Clubland June

Every year there are a run of artists who completely shake the foundations of music, mercilessly messing with your preconceptions of sound and style, extending a beckoning finger for you to join, follow or simply witness as they blast off into orbit. This year already there have been such albums released and surely with a further six months of 2010 there will be more who inspire, confuse, cause utter disbelief and admiration in equal doses. For my money I'm not sure if there will be any that will surpass the sheer brilliance and unrestrained ambition of Actress's Splazsh and Mount Kimbie's Crooks & Lovers.

Both London based artists, their music embraces the free-willed approach to fusing, splicing and mixing of influences. Actress's productions find themselves as comfortably at home on Rinse FM as they do in the middle of a Theo Parish set, taking in elements of grime, dubstep, house, techno, IDM and much more. Mount Kimbie may be more aligned towards the dubstep scene, though their delicate, experimental ventures exist on the furthest outreaches of that sound, in an area too colourful to possibly be called grey.

Splazsh follows up from Actress's incredible 2008 debut, Hazyville, further exemplifying his position as one of the more unique beat-auteurs working today. Included in the 14 track long player are a few previously released gems, notably “Maze” from the recent Paint, Straw & Bubbles 12”, opening track “Hubble” from one of the Thriller releases that Actress was behind last year, and the mind melting “Lost”, a remix of sorts that Actress (real name Darren Cunningham) completed of an original Various Productions track.

Mount Kimbie have been making serious waves since their Maybes EP dropped on Hotflush Recordings at the beginning of 2009. The duo comprised of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos have been blowing away audiences with their live PA and their two EP's to date have confirmed them as one of the most exciting acts to come out of London in some time. Their debut album, Crooks & Lovers follows their flawless run with a breezy mix of post-garage, avant-garde, experimentalist genius. If you are at all remotely interested in electronic music or merely need your preconceptions about what you imagine to be a series of tasteless bleeps and beats updated, you could do no better than checking out these two albums.

SIDEBAR

Actress – Spazsh – Essential Tracks

Low end, tonal paranoia ensues as Actress channels the grainy, late night, militant techno of Detroit on “Bubble Butts And Equations”. Think Theo Parrish squaring off against Keith Tucker and you're on the right track.

“Purple Splazsh” goes 80's boogie as Actress looks to Prince for inspiration, dragging the frilly-shirted midget backwards through the dirt and grime of London streets and syncopated beats.

Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers – Essential Tracks

“Carbonated” begins with a backwards blur of pressurized synth, firing twee Casio-tone melodies into a reverb chamber, before setting the whole stew to sizzle and laying on syrupy Rhodes keys and an intangible mess of r'n'b vocals.

Plucked piano string nightmare meets Balearic guitar strumming in a science lab on “Before I Move Off”. As the potions boil and bubble, a velveteen vapour of diva-ish vocals coat everything with a sparkling gold dust.

SILVERBEAT'S TOP 5 (these are all individual tracks)

Lowtec – Untitled (Workshop 10)

Pier Bucci – Papa Guede

Alessandro Crimi – Kids

Ramadanman – Glut

DJ Koze – Blume der Nacht

CLASSIC LISTENING

Galaxie 500 – On Fire