This is part of a series, currently live-blogging on 3, 4 & 5 January 2025. Read the posts so far.
Dean Spunt: Basic Editions (Drag City)
Dean what-now? Using an old E-M synth module he picked up for fifty dollars, Mr Spunt has produced an album of sonic explorations and process experiments. It sounds like we've fallen into a matrix, or at the very least, a second-hand dot-matrix printer. Very wonky, but there's warmth in the circuits.
DJ Fitness: The DJ Fitness Program (Domesticated)
I am not a gym type of guy. Those places are too sweaty. Miami's Pablo Arrangoiz has many aliases, and this is his most fun. Expect warm, funky acid cuts, delicious 808 electro beats, and leftfield bossanova. Its cover design, a pastiche of an old-school two-tone flyer, is a stroke of genius. (Artwork pictured above.)
DJ Lycox: Guetto Star (Principe)rt
Lisbon's kuduro music scene is probably not known to most, and I hope this album changes that. DJ Lycox's album is a mix of folky rhythms and twitchy drum works, led throughout by Afro-Portuguese song. Where else could you have a track called Mortal Kombat featuring a clarinet putting a donk on it?
DJ Nigga Fox: Chá Preto (Príncipe)
More kuduro music, and another one from Portugal. On this album, Rogério Brandão has earned comparisons to Ricardo Villalobos and Autechre. It's a real mish-mass of styles, with slow jams meeting skittering techno. Difficult to pin down, but an interesting enough curiosity to include here.
eL-Hortobāgyi Hortator: Thessalien Stoa Paradosi (Elhellel)
Here we have a collaboration between veteran Hungarian composer László Hortobãgyi and someone called Hadjilaskaris. And it is almost impossible to describe. Egyptian ambient dub? A Megadog gig in a desert? Psy-Sphynx? I dunno, but you should let these guys be your loop gurus because it's thoroughly compelling.
Fergus Jones: Ephemera (Numbers)
The artist formerly known as Perko releases his first slab of vinyl as plain old Fergus Jones. The album is sultry and spacious, and his numerous collaborators include Huerco S, James K and spacey beatmaster Koreless. A likeable (dare I say it) coffee table album, and at its best when embracing the dub.
FJAAK: FJAAK The System (FJAAK)
I need to admit something. I hate this album title. It's a rubbish pun. That aside, these two self-professed "hardware heads" from Berlin are bringing the party hard. Roof-raising drum and bass, screeching acid techno, and stadium-sized rave smashers abound. A big sound needs big names: Modeselektor and Skee Mask feature.
Four Tet: Three + (Text Records)
Mr Tet's twelfth album needs little introduction. You know his M.O.: Infectious grooves dappled with optimism, although he's on a pretty mellow tip on this album too. Closing track Three Drums is perhaps the most epic I've heard Four Tet. Amid the airy euphoria, on this he becomes Thousand Tet. Just lovely. (Artwork pictured above.)
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