Back Catalogue

Review: Maryland-based singer/songwriter Courtney Dowe channels a steady stream of influences on her beautiful debut album, Accomplice. With her dynamic voice and an acoustic guitar to the fore across the album, it may seem hard for Dowe to distinguish herself with such ubiquitous tools. Yet, songs like "Dancer Blue" and "Might" really stand out and it makes for an affecting and un-cliched album. "If I Had Wings" is a truly beautiful and spiritual song, almost gospel at times and with only the faintest of backing from guitar and organ. "Yona" also captures that epic balladeering vibe as well, while the album ends as it starts, with just Dowe and a guitar on "Siddhi". Mellow and chilled, but with a lot of soul and heart at the same time, Accomplice is a worthwhile debut that'll reward listeners time and time again.

Review: Alfred Darlington. Quite why you'd pick a pseudonym when you already have a name as incredible as Alfred Darlington at your disposal is a mystery, but then, it's one of many brilliantly odd things about both Daedelus and his ever-evolving music. From indie-tronica, to the deeply warped hip-hop of his "Exquisite Corpse" album, his MF Doom hook-up "Impending Doom" or his 2006 sample-tastic release on Mush, "Denies The Day's Demise", Daedelus has covered a huge amount of ground. Since signing with Ninja however, he's distinctly upped the tempo and applied his scattered, bricolage techniques to making electronic/dance music in his own idiosyncratic way. As a prelude to new album Bespoke, this first single features Canadian electronica producer (and former Plug Research labelmate) Milosh on the vocals and positively charges out of your speakers at a galloping 130bpm tempo. With a thick kick and a juke-like clap keeping time, a wave of samples gets slowly filtered up, much like the start of "Make It So", but even more bug-eyed and delirious. Short loops of urgent strings samples nestle up against tight bass hits, barber shop quartet backing harmonies, even guitar chanks that sound eerily like they've been sampled from Arabesque's "In The Heat Of A Disco Night". Milosh's languid vocals fit like a glove over this sea of soaring noise, as he takes time over each line and allows the melodies to float over the top of it all like a saxophone player playing a deliberately restrained solo. The whole thing reminds hugely of Radiohead's "Idioteque" but constructed with warm organic sounds rather than icy electronic ones. A Floating Points remix of "Tailor Made" is lined up for the future, which will no doubt be pretty special, and on the strength of this first single, Bespoke looks like being an essential purchase too.