Year Of The City vinyl

Since surfacing with prime fromage-free edit material for Cole Medina's American Standard label, Scottish producer Lord Of The Isles has graduated to fully fledged original productions with some great releases on quality imprints like Cocktail D'Amour, Ene and the lesser spotted Unthank label. A freshly announced debut on Shevchenko adds to his growing cache, as does Year Of The City, this excellent four track induction on the newly relaunched Phonica label. A hallmark of any release from Lord Of The Isles is a nice balance of styles and this 12" is no different. The title track sets the tone, as the producer invites us on a journey into the dark heavily arpeggiated future, one driven by some brilliantly loose rhythms. Following this, "FS01" eschews the need for drums, instead implementing all manner of atmospheric drama via some brilliant synth play, while "Forkx" is a full on Motor City Soul epic. "Lost Empire" is an ambient outro whose brief duration has you begging for more.

Jane Fitz, Brendan Clark (Northern Purpose), Ender, Bad Passion Project, Kone-R (Uncharted Audio), Juno Recommends Deep House, Seahorse & Castle, Mitchell Goor, Young Adults, Ben La Desh