Chris Clark aka 'Clark' is an artist cultivated over the years by UK label, Warp Records. His 2006 LP Body Riddle, recently reissued on double vinyl, is unusual in that it is driven by live drums (borrowed from Warp stablemates Broadcast). The album, featuring a continually shifting mix of complex electronic textures and beautiful melodies, was created using a range of audio programs and plug-ins, an old Revox tape recorder, a Sony dictaphone, a minidisc, a music box, a viola, vintage synths and keyboards...and an out-of-tune piano. This combination of organic instruments and frazzled electronica created a sound quite unique that baffled and intrigued reviewers at the time. This is Drowned In Sound's description of track 4 - "Herzog dances, dazzling and firefly-like, across an early summer’s evening sky; its wayward shifts of sound – left to right, invisible waves of static and laser-blast sonics – mesmerize, rendering the headphones-wearing listener powerless to resist the pull of a tremendous black hole that appears from nowhere, a crescendo of typewriter keys and bicycle bells echoing from its core. Body Riddle requires time and careful attention, each nuance needing a degree of focus few albums are ever afforded."

Since his first 12" in 2017, the reclusive Yorkshire UK based electronic producer Craven Faults has released a handful of EPs and two albums and has become something of an underground legend. His debut album, 2020's Erratics & Uncomformities stands as a towering achievement in the field of contemporary electronic music. Crowned album of the year by the UK's Norman Records, this sound has been labelled "West Yorkshire kosmische", as it is a kind of rugged, rural take on the synth explorations that emerged out of 1970s Germany. Equipment used is listed on the album's liner notes - with computers noticeably absent. This is pure analog machine music, with synths locked and swirling like cogs turning within vast explorations in electronic sound, tone and texture. Apparently, this enigmatic artist lives and records in an abandoned Yorkshire textile mill, and this music has a hauntological aspect, with Craven Faults' machine rhythms suggesting the relentless factory rhythms of the huge looms that helped drive the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

Arguably, one of the most influential acts of the last two decades, any of the Scottish duo's four LPs could be included here. Geogaddi (2002), The Campfire Headphase (2005) and Tomorrow's Harvest (2013) are all exceptional records, each with a particular flavour, and each distinctly Boards of Canada, who maintain a consistent and encompassing artistic vision across all of their LPs and EPS. Music Has the Right To Children (1998) was their debut (not counting their prior self-released records) that changed everything and remains an undisputed classic. Deservedly getting a rare Pitchfork rating of 10/10, it spawned a mini-genre even though the elements of their sound were nothing new. Like many others they used drum machines, samplers, and synths, their melodies ambient and gauzy, their beats downtempo; however, rarely before had electronic artists paid as much minute attention to texture and detail. The sound, the cover art, the sample base and the over arching ethos - one that reconfigures the past and childhood wonder into something strange and eerie - invites the listener into a wondrous and fascinating parallel world, and the more you lean in the more there is to discover.

Warp Records are currently re-issuing several of the early formative IDM albums including The Black Dog's 'Spanners', Richie Hawtin's 'Fuse' and Speedy J's 'Ginger', all of which's artists appear on the 1993 compilation, 'Artificial Intelligence'. The album's cover illustration, depicting a robot, reclining in a living room with Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd LPs strewn about the floor, evokes an old school deep listening session, and suggests a new genre which Warp called "Electronic Listening Music". Sadly, the term never caught on and we got the much maligned "Intelligent Dance Music," (IDM) named after a popular e-mail list. While tempos are a little slower and textures more complex the record adhered to techno's early template and has dated remarkably well, presenting itself both as a formative historical document and a highly enjoyable selection of early electronic productions. Featuring tracks including Aphex Twin (as the Dice Man), Autechre, Richie Hawtin (as UP!), the Orb (as Dr. Alex Patterson) and Plaid in their Black Dog days (as I.A.O.), Rolling Stone included the compilation on its 2014 list of "The 40 Most Groundbreaking Albums of All Time".