Let’s get this established from the off: This is bloody great. Any album that kicks-off with a tune that causes its reviewer to emit a camp ‘ooooh’ like a startled hairdresser is definitely off to a winner. ‘Lightwerk’ sets the tone of Lost Idol’s second long-player ‘Brave The Elements’ quite magnificently and serves as a confident statement of intent for what follows. Brimming with ideas and atmosphere, the latest release by James Dean on Cookshop Records is as sharply executed as many of the finer releases on Warp or Ninja and one hopes it’ll gain enough listeners to reflect this. The opener aside, highlights include the single ‘A Sorrowful Thing’ and the beautiful ‘Peace For Joseph’, a fatherly tribute to the most recent addition to the Cookshop family. Reflecting Dean’s love for Electronica, Ambient, Krautrock and Cinematic soundscapes, ‘Brave The Elements’ comfortably melds genres into what is often a rarity nowadays; a very  pleasurable album experience from start to finish.

Download Album from Bandcamp

Yordan Orchestra

Psych Introduxeon: Bringing Ingredients Together (Megatier Productions)

So. Beatmag has been away for a half a year and now we return looking very different but let’s not fuss, eh, let’s just review an album of bizarre psychedelica, instead, to get our hand back in. ‘Psych Introduxeon’ arrived at Beatmag Mansions with no info but a snapshot of a sallow pallid dude with sunken stoned eyes. This, we must presume, is Jack Aleister, leader of Yordan Orchestra, a latterday prog-psychedelic outfit from Holland whose concerts are sprawling happenings, heavy with the whiff of a druggier bygone age. Taking their cue from the Polyphonic Spree, who they’ve supported in concert, Yordan Orchestra hurl a mass of instruments into their melodramatic head music. The album has traditional rock leanings, but then the brass and cellos join in for a streak of howling ballads redolent of both Arthur Lee’s Love (for their musical ambition) and early Robyn Hitchcock (for their wilful but tuneful oddness). Like a baroque, burlesque and grungier version of early ’70s Pink Floyd, Yordan Orchestra wear their lysergic attitude loudly  – announcing they have “mushrooms to try” on ‘Faced You In A Neon Light’  – but retain a core of approachable, melodic musical experimentalism that certain media-celebrated British bands would do well to emulate.

Thomas H Green

Jack Penate

Everything Is New (XL)

Yes, in an event as unlikely as Phil Collins cutting a dubstep album with The Bug, Jack Penate is Beatmag’s Album Of The Issue. Previously pegged as yet another tedious singer-songwriter, indie-lite model – which indeed he was – he now completely turns the tables on any such criticism. Joining forces with dance producer Paul ‘Phones’ Epworth he popped up at the beginning of the year on an XL compilation with a song called ‘Tonight’s Today’ that sounded absolutely nothing like anything he’d done before, an Afro-flavoured pop romp that reeked of joy and sunshine. Brilliantly, the pair have made an album to match, spraying flecks of African guitar and percussion onto euphoric indie songwriting. It’s original, it’s fun and it’s a feat. If he can do this live, Penate may prove an unexpected highlight of 2009.

www.myspace.com/jackpenate (be careful, though, one of his crappy old songs comes on and you can’t turn it off)

Willie Isz

Georgiavania (LEX)

It’s clear from the start of their debut album that Willie Isz are bringing a much-needed something new to hip hop, but it’s not until a deranged fiddle-led Irish jig called ‘The Grussle’ that you realize quite how far off the rails they’re prepared to go. With the avowed intent to combine crunk’s energy with psychedelic rock attitude, Willie Isz consist of Atlanta MC, Outkast associate Khujo and producer-singer Jneiro Jarel (AKA Dr Who Dat? and Shape Of Broad Minds). Their album, much of which features live instrumentation, has a bawdy pop power that stays away from lyrical cliché and deserves to crossover, like Gnarls Berkley, if they took rock rather than funk as their template. Mind you, it’s still funky as Hell.

www.myspace.com/willieisz

Moby

Wait For Me (Little Idiot)

Moby has done allsorts over the years. He became rich by accident when he famously attached old blues acapellas to electronica and beats on ‘Play’. It was hardly a recipe for immediate success. Previously he’d messed up his dance music career with a dismal punk album. Moby does what he feels is interesting. Last year that meant an album honoring the sound of disco and early house (‘Last Night’). This year, on his own label, he’s in a mordant mood and, together with singing female New York pals, he returns with an elegiac album of strings and tuneful downtempo numbers, all delivered with stripped down yet opulent production. It doesn’t sound a winning formula, as ever, but, despite a few too many filler instrumentals, it works admirably.

www.myspace.com/moby

Malcolm Middleton

Waxing Gibbous (Full Time Hobby)

The Scottish songwriter and former member of Arab Strap claims this, his fifth album, will be his last for a while as he’s said all he wants to say for the moment. This isn’t good news as Middleton is one of Britain’s premier songwriters and his quality threshold rarely drops. ‘Waxing Gibbous’ opens with a couple of numbers that are musically slightly naff but his lyrics never quit and, in any case, once you’re passed those two it’s all gold. Middleton majors in songs of love and humanity that are firmly grounded in messy modern reality. Poignancy and loss are never far away and any album with a tune on it called ‘The Ballad Of Fuck All’ is surely worth a listen.

www.myspace.com/malcolmmiddleton

Silicone Soul

Silicone Soul (Soma)

A little known fact is that two of the greatest electronic albums EVER are ‘Staring Into Space’ (2005) and ‘Save Our Souls’ (2006) by Glasgow duo Silicone Soul, both beautiful, warm, groove-laden masterpieces that emanate everything good about house music. The trouble with that kind of achievement is that comparisons can forever be made. Their first album since is less soulful, lying somewhere between Berlin minimal techno and sadly now defunct Eukahouse acts such as Get Fucked, G-Pal and Smart Alex. It’s very good, especially the sampledelic ‘David Vincent’s Blues’, but perhaps doesn’t quite match the drive and personality of their classics. Never mind that though, it still beats most of the current competition.

www.myspace.com/4siliconesoul

Homecut

No Freedom Without Sacrifice (First Word)

Jazzual hip hop is very much an acquired taste, often disappearing up its own fundament in a welter of musical technique and yawn-inducing supper club smoothness. Sometimes, however, someone as classy as Homecut appears. Sure the mellow finger-clickin’ grooves, midnight muted trumpets and flute flourishes are intact but this young dude from Leeds, otherwise known as Testament, weaves it all into a mellow engaging whole. While it’s certainly coffee-table friendly (it even has Corinne Bailey Rae on one song) his style, somewhere between Roots Manuva and Soweto Kinch (who also features), is sufficiently bright and engaging to draw appreciation from all quarters.

www.myspace.com/homecut

We Fell To Earth

We Fell To Earth (In Stereo)

For those who like the idea of Krautrock but always found it a bit relentless, Richard File, once of U.N.K.L.E., and American singer Wendy Rae Fowler, arrive with We Fell To Earth. They take the hypnotic drones and rhythms of European space-rock, sprinkle it with electronic pulses and bleeps, then gently mutate it into sweet, mellow cosmic pop music. It veers towards the melancholic but is carried by a wistful sweetness and late night ambience that bears comparison to Portishead or Massive Attack.

www.myspace.com/wefelltoearth

Motor

Metal Machine (Shitkatapult)

The third album from Parisian doom-dancefloor duo Mr No and Bryan Black lays off their more industrial rock tendencies in favour of fierce gnarly techno. Appearing on T.Raumschmiere’s Shitkatapult label from Berlin, the nine tracks hammer home a viscerally hard club sound, jammed with waves of angrily humming machinery-in-meltdown effects. Far from Saturday night high street dancefloors, this one has steel in its blood, and the completely OTT ‘Death Rave’ will send fluff-merchants scurrying for their bolt-holes, quivering terrified beside their racks of David Guetta mix CDs.

www.myspace.com/motor66

Bachelorette

My Electric Family (Drag City)

Annabel Alpers may be based in New Zealand but I suspect that rather than surfing or country hikes, she spends all her time locked away with her collection of cheap synthesizers (possibly the electric family of the title) which she mingles with more conventional instruments, all played by herself. Her second album is a cheery collection that bridges the gap between synth-pop and the Beach Boys. Admittedly she’s nowhere near in the league of the latter in their ‘60s prime but her multi-layered sweetly harmonic songs have a charm that’s well worth checking out.

www.myspace.com/bachelorettepop

Terefe Whitecross

From Here To Helsinki (Kensaltown)

Back at the tail end of the original electro-pop boom, a time La Roux and Little Boots dream of, Nick Whitecross was singer with Kissing The Pink whose ‘The Last Film’ was a minor hit in 1983. Thirteen years later, he created an album with Martin Terefe (now best known for producing singer-songwriter bores such as James Morrison and Jason Mraz). Thirteen years after that the pair are back with a follow-up (although, to confuse things, it was apparently recorded six years ago). The wait has paid off. Terefe Whitecross muster juicy contagious synth-pop such as the ace ‘Jesus Was A Hippie’ or the mellow ‘The Collector’ with it’s haunting whistled riff, but even when they pull out their acoustic guitars, it’s all fairly witty and enjoyable.

www.myspace.com/terefewhitecross

OLDIES/REISSUES

Rodriguez

Coming From Reality (Light In The Attic)

A Mexican-American based in Detroit, Sixto Rodriguez recorded in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s but no one paid him any mind and by the early ‘70s he had to give up and get a ‘proper’ job. He sounds a bit like ‘Season Of The Witch’-era Donovan and, in an unlikely turn of events, over time his music became hugely popular in South Africa, eventually growing into a global cult that came into focus last year when his debut album ‘Cold Fact’ was re-released to acclaim. ‘Coming From Reality’ was his last album, made in London in 1971, and it’s a vibrant mixture of Dylan-esque poetics, electric and acoustic guitar action, and palatably kitsch forays into stringed up easy listening pop. While of its time – a time of hippies – ‘Coming From Reality’ is so approachable and vibrant it’s hard to believe no-one cared a jot when it first appeared.

www.myspace.com/sixtorodriguezzz

COMPILATIONS

Disco Kosmische Volume 1 (People In The Sky)

Jerry Dickens was once better known as Red Jerry. His Hooj Choons stable fronted an armada of top notch techno, trance and (quality) prog-house from the mid-‘90s to the early ‘00s. Dickens had golden A&R ears, a cracking attitude and the hedonic spirit to match. Then he disappeared. Happily, he eventually came back with People In The Sky, a new label, original home of Friendly Fires and current home to Wax Stag and Plugs. Where he’s at on this selection is an extremely tasty melding of psyche-disco grooves, techno throb and indie-funk. ‘Disko Kosmische’ ranges from heavy ‘80s Italo-disco to remixes by Optimo Espacio and Hercules & Love Affair, from Chaz Jankel to They Came From The Stars I Saw Them. Underground, edgy and original, it’s a thoroughly welcome listen.

www.myspace.com/peopleinthesky1

Albums for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing BN11 9FG

Beatmag Album of the Issue

Beatmag’s rundown of the best to throw your hard-earned money at.

Beatmag Album of the Issue

Golden Bug
Hot Robot (Gomma)

Ah, Gomma, contenders once again for dance label of the year. Golden Bug is one of their reliable regulars, Antoine Harispuru, once of Paris, lately of Barcelona, and his grooves reek of nasty electro-disco, nightclub lavatory sex and techno pulsing in the dark before dawn. It’s all a bit sharp and funky for the Boys Noize/Crookers gurners, then again, Golden Bug’s music is also absolutely bang on for true druggy decadence. “My name is White Rabbit/I’m gonna prove to you/That all your bad habits/Are really good for you,” croaks ‘Midnight Rabbit’ while the single ‘Barbie’s Back’ is here in its ‘Blow Version’, lewder than a crack whore pole dancing for Pablo Escobar. Raunchy, rockin’ stuff.

The Pete Best Band
Haymans Green (Casbah Coffee Club)

‘Doing a Pete Best’ has long been shorthand for missing the boat to success. Best was, of course, The Beatles’ drummer booted out just before they made it. He became, unsurprisingly, bitterly depressed and, after his music career petered out, he spent 20 years working as a civil servant. In the mid-‘90s, possibly when he received a vast cash settlement for his role in The Beatles ‘Anthology’, he seemed to make peace with his history and took a band on the road Stateside. When his new album dropped through Beatmag letterbox, I didn’t listen to it for ages, imagining it would be the worst sort of lumpen bar band rhythm and blues. How very wrong. It’s a cracking pastiche of Beatlesy ‘60s pop, imbued with a longing nostalgia for a lost era, a lost Liverpool and a lost youth. Best’s songs are tenderly composed, certainly BBC Radio 2 retro, but well worth a listen.

MoHa!
One Way Ticket To Candyland (Rune Grammofon)

For those imagining MoHa!’s Candyland might be akin to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, think again. The Norwegian duo move even further away from their jazz origins for an album that’s pure industrial assault and all the better for it. This is avant-garde noise with no apologies, an electronic barrage backed by guitar and drums over amphetamine prog-rock time signatures. MoHa!’s Candyland is no sweetshop, it’s a clattering robot Hell only for those with strong stomachs.

Baikonour
You Ear Knows Future (Melodic)

The first Baikonour album failed to hit the retro-futurist electronic target it admirably aimed for. The new one, however, lands near the bullseye. Brighton-based Jean-Emmanuel Krieger returns with a collection that mingles Pink Floyd-ish, Krautrocky instrumentals with sparkling synthesized psychedelia. It’s apparently a loose concept album based on Krieger’s many visits to Nepal, not that you’d know without being told. It has a winning, free-floating grandeur and is almost certainly the first album to feature a song whose title is Nepalese for ‘I’m having sex with your mum’.

Ribbons
Royals (Osaka)

Prolific Seattle musician Jherek Bischoff has a hand in multiple bands, notably Ziu Ziu and Parenthetical girls, but that’s just the beginning of what he’s up to. Ribbons is his solo project (although he also records under his own name so things could get confusing). It’s a moping affair, his broken plaintive voice recalling Antony Hegarty, but Bischoff’s productions are less frail. The delicacy is countered with glitchy percussion and moody synthesized orchestration, and it’s deceptively tuneful. Ribbons’ music seems to brood about life’s sadness but sneakily lulls and comforts.

OLDIES/REISSUES

Johnny Cash
At Folsom Prison (SonyBMG)

One of THE great albums, Cash’s first comeback was recorded in 1968 in front of an audience of hardened criminals in a California State prison. These multi-CD packages of classic albums can sometimes lose the original’s focus. However, unlike, say, the reissued, extended ‘Who Live At Leeds’, which lost some of it’s precise visceral punch when expanded, ‘At Folsom Prison’ comes off OK. The original cherry-picked the best of two shows but the new package offers both gigs over two CDs, replete with spoken intros and warm-up numbers (from Carl Perkins and The Statler Brothers). What it loses in brevity and distilled essence, it makes up for in scene-setting and providing a rounded picture. In any case, the songs and versions here – ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, ‘Cocaine Blues’, ‘Jackson’ and the rest – become somehow mythic as they pass into history, mythic yet raw, gut-wrenching and simple. Cash was a one-off and his hard, humorous, conflicted old testament empathy comes over brilliantly. It also comes with an informative DVD documentary about Cash’s relationship with prisons and about those who were there.

COMPILATIONS

A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind
(Platipus)

Ever since Future Sound Of London transmogrified permanently into their Amorphous Androgynous persona around the millennium, they’ve been unfashionably but excitingly foisting LSD-fried psychedelia on us. Their third such album was recently released and is well worth a look, although the bottom line is that they’re sonically spectacular but sometimes lack actual songs. No such problem with their double CD mix album which lets mind expansion get funky in an acid haze of Donovan, Hawkwind, Osibisa, Miles Davis, Can, etc, alongside newer names such as The Emperor Machine and Pop Levi. This is no airy fairy Syd Barrett tea party; it’s sprawling, heavy, mind-blown stuff, held together by a forceful rhythmic dynamic.

Albums for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing BN11 9FG

BEATMAG ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2008

1. Late Of The Pier
Fantasy Black Channel (Parlophone)
The Castle Donington band more than lives up to the promise of their early singles with an ebullient debut album that mashes multiple styles fantastically, from Gary Numan to Roxy Music via avant-garde punkery. Thrilling, exhilarating stuff that charges through the door The Klaxons opened and runs amock. (THG)

2. TV On The Radio
Dear Science (4AD)
Reassuringly different and always quality, New York’s impossible-to-categorize TV On The Radio might finally have delivered the album to make them go stellar. (AM)
They are still light years ahead of most ‘in’ bands, mixing and matching genres in a masterly fashion while maintaining an individual sound. Each track is a mini-movie, but the album never feels fractured. (KM)

3. Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles (PIAS/Different)
The debut from the sullen Canadian electro-punk duo is the opposite to most dance music albums, ie it’s not inoffensive lift muzak, it’s ‘Runaway-killer-elevators-from-Mars!’ music – that still boasts some lovely tunes. (KM)

4. Lonely Drifter Karen
Grass Is Singing (Crammed Discs)
Drawing on cabaret backgrounds and showcasing sweet lyrical whimsy, this understated theatrical trio who hail from Spain, Italy and Austria, nail a gently bubbling but very definite classic with their debut. (THG)

5. Q-Tip
The Renaissance (Universal/Motown)
Ten years in the making, one of the best MCs in the game returns. Harks back to the classic sound of A Tribe Called Quest while never getting lost in a sea of retro nostalgia. (AM)
Sorely missed and back with all the flavour of early Tribe Called Quest which is no mean feat. Free from the usual 30-tracks-by-every-producer-under-the-sun nonsense that hip hop has deteriorated into. (KM)

6. Greg McDonald
Stranger At The Door (Sugartown)
Backed by acoustic guitar and strings, the solo debut from London songwriter Greg McDonald showcases songs of startlingly unexpected emotion, narrative skill and sheer wit. Quite simply, brilliant. (THG)

7. Portishead
Third (Island)
Uncompromising, difficult even, and many miles from the smoky soulful atmospherics of ‘Dummy’. Reminds you why Portishead are so damned important. Truly original. (AM)

8. Mental Overdrive
You Are Being Manipulated (Love OD/Smalltown Supersound)
In a year where techno’s tangles with minimalism only occasionally paid off, the juicy but tuneful thump of Norway’s long-standing rave-meister, drawing on everything from Vangelis to Vitalic, is a joy. (THG)

9. MGMT
Oracular Spectacular (Columbia)
Juicy psychedelic pop-rock and a genuine crossover sensation. The most refreshing thing to happen to rock in years (AM)
Ah, remember when these guys were unknown at the beginning of the year? Now they’re fucking everywhere! Still doesn’t change the fact that this is a vital, joy-filled album that’s a celebration of being young, reckless and carefree. A great debut. And ‘To Pretend’ is my single of the year. (KM)

10. The Cool Kids
The Bake Sale (C.A.K.E./Chocolate Industries)
The future history of hip hop arrived in the form of a duo from Chicago and Detroit. Heavy beats, tight rhymes and the return of the bounce factor. (AM)
Sharp beats and cutting edge rhymes about… riding pimped-out BMX bikes. Full of invention and confident swagger. And not a gun or a ‘ho’ in sight. (KM)

11. Lindstrom
Where You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound)
Three tracks over a whole album from Oslo’s king of cosmic disco and it doesn’t come much more contagiously spaced out than these psyched prog-Moroder epics. (THG)

12. Santogold
Santogold (Lizard King/Atlantic)
Ultra-hip Brit-based Philadelphia singer-producer who leads the current boom in electro girls. She’s vibrant, edgy and poppy but fresh as fuck! Great production and remixes by the likes of Diplo. (AM)

13. Jose James
The Dreamer (Brownswood)
A magical album from the young New Yorker whose jazz and soul is flecked with real contemporary flavour. Not only Gil Scott Heron’s heir but so much more. Timeless (AM)

14. Micah P Hinson
Micah P Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Full Time Hobby)
Southern Boy Hinson delivers misery and beauty in equal measure. Not his best but still head and shoulders above the rest. (AM)

15. Why?
Alopecia (Tomlab)
Lazy, psychedelic stream-of-consciousness folk-hop is not a genre most recognize so let’s just say that ‘Yoni’ Wolf and his band are still making fascinating music that sounds unlike anyone else. (THG)

16. The Bookhouse Boys
The Bookhouse Boys (Black)
Somewhere between The Pogues, Gogol Bordello and a Mariachi band created by Ennio Morricone, this London nine-piece muster a debut of entertaining high melodrama. (THG)

17. Buraka Som Sistema
Black Diamond (Fabric)
Kuduro is an Angolan form of electronic dance music, marinated in hip hop and tribal rhythms, and Portugese trio Buraka Som Sistema take it for an exhilarating high energy joyride on their debut. (THG)

18. Flying Lotus
Los Angeles (Warp)
Laptop experimentalism from California that’s laced with a smidgeon of hip hop and confusingly good – even if you don’t know why. Say you like it even if you don’t and perhaps finally understand the hype in a few years time. (TA)

19. Seasick Steve
I Started Out With Nothing And I Still Got Most Of It Left (Warners)
The affable bearded bluesman in dungarees has been a live sensation during ’08 and his no nonsense follow up to ‘Dog House Music’ is worth the fuss. (TA)

20. Cats In Paris
Courtcase2000 (akoustik Anarkhy)
Whacko Mancunian outfit whose music is an odd but highly original concoction wherein pop duets fight it out with wayward strings and Atari electro, yet their album makes for a cohesive if leftfield whole. (THG)

21. A Place To Bury Strangers
A Place To Bury Strangers (A Place To Bury Strangers)
Debut from New York trio that successfully recreates the feedback-strewn excitement of Jesus And Mary Chain’s ‘Psychocandy’ while adding something new and electronic of their own. Play loud. (THG)

22. Roots Manuva
Slime & Reason (Big Dada)
A return to form for one of Britain’s best-liked MCs after the navel-gazing gloominess of his last album. A jump-up, electronic-ragga mash up. (KM)

23. Moby
Last Night (Mute)
Misunderstood by most, Moby creates a wonderfully upbeat, retro-tastic tribute to the glory years of house, the years of Frankie Knuckles, ecstasy and Italo-house pianos rather than anything heavier, and creates an album suffused with merriment. (THG)

24. Black Milk
Tronic (Fat Beats)
Detroit’s Curtis Cross is currently one of the best rapper-producers in hip hop. Every track is a labour of love, with more ideas in one song than most whole rap albums. Like a young Kanye West before he disappeared up his own ego. (KM)

25. Benga
Diary Of An Afro Warrior (Tempa)
2008’s Beatmag choice for dubsteptician of the year is Beni Uthman from Croydon whose album is filled with zippy futurism, monster basslines and a techno-dub dynamic that puts it out in front. (TA)

26. The Shortwave Set
Replica Sun Machine (Wall Of Sound)
Second album from retro-futurist trio who embrace ‘60s pop at its psychedelic best but throw in some (relatively) modern electronic kit along the way. (THG)

27. Ladytron
Velocifero (Nettwerk)
The Liverpudlian electro-poppers stay the course ten years into their career with a fourth album that lays a harsh Gothic sheen over their reliably dry but tuneful songwriting. (THG)

28. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
The Assassination of Jesse James OST (Mute)
A stunning, haunting soundtrack from one of the films of the year. Even if Nick Cave does go to my local Tescos this is still a beautiful, classic soundtrack that works even without the images. (KM)

29. Nas
Untitled (Island/Def Jam)
Not Nas’s best but has to be included for the sheer balls of a mainstream rapper dropping an album that focuses on intelligent thought rather than bling, bitches and nonsense. A gamble, a commercial flop but just what hip hop needed from the greatest MC ever. (AM)

30. Sigur Rós
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (XL)
Epic, breathtaking and uniquely inspiring. An album of salvation and hope from the Icelandic enigmas during a disastrous year for their home country. (AM)

31. Last Shadow Puppets
The Age Of The Understatement (Domino)
The hobby horse project from Artic Monkey Alex Turner, together with pal Miles Kane of The Rascals, which turned into a commercial success. Classy ‘60s balladeering with indie icing. A cool move. (THG)

32. The Bumblebeez
Prince Umberto & The Sister Of Ill (Modular)
This Australian outfit take the poppier end of hip hop and R&B and smash it into uber-trendy electro-indie with zesty, effective results. (THG)

33. The Bug
London Zoo (Ninja Tune)
Kevin Martin, with his background in noise music, has long mined ragga for its more extreme elements but on his third Bug album he combines this with an appealing pop suss. (TA)

34. Giant Panda
Electric Lazer (TRES)
Second album from the hot hip hop LA three-piece. Consistently enjoyable, touting a sci-fi electro motif, and comes at exactly the right time as Ugly Duckling served up a stinker. (TA)

35. The Deathset
Worldwide (Counter)
Half an hour of pop shouting over discordant electronics and punk guitar from the Australian-American outfit. Has a contagious Ramones-ish cheek to its catchy primitivism. (THG)

36. Al Green
Lay it Down (Blue Note)
Al Green produced by ?uestlove from The Roots. ?uestlove doing just enough to produce a classic Al Green sound that Willie Mitchell would have been proud of. His best album in decades. (AM)

37. Malcolm Middleton
Sleight Of Heart (Full Time Hobby)
The griping Scotsman, once of Arab Strap, fires out a pithy acoustic mini-album full of gritty poetry, love and existential griping. (THG)

38. Jonny Greenwood
There Will Be Blood (Nonesuch)
Scarrrrrrrrrry. Not a pleasant experience to listen too, but it actually makes you feel something, unlike most cookie-cutter soundtracks. Sucks you into its soulless heart, surrounds you totally in dark dread and leaves you shivering in the corner. (KM)

39. Natural Self
The Art Of Vibration (Tru Thoughts)
A stew of thoughtful jazzy production, this one’s here for beat lovers. Bettered only by Bonobo’s first album as the best release ever on Tru Thoughts. (TA)

40. Death Cab For Cutie
Narrow Stairs (Atlantic)
The perennial US rockers come up with some of the most beautiful and fragile songs of the year. It just floated past on a first hearing but delivers more with each listen. (AM)
Twelve tracks of maudlin perfection, equal parts depressing and hopeful. Nothing flashy, just heartfelt songs that draw you into them and never let go. (KM)

41. Beck
Modern Guilt (XL)
Beck dares to do something unexpected again, a rare psyche-rock gem that doesn’t sound retro in the least thanks to brilliant production by Dangermouse. (AM)

43. Hot Chip
Made In The Dark (EMI)
The third album by London’s premier pop-electronic geek squad is mellower than previous outings but still unique and genuinely touching. (AM)

42. Bomb The Bass
Future Chaos (!K7)
Surprisingly consistent from someone who’d all but blipped off the Beatmag radar. There’s a touch of pouty, moody bottom lip about it but matched by a confidence that states, “Yes – I am still fucking great, thank you.” (TA)

44. Jim Noir
Jim Noir (My Dad)
The second album from elusive Mancunian troubadour Alan Roberts didn’t perhaps create the waves he might have hoped for but still contains some charming, very British, lo-fi electronic pop songs tinged with Beach Boys harmonies. (THG)

45. No Age
Nouns (Sub Pop)
Grungy, heavy yet light on it’s feet, a quick-fire assault on the senses from LA’s unpredictable indie duo. Jumps around the musical spectrum bounding with energy and invention. (KM)

46. The Game
LAX (Geffen/Interscope)
The Game with the hunger back! Forget the last album this is the proper follow-up to the hip hop classic ‘The Documentary’. (AM)

47. Metronomy
Nights Out (Because)
Quirked out electronic pop that happily proves Joseph Mount and his band can deliver emphatically more than the samey electro-indie style that made its predecessor a tad monotonous. (THG)

48. Neil Landstrumm
Lord For £39 (Uziq)
Back in his native Edinburgh after some years in New York, Neil Landstrumm, a ‘90s techno pioneer, proves he’s still at the cutting edge with this twisted dubstep-techno-rave outing. (THG)

49. Golden Bug
Hit Robot (Gomma)
French musician/toymaker Antoine Harispuru holds the attention with a debut that balances sleaze-electro with snappy melodic 4.00 AM house party grooves. (THG)

50. MoHa!
One Way Ticket To Candyland (Rune Grammofon)
Norwegian duo with the year’s best slice of noise, a hammering car-crash of jazz, punk and energizing synthesizer assault. Turn it up. (THG)

Beatmag’s rundown of the best to throw your hard-earned money at.

Beatmag Album of the Issue

Late Of The Pier
Fantasy Black Channel (Parlophone)

Quite simply the most exciting debut by a British band since The Klaxons. Produced by eclectic DJ master Erol Alkan, the Castle Donington band draw together multifarious musical threads, from synth-pop to glam-rock, from punk guitars to dance beats, but stylistically they most resemble musical magpies Roxy Music during their Eno years. Boasting a sound that’s at once cutting edge and lighter-wavingly accessible, it would be great to see Late Of The Pier smash their leftfield pizzazz into proper pop success.

The Bookhouse Boys
The Bookhouse Boys (Black)

Some bands have a reveling live persona that carries them through their existence – think Gogol Bordello or The Pogues. Now imagine that persona attached to an eight boys/one girl barracking bar band that sound like Ennio Morricone having it out with the Bad Seeds. That in itself would probably be enough – Gogol Bordello, after all, don’t major in songwriting so much as song-delivery – but The Bookhouse Boys (a ‘Twin Peaks’ reference) have a moody Lee Hazlewood-esque skill with words and melodies that sets them apart.

The Pictish Trail
Secret Soundz Vol.1 (Fence)

Johnny Lynch runs Fence Records, Fife’s renowned alt.folk label, with his partner Kenny Anderson, AKA King Creosote, for whom he also plays guitar. Some of Fence’s output is a bit too round-the-campfire for Beatmag but The Pictish Trail has the best sort of lo-fi adventurism, using whatever’s lying around to create the backing tracks for his plaintive songs. Tinged with electronics, it’s still really about Lynch’s delicate lyricism, with ‘Winter Home Disco’ an especial maudlin treat.

Restlesslist
The Rise And Fall Of The Curtain Club (Life Is Easy)

Restlesslist are an indie band from Brighton who appear to be striving simultaneously to be both John Barry and King Crimson. Featuring two members of Electric Soft Parade and their friends, every time they wander off into an electronically tinged prog noodle, suddenly the brass section arrives to blast away the cobwebs or a great wall of cheery synths pops up. Surprisingly, this all works really well, and their instrumental album is a cinematic adventure that’s willfully weird and also a great deal of fun.

Japanese Popstars
We Just Are (Gung Ho!)

There’s an ongoing trend amongst indie bands to lace their retro guitar plod with electronic bells and whistles, in the hope of making it sound a bit less predictable. Meanwhile electronic musicians have been following the path of bands such as Hot Chip and LCD Sound System, utilizing traditional rock song structures and presentation. Welcome, then, Northern Irish trio Japanese Popstars who line up onstage like Kraftwerk or Orbital behind their kit and hammer out unashamed machine music, multi-layered dance grooves which grip and energize. Their debut album is noisily effective and will rip it up anywhere from the club to the car stereo.

Negativland
Thigmotactic (Seeland)

It’s unlikely San Francisco’s Negativland collective will ever top their late ‘80s albums ‘Escape From Noise’ and ‘Helter Stupid’ which, together with the work of New York DJ Steinski, defined how samples could be used with brilliant subversive humour, laying down some of the definitive sound collage work of all time. Their new album, however, after a fallow patch, is their best in years. Ostensibly Negativland’s first album of straightforward songwriting, it’s actually riddled with samples and quirky effects, and songs that sound like Why? reimagined by William Burroughs. Unbelievably, it’s chirpy singalong stuff!

Cats In Paris
Courtcase 2000 (aA)

A debut album of admirable ambition from a Mancunian four-piece who embrace the vast orchestrations of M83 but are far less po and a lot more dissonant round the edges. Charming string sections collide with sudden mad riffing and dual male/female vocals alternately bark and sweetly declaim mysterious lyrical concerns. And, just to add to the richness, bleepy 8 bit synths and easy listening are also thrown into the mix. An extremely imaginative start.

Lindstrom
Where You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound/Feedility)

Lindstrom, along with his pal Prins Thomas, were at the forefront of Oslo’s cosmic disco scene which combined retro dance grooves with psychedelia. Since no-one has heeded their gauntlet, the pair have gone exploring new sonic avenues. Prins Thomas headed into Balearic waters and Lindstrom has danced into outer space. His new album, his first that’s not a collection of singles, contains only three tracks, one of them half an hour long. It dives wholeheartedly into whooshing stoned soundscapes of the kind Future Sound Of London once indulged in. Best is the sweet sunshine of closer ‘The Long Way Home’ which is disco as heard by someone swimming through a haze of hash fudge.

Pope Joan
Hot Water, Lines & Rickety Machines (OIB)

Mini-album from Brighton four-piece that’s full of angular guitar assaults which the NME should, by all rights, be crawling over before long. It’s all taken up a notch from mere Futureheads plagiarism by the petulantly yelped, imaginative lyrics of singer Mark Aaron, the calculated use of guitar for edgy atmospherics rather than just straight riffage, and the occasional invigorating electronic intrusions. They’re not quite there yet, but something tasty is forming.

Octogen
Gindofask (Soma)

Ah, an electro-techno sci-fi concept album about space’n’that. The second album from Glasgow’s Marco Bernardi strays far from Scotland out amongst the stars to Planet Gindofask (what a wonderful word) where we’re advised by robot voices that we do not have permission to enter ‘Section 3’. Sedately paced, icily electronic and featuring occasional deadpan vocals, Bernardi successfully follows his idea through thirteen tracks of polished robot pop.

Wax Tailor
Hope & Sorrow

Ten yrs ago, whilst the hideous faces of the contestants on ‘Fifteen To One’ gawped out of a muted televison, Wax Tailor’s ‘Hope & Sorrow’ would have comfortably blared from a dusty tape-deck in student houses across the land. Stuck on auto reverse, it’d play for months on end whilst a sticky residue of tea, lager, spliff-ash and toast crumbs built up on the album cover, sticking it to a copy of Viz and a Pot Noodle carton. Itnever sets out to be a challenging listen yet to simplify it as ‘trip-hop’ is to do it a disservice. Having made an impact worldwide with his debut ‘Tales of the Forgotten Melodies’, inevitable comparisons with DJ Shadow and RJD2 lurk lazily nearby like uninventive muggers.

Hope And Sorrow’s quirky sound-bites and judiciously selected hip hop samples are chopped up by Tailor’s skilled hands and compliment the string-laden cinematic sound-scapes and horn-parped comedy interludes.
Unlike the mong-out and stare into space Mo Wax days of the mid-90’s, heads require a vocal or two to tune into and for the most part the guest spots are a success, notably ‘We Be’ featuring Ursulla Racker and ‘The Way We Lived’ with Sharon Jones. Whilst the hip hop vocals are not necessarily weak (‘Positively Inclined’ Feat. Marina Quaisse & A State Of Mind being the strongest), it’s Tailor’s music that is the strength in each track and if there is any criticism it’s that a few more quids invested could’ve added an MF Doom or ironic Tone Loc vocal to the mix, that would’ve made this album a ‘yehaaa’ rather an ‘mmm-lovely’.

Free MP3 Download – ‘The Way We Lived’ feat Sharon Jones
http://www.mediafire.com/?qwnl9mcgtee

OLDIES/REISSUES

The Prodigy
The Prodigy Experience + More Music For The Jilted Generation (XL)

The Prodigy were, in many ways, the defining British band of the ‘90s. They were born in the firestorm of rave, or more specifically ‘hardcore’, when suburban B-boys converted to E and used their breakbeats to create gnarly new dance sounds. These early years are charted on ‘Experience’, a collection of manic dancefloor smashers. Their next album, ‘Jilted Generation’, combined rave with a punk-ish ‘fuck you’ attitude and was the defining moment of their career, as well as being one of those rare albums with nary a duff track. In ’97 they returned with ‘Fat Of The Land’, which further embraced rock and crossed over in the States, but for sheer rip-roaring energy these two opening shots, replete with hosts of viciously energetic b-sides and live cuts, are the peaches.

Gas
0095 (Microscopics)

Another early ‘90s movement for which popular interest eventually waned was a trend for downtempo electronics that bridged chemical populism and avant-electronica. At the time much was made of ‘intelligent techno’ and labels such as Warp garnered a wave of commercial success on the back of it. Less known was Emit Records on which this classic by Nottingham-based Mat Jarvis was originally released in ’94. Ethereally laid back, but with hints of dark technological threat, ‘0095’ boasts gimmicks such as tune compressed into one second but its true value derives from such tracks as the majestic ‘Microscopic’ which revel in being deliciously, languorously cosmic.

COMPILATIONS

The Art Of Acid – Mixed By Justin Robertson
Harmless

Ignoring charting aciieeeeeed moments by the likes of D-Mob and S-Xpress, hardy perennial DJ Robertson compiles a selection of classics that celebrate the spirit of ’88. He smashes through them at a rate of knots never leaving one tune on the go for more than two or three minutes, from the original acid number ‘Acid Trax’ by Phuture, to seminal tunes by Derrick May, Frankie Knuckles, Mr Fingers, Unique 3, Renegade Soundwave, etc. There’s also a second CD of remixes by artists such as Ashley Beedle, 808 States and Laurent Garnier, with an especially hammering version of ‘Acid Trax’ by Plump DJs. More than nostalgia, this blueprint for the ‘90s still sounds weirdly futuristic today.

Independents Day
Independents Day

In aid of charities CALM and MBE a gathering of bands celebrate indie music. It’s patchy stuff but the best of it is well worth investigating. CD1 contains covers of indie bands by other indie bands, a concept that reeks when Feeder cover ‘Public Image Ltd’ or Jarvis Cocker & Beth Ditto deliver a ramshackle live take on Heaven 17’s ‘Temptation’, but when The Prodigy turn The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’ into a reverberating breakbeat monster or Devendra Banhart makes ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ sound defiantly odd, all is forgiven. A second CD conatins tracks by indie bands recommended by other indie bands and includes fifteen new faces including A Human, Thomas Tantrum, Little Dragon and Basia Bulat.

Albums for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing BN11 9FG

Beatmag’s rundown of the best to throw your hard-earned money at.

Sound 10

Beatmag Album of the Issue

1. Why?
Alopecia (Tomlab)

A few years ago, without much attention ever being paid to this advance, artists on Anticon Records invented a new way of writing songs, a way that involved fusing elements of hip hop, electronica, psychedelia and West Coast folkery. At first, the results were brilliant but hardly accessible (see cLOUDEAD) but eventually potential crossover material appeared. Top of the pile is Why?, AKA Yoni Wolf, whose new album (and, indeed, his last one, 2005’s ‘Elephant’s Eyelash’) showcase a lyricist of rarely matched ability. He will say anything, burble it out in an apparent stream of consciousness – “The kind of shit I won’t admit to my head-shrinker,” as he puts it on the porn-centric ‘Good Friday’. He’s funny, perceptive, observational and, crucially, light twinkling song structures leaven the density of his word-splurges. Less electronic this time round, but nonetheless unique, Why? really is the Californian James Joyce of pop.
www.myspace.com/whyanticon

2. Malcolm Middleton
Sleight Of Heart (Full Time Hobby)

If you want to hear the world’s most gloomy Madonna cover, turn to ‘Stay’ on Malcolm Middleton’s latest for a treat. Ex-Arab Strapper Middleton turns his back on the indie sound of his last album ‘A Brighter Beat’ (which included ‘We’re All Going To Die’, his unlikely stab at Christmas No.1) in favour of stripped acoustics, strings and piano. His lyrics, however, remain, the potent force in his music, following in the forlorn steps of Cohen, albeit with a thick Scottish accent. ‘Blue Plastic Bags’, for instance, is as poignant a skewering of modern life’s loneliness as you’re likely to hear this year. Middleton maintains his high quality threshold; he makes misery palatable and gives it a tune you can hum.
www.malcolmmiddleton.co.uk

3. Dusty Rhodes And The River Band
First You Live (Side One Dummy)

Despite a terrible name and even worse album cover art, this bunch from Anaheim, California, paint their country-tinged tales on a grand orchestral canvas. Lead singer Dustin Apodaca sings, roars himself hoarse and, occasionally, emotes through a mouthful of marbles while his five associates attack guitars, harmonicas, violins, mandolins and banjos with gusto. The resulting sound runs the gamut from Stonesy strutting to maudlin hoe-downs to modern folk tales. It’s ambitious while firmly grounded in ‘70s rock, never dull, and the lyrics are tight. It’s also easy to imagine them being absolutely massive, especially in the States.
www.myspace.com/dustyrhodes

4. Jim Noir
Jim Noir (My Dad)

Jim Noir’s last album was a jolly Mancunian take on Jonathan Richman’s eccentric troubadour persona and came off a treat, apparently selling around 50,000 copies, not bad for such a cheerfully offbeat project on a tiny indie label. The new one is a step upwards and onwards, a loose concept album about one Commander Jameson a Major Tom-type figure who’s heading into space and pondering his life. At least that’s what the press release says, but to most ears it will simply be a collection of slightly surreal snapshots of Englishness (see ‘Good Old Vinyl’ or ‘Look Around You’ for proof). The other change from his debut (‘Tower Of Love’) is the Sebastien Tellier-style sheen of electronics which gives his Beach Boys harmonies an added boost. All in all, affable, witty and approachable stuff.
www.myspace.com/jimnoir

5. The IRS
The World Is Theirs (Merciless)

Pretty much faultless and ticks all the boxes you’d want from a hip hop album, assuming you’re not a drone that worships at the church of Lakeside and who hums along to hymns about having shiny things. Of the 17 tracks, there are at least 10 potential classics, musically comparable to DJ Premier (‘Some Emcees’), D.I.T.C (‘Music’) and, on the comical, terrible-dance tribute ‘Gorilla Shuffle’, Ugly Duckling. There’s also much use of emotive, orchestral strings, especially on ‘Something Wrong’ and ‘Day With The Devil’ (arguably the two stand-out tracks) that creates a picturesque landscape for the intelligent lyrics that emcees King Kaiow, Superb and Random Deviation consistently deliver throughout. A word to the wise – buy. Check the video for ‘Day With The Devil’.
[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pz3QDNH-Hg] (Black Belt Jonez)
www.myspace.com/theirsonline

6. Los Campesinos
Hold On Now, Youngster… (Wichita)

You’ve got to like an album with a song on it called ‘Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s)’. Los Campesinos are Cardiff students who got lucky – a hobby band that became a hot name in ‘the biz’. Fortunately, they’re a lot more than the latest tedious indie sensation (although they may be that as well). Unlike the tired thirty year old new wave template utilized by so many of their peers, Los Campesinos tout stop-start rhythms, sparring girl-boy vocals and stylistically recall the oddball world of Anticon Records crossed with The Go Team and Pavement. It’s a unique formula which they inject with eager pizzazz, pithy Brit wordage and a fortunate ability to nail a decent tune.
www.loscampesinos.com

7. Does It Offend You, Yeah?
You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into (Virgin)

Very, very of the moment, DIOYY definitively represent kids who like dance music but formed a band rather than become DJ/producers. Thus their songs are joyfully bespattered with squawling techno noises that, even when the tune at the core is lacking, make them sound brain-battering fun (check ‘With A Heavy Heart (I Regret To Inform You)’ for evidence). Produced by Rich Costey, who successfully helmed albums by Franc Ferdinand and MUSE, ‘You Have No Idea…’ is never predictable – ‘We Are Rock Stars’ is pure Daft Punk but is immediately followed by ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ which recalls The Cars at their ‘80s slickest. Provided they stay away from US FM radio tendencies and stick with the dance trash ethic (as represented by the garagey ‘60 Ft Octopus’) their future looks bright.
www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou

8. Miss Kittin
Batbox (Nobody’s Bizznizz)

Caroline Herve has now been around for at least a decade in her Miss Kittin persona. She initially provided vocals for a series of releases with The Hacker on International Deejay Gigolos that provided the blueprint for electroclash and, indeed, much 21st century electro-rock music. Her second solo album is a distinct improvement on her debut ‘I.Com’, perhaps, due to the involvement of Kylie/Dido collaborator and former Bomb The Basser Pascal Gabriel who directs her Teutonic techno instincts towards tasty pop melody. Kittin delivers her trademark dry chats but also sings and her new album has an unlikely Bauhaus-go-clubbing gothic appeal.
www.kittinbatbox.com

9. Zero dB
Heavyweight Gringos (Ninja Tune)

Beatmag only has a sampler of this album but, as far as we’re concerned the tunes you need to get hold of are on it – Dibaba’s mix of ‘Bongos, Bleeps & Basslines’ and Dave da Gato’s mix of ‘A Pomba Girou’. The whole is a collection of remixes of Zero dB’s 2006 album ‘Bongos, Bleeps & Basslines’, taking in dub moves, hip hop rewrites and more but let’s stick initially with Dibaba’s take, a lethal electro stab that will reduce dancefloors to jelly. Once they’re pulverised, let Dave da Gato’s version loose on them; rolling along on a humdinger of a bassline, sizzling robot hoover chaos and clattering South American percussion go to war, leaving a trail of twitching devastation in their wake. Yum yum.
http://zero-db.com/

10. The High Wire
Ahead Of The Rain (Impatio)

Tim Crompton has been on the scene for many years in various ventures (notably the band Bettina Motive) without garnering much success but his latest incarnation has a honeyed blissfulness that might see him finally gain some attention. The High Wire combine orchestral flourishes with hazy narcotic pop of the type that Lou Reed might have made in the early ‘70s had he had access to the London Symphony Orchestra. Not every song is a winner but the best of on ‘Ahead Of The Rain’ has a drowsy opiated quality that warms the cockles.
www.myspace.com/thehighwire

Black Belt Battering

Flowriders
Ruedy (Mr Bongo)

If you’re an aspiring Poi ‘artist’ and you’re on the hunt for some pointless music to accompany your equally pointless ‘act’ then search no more; Dutch outfit Flowriders’ ‘Ruedy’ is a classic (for classic, read ‘typical’) Mr Bongo release. It sounds like Terence-Trent D’Arby on daddy’s pony, trotting through a Brazilian favela with a copy of The Guardian and The Celestine Prophecy in his Luis Vuitton knapsack. Terence dismounts and to stoppy-starty garage beats, recounts stories of how terrible war is and how we should all, y’know, get along and stuff, as if it were some groundbreaking revelation unconsidered before. Ultra-positive music so nauseating it can only be created by either the deeply religious or the deeply disturbed. Its teeth are clenched so hard in a manic grin; only a crack around the head from a flaming Poi-Stick can awaken it from its honey-drenched psycho-vision of a rose-tinted world.
www.myspace.com/flowriders

Compilations And Reissues

Disco Not Disco
(Strut)

This album couldn’t sound more contemporary if it tried. As the hipsters across Britain finally tire of the I-am-a-robot electro moves that have defined the last couple of years, where next? The answer is writ large in these 14 songs culled from the period between 1974 and 1986, all ham-fisted attempts to make funk and disco by bands whose roots lay in punk and the avant-garde. The way they interpret the sounds they’re imitating has a delicious bass-heavy tribal rawness that the likes of LCD Sound System picked up on years ago. Bands such as Quango Quango, Delta 5, Shriekback, as well as a host of names only NY No Wave trainspotters will have heard of, muster a collection that’s thumping, sassy and lollopingly danceable.

Wild Style – 25th Anniversary Edition
(Mr Bongo)

“Before Public Enemy, before Eminem, before the Cristal, the bling, before Diddy, 50 Cent and Crunk…there was Wild Style. A milestone in hip-hop history, Wild Style is the most influential street film of the last three decades.”
The PR blurb is riggedy-right (although personally I preferred ‘Beat Street’) and this release is a milestone in that it’s quite amazing how far a musical genre has advanced (and arguably eaten-up and digested itself) in little over 25 years. However, if you’ve not seen the movie then maybe that would be the logical place to start because, out of context, this soundtrack simply won’t do itself justice (which would be a shame). Fortunately, to celebrate the anniversary of the original hip-hop movie, there are three simultaneous releases – the film itself (presumably digitally re-mastered); a book written by the director Charlie Ahearn and of course the CD. For anyone even vaguely interested in the culture of Hip Hop from it’s early days, Beatmag recommends indulging in all three, but for those with pockets flat not fat, watch the film and save pennies for the CD and book. (Black Belt Jonez)

Fabric Live 37: Caspa & Rusko
(Fabric)

The latest darlings of dubstep prove to be well worth their spot in the clubland limelight. Where much dubstep simply sounds like the ‘90s digital disco of Basic Channel reinterpreted by kids who weren’t there, the newer material, mutating into techno, has a sharper edge and electro-psychedelic effects reverberating throughout that add something new to the gumbo. Caspa & Rusko drop many of their own tunes and are unafraid to let jazz and drum & bass licks crash about amongst the room-shaking basslines and oddball vocal samples. The true spirit of acid house, ie electronic dance music with a futurist hypnotic minimalist edge, lies here.

AND FINALLY – Black Belt Jonez’ Tale Of Two Mix-Tapes

Jehst ‘Mengi Bus Mixtape’ (YNR) vs. LDZ ‘ Living Long Ting’ (Dented)

Guru once said that it’s “mostly the voice” and while that sentiment is applicable with Jhest, a man with the wickedest of flows, he comes a close second to LDZ with Beatmag’s unofficial battle of the mix-tapes. Jehst’s ‘Mengi Bus Mixtape’ feels like more of a stop-gap before he drops his next gem, ensuring he keeps his name on our lips with some great exclusives, remixes and guest-spots, though those unfamiliar with the concept of the mix-tape may find the spin-backs and frequent chopping up of tracks an irritant. However, it’s LDZ who take the trophy (a baked bean atop a cocktail stick) with the cracking debut ‘Living Long Ting’. At times it’s vulgar and childish, but when much of today’s hip hop is about posturing and boasting it’s refreshing to have some tongue-in-cheek, Benny Hill-type fun over the ruggedest of beats. It’s not all dick jokes though (although the Borat-sampling ‘Wawawee Wah’ is a tummy-tickling treat) as Dabbla shows on ‘Cheddar’ commenting on the reality of money and it’s inevitable negative influence on society. A close call, then, but our advice is simple – Jehst fans should jump on the ‘Mengi Bus’ as there’s enough fresh material to warrant a purchase that won’t disappoint and the heads that fancy a bit of a giggle while bobbing their heads should splash the cash on LDZ. (Black Bekt Jonez)

Albums for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing BN11 9FG

1. The Klaxons
Myths Of The Near Future (Polydor)

They started the year as an NME flavour-of-the-month trio about whom many were saying, “It’s called nu-rave but it doesn’t sound anything like rave, it just sounds like some indie band.” Undoubtedly there are still some claiming the same, but extended listening revealed their album to be not only furiously energized and bespattered with countercultural lyrical flourishes, but also to have ripping tunes at the kernel of each song. By Autumn, in an unlikely turn of events, they’d won the Mercury Music Prize for their psychedelic punk racket. Beatmag is never swayed by such popularity (just check 2006 for proof!); it was likely to be The Klaxons year from the moment ‘Myths Of The Near Future’ burst from our speakers in January – and so it proved. So no, it doesn’t sound like rave but, in the most exciting way, especially as it’s also a British Top 5 album, it doesn’t sound like anything else either.

2. Pharoahe Monch
Desire (SRC/Universal)

Eight years stuck in label-related legal purgatory have not worn down Pharoahe Monch one jot. He returns with righteous irritation firing his extraordinary lyrical skills and observational powers, ducking and diving between the surreal and the straightforward. At a time when hip hop has come to be represented by the most complacent chicks’n’bling sub-Fiddy rubbish, Monch, along with producers Alchemist, Black Milk and 99 Fingaz, pull out all the stops to re-inject it with soul-song passion, wit, narrative substance, topicality and, of course, street level urgency. The result is one of the albums of the year in any genre.

3. The Aliens
Astronomy For Dogs (Pet Rock/EMI)

From the wreckage of the Beta Band clambered John Maclean and Robin Jones who quickly tied their colours to the mast of old pal and original Beta Band member Gordon Anderson. In and out of mental institutions for a decade Anderson was now ready to unleash a whirl of psychedelic rock songs. With material marinated in delicious harmonies and quirked out imagery, but running the gamut from psychedelic electro to country balladeering, ‘Astronomy For Dogs’ had a touch of ‘Screamadelica’ about it’s delicious retro-futurist pop explosion.

4. LCD Sound System
Sound Of Silver (DFA/EMI)

James Murphy, the deadpan New Yorker who looks utterly unlike a frontman, nailed the difficult second album in typical style. Leading off with the immediate punk spark of the single ‘North American Scum’, the album as a whole proved to be a subtler beast that took time to get to know but then rewarded in spades with its wry lyrics and low key disco-not-disco grooves. A New Order for our times.

5. Fulborn Teversham
Count Herbert III (Pickled Egg)

Jazz drummer (and much more) Seb Rochford receives a lot of attention for his work with Polar Bear (Mercury nominated), Acoustic Ladyland, Basquiat Strings (also Mercury nominated) and many others. His best work, however, as far as Beatmag is concerned, is with Fulborne Teversham, the electronic-jazz-punk group whose album fits no easy genre categorization but is thoroughly entertaining throughout, made all the better by occasional Poly Styrene-esque vocals from Alice Grant. Whether punching out sax-dub or cracked riffing, it’s a revelation.

6. Von Sudenfed
Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino)
7. Grinderman
Grinderman (Mute)
8. Roisin Murphy
Overpowered (EMI)
9. The Good, The Bad & The Queen
The Good, The Bad & The Queen (Parlophone)
10. Holy Fuck
LP (Young Turks)
11. Common
Finding Forever (Good Music/Geffen)
12. Malcolm Middleton
A Brighter Beat (Full Time Hobby)
13. El-P
I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Def Jux)
14. Shantel
Disco Partizani (Essay)
15. 12 Stone Toddler
Does It Scare You? (Amazon)
16. Pepe Deluxe
Spare Time Machine (Catskills)
17. Studio
West Coast (Information)
18. Gogol Bordello
Super Taranta! (Side One Dummy)
19. Happy Mondays
Uncle Dysfunktional (Sequel)
20. Ghostface Killah
The Big Doe Rehab (Def Jam)
21. Eugene McGuinness
The Early Learnings Of (Double Six)
22. Dalek
Abandoned Language (Ipecac)
23. Keren Ann
Keren Ann (EMI)
24. Burial
Untrue (Hyperdub)
25. Robert Wyatt
Comicopera (Domino)
26. Radiohead
In Rainbows (XL)
27. Jay-Z
American Gangster (Def Jam)
28. New Young Pony Club
Fantastic Playroom (Modular/Island)
29. Patrick Cleandenim
Baby Comes Home (Broken Horse)
30. Levy
Glorious (One Little Indian)
31. Willy Mason
If The Ocean Gets Rough (Virgin)
32. Cold War Kids
Robbers And Cowards (V2)
33. Balkan Beat Box
Nu Med (Crammed Discs)
34. Simian Mobile Disco
Attack Decay Sustain Release (Wichita)
35. Shit Disco
Kingdom Of Fear (Fierce Panda)
36. Murcof
Cosmos (Leaf)
37. Paul Hartnoll
The Ideal Condition (ACP)
38. Ben Westbeech
Welcome To The Best Years Of Your Life (Brownswood)
39. Jamie T
Panic Prevention (Virgin)
40. How To Cure Dyslexia
The Tempo Of Bicycles And Boats (Dyslexic)
41. Dan Deacon
Spiderman Of The Rings (Carpark Records)
42. Beirut
The Flying Club Cup (4AD)
43. Battles
Mirrored (Warp)
44. Shining
Grindstone (Rune Grammafon)
45. Dizzy Rascal
Maths and English (XL)
46. Enter Shikari
Take To The Skies (Ambush Reality)
47. Pram
The Moving Frontier (Domino)
48. Two Lone Swordsmen
Wrong Meeting 2 (Rotters Golf Club)
49. M’Lumbo
Sacrifices To Neon Gods (Mulatta)
50. The Bees
Octopus (Virgin)

BEST ALBUM TITLE

Andreas Ka
Through Eons Of Static I Hear Them Gather (Fjaril O Trad)

COMPILATIONS

1. Skull Disco – Soundboy Punishments
(Skull Disco)
2. I Hate Music – Output Recordings 1996-2006
(Output)
3. Mute Audio Documents Box Set
(Mute)
4. Prins Thomas Presents Cosmo Galactic Prism
(Eskimo)
5. A Bugged Out Mix By The Klaxons
(New State)
6. Hi Grade Ganja Anthems
(Greensleeves)
7. Lost And Found: Rockabilly And Jump Blues – Keb Darge & Cut Chemist
(BBE)
8. Ya Basta! 10 Years After
(Ya Basta!)
9. Galactico No.2
(Gomma)
10. The Triptych Mixed By Fred Deakin
(Family)

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

The Stooges
The Weirdness (Virgin)

WORST ALBUMS

1. Tangerine Dream
Madcaps Flaming Duty (Eastgate)
2. The Undertones
Dig Yourself Deep (Cooking Vinyl)
3. Newton Faulkner
Handbuilt By Robots (Ugly Truth)

Beatmag Album of the Issue

1. Studio
West Coast (Information)

Scandinavia strikes again. With cosmic disco outta Norway all the rage round Beatmag Mansions, Sweden now makes a bid for our attentions. Studio are Gothenberg duo Dan Lissvik and Rasmus Hagg and their game is pulping up a funk-reggae groove with white boy urban funk of the Liquid Liquid/Happy Mondays/!!! variety. There are outbursts of Cure-ish singing but the six songs on ‘West Coast’, two of which last longer than ten minutes, are all about drifting off on an hypnotic, lazily danceable groove.
www.myspace.com/sstudio

2. M’Lumbo
Sacrifices To The Neon Gods (Mulatta)

If the idea of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band fighting it out with the Butthole Surfers appeals, then M’Lumbo are your kind of band. Begun twenty years ago by Zombie Ron Boggs and Robert Mbotto Ray, the New York band indulge in a brain-mashing combination of psychedelia, jazz and post-modern gags. Their latest album, at least their eighth, takes a multitude of kitsch US TV themes and smashes them into each other in a whirl of crazed LSD derangement. It’s unhinged stuff but the immediacy of their subject matter keeps their far out experimentation invigoratingly accessible.
www.mlumbo.com

3. Caribou
Andorra (City Slang)

Quite how ‘Handsome’ Dick Manitoba of second division US punkers The Dictators managed to win a court case against Dan Snaith in 2003 and force him to change his band name from Manitoba to Caribou remains a mystery (similar to the bemusement felt when Verve had to add a ‘The’ to their name in case American fans mistook a psychedelic Brit-rock band for a longstanding jazz label). Such ponderings aside, Snaith’s latest album is a lovely thing, full of bursting harmonies that sit somewhere between The Mamas & the Papas and Gregorian ecclesiastical. It’s an ambitious orchestrated affair that deserves to break Caribou into the A-league.
www.caribou.fm

4. Simon Bookish
Trainwreck/Raincheck (Use Your Teeth)

More loonyland stuff, albeit disguised as ‘art’. Simon Bookish is classically-trained musician Leo Chadburn who’s involved with jazz, electronic and avant-classical projects. His second album consists of squidgy bizarre electronica, not a little abject, and spoken word surrealist narratives about subject matter such as stepping on toffee-filled crabs. Some it, such as ‘Invasion’ and ‘Dwarf Documentary’ are not only exceedingly odd, but very funny.
www.simonbookish.com

5. Vector Lovers
Afterglow (Soma)

Martin Wheeler last popped up producing tracks on Tracey Thorn’s recent critically acclaimed then sadly quickly forgotten album ‘Out Of The Woods’. He wasn’t in his usual electro-dance mode then and he’s not in it again for this, his third album. Apparently built on remnants of tracks dating from as far back as the ‘80s, it’s quality electronica that’s moodily laidback but with loads going on and never ‘chill-out’. Occasionally Wheeler throws in some vocals for good measure and, happily, they work too.
www.vector-lovers.com

6. Automated Acoustics
Love To The Dedicated Listener (Alternative Blueprint)

It says on the CD, “Like Tom Waits being taken up the wrong’un by Aphex Twin.” Such lovely imagery. Nonetheless, arriving in hand-made packaging that features a pressed dried leaf, the description is not massively wide of the mark. Automated Acoustics is one bloke called Lawrence from somewhere in the South-West of England and his bodge of electronics and folk-blues singing has a rawness that appeals. Fans of Icelandic electronic bluesman Mugison may well find something to enjoy here.
www.alternativeblueprint.com

7. Mother And The Addicts
Science Fiction Illustrated (Chemikal Underground)

Glaswegian band whose name has become something of an albatross, one suspects, deliver a sophomore album that dips eagerly into all manner of unexpected styles. Starting in tight indie territory it soon tilts at the funk of mid-period Orange Juice on ‘Watch The Lines’ and from there on in is quite as happy firin’ off pop, punk, and psyche-rock. Solid stuff.
www.motherandtheaddicts.com

8. Moha!
Norwegianism (Rune Grammafon)

This year has been fantastic for anyone who likes their jazz laced with punk or their punk laced with jazz, or indeed their jazz-punk laced with avant-garde mayhem. Following on from the likes of Fluborne Teversham, Shining and Fraud come MoHa! about whom we have no information but that they’re Norwegian, something we might have been able to deduce from the album title, and that their names are Anders Hana and Morten J. Between them they whip up a no-nonsense racket of avant-electronics and guitar’n’drums that definitely tumbles into the jazz zone. Noisy as Hell, wilfully difficult but wildly energetic instead of just pretentiously unlistenable.
www.myspace/themoha

9. 12 Stone Toddler
Does It Scare You? (Amazon)

Anyone remember The Cardiacs? They looked like besuited perverts from a ‘50s B-movies and played queasy, slightly sinister, guitar pop that owed a debt to Madness. Well, 12 Stone Toddler enter similar territory for a post-Scissor Sisters age, replete with freaky overboard stage fashions. From Brighton, UK, they’re a band who don’t take themselves too seriously but deliver big brash Vaudevillian tunes that refuse to kowtow to 2007’s tedious indie hegemony.
www.12stonetoddler.com

10. Satanique Samba Trio
Sangrou (Amplitude)

Iconoclasts in their native Brazil, Satanique Samba Trio are no-wave punk to Tropicalia’s ‘60s psyche-freak-out (hence why their first album is called ‘Misantropicalia’). Led by Munha and Ed Sinistro they take traditional Brazilian music forms and turn them on their head in an avant-garde assault that has ambient filmic qualities one minute but sounds like the theme to an insane Warner Brothers cartoon the next. Definitely one for those who like to wander off the beaten track.
www.sataniquesambatrio.net

Oldies/Reissues

The Dragons
BFI (Ninja Tune)

Here’s an album with a story attached that’s worth telling. DJ Food came across a track by The Dragons on the soundtrack to a surf movie but didn’t know anything about them so tracked them down. Turns out they’re three brothers Doug, Darryl and Dennis Dragon, sons of a conductor and an opera singer, who had decided, in the spirit of the times, to create their own psychedelic opus in 1970. They called it ‘Blue Forces Intelligence’ but couldn’t get a bite from any record labels so moved onto careers in music, notably as members of the Beach Boys band and and, in Darryl’s case, as The Captain, of ‘70s hit-makers Captain & Tennille. Now, Ninja Tune have unearthed and released that 37 year old album. It’s a happy snap-shot of those deliciously utopian times. Laid back multi-layered West Coast psychedelia is the order of the day, replete with kitsch easy listening harmonies. Every grey dull indie band from the UK to New York should look and learn.

Compilations

‘Fabric Live 35 – Marcus Intalex’
(Fabric)

Mancunian drum & bass don Marcus Intalex throws down a set for Fabric’s everlasting mix series. It showcases the d&b underground very much alive and well, thank you, full of juicy hooks and lithe funk moments that anyone with a taste for dancing could appreciate. In other words it’s not evil noisy stuff or hefty raggatastic bellowing, instead rolling elastic grooves are laced with doses of vocals, soul and technology. A welcome entry point into the most insular scene in existence.

Beatmag’s rundown of the best to throw your hard-earned money at.

Albums for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing BN11 9FG

Beatmag’s rundown of the best to throw your hard-earned money at.

Sound 10

Beatmag Album of the Issue

1. Pepe Deluxe
Spare Time Machine (Catskills)

Oh, Lordy, only Pepe Deluxe could come up with a mish-mash of diverse influences so neatly sewn together you cannot see the joins. ‘60s bubblegum pop, gruff-voiced outlaw country’n’western, JBs’style funk, Led Zep, and tons of progressive rock madness. Sure, Pepe’s Jari is part of the Beatmag team so you can take this review as you see fit. Truth is, though, that it would be folly to miss out on such showily produced jollity. Sure, it bleeds into pure indulgence a couple of times and loses its way but mostly ‘Spare Time Machine’ bounces along with such assured charm that the crazy Finns get away with flaunting their excesses.

2. Misha
Teardrop Sweetheart (Tomlab)

New York Asian-American duo Ashley Yao and John Chao have somehow combined whimsical ‘Salad Days’ sunny afternoon strummery of a light jazz nature with fizzing electro-pop. And it works a treat. Recorded in Hamburg with Meense Reents of Egoexpress, it’s the Germanic precision combined with their warmth that makes it so unique. Sometimes there’s a broken melancholy of the Junior Boys variety, although the voice is mostly old school indie, not that awful Thom Yorke/Chris Martin keening, and sometimes they let their hair down with loose bubbly melodies that are delightfully cheerful, as on ‘Crystal In Love’ or the spectacularly sweet ‘Anaconda’.

3. New Young Pony Club
Fantastic Playroom (Modular/Island)

Yes, we all know ‘Ice Cream’ but even if that song were not present, ‘Hiding On The Staircase’ alone would make this album worth the price of entry. It rolls along with a punk-funk insouciance that’s so perfectly estimated it sends tingles up the spine whilst leading the feet to the dancefloor. Fortunately the rest of the album is also sufficiently bouncy and sexy to let New Young Pony Club lay to rest their London media-fashionista associations. ‘Nu rave’ doesn’t cut it anymore as a term of description but whatever’s going on with NYPC, CSS, Klaxons, Shit Disco, etc, etc, it’s the best music explosion in aeons.

4. TV Personalities
Are We Nearly There Yet? (Overground)

The first thing Dan Treacy did when he was released from prison a couple of years back, before he settled down to recording his patchy ‘My Dark Places’ for Domino, was hook up with a couple of associates and cut the sessions that make up ‘Are We Nearly There Yet’, pre-paid for by money donated in New York for the purpose. As with ‘My Dark Places’ it’s hindered by Treacy’s tendency to sketch half a song and leave it at that, rather than finishing the job, but there’s still more than enough to appease this last great cult songwriter’s fans. As well as the bitterly sad ‘The Peter Gabriel Song’ and ‘You Are Loved’, there’s a beautifully heartfelt acoustic strum through Bruce Springsteen’s ‘If I Should Fall Behind’. Who knows where Treacy’s at right now? Much of this has the feel of notes from a life journal and he sounds at the end of his tether. One can only hope he’s still out there working his magic on a guitar somewhere. The man’s a treasure.

5. Ben Mono
Hit The Bit (Compost)

Munich DJ-producer Ben Mono presents a “sonic song tsunami” which he hopes will launch his own sub-genre, ‘bit hop’. He takes hip hop and spices it with danceable electro, seasoning with a smidgeon of Detroit ghetto-tech bass. It’s immediate likeable stuff with plenty of more-than-solid guest MCs including Jemeni, Killa Kela, Yo Majesty and Capitol A. Whether for the dancefloor or just headnod at home, Mono’s sound has an energy that pops, and should be as accessible to new generation indie kids as much as hip hop aficionados.

6. Von Sudenfed
Tromatic Reflxxions (Domino)

Mark E Smith has a new Fall album due shortly as well as a host of reissues and his stock grows continually higher. He is the last true ‘Prole Art Threat’ (to coin his own phrase) remaining from the punk years. He is a bewildering obtuse fellow and long may he remain so in this age of homogenous predictability. Von Sudenfed consists of him ranting and singing over a series of edgy electro-punk tracks by German electronicists Mouse On Mars. It’s writhingly thriving stuff ranging from Mr Oizu-style techno to ‘80s pop Fall blown stadium-size on the roaringly catchy ‘The Rhinohead’. Caustic compelling stuff.

7. El P
I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Def Jux)

Sometimes I’m slower than a snail in a snowstorm when it comes to catching on to trends but thank heavens I’m persistent. I could so easily have made a massive arse of myself reviewing this album. I was gonna describe ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’ as a classic case of Emperor’s New Clothes, the album getting rave reviews from all because no-one wanted to be the first to bellow, “Noisy shite,” from a nearby rooftop. I was just clearing my throat to do so when after one final listen with the volume considerably cranked the penny dropped. ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’ is heavy listening for the speakers and the soul. The consistent thunderbolts of genius paint a compellingly bleak picture of today but once you’ve tuned in you can’t deny it’s hideous beauty. “I see you all regardless. I know what lies are like. I might have been born yesterday, sir, but I stayed up all night.” Absolutely essential heavy hip hop headnod biz from one of Brooklyn’s angriest sons. Invest, digest and expect to hate it for a good three or four listens. Then reap the rewards. (review by Blackbeltjonez)

8. Balkan Beat Box
Nu Med (Crammed Discs)

This looked to be a cheesey cash-in on the current boom in all things Balkan but, while it veers towards the Transglobal Sound System take on things rather than the Kolpakov Trio, there’s no doubting it’s a frolicking stew of Eastern gypsy sounds with electronic dancefloor muscle. Beat Box founders Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat grew up in Eastern European families who emigrated to Israel. Now based in New York, the hotch-potch of influences such a life engenders are all on display with MC Tomer Yosef providing a party focus. Bet they’d take the roof off at a festival….

9. Dr Syntax
Self-Taught (Beer & Rap)

UK hip hop from Beatmag’s manor, Brighton on the south coast of the UK. This dude can work the mic with the best, and all in a gawky English tone that adequately reflects his own appearance. The music’s sufficient rather than spectacular but his way with words more than makes up for it. He’s dead funny, happy to camp it up (so rare in the dully macho hip hop universe) and has a literary twist to his lyrics too. ‘Subcultures’, about different scenes, is as bitingly snappy as anything in recent months, including Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip’s extremely funny but over-hyped ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’.

10. Twink
Ice Cream Truckin’ (Mulatta)

Following his peculiar and often very funny ‘The Broken Record’ from 2005, which took all manner of childrens’ records and sampled them into a surreal cut’n’paste mash, ‘Ice Cream Truckin’’ is made on Mike Langlie’s collection of toy pianos. Once again, the electronic element joins the dots and the results range from the delightfully rounded as on ‘Slush Bunny’, which is akin to Japanese electronic quirkers Toy, to a number of tracks that sound like Rephlex Records most perverse nervous breakdowns.

OLDIES/REISSUES

OMD
Architecture & Morality (Virgin)

The biggest album of Liverpool duo Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey’s career. In 1981 they crossed over with the hits ‘Souvenir’, ‘Maid Of Orleans’ and ‘Joan Of Arc’ and matched it with an album that took electro-pop’s template and smoothed off the corners. The results, while rather grandiose in places, have an undoubted lushness and musicality that influenced the likes of Moby and many more during the 1990s. It sold millions and remains a solid example of innovative use of technology matched by commercial ambition.

Lucky Jim
Our Troubles End Tonight (Skint)

When this album first appeared in 2004, it didn’t appeal at all, not round here in any case, but listening to its soaring Byrds/Cohen/Dylan stylings it’s impossible to recall what the problem was. Due to the song ‘You’re Lovely To Me’ being used on a bread advert here in the UK, it now receives a re-release which is pleasing as those of us too blinkered to ‘get’ Lucky Jim the first time now have a chance to play catch-up three years later. A straightforward album of big-hearted guitar songwriting.

COMPILATIONS

Sunkissed
(Smalltown Supersound)

Norwegian mix album that stays far away from the usual genre-predictability. Based around the Oslo club Sunkissed, the DJ-promoters G-Ha and Olanskii drag in all kinds of Scandinavian sounds, ranging from a Krautrockin’ Serena-Maneesh remix to the likes of Bjorn Torske and Linstrom, but it’s not about the names, it’s about a rolling percussive stew that’s both psychedelic and hypnotic, throbbing along, not exactly house music, but kind of, a primal bubbling tribal stew. Totally original, in fact.

Ya Basta! 10 Years After
(Ya Basta!)

Gotan Project’s debut album was a massive seller but, apart from in the live arena, they have failed to create much of a stir since. This is rather unfair as their last album, ‘Lunatico’, was fine if not as memorable as its predecessor and their mix album ‘Inspiracion Espiracion’ was a cracker. ‘Ya Basta’ is a celebration of ten years of Gotan leader Phillipe Cohen Solal’s label, featuring the likes of Gotan themselves alongside Solal, The Boys From Brazil, Stereo Action Unlimited and David Walters. It is as varied and juicily Latin, spiced with nightclub wiggle, as one could hope for.

Mute Audio Documents Box Set
(Mute)

A monster five CD box set from one of the late twentieth century’s great independent labels. It contains six years of singles and b-sides, beginning with owner Daniel Miller’s ‘TVOD/Warm Leatherette’ opening shot from 1978 right through to 1984, with another CD of rarities and live performances. Naturally Depeche Mode fans will be paying special attention but there is much else here, including some wonderful forgotten gems by Fad Gadget and jokey synth rock’n’roll from The Silicon Teens, plus a host of avant-noisiness from DAF, Einsturzende Neubauten and Boyd Rice. The title may be a little pretentious but it really does feel like an historical audio document.

THREE Albums You Should Buy Because They’re Ace But We Missed The Review Date Because We’re Slackers

1. Shit Disco ‘Kingdom Of Fear’ (Fierce Panda)
2. Shining ‘Grindstone’ (Rune Grammafon)
3. ‘La Musique Du Moment – The French Sound Of Now’ (EMI)

Albums for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing BN11 9FG