ALBUMSREVIEWS 7.0
Tosca Odeon !K7 Viennese whirl
Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber’s sixth album is named after the venue in their native Austria where they premiered this material live, rather than their local multiplex. It’s a fitting title, given that Tosca’s music has always been ‘cinematic’ but never popcorn fodder, even if their trademark sound — all featherweight downtempo jazz and mild-mannered dub — has sometimes felt as insubstantial as a bowl of Butterkist. ‘Odeon’ however is a slightly heavier affair, not just in terms of its darker and more gothic atmosphere, but also due to the fact that their previous hazy sketches have now been fleshed out into proper songs, with vocalist Sarah Callier providing the louche lament ‘What If’, and someone who sounds like David Gahan impersonating Agent Dale Cooper singing about “apple pies” on ‘Meixner’. It’s still hardly packed with blockbuster thrills and spills, but nor is this incidental music entirely without drama. Paul Clarke
8.0
Dobie We Will Not Harm You Big Dada A broad church indeed
It’s been 15 years since unassuming hip-hop production wizard Dobie released his debut album, ‘The Sound Of One Hand Clapping’. But remixing Björk, Massive Attack and Wiley, producing for Roots Manuva and a few solo EPs have clearly kept him busy. As you’d expect, the of-its-time UK soul jazz-inflected breaks of his debut are now replaced by a ballsy, electronic sound, driven far more by the glitched twists of the LA alt. hop scene (particularly its forefathers, like Thavius Beck) than UK hip-hop. Dobie’s skittish beats are accompanied by warbling synth lines or spooky melodies (‘The Chant’), and there are hints of UK bass (‘On The Corner Of Ridley Road’), house, dubstep and Aphex-ish IDM elsewhere. This all makes for a rich and captivating listen, and Dobie pulls off nearly every mood he explores, ensuring that he comes out of ‘We Will Not Harm You’ with his production chops positively gleaming. Tristan Parker
QUICKIES
Blue Hawaii Untogether Arbutus Records 7.5
The big blue
With a plethora of acts crossing tonal-based noise with electronic styles, Montreal is a scene not dissimilar to the hipster realms of Brooklyn. Blue Hawaii typify this. Spacious in sound and elastic in texture, their folkish formula is as futuristic as it is archaic. Icy and harmonic, ‘Untogether’ is a Pagan psalm for Planet Krypton. Lisa Loveday
The Analogue Session April
Hot Elephant 8.0
Analog heaven
As a buzzword, ‘analog’ has never held more currency than in the increasingly digital age we find ourselves in in 2013, but not everything made on outboard gear is golden. Thankfully, this fact isn’t the case with ‘April’, a timeless foray into ‘70s soundscapes, Planet E techno and horror movie electro that arrests at every turn. Kristan Caryl
Memory Tapes Grace/Confusion Carpark 7.0
Jumble is massive
From New Order-style electro-pop through to Fleetwood Mac soft rock and kosmische disco, each track on New Jersey chillwave artist Dayve Hawk’s third album is constantly changing clothes. It sometimes feels like someone wildly rifling through a wardrobe, but it’s less of a mess than you might imagine considering how much he’s tried to cram in. Paul Clarke
Alice Russell To Dust Tru Thoughts 8.0
Big mouth strikes again
5.5
Jamie Lidell Jamie Lidell Warp Future flop
If Prince and Ali Love made a lovechild genetically engineered to keep half an eye on the US market, the result would probably sound a lot like Jamie Lidell’s new LP — his sixth for Warp. The prospect of those funkalicious artists combining might be salivating for some, especially considering the eminent credentials and cult status of a legend such as Lidell, but in this case it’s a meagre flop. ‘What A Shame’ is exactly that, an overblown desecration of Y3K funk pedalled by LA stalwarts like FlyLo or GasLamp but with annoying R&B vocals — crap “trap”, basically. ‘You Naked’ is so conspicuous — with its whining vocals and comedy rave breakdown — it makes Kool & The Gang look underdressed. Such is the cranky vocal refrain of ‘So Cold’ (“you used to be so cool”) and the closing brostep crescendo, it can’t help but leave us so. Lisa Loveday
056
djmag.com
Flume Flume Transgressive Watered down
When Lone began using gargling voices on his ‘Lemurian’ LP in 2008, he talked about them evoking nostalgia for old tapes that had been warped in the sunshine. The thing is, they’ve now become such an overused trope that when 19-year-old producer Harley Streten cuts up the vocals on his debut LP, they’re less a reminder of childhood summers than how many other producers have adopted the same technique — Prefuse 73, Flying Lotus and even Burial. The difference is that Streten forsakes the darkness of his obvious influences. The beats of tracks like ‘Sleepless’ or ‘What You Need’ might stutter along, but they’re also as warm and sparkling as the seas around his native Australia, whilst ‘Stay Close’ could almost be a big room vocal trance banger slowed down to a crawl, and ‘On Top’ is a polished trap music track that’s like a kindergarten Clams Casino. Paul Clarke
6.0
With a voice that really could make the sky fall and some of Britain’s best-ever soul songs, it should be Alice Russell rather than Adele shifting albums by the shitload. Especially since, as au fait with contemporary clubland as she is with retro soul, her fifth album comes in many more colours than beige. Treat yourself to it. Paul Clarke
Hot Coins The Damage Is Done Sonar Kollektiv 8.0
On the money
Danny Berman’s taken time from his Red Rack’em project to create Hot Coins; a meticulously produced homage to the underground sounds of 1978-1982. Expect an enjoyable, complex snapshot of a fruitful era when genres from post- punk to boogie merged into something between club classics and outsider anthems for a cynical generation. Zara Wladawsky
TM404 TM404 Kontra-Musik 7.5
Analogue dreams
Initially bewildering track names like ‘202 202 303 303 606’ are actually nothing more than lists of the Roland analogue machines used in each one-take jam that makes up Andreas Tilliander’s latest experimental undertaking. Teetering towards indulgent academia in moments, it remains overall an enticingly challenging and hypnotic listen. Zara Wladawsky
REPEATTHE LPS WE CAN’T LEAVE ALONE...
Legowelt The Paranormal Soul Clone 9.0
Timeless trickery from the Dutch dancefloor deviant.
Egyptian Hip-Hop Good Don’t Sleep R&S 8.5
Jingly-jangly art-pop band go DFA on debut for R&S.
Altered Natives Tenement Yard Vol. 3 Eye 4 Eye 9.0
Danny Native’s “suicide note” for his album series is a swansong with attitude.
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