12 – Lone – Levitate (R&S Records)
“I’d try to go to sleep and I’d be hearing these mad rave tunes form in my head,” said Matt ‘Lone’ Cutler of the fever that inspired his second album for R&S. Echoes of Aphex Twin’s apocryphal lucid dreaming stories?
In any case, this lush technoist has turned hardcore. Levitate is his junglist hymn to Good Looking Records and Goldie, to the softer end of Stu Allen warehouse raves, to a time when clubbing was easy, messy and devoid of big name brands maxing out the price of a pint. I can smell the sun-drenched weed between the beats.
I get the impression he doesn’t spend long in the studio. These are quick cuts where the rhythm is locked in: more colour than depth. The junglism is a welcome twist, but the core is still the same. And as long as he holds onto the lush 808 State-isms that are on display beautifully here, Cutler will keep returning to my top album lists.
Scroll all of the best 2016 electronic albums by clicking here.