Albums
December: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Andrew Weatherall, Solange, Roman Flügel and more
Daniel Avery 'DJ-Kicks' (!K7)
The DJ-Kicks series has had some killer installments recently – notably from Moodymann and Dâm-Funk, who mixed up the tempos and styles. Avery’s mix, in contrast, is a very uniform thing. Bar some bleak and beautiful ambient topping and tailing, it’s basically a set of austere Berlin-style techno. Ironically, it has far more drones than Avery’s own ‘Drone Logic’ album – there are none of the big, electro-influenced riffs of that record, just slowly evolving tones and percussion rattles over a never-ending kickdrum. This isn’t going to win over any newcomers but, when you tune in to its ebbing and flowing intensities, it can be totally transporting. Joe Muggs
7/10
