CD Album Recommendations February 2012

Review: There's something curiously likeable about this collaborative album from beardy former label manager and PR man Raf Rundell and equally hirsute Hot Chip man Joe Goddard. Musically, it's comfortable yet adventurous, offering a strobe-lit mix of warm, E'd-up revivalism, dewy-eyed fun and soft-centred, loved-up baggy goodness. Lyrically, it's also wonderfully irreverent, delivering both party-friendly silliness ("Ghosts & Zombies", "Be Strong") and Jilted John-ish mockney cheekiness. Given the stern and po-faced times we live in, it's exactly the sort of album that could well crossover; certainly, there's enough here to please both earnest DJs and casual listeners alike.

Review: Now regarded as something of a doyen for the UK techno community, Karl O'Connor aka Regis is revered with something approaching religious fervor in some circles. And it's little wonder; his brutal yet inherently funky and artful strand of techno brought together the worlds on industrial and DIY punk with pummeling 4x4 machine music long before any one else. Between1994 and 2000, he delivered a string of uncompromising techno records comparable to the early output of Dave Clarke and Jeff Mills, and here the Downwards imprint looks back on those halcyon days with the first volume of a Complete Recordings reissue. Certified fans won't bother reading this review - it's buy on sight material - but lovers of contemporary techno looking to trace the genre's diverse origins should look, listen and learn from one of the undisputed greats.

Review: Having provided dancefloors with a string of anthems "back in the day" - "Lazy", "Muzik Xpress", "Muzikizm" etc - X-Press 2 would be forgiven for putting their feet up following a 20-year career. Rocky, Diesel and Ashley Beedle have not lost the desire to create floor-friendly house (or "epic bangers", as the PR blurb puts it), so here present their first album of new material since 2006's Balearic-flavoured Makeshift Feelgood. For those with a love of accessible, floor-friendly house, it's a decent collection, variously touching on vintage tribal, darting 90s-isms, soulful grooves and straight-up club tracks. For those looking for more big room thrills, there's also a bonus CD of remixes featuring notable rubs from Darren Emerson and Kink.

Review: Back in 2006, 4 Hero producer Marc Mac dropped It's Right To Be Civil, an instrumental hip-hop album featuring extracts from speeches, interviews and spoken word recordings from the American civil rights movement. New album Extend The Knowledge revisits that concept, offering up more essential blends of boom-bap beats, positive melodies, simmering strings and, of course, inspirational spoken word samples. Sounding not unlike a hip-hop take on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, it somehow managed to balance historical education, a string narrative and, essential, inspirational grooves. This double-CD package also includes It's Right To Be Civil, giving newcomers a double-dose of conscious enlightenment.

Review: Japanese producer Goth Trad is an interesting character. Some years ago, he single-handedly tried to introduce a form of music called "mad rave" - an intense and really quite insane fusion of D&B, hardcore, break core and dubstep. There are occasional echoes of that period on New Epoch - his first full-length for bass music hipsters Deep Medi - but for the most part it's a fairly careful and considered set. Mostly built around variants of dubstep rhythms, it fuses chiming melodies and clanking industrial sounds with hand-picked samples, skittering percussion and subdued, sub-shaking grooves. In parts, it has more in common with IDM than hardcore, but that's no bad thing. It's certainly his most grown-up album to date.

Review: There's something pleasingly old-fashioned about this debut full-length from Italian producer Emilliano Pennisi. It's not that it sounds particularly dated - the sounds and production techniques he employs are strictly contemporary - but Broken Antenna's adventurous eclecticism evokes a period when electronic producers were not afraid to pack their albums with a variety of sounds and styles. Taking a deep house sensibility as its starting point, Broken Antenna variously touches on off-kilter electronic disco, cinematic electronica, jazz-flecked beats, glistening synth-pop, curious tech-house, muted electro-swing and even glossy Italian house. While it may be lacking the "wow" factor, it's certainly an accomplished and highly entertaining set.

Review: This is in many ways a rather odd album. Presented as a mix, it solely features tracks from Hamburg-based techno experimentalist Sven Tasnadi and lesser-known - but arguably fast-rising - German dub techno producer Jakob Altmann. Musically, it's pretty much as you'd expect, moving from crackling, uber-minimal ambience to throbbing, Detroit-influenced techno throbbers via a series of sparse, atmospheric and emotionless dub techno workouts. For those of a dub techno sensibility, it should make worthy listening, if only for the impressive amount of space contained within both producers' compositions. Getting something to simultaneously sound intimate and grandiose is a tough skill, but one that Altmann, in particular, manages impressively.

Review: Confirmed Luke Vibert-watchers will recognize Plug as another of the Cornishman's many pseudonyms. It was briefly used back in 1996 for a one-off album entitled Drum & Bass For Papa, a splendid set of typically off-kilter jungle cuts that didn't quite fit his Amen Andrews or Wagon Christ projects. Here, Vibert attempts a resurrection, offering up an album's worth of Plug material recorded in the mid '90s but only recently rediscovered (or so the story goes). In typical Vibert fashion, the tracks that make up Back On Time still sound fresh despite their vintage. Sure, there are clear echoes of jungle's past, but also plenty of material that could still be considered ahead of its time 16 years on.

Review: Eleven years on from the last DJ Food full length, Ninja Tune proudly present The Search Engine, which collates material Strictly Kev has released over a series of EPs into a continuous 56 minute album. Musically, it has much in common with Kaleidoscope the album from 2000, offering a selection of tracks deeply rooted in shadowy darkness. There are moments of atmospheric jazz, but also loud and angry forays into fuzzy rock (see previous single "Prey"), LSD-spiked downtempo compositions ("In Orbit Every Monday") and warped compositions that sound like new scores to classic horror movies ("Percussion Map"). Throughout, there's an aural intensity that appeals and frightens in equal measure.

Review: Some 13 years after dropping their decidedly skewiff debut album, Finnish oddballs Pepe Deluxe are still going strong. Queen Of The Wave, their fourth full-length for Brighton-based Catskills, continues their progression from cut-and-paste mavericks to full-blown band. As usual, pinning them down musically is nigh on impossible. One minute, they'll be delivering a kitsch, organ-heavy slice of weirdo lounge-pop ("Temple Of Unfed Fire") or poodle perm-sporting cutesy pomp-rock ("Contain Thyself"), the next spy theme psyche-rock ("Grave Prophecy") or Gilbert & Sullivan-ish operettas ("Go Supersonic"). It's an off mixture, for sure, but one that's curiously lovable.

Review: Leila Arab is a fascinating producer, capable of both comforting IDM and stark, almost industrial experimentation. For the most part, U&I - her second full-length for Warp and fourth in total - sits somewhere in between. Boundaries are consistently pushed, with dark noise and break core-influenced soundscapes nestling side by side with twisted, balls-out synth-pop, mawkish industrial freakouts and impossible-to-pigeonhole oddities. There are, of course, calming moments between (see the rather lovely "In Motion Slow"), but the overriding impression is of a woman on the edge, having bucket loads of fun in the process. Fellow noise-wave knob-twiddler Mount Sims lends a hand on a few tracks, adding his distinctive vocals to Leila's futuristic, nightmarish visions. In summary: bonkers.