Articles
2008 Ten Favourite Labels
Ten Questions Celer
Ten Questions Deadbeat

Albums
Anzio Green
Ariel Abshire
Osman Arabi
Arastoo & AEMAE
Asymmetrical Head
Benoît Pioulard
Bohren & der Club of Gore
Matt Borghi
Celer
Cubenx
Anders Dahl
Davis & Roux
Deadbeat
Feu Follet
Formication
Generic
Stefan Goldmann
Gultskra Artikler / Lanterns
Hauschka
Hexes & Ohs
Koen Holtkamp
I Am Robot And Proud
Illusion of Safety
Integral
Koen Park
Akira Kosemura
Koushik
Library Tapes
Lineland
Mamiffer
Melodium
Moon
Oppressed By The Line
Pillars and Tongues
Rumpistol
Kamran Sadeghi
Sans Serif
Signal Deluxe
Skogen
Saul Stokes
Matthew Sweet
Tapage
Thursday / Envy
Windy & Carl

Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail II
Chaos Restored 2
DFPRMX
Kuniyuki
Message Subatomic World
Pero es olor en el cuarto...

EPs
Canyons!
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Cubenx
Dokuro
Fraction
Lee Holman
Ikonika
King Midas Sound
Michael Lambright
Library Tapes
Lilienweiss
MRK1
:papercutz
Spencer Parker
Poratz
Spartak + John Chantler
Andy Vaz

King Midas Sound: Cool Out / One Ting (Dabrye rmx) / Lost (Flying Lotus rmx)
Hyperdub

Ikonika: Millie / Direct
Hyperdub

If the name King Midas Sound is unfamiliar, certainly the name Kevin Martin (aka The Bug) isn't. He and group partner Roger Robinson give us a foretaste of the duo's upcoming King Midas album by pairing “Cool Out” (which first surfaced on Kode9's 2007 Sonar mix) with B-side remixes of two album cuts by top-tier producers Dabrye and Flying Lotus. Those who loved The Bug's London Zoo should grab this single immediately. With Robinson's reverb-drenched voice emerging out of a cloud of static noise, “Cool Out” casts a narcotic spell almost immediately, something the tune's immense bass line and crawling beat crunch only deepens. Though Dabrye opts for a “cleaner” production approach in his trippy head-nod handling of “One Ting,” shadowing Robinson's breathy vocal with a shrieking obbligato is one more example of Dabrye's genius. Apparently the words coursing through Flying Lotus' “Lost” remix constitute a suicidal Japanese monologue but it's the head-spinning beat rumble, bleepy synth accents, and atmospheric swirl that'll lure you in most. The three tracks add up to a mesmerizing ten minutes.

It may sound hard to believe but Ikonika's second Hyperdub release is just as strong as King Midas Sound's. An early starter, she began by playing drums in hardcore and metal bands at the age of eleven before creating hip-hop tracks under the Kill Kip guise and eventually lending her prodigious skills to Hyperdub. A neck-snapping beat pattern and crisp handclaps lead the charge in “Millie” though it's quickly joined by bleepy thrums and synth melodies that gloriously writhe and sputter. The ceaseless flow of invention and ideas is head-spinning to say the least and the material's so fresh it'll leave you dazed by track's end (it's named after her cat, by the way). On the flip, accordion-styled synth wheeze opens “Direct” in mellow mode before a thrum of synth blips somersaults into position alongside a throbbing bass kick, hi-hat swing, and punchy beat attack. Halfway through, the track moves into slinky future-fusion mode with a sleepy Moog line gliding over a silken pulse before the cascading blips return. Put simply, it's a totally amazing two-tracker by the Hyperdub “queen.”

November 2008