FLYING LOTUS
L.A EP 1×3
WAP247
Warp Records 2008
06 Tracks. 14mins25secs
Format: 12″/Digital

Flying Lotus follows the release of his excellent second album, Los Angeles, a few weeks ago with a series of three limited EPs, each released at just 2,000 copies on 12″. First to materialise is L.A. EP 1×3, which features Sleepy Dinosaur and Robert Flack, taken from Los Angeles, and four brand new tracks.

Kicking off the EP, the glitchy and short Sleepy Dinosaur is quickly followed by the even shorter (just over one minute forty) Rickshaw which despite its rather compact form manages to dispense quite a devastating groove, only lightened up by light oriental flavours. Continue Reading »

HE CAN JOG
Middlemarch
AB017
Aubiobulb Records 2008
09 Tracks. 43mins06secs

The strangely named He Can Jog is one of the many projects of Brooklyn-based sound artist Erik Schoster who focuses primarily on textural sound explorations. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Schoster spent his formative years studying composition and improvisations. In the last four years, he has released a handful of MP3 EPs and his work has also been featured on a few compilations, including on no less than four from Sheffield’s excellent Audiobulb, which have been nurturing his talent for some time. It is therefore only fair that they got to release Middlemarch, the follow up to his debut album, New Ground Has Not Broken, Soil Last Week And Dirt Today, released in 2004. Continue Reading »

LEILA
Blood, Looms & Blooms
WARP167CD
Warp Records 2008
14 Tracks. 54mins56secs

Leila Arab first appeared on Richard D. James’s Rephlex just over ten years ago with a handful of EPs and a stunning debut album, Like Weather, which gathered considerable praises from the press and got the Londoner’s quirky blend of electronica and pop noticed for all the right reasons. Firmly in charge of assembling little gems drenched in bleeps and glitch, with just a little hand from lord Aphex on post production, Leila brought on board a host of contributors to assume vocal duties, including sister Roya and long term friend Luca Santucci. After moving to XL Recordings, Leila and her crew reconvened for her sophomore missive, Courtesy Of Choice, released in 2000. Continue Reading »

ITAL TEK
Cyclical
ZIQ203 CD
Planet Mu 2008
11 Tracks. 55 mins 33 secs

iTAL tEK might well have chosen a daft name for himself, but the music here suggests he is a man who means serious business. The doleful atmospherics of Cyclical are undercarried by many of the same rhythms as the staples of the dubstep sound, but that is largely where the similarity with that work ends. Where others might veer towards rude boy dance hall bass-bins, Alan Myson, the man behind iTAL tEK, is working in a different direction entirely. Infusing his tracks with a depth often rare to the genre, he manages to lift his music well above the basic common denominators of the scene.

Burial might have won the garlands for this kind of sad-eyed examination of urban desolation already, but too often dubstep has found itself rooted in the sound of the club, leaving little to take away when the kick wears off. Continue Reading »

BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB
Eight Oh Eight
LCD69
Lo Recordings 2008
06 Tracks. 32mins26secs

Black Devil Disco Club have probably already guaranteed their own place in the musical annals of the era by mere virtue of their curio status. According to the official line, Rephlex unearthed their rarer than rare 1978 debut Disco Club in 2006, and released it again to an unsuspecting nation. How an album goes unheard for so long before re-emerging on the label of known prankster Richard D. James is anyone’s guess, but the truth is that nobody really seems sure who they are. Two shadowy Parisian musicians seem to be the main culprits. But many point the finger elsewhere, with James or Luke Vibert in the role of svengali. Continue Reading »

Max Richter gave a rare live performance at the Union Chapel in London’s Islington, ahead of the release of his latest project, 24 Postcards In Full Colour, on Fat-Cat in July, and, opening the evening for him was Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Jóhannsson took the stage accompanied with a string quartet and one additional personnel on electronics. With the string quartet positioned centre stage, Jóhannsson found himself stuck in the background between a baby grand piano and his keyboards. Jóhannsson has, since the release of his debut album, Englabörn, in 2002 on Touch and reissued last year on 4AD, established himself as one of the best contemporary classical composers around and has, beside his own records, composed music for films and plays and has also been involved with a handful of side projects. For this London performance, Jóhannsson focused exclusively on his solo work, presenting tracks taken essentially from Englabörn and IBM 1401, A User’s Manual, with a couple of more rhythmic pieces sourced from Dis. Continue Reading »