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I wanted to write an article, on a brighter note, for this publically redundant site. So, here I am. FTEL Valentines '20. FTEL peeps (Electronica lovers) know Burial music, and yesterday saw the public release of his compendium of 2011-2019. Burial tracks like "Loner", "Come Down To Us" and "NYC" still give me shivers. This stuff sprung from the post-everything but especially post-dubstep continuum. 130-145 beats-per-minute dub and acid techno music with wonky, buckle bent riffs.

This compendium is spread across 149 minutes and 17 tracks over 2 compact discs. It retails around £14.99. Much cheaper than vinyl of a 2LP, probably destined to be around £24.99 at least. The lacqueur manufacturing costs we know. Timeless electronic music with as much gravitas as early Omni Trio, Rufige Kru and Rob Playford.

Speaking of Goldie related music, his 4CD DJ Mix is really, really good. Early jungle thru hardcore styles, rave-o-matic jacket potato overdubs and Skrillex antidote dubby bombers. There are very few red herrings, rubber ducks or mind-numbing areas to be had. Of course I am referring to the brain-drain of rave music; an assault on the senses (at the best of times) often needs an anchor to rely on. Cliffy Goldie's mixing chops are pretty good, he doesn't train wreck the tracks or lazily mix them, and it's pretty damn fun while it lasts.

When I think of Goldie in later years, I think The Heritage Orchestra he played with, a full, rich sound with an oddity value. Oddity value is also a part of the electronically-sequenced and tracked Texas Sun project by Leon Bridges. It's a highly addictive four-piece EP of electronic big band country, with a dub and urban-centric undercurrent. Think Michael Kiwanuka's latest record with a dash of Jimmy Hendrix and you get the picture. Hendrix and contemporaries are very crucial to the eclecticism and growth of taste among non-electronica musicians; note the additional "a" next to electronic, as it's elements of computer manipulation that make this stew work.

Electronic manipulation is Katie Gately's speciality on her latest album, "Loom" (part of serpentwithfeet). It's a good record, very astute and encroaching on the drone axis, with lots of mellifluous field recordings; some partially there, some lost in the fog. Identification becomes a story to be told rather than a misnomer, there's a special atmosphere in this CD, which at times veers into the colossally brain-shaking. That feel, of defiant rejection and alertness, comes, it would seem, naturally as a jig around the Maypole. Like an old past-time, there's chances of things going sour, but it never does. The drones are crisply bubbling, encapsulating the growl of a wolf, or a shriek of a banshee, cast off into the distance like a tropical storm coming to an end.

That's another thing with this update's batch of music(s). These feel ever-tied to the neural centrifuge of understanding natural phenomena like Storm Ciara, Storm Denys and Hurricane Michael before it. Basically as long as we stay rooted to our origins, we can break away when we allow ourselves - ideally. Case in point: I haven't written an article worthy of Fluid Radio, Wire, hyponik, Soundium, A Closer Listen, Dogs On Acid, ATM et al, for some time. Mainly, because I've been afraid to be myself - as Leon Bridges sings, "chained to my sin". Music makes us forget all that woe behind inactivity.