From inauspicious beginnings as a weekend getaway ghetto for indie guitar music, the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival has grown increasingly international and progressive in its musical scope. Curated by Warp electro sculptors Autechre, last month’s fourth annual gathering showcased the most diverse line-up yet, reflected in this two-disc anthology of rare and unreleased tracks, which functions as a fine left-field compilation regardless of its festival connections.
Dissonant techno-tronics inevitably dominate, with Autechre’s own punctuation-pummelling excursion into needle-sharp, space-insect disco ranked alongside luminescent monotone symphonies, hard acid wig-outs and cruelly atonal sonic torture from bedsit terrorists Hecker, Stasis, Pita and more. But a propulsive funk fireball courtesy of Public Enemy and a brace of gorgeous lo-fi instrumentals help to humanise their astringent future-shock surroundings.