“Slit Art” is a second compilation series from Tokyo’s Form@ Records. The first volume was released in 2025, and intended as a companion to the label’s long-running “Art Form” collections. Broadening the imprint’s scope, which initially featured only homegrown artists, the latest instalment contains exclusives from contemporary Argentina, Australia, France, Greece, Mexico, Portugal and the UK, as well as Japan, demonstrating the reach and influence of this tiny, one-man indie operation. 

Where, recently, “Art Form” has moved toward dance floor electronica, to my ears, “Slit Art” stays closer to Form@’s more “introspective” IDM roots. One of the highlights, Acróbata’s “Aníbal Goes”, for example, recalls the intricate boom bap of Autechre’s “Goz Quarter”. Glitched and groovy, it’s stuttered beats, clicks and thuds, bumping, tripping over each other in a busy bionic funk. Parallel Worlds’ “Propagation” is slow, slinky, squelchy electro, countered by a kinda faux harpsichord melody. Conjuring the sort of noir spy movie / TV homage that Weatherall’s Sabres Of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen used to indulge in. 

Many of the tracks are beatless. Synthetic symphonies. Polite, peaceful compositions of chimes and arcs that summon scenes of a silent, neon-lit city at night. Augen’s “Tanjun Na Koto Sa” is dramatic, cascading, spinning, “ambient techno”. Epic, euphoric, trance-y, infinitely spiralling, it’s not quite Digital Justice’s “The Theme From It’s Alll Gone Pear-shaped”, but it’s in the same ballpark. Whistling and fluttering, full of layered fragments of what sounds like woodwinds and playfully plucked strings, ALURIA’s “Infinite Time” leans into pastoral modern / post classical. Soeik’s “Memory Pool” is relaxing, rippling, harmonic vapour. Gavin Sherrington-Blane’s “That Place Again” also surfs on waves of warped, romantic clouds, while his White Isle sunset worthy “Gadigal Beach” augments its soft-focus sighing with a gently lapping tide of hand percussion. 

Garamond’s “Liminal Haze” might ride a tumbling, looped, drum & bass rhythm, but it’s filtered, faded, as if way off in the distance. Cool Science’s “Tenshin” races along on rapid programmed popping and rattling. However, a muted key melody tempers its mood. Melodrama’s “Raw” is the only real outliner to the album’s overall laidback aesthetic. Building from bubbling, bleeping and percolating, with solar / lunar breezes blowing, high hats take it deep into tech-house territory. 

“Slit Art 2” can be ordered directly Form@ Records. Please aim to order physical copies by September 11th.