Lonely At The Top vinyl

Since debuting on Werk Discs in 2007, Lukid - otherwise known as London-based producer Luke Blair - has proved himself to be one of the UK's foremost producers of experimental beats, operating in the zone where hip-hop, dubstep and squashed techno overlap. Where his previous album was a dark, muggy affair, Lonely At The Top - although similarly stifling - feels like a much more colourful record. The downtempo soul of "Bless My Heart" is like FlyLo on downers but still ripples with flouresence; "Lonely At The Top" is like the squashed dubstep of his classic track "Chord" but through a prism of flange, and Southpaw, although highly compressed and crushed still has its brief moments of rainbow effervescence. But it's the stumbling, Actress-like shuffle of USSR and the hazy 80s pop memory that is "The Life Of The Mind" that show Blair to have a mastery of more experimental shapes and oblique moods. Highly recommended.

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