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)

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)

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”)

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)

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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.