March: 18 albums you need to hear this month

Fischerspooner 'Sir' (Ultra)

Fischerspooner released their last album nine years ago, but ‘Sir’ is a bold and brassy return. Helmed by Beyoncé producer Boots and REM’s Michael Stipe, it is (in the band’s words) an “aggressively homosexual” album. Candid and acrobatic vocals recall doing it in the backroom on ‘Dark Pink’, needing to be saved on ‘Stranger Strange’ and coming together sweetly on ‘Have Fun Tonight’. Tracks range from stomping and libidinous anthems such as ‘Everything Is Just Alright’ to the tortured and sadistic ‘Strut’, and sounds like transmissions from the future throughout. There’s also neon-lit r’n’b, frazzled avant-pop and brooding Depeche Mode updates, and the whole album drips with a palpable sense of lust and intensity. Kristan J Caryl

8/10

Big Miz 'Build/Destroy' (Dixon Avenue Basement Jams)

Few UK labels have done as much recently to take house back to basics as Glasgow-based imprint Dixon Avenue Basement Jams. Not prog, not tech, not minimal, not deep, not neo, not lo-fi, just house. And label stalwart (and fellow Glaswegian) Big Miz does exactly the same. On three EPs and now this LP, he doesn’t waver: drum machines knock out the four-to-the-floor, basslines bump, bare-bones synth riffs and samples loop, bish bosh bash, job’s a goodun. Yet every time it’s different, and every time it’s fresh. Synth-pop, Italo-disco, rap, African music and p-funk are all absorbed into the Chicago template, but never to the detriment of it being just pure, straight-up, rock-solid house. And really, what more do you need? Joe Muggs

8/10

Creep Show 'Mr Dynamite' (Bella Union)

Beware – Creep Show aim to tease and seduce, with the dark, incendiary electronica of ‘Mr Dynamite’ harking back to the anything-goes post-punk aesthetic of the late 70s. The work of Benge, Tuung’s Phil Winter, Cabaret Voltaire frontman Stephen Mallinder and everyone’s favourite mellifluous alt-crooner, John Grant, they ensure the record never stands still, from the slinky ‘Modern Parenting’ to ‘Tokyo Metro’ and its angular, 8-bit electro. The closing diptych, headed by ‘Fall’, is breathtaking: its tumbling synth groove conjures an enchanting Kraftwerkian vision, before ‘Safe And Sound’ arrives. Grant, in that familiar baritone, then ponders love, life and the universe to a shuddering ‘I Feel Love’-style rhythm and beautiful, Eno-esque chords. Stephen Worthy

8/10

D Double E 'Jackuum!' (Bluku Music)

An ebullient, cheeky style and some distinctive Cockney vowels have made D Double E one of the most consistent presences in grime since its outset. For this album, over steadily trap-styled beats, he’s showing next to no attempt to mature. His storytelling and wordplay are never overly complex (they’re even borderline schoolyard in their unreconstructed dirtiness and boasting), with his rhymes piling up one on top of the other in a way that recalls the d’n’b MC he once was. But what he does have in shedloads is personality – even next to high-profile guests such as Wiley and Skepta, he dominates each track – and that’s enough to carry the whole LP. It won’t change the world, but it’s good, dirty fun. Joe Muggs

7/10

Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne 'Nightports w/Matthew Bourne' (The Leaf Label)

The music Matthew Bourne makes lies somewhere between the ambient jazz of Harold Budd, Erik Satie’s classical compositions and Hauschka’s prepared piano pieces. Here, he’s joined by fellow Yorkshire-based musician/producers Adam Martin and Mark Slater: they utilise a legion of pianos, from uprights to grands to pianofortes, and then set about manipulating, screwing and layering them into different shapes. The harsh percussive attack and malevolent rhythms swarming up on ‘Exit’ don’t sound much like pianos, but they are. A different mood haunts ‘Window’, its subtle phrasings fluttering in the air like silk sheets in the breeze, while ‘Annie’ is hewn from fidgety fragments of sound. Stephen Worthy

8/10

Young Echo 'Young Echo LP' (Young Echo Records)

Just one song in to this 24-track epic and there’s a descending tone over kickdrums, a few zaps and gun sounds, and a disinterested, ill-sounding British male voice murmuring about dancing. And it’s amazing. This second album from the sprawling Bristol collective (featuring Kahn, Neek, Jabu, Ishan and a whole bunch of others) is a brilliant re-distillation of everything that makes the city’s deep, smoky musical history. Like a gang of undead Tricky spawn, there’s rap, spoken word, eerie singing and other kinds of muttering over a sludgy crawl with momentary hints of grime, industrial, ambient and a pervasive fug of dub. It’s an unwell, claustrophobic, inward-looking dream of a record – and very addictive. Joe Muggs

8/10

Bon Voyage Organisation 'Jungle? Quelle Jungle?' (Sony Music)

BVO are very, very French: “Soleil, soleil, solei!” they sing sweetly on ‘Soleil Dieu’. And on the Supertramp-meets-French touch banger ‘Si D’Aventure’, they create the kind of cosmic magic that Daft Punk traversed around ‘Discovery’. With the shimmering ‘Second Regard’, they aim even higher; and then, midway through, the sumptuous production starts sounding like Trevor Horn from Art Of Noise has joined them in the studio (it might be the record’s defining musical moment). Elsewhere, the medieval melodies of ‘Goma’ seem like they could burst into Chicago at any point, before Afro-funk sounds glide into earshot and everything is French again, while on ‘Hotel 7’, they sound like Air at their most majestic. Ralph Moore

7/10

Clarian 'Television Days' (Balance Music)

Clarian first came to our attention via his Supplemental Facts releases for Guy Gerber and his excellent work in synth-pop duo Footprintz. But as his new single (remixed by Tiga and Michael Mayer, the latter premiered on Mixmag.net) will attest, this 10-track sonic soundtrack is aiming in a much different direction. ‘Lost Again’ is underpinned by melodies that Todd Terje would be proud of; the dreamy ‘Tulum’ has Sasha-esque keys anyone in Mexico would love to unearth; and ‘Sleepers’ and the title track could be secret Tame Impala singles. ‘Space Zap Forever’ and ‘West Hollywood’, on the other hand, set the controls for the heart of the Hollywood sign. Or should that be the sun instead? Ralph Moore

8/10

Eli Escobar 'Shout' (Classic Music Company)

NYC producer Eli E points his musical and political finger in a particular direction from the start: while previous LP ‘Happiness’ was just that, ‘Shout’ opens with a distorted, disgruntled male voice moaning “ode to America” over keys that Masters At Work would be impressed by (although things get nicely acidic towards the end). After a pretty brief liquid-cool interlude, ‘The People’ is a seven-minute call to arms (“put all the dirty blame on you and me”) which sounds custom-built for The Black Madonna and Artwork alike. There are oodles of great musical moments to savour here, but if we’re going to mention just two more, it’s the deep, after-hour acidic house vibes of ‘Muzik’ and the sun-kissed, 1989-style melodies of ‘Love Inspired’. Ralph Moore

7/10