Demob Happy

Sampledelica 9/10 This is unequivocably one of the best albums from the dance/electronica left-field in the last five years and rival to DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing as the high-point in sample-based instrumental music. Remarkably lush and always greater than a sum of its parts, Dan Berridge developes an astonishing melting pot of sound: broken, jazzy drum [...]

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Space jam 7/10 The appeal of Add N to X is their straight-out retro synth jams that, for lack of a better word, rock. The down side is the Gary Glitter-meets-Fat Les tomfoolery of tracks like Mister Bobby and Adding N to X. ‘You must create’ sounds like an edgier, more sonic Air, while Kingdom [...]

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They Have a Map of the Piano 8/10 Mum specialise in the more organic end of electronica and, like fellow-Icelanders Sigur Ros and Bjork, seem to revel in fairy-tale abstraction and child-like imaginations. Don’t let the Bjork comparison put you off though (if you are not a fan, that is) for the use of faux-naïve [...]

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A cast of thousands? 8/10 Extraordinary album this. A vast cast of musicians and influences seemingly sculpted in the studio by careful, intelligent production. Not just for indie fans, this has a universal appeal with the added lure of subtle shades of electronica (Capture The Flag), jazzy post-rock (Pacific Theme), and borderline psychedelics (Shampoo Suicide). [...]

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Warm-hearted but simple 6/10 I have to say that I was disappointed by this album. Although it has a simple, wide-eyed vision to it, and is a welcome change from the glitchy end of electronica, I can’t help feeling that is sound is too optimistic, too light-hearted and lacking in edge for my tastes. I [...]

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Better than the movie itself 8/10 It was an average film made more memorable by an unusually discerning soundtrack containing some classics you may already own and some nuggets you may not. German avant-rockers Can make several appearances by donating two of their more upbeat classics (‘I want more’ and the brilliant ‘Spoon’) and some [...]

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Album of 2003? 9/10 Goldfrapp’s second album ups the ante with an electroclash-tinged masterpiece of sleazy disco-funk and soulful torch tunes. Alison & co bravely embellish upon the icy swoon of 1999′s Felt Mountain with a braver, more upbeat and essentially more challenging record. The opener, ‘Crystalline Green’, sets the tempo with raw, swirling synths [...]

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The Struggle Against Unreality Begins 7/10 I bought this album unfamiliar with Matmos, perhaps unwisely, as this is not music for the uninitiated. The more you listen to it though, the more strange and wonderful parts of it seem. Unusually for the glitchy end of electronica, the music is amazingly evocative and narrational, whole epics [...]

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Jazz Fug 7/10 In ‘Songs for my funeral’ Nostalgia 77 has produced a brooding, claustrophobic – if sometimes derivative – debut. To tick a few boxes, this echoes some of DJ Shadow’s sparser material, a more-reflective RJD2, ‘Meiso’-period DJ Krush, a less-lush Broadway Project, DJ Cam, Bonobo and latter-day Four Tet – to name a [...]

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