CD Album Recommendations Best Of 2014

Review: As with pretty much all Kenny Dixon Jnr releases, Moodymann - his eleventh full-length - has caused something of a stir, with vinyl copies selling out in the blink of an eye. Now on CD, the album remains one of his best - a kaleidoscopic, fast-paced sprint through soul-soaked deep house, baked drum machine jams, jazz-flecked interludes and low-slung grooves. Dixon's distinctive drawl is more prominent than on some previous excursions - no bad thing - while fans will notice a slew of alternative versions of KDJ classics - "Freeki M*thaf*cka" being perhaps the best known. Best of all, though, are the more downbeat moments - see "Heaven" and "Stupid Cosmic" - which allow Dixon to indulge his atmospheric tendencies. In a word: essential.

Review: It's rare that an electronic album is the biggest album of the year, or at least the most hyped. That's certainly the case with Syro, Richard D James first official release under his Aphex Twin moniker for some 13 years. So, is it in any good? For starters, it sounds like an Aphex Twin album. Listen through to the 12 tracks, and many of his familiar staples are present - the "Digeridoo" era rave breakbeats, the mangled synth-funk mash-ups, the intoxicating ambient-era melodies, the warped basslines and the skittish drill & bass style rhythms. There's madness, beauty and intensity in spades. In other words, it's an Aphex Twin album, and - as so many have pointed out since the album's release was announced - there's no-one else quite like Richard D James.

Review: Given that this is the first album from the great Theo Parrish since 2007, it's unsurprising interest in American Intelligence has rocketed over the course of the year as Sound Signature left a trail of hints. Happily, American Intelligence is a fine album; deep and woozy in parts, undeniably soulful, shot through with jazz influences and full to bursting with killer cuts. By now, everyone should know the brilliant "Footwork" single (arguably one of the records of 2014); soon, clubs will swing to the off-kilter dancefloor jazz of "Make No War", the 21st century broken house of the epic "Fallen Funk" and the decidedly odd - but brilliant - "Helmut Lampshade".

Review: Brothers Simon and Robin Lee have long excelled at the album format, delivering occasional sets that ripple with impressive musicality, sinewy strings, cozy downtempo moods and upbeat dancefloor moments. Body of One, their fourth full length (their first dropped on Nuphonic back in 1997), continues this trend, offering a compelling trip through the pair's myriad influences. After opening with a sweaty post-punk thumper ("Prisoner of Your Love"), we're variously treated to Italo-influenced vintage house ("Magic Touch"), rubbery disco-funk ("Freak For Your Love"), Arthur Russell-influenced tropical downtempo pop ("Caruso's Monkey House"), dreamy Balearica ("Floating World") and string-laden gorgeousness. As for the title track, it sounds like So-era Peter Gabriel.

Review: Emotional Rescue and Woo once again come together, this time to reissue their masterpiece, the previously cassette-only album Into The Heart Of Love. A joyous, uplifting ode to love in all it's forms, the trials and tribulations and ultimately the triumphs are all encapsulted in Woo's unique soundscapes. Of all the myriad of released and unreleased Woo recordings, Into The Heart Of Love is without a doubt their most complete and cohesive body of work. Full of Woo's quirky analogue dub electronics, there is also a very English sense of folk. With more vocals then their other albums, the structure and softness of mood quintessentially comes from the Mother Isle. Mark's guitar craft is at its most expressive, entwined with subtle bass, a breadth of clarinet and touches of piano. This is all mixed and merged beautifully with Clive's now recognisable desk and synthesiser mastery. As individual as anything you'd hear coming from the Black Ark. More peaceful and uplifting than Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong and encompassing than its Cosy Inside, the album presented as Into The Heart Of Love is exactly that. Drawing you into it's swirls and layers upon layers, slowly wrapping you in it's own special, spectral soundcape. It is love indeed that permeates throughout. Again and again the titles lead the way, but it's more than that. The lilting hopes, joy, optimism and peace expressed in songs like When Your Find Your Love, Sarah and The Heart Of Love show Woo in all their glory. Of all Woo's songs and craft, their best is all included. The simplicity but detailed interplay between the two brothers is as telepathic as imagined. Pushing and pulling together to represent a wondrous album. Of course, it had to be. It's Love.

Review: Arriving with some truly mind bending artwork from controversial guro manga artist Shintaro Kago, the new Flying Lotus album You're Dead! Is quite alot to take in upon first listen. Some nineteen tracks deep, Steven Ellison uses all the available space to draw you deep into the afterlife as he sees it, veering through heavily psychedelic jazz passages and next level beat explorations that demand you pay full attention. The iconic Herbie Hancock leads a high profile cast of contributing artists to Fly Lo's fifth studio LP and his most ambitious to date with Kendrick Lamar, Captain Murphy, Snoop Dogg, Angel Deradoorian, Thundercat and Niki Randa also adding to what is a transcendental listening experience.

Review: On the basis of this latest Lone long player, Matthew Cutler seems to be mellowing with age. Having earned a belated breakthrough on the back of a number of rush-inducing, rainbow-coloured releases for R&S that saw him surging towards the dancefloor like a toddler high on cheap orange squash, the producer once again flips the script on Reality Testing. The hardcore and rave influences of recent years have largely been abandoned in favour of smooth, head-nodding hip-hop beats, stargazing chords, twinkling melodies and far-sighted atmospherics. It is, in many ways, a return to his roots. More importantly, it's also very good, delivering synth-laden warmth and hazy, laidback grooves by the barrow load.

Review: Despite a career in electronic music that stretches right back to the mid 1990s, this album marks the first time that International Feel boss Mark Barrott has released music under his own name. That's a surprise, but then the whole project - quickly recorded and mixed during a period spent living in Ibiza - has a delightfully spontaneous feel about it. Exotic, humid, atmospheric and richly immersive, Sketches From An Island sees Barrott in full on Balearic mode, laying down a series of instrumental soundscapes variously influenced by Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Peter Green and the Orb. It's pretty darn good, too, sounding like a sassier, more cultured version of his 2007 Future Loop Foundation set Memories From A Fading Room.

Review: Given his strong faith and decidedly cosmic approach to music, it's perhaps not that surprising that Joe Clausell's latest project is a mix of gospel music. What's perhaps most interesting about Praise 2 (In Praise of The Sun) is the variety of the material on offer. Gospel has long been a cornerstone of black American dance music, and Clausell wisely tries to tell the full story. So, while there are crackly early gospel recordings from the 1930s, gospel-funk from the '60s and all-acapella recordings, he also touches on disco, boogie, soulful house and 80s gospel soul. The result is a riotous mix that's as entertaining as it is righteous.

Review: It's been a swift rise for Lars Dales & Maarten Smeets, the Amsterdam-based pair known as Detroit Swindle, since they first appeared together across a clutch of 12"s in 2012. Though Detroit Swindle have graced Tsuba, Heist, Freerange and Murmur over this period, it's Dirt Crew Recordings they are most closely associated with so it makes perfect sense for Dales and Smeets to issue their debut LP on the German label. Boxed Out features some ten tracks deep across two slabs of white vinyl (attn Detroit Swindle fans: CD and Digital editions offer a further three cuts) and features guest spots from Mayer Hawthorne and Sandra Amarie. The horizontal beatdown of "You, Me, Here, Now" and Quantic sampling "Thoughts Of She" are highlights.

Review: Despite making her name in the minimal techno scene, German producer Dana Ruh has recently moved further towards deep house territory. Here she completes the switch with a sumptuous, sinewy debut album for Jus-Ed's Underground Quality imprint. Naturally sees the Berlin-based producer effortlessly move through a range of deep, dreamy and groovy cuts, most of which are rooted in Chez and Trent style analogue deepness. Highlights are plentiful, from the loose and sweet bump of "Just Don't" and smooth "Train Ride To You", to the acid-flecked New Jersey chunkiness of "Don't You Find Me". There are nods to her minimal past - check the deep tech-house shuffle of "Dirty Egg" - but for the most part it's a warm and sensual affair.

Review: He's taken his time, but finally Norwegian nu-disco legend Todd Terje has delivered a debut album befitting his immense talents. While there are plenty of examples of his vibrant, synth-heavy dancefloor style on It's Album Time - see "Delorean Dynamite", "Inspector Norse", "Strandbar" and the Lindstrom-ish grandiosity of "Oh Joy" - what really makes it such an essential set are the curious turns and oddball moments. Samba, jazz and easy listening get the Terje treatment on "Alfonso Muskedunder", "Leisure Suit Proben" and "Svensk Sas", while there's a welcome dose of wide-eyed Balearica on the tweaked "Swing Star" (one of a string of previously released cuts on the album). Most interesting of all, though, is "John & Mary", a woozy, Roxy Music style cover of a Robert Palmer classic featuring the effervescent Bryan Ferry.

Review: This latest full-length from deep house producer Shuya Okino is an interesting one. It's effectively a replayed and re-made version of his 2011 full-length Destiny, created with the assistance of Japanese funk/soul/boogie/jazz-funk outfit Root Soul. So, what were sumptuously soulful deep house cuts are transformed into big, brassy, horn-toting live disco-funk cuts, with the original vocals (provided by scene veterans Pete Simpson, Clara Hill and N'Dea Davenport) soaring over Root Soul and Okino's warm, rubbery basslines, P-funk synths, loose live beats and cute keys. The result is an album that sounds like Earth, Wind & Fire making modern soul, deep house and soulful garage. Which, in anyone's book, is a very good thing indeed.

Review: Icelandic producer Yagya (AKA reclusive producer Aoalsteinn Guomundsson) doesn't release very much, with four studio albums and a lone single the sum of 12 years productivity. However, what he does release is usually top notch. Sleepygirls, his fifth album and first for Delsin, is predictably good, delivering warm, sensual, melodious, dub-inflected techno and undulating, ultra-deep house. Grooves shuffle, electronics drift between speakers, melodies bubble and chords float off into the ether. It's the kind of album to stick on while the sun's coming up, or as you're easing yourself into the day following a heavy session the night before. Any many ways it's as sleepy as the title suggests, but in the most beguiling way.

Review: Danny Wolfers' restless productivity knows no bounds. Not content with dropping stone cold 12" singles at a furious rate, he's delivered yet another Legowelt album to Creme Organization. Pleasingly, Crystal Cult 2080 (so called because he used a homemade crystal compressor and dusty second hand Roland JV2080- synthesizer throughout the recording process) is up to his usual high standards. There are few surprises - we should all know what we're getting by now - but plenty of reasons to be cheerful, from the fuzzy new age electronica of "The Future of Myself" and muddy Detroit futurism of "Fundamental Superstition", to the tropical pagan mysticism of "Ancient Rites Demoni Mundi" and warped acid of the feverish title track.

Review: Anthony Nicholson is something of an unheralded hero. He's been releasing variations on melodious, soul-flecked deep house since the turn of the 1990s, delivering material for such labels as Prescription, NIte Grooves and Peacefrog. 22 years after releasing his first 12", Nicholson returns to action with Four, his first albium since 2011. It's a sensual and atmospheric set packed with musically expansive material. While rooted in house, it offers so much more than simple, functional dancefloor material. It will no doubt draw comparisons with the work of Ron Trent, to whom Nicholson shares an impressive attention to detail and positive musical outlook.

Review: Dial regular Efdemin returns with a third album of a respected career, with the autumnal theme of Decay inspired by the German producer's three-month artist residency in Kyoto, Japan. Sollmann immersed himself in the local culture while in Kyoto, attending ceremonies with monks at temples and visiting local instrument makers. This results in a ten track set that canvasses the sort of poignant, introverted house music that's characterised much of Phillip Sollmann's work as Efdemin to date. There are however a few stylistic surprises along the way - the stripped back, jacking "Transducer" or the fusion of jazzy licks and noisy bursts of percussion that makes up the title track - but overall you'd be hard pushed to think of a better label to house Decay than Dial.

Review: Given that Paul "Mudd" Murphy, Ben Smith, Ursula Major and krautrock legend Holgar Czukay debuted their Bison project back in 2010, this debut album has been a long time coming. Happily, it was worth the wait. Recorded at Czukay's legendary Cologne studio and featuring mix-downs from Conrad Idjut, Travellers is a particularly dubwise trawl through hazy, krautrock-influenced disco and horizontal Balearica. By anyone's standards, it's a deliciously intergalactic concoction; a fearlessly atmospheric blend of low-slung grooves, delay-laden horns, quirky percussion, stargazing electronics and mesmerizing, eyes-wide-shut vocals. Pleasingly, this CD version also includes a pair of fine extended versions of former single "Mandy" by Mudd, of which the intoxicating Dub is particularly potent.

Review: Having released just one seminal 12" on Chain Reaction back in 2001, Shinichi Atobe was tracked down by Demdike Stare only to be found with a vast vault of unreleased material. This double-pack release brings together some cherry-picked morsels from this haul, shedding fresh light on the mysterious and alluring sound of an almost forgotten Japanese producer. There are more obtuse noise and industrial moments such as "Free Access Zone 4", while other moments are full of sweet and crisp house grooves with wistful atmospherics. The diversity on offer is quite something, but whatever style is tackled, Shinichi Atobe brings a haunting quality to bear on his music.

Review: Disco producer, synthesizer pioneer and Hi-NRG originator Patrick Cowley made a lot of highly sexual music. In fact, his muscular synth-disco productions were, for years, the soundtrack of choice in San Francisco's notorious bathhouse scene. It doesn't stop there, though. Unbeknownst to most disco aficionados, Cowley also provided experimental synthesizer tracks to soundtrack gay porn films between 1973 and 1981. Initially released on vinyl last year, School Daze has now been granted a CD edition by Dark Entries and gathers together the best of those productions. Arguably, the material here is amongst his best work. Free of the constraints of the dancefloor, Cowley let himself go, delivering avant garde synthesizer compositions that ranged from spaciously psychedelic ("Out of Body", like some lost Confused House record) and decidedly cosmic (the chugging "Journey Home"), to otherworldly and outlandish ("Zygote"). Recommended.

Review: For some reason, the world's foremost ambient explorers have always been prolific. Take the sadly departed Pete Namlook, who released 10 albums in 1994 alone. Brock Van Wey is cut from similar cloth. It was only last week that he delivered an album under his BVDub pseudonym; here, he returns to his given name for a similarly tactile, two-CD voyage into the world of beatless dreamscapes. The Namlook comparisons are understandable; like the once mighty German, Van Wey specializes in creating sprawling pieces based around gradual shifts in long, drawn out chords, slowly shifting melodies (check the Satie-inspired "Can't Go Home Without You"), delay-laden instruments and epic atmospherics. When he gets it right - as he does on Home - there are few greater exponents of the art of ambient.

Review: Under his now familiar Tokyo Prose alias, New Zealand-born Sam Reed has prospered in recent years, delivering a brand of warm, deep, musically rich drum and bass that recalls the glory days of liquid D&B. Presence is his debut album, and it expands a little on his trademark sound whilst retaining a becalmed, almost horizontal approach. Sure, many of the rhythms are punchy, but they're smothered in twinkling pianos, soulful vocals and chords straight out of the classic ambient playbook. Occasional forays into downtempo (see the delicious opener "16 Bar Cycles" and impeccable closing track "Dance With You") and post-dubstep territory only serve to enhance the immersive, laidback mood.

Review: Given the quality of Session Victim's 2012 debut album, Haunted House of House, expectations are naturally high for this follow-up. Like its' predecessor, See You When You Get There takes a widescreen approach to deep house, with the German duo drawing on a myriad of influences, from jazz ("Hey Stranger"), soundtracks ("Crystal Maze") and evocative downtempo beats (the impeccable title track), to Atmosfear-ish jazz-funk ("The Most Beautiful Divorce In The World") and, most notably, classic Balearica (see the druggy pop of "Hyuwee" and deliciously slow "EOS Place". Best of all, though, is "Never Forget", a glorious blues-house epic laden with smoky vocal samples and thrilling piano motifs.

Review: San Francisco trio 40 Thieves has never been particularly productive, dropping a handful of impressive releases over the course of the last decade. It's something of a pleasant surprise, then, to discover that this long-awaited debut album encompasses an impressive 20 tracks over two discs (or, if you prefer wax, four slabs of vinyl). It's exciting to report, too, that The Sky Is Yours is also rather good. Sitting somewhere between low-slung punk-funk, misty-eyed Balearica, slacker dub-rock, stargazing disco, wonky jazz, stripped Italo and bubbly nu-disco, the 20 tracks bristle with sassy alternative attitude and intoxicating underground flavour. It takes a little time to soak it all in, but it's worth the effort; The Sky Is Yours is full of weird and wonderful highlights.

Review: A new album from Stefan Laubner under his STL moniker isn't exactly a rare occurrence; At Disconnected Moments is his 14th album as STL, adding to the glut of long players and CDrs the producer has released under his own name and as Lunatik Sound System. However, arriving on Smallville it represents the first STL long player to be released on a label other than Laubner's own Something operation. It also happens to be one of his most engaging and well rounded listens for some time, with the likes of the chunky "Scuba's Motion Dub", the blissful "One Day" and frantic mood of "Amelie's Dub" all proving particularly robust. Highly recommended.

Review: Big Strick's latest full-length offering on his own 7 Days Entertainment label is a family affair, mixing tracks from the veteran Detroit producer with similarly deep and woozy jams from his 16 year-old son Tre Strickland, AKA Generation Next. The father-and-son team's approach to house - wringing atmospheric soul from bubbling rhythms, warm chords and blazed melodies - is surprisingly similar, as shown by the two deep, jazz-flecked collaborations showcased here. Elsewhere, both impress with their individual contributions, with Strickland Junior's slap bass-infused deep head-nodder "Flynn's" and sweet, winding "Mo Money" standing out.

Review: Yet another coup for Mudd's Claremont 56 imprint, Paqua first made their rocky, psychedelic Balearica known to world with the sleazy, guitar-twanging chugger "Late Train" in the summer of 2013. Following it with beautiful "Dinosaur Zappa" shortly after, the UK/US band suddenly went quiet on us, leaving us thirsty for more of their heady cosmic brew. Mercifully they've returned... And have done so with an entire album of material. Ranging from the string and strum bliss of "The Visitor" to the "Horse With No Name" style pace and folky delicacy of "We Are What We Are" via the Motown-style funk missile "Ruby Running Faker", Akaliko is stamped with indelible cosmic authority thanks to its dynamic compositions and tight instrumentation. As spellbinding as it is essential.