SND: 4,5,6: (SND) - 3 x 12"

Pointless me reviewing this, 'cos I think they are greatest thing since toasted sandwich makers. But hell, I'll give anything a go. So, SND. They made loads of totally ace albums when 'glitch' was at the height of fashion, including some for the revered Mille Plateaux label. Then people stopped listening to electronic music, turning their attention to guitars and haircuts. And they wisely used all their Northern intuition and stopped making records, turning their attention to life and art installations. 2008, most people still aren't listening to electronic music, but they should be....

Flying Lotus: Reset EP / Harmonic 313: EP1 (Warp) - CD

Two examples of astutely-produced 2008-edition techno masquerading under the guise of hip-hop. Flying Lotus' debut for Warp is just about perfect. This particular reviewer liking how he can zip through five tracks in about 18 minutes. The opener of 'Tea Leaf Dancers' is the one we'll all keep coming back to. I wonder if I'll manage to sustain the attention span for the album. He's related to Coltrane family don't you know....

Mark Pritchard has such a ridiculous discography spanning so many genres that you start to worry about the man's sanity. His latest project is Harmonic 313. A progression, we presume, from his previous work as Harmonic 33. The addition of the extra digit nudges references to Detroit. Both equally to the movements of Techno and to the more recent innovations in hip-hop as laid down by J Dilla. Speak'n Spell vocals, crunchy-nut beats and dollops of gloopy bass all work around highly efficient melody. The initial serving of 'Word Problems' doesn't get bettered though.