Yppah - Eighty One
(CD/LP/Digital) Ninja Tune ZENDNL179, 2012-04-02

Former Texan producer Joe Corrales Jr. aka Yppah, who's now based in California, does not produce the typical groovy or hip hop record you might expect to find on Paris DJs. He's more of an electronic/rock act, influenced by shoegaze, various electronic music, psychedelic soul, and rock music, as evidenced by heavy use of reverb, effects, and dreamy, introspective electronics. Rawfully emotional and visceral, this album will slowly grow on you, blending post-rock landscapes with mellow noise and spacey, ambient soulfulness.

Boddhi Satva - Invocation
(CD/Digital) Barely Breaking Even BBE201, 2012-03-20

Louie Vega protégé Boddhi Satva will be releasing this month an amazing soulful house album, Invocation, worldwide through BBE Music. The man was born in Central African Republic, which might kinda explain his unique 'ancestral soul' sound, a blend of deep house music with African drums, spiritual vocals, koras and other various world music instruments. Produced during trips to Africa, especially Mali where the inspiration for his musical manifestation was at a peek, this is one of the best things to come out of the huge South Africa house music scene. From deep house to edgy ragga via heavy tribal workouts, Afro-jams and smooth nu-soul grooves, this one's a must have - sadly, no vinyl LP is scheduled.
played in 'Paris DJs Soundsystem - Bag of Goodies Vol.5' mix

Hint - Crash & Burn / Daily Intake
(10"/CD) Tru Thoughts Recordings TRU245/TRUCD246, 2012-02-27 (10") / 2012-03-19 (CD)

Hint is back with a new single and a new album and that's reason enough for us to celebrate! His second album, also released on Tru Thoughts Recordings, Driven From Distraction, was killer soulful electronic madness, sounding like nothing else on the map, a really astonishing record that easily made it to our 2008 Top 10. After many singles, tracks here and there and remixes, Hint has just released a new 10 inch, Crash and Burn feat. Natalie Storm b/w Aliens Enter feat. T-Fly... The A-side is a monster dancehall/bass mashup, while on the flip you'll find an addictive piece of abstract and exotic hip hop. Both tracks are to be found in the album to be released march 19th, Daily Intake, which we're supposed to come back to next month, but it's so brilliant we couldn't pass on talking about it many weeks before it's available. Expect hip hop, UK house and bass, dancehall and breakbeat to collide on dancefloors worldwide because this is HEAVY, on the opposite end of the cheesy/cheaply sounding stuff to be found in 99% of dance music out there. Prized tracks include the mesmerizing bounce of Lock The Door featuring Zed Bias, hip hop/bass headphone marvel Peter & I Featuring T Fly and the closing track and aptly titled Mad Nervous.

Raffertie - Mass Appeal
(12"/Promo CD/Digital Single) Ninja Tune ZEN12306, 2012-02-03

Contextually, the Mass Appeal EP fits neatly as a natural successor to Raffertie's most recent release, the critically-acclaimed Visual Acuity EP. This time it's more about the subtlety of groove and patchworks of sonic colour, rather than out-and-out dancefloor madness. The dexterity of its musical content, like that of VA, reveals itself in the elastic manipulation of its rhythms and timbres. From the burrowing focal clarity of the epic One Track Mind to the unnatural spinning, air-like quality of Brevity, this EP has a life completely of its own. Closing track Courage Boy is littered with traces of Raffertie's own voice, but rather than giving sole focus and attention to the voice as a lead line, he focuses on the texture of the sound, like any other instrument woven and balanced within the music.

DJ Food - The Search Engine
(CD/Digital) Ninja Tune ZENCD176/ZENDNL176, 2012-01-23

Eleven years after the last DJ Food album release (Kaleidoscope), Strictly Kev and various friends, associates and like-minded collaborators return with a new full-length. The Search Engine distills the best parts from three EP’s worth of material into a continuous 56 minute album of unbridled creativity and laser-sharp focus. Collaborations abound in the form of vocal appearances from Natural Self (aka Nathaniel Pearn), JG Thirlwell (Foetus, Steroid Maximus etc.) and The The's Matt Johnson. The latter reprises his vocal on a cover of his own track GIANT, nearly thirty years after its first release. Musical hook-ups include 2econd Class Citizen, who trades sample-attacks with Strictly for the suite of nine tracks that make up the 11 minute Magpie Music. Dr Rubberfunk lends his drumming skills to the opening track and old DJ Food partner PC and Solid Steel's DK add their own ingredients to the mix. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all to those who associate the DJ Food name with the early 90s Jazz Brakes records is just how heavy The Search Engine is. Styled as a kind of psychedelic rock album made with samplers, Strictly Kev has not been afraid the frug the fuck out, with thundering drum work and fuzz bass perhaps the central muscial signature of the work.

Jazzanova - Upside Down
(CD/Digital) Sonar Kollektiv SK232, 2012-01-23

From the left or the right side? Straight ahead or upside down? No matter how you look at it - but it seems to be about time that all the remixes for Jazzanova that have been done over the last few years need to be bundled up in a nice big shiny package. After the first collection of remixes from 2003 (Remixed, JCR040-2) now's the turn for Upside Down, some of dance music finest key figures' interpretations of selected Jazzanova tunes from the last eight years. And be assured, the line-up is as massive as the Berlin's quintet worldwide reputation. From fellow Berliner Henrik Schwarz, Ye:Solar and Âme to Atjazz and Mr. Scruff from the UK, Motor City Drum Ensemble from Cologne, Glasgow's Midnight Mauraders and Soldiers Of House from Pretoria (South Africa) this is a top notch international heavy weight affair. Sonar Kollektiv will kick off with two 12 inches including new remixes by amazing artists, such as Alex Barck, Dima Studitsky, Manuel Tur & Dplay and Motor City Drum Ensemble (in stores on 28th of november, CD is coming end of January 2012).

Julien Dyne - Glimpse
(CD/Digital) Barely Breaking Even BBE194, 2012-01-16

Following on from the success of 2009's Pins and Digits, Julien Dyne announces the release of his second full length album Glimpse. Stylistically a continuation of the futuristic elements hinted at on Pins and Digits, Glimpse offers studies in shimmering melodies, woozy beds of rich harmonic sounds that pulsate over thick percussive backdrops. Featuring the vocal talents of She's So Rad, Ladi 6, Parks, Mara TK (Electric Wire Hustle) and Claire Duncan (Dear Time's Waste) this record contains elements of soul and indie vocals against a backdrop of futuristic Hip Hop beats. Picked up by Japanese boutique label Wonderful Noise and UK heavy weights BBE 2009s Pins and Digits received worldwide exposure from BBC DJ's Gilles Peterson and Benji B reaching both DJ's 'top 100' lists for that year. Glimpse offers to raise the bar higher again, moving further into exploratory electronic forays and deeper into hazy beatscapes.

Plug - Back On Time
(CD/2xLP/2xLP + Ltd Ed 12"/Digital) Ninja Tune ZEN177, 2012-01-09

The new album & a lost classic from Plug, aka electronic icon Luke Vibert, Back On Time is a collection of unreleased eccentric d'n'b tracks recorded over 15 years ago. Released on Ninja Tune on 9th January 2012 (24th January in N.America), it follows the highly-acclaimed Plug album from 1996, Drum 'n' Bass for Papa which was originally released by Blue Planet Recordings. Sounding brand new as well as being an uncovered gem, Back On Time is a release that anybody interested in the progression of dance music should be very curious to hear and enjoy. We had published a

Deco Child - Pray
(Promo CD/Digital Single) Ninja Tune ZENDNLS304, 2012-01-09

Twenty two year old Alex Lloyd (aka Deco Child) was walking through Battersea one day, looking at the ground, when in front of him, scraped into the pavement with the edge of a coin, he saw the word, "PRAY". As well as inspiring the track of the same name, it stands as a fitting metaphor for what the electronic musician does - scratching away at the edifices of recorded music to express emotion, exhilaration, devotion. Deco Child makes beautiful, emotional electronic music. Pray itself is blessed with a swelling sense of euphoria, tinged with a kind of wonder that will remind you of heart-quickening revelations made behind a 2 a.m. cigarette. Nocturne takes a different direction, Lloyd layering Ben Dodson's pristine vocals over delicate romantic piano before flinging them out into space, dropping a deep, dub-tinged groove which loses none of the earlier section's emotional heft. The original tracks get a diverse set of treatments at the hands of the remixers... With a strong focus on melody that places his sound in the company of Four Tet and Floating Points, Deco Child has already remixed Dan Le Sac and counts These New Puritans amongst his fans. This, his first release for Ninja Tune, showcases the breadth and range of his musical referents and bodes well for his forthcoming debut album in 2012.

Zed Bias - Night Lovers feat. Sam Frank
(Digital Single) Tru Thoughts Recordings TRUDD039, 2011-12-12

A stunning slice of wonky vocoder funk, the edgy, woozy and downright irresistible Night Lovers featuring Sam Frank (out digitally on 12th December) is the second single from Zed Bias' highly acclaimed Biasonic Hotsauce - Birth Of The Nanocloud album on Tru Thoughts. One of the standout songs on an LP brimming with heavy-hitters, Night Lovers is as pristine and darkly alluring a cut as you'd expect from the combination of revered producer Zed Bias and wunderkind Sam Frank (whose Skream/Magnetic Man collaborations have seen him take over the airwaves of late). At once timeless and futuristic, a honed and classic pop song shines up through the layers of heavily plied effects, giving this instantly arresting ear-worm a real and lasting charm that will see it gracing playlists aplenty. The single release brings a killer selection of new remixes from Greenmoney, Scratcha (Hyperdub/Rinse/DVA), C.R.S.T. (Well Rounded/No Hats No Hoods) and Heavy Feet, twisting the song for new dancefloors; plus the original and Dub mixes of uptempo album track Yagga feat. Serocee (Basement Jaxx/MJ Cole) as a B-side.