Staff Picks w / c 27th April 2020

Review: Livity Sound's acclaimed 'Reverse' series returns with something rather special from a new name, debutant producer Ido Plumes. The label hasn't said much about the artist, but the three tracks here suggest that he or she could be a name to watch in the months and years ahead. For proof, first check the bubbly, undulating creepiness of A-side "Noise Water", where alien-sounding electronic motifs, creepy noises and mind-altering aural textures flutter around a dub-wise bassline and bustling, off-kilter groove, before admiring the sub-heavy snappiness and post-dubstep dancefloor weight of "Away From The Reign". Arguably best of all though is closing cut "Which Way Is Up", a kind of mutant future garage excursion that defies easy categorization.

Review: Ecstatic's latest offering is little less than stunning. It comes courtesy of Maxwell Sterling, a Morecombe Bay-based cellist and electronic experimentalist whose 2016 debut album, "Hollywood Medieval", still resonates four years on. "Laced With Rumour: Loud Speaker of Truth" started life as a "multi-channel sound installation", which Sterling later re-modelled into the four lengthy meditations presented here. Musically, it's a hazy, otherworldly affair, with Sterling combining elements of spiritual and free jazz with fluid, opaque, dream-like electronics, field recordings and sound design techniques. It makes for hugely enjoyable and mind-altering listening. Recommended.

Review: Earlier in the year, Babe Roots broke free of their hypnotic dub techno roots and delivered an ambient dub-influenced re-make of Earl Gateshead's "I Come From Gateshead". Here the Turn-based crew continues to blur the boundaries between dub techno, ambient dub and digi-dub via a first appearance on nascent Japanese label Newdubhall. Baba Ras lends a hand on fabulous A-side "State of Mind", delivering hybrid spoken and sung vocals atop a deliciously spaced-out dub rhythm that owes much to the work of Basic Channel. Even deeper and more alluring is flipside "Extent", an exemplary ambient dub excursion rich in bluesy trumpet solos, pulsing sub-bass and drifting, ultra-spacey chords.

Review: Rheji Burrell's late eighties and early nineties house output is as classic as it is definitive. The New Yorker - both solo and with his brother as The Burrell Brothers - laid down a template for deep but driving house that is aped to this day, and after many reissue projects on the likes of Rush Hour, it is now Running Back who welcome him under his NY Housing Authority guise for 12 brand new sizzlers across two different EPs. This first part layers up slick and groovy percussion on rubber bass and warm chords that come with elements of jazz and merry melody. Timeless stuff that captures the very essence of house music.

Review: As solo artists, James Ruskin and Mark Broom are celebrated for the uncompromising nature of their techno tracks. Yet when they come together as The Fear Ratio, the resulting off-kilter electronic music is much more akin to the angular, electro-influenced IDM work of fellow Skam associates Autechre, Gescom and Freeform. "They Can't Be Saved", their first full-length for five years, continues in this vein, delivering a distorted, mind-altering fusion of clanking, left-of-centre drum machine rhythms, otherworldly aural textures, alien electronics, ghostly chords and cybernetic melodies that more often that not skittishly race across the soundscape. Its impressive stuff all told and should appeal to all of those who appreciate the more skewed and unearthly end of the electronic spectrum.

Review: Oakland-based duo Night Sea have been slipping out their gauzy strain of ambient electronica for a few years now, primarily operating as a self-reliant outlet. Their link up with Silent Season makes perfect sense though, as their vast, slow-rolling clouds of drone and gently progressive dub processing merge with occasional hints of rhythm. This combination is best sensed on "HDSB" with its slender set of percussion and expressive sweeps of synth work. Ably gliding between purist ambient and intriguing beat-oriented hybrids, Night Sea add a worthwhile and wholly appropriate next chapter onto the ever-winding seemingly bottomless Silent Season story.

Review: In many ways the bare truths spoken-sung by world-weary MC and producer Ghostpoet may not be the best thing to land late-April 2020. His fifth long form offers up more anxious calls to arms, this time on issues including far right politics and passports, painting a particularly bleak picture of the world at a time when we are already struggling to stay positive. But then perhaps that's why we really do need the lackadaisical lyrical delivery, pared back scores and melancholic moodiness of this two-time Mercury nominee. Still willing to explore themes that are often uncomfortable and regularly personal, still making heavy beats that sound deceptively easygoing, and still creating an atmosphere that's somewhere between dark UK hip hop and menacingly hypnotic trip hop. Here's proof the formula is still a breeding ground for boxfresh tunes.

Review: Astonishing, 22 years have passed since the release of Stefan Betke's debut album as Pole. Along with the "2" and "3" albums that followed in 1999 and 2000 respectively, it helped establish him as a producer with a defiantly distinctive, dub-fired sound: a brand of electronic minimalism that drew just as much on ambient and micro-house as it did techno and of course reggae soundsystem culture. Crackly, spaced-out, hypnotic and mind-soothing, all three albums sound as fresh now as they did when they were first released. Helpfully, Mute has decided to reissue all three at once via this box set. There are no bells and whistles, just three essential albums in a plain black box. If you don't own them already, you know what to do.

Review: Classic Brooklyn hip-hop alert! First released on 12" way back in 1995, Smif-N-Wessun's "Sound Bwoy Bureill" is a golden-era treat. It sees Tek and Steele - then fresh faces on the scene rather than the grizzled veterans they are today - spout forth over a killer beat produced by Evil Dee and Mr Walt. That beat is sparse but heavy, with crunchy kicks and snares being accompanied by little more than reggae vocal samples, moody chords, occasional electric guitar notes and a suitably deep bassline. You can hear it loud and clear on the flipside instrumental version, though it also provides a near perfect bed for the duo to showcase their flows on the superior A-side vocal mix.

Review: Over the last couple of years, Aussie Katie Campbell has delivered a string of well-regarded EPs and 12" singles steeped in retro-futurist flavours. Here she delivers here most expansive release to date, a double-pack that officially counts as the Roza Terenzi debut album. Her usual aural trademarks are all present - think deep bass, dreamy synths, fluttering electronic melodies, euphoric melodic motifs, breakbeats and bustling beats that are anything but conformist - alongside nods towards turn-of-the-90s techno, weighty electro rhythms and snappy, ghetto-house inspired workouts. It's undeniably a Roza Terenzi release, and there's enough variety - coupled with smart sequencing - to make it hang together as an album. Oh, and bass-heavy, Bleep-inspired closer "My Reality Cheque Bounced" is one of the best things Campbell has released to date.

Review: It's been a while since Timmy Thomas's big stepping funk smash "Why Can't We Live Together" on TK Disco but the wait has been worth it. This new three tracker is a steamy and full flavour offering of afro tinged cosmic disco, gospel and more. "Africano" has bass to die for and tripped out guitar riffs that keep things freaky. "Funky Me" is a more lo-fi jam straight from the heart of a steamy jungle but the winning tune for us is the heartbreakingly bare and honest gospel lament of "Why Can't We Live Together". It's drenched in melancholy and is beautifully raw.

Review: Faze Action have been on a roll with their collaborative project with Zeke Manyika, which first started up in 2016 and now reaches its fourth installment with the infectiously uplifting "Sununguka". In its original form the Afro-house burner artfully blends Manyika's Zimbabwean roots with Faze Action's knack for '80s tinged proto-house. "Rwendo" is a more laid back affair compared to the lead track, but it's no less effervescent thanks to Manyika's vocals. On the B side, Alan Dixon drops a feisty Italo version of "Sununguka" that sounds purpose built for spine-tingling sundown moments, while there's also a pumped up "Special Extended Dub" version to appeal to headsy DJs looking to keep the floor running at full tilt.

Review: The remixes we've been waiting for! Ray Keith follows up his exceptional album "Prophecy" with two of a whole collection of classics about to hit us over the coming months. First up: T>I and Benny L. The former takes the essential air-piano slapping 94 anthem and juices it up with his flabby bass and attention to hyperoid drum details, the latter takes his 97 weapon and turns it inside out with one of the fartiest, smelliest bassline he's committed to wax so far. Absolutely Dread-full... And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Review: Slamming release from Aberdeen's Source Material here, originally released a couple of years back and receiving a much needed repress this week. Barcelona-based, Argentinian producer DJ Frankie's Suppress The Darkness is the real deal for those that like their beats on the more dystopian side of things. Featuring the slamming futuristic warfare of 'Waiting', and the complex computer funk of 'The Suppressor' on side A , followed by the punishing 'Death Or Death' which nearly ventures into industrial techno territory. It then receives a hyper aware booty-bass style rework by Assembler Code up next.