DEATHDAY
‘DROPPED INTO OBSCURITY’
(from SO CLICK HEELS, DOWNWARDS)

Listen to clip here

It’s 2012, but someone forgot to tell Deathday: their angst-ridden goth-punk prowler ‘Dropped Into Obscurity’, which opens Downwards’ marvellous new So Click Heels compilation, is determined to carry on scowling as if 1979-83 never ended, unsure whether to be more pained about its mardy girlfriend or imminent nuclear armageddon.

THE XX
‘ANGELS’
(XL)

The London trio return, unfazed, with the first single to be taken from Coexist. From the sounds of it, they haven’t sought to overhaul their sound for album #2; haunting minimalism remains the order of the day, though Romy Madley-Croft’s voice has certainly become a stronger, more expressive instrument in the interim.

H-FUSION FEAT. MARCELLUS PITTMAN
‘WICKED BITCH WITCH’
(FIT)

Listen to clip here

A hot blast of intense, keyboard-heavy and Theo-influenced Detroit house from Howard Thomas in collaboration with Marcellus Pittman, with a groove as compulsive as it is confounding. Chicago’s still got it, it would seem.

TNGHT
‘HIGHER GROUND’
(from TNGHT EP, LUCKYME)

Grace, finesse, invention, subtlety – ‘Higher Ground’ wants nothing to do with any of them. More so than the somewhat stolid ‘Bugg’n', ‘Higher Ground’ nimbly negotiates the balance between dorky and triumphant. HudMo and Lunice pair have talked about wanting to create ‘bangers’, and the track hits the boss bang on: chattering hats, coiled snare rolls, and a hook that sounds like a drawbridge being lowered are all deployed to hammer the point. Dumb, for sure, but you can’t argue with an idiot savant.

AZEALIA BANKS FEAT. STYLES P
‘NATHAN’
(XL)

Since ’212′, Azealia Banks has continued to play the coquette. Just when she earns one’s affection, she goes off on another ill-advised jag; just when she’s in danger of becoming intolerable, she does something undeniable. The Fantasea mixtape was weighed down by dullard re-voxes and fairly anonymous rhymes, but ‘Nathan’ rides to the rescue. Drums Of Death’s instrumental, a triumph of foundry phonics and Theremin wobbles, does the business. Styles P, meanwhile, livens things up no end; with a sparring partner to bounce off, Banks’ saucy cant takes on a new lease of life.