Al bums

To be perfectly honest I would've expected a far less puerile and immature title for this post on my favourite albums of the year, but it just goes to show what a dreadful state this country's in today. Absolutely disgusting - I make myself physically sick. Sometimes I just stand in my bathroom staring in to the mirror and thinking "You, sir, are a foul git". This blog is even the number one most common aid used by bulimics to induce large vomiting fits (recently over-taking listening to audiobooks of Piers Morgan reading Peaches Geldof's memoirs), such is the repulsive nature of the writing style and "humour" it contains. But until I learn to grow up and start thinking of genuinely amusing post titles, I'll just have to sit here and type out my list of the top ten albums of 2009, pausing after each entry to spew my guts out on to my computer through sheer revulsion at what I've just written. So, once I've finished scooping bits of regurgitated broccoli out from under my Caps Lock key that have found their way there as a result of re-reading this introduction, please feel free to carry on perusing through this blog and sneer/marvel/snarvel at my favourite long playing records of the year - just remember to keep a bucket to hand.




10. Dorian Concept - When Planets Explode


If truth be told, When Planets Explode isn't exactly an album that I could put on any time of day and think, "Wow, yeah, this is so the tenth best album I've heard in 2009". When I'm not in the mood it can even start to sound a bit like Jones' music in Nathan Barley, as my brain struggles to make sense of it all. But when I am in a suitably glitch-hoppy state of mind, I find that nothing hits the spot quite like a bit of Austrian quirky beat-making c/o Dorian Concept. If anyone reading this is temporarily suffering from enough of a sanity deficiency to actually take interest in my words and decides to track this album down, I'll take advantage of your weakened sense of judgement by chucking a drink-based metaphor at you - treat this record like a pint of Guinness. Don't grab it and down it as soon as it's been poured, that'll leave you with a foul taste in your mouth. Instead, give it time to settle, nurse it, sip it, and then at the end you'll have enjoyed it a lot more. No harm in buying a couple of packets of pork scratchings as well to offset the taste, y'know... just in case.


Dorian Concept - Color Sexist


Further listening: Hudson Mohawke - Butter


9. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport


Phew, glad we're back in to much more accessible music territory here.......NAHT. If you're sat or crouching at your computer thinking "who the fuck buttons are Fuck Buttons?", they're two men from London who take Super Hans' maxim in Peep Show that what is needed in music is a powerful sense of dread, then making the aforementioned powerful sense of dread seem otherworldly and actually quite uplifting in a dready kinda way, before bundling the whole lot in to an epic-o-meter and cranking the 'epic' up to 11. Acid dealers were probably creaming themselves when this one came out.


Fuck Buttons - Olympians


8. Dam-Funk - Toeachizown


Dam-Funk should actually be written with a little circumflex accent over the 'a', but I don't know how to do those on keyboards and whenever I try to copy stuff in to here the formatting gets messed up all over the shop, and I'm not adept enough at the finer side of this blogging bizniz to sort it out properly. But enough about my blog formatting woes - the Toeachizown LP is a collection of the 5 Toeachizown EPs that the L.A. electro-funkster released in the past year or so. If Prince and George Clinton had made a film in the 80's about their vision of how life would be if we all lived in space by now, this album would pretty much be the soundtrack. It's slick, it's sultry, it's soulful, it's funky - would it be completely lame and cringeworthy to finish that sentence with "- it's Dam-Funk"? It would, wouldn't it? Good. It's slick, it's sultry, it's soulful, it's funky - it's Dam-Funk.


Dam-Funk - Let's Take Off (Far Away)


7. Fever Ray - Fever Ray


Fever Ray's début album sounds very much how you'd expect an album by The Knife to sound if you took away the more dance-fuelled half of the group, and were left with the unique vocals of the other half. Which is exactly what this album is, as a matter of fact. The pulse on this record is slower than is often found on productions by The Knife, with Fever Ray's rhythms and beats tending to take a supporting rather than leading role in the songs, leaving it to Karin Dreijer Andersson's exquisite voice and lyrics to take prominence. The album is mournful in parts and hopeful in others, and beautiful all the way through.


Fever Ray - Keep The Streets Empty For Me


6. Few Nolder - New Folder


Directly beneath Fever Ray in both my iTunes and this list is Few Nolder, a Lithuanian techno producer who is probably one of the greatest people alive on the planet at the moment, a statement that may or may not be due to the fact that he somehow picked up on my inclusion of his track 'Chika' in my top 10 songs of 2009, which resulted in him posting this blog on his Facebook fan page, leading to an influx of visitors from Lithuania. So, ačiū labai, Few Nolder! New Folder is a refreshing techno record, an album that declines to comply with standard techno etiquette (techniquette?) and is instead clearly crafted in Few Nolder's own specific style. Often such a description would really mean "it's shit, there's a reason why people follow conventions", but this album is honestly really impressive, and of course contains the best musical moment of any song in 2009, the melody in 'Chika'. Long live the Lithuanians.

Few Nolder - No Mo (Chika can be found on previous blog posts)

Further listening: Rone - Spanish Breakfast

5. Moderat - Moderat

This album was a latecomer to my 2009 ears - it was released in April, but it wasn't until the staff of the wonderful Polish website that I fairly inexplicably write for (I'm just generally a big deal in Eastern Europe) started waxing lyrical about Moderat during discussion for our end-of-year round-up that I felt I needed to get myself moderatted. I'm sure that literally 0% of you had been worrying how successful the link up between eclectic electronic Berliners Modeselektor and experimental techno producer Apparat would turn out, but I can now assure you that it's been a very successful partnership indeed. Both Modeselektor and Apparat are mighty fine creators of music in their own right, and while there was obvious potential for their unison to flop, they doggedly stuck with the project (it actually started in 2002, so seven years is a mighty long time to wait for a début album - what happened to German efficiecy?) and this record is a really great fusion of techno, dubstep, glitch and idm. Apparently their live show was absolutely the greatest thing ever as well, so if it ever pops up near you then lock on dat shit, ja?

Moderat - Seamonkey

4. Nosaj Thing - Drift

Hailing from the same school of thought as Flying Lotus, Daedelus and the rest of the L.A. Low End Theory gang, comes Nosaj Thing. Following up the exquisite track Aquarium, his first LP 'Drift' is "glitch-hop" at it's absolute finest. I still don't quite like the term "glitch-hop", which is why I feel the need to humiliate it by putting it in inverted commas. The album is more ambient than the work of Mr Lotus and Daedelus, yet the record is still well stocked in the beats department. It has a floating, delicate and haunting feel throughout, making the album title highly appropriate - every track is captivating, the production skill is immense, Nosaj is a frickin' genius.

Nosaj Thing - Light 2

3. Clark - Totems Flare

Gentlemen, we're no longer in ambient country. Totems Flare is an absolutely nuts firecracker of an album, evoking the image of someone trying to re-wire a computer using a drum stick in the midst of an acid-apocalypse while being attacked by a wild beast. Or if it doesn't evoke that image for you, then you're blatantly proper weird, innit. Some of the tracks are so chaotic that I'm having to break my habit of re-listening to the albums while I write about them, because my brain is just getting too melted. This is all in a good way, of course. Clark has long been a mad professor in the music world, and it'll come as no surprise (or, to many of you, interest) that Warp Records is responsible for unleashing Totems Flare upon the world, carrying on their fine and long tradition of experiMENTAL releases. Totems Flare has a very powerful energy to it which can often sound very raw and primal, but the album is actually very expertly produced and there's an excellent balance between grit and melody throughout the record. To use a bit of a hackneyed phrase, Totems Flare is 'controlled chaos'.

Clark - Rainbow Voodoo

2. Martyn - Great Lengths

I've ranted a bit about certain types of dubstep before, but for the very few of you out there who haven't been steadfastly piecing together all my blog posts in to a form of religious manuscript, I'll quickly recap my qualms. When dubstep first hit, it was great. Wobble wobble wobble, whom whom whom, bass bass bass. All well and good. But this was a good few years ago now, and although classic tracks from the likes of Caspa and Rusko are still classics, there's been an infuriating lack of imagination from many producers ever since. Get a little sample of a song or film/TV show, chop it up, throw in some slow off-beat drum patterns and then crank the LFO up and make the bass as wobbly and slamming as possible. The result is a type of music that gets boring very quickly, and unsettling only slightly slower. "Dubstep remixes" are now simply a song played in it's normal manner, but with a ham-fisted punch of whomping bass underneath. Both Caspa and Rusko have been maintaining a distinct level of crapness for a long time now, yet for some reason they seem to be the benchmark for many budding bass-merchants. So to counter this sea of dubstep trash, it's probably about time I got round to actually talking about Martyn. For me, Martyn has been the most innovative producer of 2009. Taking dubstep as a loose basis, he's crafted an album that transcends any kind of previously existent genre, and although other producers had been starting to move in a similar direction at around the same time, Great Lengths is a masterful talisman of the emerging dubstep/techno/minimal sub-genre. It's clear that a lot of effort and soul has been put in to the making of the album, something which is so grossly lacking in the sadly probably more widely popular style of dubstep that I've been blathering on about in this section. If you want to listen to good dubstep, do yourself a favour and listen to Martyn, Untold, Pangaea, Guido - don't listen to Caspa and Rusko. OK? Good.


Martyn - These Words (feat. dBridge)


Further Listening: 2562 - Unbalance

1. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue

Whilst I was compiling this list, I was often scratching my head over which albums stood out above the rest I'd acquired last year, and in which order to arrange them. However, there was absolutely no ambivalence (groan) when it came to picking Bibio as number one. Sorry folks, but that had to be done really didn't it? Seriously though, Bibio's record was easily my favourite of 2009, and oddly enough it was actually his second album of the year - and even then it wasn't his last. Having released his third studio album, Vignetting The Compost, in February to a lukewarm reception (at this stage I hadn't even heard of the lad), Bibio decided to take his musical career in a new direction, and left Mush Records to hook up with Warp. I've only listened to bits of his first three albums after I heard Ambivalence Avenue, but I can tell you that they're all fairly uninteresting, not-particularly-bad-yet-not-particularly-good creations, and as it's transpired his move to Warp has probably been the best decision of Bibio's life. Strongly influenced by Boards of Canada, Bibio's typical style is electronic folk (folktronica, if you will), a sound which is at the core of Ambivalence Avenue but far from dominates it. Upon his move to Warp, Bibio opened himself up to a variety of new influences, and this is immediately and emphatically obvious as the olde English folky opening track 'Ambivalence Avenue' drops in to the glorious funk of 'Jealous of Roses', an audacious move that completely blows the album wide open. From then on there's wonky hip-hop on 'Fire Ant' and 'Sugarette', the blues-y 'Cry! Baby!", and elegant folk ballads in the form of 'Haikuesque (When She Laughs)' and 'The Palm of Your Wave'. And this isn't just experimentation for experimenting's sake - each track feels perfectly at home on the record, and despite the variety of genres influencing it the album flows remarkably well. I'm aware that Fuck Buttons and Clark are hardly going to be to many people's tastes, and the albums by Martyn and Few Nolder might not appeal to anyone not previously vaguely interested in dubstep or techno, but I truly believe that if you hunt down Ambivalence Avenue and give it a listen then you'll be a fan. There's still enough of Bibio's folk-pop leanings present to give the album a gorgeous quality that should be accessible to pretty much everyone, even the most hardened of Soulja Boy, Cascada or Meshuggah fans. Of all the albums in this list this has the most obvious 'real' instrument presence (namely Bibio's guitar), but combines this with various electronic elements to create a unique sound. A really brilliant album.

Bibio - Jealous of Roses

Further listening: Bibio - The Apple and The Tooth (a follow up to Ambivalence Avenue, containing remixes of tracks from AA as well as a few new songs)



So that's that - about 3 weeks after I first started writing this post, I've finally finished my run down of my top 10 favourite albums. I reckon we should celebrate with a bloody great classic track and a bloody great special edition of songs I'm currently loving, don't you?

Classic Track:

I don't really know much about Arthur Russell, other than he died young and I like the songs by him that I've got, so instead of trawling Wikipedia to make it seem like I do I'll just get on with it and cough up the track. This is a lovely down-tempo song with an enchanting backing of cello (I think) and bongos behind Arthur's beautiful vocals. Very blissful.

• Arthur Russell - This Is How We Walk On The Moon

Songs I'm Currently Loving: World Music Special

• Tinariwen - Lulla - political blues rock by a band from the Sahara Desert - ticks all my boxes, dunno about you.
• Amadou & Mariam - Sebeke - already legendary duo from Mali, who were easily the best support act on the day I went to Blur's reunion in Hyde Park (Florence & The Machine were pretty good, Vampire Weekend were dull as mud). This track is actually the last on the album and features a hidden song in it after a period of silence, meaning that the whole thing is about 11 minutes long, which I apologise for. It's a banger, though.
• Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros - Navidad Negra - old skool Colombian jazz here, perfect for a summer's day in the garden in a deckchair with a glass of cool home-made lemonade.
• Omar Souleyman - Shift Al Mani - if you haven't heard of Omar Souleyman already, you pretty much definitely need him in your life. Just when you thought the world of Syrian psychedelic folk couldn't get any better (come on, you were all thinking it), along comes Omar and gives the ever-popular genre a booster shot of greatness.
• N.O.H.A. - Balkan Hot-Step - otherwise known as the opening song on Rob Da Bank's (peace be upon him) excellent Fabric 24 mix, this is Balkan at it's most ecstatic, and I'm still dreaming of the day when this is dropped in a set while I'm present.
• Bangs - Take U To Da Movies - YOUR BOY BANGS! Bangs is a self-proclaimed "Superstar Hip Hop Artist!" (from his website), and is easily the jewel in the crown of the Sudanese rap world, and these days that's really saying something isn't it. Other highlights include My Special Girl, and all of Bangs' other YouTube videos.

Peace etc, yeah?

I Just Called To Say I Loath You

I've recently been inundated with literally hundreds of e-mails from The Hardcore and The Gentle fans imploring me to explain my reasoning behind each nefarious character included in the newly added 'The Unloved' list on the right-hand side of this blog. As befits the ingenuity and creative mindedness of the average THaTG reader, all of the e-mails have been wittily disguised as offers to watch Asian school girls get anally assaulted by horses live on webcam, or Nigerian business men imploring me to transfer money in to their bank accounts with the promise that my investment will quadruple within the space of two seconds. But I know who these "Nigerian business men" are. They're frauds. I know full well that they're really you lot, my enraptured fanbase, and that the request to transfer money in to bank accounts is really a thinly veiled plea for me to transfer some of my wise, wise words in to your yearning brains. Well, as has been recently pointed out in various media outlets, my generosity and good-will is comparable to that of Jesus Christ himself, and I like to think that I treat my disciples well. So, here you go guys: this is YOUR post.

1. Michael Bay

There's not a huge amount more that I can add in criticism of The Worst Film Director Ever To Have Lived (known to his mum as Michael Bay) that hasn't already been perfectly poeticized in Team America's lol-tastic "Pearl Harbour" song. Michael Bay is just a dick who thinks that the only way one of his piss-poor screenplays can be made in to a film is by hurling several hundred million dollars at it in the form of grossly over-indulgent CGI and special effects, while also having an uncanny knack of choosing exactly the worst actors possible for the roles. Pretty much all of his films can fall pretty comfortably under the label 'over-expensive pieces of shit': Armageddon, Pearl Harbour, The Island, Transformers (and probably Transformers 2, the original didn't have me scrambling for tickets to the follow-up). And Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2 aren't exactly gonna be jostling for place at the top of any 'Greatest Films Ever Made' lists. Oh, and Megan Fox doesn't like him, and at risk of infuriating my very anti-Fox girlfriend: that makes him a Grade A douchebag. FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY.

2. Bill O'Reilly

A selection of the entries under "Bill O'Reilly" on Urban Dictionary should cover this section nicely:

"Completely ignorant white male who thinks he knows everything. Almost comical diction when is he cutting liberal commentators off and sweet-talking the conservatives."

"Another word for crap, turd, shit etc...

I stepped in some Bill O'Reilly."

"Pompous news anchor with a staggering ego. Claims to be neutral, unbiased, and "looking out" for the everyday American, but commits more logical fallacies per broadcast than any other. Also spends more time plugging merchandise, books, and website memberships on air than any other. Has been caught in multiple lies, fabrications, and exaggerations, and is prone to patronizing his guests as well as all of his viewers (whether or not they realize it). A joke of a journalist rivaled only by Geraldo Rivera, the "debate" content of his show is really a series of cat fights resulting in mic-cutting and arrogance."

"2. To cram a large dildo up your ass while having phone sex.

"Honey can you repeat that? I wanna do a "bill o'reilly" for the full effect.""

3. David Pleat

Painfully dreadful football commentator

4. Bob Geldof

Putting a pretty napkin over a piece of shit doesn't stop it from being a piece of shit. All the charity campaigning in the world can't remove the fact that Bob Geldof is an unpleasant, self-righteous cocktug, who is crap at making music and naming children. To be fair though, he was responsible for probably the greatest gig the world has ever witnessed. No, not Live Aid. His 2006 show in Italy, where only 45 people turned up to see him play at a venue with a 12,000 person capacity, prompting Bob to throw a hissy fit and call off the concert. The fans were probably left gutted not to have the chance to see such Boomtown Rats minor hits as I Don't Like Mondays and, um.... err.....

5. Kanye West

Far, far too up himself, but even his extravagant claims of being the most intelligent rapper in the world and the voice of a generation hadn't fully turned me against him. No, this was reserved for until I actually saw him live in concert at Sheffield Arena, in which he descended in to a long rambling semi-rapped monologue of how ill-treated celebrities were by the press, as I helplessly stood by and watched my £35 spent on a ticket slosh away in to inane egotistical twaddle. Also, I have never to this day actually known who on earth Taylor Swift is, apart from a shocked looking figure in a silver dress forlornly clutching a statue of a spaceman while being told she's not as good as Beyonce, but I'm definitely on her side in the great MTV Awards fiasco. Up yours Kanye, you motherfucking gay fish.

6. Terry Taylor

See Random Album Review #4

Songs I'm Currently Loving:

I have a suspicion that Mediafire's (praise be upon it) recent makeover now means that you can download all these stingin' toons in one fell swoop by clicking on this link and then doing some stuff, I'm not entirely sure how to do it because I don't download my own songs. Anyway, from now on I'll endeavour to include the whole folder link as well as the individual links, as I appreciate that downloading songs individually wastes precious time that could be spent navigating the hell away from this blog to the safety of some incestuous raccoon porn.

• Dorian Concept - Trilingual Dance Sexperience - relatively new track from DorCon which leaves the mouth watering for a follow up to the majorly mega When Planets Explode.
• Hard House Banton - Zulu Form - I genuinely hate the term "UK Funky". It just seems like a pointless tag that's been made-up for a style of music that I swear has been around in various forms for ages and has never needed to be called something stupid like "UK Funky" before. Could it not at least be UK Funkstep or UK Funky Munky Dance or something? All it is at the moment is the name of a place followed by an adjective, much like "Tranmere Juicy", which you might not have heard of because I've just invented it. So you can be safe in the knowledge that if you don't see hipsters starting to go to Tranmere Juicy nights in the near future, then there isn't an ounce of justice in the world.
• Silkie & Harry Craze - Favela - speaking of which, here's a nice 'n' Funky track from two UK producers, just for all you Tranmere Juicy-heads out there.
• Rhythm On The Loose - Break of Dawn - this is some vintage house from the early 90's, and it's MINT mate, fookin' MINT. If you've ever been surprised to see a suitcase by the door then this song is basically telling your life story; you should probably consider legal action.
• Acid Girls - Lightworks (Harvard Bass Remix) - I honestly have no idea why, but this song always makes me think that if it were a person then it'd be the man in the white suit with the ridiculous strut from the Dreadlock Holiday video. I have literally no clue as to why my brain decides to bestow this personification upon me. It's a banger of an electro tune though, it's earned it's strut.
• 1000 Names - Pum - these ace glitch-hoppers may want us to believe that they have 1000 names, but the best song title they can come up with is "Pum"?? I don't know about you, but I don't buy their audacious claims, not one bit.
• Shitao - We - this is a beautiful abstract hip-hop track from the rather un-beautifully named French producer Shitao. For damage limitation sake I'm still trying to decide whether it's better to pronounce his name more like "Shit how?", or "Shit 'ouse". This is probably (well, hopefully) the only occasion in life when you'll find yourself lapping up We from a Shit 'ouse, so enjoy it.
• Maluca - El Tigeraso - this track is pretty damn ludicrous, but is all the better for it. Definitely enjoyable, but not the sort of track that you'd wanna be walked in on whilst wildly flailing your hands in the air to it sitting at your computer in your dressing gown, trust me. No, really: TRUST ME.

In addition to this fine array of tracks to greedily cram down your ear'oles, it'd be well worth your while to check out this latest mix by fast-rising DJ/producer Dan Boadan, as it's bloody good: October 09 Mix

Random album review #2

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

#19 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. #2 in Mojo's 100 Best Albums list. #3 in The Times All Time Top 100 Albums. Voted the 9th greatest album of all time in a combined poll by Channel 4, HMV, Classic FM and The Guardian. #6 in Q Magazine's 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Elvis Costello, Johnny Depp and Martin Scorsese all adore it (says Wikipedia).

SO WHY THE BLOOMIN' HECK DO I STILL NOT LIKE ASTRAL FUCKING WEEKS??

As any regular readers (hey, I can dream) will know, in my last post the newly introduced 'Random Album Generator'™ set me the task of reviewing Van Morrison's 1968 'classic', Astral Weeks, as part of the random album reviews series. While the opening to the series was a raging success and even drew more viewers than the opening episode of David Attenborough's latest nature programme, Life, when they went head to head on Monday evening (this blog peaked at 7.2 million viewers, compared to Life's 6.5m), I fear that things are headed rapidly downhill from here. Returning to the pretence for a second that I actually have readers, anyone who made it to the end of the previous post without resorting to the classic formula: shotgun + mouth = better than reading The Hardcore and The Gentle, will have seen that my prediction for how well I got along with a review of Astral Weeks could be judged by the amount of "songs I'm currently loving" that followed at the bottom of this post. In other words, the worse the review writing process went, the more filler would be inserted at the end. Scroll down. Look at the songs. Just look at them - there are loads. The very fact that I know there are loads betrays the fact that I wrote the "songs I'm currently loving" bit first, to put off having to write this sodding review. So, reluctantly, here I go...

In case you hadn't already realised, I don't like Astral Weeks. Or, more accurately, I can't see what the fuss that the likes of Mojo and Rolling Stone have been kicking up is about. For those of you who have read up to this point and are still wondering what the bejesus I'm on about, lemme break it down for you. Van Morrison is the rock and roll/folk singer-songwriter from Belfast that released Astral Weeks, his second solo album, back in 1968. If you know the name Van Morrison but are struggling to place him, his best known songs are probably Moondance and Brown Eyed Girl. Which, unfortunately for me, are not on Astral Weeks. What is on Astral Weeks, however, is a collection of - in m'opinion -fairly dull folk-y tunes. Upon first listening, the whole thing very much washed over me with the possible exception of Sweet Thing and The Way Young Lovers Do, which stood out as above average tracks. "Aha, never worry!", I thought. This has got "it's all about the LYRICS, maaan" written all over it. As a big fan of a clever or thoughtful lyric I was rubbing my hands with glee, waiting for Van the Man to sock it to me and send me to Emotionsville. Unfortunately the train to Emotionsville never arrived. I strained my ears in an effort to absorb each and every lyric, panning for the gold that must surely nestle just below the surface of Astral Weeks' stream of uninteresting melodies. To no avail. Panicking, I headed to the internet lyrics pages, desperate to understand why this album was held in such high esteem. Browsing through Lyricsfreak brought a shade more appreciation for the lyrics, but, well, when you're resorting to looking up the lyrics (plus a little additional search for song meanings) you know you haven't found an album that's gonna rest in your heart forever more.

In my eyes, it's just a bit boring. It's not dreadful by any means, but I can't think of any situation when I'd enjoy listening to Astral Weeks. I'm no hater of 60's-style folk rock, but I'd recommend albums such as Love's Forever Changes and Nick Drake's Pink Moon instead of Astral Weeks if you're in the mood for a bit of that particular genre (and a healthy dollop of Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and Fleetwood Mac would do no harm either). It is, of course, blindingly obvious that I'm wrong. Now, I'm no list's bitch, but if you look at the sheer amount of critical acclaim and high-charting in all time greatest albums run-downs that this album has received, I can accept that maybe I just don't quite get it. I'd definitely recommend checking this album out for yourself rather than pay any heed to what I have to say about it, and for that I apologise for making you heed me in this blog post up until now. Heeding may now cease.

Actually, heed a bit more as it's now time for the nail-biting moment that is: selecting the next random album to review. For details on how the album is chosen, please consult the previous post. Billions of Pounds and Canadian Dollars have already been placed on the outcome of this iTunes library shuffling. Derren Brown claims to have predicted the outcome and is ready and waiting smugly in a studio somewhere, carefully lining up his split screen. President Obama is agitatedly sitting in the Oval Office with his finger hovering over 'the button', just in case it turns out to be 'Inside In / Inside Out' by The Kooks.

So, without further ado, the album to be reviewed in the third instalment of this random album reviews series is....

Oho sweet!

The complex random album generating procedure has just so happened to throw up one of my all time favourite dance LPs:

MSTRKRFT - THE LOOKS

So, there you have it. Tune in next time for my assessment of the Canadian duo's first forray in to the world of the full length album. For now, I'll leave you with a taster of The Looks; a song that just so happens to be sitting on top of my iTunes 'Top 25 Most Played', having passed through my ear holes no less than 89 times:

MSTRKRFT - Street Justice

Songs I'm Currently Loving:

Here's a new one from a man who could be said to do no wrong:

Thom Yorke - The Hollow Earth

And here's an old remix of Mr. Yorke's solo work by perennial The Hardcore and The Gentle fave, The Field:

Thom Yorke - Cymbal Rush (The Field Remix)

And while we're at it, here's an example of everyone's favourite musical genre - the mashup, of course - that fuses together Radiohead and Jay-Z. Big up to Matt (currently residing in the U.S. of America - he's asked me to make it known that he now avidly supports this man and everything he stands for) for the heads up on this, the rest of the album can be downloaded for nada here

Jaydiohead - No Karma

• Jem - They (Cut Chemist Remix)
• M.I.A. & Blaqstarr - Way Down In The Hole - Cover of The Wire theme song
• Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart - if you disapprove of this then my balls will be available for sucking between 10am - 4pm, Thursdays - Mondays
• Dorian Concept - The Fucking Formula
• Nightmares On Wax - Biofeedback Dub
• Dr Syntax - Subcultures
• FaltyDL - Tronman
• Squeak E. Clean feat. Karen O - Hello Tomorrow - this was used in an advert for Nike or Adidas ages ago, featuring the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on vocals. It's been buried in my iTunes for a long time now and I've only recently unearthed it again. It's good.
• Ed Cox - Aired Karks - an example of Cambridge man Ed Cox's 'clowncore': circus-style accordion tunes played over jungle/breakcore beats. See if you can spot what he's up to with the title of this track..