Review: It's notoriously difficult to make albums of emotive, musically complex, club-friendly music, but Felix Clary Weatherall achieved it with his 2018 full-length debut as Ross From Friends, Family Portrait. This belated sequel hits all the right notes, too, skipping between heart-aching post-two-step deepness ('The Daisy'), lilting breakbeat-house warmth ('Revellers'), spaced-out, sample-heavy downtempo soul ('A Brand New Start'), tipsy, fuzz-fuelled outsider house oddness (the swelling 'Grub'), sunrise-ready ambient ('Morning Sun in a Dusty Room') and classic 1990s IDM-inspired electronica sweetness ('Thresho 1.0'). In other words, it's that rarest of beasts: a second album that's genuinely superior to its predecessor.
Review: Ahead of Ross From Friends Tread LP due for release on Brainfeeder this year comes the album's first single, and opening track, "The Daisy''. It sees Ross From Friends pick up on post-dubstep percussion and sweetly soulful R&B vocals in an ambient tinged, progressive pop number that experiments with house and dubbed-out electronics. More to come!
Review: Hiatus Kaiyote is a four piece group out of Melbourne that have slowly but surely seen their music picked up by the likes of BBE and now Brainfeeder. Combining a bunch of soul notes and cool jazz with electro-acoustic beats, R&B vocals and other virtuosic instrumentation, the twice grammy nominated band deliver their most acclaimed release yet. Described by Rolling Stone as 'a stunning step', a true LA Beat scene sound can be heard clear as day in the summery synth waves and keys of "Chivalry Is Not Dead". With downtempo beats and complex arrangements colliding with found sound and ambient melodies in other numbers like "Blood & Marrow" and "Sparkle Tape Break Up", there's extra piano sessions in "Red Room" alongside the twinkling keys of "Sip Into Something Soft". A fully fledged album of deep influences channeling a new age in blues, it's safe to say after six years: Hiatus Kaiyote have arrived.
Review: An intriguing artist for the Brainfeeder label since 2018 - Little Snake presents its debut album: A Fragmented Love Story, Written By The Infinite Helix Architect. The Canadian producer - real name Gino Serpentini - has been deconstructing dancefloor norms, subverting traditional structures and refining his utterly inimitable sonic signature since 2017, spearheading a new wave of experimental producers hell bent on breaking new ground. Presenting an overtly deconstructed aesthetic full of mind bending sound design and a unique way of crafting vocals and MPC-styled melodies, this very explorable album takes in collaborations with Amon Tobin and Flying Lotus alongside fellow upstarts SABROI, Tutara Peak and Shrimpnose. Fantasmic listening.
Review: A fully rounded decade ago Brainfeeder released what's gone down over time as one of the label's best long players from a most trusted artist, Teebs. Ardour presented Teebs with a debut on Brainfeeder with its longevity now being celebrated with a re-release that features six previously unreleased bonus tracks! Full of warm and luscious post-jazz, instrumental hip hop productions, its rhythms are cut out by high noise floors, simulated rain and hazy atmospheres that jingle and swing in tracks like "Felt Tip" and "Arthur's Birds" to whimsically tripping through the dream scenes of LA in "Everyone Alive Wants Answers" and "King Bathtub". With woozy numbers like "Why Like This?" and "SPCD" adding to its nostalgic fanfare alongside others like the percussive numbers like "Autumn Antique" and "While You Doooo" this album is ready to be discovered by a new generation of tea leaf dancers.
Review: Familiar to labels like Smalltown Supersound and Ninja Tune, legendary Norwegian eight-piece Jaga Jazzist arrive on Brainfeeder with a deep dive into post-rock, jazz and psychedelic themes and synth wave influences. Presenting their first studio album since 2015's Starfire, Pyramid is the result of a reclusive two week recording session deep in the Swedish woodlands, resulting in the group's first ever self-produced record. With the 14-minute-long and classically jazz "Tomita" the crowning track on Pyramid, find some pumping night drives in "Apex" to the retro-active yet futuristic jazz-electro-funk of "The Shrine" or the spacey, new age synth and cosmic jazz in "Spiral Era".
Review: All time Brainfeeder great and LA beat scene legend Thundercat surfaces once again in dramatic fashion for Flying Lotus' flag bearing US imprint. It's stoic title, It Is What It Is, hints at how many of us might be feeling right now - isolated but managing - with Thundercat's album said to be something of a sombre record that treads a darker path, as described in a New York Times interview. Presenting his fifth studio album and first since 2017's Drunk, Thundercat delivers 15 tracks (and skits) all clocking in at around three minutes with a huge cast of feature collaborators including Ty Dolla Sign, Lil B and Childish Gambino to Kamasi Washington and comedian Zack Frost with the sensual "Overseas". Our highlights include the royal grooves and slap bass of "Black Qualls", the floating rhode solos in "King Of The Hill" and frenetic funk of "How Sway".
Review: Two years on from the release of their fine - if slightly overlooked - debut album on Comedy Dynamics, Reggie Watts and John Tejada once again join forces as Wajatta, this time on Fly-Lo's Brainfeeder imprint. Predictably they've once again hit the spot, confidently combining deep house musicality, the far-sighted synthesizer motifs of sci-fi techno, African style percussion, dewy-eyed and often soulful vocals, and occasional forays into drowsy downtempo beats and fizzing electro rhythms. The results are naturally impressive, offering an imaginative and colourful sound palette befitting of both men's talents. Highlights include the sparse electronic soul of "Depth Has a Focus", the body-popping beats and low-end weight of "Little Man" and the futuristic soulful house brilliance of "Tonight".
Review: Bringing a new dialogue to the Los Angeles beat scene is Little Snake, a digital augmenter of future bass making and cut up sounds, telling stories of simulation and deconstruction through fascinating arrays of fragmented sound that feels as though it's being pulled apart by the forces of an unknown cosmos. Like a little snake the artist's sounds dives deep down the rabbit hole; tracks like "III. 4.62287ARMED" make you feel as though you're caught in the alternative universe of a ballerina's box, next to the ever changing time signatures and spatial arrangements of "II. ETH2.22". Find rhythmic, classical and alien ambience in "I. OYU3.33REA" and high-pitched, high-grade sound design in "IV. REACTOR0.93713". Cutting edge future music from where the fuck?
Review: 1990s sitcom loving beat maker Felix Weatherall returns to Brainfeeder for the first time since the release of his widely acclaimed debut album as Ross From Friends, 2018's "Family Portrait". Predictably he's in fine form from the off, with title track "Epiphany" offering a wonderfully intoxicated, off-kilter blend of bustling drum machine breakbeats, hallucinatory electronics, Middle Eastern style instrumentation and razor-sharp bass. He continues on an inventive fusion tip of "Revolution", where cut-up vocal samples and bluesy guitar lines rise and fall above a densely percussive deep house groove. Also impressive is "Phantom Ratio", a slightly more driving dancefloor cut rich in skittish drums and undulating electronic melodies.
Review: Mitchel Van Dinther, AKA Den Bosch-based Dutch producer Jameszoo, teams up with the Netherlands' Grammy-winning jazz orchestra Metropole Orkest and conductor James Buckley for this long player on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label, and the results will please those who like their sounds on the leftfield/experimental side. Ambience morphs into easy listening on opener '(flakes)', '(lose)' has a cartoonish feel, '(soup)' brings the moody, smoky jazz club vibes, '(flu)' injects a little James Bond glamour, '(meat)' starts as a sparse modern jazz workout before building to a euphoric, almost gospel-ish climax, and on it rolls for four more out-there jams that flit back and forth between Frank Zappa and 1970s Radio 2 with ease!
Review: Brainfeeder as a project have been known to bring together the weird and wonderful, more often than not supplying the world with stunning original music. This latest compilation from them celebrates 10 years of the label, putting Flying Lotus's visions into reality. We explore previously undiscovered realms of futuristic hip hop production, with immediate stand outs being the the unpredictable neurotic drum crunches of 'Delusions' from Little Snake, along with the pulsating drum work and 4x4 flavours of 'Squaz' courtesy of Ross From Friends. Another shout out has to go to FlyLo himself as he teams up with Busdriver for a super skat heavy run out on 'Ain't No Coming Back'. This one is a fantastic listen from start to finish.
Review: Some three months on from the release of his acclaimed - and highly personal - debut album "Family Portrait", Felix Weatherall AKA Ross From Friends serves up his first new material since. "Squaz" is fairly typical of Weatherall's output - think dreamy chords, rubbery, all-action machine drums, squally and squealing vocal samples and faintly foreboding riffs - but that's no bad thing. Much of the track's power derives from the sitcom-loving producer's ability to subtly ratchet up the percussive tension throughout, with an extended, ear-pleasing breakdown half way through only serving to enhance these feelings of restraint followed by joyous, life-affirming release.
Review: Brandon Coleman clearly revels in the background. Being a talented songwriter and arranger, along with killing it on the keyboard and organ, he has been at the back-end of groups like The Next Step and The Western Transient, pushing the boundaries of funk and broken beat to their very limits. He's back with his second solo LP this time, coming through on Flying Lotus' mighty Brainfeeder, and everything about this release feels utterly on-point - yessah! Taking a couple of notes and steers from the Daft Punk dynasty, along with the USA's lust for funk, Coleman's vocoder voice runs like silk across many of these playful and innovative boogie tunes, hitting us with some Cali vibes - and sunrays - from the moment "live For Today" melts into the waves of "All Around The World" and, eventually, into the longing, utterly seductive flow of "Sexy" and "Thereas No Turning Back". What is most impressive is Coleman's single-minded vision, coming through with an album that has one single sound and vision running through it. Excellent stuff.
Review: Electornic r&b sensation Louis Cole must be pretty chuffed with himself. The young producer has only really put out a string of self-released EPs, all of them excellent, but it must be a surprise and delight to be called up on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder stable. It is clear that this relationship will be a winning one, however, as Time is a sensational album that encompasses all of what the enlarged 'bass' sound has to offer. There is a bit of everything in here, from the slow and melancholic vocal waves of "Everytime" to the much more pop-friendly, electro-filtered approach "Tunnels In The Air" - featuring the terrific Thundercat - and then onto plenty of house voyages and experiments, much like on the sublime "Freaky Times". A sure hit!
Review: Lo-fi house hero Ross From Friends presents his debut album for Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder imprint - this follows up the terrific Aphelion EP he presented on the label earlier this year. Like the title suggests, Family Portrait refers to a very specific personal aspect of Felix Weatherall's life: the influence of his parents. Dance music was always around during his childhood, where he grew up learning about music from his dad - who apparently had a penchant for banging out hi-NRG tracks on the decks. It's a riveting listen from start to finish: from the the intensely vivid groove of "Pale Blue Dot" to the moody "Project Cybersyn" with its tunnelling aesthetic - perfectly geared for those heads-down moments later in the night.
Review: Is it justified to say that pretty much every release on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder is a total winner? We like to think so. Lapalux aka Stuart Howard returns to the mighty imprint with this new extended EP, a five-track voyage into the unknown, aptly names The End Of Industry. Where does it go from here? Are we destined to be slaves of AI into the distant future? These are the sorts of questions and visions that emanate from this striking piece of work. Vast landscapes of electronics paint a desolate yet rich picture of the future, and we're wondering why Lapalux wasn't called up to orchestrate some of the soundtrack from the Blade Runner 2049. Highly recommended.
Review: Is it justified to say that pretty much every release on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder is a total winner? We like to think so. Lapalux aka Stuart Howard returns to the mighty imprint with this new extended EP, a five-track voyage into the unknown, aptly names The End Of Industry. Where does it go from here? Are we destined to be slaves of AI into the distant future? These are the sorts of questions and visions that emanate from this striking piece of work. Vast landscapes of electronics paint a desolate yet rich picture of the future, and we're wondering why Lapalux wasn't called up to orchestrate some of the soundtrack from the Blade Runner 2049. Highly recommended.
Review: Since his debut for Brainfeeder back in 2015, Iglooghost has opted for quality over quantity, which is an effective strategy to pursue given the competitive scene in which he operates. Having said that, a tune like "Bug Thief" comes out as the winner next to most pieces of music that you place it next to; a slight hint of AFX nuttiness encircles the air, but this is very much the producer's own creation from start to finish. High-tech, glitchy drum infusions burst to life amid frenetic medleys of aqueous sonics, and the result is something that sounds like it could be from either the US or the UK - the trick is simply to think of it as future music.
Review: Dutch producer Mitchel van Dinther aka Jameszoo presents his new Flake EP; the follow-up to his debut album released via Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder. Brand new single "Rolrolrol" (feat. keyboardist Niels Broos) is some of the most organic 'future beat' you'll ever hear. Again it is an enjoyable blend of jazz and off kilter electronics. Van Dinther was rewarded for his adventurous attitude in the studio by Gilles Peterson who bestowed upon him the "John Peel Play More Jazz" Award at the Worldwide Awards 2017.
Review: Lapalux is Stuart Howard. Throughout his new LP, the British producer takes his sound exploration further. It's a journey into an ominous space between life and death. In this 'liminal space where the finite and infinite intermingle', Howard has really found his comfort zone, sound wise. Much of its inspiration was born out of a theatrical score he wrote for a performance art piece that was performed in an East London cemetery: a project 'wrought with doom and melancholia.' The album is said to have been created using only hardware and real instruments. There's the deep and ethereal future beat of "4EVA" featuring Talvi's angelic vocals and even a bit of lush deep house in the form of "Flickering" featuring another gorgeous vocal performance; this time courtesy of one JFDR. "Rotted Arp" sounds exactly like its namesake on this wonky ambient excursion, featuring a contemplative spoken word performance by the Bromance affiliated songstress from Los Angeles: Louisahhh!
Review: Flying Lotus collaborator Thundercat returns to Brainfeeder with his first full album since 2013's superb Apocalypse. Drunk is a thrill-a-minute, mix-tape style trip through the multi-instrumentalist and beat-maker's various inspirations (think skewed hip-hop, jazz, soul, funk, left-of-centre electronica, and so on), all of which have been fused and mutated to fit his unique musical perspective. His high standing within the leffield hip-hop community has allowed Thundercat to snag some impressive guest stars, too, including Kendrick Lamarr, blue-eyed soul legend Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Pharell and jazz man Kamasi Washington. Old pal "Fly-Lo" also lends a hand.
Review: Mitchel Van Dither has been synonymous with the Kindred Spirits label up until now, an imprint that we have just so much time and respect for. He has, however, been branching out as of late, and his adventures have landed him a spot on Flying Lotus' mighty Brainfeeder. Two EP's containing tunes from Fool have already been released on the label, but the album format expresses their depth much more clearly, and with more freedom. Objectively, Fool is Brainfeeder through and through, a little work of art to fit in perfectly with the rest of this ever-surprising and always on-point catalogue. Recommended.
Review: Ninja Tune are chuffed to bits, having secured a kind of talent jackpot for this, their latest release. Daedelus is a celebrated Californian electronic muso Alfred Darlington who here teams up with jazzy heroes Kneebody (featuring his old high-school pal and saxophone virtuoso Ben Wendell). The resulting long player, Kneedelus, is remarkable fusion of their two worlds: the authentic and the artificial, in other words a 'multi-headed beast straddling rock, jazz, and electronic music'.
Review: The fledgling DJ Paypal joins the likes of Lapalux, Martyn and Mr Oizo on the mighty Brainfeeder, and he does so with his inimitable blend of footwork-driven electronica, and mind-bending pseudo house. This extended EP features nine solid dance bruisers, starting with the jazzy drum rolls of "Ahhhhhhh" that fuse neatly into the likes of "Awakening", a gorgeous piece of nu jazz complete with the sexiest trumpets we've heard in a while, and "Sold Out" itself, a delightfully bumpy ride along a rollercoaster of percussion and starry melodies. This is jazz for the next millennium.
Review: Fresh from his Activia Benz release and collabs with Yoteghost Milk Empire and The Astral Plane, young UK experimenter Iglooghost makes his Brainfeeder debut. Sitting somewhere between classic breakcore, LA beats, juke and Binga-style 160-ism - and all wrapped up in a pixelated, technicolour 8-bit cartoon glow - it's unlike anything else on the sonic atlas right now. Highlights include the densely textured vocal loops on "Peach Rift", the cosmic trappisms of "Mamtchi/Usohachi" and the straight up 170 slappage of "Xiangjiao". Happy nu yr!
Review: Brainfeed, the LA label run by Flying Lotus, does what it wants and right now and it wants to put out a mammoth 17-track, three-volume album of jazz music yet to be heard on earth. Featuring a 32-piece orchestra, a 20-person choir and ten other instrumentalists from South Central called The Next Step, The Epic by Kamasi Washington is a remarkable journey of the outer reaches of the jazz galaxy. A future classic has landed.
Review: Lapalux made something of a splash with his 2011 debut full length, Nostalchic, so hopes are naturally high for this follow-up on Flying Lotus's acclaimed Brainfeeder label. Apparently inspired by the experience of hypnogogia - the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep - Lustmore is a decidedly picturesque set, if one that's naturally drowsy. Full of wonky, off-kilter rhythms, woozy electronics, eyes-closed melodies, tipsy saxophones and evocative vocals (most notably from Andreya Triana), the album sits somewhere between lucid electronica, slack-toned wonk-hop and dreamy ambient moods, a fitting sound given its' subject matter.
Review: A new Mr Oizo album is always something to celebrate, and like Flying Lotus, the quirky French producer's music, as strenuous as it can be, never gets tiring. Quentin Dupieux proves again he hasn't lost it, amalgamating old school Ed Banger beats and snares with frenetic footwork, gnarly arpeggios and breezy chords. If you loved Analog Worms Attack and Moustache (Half A Scissor), and the Steak album, there's no doubting you'll warm to this too, especially when it comes to tracks like "Mass Doom" and "Ham". If Lambs Anger was more your thing, get ready to embrace tracks like "ISoap" and for something grittier check out "The Church".
The Victory Of The Echo Over The Voice - (2:15) 115 BPM
Sevastopol - (2:11) 112 BPM
Tsars And Hussars (feat Amir Yaghmai) - (5:00) 69 BPM
Battery Smoke - (2:16) 56 BPM
Belonging (feat Amir Yaghmai) - (3:33) 68 BPM
Pre-munitions - (2:24) 86 BPM
Shot And Shell - (1:52) 80 BPM
Country Of Conquest - (2:09) 77 BPM
Review: Alfred Weisburg-Roberts has always been impressively productive. Even so, few producers would be driven or creative enough to release 12 albums in as many years. The Light Brigade is his 13th, and offers a distinctly dreamy, sparse and evocative blend of drifting textures, eyes-wide-shut vocals, folksy acoustic guitars and complimentary electronics. According to Weisburg-Roberts, the album was inspired by the grim and bloody Crimean War, which certainly explains the album's melancholic tone. Certainly, it offers food for thought, with bittersweet, layered instrumentals - mostly of a beatless variety - flanking a trickle of thought-provoking, reverb-laden songs. Crucially, it's a stunning set that offers an immersive, heart-aching vision of the horrors of war.
Birds In Flight (feat The Light Of Love Children's Choir) - (3:56) 65 BPM
Review: Having been a fixture in the LA beat scene for a long time, the past few years and an association with Brainfeeder have seen Matthewdavid hit a strong flurry of productivity of late, and this long player simply adds to the tumble of fractured soul, lopsided hip hop and swooning balladry. There's a cheeky cover of Mary Jane Girls' "All Night Long" woven into the slow jam funk of "Perpetual Moon Moods" while elsewhere "Next To You Always" finds Matthewdavid dropping a limber but tongue-in-cheek lyrical flow. With a dizzying array of ideas and moods bouncing the listener around his labyrinthe musical mind, the leftfield LA crooner has once again flouted convention while sugaring the pill to perfection.
Review: Los Angeles-based Ras G, a contemporary of Flying Lotus, has long sounded like a refugee from another planet; a kind of electronic devotee of Sun Ra with his head firmly in the cosmos. Despite being called Back on the Planet, this latest full-length excursion is every bit as out-there and intergalactic as previous releases. For the most part, it sounds like it was beamed down from the far reaches of the universe, offering an unusual blend of alien electronics, acid-fried jazz, other-wordly ambience, twisted African rhythms and hip-hop beats from another dimension. It's inventive, unusual and constantly entertaining. Ras G is a genuine one-off, and Back on the Planet proves that conclusively.
Review: Lapalux and Brainfeeder have something of a relationship and each single release for the label has been better than the last, but we finally have the man's first full-length work and boy does he come correct! As per usual, it's pretty arduous to categorise Lapalux's music and we're presented with an incredibly diverse collection of rhythms and sonic concoctions, such as the twisted, half-stepping cacophony of "Kelly Brook", or the incessant beat-shuffle of "Flower" and the neo-hip-hop vibes of "Swallowing Smoke". Kerry Leatham features on the chimerical sub-tones of "Without You" while there's another special appearance by Astrid Williamson on "Dance", a certified UK-filtered vocal chant, brimming with futurism and enough soul to have you humming along to its hypnotising lullabies for hours on end. Lapalux going in for the kill...
Review: Yup, that's right - new Brainfeeder LP for all you electronic nerds to dig your teeth into! This time we have a new artist on the block, Miguel Baptista Benedict, a low-key musician who impressed the label so much with his debut 12" Astrocongertion Oporium that he was given the immediate go-ahead for a full-length work on one of North America's biggest electronic labels. It's kind of hard to capture the depth and diversity of this work, but there are certainly some stand-out, blow-your-mind moments in here, such as the opener "Phemy", a piano-led excursion which is just a delight to listen to. "Purge" is also fantastic, where harsh drum patterns meet slow, deranged guitar delays and harmonics, while "Anxious/Upset" pretty much sums up what the whole noise-rock scene is all about: loony instrumental feedbacks and sparse drum rolls, but it's all about "Blink 192" on here, with its unpredictable post-punk drum shuffles and jittery sci-fi melodies fusing into one beautiful mass of sound. It's now wonder Brainfeeder have picked this dude up - it's downright sublime.
Review: That one of this year's best techno albums has been made by a Dutch dubstep artist and is issued on a label owned by an LA hip-hop figure says a lot about the increasingly blurred boundaries within which it operates. Ironically, the backbone for Ghost People is the purist-influenced Berghain sound that has dominated techno production in recent years. In fairness to Martyn, he makes no secret of this, even going as far to equating his European DJ dates to sonic fact-finding missions that informed the album's direction. However, it would be a mistake to assume that Ghost People is merely a replica of unflinching Berlin techno. Instead, Martyn uses it as a backdrop to tease out a range of directions. The title track contains references to the heady rush of rave, while "Twice As" revisits the Dutch producer's love of Detroit techno as sonic blips and spine-tingling melodies are married to more garage-style shuffling beats - perhaps the track's title is a nod to the London 2-step institution. On "Popgun", the producer briefly revisits lurching dubstep territories and there's even a tribute of sorts to Vangelis on the glistening synths of "Bauplan". That Ghost People covers so much ground while remaining close to the filtered rumble of tracks like "Horror Vacui" is an impressive testament to Martyn's supernatural production powers.
Review: Essex might seem an unlikely base for someone creating decidedly wonky, off-kilter electronic music, but then Lapalux doesn't conform to lazy stereoptypes. Having previously impressed with a suitably strange but surprisingly melodic EP of abstract grooves on Picture Music, young producer Stewart Howard now finds himself dropping a debut album on Brainfeeder. Those who enjoyed his previous work will love When You're Gone. It solidifies his growing reputation as a bolder, edgier version of James Blake, offering a mix of twisted, next-level future R&B ("Yellow '90s"), touching downbeat soundscapes ("102 Hours Of Introductions"), delay-laden electronica ("Construction Deconstruction") and bright-eyed, abstract wonkiness ("Gutter Glitter").
Review: Stuart Howard aka Lapalux is here once again for his second EP for our beloved Brainfeeder imprint...and my word, this guy is a machine! With him, we have the lovely vocals of Kerry Leatham, who immediately makes herself heard on the radio edit of "Without You", a decomposing bundle of semi-beats and dwindling pads whose purpose in life is solely to make your evening's that little bit more deep and sexy. There is also an original version for all your instrumental needs, but it's the alternate version of "Swallowing Smoke" which really does the business here - harsh-stepping hip-hop beats over that trademark Brainfeeder excursionism we all adore so much. The previously released "Guuurl" also finds some space on this majestic and soul-warming EP from a very exciting young producer.
Review: In case Gaslamp Killer's album wasn't quite enough excitement for one season, along comes this crazy conceptual work by My Dry Wet Mess. He describes the album as being written in the same way a writer would create a story, but with sounds. Created in four different houses between Barcelona and Berlin, it's an intriguing concept. And you'll be pleased to hear it works. At points wonderfully embracing (the spliced and diced harmonies and tempo flex on "When We Were Wrong"), at others headscratchingly madcap (the mangled garage vibes of "A Wrong Number") like all the best albums, this will take a long time to settle in your collection, offering something new on every listen.
Review: Making his second appearance on Brainfeeder, Essex-based Stuart Howard serves up another EP of pastoral romanticisms steeped in melody and organic textures. It's the kind of heartfelt, shoe-gazing electronica that comes on with less swagger than many of Howard's label mates, but is no less rich in detail and creativity. "Forgetting & Learning Again" has a strong scent of Mount Kimbie in the sweetly weird synth daubs and loping beats, but bolstered by a greater sense of drama in bombastic chorus drops and thoroughly British vocals from Kerry Leatham. There is tougher beat material to be found, as on the feisty throwdown "Strangling You With The Cord", but it's clear Howard's talents lie in a more gentle place.
Review: After the rip-roaring success of Ghost People, Martyn continues his relationship with Brainfeeder by issuing forth a new track. "Hello Darkness" is burdened with a whopping great synth line and a ruff rhythmic undercurrent, making it both emotional and primal in the same beat. When the heavy drama of the lead synth falls away the track really comes into its own, letting the bassline dread seep out in all its glory. L-Vis 1990 and Bok Bok opt for a stark, strange take on "Bauplan" in the remix department, while Redshape bolts some uncharacteristic clattering breaks onto his version of "We Are You In The Future". Awesome.
Review: Lapalux and Brainfeeder have something of a relationship and each single release for the label has been better than the last, but we finally have the man's first full-length work and boy does he come correct! As per usual, it's pretty arduous to categorise Lapalux's music and we're presented with an incredibly diverse collection of rhythms and sonic concoctions, such as the twisted, half-stepping cacophony of "Kelly Brook", or the incessant beat-shuffle of "Flower" and the neo-hip-hop vibes of "Swallowing Smoke". Kerry Leatham features on the chimerical sub-tones of "Without You" while there's another special appearance by Astrid Williamson on "Dance", a certified UK-filtered vocal chant, brimming with futurism and enough soul to have you humming along to its hypnotising lullabies for hours on end. Lapalux going in for the kill...
Review: There's a pronounced split between the live incarnation of The Gaslamp Killer and his musical output, where most club kids have him down as some kind of chainsaw dubstep fanatic. However on record he morphs into a wondrous haze of 60s and 70s psych anchored to heavyweight funk. As his EPs promised, his debut album goes headfirst into a searing Molotov cocktail of psychedelic tendencies and exotic samples, from Indian strings to West coast guitars via groovy organs and hard-breaking drums. It's overloaded and messy in many places, red-lining and wild eyed, but anything less would be a disappointment right?
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