With a pedigree in constructing dusty, loose-limbed house tracks with a hip-hop sensibility for labels like Meakusma, Morphine and Workshop, Madteo has always stood out as having a unique style, but even by his standards, Noi No is a singular collection of tracks. Although it would be tempting to put it alongside the raft of muggy, fragmented, sketch-like releases producers that have surfaced in the past few years – those from Actress, Lukid, 1991, even Hype Williams spring to mind – this wouldn’t feel right. While these producers (and many like them) seem to veer stylistically across single releases, Madteo hones in on one sound in Noi No and sticks to it. “Rut-A-Round” sets the tone with its droning bass and fizzy chords; deeply disjointed and unpredictable, the interplay between these elements happens seemingly at random, while vocals, birdsong, and fragments of melody remain tantalisingly out of range. These kind of textures are repeated throughout; “Ratskeller” puts you in a trance-like state with its gelatinous three chords, a soporific track painted in broad strokes of muddy browns that puts you in the mindstate of being drunk, lonely, confused – or all three at once.

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