Lists
January: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Sven Väth, Fever Ray, Nabihah Iqbal, Björk and more
Various 'The Orb Chronicles' (20 Years Of Shitkatapult) (Shitkatapult)
Berlin might be the place where you can turn on a tap and get formulaic techno, but there’s a lot more to its electronic scene. And as you might guess from its confrontational name, the Shitkatapult label doesn’t specialise in the obvious. For two decades it has dipped in and out of techno, but – as this compilation shows – has also touched on ambient, post-rock, glitchy electronica and a whole lot more. The Orb were the perfect choice to mix up the chaos: rather than making a standard mix, they’ve chucked in sharp left turns, and delivered an album as obstinate, ornery and odd as the label itself. Long may this nonsense continue. Joe Muggs
7/10
