing this for as long as I’ve been writing this newsletter, but we really are almost ready to announce it. I think you’ll like it! There’s some more bits and bobs in the works too - news soon.

I’m going to be ADE at the end of the month. If you’re out in Amsterdam it would be cool to catch up/say hi/share a coffee/beer or just dig for some records about the place. In many ways Amsterdam feels like the spiritual home of In Strict Tempo, it’s where it was conceived following a drunken night with a friend ruminating on the state of music. I’ll be there from Tuesday until Friday this year.

Earlier this year I was asked to nominate myself to stand for the Executive Board of the Association For Electronic Music (AFEM). I’ve done a few things with them now, and they’re a passionate bunch who really do want to improve the industry we’re all lucky enough to work in. If you or your company are AFEM members, I’d appreciate your vote.

Music reviews will return next week. In the meantime you can listen to Northern Exposure on all good streaming platforms. Alternatively, get the vinyl or CD here.

Welcome back to In Strict Tempo, returning after a short break. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks in the South of France taking a much-needed break, eating far too much bread, and drinking far too many of them small bottles of Kronenbourg they love over there. One thing I didn’t do much of on holiday was listen to music, so since I’ve been back I’ve been going through my inbox every day listening to everything I missed. I don’t know if it’s just me but dub techno seems to be having a ‘bit of a moment’ right now? It’s everywhere - or at least it feels like that to me. As a result this newsletter is going to focus mainly on that, there’s plenty of good low end heavy soundsystem records to get through, but fear not, I’ve reviewed a couple of lighter records at the end that are well worth your attention too.

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Carrier - Thresholds [Carrier]

Over the past few years Guy Brewer’s Carrier project has been responsible for some of the most interesting, immediate and downright atmospheric music I’ve ever heard. That’s a big call, but such is the depth of this work it’s fully justified. Thresholds kicks off with with a funereal toll before heading into BEB-esque broken drum patterns to create something completely overbearing. Remember that video of Tyson walking out to noise? In 2026 he’d walk out to this.

VA - American Dub Electronics [Kino Disk]

It felt like everyone was going wild for this a couple of weeks ago, and you know what? They were right to. One of those rare compilations that captures a scene in a moment in time, a document of where US experimental dance music is in 2026 it’s as good as you’d hear from anyone, at any point in history. What I like about this comp is that it goes further than just straight up dub techno there’s a lot of stuff on here that’s a bit more leftfield and out-there which is great to hear.

Ghost Dubs - Low Times [PRESSURE]

There’s definitely a dub theme to this weeks newsletter, as Ghost Dubs returns with a new EP of heavyweight space bass. Regular collaborator The Bug drops by with a couple of versions too.

Miles - Vault [Short Span]

When it comes to people in the UK experimental underground there are few names as deeply embedded as that of Miles Whittaker. Part of Demdike Stare, Pendle Coven, Suum Cique plus the man behind the DDS label he’s been shaping scenes for long before many of us even knew. This was pretty much the only thing I listened to on my holiday, and some of the tracks go back 30-odd years to his earliest experiments with a Korg X3. Definitely an AOTY contender for me, this, especially as it’s out on the peerless Short Span

Loidis - Towlift [Incienso]

New Loidis is always something to get excited about - I’ve waxed lyric enough times about A Parade In The Place… in the past, and I enjoyed One Day when it dropped a couple of years back and still go back to both regularly. Anyway, check this, it’s sick.

YL Hooi - Running Around 83 [Efficient Space]

Sticking with that dubbed out theme of this weeks newsletter this new one from YL Hooi fits right in, and just when you think it couldn’t get any heavier, there’s only a Mad Professor remix out there too…

Hallucinator - Landlocked [Numbers]

Originally released on Chain Reaction back in 1999 this dub techno holy grail has made it onto vinyl courtesy of the Numbers gang. You wouldn’t know it from first listen, but Hallucinator were a trio based in London, but were seemingly absolutely locked in to the sounds coming out of Berlin & Cologne, whilst firmly rooting the album in black British culture in the tradition of proper soundsystem records. The record is dedicated to the memory of Stephen Lawrence, who’s murder in 1993 still remained unsolved at the time.

Blawan - Gi Mi Keys Back [XL]

I always make a point of checking new Blawan when it surfaces but I’m not so sure about this. Sounds like he’s aiming for ‘Why They Hide Their Bodies’ Mk2 with the vocal on this, but it doesn’t land as well.

Regis - In Plain Sight/Backwards Man EP [Downwards]

Boomkat described these as hypnotic meat motors, and whilst I wouldn’t go that far these three/four (depending on if you buy the vinyl or not) new and renewed Regis jams are exactly the kind of butcher shop tackle you’d expect from the Downwards man.

Andy Stott - Something in Mind [Modern Love]

A new one from Andy Stott here with Elaine Howley providing vocals. Really like this, it’s channelling Broadcast so I can’t wait to hear the rest of it.

The Cat’s Miaow - When You Smiled And Turned Away/Journey’s End [Slumberland]

New, essential and utterly joyous pair of singles from Aussie indie pop auters the Cat’s Miaow in advance of their first ‘proper’ debut album. First new tunes in absolutely ages and it’s like they’ve never been away.

Lluch - La Proyección [Hegoa]

Sparse solo guitar works here from Spanish artist Lluch. A debut album of sorts, these recordings span the best part of a decade and show an artist progressing whilst retaining a sense of exploration and faith in imperfection. Not everything needs to be polished and mastered within an inch of it’s life - let’s just enjoy music for what it is, right?

Welcome to this weeks In Strict Tempo - I’m about to head off to the South of France for a couple of weeks so this will be the last IST until I’m back. To pass the time I thought I’d do a recap of some newsletters you may have missed this year.

At the end of July I shared my Best of 2026 so far. How many of these will make the cut in my end-of-year list? Most of them probably. There’s some good records there for you to check out.

Over the past few weeks I’ve shared a couple of ‘Deep Cuts’ lists. Firstly one for Weatherall, then one for Warp. I’ve enjoyed doing these, so there’ll be more to follow for sure. Again, if you missed them, there’s some good tunes in there!

I dedicated a whole newsletter to the new Boards of Canada album

And lastly, this year I’ve added two new mixes to the Ceremony mix series. One from Amsterdam-via-Reading man Foggy Snares, another from Rubadub mainstay Mother. Both utterly essential listening, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, that’s it for me for a few weeks, I’ll be back at the end of September, until then enjoy what’s left of your summer!

I really enjoyed writing last weeks article looking into some Weatherall deep cuts, and it got a great response from everyone I spoke to about it, so I thought I’d do it again, but this time for a foundational label to me.

Warp needs no introduction. They’d probably be the first name on a Mount Rushmore of independent dance labels. Discovering Warp in the mid-late 1990’s was like opening a gateway to a whole world of new, interesting and incredible music. As I grew older and moved to London and started to work in record shops I would find new gems in their catalogue all the time, buying what I could afford when I was able. They soon became my favourite record label, from the big hitting stuff from Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, to lesser-known gems from a host of other artists. I read everything I could about the label, and listened to as much as I could find. I didn’t like it all, and it’s fair to say they diverted from dance music to mixed results (although I will argue till my dying day that Maximo Park’s debut album is the best record released in that landfill indie period, and absolutely doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the rest of it), but the majority of what I found, especially from the earlier releases was right up my street.

Starting in 1989 Warp were one of the leading lights in the nascent ‘Bleep techno’ scene. Records from the likes of Forgemasters, Nightmares on Wax and LFO sold in their tens of thousands, impacted the charts and saw Sheffield become a hub for this new sound that would have a massive impact on the shape of British music in the 1990’s (although LFO were from Leeds).

The early 12”s had distinctive purple sleeves designed by The Designers Republic - like Underworld and Tomato there aren’t many other labels so wedded to one design agency, and those sleeves really stood out in the racks of record shops. They still stand out on my shelves now, even if some of the spines are pretty worn. As the label approaches it’s fortieth anniversary it’s navigated the changes of the music industry and put out a wide variety of records across multiple genres. Recently it’s reissued some much-loved classics, whilst still releasing new music. Anyway, here’s a few records you might not know, a few you might know, and some you probably will know from the Warp back cat.

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DSR - Miami (1991)

One of the weirdest records in the early Warp days isn’t even that weird at all. For a label that built it’s reputation of forward-thinking, experimental and ‘intelligent’ dance music, it’s strange to find a fairly straight-up deep house record in the purple sleeve. DSR was Aldo Hernandez and Ralph Falcon, who of course would go on to produce a number of incredible deep house records as part of Murk. I feel this one is often overlooked when talking about the labels legacy, but it’s just as important as any other record they put out. A real DJ’s secret weapon, it’s a surprise this isn’t better known.

Sympletic - At Long Last (1996)

A duo of Mark Broom & Dave Hill, this EP again is one that never really got that much love at the time, but sounds like it could have been released yesterday. The Warp catalogue remains a goldmine for committed diggers, and whilst a lot of the more recognised tunes have started to attract high prices on Discogs, a lot of this stuff can still be picked up under a tenner. There was a time when you couldn’t give a lot of older Warp bits away, and some of mine are covered with 50p and £1 stickers from Music & Video Exchange. It’s legacy (plus the general demand for anything old & retro) means those days are long gone now, but there’s still good tunes out there at good prices if you look hard enough.

K Hand - Global Warning (1994)

As I write this in 34 degree heat this one feels pretty apt you know. It feels like 1994 was a real pivotal moment in the Warp history - Autechre dropped their second album, Aphex his first, Squarepusher & Boards of Canada still a couple of years away. The second Artificial Intelligence comp started to cement Warp’s reputation as more than just a 12” label as the IDM boom really started to kick in… but… at the same time, they were still dropping dancefloor shellers like this, from Detroit’s Kelli Hand. I reckon this one would still do serious damage today, especially if the air con starts to fail in the club.

Resoraz - Art of Time (1993)

Bridging the gap between the bleep sound and the emerging progressive house scene that was developing in the early 90’s this one takes in elements of electro and fuses them nicely with that trancier sound that would end up dominating commercial dance music for a while at the end of the 90’s. Trippy, and psychedelic, I can only look back on this one through the lens of 2026, but imagine it would have been a real head-melter at some of the parties the following year’s Criminal Justice Bill put an end to. As a side note - the shortest track on this EP is six-and-a-half minutes long, the breathing space afforded to each tune to develop and simmer is something that’s sorely missed from music these days

RAC - Tangents (1994)

RAC were Richard Benson and Swag/Primitive man Chris Duckenfield. This ’94 EP sees them deliver four hard-edged tracks of techno/electro crossover trax. A lot more maximal than a lot of the dub techno stuff that was emerging at the time, this perhaps hasn’t aged quite as well, but it still stands out over a lot of the more monotonous techno that was beginning to clog the charts around then. If we’re ever due a progressive techno revival then this record will be the one they’re all after.

LFO - Tied Up (Spiritualized Electric Mainline Remix) (1994)

Getting into the better known stuff, this isn’t really dance music, it isn’t really IDM, it isn’t really anything other than a high-as-fuck nine minute long drone remix of LFO’s Tied Up by J Spaceman. We don’t even get a drum beat until about halfway into the song, and ultimately it comes across as more of a Spiritualized track than the LFO one it used as it’s source material. Could you play this out, in a club? It would take a braver man than me to do so, but done right I imagine the rewards would be almost religious. The B-side is a new mix of Further from the Frequencies album, it’s more what you’d expect from LFO and in my opinion, better than the album mix. Have two sides of one record ever sounded so different?

Nightmares on Wax - A Case of Funk/21st Kong (1991)

Okay, this isn’t the deepest of deep cuts, as Nightmares on Wax were pretty synonymous with Warp, but this four tracker often gets overlooked for the bigger hits of Dextrous and Aftermath. A Case of Funk sets the scene here, a bass-heavy, broken soul tune that featured on the album A Word of Science, but the real highlight for me is 21st Kong, a stuttering, dubby track, with the merest hint of bleeps that was hammered everywhere at the time.

Drexciya - The Journey Home (1995)

Alright, this isn’t a particularly deep cut either, but as Drexciya’s only outing on Warp it definitely passes mention. Sounding like only Drexciya could, whilst also sounding like nothing else on the label it’s an important release, and even though most of the tracks on the EP were subsequently reissued by Clone it’s still worth noting. Warp is often (unfairly) thought of as just an IDM label, and the stereotypical IDM producer is white guy with a big bank of synths and laptops. This doesn’t do justice to Warp’s rich heritage of putting out music by black artists such as the likes of Forgemasters, including label co-founder Robert Gordon, Nightmares on Wax, Kelli Hand, Tuff Little Unit and more recent releases by Flying Lotus, Kelela, Danny Brown and Yves Tumor. This wasn’t the last Drexciya-related release on the label, as the late James Stinson would also release LPs as Elektroids and The Other People Place.

Squarepusher - Love Will Tear Us Apart (2002)

An oddity to finish on, and the only thing post-2000 that makes the list, but this is a cover that I’ve always loved. As part of the Do You Know Squarepusher? Mini-album it’s a beautiful ending to a frantic EP of ‘Pusher at his most immediate - stripped of the context of the other tunes it’s a haunting cover of a classic song, and something I used to play out quite a bit in my DJ-ing days, to admittedly a fairly mixed response.

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I mentioned last week that there was a new Andrew Weatherall book on the shelves, and given my love for all things Guv, it sent me flicking through the racks pulling out all my Weatherall records yet again (some of them were never put away after my last missive). Of course the big hitters still stand out, but I thought I’d do a deep dive into some of the lesser-known Weatherall productions.

I’m not gonna cover everything, just a few of the bits that are in my record collection, and I’m not gonna touch on the better known Sabres of Paradise or Two Lone Swordsmen stuff, as I’ve written about that before. You won’t find much (or any) of this stuff on streaming services, and some of it is £££’s on Discogs now so I’ve tried to provide YouTube links.

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Aramchek - Benicassim EP [Rotters Golf Club, 2001]

What’s going on with this then? The Swordsmen go Balearic? A bit of an outlier at the time, there’s not really a huge amount of info out there about this. Far tamer than the usual machine funk electro they were playing at the time, there’s still a bit of intensity to this, but in a Latin style - I could easily hear it in the main room of an Ibiza super club, and probably did back in the day. You know what, I could even see some of the more adventurous tech house boys playing this out these days…

Basic Units - Fire Wire EP [Firewire, 2002]

2002 was pretty much the height of Weatherall’s electro era as he joined forces with Radioactive Man and the other Lone Swordsman Keith Tenniswood. This was around the time I really started to get into Weatherall as a DJ, as I moved to London a year or so later. Those Haywire parties around South & East London (actually more on the City borders than deep into East, something unimaginable these days) were my introduction to London clubbing, and this fare was standard tackle for the time. These two tracks were part of a split 12” with Mat Carter and came on the short-lived Firewire imprint.

C-Pij 04 - Nostik/Tall Lights [C-Pij, 2000]

An early 00’s 7” label series releasing records mainly by Weatherall and Tenniswood but also Obscura (another AW side project featuring Nina Walsh) Alec Empire, Spring Heel Jack and Nina Walsh. This one is a beats-y piece of “IDM” or whatever you want to call that more out-there electronica that was knocking around the turn of the millennium. It deffo takes inspiration from what Aphex Twin and the likes of Prefuse 73 were doing at the time, and is a bit weirder than what your Underworlds and that were putting out. It would have fit in nicely on Planet Mu or Warp, but Weatherall often liked to do his own thing with his releases.

Deanne Day - The Long First Friday / Hardly Breathe [Emissions Audio Output, 1996]

It’s worth remembering that before all the electro, before the rockabilly, before the techno Weatherall was a DJ with a strong appreciation for fine house music. His two early essential mixes from 1993 & 1996, whilst widely known show a true master of his craft, and his Sabres of Paradise and Emissions Audio Output labels served up a variety of releases across the range of house, from deep to progressive and further leftfield too. This 12” - as Deanne Day, a collaboration with David Harrow - is a nice pair of deep house numbers with sultry hypnotic vocals, my personal favourite being Hardly Breathe which still sounds utterly timeless. It felt like ’96 was a real high point for Weatherall, what with that incredible essential mix, the Swimming Not Skimming and Return to the Flightpath Estate LPs, and this, among other things. Worth noting: this EP got a repress by Mint Conditions a few years ago, making it a bit more affordable to find.

Klunk - Klunk 1 [Subvert, 1999]

Klunk’s one and only outing on the Subvert label (although a second 12” came out on the affiliated Antiphon later that same year) these six tracks showed Weatherall and Tenniswood exploring a move further into techno, whilst keeping faith with the electro sound that was their bread and butter at the time. Probably the toughest of this lot to write about, it’s a DJ’s EP really and on the surface of it not really all that much going on, which reflects in the low price you can pick this up for today. This was deep in the Haywire era, and I guess he wanted some tunes to mix things up a bit, that weren’t just out and out electro. That’s not to say these tracks are bad, they still stand up nicely today, although they’re perhaps a little dated, it would be unfair to judge them as anything other than club tools.

Klart - For Shavers Only [RGC, 2001]

Play the first track on this 12” in 2026 and you’ll either find yourself lauded as the greatest DJ of all time, or be cancelled so quickly your feet won’t hit the ground. I’m still undecided really as to whether or not this is an absolute nails-on SLAMMER or the cheesiest dance track that has ever existed. Title track aside, the rest of it is a pretty strong electro EP from the Haywire heyday, when Weatherall and Tenniswood could do no wrong. Whatever you think of the title track, really it’s a pretty fun EP, and will put a smile on the face of half the dance floor and send the other half reaching for their Instagram stories to grass you up to Resident Advisor. That’s what it all comes down to though isn’t it? Great tunes are meant to be divisive, and as the great man once said Music’s Not For Everyone.

Lords of Afford - Do Laugh (Whitey Part 4) [Sabrettes, 1995]

Found only on a Sabrette’s (Sabres of Paradise sister label run by Nina Walsh) compilation, Weatherall teamed up with engineer David Hedger for this big kickin’ industrial techno number. I don’t know anyone’s who’s managed to make drums sound so hard to this day. The rest of the tune is fairly unremarkable if I’m honest, although it moves towards an acid-y ending, I’m not sure really what I’d do with it, but as a document of the ‘panel beaters from Prague’ era this is probably as good as you’ll get.

Meek - Glowing Trees [New Ground, 1994]

One of those records that’s about as 1994 as it could be, but still holding the power to elevate a crowd to this day. Ultimately a tribute to producer Joe Meek, it broadly fits into that ambient techno style that was doing the rounds back then. A ten minute trip, with lifting melodies over the top, I can only imagine hearing this one out and the effect it would have, as it ramps into gear a few minutes in. The B side takes things up a notch, more of the same, but slightly tougher Sabres-esque kicks propelling the whole thing along.

Rude Solo - DC Fumes EP [Emissions Audio Output, 1997]

An EP of pretty functional electro numbers, but with a bit of an experimental twist - you can hear the direction TLS are moving in here, as well as early shoots for the RGC/Haywire stuff. It’s not an EP that’s gonna blow anyones mind, but it does the job and makes for an interesting roadmap into how Weatherall & Tenniswood would develop their sound over the next few years. Rico’s Box is probably the track that holds it all together, giving some continuation into what came before, and where it was going.

The Woodleigh Research Facility - Gardens Dub [Moine Dubh, 2015]

Cheating a bit here, as this never technically came out physically, but back in 2015 Weatherall and Nina Walsh launched a new 7” label called Moine Dubh. It was a subscription series, where you’d be sent a new record every month or so, but for whatever reason shipping was delayed, so to placate those who’d ordered a download of this unreleased Woodleigh Research Facility track was sent to those waiting. A lot more electronic than the rest of the Moine Dubh oeuvre, which really was a folk label it’s here to shine a light on an under-appreciated part of Weatherall’s musical tastes.

VA - Rotters Golf Club Presents Machine Funk Specialists Vol. 1 [RGC, 2001]

This EP on Rotter’s Golf Club featured five tracks from a variety of Weatherall & Tenniswood aliases, with Klart, Rude Solo, Aramchek all making an appearance along with the only outing from Frisch und Munter. The absolute highlight on this one is Rude Solo’s MFS - not only a call to arms for all electro soldiers, but also a statement that these two here are at the top of their game - the Machine Funk Specialists. Over a looped vocal and broken drums the bassline morphs into something taken from the boot of an orange XR3i, straight outta the UKG songbook. A second highlight (cause there wouldn’t be just one) is Aramcheks Driver, a song that previewed the nascent grime sound bubbling on the fringes at the time. It wasn’t really anything Weatherall got all that deeply into, but you can tell his ears were attuned to what was going on elsewhere in music.

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Hello and welcome to this week’s In Strict Tempo, which finds itself slap bang in the middle of a busy week in the world of music.

Soundcloud have recently purchased the Nina Protocol site, and are offering artists the chance to distribute their music via their platform instead. That seems about it really, there doesn’t seem to be any additional functionality, although users get a free Soundcloud account for a year. They’re also committing to preserving the editorial side of the site, but only as an archive.

Challenger DSP Subvert have launched their label focused offering - one big thing a lot of new music streaming/download platforms get wrong is that they only speak to artists, when it’s labels that ultimately own most of the catalogue - I digress. Subvert looks interesting, offering artists and labels ownership in the platform, which seems to be their USP, although in my opinion this complicates the running of it all somewhat. I’ll investigate more at a later date.

In reissue news, three things recently have caught my attention, with Numbers delving into the Chain Reaction back cat to give Hallucinator’s 1999 album Landlocked a fresh lease of life, Warp are putting out Aphex Twin’s Drukqs on vinyl again, including a £100 4LP boxset that apes the original release (there’s also a cheaper, ‘standard’ 4LP version), and Late Night Tales bringing Sasha & Digweed’s game-changing 1996 compilation Northern Exposure back to vinyl after 30 years. All three of these deserve deeper articles of their own, so look out for those in the forthcoming weeks.

Finally, Disco Pogo’s latest book has dropped, this time exploring the life and work of the Guvnor himself, Andrew Weatherall. It’s about three times the size of the previous Jockey Slut tribute that came out after his passing, and I’m only a few pages into it, but so far so good. You can revisit my tribute to Weatherall here too.

Anyway - anyone that tells you that music is all shit these days is speaking bollocks - there’s been some great albums released in 2026 so far, and I’ve decided to round up some favourites here. I’ve spoken about most of these before, but sometimes it’s nice to look back a while after release and see if they still stand up. So, in no particular order, here’s five of the best records of 2026 so far.

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Boards of Canada - Inferno [Warp]

Does familiarity breed contempt? Not in this case no. Inferno dropped earlier this year, and most BoC fans were pleased there was no radical departure from what they knew. If anything, Inferno took their body of work so far, and bought it up to date, creating almost a ‘greatest hits’ of sorts. At the time, I (rather hyperbolically) said it might go down as one of the best albums of the 2020’s, and after numerous listens since I’m doubling down on that.

Tara Clerkin Trio - Somewhere Good (World of Echo)

This album showed more than anything that trying to pigeonhole records into genre is just a waste of time. It’s a bit of everything that’s good, bringing to mind groups like Broadcast, The Durutti Column, Seefeel, Massive Attack, Hydroplane and basically anything else that plays with never quite fitting in to any one place. There’s as much here for the jazz heads as there is for the pop heads and electronica heads, and in a more just world this would be massive. It should come as no surprise that an album that sounds like Somewhere Good should come out on the World of Echo label, not only London’s best record shop, but one of the most interesting labels releasing music right now.

Carla Dal Forno - Confession [Kallista]

When this came out I immediately went back through Carla’s back catalogue, listening to her evolution as an artist from her earliest solo releases on Blackest a decade ago to her most recent albums on her own Kallista label. This stands up as the strongest of all of them, but also stands on it’s own feet as a fantastic record in it’s own right. Again, it’s criminal that she doesn’t have a bigger audience, and if you’re unaware of her all I can say is please, please, please check this out. Buy a copy for yourself, buy a copy for your friends. You won’t regret it.

Morgan Buckley & Ben Donohow - Sworx [Wah Wah Wino]

Wah Wah Wino has been the hottest label around for some time now, and it really seems to be the only one in our little world that can sell titles out almost immediately. In that respect it feels a little unfair putting something with no mainstream digital release in a best of roundup (although they have recently added the digital files for purchase on Bandcamp). Anyway - sometimes a record hits that’s so ‘out there’ it almost gives new meaning to the term. Some records are weird for weirds sake, but fall apart under closer listens - this isn’t one of those, it actually seems to get better on each spin, and becomes more cohesive with each session. It took me a few listens to really get it, but now I do, it comes together in a way that makes perfect sense.

Cancer House - The Moth [Motion Ward]

Sonically speaking this is the darker cousin of the TCT and Carla Dal Forno releases, it could fit in alongside all of them, but equally it’s a way apart in it’s own world, doing it’s own thing. It’s another one of those records that really defies categorisation, and really that’s all a record needs to do to stand out - not fit in. It’s slow and stoned, without resorting to the familiar haze that these kinds of records often has. You know that brain surgery they do when you’re still awake? This is that. It’s what I imagine that sounds like. Unlike some of the other albums in this roundup this won’t be for everyone, but it’s well worth a listen, even if it doesn’t grab you right away. I guarantee you’ll go back to it at least once.

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Hello and welcome to this weeks In Strict Tempo. Before I get into the main subject this week, a reminder that on Monday I published the latest Ceremony mix, a 45 minute recording of raw techno from Glasgow legend Mother. Check it out below, and share it round if you enjoyed it!

It seems that every few years a new contender pops up in the streaming industry, offering to “fix” the current model. Generally their mission statement seems to be ‘we’ll pay artists more’, which is a noble cause that I’m not sure anyone reading this disagrees with.

Let’s ignore the fact for a minute that ‘paying artists more’ actually means paying distributors and record labels more, with no control of how much of that money actually reaches an artists pocket - the thing that many of these challenger DSPs all seem to agree on is that the current streaming landscape needs fundamentally changing.

For most new DSPs they firmly have one target in their sights: Spotify. The big bad wolf of the music industry and subject to a recent takedown in Liz Pelly’s book (a consequence of which she recently complained about was that people were cancelling their subscriptions and moving to other streaming platforms- which was basically the entire message around the press campaign surrounding the book). Everyone wants to make the ‘new Spotify’, a DSP with the same breadth of catalogue, but one that pays artists significantly more - and all for the same ten quid a month.

I see it differently. Ask your local record shop owner why they opened their shop, and it won’t be ‘to become the new HMV’. No-one needs to have a shop in every city, and a full range of catalogue. The record shop prides itself on its curation, and the advice it can offer on what else a user might like, kind of like an algorithm, but better, I guess.

Is the future of the music industry a new Spotify? I don’t think so, nor do I think it needs to be. I think it’ll be a selection of smaller, curated, probably genre-specific streaming services. They might not pay loads better than the existing platforms, but you never really heard any customers complaining that HMV was able to buy records with a discount due to it’s size.

There’s already a few platforms beginning to get some attention, of which Cantilever is the most recent. For £4.99 a month you get a small, curated selection of albums with ‘sleeve notes’ to provide context around the release. New albums are added regularly, for a month at a time before cycling off. There’s some drawbacks to this model, namely you might not enjoy the selection that month, and you won’t be able to create playlists of favourites, but the idea is there as a start. It probably needs refining a little as the service hopefully grows, perhaps allowing users to select from a genre or a larger pool of releases to listen to, but with the backing from a whole load of credible Indies, it looks like a good start, and I’ll probably subscribe at some point, out of curiosity at first, but also because things like this won’t survive without our support.

There’s no reason that new DSPs can’t live alongside Spotify and Apple Music in the way that Indies have always existed alongside HMV. The main DSPs can aid broad discovery - something they’re reasonably good at, and if you’re lucky that will convert to a deeper fan. I know it’s a bit like a lottery win, but that was always the case anyway. For the thousands of CD’s racked in HMV, all it took was one staff member to get behind something and push it in order to shift a few, even just locally. More curated streaming services can then build upon that initial “oh that sounds good, who is it?” with deeper context around the artist, maybe even a line of contact to them, merch, tickets and a more meaningful fan-artist relationship. For me that’s where I feel Cantilever falls short a little bit, in that it presents the album as a one-off - I don’t know how it then encourages the user to access the rest of the artists catalogue, but it will be off-platform.

Of course, the biggest barrier in the way of all this is consumer apathy. We’re music fans, but there’s not as many of us as people like to think. Most subscribers to Spotify won’t be fully engaged music lovers, they’ll just want to hear music on their phone. This was illustrated by a report into the activities of the recently closed Nina Protocol. This started off as a challenger DSP, getting a load of press, some decent labels on it, and a weird crypto angle which was never really made clear. It ran for about five years, during which a total of $33,000 dollars was spent on the platform. In contrast, more than $600,000 is spent on Bandcamp each day, and Spotify brings in over $5,000,000 each day in subscription revenue, give or take.

Getting people to spend money on music is a huge hurdle, especially when they can already get it for ‘free’ or £10 a month anyway. Of course we live in a world where the only meaningful way to scale a business (especially one with the high startup costs of acquiring catalogue) is to take VC funding, and they never really look at the long-term. If they don’t have their millions back in a couple of years, you’re done for. Building a sustainable streaming platform will take years to grow an audience to a number that allows it to not only pay rights holders fairly, but to become profitable.

Rightsholders themselves are another hurdle in the road, and bear some responsibility. Although Cantilever has been backed by a number of Indies, back catalogues are quite rightly highly valued, meaning no-one can build anything new if you can’t afford to onboard labels. You wouldn’t sow a field of crops if a bag of seeds was millions of pounds would you? As an industry we need to look at providing access to catalogues without massive upfront advances, and ideally without taking loads of equity. Take a chance, back your catalogue to succeed on that platform.

Maybe this is all a pipe dream then, but dreams have always existed in music. I really believe that most of us who work in this industry do so from a position of genuine love of music, and that we all want things to be better for everyone. All this is way easier said than done, and I don’t have the answers, nor would I know where to start building something like this (not to mention the lack of cash), but someone out there does, and maybe they’re even reading this?

We don’t need to build the new Spotify, we need to build the new Rough Trade.

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New Music

I’ve provided Bandcamp links below, but don’t forget all of these records will be available in your local independent record store too. Some In Strict Tempo-approved shops include Boomkat, World of Echo, Rubadub and All Night Flight.

emer & Ugne Uma - you and me [Stroom]

The Ugne Uma 7” on Shelter Press earlier this year remains a standout release for me, so I was excited to check this new collab with emer. It’s nice, perhaps a little bit too soulful for my own personal tastes, so I deffo preferred the solo 7”, but fans of that hazy electronic soul sound will find much to enjoy here.

Rezzett - Into The Boiling Darks [RZ]

21 new Rezzett tracks? In the hottest summer on record? How do you expect us to deal with this?

Sticky, fuzzy, sassy and a little bit off-kilter this is the sound of being stuck on the top deck of the 149 bus as it crawls it’s way up Dalston High Street, all of London laid out beneath you. The sights, the smells, the sounds and snippets of this flash in and out here and there, as the anticipation of a night out grows.

False Berries - Find The Gyres (Monks Hood)

Conor Kiley - OK Hotel (Monks Hood)

A couple of new ones that haven’t made it thru to the streamers yet (if indeed they ever will?) courtesy of the new Monks Hood imprint. Set up by Juho Toivonen and Cuneiform Tabs member Sterling McKinnon, it’s McKinnon who inaugurates things here with a record under the False Berries alias, a lightly Canterbury-esque record that recalls the likes of Syd Barrett & Flaming Tunes as it does the likes of Soft Machine.

The second release this week is the debut solo release from Conor Kiley. Kiley was once dubbed the future of rock n’ roll by the NME during the landfill indie. Don’t let that put you off though, as Kiley has since stepped free of his band Holy Ghost Revival (they actually split up back in 2008) and has now returned as a singer-songwriter, sitting on this album for the best part of a decade before finding a home on Monk’s Hood.

Quiet Husband - The Architecture of Perception [Industrial Coast]

Kicking off with 200mph techno before letting up the pace slightly Richie Culver returns to his Quiet Husband project, combining aspects of his more industrial noise work with fairground waltzer techno to create a relentless album that never gives the listener a minute to breathe.

Nuke Watch - Fusion [Sagome]

Improv free-jazz/electronixxx here from TTT alumnus Nuke Watch. Psych-drums & outsider weirdo gear from start to finish on this one. It won’t be for everyone, but for those that fuck with this kinda stuff it’ll be an enjoyable hour spent listening.

Regis - Power Is Neutral (Mark Broom Edits) [Blueprint]

Techno titans collide here as Mark Broom twists and teases a new life into some classic Brum techno slammers from Regis. About as subtle as a brick to the face, and none the worse for it.

Untold - False Vacuum EP [Hemlock]

Untold returns to his infrequent release schedule with five new tracks on the legendary Hemlock. Take me back to that exciting period of late 00’s/early 10’s London, when stuff like this was leaking out of every railway arch across the city from Elephant to Tottenham and beyond.

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Glasgow’s Mother Mark Maxwell really is the DJ’s DJ.

A longstanding part of the Rubadub crew, with the record collection and taste of someone who’s spent hard time behind the counter, anyone that’s heard one of his sets will agree he’s one of the finest in the game- including none other than the Wizard himself, Jeff Mills.

As part of Mills’ 30th Anniversary tour of Live At The Liquid Rooms last December, Maxwell played in between his two sets at Glasgows SWG3, and it’s this mix he’s kindly allowed me to share here. In his own words it’s a “warts & all room recording captured on the voice notes app, with a touch of added compression to complement the already brutal limiting”.

Forty-five minutes of the kind of balls-to-the-wall, relentless Techno-with-a-capital T that we love here at In Strict Tempo

Originally available over the weekend as a free download on his Instagram page, I’m delighted to be able to share it with a wider audience. Enjoy!

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The heatwave continues, as does the amount of new music landing in my inbox each week. I’ve not long been back from a restorative three nights in Ibiza. Although I’ve been numerous times for work and with my partner since, it was actually my first lads trip to the island since 2006 or so.

I first went to Ibiza as a wide-eyed teenager back in 2001 or 2002. We learned a few things the hard way, but still the island captivated me in a way few places have since. Those first few years were spent in the bars of San Antonio and Ibiza Town, as well as the big clubs: Amnesia, Eden, Privilege, Space & Pacha. Accommodation was always as cheap as possible, and for the first few years we never bothered paying extra for air conditioned rooms, preferring instead to save our money for drink, food and other Ibizan treats.

This time was different, the rooms were air conditioned, and although a few of our group went to Pacha, the main highlight was a trip to Pikes, which is always fun. There’s definitely something to be said for a solid door policy that tends to keep the dickheads away. They say Ibiza isn’t what it used to be, but they were saying that back in 2002 as well. It’ll never be what it used to be, and that’s what keeps people coming back. But that Ibiza magic is still there, from the incredible sunsets, to the beach bars and places like Pikes and 528 keeping the old-school vibes alive.

Outside of Ibiza it feels like the industry is quiet right now. It normally is in the summer. I think we’re probably in a bit of a state of flux right now, as everyone figures out not only how AI is going to affect things, but also what the future looks like beyond streaming. AI is only going to make the streaming DSPs worse unless they combat it, and they’ll need to decide fairly soon whether they want to be general music streaming platforms, or specialist platforms. The AI slop infecting DSPs might be accepted by the general listener, but music fans are going to want something better, something more curated and whatever that is will decide the direction of the music industry for the future. It’s probably actually a bigger thing than we think - this could be year zero for a new music industry, and it’s one I think we’ll all want to be a part of.

Anyway, enough from me - here’s the latest reviews!

GAS - November 89 [Kompakt]

My love of Wolfgang Voigt’s GAS alias is well documented, so to hear these early GAS tunes compiled onto one EP is a real treat. Heads will probably already know the majestic Tal 90, which was included on the Oktember reissue a while back, and whilst that’s undoubtably the highlight of the release (and indeed, a highlight in the entire history of record music full stop) the other tunes here are well worth a look in as they chart the evolution of one of the most visionary experimental musicians of our time.

Father Dionysus Tabakis - Paradise Metal [Heat Crimes]

I’m still not entirely sure this isn’t some kind of Dean Blunt side project, but everyone who’s everyone has been going on about it, so I thought I’d follow the hype and give it a listen. This is the kind of thing that I’d have probably sold 30 copies of back in the day in HMV to people who asked for something “cool” and were expecting me to give them a Mogwai or Jamie XX CD. There’s enough going on to keep it interesting, and I guess the backstory is interesting enough too, I’m gonna need some more time with it to really get into it.

Actress & CASiSDEAD - Live By You [Ninja Tune]

Is this ambient drill? It’s not Splaszh/RIP by any means. Not really sure on this one, sounds more like something you’d hear at an art installation down in the tanks of the Tate Modern

Uriel’s Bath - Uriel’s Bath EP [Felt Sense]

Nicely shimmering four tracker here starting out on an ambient drift but evolving into a more DIY electronic slant with mesmerising vocals reminding me of somewhere in the ether between Suzanne Vega and Hydroplane

Horse Lords - Demand To Be Taken To Heaven Alive [RVNG Intl]

This is basically just Battles isn’t it?

Panasonic - Muuntaja [Sahko]

Gritty early Vainio trax reissued and probably sold out already. Set the template for so much of what followed, mad to think this stuff is over 30 years old now, and still way better than most of the dub heavy techno that followed.

Adrian Rew - Slot Machine Music, Vol. 1 & 2: Field Recordings from Middle American Casinos [DINTE]

I once spent 48 hours in Las Vegas that culminated in me ending up backstage at a Skrillex show, drinking a light-up neon bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. The hangover the next day was a thing of nightmares. This album of field recordings from American casinos doesn’t feature Skrillex thankfully, but is equally as nightmarish, evoking the soundscape of a liminal space carefully designed to extract every penny possible from your pockets.

Two Shell - Thing About You [Young]

“I’m heartbroken… without your love… heartbroken… ‘cause I’ve had enough”

The Sprigs - For Red Riverbank [Discreet]

Wonderfully charming, Wind-In-The-Willows influenced DIY folk experiments from Rory Salter’s The Sprigs outfit. An album that reveals a little more on each listen, rewarding those who return to it time and time again, much like I have. Discreet really feels like a natural home for this.

Kryptic Minds - The Things The Left Behind [Osiris]

Simon Shreeve returns to his Kryptic Minds alias with this collection of remastered versions of older tunes. Sitting somewhere between broken techno and dubstep, sounding all the better for a bit of 2026 polish, and still fresh to this day

Lolina- Monopoly of Mistakes [Relaxin’]

For someone who’s label is called Relaxin’ Lolina has been responsible for some pretty intense music. This new one here continues her fine recent form, putting a unique touch to electro, what you would of called IDM if it was 2006, and the kind of stuff you think Charli XCX should be making, but doesn’t quite. Not really pop, and certainly nothing that you’d consider particularly radio friendly, but it could be, if only people were willing to take risks.

Morgan Buckley & Ben Donohoe - Sworx [Wah Wah Wino]

Not on any streamers so you’ll have to seek out the LP if you’re not too late already. Outta space electro-jams from two of the Wino crew. Maybe not the weirdest tunes on the label but there’s still plenty here to reward the adventurous.

The Fulmars - The Fulmars [Static Age]

Another one not on any streaming services, I’ve been a fan of the Fulmars since hearing them close the chapter on Blackest Ever Black a decade or so ago. This new one - incredibly their first debut album - continues that lo-fi DIY pop sound and is a low-key AOTY contender.

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How we all doing in this heat eh? Apologies for a lack of In Strict Tempo communications over the past couple of weeks - it’s just me that writes this thing, and at the moment the relentless march of the dance music industry means that work is pretty much non-stop right now as we push out more records into the summer clubs.

It’s all been a bit much over the past few weeks, but better things are coming and I’m off on holiday for a few days tomorrow, back to one of my favourite places: Ibiza. It’s actually been 20 or so years since I’ve been there on a trip with friends and I’m really looking forward to it.

As a result, it means it’s yet another week without any major hot-takes or music reviews from me, but there’s plenty I’ve got lined up for when I’m back.

In the meantime, there’s only one thing I suggest you listen to when the weather’s like this.

Hello and welcome to this weeks In Strict Tempo. There’s been lots going on in the IST extended universe, some of which will become clear very soon as a project myself and Luke Stonecirclesampler have been working on comes to fruition. More on that soon, but this week it’s just 100% music reviews. Dive in!

Tara Clerkin Trio - Somewhere Good [World of Echo]

This is really shaping up to be one of the albums of the year - moving seamlessly across influences and getting a lot of work done. Getting positive reviews across the board, but most importantly the coveted In Strict Tempo ‘TIP’ (okay, I just made that up, but this is good) it’s the sound of a band who’re making themselves one of the most exciting and experimental acts around. What can you expect from this? Well that would give away the surprise, but I guess it’s jazzy, but not Jazz-with-a-capital-J serious beard-stroking Jazz; It’s young, playful and fun and brings in elements of indie, folk and more electronic styles with a nod to their Bristol heritage. Ultimately, we can say what we want about it, but there’s no substitute for getting out there, sticking some headphones on and having a damn good listen to it.

Martyn - Music For Existing [3024]

Straight from the off this one’s gonna be a belter. Melding deep n’ bassy club sounds with live-sounding drums it’s almost like you’re getting two records at once, perfectly matched. The album then runs through trip-hop & electronica in fine style, making what should be a timeless release.

Function & Nastia Reigel - Devocion [Dekmantel]

A great double header here on Dekmantel combining off-the-wall techno and lysergic elements to create a trippy EP of tunes that made me wish I still got right on it…

Shed - Rave Echoes [Dekmantel]

The Killer still stands high as one of my favourite electronic albums of all time, almost perfectly capturing that sound of 2012/2013 when everything felt exciting. Things still sound exciting, even though I’m a lot more jaded now, so I’m hoping this new Shed LP will snap me out of my funk.

Delroy Edwards - It’s Happening (To Me) [LA Club Resource]

A nice housey roller this one, does everything you’d want it to do over a short 2 and a half minutes. Could be longer, should be longer, but either way nice to have him back.

Francesco Leali - Hexed 05 [Radio Raheem]

Okay it’s not a proper release, but this radio show from Milan based composer & producer Francesco Leali is a great primer of industrial and power electronics showcasing the best of a sometimes maligned genre. Check it out over at Radio Raheem.

JK Flesh / Monrella - SHOUTING THE ODDS [Give/Take]

Two heavyweight titans here coming together for an ungodly tribute to no-nonsense Brum-style techno. Big and bold, this stuff does exactly what it says on the tin.

Midland - Without Pause [Graded]

There was a time when people would have gone mad for this, it would have been the heater of the summer. It’s not bad, but feels stuck in a bit of a 2016 rut. I’m sure it still be mad popular with the Croatia festival crew though.

Quiet Husband - Gesture [Industrial Coast]

A new outing for Richie Culvers Quiet Husband alias, which leans towards the darker, heavier techno side of things. Proper powerful gear this, sitting comfortably above 180bpm so not for the faint-hearted. Album comes early July.

Trickfinger / John Frusciante - Tysch [Acid Test]

Probably better known as the guitarist in Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante is also a proper electronic music head working under his Trickfinger alias. This one takes the usual acid recipe and twists it on it’s head to create something mind-melting.

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Resident Advisor called it “dark and disquieting”, The Guardian have dubbed it a “big disappointment”, with dubious drum programming. The US Government have seen fit to use it to soundtrack a social media post about whatever war they’re fighting this week… but for me, it’s the album of the year.

It’s been thirteen years since Boards of Canada last released an album, and pretty much everything that’s getting thrown at Inferno was thrown at Tomorrow’s Harvest back in 2013. It was thrown at The Campfire Headphase eight years before that, and I’m sure some people found Geogaddi formulaic at the time of it’s release too. They were never going to rip the rulebook up with this album, and the highest praise I can give it is that it sounds exactly how you’d want a Boards of Canada album to sound. Some people might not think that’s enough, that the brothers should be pushing boundaries and re-inventing the wheel with each new release, especially after so long away, but that’s never been what they’ve been about.

Yes the album has moments of accessibility, but every LP before that has had those too, from Roygbiv to Reach for the Dead, Dayvan Cowboy to Music is Math. After listening to it on repeat for a week there’s still enough to challenge and surprise you with every new listen.

I’m not going to go track-by-track on it, part of the fun is discovering it for yourself and coming to your own conclusions. The standouts for me are definitely the more vocal tracks including Age of Capricorn, Father and Son and The Word Becomes Flesh, and you can spend hours on Reddit looking into the meanings and sources of all those samples if you want to really get down the rabbit hole. My favourite track on the album though? The penultimate track You Retreat in Time and Space. It’s like the whole album is leading up to this moment, lulling you into a sense of security before dropping this one track on you, hitting every emotion it was possible to feel all at once, utterly devastating, but euphoric all at the same time. I once read about a tribe somewhere that when punishing criminals would rest their head on a bent back tree before chopping it off, so the last thing they felt was ascending rapidly through the sky as the tree sprung back to it’s standing position - that’s probably exactly how this track feels.

Halfway through the year it’s not too bold a call to suggest this might be the album of the year, but I’d make a similar case for it even if it came out on January 1st. Slightly bolder, could this be in contention for album of the decade so far? It will certainly demand discussion, despite my obvious recency bias.

So yeah, I’m fanboying a little bit, but along with Aphex Twin and Squarepusher during that golden-era of Warp stuff in the mid/late 1990’s Boards of Canada were one of the first groups that made me understand that music could be weird and challenging and unsettling and incredible in all kinds of ways the teenage me couldn’t really understand. It was music that spoke it’s own language to me, and one that helped me find other people who spoke it too, and ultimately set me on the path to where I am now, 25+ years later. I’ll probably continue to fanboy over the album every time I speak to anyone in real life for the foreseeable future, so forgive me for that, and forgive me for not having listened to anything else this week either, so music reviews will be back next Friday.

You’ve probably pre-ordered it already, but you can get Inferno in all good record shops, and from Bandcamp.

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A couple of other things to mention quickly this week, Manchester/Salford’s The White Hotel has announced its closure. I’ve never been (in fact my only visit to Manchester was an in-and-out trip to Old Trafford for Cambridge’s FA Cup game back in 2014) but the programming of the club often had me tempted for a return visit. I know the reverence it holds for Manc music heads is up there with how London folk felt about Corsica so it’s a real blow to lose a community focussed experimental space like TWH, even if it was the owners decision to close.

Also closing in the near future is the Nina Protocol site. Launched back in 2021 it aimed to be a more equitable DSP for selling music, giving artists a fairer share of any income. Initially it had a confusing blockchain/crypto element to it which I don’t think did it any favours, but eventually operated like a more regular download/streaming website. Some decent labels got behind it, including AD93, Hyperdub and Stroom, but ultimately when your business model is built around paying out more in royalties than your competitors it’s always going to be tough to be a profitable concern. I still think there’s space for a new DSP, probably one with a more curated roster of artists and labels, and Nina was probably a bit too early to survive. Like Bandcamp, the site also featured editorial features, and the founders are looking for a way to keep this side of things archived and visible.

That’s all for this week. Thanks as always for reading/subscribing/telling me I’m being way over the top about this album. Regular service will resume next Friday!

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You’ll have seen a lot of articles over the past weeks about the band Geese and the marketing campaigns they’ve been running on social media. It feels like everyone has weighed in with hotter and hotter takes each week, so allow me to pour more fuel on the flames of discourse - every popular artist pays for promotion in one way or another. The game is stacked against upcoming artists, we know that’s been the case over the past few years of streaming at least. It’s always been the case, with radio plugging and retail promotion generally being the domain of the bigger indies and majors who could afford it. But you can throw as much money as you want at online promotion and unless the music’s good (or it at least resonates with people) it doesn’t mean anything. The numbers become meaningless, if everyone can buy a hundred thousand TikTok creations, then it doesn’t matter if your track gets that many.

I’ve not listened to Geese, I don’t know what they sound like, and I’m not sure I even care all that much. Are they meant to be like the new Strokes? But for one reason or another their music seems to be resonating with people, and it’s sprialling across social media. I’ve seen loads of artists put money into these ‘clipping’ campaigns trying to promote a song, and for the most part I’ve not seen a huge amount of success - certainly nothing you’d consider viral anyway. And it may well be that Geese haven’t either, it may well be that all the articles and hot takes are just an extension of the campaign, a clever way of spinning the narrative from something that people consider negative into a “all press is good press” situation. I’m not sure anyone’s thought of that have they?

I don’t want to say too much more on it right now, for a variety of reasons, the main one being no-one really needs another takedown of TikTok social media campaigns. Maybe I’ll expand on it one day in the future.

Anyway: There’s a new Andrew Weatherall book coming, from the folk at Disco Pogo. Their Aphex Twin and LCD Soundsystem books were both really good, an enjoyable mix of period articles and new writing. Jockey Slut put out a decent Weatherall book not long after he passed, and there’s more than plenty of good reading online about probably the most important figure in UK electronic music of the past 30 years. Of course, I did my own tribute to the Guv’nor too, and you can find that here.

Also, it’s Independent Label Market in London tomorrow. I’ll likely pop down if the weathers good, and there’s some top labels and distros selling their wares. There always feels like a bit more of a community and buzz around this than Record Store Day which is really dependendent on what shop you end up going to. I’ve been going to these for years and have some picked up some really nice titles along the way, including that really rare Loefah 12” on Swamp 81.

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New Music

This is the bit you came for, a bumper week to make up for the last couple.

Boards of Canada - Introit/Prophecy at 1420 Mhz [Warp]

Okay this is good. Was anyone expecting it to be anything other than really fucking good? Moves quickly through a few influences before settling into ‘typical’ BoC but none the worse for it. Think of every great Boards track and there’s a bit of the DNA of every single one of them in here. Can’t wait for the rest of it.

Seefeel - Sol.Hz [Warp]

New Seefeel and New Boards of Canada? In the same week? What have we done to deserve this. I think this one is probably going to get unfairly overlooked, but like BoC it’s an example of a group doing what they do best and being supported by a great indie label to do it.

Batu & Donato Dozzy - Drift [!K7]

A bit of an unexpected collaboration here from Timedance man Batu and Donato Dozzy. Sometimes with collab tracks one person takes the lead to it’s detriment, and whilst you can deffo hear a lot of Dozzy’s sound design in this, there’s a fair bit of Batu’s influence too. If the rest of it is anything like this first single it’s going to be really good.

Carla Dal Forno - Confession [Kallista]

I’d already reviewed the first single from this a while back, but the full album moves the game on significantly. Regular readers will know Carla as part of the Blackest Ever Black/Low Company Cinematic Universe, but since returning to Australia she’s been releasing on her own Kallista album (who’s back cat is well worth investigating). Dark, brooding, off-kilter pop this album is one for the ages and deserves to sit alongside the best in the genre. Put simply? Don’t miss it.

Paperclip Minimiser - II [Peak Oil]

There was a time a few months back when it felt like Peak Oil were putting out fire releases every single week, so when this dropped recently it was at the top of my list to check out. Broken beats colliding with a dubby wobble sounding like this could have come out on Blackest in it’s heyday.

Ricardo Villalobos & goat (JP) - Orin (Ricardo Villalobos Variation)

Ricardo Villalobos and Japanese outfit goat teaming up for this remix project was unexpected, but probably not as unexpected as Ricky V turning in what is pretty much a straight up house track. Nine glorious minutes that could come straight from the Paradise Garage here. Phew.

The Caretaker - Patience After Sebald [History Always Favours The Winners]

A timely and much-needed repress of this Caretaker masterwork, soundtracking Grant Gee’s film about the author WG Sebald and his book The Rings of Saturn. It’s long been a favourite book of mine, tracing the author’s journey around the East Anglian countryside via tales of herring, miniature railways and matchstick cathedrals. It’s a book I’ve gifted to people many times, and return to every couple of years without fail. Highest possible recommendation, the same of which I can say for this album.

Anton Pearson - Tintinnabulation 1 [World of Echo]

Pearson is perhaps better known for his work with the band Squid, in which he plays guitar, but here he branches out solo for this album titled Driving Through Belgium. There’s something romantic about driving on the continent isn’t there? The long days behind the wheel, odd sights along the way, the sense of freedom as road signs point you towards destinations in other countries, something we don’t get in the UK. Belgium isn’t exactly the most picturesque of our European neighbours, and I can attest that driving there is pretty dreadful having spent hours on the motorway outside Antwerp en route to Amsterdam once but I digress, this album would make any journey through the Low Countries approximately thirty times more enjoyable.

Appleblim - Neolithic Leon [Sneaker Social Club]

Two Appleblim albums in as many weeks? Both completely different to one another. This one lands on label du jour Sneaker Social Club and is a road back to more familiar ground, treading the path of the UK bass continuum but in a fresh and interesting way.

Public Money - Inside/Love [Crane Operator]

I first discovered the music of Public Money last year with the release of her Amulets EP, and this follow-up builds upon that, these two charged, atmospheric tracks evolving into something with a more DIY slant, honing a unique edge on the world of blunted ambient music.

Underworld - Pearl’s Girl (r18_for2026) [Self-Released]

My one complaint from the Underworld shows earlier this year is that Pearl’s Girl didn’t go on for long enough, and neither does this. It’s an interesting new take on what is probably my favourite UW track, but it clocks in under five minutes, when the original is almost twice that.

Rene Wise - Johnsons Theme [Dekmantel]

I quite like this you know. Like a cross between The Knife and Mathew Jonson’s Marionette, it’s great to hear that progressive minimal sound keeping kicking it.

Welcome to this weeks In Strict Tempo. Apologies for no newsletter last week but I was at the International Music Summit conference in Ibiza, so didn’t find the time to get down my thoughts. Earlier this week a family funeral took me up to Scotland for three days, so apologies also for the lack of music reviews in this edition. Next week will be another bumper edition for sure.

IMS this year felt better than previous years. I’m still not too sold on the new location, but the food and drink offerings in the conference itself were more affordable and diverse, and the programming wasn’t just themed all around one flavour-of-the-month topic, although the overriding subject was on Reclaiming the Dancefloor (one question I overheard whilst passing a panel was ‘from whom?’, and that got me thinking although I wasn’t able to stick around for the answer).

It does make me wonder however, what happened to all the AI & NFT companies that sponsored the event heavily a few years ago - you don’t hear from those guys any more…

One highlight from me was making my IMS panel debut, discussing with colleagues about our labels recent purchase by Create Music Group. I hope that gave those listening plenty of food for thought, and it certainly opened a few discussions afterwards.

Anyway, overall a nice three days in the sun, a good chance to catch up with peers and friends and discuss issues, tips and tactics. Despite the pedestrian tech house, the finale at Dalt Vila remains an incredible location to reflect on it all, and I always come back from the event energised to be more creative in my own musical endeavours.

There aren’t really any hot-takes from IMS that I haven’t covered before, and sometimes it’s nice just to take something at face value for what it is.

One non-IMS bit of news from me this week: I was asked by the Association for Electronic Music for my thoughts on how artists and labels can make their music heard in a highly competitive marketplace. You might not agree with it all, but you can read the article here.

Next week I’ll be back with a lorry-load of new music reviews. Thanks for reading!

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Hello all, and apologies for the lack of In Strict Tempo Communications over the past couple of weeks. Things should be back to normal now.

The big news over the last week or so? Boards of Canada might be back. Mysterious posters, video tapes mailed out to people, thousands of posts on Reddit… all the ingredients are there. Is it time to reappraise Tomorrow’s Harvest? It’s up there with their best. Anyway, here’s a YouTube video which seems to be the first track from an upcoming album.

Record Store Day this Saturday. Your local shop will probably have some kind of event on, and a large queue of scalpers out the door. I haven’t noticed any gems in the list this year, but there’s probably a few okay titles in there (as well as a lot of dross).

Next week I’ll be at IMS. If you’re there too let me know. On Thursday I’m participating in a panel about life after an acquisition, wearing my label hat. Come say hi, I’m there Wednesday-Friday, and likely at Pikes one of the evenings…

New Music

Anyway, enough of that - there’s lots of cool stuff out, some of which I’ve missed since I last wrote, so here’s a chunky list of new music.

Appleblim - Liminal Tides [Quiet Details]

Appleblim goes ambient! Absolutely out-of-this-world soundscapes from the dubstep pioneer and Skull Disco co-founder. This is a bit more than just what you’d call ambient tbh, featuring the considered sound design you’d expect from someone who’s worked closely with the likes of Shackleton & co.

ex_libris - 003 [ex_libris]

Not streaming yet, but Bandcamp is your friend here. A third volume of cosmic techy leaning “house” from the one formerly known as A Made Up Sound. 10/10 as always.

Terrence Dixon - When Stars Remember [Tresor]

Proper hypnotic tackle from one of the best to ever do it. Take that first track and pitch it waaaay down and let him take u places you’ve never been before…

Cancer House - The Moth [Motion Ward]

Already being proclaimed by many as one of the albums of the year this one sold out pretty much as soon as it landed… there’s a repress en-route, but in the mean time make do with the digital. What do you call this? That’s up to you, but it sits somewhere around the slowcore/post-rock axis wistfully floating around the place with methodical precision and a DIY feel at the same time.

Iivana Mišukka & Arja Kastinen - Iivana Mišukka [Death Is Not The End]

Remember that Michael O’Shea reissue from a few years back? You know, the zither one. Yeah that. If you like that you’ll love this.

Shed - Everybody [Dekmantel]

Shed on Dekmantel? Didn’t see that one coming. It sounds lazy to say this sounds like typical Shed, but it does. If you’re this good at doing what you do then why change it?

Donato Dozzy - Hypno Trance [Spazio Disponible]

Again, just on Bandcamp for the time being… I was expecting more trance if I’m honest, but this is still pretty hypnotic so all good there.

Shinichi Atobe - Silent Way [Plastic & Sounds]

I’m told this is Atobe’s first self-released LP, after a run of records with DDS. On first thoughts it’s pretty decent, something that I think will reveal itself more with every new listen. Some tracks are deffo in the classic vein, others a little more pedestrian, but still better than 90% of what passes for house these days

Pan-American - Fly The Ocean In A Silver Plane [kranky]

When I was younger we used to go on holiday to this one place in the south of France where they would do this big sandwich called a Pain American. Essentially it was a baguette filled with French fries, frankfurter and Dijon mustard, and it was probably one of the best things my fifteen year old appetite could have imagined. Tried one again a couple of years ago and it was fucking horrible. Anyway… nice album this, post-rock summer round two?

Raime - Can You Repeat That Please? [DDS]

Blink-and-you’ve-probably-missed-it-already mixtape from Raime diving deep into their UK roots backgrounds, reggae, dub, street soul and all things in that orbit. Hunt down the files if you missed the tape. Don’t ask me.

Index for Working Music - Bunker Imitations II [Tough Love]

I previewed this one a few weeks ago, now the full thing is available on digital and vinyl via World of Echo affiliated Tough Love. I loved the last one, this one’s great too.

Francesco Leali - To Dance Is To Resist [Until Riots]

One of the most innovative composers working in music today, Milan’s Francesco Leali returns to his Until Riots imprint with the score to the film of the same name, tracking a couple dealing with identity, homophobia and the effects of war in modern-day Ukraine.

Speedy J - Ctrssalms 17 (Cold Render) [STOOR]

These past few weeks have been full of suprpsies haven’t they? Boards of Canada, Untold, Appleblim and now Speedy J back with some new music, his first solo album in 20 years, and the first thing I’ve listened to since that collab with Surgeon a couple of years back.

aloisius - vernacular [life is beautiful]

Meandering calmly through gentle valleys of melodic pianos into the reflecting pools of shoegaze-heavy guitars this album wears its influences on it’s sleeve, but still keeps a few tricks hidden to reveal themselves to the adventurous listener.

Tara Clerkin Trio - Silently [World of Echo]

A second new single from Tara Clerkin Trio on World of Echo - on second thoughts, who even needs new Boards of Canada?

RJD2 & Supastition - According To… [RJ’s Electrical Connections]

RJD2 was part of that absolutely peerless era of stuff on Def Jux that sounded like almost nothing else on earth, but better than 99% of hip-hop that was floating round at the time. He’s been steadily putting stuff out since, but nothing’s grabbed me in the way of Deadringer, June or The Horror did back then. This is alright though, I’ll probably dive into his catalogue again and see what I’ve been missing.

You can get all these records from any reputable record shop, a few I recommend include Boomkat, World of Echo, Rubadub and All Night Flight but remember to support your local indie record shop too!

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A little roundup of bits this week, with Spotify especially being busy, launching their new Song DNA feature which uses “AI” to provide some additional context and information around the songs. So far this just seems to be scraping information off record company websites and the WhoSampled database (which Spotify bought last year). Is it a useful innovation? Potentially, although it seems like a bit of a lazy roll-out just getting AI to do the work. A properly curated selection of ‘sleeve notes’ on key releases however… that could be good.

Spotify have also announced this week that one of the ways they’re looking at combating streaming fraud is by allowing certain artists to ‘lock’ their profiles, and not allow new releases to go live without approval. Sounds good in theory, but with my label hat on I can only imagine the fuckery when an artist forgets to approve a track in time for release date… It seems Spotify have thought of that too, though, and will allow artists to grant labels/distros a ‘key’ that gives them pre-approval

RA have dropped a few interesting articles this past week, a look at songs named after clubs, which wasn’t really that great if I’m honest, and almost certainly prompted by someone listening to that Rosalia tune on repeat in the office, and a rundown of early electroclash, that was much better. They cut off the electroclash article at 2001, which was probably when it just started to really get as close as it could be to the mainstream. There’s still some incredible tunes in it though, hearing La Rock at Berghain will forever be one of my favourite clubbing memories. It prompted me to go back to that sensational Miss Kittin Live At Sonar 2005 album, show me a better run of tracks committed to CD than the Windowlicker-Dexter-The Difference It Makes section and I’ll show you a liar… Finally they’ve just published an oral history of Corsica Studios, which I haven’t read yet but am very much looking forward to reading. You can find my tribute the the Elephant nightclub here.

In Strict Tempo Book Club: I’ve just read Mark Ronson’s memoirs. Maybe not the typical artist covered on In Strict Tempo, but the book doesn’t really go into his time as a superstar producer/DJ, ending with him producing that Nikka Costa album at the start of the Millennium. No mention of Amy Winehouse, Ooh Wee or Uptown bloody Funk (a tune I absolutely cannot stand and would wipe from history given the chance). The story starts as Ronson, moves to New York as a teenager, learning to DJ and making his way in the cities club scene. One thing that does come through, is not only that is Ronson very aware of his privileged upbringing and the optics of white kids playing hip-hop to Black audiences, but also that he seems a genuine music nerd, with the knowledge to match his DJ chops. It’s pretty name-droppy in places, as you’d expect, but it’s an interesting enough read nonetheless.

Plus, if you missed it a couple of weeks ago, I uploaded a new Ceremony mix that’s well worth a listen.

New Music

DJ Gonz - Magical Negro Overdrive [SELN]

SELN co-founder DJ Gonz brings the highest levels of energy possible on his debut album, ticking off loads of boxes here, from BEB to Actress to Mika Vainio and everything in-between

Untold - HEK036 [Hemlock]

Bandcamp only for now, streaming fans, I’ll revisit the full release when it makes it way to DSPs. Untold drops two new tracks on his Hemlock label previewing a full EP in a couple of weeks. Prince Ruperts Drop is a slice of prime Untold, a roller in every sense of the word. It’s Not My Fault But It Is My Problem dials up the kicks and can only really be described as “chunky”. Looking forward to getting my ears round the rest of this.

Shed - Applications II EP [Illian Tape]

Did I have new Shed on my 2026 bingo card? Probably not, but I’m glad someone out there did. Typically progressive techno joints from the main man. Not on Spotify I’m afraid.

Mammo - Lateral [Short Span]

Yu Su - Foundry [Short Span]

Two new ones here from the label that can do no wrong. The Mammo album floats and meanders through an ever expanding space, crossing all aspects of the percussive spectrum, whilst the Yu Su album, of which only a couple of tracks are available at the moment, is quite simply one of the best things you’ll hear all year, with a stellar cast of collaborators including Dip In The Pool, Memotone and Seefeel. Can’t TIP! this one enough.

Alan Braxe & Fred Falke - Intro (25th Anniversary Mixes) [Smugglers Way]

Let’s face it, one of the most influential dance records of all time, and cornerstone of the whole ‘French touch’ movement. Anyway, both artists have remixed it fresh for ’26, neither of the new mixes really adding much to the OG, but it’s always nice to hear a new take on an old classic

Underworld - Kittens (r31_for2026) [Self-Released]

Speaking of which… As part of Underworld’s 2026 live shows (ultimately for the 30th anniversary of Born Slippy.NUXX) they’ve been playing in two parts, culminating with a second half of frantic, 150mph techno, including some edits and updates of old favourites. This is one of them, which they’ve been playing to close out the first part of recent shows, a Beaucoup Fish era staple given an update for a new era.

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Welcome to this weeks In Strict Tempo - work has been crazy this week, so it’s just a short & sweet one from me, but fear not: there’s still some good music below.

Have you listened to the latest Ceremony mix yet? This one’s a tribute to a much-missed night that happened in Reading in the early 00’s - but above that it’s just a really good mix full stop, from someone that’s been a big inspiration to me over the years.

Anyway, onto the music highlights this week…

Monic - You Can Rest Now [Osiris Music]

Once a producer of darkside D&B & techno, as well as forays into dubstep as Kryptic Minds - Simon Shreeve returns to his Monic alias for this collection of long-form ambient pieces. If I ever get a chance to wander around a nuclear power station, this will be in my headphones as I do.

Richard Skelton - Ixiolite [Corbert Stone Press]

Gourgeously open, yet melancholy piano pieces here from Richard Skelton, a real master of being able to evoke so much, with so little.

Olof Dreijer - Echoed Dafnino [Rabid Records]

The first track from the debut full length album from Olof Dreijer. Better known as part of The Knife and for his untouchable records as Oni Ayhun, Dreijer’s been using his real name recently for a slew of releases on AD93, Dekmantel and Hessle Audio. Upbeat, poppy, with elements of a Latin American street party, I can’t wait to hear the rest of this

Tara Clerkin Trio - Somewhere Good [World of Echo]

A new single from Bristol’s Tara Clerkin Trio, who over the course of one album and a handful of EPs have placed themselves as one of the most exciting new voices in UK jazz. This isn’t really jazz, not as you’d expect, but it obviously draws a lot of it’s power from the Trio’s format and instrumentation. Like jazz, don’t like jazz, whatever - you’ll find much to like about this.

VA - The Thinking Of The World Began Pounding In Our Ears The Moment We Hit Shore [Stroom]

What is this? Compilation? Artist project? Who knows. Ultimately a collection of tracks loosely held together by the guiding hand of Florian TM Zeisig most of them featuring additional artists plucked from the same pool, including More Eaze, Don Lyons & Cal Fish. Twelve tracks, covering many bases, RIYL Cocteau Twins, Pedastal, those comps from Time Is Away and A Colourful Storm, that kind of stuff.

Index for Working Music - Bunker Intimations II [Tough Love]

Sticking in that World of Echo extended universe, this new one from sister label Tough Love only has a couple of tracks available so far, but follows up from last years Which Direction Goes The Beam with another excursion into England’s Hidden Reverse, if that means anything to you, you know what you’re looking for. Come in.

When I interviewed Sandwell District at the start of last year Karl O’Connor said something that really resonated with me.

…this is the whole problem with the world now. Nothing can happen at a local level anymore, because you've been told to look globally. Well, no. It was great. Being local's great.

In a world where we can reach anyone, anywhere at the tap of a screen it often means artists and labels are expected to have a global vision, after all - why constrain yourself to just your local area when the world is your oyster? But things don’t work like that, and pretty much any artist would have started off in their local scene, playing clubs and bars nearby to them, building an audience in the surrounding area.

Sometimes that audience grows outwards, from one town to the next, to a bigger city, to national and continental popularity, but sometimes it doesn’t - sometimes a local scene stays that way, burning brightly and inspiring people to do their own thing, to make their own tunes, start their own labels and put on their own nights.

This Ceremony mix comes from Amsterdam-based DJ Foggy Snares, and pays tribute to the Kraked night that took place in Reading in the early 2000’s. You probably won’t have heard of it unless you happened to live there in that time, and even then it might have passed you by. But the importance of Kraked to those who attended still resonates to this day, and there’ll be a thousand other scenes across the country that were just as influential on a local level.

In his own words…

Foggy Snares is the ghost of a former resident DJ at Kraked - a monthly event (in fucking Reading of all places) of live electronics and lazy DJing. Fuelled by hash cakes, real ale, and a lot of goodwill from the friends and volunteers, the night ran in it’s original form from 2001-2004. The locals were joined by the likes of V/VM (pictured here in pig mask), Venetian Snares, Duplo Remote, Shitmat, Wrong Music, Mira Calix, Wevie Stonder, Team Doyobi, Jason Forest, DJ Scotch Egg, Mike Teknoist, The Producer, μ-Ziq, Global Goon, and a host of other guests. All of this went down at the Rising Sun Arts centre, which still stubbornly sits there amongst new-build flats for transient professionals, designed to fall apart in next to no time.

Editions followed elsewhere (somewhat illegally) - on small beaches along the Thames in central London, in backrooms of Tekno parties and on countryside rave sites. It all culminated in the now legendary in ‘The BIG Dirty Squat Party’ (Acton) , where the majority of the crew and other hangers on were arrested and carted off in a rozzer hired coach just after sunrise.

The mix here was recorded live during a Big Toilet event at W139 Gallery, Amsterdam a few years ago. It was meant as a tribute to those silly times. It was originally broadcast on Big Toilet Radio. https://www.bigtoilet.radio/.

Foggy doubts anybody in Amsterdam that afternoon would have given a much of a shit about all of the above... but they seemed to be getting into the beats.

Shout to Mikerak, Tizz and the B.Y.O.S. crew...