Tag Archives: reviews

Switched On – bvdub – Morning Glories (Quiet Details)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The Quiet Details series welcomes back Brock Van Wey for a second contribution under his highly productive bvdub moniker, the series having swelled from four to 54 in that time.

Van Wey is known within electronic music for his versatility, and over the 75 minutes of this album he lays open the boundaries to include techno and a wide range of influences that suggest influences from across the globe.

What’s the music like?

Once again, bvdub harnesses a special blend of ambient immersion and invention.

The Rain Knows is a very powerful plain on which to set the album, a musical surge growing from small beginnings to a wave of seismic power. The original riff is retained, surrounded by white noise and vocals but still punching out its melody through the middle. It is however a mere prelude for the epic Skies of Seven, a vast panorama where immersive ambience is achieved over an irregular glitchy beat.

The album hovers in this state for much of its duration, with meditative vocals – some of them chopped up or overlayered – resting on a bed of thick textures, semi-riffs and beats that drift in and out of focus and clarity. When everything clicks the music moves forward at walking pace – as with surefooted beats of Time in Space and Three Nights Ago – but elsewhere it takes time to marvel at the scenery encountered along the way. Almost Home Now is one such moment, its music swirling up into the sky.

The big, panoramic settings suit headphone listening, the music an ideal accompaniment to the great outdoors.

Does it all work?

It does – with the usual fluency you would come to expect of a bvdub opus, executed on a grand scale.

Is it recommended?

Yes, to fans of the artist and the quiet details series alike. This is music to take the weight off your cares, but the detail within each layer ensures foreground listening is rewarded, too.

Listen / Buy

Published post no.3,041 – Thursday 8 October 2026

Switched On – Various Artists: Total 26 (Kompakt)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Having celebrated a quarter of a century of top-level electronic music, Kompakt look to the next phase with another annual round-up. With sixteen tracks primed for fans, they include reassuringly familiar names who the label followers will immediately lap up.

As the Cologne label say in their humourous press release, “It’s as sure as night follows day, one of the last truly reliable things in these uncertain times, a rock in the storm of information overload, and still one of the best things you can make from PVC.”

What’s the music like?

Typically varied and occupying slots both inside and outside of the box. Kompakt always bring fresh inventions to their compilation, which never feels like a cast-off of nearly or forgotten tracks, and is sequenced to ensure the biggest benefits are felt from listening start to finish.

To which end, DJ H0TLINE gets us off to a strong, four to the floor-based start, picked up by Orlando Voorn who brings more of a breakbeat edge to the remix of So Deep. What then works is a very satisfying variation of speeds, from the wondrous dub-heavy sounds of Jürgen Paape, with Fenja Ludwig guesting on Unter dem Himmel, to the sparse but driven techno of Robag Wruhme. Sabrah Desha is one of the collection’s biggest thrills, its bassline deserving of the biggest possible subwoofer.

The smoky Burn Attitude of Michael Mayer leaves its mark, as does an extended version of Rex The Dog’s Far Out! and an introduction to Jörg Burger’s Team 85E project courtesy of Komm Schlaf Bei Mir. Add productions from Reinhard Voigt, Sog (aka cofounder Wolfgang Voigt) and Frankey & Sandrino and you have a very strong line-up.

Does it all work?

Yes, it does – and any idea that this might be a routine exercise is dismissed very early on. Listen several times and this will become your electronic playlist of choice to round off the summer.

Is it recommended?

Fans will need no persuasion of course, but in the unlikely event that you haven’t yet dabbled in anything Kompakt, the Pop Ambient and Total compilations always act as the ideal springboard from which to plan your discoveries. This is no exception!

Listen / Buy

Published post no.3,032 – Tuesday 29 September 2026

Switched On – BUNKR: Signs EP (VLSI)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

As James Dean, aka BUNKR, writes: “Signs is a companion piece created from the same sessions as my recent album Signals, but looking in a different direction.

Where Signals explored the mysteries, memories and hidden histories of the Surrey Hills, Signs follows those signals towards the distant glow of the city beyond.

The EP captures the pull of the metropolis: the lights, movement and endless energy of urban life viewed from afar. Built around hypnotic loops, shifting rhythms and immersive electronic textures, Signs continues the story begun with Signals: a journey through memory, place and the unseen connections between the natural and human worlds.”

What’s the music like?

If you know BUNKR, you know Dean has a high quality threshold for what he releases, and this EP is no different, presenting typically atmospheric and evocative music, with a hint of mystery and bags of widescreen colour.

From the outset Construct Collapse grips the listener with its widescreen panorama, reaching a thrilling high when the four to the floor beat drops. Cruisen presents a cooler but equally rewarding picture, before the reassuring thick drone backing Eternal Cities comes to the fore. When it cuts loose, the beat and busy synths on this track are a killer combination – and are complemented by The Distance Ate Itself, bringing us back to earth.

Does it all work?

It does – time and space are a given in BUNKR’s music, but so are melody and imagination. All are present here.

Is it recommended?

Absolutely – the ideal companion piece to the excellent LP. If you don’t have either yet, get both!

Listen / Buy

Published post no.3,031 – Monday 28 September 2026

On Record: Sondre Lerche – Acrobats (PLZ / Virgin)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This new album from Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche is his first in four years. The record explores a dissonance he has identified between the “increasingly dystopian world we live in and finding beauty and peace in your private life”, where “falling in love feels more and more like an act of defiance”.

Acrobats was recorded across no fewer than nine studios, Lerche’s eleventh album completed with long time partners and producers Matias Téllez and Kato Ådland, and Vetle Junker, Alexander von Mehren and Jørgen Trœen. There are orchestral arrangements by Sean O’Hagan of The High Llamas, with a substantial body of musicians from the Stockholm Studio Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and sundry jazz and classical artists.

What’s the music like?

At times, epic – especially in the album’s core, where the songs Love Is All and Follow The River carry all before them. Lerche wears his heart on his sleeve in songs of unabashed romanticism, which works especially well when combined with his penchant for lyrical directness.

The music is pleasingly off-centre, with the urgent How Much Of This Was Planned also showing a carefree side. The strings of Little Kids curl around Lerche’s observations that “there’s cracks in everything”, while his playful side comes out best in Drive Me Away From You.

Love Is All is one for the romantics, beautifully observed and delivered, with an exquisite dialogue between Lerche and the clarinet of Solveig Wang. Meanwhile the chorus of Follow The River – inspired by an encounter with Mahler’s Resurrection symphony – is warm hearted and given with a ‘glass half full’ energy.

Does it all work?

It does, even if the songs sometimes have a lopsided structure. Lerche sings from the heart, and the arrangements are beauties.

Is it recommended?

It is. Lerche does not enjoy the same profile in the UK he perhaps did around 15 years ago, but this album shows his songwriting – and vocal delivery – are better and more meaningful than ever. In many ways he is the Nordic answer to Rufus Wainwright.

For fans of…Rufus Wainwright, Ed Harcourt, The Divine Comedy, Kings Of Convenience, Midlake

Listen / Buy

Published post no.3,022 – Sunday 20 September 2026

Switched On: Paul Cut – Circle People (Automatic Writing)

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Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Paul Cut has illustrious connections within the world of techno. A keyboard player with Larry Heard, he has also worked with Ron Trent and Chez Damier.

Here Cut, real name Paul Culliver, goes solo for the first time in what appears to be six years, on an eight-track LP of original productions.

What’s the music like?

Cut’s experience of what makes people dance shines through on each track. It is pretty effortless music making, the album unfolding like a DJ set would, building on minimal material for maximum effect.

Shady Nasty is classic Detroit techno, with a simple offbeat riff driving a track full of incident. Next one even better, before On The Rocks cuts up a sample from the Sensi-tize classic Burn Baby Burn. Meanwhile She Comes Around is an excellent, bassy groover.

Does it all work?

It does – very nicely, too.

Is it recommended?

With some ease. Paul Cut’s expertise is clear on an album that frequently presses all the right buttons.

For fans of…Larry Heard, Ron Trent, Kenny Larkin, Chez Damier, Charles Webster

Listen / Buy

tbc

Published post no.3,013 – Thursday 10 September 2026