Max Richter: Songs from Before (130701) - CD
Still undecided on this one. I love Max's music, I did his website. 'The Blue Notebooks' was so near perfect, he needn't bother releasing anything else. But this sidesteps the electronic influence that riddled previous works in favour of a more natural, flowing mood. Ask me again in a few months. Although 'Flowers for Yulia' seems to make the most immediate impact.

Icarus: I tweet the birdy electric (Leaf) - CD
Icarus continue to plough their own unique path through the electronic music map with more thrilling computer music. Loose jazz leanings suggest subtle pages taken from labelmates Four Tet. But nothing's beaten the ferocious noise they make when tweaking their Max/MSP patches on stage. Any chance of a live recording, guys?

Plants: The Mind is a Bird in the Hand (Audio Dregs) - CD
Been sitting in the 'to listen to' pile for ages. The artwork and the fact that its out on Audio Dregs led me to believe this was folktronica. But it's actually straight up folk music without a computer in sight. Still, pleasant whilst it's on with a nice spacial feel to the recording.

Various Artists: URP Vol.3 (Intone) - CD
More mid-nineties rarities from Richard H.Kirk under a bewlidering plethora of pseudonums. The cover describes it containing "Chilled beat/Ambient Funk/Low Flying Dub", which seems pretty accurate to me. The Sandoz material seemed to work best, where dub cliches were woven around dense, hallucinogenic mantra's.

Octex: Dead centre of nowhere (Octex) - CD-R
Have no idea how one goes about obtaining this release. I saw him play at one of the Sprawl events here in London. Quite liked what he did, mentioned it to Doug (the promoter) and he got me a couple of CD-R's. Linear electronics showered in delay / dub, punctuated by ominous use of melody. Accomplished and perfect for winter evening darkness introversion.

Various Artists: Dabrye - Additional Productions Vol.1 (Ghostly) - CD
Short and to-the-point selection of remixes by Dabrye. Who out of all the wannabe laptop-hoppers out there remains the most palatable. Texturally loaded drums that crunch, dissolve and crumble on every beat. He even makes T.Raumschmiere sound good.

Various Artists: Can you Jack? - Chicago Acid and Experimental House 1985 - 95 (Soul Jazz) - CD
There's an undeniable brittle charm to this when listening to this at home. Yet, it still retains its potent power on a club system. Pre-sequencer, pre-computer: this is the sound of pure, unrefined MIDI signals to biege and silver boxes. Some of the tracks have really dated, but the signals generated by the likes of Tyree, DJ Pierre and Phuture are still being heard loud and clear today.

Lunt: Broken Words and Lost Answers (Hitomi Recordings) - CD-R
Roughly recorded but accomplishly performed series of laptop-interrupted guitar. Hardly original stuff, but for those whose ears are attuned to the likes of Fennesz and the current state of improv guitar work will find some of value in amongst the six tracks on offer. Available as a complete download at http://www.hitomirecordings.com.

Braille: Partir (Angstrom) - CD
Twee, twee and more twee. They're french, that's all you need to know.

My Robot Friend: Hot Action (Proptronix) - CD
Electro-clash derived techno pop. Emotions whilst listening to this album ran from being mildly irrated to fucking annoyed to continually flipping back to track three. The novelty value will wear off after a few listens, but it's a pleasant diversion nonetheless.