Various Artists: Background Records 50 (Background) - CD
The beautiful, but dry digital landscapes that form the artwork. The use of Din Schrift as their official font. The considered use of whitespace and typographical composition. Their brand strategy seems to scream minimalism. Whereas the reality is that they've managed to peddle quite maximal variants of house music since 1998.

Pascal Schafer's 'Deep Thoughts' stands out as a well crafted piece of murky, imperfect house. But the two finest statements are at the end: Rhythm_Maker's lolloping shuffle on 'Don't disturb the monotony' and Terrence Dixon's ambient flickr on 'Detroit City Lights'.

Boxcutter: Oneiric (Planet Mu) - CD
First thing that has to be stated is that this isn't a straight up dubstep album. It can't be, there's far too many clever rhythmic and melodic twists and turns to keep it held down by something as trivial as genre or style. He takes dubstep's distinctive motif's (warping b-lines, downward drums, silent gaps) and furnishes incredibly layered pieces of futurist funk.

The eastern sunrise opener of 'Tauhid' might be weighted down with swathes of sub. But, like the rest of the album, there's a light footprint to it all. Even the murky, out-of-focus echo of 'Skuff'd' seems to have a spring in its step. Whilst bass-heads will find solace in darker moments like the magnificent 'Brood'. The rest of us will find this a seasonally apt piece of accomplished electronic music.

The Kilamanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble: S/T (Planet Mu) - CD
Can't help feeling that this would probably be more suitable on the Ninja Tune label. But I can see why Mike 'mu-ziq' Paradinas has gone for this. Compositionally smart, well executed downtempo that occasionally tips over into MAX/MSP overload and uncontrollable distortion. Best demonstrated by the closing phases of 'March of the Swine'. If you only buy one dark jazz fusion album all year, make sure it's this one.

Jazkamer: Metal Music Machine (Smalltown Supernoise) - CD
With the pretty awesome Lasse Marhaug amongst its clan, don't expect sonic half measures here. With his experimental 'The Shape of Rock to Come' album still ringing in my ears, it's quite a shock to hear that, for the most part, this LP plays it straight.

Exploratory resonance on 'The Worms will get in' evokes the turgid primordial ooze of say Sunn O)))). But 'Abomination' is pure thrash; hyperspeed riffing and guttural utterances make this the star turn. But the slow skin tear of 'Occult Glider' comes a close second in the 'none more black' stakes. I don't think I could have any more fun this year if I tried.

Buy now, pay later.

Burning Star Core: The Very Heart of the World (Thin Wrist Recordings) - CD
I knew I'd like this even before I heard it. The recent Wire profile had me intrigued from the off; everything seemed to fit. The name of the band, the album titles, his name (C.Spencer Yeh). There was some sort of aesthetic order to it all. Yet the music is anything but orderly. Out of all the albums that picked up his back catalogue at a recent show in Kilburn, this was the one that completed the picture.

The white heat of 'Benjamin': clashing drone with repetitive crackles and analogue distortion. The vocal gurgle of 'Nyarlathotep' is in turns amusing / comic / disturbing. 'Catapults' might employ the tried and tested Godspeed trick of sustaining orchestral dread over hyperactive jazz. But the acoustic din of 'Come back through me' is entirely his sound.