Half a decade ago, Yves Tumor was actually supposed to play the role of the more upbeat little brother, but they emancipated themselves from Dean Blunt's shadow no later than when they made their first record for Warp. With emphasis. »Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume« is also completely unabashed in its embrace of unsexy alt-rock tropes, yet interpreted with a confidence almost reminiscent of Prince; a rock star understanding that aspires to fill stadiums. Yves Tumor have been going this path without me since 2017 due to my own blockade for all things operetta. But: maximum recognition for a singular musical identity.

This is the penultimate Dean Blunt teaser for today, I promise. A few weeks ago, another of Joanne Robertson's modest collections of sketches was released via AD93. »Blue Car« is little more than voice and guitar and disarmingly transparent. Anyone who still has space on their shelves between Grouper, Maxine Funke and Jonnine will know what to do. 

Whether Dean Blunt is a member of Honour or not has still not been ultimately established, but it would be the final accolade. Following the first volume, which we previously reviewed somewhat hysterically here, the second volume of »Hbk« has now been released on vinyl as well, an ambient trap sonata with hallucinatory vocal contributions, upbeat triplets and Just Blaze horns. Possibly the album of the year. 

Scotch Rolex also collaborates with Shackleton for the duration of the album on »Death By Tickling«. Here, the grime and trap influences are more noticeable in the form of some concise editing work. From the outside at least, Scotch Rolex comes across like an executive producer for Shackleton's typically sprawling productions, and as much as I love them: Shacki in 5-minute format was just a little too rare in the last ten years.

Al Wooton and Valentina Magaletti continue to work at chordal speed under the name of Holy Tongue and, after three fantastic EPs, immediately follow up with another inspired album. »Deliverance And Spiritual Warfare« not only sounds like a combative hotstepper in the title, but dub in all its forms of the last five decades runs as a leitmotif through the album that still achieves to sound extremely contemporary. It is remarkable how stringent it is. ESG fun stands on equal footing with basic channel seriousness and traditional echo chamber madness. 

Froid Dub approach – yes – dub with tunnel vision and MPC aesthetics. »Deep Blue Bass« moves trunk rattling from Miami to London. It sounds like a 4k remaster of one of those half-forgotten Blakamix records from the mid-nineties, partly because it mixes synth-pop melodies into the classic Kingston connection.

Froid Dub approach – yes – dub with tunnel vision and MPC aesthetics. »Deep Blue Bass« moves trunk rattling from Miami to London. It sounds like a 4k remaster of one of those half-forgotten Blakamix records from the mid-nineties, partly because it mixes synth-pop melodies into the classic Kingston connection.

I still listen twice as hard to albums on Youth because Lyster simply knows what he's doing. Dijit's »The Room« is one of the less immediate albums on the label, a companion archive collection to Dijit's more rigorously sequenced 2020 album »Hyperattention«. While on the first listen it's mainly the ultimate Mo'Wax chillaxer Hasheesh that sticks, »The Room« gradually slides deeper into the crack between the sofa cushions, only to end the day's hangout with celebrating Saga and rave actionism. 

Jonquera, meanwhile, draws less on the 90s than Dijit did on his third, again very trippy solo album. »La Croix Des Crocs« follows the tension of ambitious late seventies soundtracks, baroque and humid, dusty and dehydrated, somehow »Sorcerer« and »The Proposition« at the same time. With stumbling half-time beats and mumbling in between. Vibes aplenty.

»Castillo«, on the other hand, is not a strictly narrative record. DJ Trystero casually strings together pumping house, dark bass drum techno, 808 sensibilities and beatless floaters here for Incienso. Common denominator: a diligence that could be called Japanese, if it weren't such a grossly overused cliché.

Sockethead's album for Youth is still out of reach two and a half years later. The recently released »Yas«, on the other hand, is totally haptic. A hyper-reduced techno album, unpretentious, with clear links to Actress' more functional moments, impressively produced and certainly a bigger deal were it not for the shadow cast by this über-début.

What I always keep forgetting for 4 to 5 years about house in general (or, in the best case, from Omar-S to Omar-S-V.Ö.) is what a blast it is. The reminder this year comes from Finn from Manchester, who offers a perfectly unpretentious euphoric peak set with »Everything Is Alright«; UK breaks, diva vocals and New Jersey gospel included. An enormous blast. 

After several well-smoked and decelerated releases, Ilian Tape give Andrea a completely free hand tempo-wise on »Due In Color«. D&B and breaks remain the framework for an album that couldn't be more in keeping with the label's philosophy with its timelessness. 

New material from Tia Maria Produções is always guaranteed to drive my pulse into three digit range without even being heard. As always on Príncipe, »Ansiedade« is another of those albums that makes my heart pump like crazy with its incomparable drum programming and melancholic synths. Despite all its nervous energy, the album chooses an almost jazzy emotionality as its leitmotif. 

It's impossible to discuss Alva Noto's soundtrack to the play »Accomplices« without touching on Ryuichi Sakamoto's passing. While Sakamoto did not collaborate on these ambient miniatures, it's hard not to misinterpret Noto's elegant arrangements and sense of pathos in minimalism as a requiem for his long-time collaborator. If you still manage to make it through »Children of the Sun« without getting goose pimples or shedding a tear, you should truly have someone look at your heart.