Various Artists

Bill Brewster's second After Dark compilation for LateNightTales is a proper dig through space-funk, dark house and leftfield territory. The real pull here is the unreleased material - The Grid and Robert Fripp sit alongside Fernando and deeper cuts that reward close listening. This isn't a highlight reel; it's a narrative, the kind of record that sounds like it's been lovingly crated from years of record hunting.

Brewster knows his way around an obscure 12-inch, and that sensibility shapes everything here. You get the DJ's ear applied to the margins - tracks that live between genres, producers working in the shadows of the obvious names. There's space in these grooves, atmosphere that builds rather than announces itself.

Limited edition pressing on LateNightTales, ALNLP36. The kind of compilation that justifies the format - best heard without skipping.