Alva Noto: Unitxt (Raster Noton) - CD

Tend to prefer his more pastoral circuit board excursions or when he decides to have a proper boogie. Here we get the angry, angular version of Carsten Nicolai's long running audio / visual project. Maybe on a monolithic system with their trademark eye-popping visuals, it might have had a bigger impact. But on headphones or on home-listening, it just sounded a bit annoying. Especially the tracks with Anne-James Chaton's slightly pretentious narration (first time I heard those I broke out into laughter). The second-half of the album switches tack entirely and just goes for piercing digital noise. Whilst I'm one of the few that might welcome such extremities, I just don't think it sits comfortably alongside all that went on before. I'd probably recommend his Xerrox series for a more wholesome digital experience.

DJ /Rupture: Uproot (theAgriculture) - CD - Originally released October 2008

This mix is so good (as memorable as his earlier 'Minesweeper Suite' and 'Gold Teeth Thief'). I stole it....Let me explain.

So wanting to have a good dance AND perform the task of being a DJ simultaneously (as well being really lazy) at a recent Shoreditch-located event. I cued up 'Uproot' on the Macbook, positioned myself in amongst the crowd and let it rip. The perfectly pitched blend of dancehall, dubstep, grime and hip-hop soon took their ass-quaking hold. Occasionally someone would come up to the laptop to ask what a particular track was (I think it was during the second contribution by Clouds). But once they worked out the fact that there wasn't a 'person' manning the controls, the focus seemed to shift to the music.

So my advice: buy Uproot, play it out, make new friends.