Border Community Vinyl & CDs

Review: Electronic music production deity James Holden returns with a circling back to his dance music roots, following a brief detour into jazz with his last album 'The Animal Spirits'. Building on an increasingly otherworldly set of inspiration - which he's gradually entertained as his career has marched on - this new LP 'Imagine' playfully dissects the possibilities of dance music from the perspective of an alternate reality. Buzzing leads, detuned leads, and international flavours evoke a modern take on sounds espoused first by the likes of Amorphous Androgynous or Charanjit Singh.

Review: Modular synthesizer fetishist Luke Abbott apparently got the inspiration for this sophomore set during time spent as the "musician in residence" at the Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire back in 2012. Named after a piece of woodland close by, it sees Abbott using live analogue electronics to try and create a "natural life cycle" over the album's nine tracks. Interestingly, it differs from his impressive debut album in a number of ways; while Holkham Drones touched on krautrock, drone and intense ambience, Wysing Forest doffs a cap to spiritual jazz, Terry Riley and ambient explorer Pete Namlook. It's a beguiling set, all told, and one that constantly veers between crunchy bursts of intense IDM and becalmed, breathtaking ambience.