11: ACTRESS
TBC
(HONEST JON’S)
Expected early 2010
Darren ‘Actress’ Cunningham’s Hazyville, released at the tail-end of 2008 on his own Werk Discs imprint, was fantastic: a dense and endlessly rewarding work that could be interpreted as a South London take on Detroit techno and beatdown. He’s signed to Honest Jons for the follow-up, and while we suspect it’s going to be one of 2010′s best, in truth we have no idea what it’s going to sound like. His recent laptop sets have traversed boogie, garage, hardcore, electro, house, dubstep and future-funk of all shapes and stripes, so rule nothing out.
12: STEVE MASON
TBC
(BLACK MELODY)
Due March 2010
The Steve Mason revival is long overdue. Following the collapse of The Beta Band, the Scotsman has released music under a number of aliases, including King Biscuit Time and Black Affair, each time hinting at brilliance but not quite wholly delivering it. We reckon it’ll all come together on new album Boys Outside, the first material Mason has ever recorded under his own name. We’re promised “beautiful melodies and simple songs”, all produced by everyone’s favourite pop provocateur Richard X, who will also be releasing the album on his Black Melody label.
13: RUSTIE
TBC
(WARP)
Expected mid-2010
No one’s willing to confirm it, but it’s pretty much common knowledge that Rustie will release his debut album on Warp Records in 2010. His devastating Jagz The Smack and Bad Science EPs, not to mention a plethora of remixes and edits, have shown the Glaswegian to be one of the most exciting young producers on the planet, capable of condensing the disparate sounds of post-Jerkins/The-Dream R&B, crunk, techno, dubstep, hip-hop and Drexciyan electro into a lean, bugged out sound all his own. We’ve not a heard a single note of it yet, but as far as FACT is concerned this album might just be the single biggest deal of 2010.
14: MASSIVE ATTACK
HELIGOLAND
(EMI)
Due February 2010
A Massive Attack album is always an event, and Heligoland is unlikely to prove an exception. With 3D and Daddy G now back together in a fruitful working partnership, and with an array of guest contributors including Damon Albarn and Hope Sandoval on board, vital signs are good. The recently released Splitting The Atom EP indicates that the Bristol collective has been building on the dark, cinematic and very busy sound that’s been its trademark since 1998‘s Mezzanine.
15: ROSKA
TBC
(RINSE RECORDINGS)
Expected early 2010
2009 was a massive year for Roska, and he enters 2010 as one of the most name-dropped and talked-about producers to come to prominence on the back of UK funky. As well as increasingly high-profile remix work and a collaborative EP with Untold, 2010 will see the Norwood-hailing likely lad release his debut album on Rinse Recordings. We can’t wait to hear it.
16: LATE OF THE PIER
TBC
(EMI)
Expected mid-2010
2010 could be the year that Late of The Pier eclipse Klaxons as the most dazzling synth-n-guitar-pop enterprise of their generation; god knows that their debut album, Fantasy Black Channel, was positively dripping with potential. We’ll say no more right now, but seriously – watch out.
17: PANTHA DU PRINCE
BLACK NOISE
(ROUGH TRADE)
Due February 2010
Pantha Du Prince’s sophomore album This Bliss was one of the noughties’ very best, an almost unbearably beautiful work that rightfully reinstated techno as the most romantic of all musical modes. Black Noise has a lot to live up to, then, but we’re pretty confident that it will acquit itself nicely. Oh, and Noah ‘Panda Bear’ Lennox is on vocal duty, which can’t be a bad thing.
18: HERBERT
ONE TRILOGY
(ACCIDENTAL)
First part due March 2010
2010 will see Matthew Herbert release three albums as part of a trilogy entitled One. The first, One One, is a solo album in the purest sense, and was entirely written, performed and produced by Herbert himself (he even sings on it). It will be followed by One Club, a more typically Herbert record constructed using only atmospheric sounds recorded over the course of one night at the Robert-Johnson club in Frankfurt. Really, though, our eyes – and those of animal rights activists – are fixed on One Pig, due out in summer, and made entirely of sounds sourced from – yes – a pig that Herbert is shadowing from birth through to death as we speak.
19: YEASAYER
ODD BLOOD
(MUTE)
Due February 2010
Brooklyn trio Yeasayer recently told FACT that they wanted to make a “sparer sounding”, more minimal album than their acclaimed debut All Hour Cymbals, obsessing more “over all the little sounds and arrangements”. At the same time Odd Blood is a brighter, more accessible affair than its predecessor, and it quite honestly deserves to be a massive hit in the post-Merriweather pop universe.
20: DARKSTAR
TBC
(HYPERDUB)
Expected early 2010
Says Darkstar’s James Young of their as yet untitled Hyperdub LP, “the majority of work completed is full vocal tracks and ranges in tempos and moods. But it has strayed significantly from the sound of ‘Need You’ and ‘Aidy’s Girl['s a Computer]‘.
“We’ve worked with one singer for all of the album and designed a sound similar to that of the ‘Videotape’ cover we did for Radiohead. All of the music and production has been done by Aiden and myself and I’ve written all the lyrics apart from one Human League cover. There was much more of a conventional approach to writing the new stuff…we tried to write full songs on a guitar or piano before even beginning to record and produce.”
Sub-bass and heartbreak? Bring it on…
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Michael