Various Delivery Room

With Delivery Room, the Leaf label explores the space between classical instruments, classical-sounding compositions and the twitchier side of electronica. Dense, serious strings are paired with the light piques and organized clatterings of glitch; typical classical swells are amputated in a way common to computer editing; pianos are manned by real-live trained fingers and left to sound as exactly that, which makes the song an oddity among hybrid contemporaries. The driving piano song "Maremaillette” by A Hawk and a Hacksaw has an odd sense of official confusion, while the "Parlor” march by Asa-Chang and Junray is aloof and solid with its fat horns and fat bass. Icarus’s "Gnog” features a sorrowful and creaky pair of strings circling around each other while abstracted drum & bass works as an oddly effective textural companion. Clue to Kalo, Murcof and Manitoba appear, as does Rob Ellis. On the whole, it sounds as if a classical album went to press at the same time as a minimal glitch album and they accidentally got pressed together into one piece of vinyl. It’s heady stuff. (Leaf)

• More Various