Fresh Touch
The Ethiopian EP
Angular Records
Nailing its conceptual quirks to the shop-front in the form of its title, The Ethopian EP emerged out of an African trip by producers Richard Russell and Rodiah McDonald. Both have recently been prominent presences in music, with production and recording credits for Gil Scott-Heron and The xx respectively, and the EP proves to be no major departure from their work elsewhere. …Read More.
The Roots
Undun
Def Jam Records
The Roots’ tenth studio album, and second since their installation as Jimmy Fallon’s house band on the Late Show, is intended to be a cinematic narrative following the life and death of the fictional Redford Stevens.
It starts securely in concept album territory with opener ‘Dun’: a flat-lining heart monitor reversing back into life and straight into the booming ‘Sleep’. It’s a tremendously confident move, one that matches the stark beginning of 2008′s Rising Down for its eschewing of bombast in favour of low-level menace. …Read More.
Dimlite
Grimm Reality
Now Again
One of the most praiseworthy things that can be said about record label Now-Again (and its parent label Stones Throw) is that they take a wonderfully eclectic approach to the music they decide to release. Concepts such as ‘brand identity’ seem gleefully alien when you place the cumulative roster alongside one another, and it is with this in mind that one comes to Grimm Reality. In actual fact, ‘gleefully alien’ is perhaps better put use to describe the deranged, jarring but ultimately brilliant third album of Swiss producer and musician Dimlite.
New World Generation
New World Generation
Now Again Records
Somewhere between the early and late seventies there was a sesmic shift in the soul music of America. At the beginning of the decade the emphasis was on the earnest and epic sprawl of albums such as Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, or the rasping sexual provocations of James Brown; it was music with dirt under its nails, a political edge and a street-wise strut. Within ten years the genre had shifted towards something more hedonistic and ephemeral, mutating into disco in the process. As Now-Again founder Eothen ‘Egon’ Alapatt points out in his sleeve notes, many of the bands that had earned their chops in the sweat lodge of the first part of the decade struggled to make the transition.
If Boom Bip’s recent collaboration with the Super Furry Animal’s Gruff Rhys, Neon Neon, demonstrated a growing pop sensibility, then Zig Zaj represents a consolidation into further melodic territory. …Read More.
In 2006 Spank Rock’s channelling of Miami Bass hedonism and dayglo hipsterism made his debut album Yoyoyoyoyo a refreshingly dangerous – even unhinged – break from rap’s standard macho scowl. It was filthy, bass-heavy, and fairly unrepentant about its fixation with drugs and x-rated dancing. Cycling forward to 2011 and it is probably safe to say that not a great deal has changed for Spank Rock, at least in terms of lyrical content. …Read More.
M.C. Mell’O’
Thoughts Released (Revelation 1)
Original Dope
The recently established re-issue label Original Dope has a simple remit of preserving hip- hip and its legacy. A duty they’ve so far fulfilled to the nth degree – pumping out British rap classics and lost American standards that may have been missed by heads and heathens the first time round.
On the go since 2010 and curated by Andy Cowen, long-time editor of Hip-Hop Connection, Original Dope’s output is still in single figures but there’s not a dud among them.
These choice albums have been dredged from the record collections of music fiends who know their onions and the resulting re-issue (that ends up in your sweaty palm as a slick CD with heavy duty liner notes) has been polished up like the family silver. Not only do you get a dope album to be banged out of woofers, tweeters and whatever else you’ve got hooked up, but you get all the bells and whistles as well - bonus tracks and digitally re-fiddled goodness.
Sully
Carrier
Keysound Recordings
As fantastic a resource as itunes is, its genre column tends to be about as vague and misguided as a music review in The Express (see their review of PJ Harvey’s latest album). Nonetheless, after uploading Carrier by Sully into my library, the genre read ‘dubstep/ grime’. This specificity immediately struck me as something of an anomaly for itunes, so it was with these dual genres in mind that I immersed myself into Carrier.
