01. CASSIE
‘OFFICIAL GIRL’
(DEADBOY’S UNOFFICIAL GIRL REMIX)
“Deadboy, of dizzy house anthems ‘U Cheated’ and ‘If U Want Me’ doesn’t do much on this edit bar speed up the vocal, add a drum loop and a sea-sick, loping synth melody, but it works brilliantly. You can’t really ask for more on a 12” bootleg with a pair of tits on the sticker, can you?” – full review
02. XXXY
‘KNOW YOU’
(INFRASONICS 12”)
“On ‘Know You’, xxxy comes up with something a little more defined, all luxurious chords and super clean drums as new layers are delicately folded in. When the track breaks out into mad skank mode for a few bars, it’s an unnecessary victory lap that makes the resurgence of those chords when the track recedes back into its previous groove more powerful.” – full review
03. JAMES BLAKE
‘CMYK’
(R&S 12”)
“The opener and title track is enough to prick up anyone’s ears, but it’s hard to put my finger on what makes it so good. Is it Blake’s own vocals that make it, alongside brazen samples of Kelis, Aaliyah and more? Is it those hazy synths, bubbling around with the claps, piano keys and subtle sub-bass before erupting? Either way, it works, and it’s the most anthemic thing Blake’s done to date.” – full review
04. COCOROSIE
‘GREY OCEANS’
(from GREY OCEANS, SUB POP)
(Live Version)
“Bianca gives a stunning performance that’s somewhere between Joanna Newsom and Tom Waits on ‘Grey Oceans’. I don’t know what “I’m watching myself / like an old movie on colour TV” really means, but it’s far from the most suspect lyric that’s featured on a CocoRosie song.” – full review
05. BIG BOI
‘SHUTTERBUGG’
(DEF JAM 12”)
There’s always been a camp that rated Big Boi over Andre 3000, his partner in Outkast, and the further removed from the once all-conquering duo’s prime we get, the closer Big Boi gets to proving them right. ‘Shutterbugg’ isn’t quite last year’s ‘Shine Blockas’, but it’s still one of the best tracks either Andre or Antwan have made in the last half a decade. Twisted funk basslines, synthesized guitar, Soul II Soul references and one hell of a return to form for the track’s producer – yup, that’s none other than Scott Storch, the man responsible for one of the most spectacular bankruptcies in musical history, on the boards.
06. 19.26.1.18.5 aka SZARE
‘SNAKE CAVE’
(HORIZONTAL GROUND 12”)
Listen to clip here
OK, so this actually came out in late March, but we didn’t clock it properly until May, and we’d be failing in some fundamental way if we didn’t show our love for it, however belated. A tough but supremely shifty excursion into desert-dried steppers’ techno, Arabian bump and clap tattoos combine with livid tabla lines and a whirl of psychotic chants and whispers for disorienting but compulsively danceable effect. Think 2562 or a Made Up Sound, but more linear and ultimately more badass.
07. DADAWAH
‘ZION LAND’
(from PEACE AND LOVE, DUG OUT LP)
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You should know by now that every release from Dug Out, the reggae reissue imprint run by Rhythm & Sound’s Mark Ernestus and Mark Ainley of Honest Jon’s, is must-have tackle. So far the label has largely concerned itself with digi-killers from the 1980s, but their first LP offering is a more organic and spiritual affair.
Though a prime example of nyabinghi (Rastafarian devotional music), Dadawah’s Peace And Love – originally released on Wild Flower in 1974- is no regular jah-praising platter. Rather, it’s as bottomless and revelatory as an acid trip (but without the paranoia); in Ainley’s estimation, it’s the closest reggae comes to psychedelia. The peak of the album is ‘Zion Land’ – Ras Michel’s languid vocals levitating over pungent keyboard parts which sound as though they were recorded in a cathedral, the red-eyed studio genius of Lloyd Charmers and George Raymond in full effect.
08. GUIDO
‘MAD SAX’
(from ANIDEA, PUNCH DRUNK LP)
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Though it arrives courtesy of Punch Drunk, one of dubstep’s most consciously underground-rooted labels, Guido’s Anidea is a pop album. ‘Mad Sax’ is typical of its hook-heavy, melodically exuberant and instantly accessible style, the eponymous dutty horn riding iceberg-heavy synth-strings and R&B drums that out-snap the Neptunes in their early noughties pomp.
09. T. WILLIAMS
‘FLOORING’
(from T. WILLIAMS EP, LOCAL ACTION 12”)
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From FACT’s Tom Lea and Phonica Records comes Local Action, a brand new label dedicated to the classiest UK house and garage mutations. The first release is an EP from Deep Teknologi’s T. Williams, and while every track is top-dollar and club-primed, the shivering, techno-inflected groove of ‘Flooring’ is our office favourite.
10. DREXCIYA
‘ANDREAEN SAND DUNES’
(from NEPTUNE’S LAIR, TRESOR LP)
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Finally available again on vinyl, 1999’s Neptune’s Lair LP is arguably the essential Drexciya document, a bravura showcase of their unique sound design and mythology. The expansive, melancholic and vigorously circuit-board-funking ‘Andreaen Sand Dunes’ is the best of a frankly unassailable bunch.
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