Having given his family of prolific micro-labels a well-earnt breather since last September, Mat Handley unostentatiously but assuredly ushers in the start of 2026’s release schedule with a return to the mothership imprint of Woodford Halse via the evocatively expansive Errata.
Combining the returning alumnus talents of Baltimore-based PJ Dorsey (trading as Tarotplane) and the visiting scholar skills of Northern Ireland’s John Haughey (an erstwhile fellow of the likeminded Werra Foxma and Waxing Crescent), this nine-track, fifty-three-minute suite roams widely as a limited-edition CD-encased excursion.
With Haughey on synths, keys, mixing and arrangement duties and Dorsey providing guitars, bass as well as more synths and keyboards, this is a product of near-seamless mind-melding that traverses multiple timelines of choice historic influences, without any fashion-focused anxiety. Opener “Previous Iterations” is perhaps the standout — but most standalone — track, worthy of a separate delivery as a wide-grooved 12”, with its mesmerically looping acoustic guitar figures and close-knit beats revisiting the fertile folktronica fields that Four Tet abandoned years ago. Thereafter, the album deploys a determinedly denser – yet no less interesting — sonic palette.Thus, we’re taken through acres of deep-ploughed dubby ambient soundscapes of a ‘90s genre-fusing flavour (for the title track, “Totes Meer”, “Pulling The Cosmos Closer” and “Orange Promise”), that sincerely nod to Banco De Gaia, The Orb and The Future Sound Of London. Elsewhere, we’re shepherded into the ethereal New Age-adjacent ends of late-‘70s-to-early-‘80s kosmische previously visited by the likes of Michael Rother (“Impossible Vistas” and “Magical Interval”) and the immersive bass-prowling realms of Jah Wobble (“Begetting Green” and “Perennial Want”).
Whilst the magpie-foraged infusions can be traced back relatively easily, it still requires Dorsey and Haughey’s own interconnecting ingenuity to ensure that Errata holds together as a cohesive absorbing entity — which they deliver on via gratifying powers of enthralment.-Adrian-
