CD Album Recommendations Best Of 2011

Review: Omar S has always been something of a maverick, but even by his own high standards, surprise second album It Can Be Done, But Only I Can Do It is something else. Like much of his work, it's an album of acute contrasts: tough and aggressive on one hand (the ragging acid of the opener and "Ganymede"), soft, calming and blissful on the other ("Nite's Over Comption"). Along the way, highlights are plentiful, from the heady deep house of "You Wish", sparse porno beatdown of "Look Hear Watch" and hypnotic rhythms of "Bobien Larkin", to the next generation Motor City techno of "Over You Two" and near-anthemic simplicity of "Here's Your Trance, Now Dance".

Review: His releases are relatively rare these days, but jungle veteran Dev Pandaya remains a formidable breakbeat scientist - as this long-overdue solo full-length proves. Kicking off with a moody, 125 BPM take on breakers' beats ("The Last B-Boy"), Ramification shows Pandaya at his beat-programming best, cutting up live drum breaks and impressively switching between moods and tempos. Along the way, we're treated to intense old skool junglisms (the menacing "Fake Funk" and "Yasaka"), distorted jazz-breaks ("Black 69"), spooky 90s rollers ("Ghost Notes") and intoxicating Indian instrumentation ("Marijaya"). For those who like their D&B with a touch of original jungle flava, Ramifications comes highly recommended.

Review: This second full-length from London-based producer Soloman 'Silkie' Rose - the follow-up to 2009's City Limits Volume 1 - further develops a deep and melodic take on dubstep that should appeal far beyond the genre's underground stronghold. With bright melodies, jazz chords, ear-catching synths, sampled horn stabs and future garage style vocal cuts aplenty, City Limits Volume 2 has far more in common with, say, the far-thinking two-step exploits of Phuturistix or Hospital Records' genre-bending Outpatients series than most dubstep full-lengths. But it's these qualities that make it such a rewarding, enjoyable and essential release.

Review: With a bulging discography that includes a string of albums on Bukem's Good Lookin' label, Robin 'Big Bud' O'Reilly has clearly found his niche within drum & bass. His sound - a glistening, musically rich take on jungle that fuses the deep grooves of Good Lookin' and disco-funk of Hospital with the fluidity of classic liquid D&B - is never less than gorgeously appealing, as Kool Beans neatly proves. Taking in influences as diverse as traditional Indian music, blues, jazz, classic hardcore and, of course, soul, it merrily skips from track to track with an infectious musicality that holds your attention throughout.

Review: Austrian drum & bass superstars David "D.Kay" Kulenkampff and Philipp "Raw Full" Roskott present their debut album, the decidedly mixed-up Nectar & Ambrosia. Kulenkampff and Roskott are relative veterans in D&B terms, so it's no surprise to find them flitting between junglist sub-genres and bass music styles almost at will. So while there are snappy dancefloor rollers and speaker-shaking anthems aplenty, they also successfully try their hand at melodic dubstep ("Memorizer"), Hospital-ish jungle funk ("The Deeper We Bleep"), soaring dubstep-pop ("Gold Streams"), electro-jungle ("Skyrunner") and conscious reggae-D&B riddims ("Fire Everyday"). Such eclecticism poses risks, but Ill Skillz carries it off with ease.

Review: Japanese producer Makoto Shimizu first made his name on LTJ Bukem's legendary Good Lookin' imprint. In recent times, he's continued his D&B explorations whilst pursuing a more soulful sound that takes in slower tempos and influences from a wide range of styles. Souled Out, his first album in 2007, continues this theme, utilizing a multitude of vocalists and a variety of rhythmic styles to deliver a smart, 21st century soul set brimming with slick and stylish songs. So, while the sparkling D&B jams remain (see "Keep Me Down" and "Woe"), Makoto also offers up sassy future boogie ("Girl Am I Running Back To You"), life-affirming soul stompers ("Tower Of Love"), R&B and broken beats.

Review: If you're going to wait nine years to produce your debut album, it helps to have a concept. Drum and bass veteran Raiden's theme is the brutalist modern architecture of the 1960s (hence the Beton Arme title), with all bar one of the tracks named after striking - some may say ugly - modernist buildings. While this may seem a touch pretentious, it helps give the album context. You can certainly feel the influence of the stark, soulless concrete constructions in tracks like "Barbican", "Tricolour", "Ryugyong" and "Habitat 67" - all angular rhythms, fuzzy percussion, icy stabs and faded basslines. Yet for all the brutalist inspiration, there's moody funk, too - something for which Raiden should be given great credit.

Review: Jungle veteran Dom Angus has been around the block a fair few times in the last 17 years. Here he recalls his formative years with an album inspired by the halcyon years of drum and bass: the 1990s. Unlike previous sets, this fifth full-length is an entirely solo effort. Cut free from collaborators, Angus is able to fully let loose in his own inimitable style. In practice, this means a loose, rough-and-collection of growling bangers that gleefully harks back the jungle's golden age whilst retaining one eye on contemporary dancefloors. For those who've followed his career to date, The Big Bang is a refreshing blast from the past.

Review: Given the length of his career, it's perhaps surprising that this is Roman Flugel's first album under his own name. Fatty Folders finds him in fine form, building on the success of his recent Dial 12" singles via a series of cuts that largely show him at the peak of his powers. While there are nods to some of his more celebrated deep house and hypnotic techno productions, Fatty Folders is musically far more playful than much of his output. At times it sounds like Flugel's take on early Orbital, at others more like a typically Teutonic fusion of Detroit futurism and Plone-ish synthscapes. Most satisfyingly, it remains thoroughly entertaining throughout. Flugel-funk anyone?

Review: For the last half-decade, Connecticut-based Jenifa Mayanja has quietly been developing a deeply personal take on house music that offers a feminine twist on the global grooves of Joe Claussel and Osunlade. This second full-length offers a chance to revel in that sound, a pleasingly soft focus mix of broken and 4/4 rhythms, emotion-rich jazz pianos, subtle African percussion and dewy-eyed electronics. Woman Walking In The Shadows also highlights Mayanja's other great strength: ideas. From the sleazy sax grooves of "All Things Being Equal" to the impeccable downtempo jazz of "Rising Out of the Ashes" via sleepy deep house and afro-leaning broken beat, Mayanja barely pauses for breath.

Review: Since donning the SBTRKT mask, one time broken beat producer Aaron Jerome has become far more famous for the booming intensity and restless rhythms of his productions than the sweet soul he was previously most famous for. It's something of a pleasant surprise, then, to see Jerome returning to his musical roots on this SBTRKT debut LP. While the trademark shuffling dubstep rhythms, future garage grooves and hurried broken beats remain, they're underpinned by a thick vein of sassy soulfulness - thanks in no small part to the fragile vocals of Sampha - and an overriding atmosphere of melodic beauty. It's a wise move on Jerome's part, because SBTRKT is a far better album than many would have expected; in fact, it's a bit of a belter.

Review: Leeds-based seven-piece Submotion Orchestra are a perfect fit with Exceptional Records, a label whose reputation was initially made promoting nu-jazz, downtempo and pleasing fusions of organic and electronic sounds. Finest Hour, their debut album, perfectly showcases their open-minded but calculated approach - a fragile but occasionally grandiose mix of emotionally resonant songs forged from downtempo beats, trip-hop, dub and jazz, with occasional injections of dubstep and two-step rhythms. It's the kind of music you can easily lose yourself in - particularly closer "Perfection" and the soaring jazz ballad "Suffer Not" - but there are enough upbeat moments to stave off accusations of coffee table noodling.

Review: Travis Stewart has been producing under the Machinedrum moniker for more than 10 years; in that time his sound has gone from IDM through hip-hop and ghetto house, but on Room(s) he takes the blueprint of the subgenre of 150BPM Chicago house known as juke (which has been an underground phenomenon for the past 10 years) and runs with it. Despite the album's 150BPM plus pace (which is never anything less than a complete adrenaline rush, even during it's more sedate moments), fatigue never sets in. This is primarily down to Stewart's rhythm programming. While juke would typically utilise untreated drum machines, Stewart isn't afraid to use organic drum samples. "Come1" for example contrasts euphoric piano chords with a freeform jazz rhythm; he gives the track just enough syncopation to give everything enough room to breathe, similarly, on "Lay Me Down" he employs clattering percussion and reverb in a similar fashion to Burial. Stewart also swathes an impressive palette of colour and texture across the album's whole. His grasp of melodic balance is exceptional; any chords he employs in the tracks add just the right amount of emotional pull without negating their ferocity. In short, one of the best albums you'll hear this year.

Review: If the first single from this album, "Natalia's Song", left you worried that Zomby may have toned down his sound to fit the current zeitgeist in bass music, then don't. Dedication is a long way removed from Where Were U In '92?, but the influence of jungle and hardcore remains, albeit in a more spectral form, where skeletal beats play off against organic tones, his characteristic purple arpeggios drenched in reverb. The progression in his sound is just enough to add an element of introspection to his productions, while retaining the essence of what made his earlier material so irresistible; it's an album where air horns can co-exist happily with string sections and it doesn't seem jarring .With several tracks that are at times almost baroque in their execution, Dedication is an album that, whatever your preconceived notions of Zomby's sound, or bass music as a whole, must be heard.