Butterfly Effect CD

During the mid-to-late 1990s, the Mo Wax-affiliated DJ Krush was one of the greatest purveyors of expansive, atmospheric and musically intricate instrumental hip-hop. Over the last decade, though, he's almost disappeared from view, making Butterfly Effect - his first album since 2004 - something of a treat for fans. Predictably, it's musically expansive, blending his dusty, head-nodding and occasionally punchy hip-hop rhythms with impressively emotion-rich, classical and jazz influenced music. The breadth and diversity of instrumentation and voices on offer - think twinkling pianos, lush orchestration, crunchy guitars, snaking saxophones, becalmed harps, dreamy freestyle vocals and blazed raps - is particularly impressive, and proves that Krush hasn't lost his touch.