QUICKIES 8.0 Little Boots
Nocturnes Kobalt Music Fairy godmother
Plucked from indie nearly-rans Dead Disco to become the BBC’s Critics’ Choice for 2009, there was something of the Cinderella about Victoria Chris- tina Hesketh’s story, even if her debut album ‘Hands’ didn’t quite crown her the queen of the pop universe. But al- though she’s been venturing out after midnight with DJ gigs recently, Little Boots hasn’t turned into a pumpkin, and her second album is much more suited for dancing shoes than glass slippers. ‘Nocturnes’ shows she’s still got one foot in the ‘80s, but it’s more the house of the late ‘80s than the ear- lier era of The Human League here. Her influences are still obvious — ‘Motor- way’ nodding to Saint Etienne in more than just its title, whilst ‘Satellites’ is a carbon copy of Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ — and although it can sometimes sound so sugary as to be sickly, you’ll still have a ball throughout. Paul Clarke
College
Secret Diary Invada Half remembered ‘80s
College is David Grellier — a producer from Nantes in France whose music was decidedly under the radar until a certain cult movie came along. One of the legacies of the film Drive (beyond the swooning of women worldwide at the dreaminess of Ryan Gosling) was the popularity of its soundtrack, and College’s ‘A Real Hero (featuring Electric Youth)’ was a key tune on it. Now his debut album (first out in 2008) has been picked up for release by Andy Barrow of Portishead’s Invada label, which also astutely released ‘Drive’ on vinyl. Many of College’s instrumentals ache with ‘80s synthpop notalgia, but in a way that genuinely resonates — the pathos of John Hughes films (‘Desire’), the disturbingly vivid synth-driven soundtracks of horror movies (‘Some- thing Wrong Tonight’). All analogue, oscillating synths, creaky melodies and bittersweet moods, this should take pride of place with your Glass Candy
8.0
ALBUMSREVIEWS
Clockwork
B.O.A.T.S Life and Death 7.5
All aboard!
Emerging on Hot Creations with ‘It’s You Again’, Italian act Clockwork refuse to be pinned on debut LP ‘B.O.A.T.S’. Starting out with Motor City chords on ‘First Floor’, they veer into ethereal garage on ‘Places’ then low-slung Y3k r&b (‘Running Searching’) before cruising into deep, derelict textured techno. Adam Saville
Beacon
The Ways We Separate Ghostly International
6.0 Fading light
Showing promise with last year’s excellent ‘For Now EP’, Ghostly’s Brooklyn-based duo Beacon have dragged out the ethereal aestheticism on debut LP ‘The Ways We Separate’. Redolent of Everything But the Girl with a few extra broken beats, it’s too insipid to provide the eternal light their moniker so overtly suggests. Lisa Loveday
Andrew Bayer If It Were You We’d
Never Leave Anjunabeats
7.0
Classically-trained concoctions
Another delightful departure for the chameleonic producer, who engulfs himself in the electronica pastures dipped into on his debut album. Colourful, hazy synth lines float over broken beats, glitch-hop stabs and ambient epics, conjuring up Gold Panda and Bonobo. Highly accomplished stuff. Tristan Parker
Neon Neon
Praxis Makes Perfect Lex Records 7.0
On your Marx 9.0 John Beltran
Amazing Things Delsin
Clue is in the title
With a career spanning 20 years, seven artist albums and releases for R&S, Retroactive and Delsin, John Beltran is a tricky character to, well, charac- terise. Whether with jazz-inflected beats, Detroit techno or warm, breezy analogue-built house, he’s refused to stay still, making the music he’s felt at that given moment. ‘Amazing Things’ is no different, and arguably the most intrinsically linked to his personal state yet. A series of — 17, to be precise — cascading electronic landscapes, the album is his first new material since 2006’s ‘Human Engine’, the most recent since 2011’s retrospec- tive ‘Ambient Selections’. A reflective response to his life as a new father pulled together out of productions from the past few years, it’s closer to AFX or Bonobo than the organic house/techno of his early work. The tunes on ‘Amazing Things’ are ex- actly that — heartfelt, stunning, most of all rousing. Adam Saville
Andy Cato
Times & Places Apollo Records
Photo finish Much like a nurse who relaxes by watch- ing Holby City, Andy Cato seems to have spent the breathers he had during Groove Armada’s hectic tours by — er — making music that sounded a lot like Groove Armada. Recorded over 20 years on the road, titles like ‘South of Mexico City’, ‘Florence To Rome’ and ‘Lake of Stars’ allude to Cato’s globetrotting lifestyle, but musically never move too far from a deckchair outside Café Del Mar. As a series of musical snapshots it very much captures the morning after rather than the night before, since tracks like ‘Sunrise St. Agnes’ conjure up comedown classics like BBG’s ‘Snap- piness’, and ‘Woodstock’ could be Moby circa ‘Play’. Groove Armada might have spent much of their career trying to shake off the ‘chill-out’ tag, but ‘Times & Places’ feels as much like a love letter to that scene as a souvenir of it. Paul Clarke
7.0
Following on from 2008’s ‘Stainless Steel’ concept album about American car maker John Delorean, the lyrics of Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip’s second collaborative album are inspired by Italian publisher and Communist ideo- logue Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Musically, it sounds more like a tribute to another fa- mous Italian — Giorgio Moroder. Paul Clarke
Tone of Arc
Tone of Arc, also known as Derrick Boyd and partner in sonics Zoe Presnick, turn out this debut long-player for Jonny White’s No. 19 Music. There’s echoes here of every- thing from The Clash and Roxy Music to DFA and Tears For Fears. It’s wonky and weird but never devoid of funk amid its peculiari- ties. Ben Arnold
The Third Man Beyond the Helio-
sphere EPM
REPEATTHE LPS WE CAN’T LEAVE ALONE...
Space Dimension Controller Welcome To
Mikrosector-50 R&S 9.0
Epic boogie space odyssey from Mr 8040.
www.djmag.ca DJ Koze
Amygdala Pampa 9.0
Hallucinogenic candy floss from the Pampa boss.
Bonobo
The Time Was Right No. 19 Music
Joan or moan?
8.0
Machine-made universe
This debut solo album from Toby Leeming is an expansive-yet- coherent trip through everything from dub to Italo, disco to house. Dense with atmosphere and rich in texture, it works on you in both physical and cerebral ways, re- calling everyone from Legowelt to Model 500. Kristan J Caryl
The North Borders Ninja Tune 9.0
Simon Green’s follow- up to ‘Black Sands’ is a beaut.
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