Plutonic Rainbows

Enigma return with a new album that sounds very much like all their others. The Japanese SHM-CD comes with two additional tracks.

Beautiful if fairly obscure 1987 album available on vinyl only. Copies regularly go for high prices on Discogs. If you can track this down, it's well worth it. Lots of wonderful late 1980s new-age bliss.

Ghost Box label reissues this album released earlier in the year.

My opinion hasn't changed much. Lots of generic John Carpenter chase sequence pieces and some other stuff that rattles by without making an impression. I still find that 'Ways Regained', 'Verberation Lab' and 'Mountain View' to be the best - basically the last fifteen minutes of the album.

A remastered edition of the classic vaporwave genre gets a release today.

Invada have pressed up a deluxe vinyl edition of the Netflix TV show. Personally, I was not a fan of the show with its blatant, unapologetic borrowing of just about every 80s trope imaginable - yet singularly unable to create even a single idea of its own. The soundtrack is also a suitable accompaniment - even if it feels like it has been generated by some music aggregator that has been fed a mixture of John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream and Vangelis.

If you're still interested, the vinyl is available from Bleep and other distributors.

Due for release on the 6th of December, [^1] this collection of previously unpublished short fiction includes critical essays by Marc Sobel. You can pre-order a copy here.

[^1]: This has now moved to December 27th.

Fantastic compilation of 1980s library music, compiled By Ed Macfarlane. It features a number of elusive pieces including 'Shining Ice' (1986) by Paul Williams & Andrew Grossart. It was famously sampled by The Future Sound Of London on their album, ISDN.

The compilation is available from Lo Recordings.

The shadowy Phono Ghosts drifts back to the forefront of abstract electronica with a richly detailed album on the newly minted and self-operated Fonolith imprint.

Having dropped some of the best Skam releases as Phono Ghosts and under the rather tasty name Meat Bingo (a tribute perhaps to the infamous meat raffles that are a traditional Northern pub feature) Phono commits his own brand of chop 'n' drop synth sounds to wax and the fan fave format cassette. Clocking in at fifteen tracks, Solar Dream Reel perfectly mixes the disco fun(k) of Kerrier District with a strong sensibility that should see him aligned with the new wave sounds of Bok Bok's last EP but matched with the cloak and dagger approach of the best out-on-the-edge 0161 tracks.

Having been rinsing this over recent weeks, our fave's have to be the rotational swerve of Megacycles, or the VSnares going mad in the classic house racks of Iron Tones. Adding depth and variance, pieces like Mystery Lingers As A Branch Of Heaven blend atmospheric synth work with unknown sample sources of gurgling vox and film dialogue. Hands down though, the absolute highlight has to be the album closer Saturation Valley. A low-fi piece that verges on synth-pop, but executed with a rain-sodden sensibility that could easily find its way into the sets of Blackest Ever Black or Optimo.

Beautiful new album from long-established American ambient artist. There is a 24Bit edition on his bandcamp page. Robert Rich constructs beautiful worlds once again.

Adrift on slack tide, trending out into the vestiges of fading light. The night that dawns knows nothing of this passing thought. Quietly slipping past the buoys, ever farther from shore's embrace.