Mala: Mirrors - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
After the peerless In Cuba issued four years, Digital Mystikz' Mala has a tricky self-made legacy to keep up with this sophomore collection. Fear not though - Mark Lawrence has pretty much nailed it with Mirrors. The Americas theme continues unabated across many of the fourteen songs, with a hint of North African here and there. But for Mirrors, we've headed further south than Cuba - the obvious musical emphasis however comes from Peruvian culture. As with his previous album, Lawrence travelled abroad to soak up the traditions, the stories and the legends, as well as glean found-sounds, instruments and voices of Peru to craft something original. One visit to Machu Picchu is probably enough to fuel an entire box-set, such is its draw, but Mala indulged the locals and backstreets to inspire tracks like Cusco Street Scene, Kotos and the superbly eerie Shadows.
Unhurried rootsy dubstep that lends more (bass)weight than your average Trip Advisor review. Fine stuff.
Blood Orange: Freetown Sound - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Dev Hynes' third album comprises the hallmarks of his previous releases, but sports something more substantial in the songwriting stakes. Not unlike Twin Shadow, Kendrick Lamar and Holly Herndon rolled into one big fat joint, the Blood Orange oeuvre relies on not being pigeonholed. Rather, as with Freetown Sound itself, Hynes' manipulates sounds from many genres while keeping one or two toes in the '80s, such as on the chirpy Best To You, the off-kilter street-funk of Desiree or the spatial gloss-pop found on Hands Up.
Don't expect verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus song structures though - the Blood Orange way is about soulful build-up, the merest of melodies and understated beats. Occasional guest vocalists hold interest, particularly on the likes of Hadron Collider, while there's a limited vinyl edition out in August to swell the coffers. Perhaps a few tracks too long, Freetown Sound is nonetheless an engaging earful.
The Grand Gestures: Remixed - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
The brainchild of Spare Snare's Jan Burnett, The Grand Gestures successfully fused poetry, literature and bleak humour with minimal electronica and post-ambient atmospherics. For the project's final release (its fifth), TGG opened the doors to not only its usual array of contributors but also gave carte-blanche rights to a bevy of remixers.
Ranging from the naggingly insistent - Robin Baguley's Bass Mix of There's No Place Like Home and the many 'hands-to-the-lazers' Europop reworks by Man Without Machines - to the mangled, distorted and frankly rather wonderfully disturbed - try the head-mashing Doom Mix of the otherwise ethereal In To The Darkness We Go by Andrew Wasylyk or the grungy feedback fest that is Deer In A Crosshair, given a toeing by Jason Kavanagh, Remixed is far from predictable - even one of Grand Gestures' Christmas barbs from Happy Holidays gets a tweak. Few of the remixes detract from the verse or the original vibe, nor are they a pointless exercise - Remixed has been carefully curated by Burnett and rightly so.
If you can imagine a musical amalgam of The Blue Nile, Mogwai, Arab Strap, Nils Frahm, Boards of Canada and some of Scotland's key prose artists stirred into a pot of unnerving electronica, you're part way towards investing in this fitting Grand Gestures epitaph.
David West: Peace Or Love - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
With Australia and America at the very heart of David West's musical tapestry, you could be forgiven for assuming that here's another MOR songwriter following in the footsteps of just about every other crooner with a fascination for station wagons and dusty plains. Surprisingly, West's vision stretches beyond these stereotypes. One listen to Do You Miss Me Around should jettison such comparisons. Ferocious feedback, distorted synths, mind-fucking riffs and amplifier-buzz abounds on what is a truly beautiful few minutes.
Then there's Dream On Dreamer, a kind of crunked-up anti-disco tune that demands to be given a 12" release right now, or the off-kilter jingle-jangle that is Darkness in my Heart - a sort of Beck for the disenfranchised. West brings on the party for the Foals and Blur-like Happiest Man in the Room, a simplistic little indie-disco groove that sports the sort of lo-fi eccentricity that Ariel Pink displays on the odd occasion. Peace Or Love is a strange mixture of styles yet ultimately rather enjoyable because of it.
Dj Shadow: The Mountain Will Fall - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
One Josh Davis has been quietly growing his reputation since the groundbreaking Endtroducing appeared in 1996, reaching a far wider audience in the UK than his homeland and achieving five straight Top 40 albums on the bounce. The Mountain Will Fall is the latest in a string of acclaimed albums that ably demonstrates Davis' cut and paste approach to all things hip-hop and electro, although it arguably isn't his most triumphant. With guests that include rapper Run The Jewels and glitchtronica stalwart Nils Frahm, Shadow has immediately shored up the inevitable criticisms of previous albums The Outsider and the muddled The Less You Know The Better with reliable, talented allies. Nobody Speak and Bergschrund wear their outside influences on their sleeves and it's no bad thing.
However, on much of TMWF there is a strange and somewhat abject indifference from its creator, intended or otherwise. Where once there was abundant energy and engagement from Mr Davis, there are now long drawn-out passages of extended build-up and atmosphere, without the fun and the frolics of, say, The Private Press or the Mo Wax singles. It's an album of two halves for sure. Neat beats and tailored samples aside, a chunk of this mountain falls short.
Unhurried rootsy dubstep that lends more (bass)weight than your average Trip Advisor review. Fine stuff.
Blood Orange: Freetown Sound - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Don't expect verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus song structures though - the Blood Orange way is about soulful build-up, the merest of melodies and understated beats. Occasional guest vocalists hold interest, particularly on the likes of Hadron Collider, while there's a limited vinyl edition out in August to swell the coffers. Perhaps a few tracks too long, Freetown Sound is nonetheless an engaging earful.
The Grand Gestures: Remixed - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Ranging from the naggingly insistent - Robin Baguley's Bass Mix of There's No Place Like Home and the many 'hands-to-the-lazers' Europop reworks by Man Without Machines - to the mangled, distorted and frankly rather wonderfully disturbed - try the head-mashing Doom Mix of the otherwise ethereal In To The Darkness We Go by Andrew Wasylyk or the grungy feedback fest that is Deer In A Crosshair, given a toeing by Jason Kavanagh, Remixed is far from predictable - even one of Grand Gestures' Christmas barbs from Happy Holidays gets a tweak. Few of the remixes detract from the verse or the original vibe, nor are they a pointless exercise - Remixed has been carefully curated by Burnett and rightly so.
If you can imagine a musical amalgam of The Blue Nile, Mogwai, Arab Strap, Nils Frahm, Boards of Canada and some of Scotland's key prose artists stirred into a pot of unnerving electronica, you're part way towards investing in this fitting Grand Gestures epitaph.
David West: Peace Or Love - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
With Australia and America at the very heart of David West's musical tapestry, you could be forgiven for assuming that here's another MOR songwriter following in the footsteps of just about every other crooner with a fascination for station wagons and dusty plains. Surprisingly, West's vision stretches beyond these stereotypes. One listen to Do You Miss Me Around should jettison such comparisons. Ferocious feedback, distorted synths, mind-fucking riffs and amplifier-buzz abounds on what is a truly beautiful few minutes.
Then there's Dream On Dreamer, a kind of crunked-up anti-disco tune that demands to be given a 12" release right now, or the off-kilter jingle-jangle that is Darkness in my Heart - a sort of Beck for the disenfranchised. West brings on the party for the Foals and Blur-like Happiest Man in the Room, a simplistic little indie-disco groove that sports the sort of lo-fi eccentricity that Ariel Pink displays on the odd occasion. Peace Or Love is a strange mixture of styles yet ultimately rather enjoyable because of it.
Dj Shadow: The Mountain Will Fall - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
One Josh Davis has been quietly growing his reputation since the groundbreaking Endtroducing appeared in 1996, reaching a far wider audience in the UK than his homeland and achieving five straight Top 40 albums on the bounce. The Mountain Will Fall is the latest in a string of acclaimed albums that ably demonstrates Davis' cut and paste approach to all things hip-hop and electro, although it arguably isn't his most triumphant. With guests that include rapper Run The Jewels and glitchtronica stalwart Nils Frahm, Shadow has immediately shored up the inevitable criticisms of previous albums The Outsider and the muddled The Less You Know The Better with reliable, talented allies. Nobody Speak and Bergschrund wear their outside influences on their sleeves and it's no bad thing.
However, on much of TMWF there is a strange and somewhat abject indifference from its creator, intended or otherwise. Where once there was abundant energy and engagement from Mr Davis, there are now long drawn-out passages of extended build-up and atmosphere, without the fun and the frolics of, say, The Private Press or the Mo Wax singles. It's an album of two halves for sure. Neat beats and tailored samples aside, a chunk of this mountain falls short.