August: 18 albums you need to hear this month

Daphni 'Fabriclive 93'

It feels appropriate that, a couple of months shy of its 10th anniversary, one of the greatest Fabric mix albums should provide inspiration for Daphni’s ‘Fabriclive’ instalment. We’re talking about ‘Fabric 36’, which was so memorably realised by Ricardo Villalobos: a textbook example of how to construct and pace a 70-minute DJ mix, all of its 15 tracks were by the Chilean/German DJ icon himself. Like Villalobos, Dan Snaith is not your average DJ or producer, and this was never going to be your average mix album. All but four of its 27 tracks are Daphni originals, and the remainder are edits by the Canadian polymath. In other words, this is ostensibly the long-awaited new album from Daphni – the more club-focused alter-ego of Snaith’s Caribou handle – five years after his debut under that moniker, ‘Jiaolong’. Such is its genre-hopping nature, it’s hard to believe that this isn’t a trad DJ mix compilation, rather than the music of just one man.

It skitters between flinty, raw funk (‘Face To Face’), shimmering house (‘Carry On)’, weapons-grade techno that dissipates into a kora breakdown (‘Ten Thousand’) and a pummelling percussion workout (‘Hey Drum’). A track by jazz drummer Pheeroan akLaff (‘3 In 1’) gets a crushing rework before more koras charm their way into ‘Try’. Other highlights include the ebullient acid of ‘Joli Mai’, the rave-tinged nostalgia of ‘So It Seems’ and the frantic Salsoul disco of ‘vs’. Each track is forged and precision-engineered to bolt onto the next: there are times when Snaith takes you to dark places but then he clasps your hand tenderly, guiding you back to sunnier climes. ‘Fabriclive 93’ is an astonishing accomplishment. Take a bow, Mr Snaith. You deserve it. Stephen Worthy

9/10

DJ Tennis 'DJ-Kicks'

In the seven years since DJ Tennis emerged with his Life And Death label, few operations have had such a singular style. Rather than jumping on hyped-up trends or turning out music for music’s sake, you get the impression he’s in no hurry to impress anyone: instead, the Italian has just gone about his mission to bring a substantial sense of musicality, melody and mood to house and techno – qualities which can all too often be lacking. Similarly mindful aesthetics characterise his entry in to the DJ-Kicks series which, for the first time ever, is a double-disc mix. Making the most of the opportunity, he imposes his sonic will on two unhurried mixes which, while connected, cater to two distinctly different contexts. The first is all late-night comedown material, with 70 seamless minutes of delicate grooves, dreamy atmospheres and wispy synths. It’s a mix that’s detailed enough for headphones but still zoned-out enough to serve as background music; regardless of your preference, it’ll leave you in a state of utter Zen thanks to the inclusion of masters such as Pole, Monolake and Bochum Welt. Disc two is more purposefully drum-led, but stays deep and heady with slick electro, house and delicious dub from the likes of Moodymann, Robert Hood and Traumprinz. Tennis also contributes two exclusives that bookend the mix with spine-tingling minimal grooves. Well-balanced and truly timeless, both discs are as entertaining as any you’re likely to hear this year. Kristan J Caryl

9/10

BadBadNotGood 'Late Night Tales'

Late Night Tales has delved into releasing excellent artist albums by acts such as Sasha and Khruangbin of late, but is back to the expertly crafted, artist-led compilations for this release. If you’re familiar with Canadian quartet BadBadNotGood’s work, then there are no huge surprises here: all of their major influences are covered, from classic 70s soul (Esther Phillips, Gene Williams) and bossa nova (Erasmo Carlos) to ambient electronica and alternative pop (Boards Of Canada, Stereolab, Admas), plus a smattering of tracks from contemporaries such as River Tiber and Thundercat. But what it lacks in surprises it makes up for in quality music. The Toronto boys have done a great job of mixing relatively obvious tracks like ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’ and ‘Don’t Talk…’ by The Beach Boys with more obscure cuts that’ll send you down the rabbit hole on a Spotify listening session. It’s already become a go-to mix in the Mixmag office; expect it to get heavy rotation in yours, too. Sean Griffiths

9/10

UMFANG 'Symbolic Use Of Light'

Emma Olson’s debut album for 1080p revealed an artist who made techno that mixed the rawness of its pioneers with the experimental approach of latter-day exponents such as Actress. Her latest project for Technicolour suggests she’s also an artist brimming with confidence. Live, Olson borders on the relentless, but all ‘Symbolic Use Of Light’ needs is a pair of good headphones and space for you to submit to its charms. Olson’s approach is simple without being naive and challenging rather than wilfully artsy, switching from the menacing ‘Weight’to the pared-back acid of ‘Pop’. ‘Where Is She’, meanwhile, is a gritty, minimalist stomp which, much like its creator, has the potential to be enormous. S Worthy

8/10

Various 'Q'

Sven Väth’s Cocoon imprint offers yet another instalment of future-facing productions with new compilation ‘Q’. Boasting 12 forward-thinking, pace-shifting heaters, the latest entry in Papa Sven’s alphabet series fuses acid, trance and house influences with the label’s trademark pumping-techno style. Kamran Sadeghi’s minimal ‘Anno Domini’ is a warm house bubbler, Alex & Digby’s ‘Da Dang’ is freaky with robotic vocals and Sebastian Mullaert’s ‘Ode To Be’ gets melodic before Baba Stiltz closes with the typically surrealist ‘All I Can (About You)’. But it’s Johannes Volk’s ‘Luminance’, Carlos Nilmmns’ ‘Fragile’, Rico Puestel’s ‘If I’d Care More’ and Söllscher & Siech’s ‘Pulse Train’ that are the peak-time highlights. Ben Jolley

8/10

Alejandro Mosso 'Isolation Music'

Third Ear Recordings has always been a dancefloor-focused label, but it also tends to operate a few steps to the left of standard dance genres. It’s a perfect fit, then, for this new album from Argentinian producer Mosso (his first in 12 years). Mosso has released on techno labels such as Cocoon, and a couple of the more predictable tracks here could still fit there – but most of the time his grooves are much more about loose, complex percussion than regular kicks and hi-hats. They unfold dreamily around drones and melodies, taking their own sweet time to get to dancefloor bliss. And, impressively, remixes from Ricardo Villalobos and Burnt Friedman only add to the album’s coherent atmosphere. Joe Muggs

7/10

Pantha Du Prince 'The Triad Ambient Versions'

Hendrik Weber’s fourth album as Pantha Du Prince, ‘The Triad’, brought in new elements – in particular, some dreamy vocals – but essentially trod familiar ground: the fine detail of 00s minimal house, with rippling melodies. It’s nice here to hear him changing tack here, then, as he strips away the house pulse from the same songs and lets them breathe. Occasionally, a rigid hi-hat pattern reminds you of the beat that’s not there, and it seems strange that he’s stripped most of the drifting voices, but for the most part it works beautifully – so much so, in fact, that one hopes it might signal a new interest in working in spaces away from familiar patterns. Joe Muggs

7/10

Toddla T 'Foreign Light'

Toddla T delves into new territory on his first release since 2012, fusing elements of gospel (‘Ungrateful’), funk (‘BlackJack21’), reggae (‘Foundation’), grime and dubstep (‘Foreign Light’). It’s a brave move to incorporate so many styles but, on the whole, it works. ‘Beast’ is the highlight, as Toddla’s Major Lazer-style dancehall beats kick in underneath a Michael Jackson-inspired vocal from singer Andrea Martin. But it’s at the halfway mark, when London rapper Stefflon Don arrives with a competition-destroying flow, that things shift up a few gears. Grime MC CasIsDead features on the 80s synth-led ‘Won’t Admit It’s Love’, while ‘Tribute’, a too-brief interlude featuring the king of grime, Wiley, is 64 seconds of bass-heavy energy. B Jolley

7/10

Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas 'Square One'

If you’ve caught Norwegian Disco Lights, the hugely entertaining documentary about Norway’s dance music scene, you’ll be aware of the hurdles its protagonists overcame: dislocation, prejudice, even weather. As Bjørn Torske says: “We were trying to escape the dull reality of living in Norway.” Luckily, it’s resulted in some of the funkiest, most experimental dance music of recent times, as proven by this hook-up between Torske and fellow Nordic legend Prins Thomas. The cuíca-driven balearica of ‘K16 del 1’ and avant-disco drive of ‘On U’ are standouts on an album of psychedelic grooves and tribal rhythms that unfurl with shimmering intensity. S Worthy

Toro Y Moi 'Boo Boo'

It’s been eight years since a musical movement characterised by lo-fi keys, gauzy beats and a summery sensibility started to swell over in the US. Its name, chillwave, started to take on negative connotations, albeit not before chief protagonists such as Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick built reputations for combining 80s synth pop smarts, alt-electronica and chillout. ‘Boo Boo’ is Toro Y Moi’s fifth album – evidence enough that Bundick’s music isn’t transitory – and winds its way through brittle alt-r’n’b (‘Windows’), shimmering cruising tunes (‘Girl Like You’) and Phoenix-style MOR synth-rock (‘Labyrinth’). Bundick says the LP was born out of a growing discomfort with fame. If so, he masks it well – listening to its gorgeous, woozy pop is like lying in a Radox bath. S Worthy

8/10

Karl Hyde & Matthew Herbert 'Fatherland (Original Music From The Stage Play)'

This is a strange one. A companion piece to a play written by Hyde with Simon Stevens and Scott Graham, it’s a set of lyrics created from interviews with people about their lives and experiences with fatherhood in the 21st century, sung by Hyde and set to a typically dense electronic backing by Herbert. If that sounds like hard work, then yes: it’s by turns bleak, odd and troubling, and the track structures are unorthodox to say the least. Yet in Hyde’s voice, it makes a strange sense, and Herbert is uniquely sensitive to the personality and meaning of a track. It can be tough going, but it’s really worth getting your teeth into. Joe Muggs

8/10

Washed Out 'Mister Mellow'

Calling his third album ‘Mister Mellow’ suggests it’s business as usual for Washed Out’s chillwave pioneer Ernest Greene. Instead, it’s something of a watershed release. Firstly, it’s a fully audiovisual record, with Greene commissioning animators to make films for each of its 12 tracks. And then there’s the musical direction: a languid mood pervades the LP, but Greene uses a variety of approaches – from musique concrete to samples from YouTube vlogs – to inject more energy. Perhaps its most appealing aspect is a red thread of summery deep house, headed up by the Dubtribe Soundsystem-style cosmic jam ‘Get Lost’. Our only gripe is with its brevity – 29 minutes is too short. S Worthy

7/10

Riddim Commission 'Riddim. Bass. Life.'

This isn’t exactly cutting edge. On the surface, its blend of commercial house beats, bashy garage basslines and dubbed-out rappers sounds like five years ago, when shufflers and nitrous still felt like a novelty. But though the bass tones are very 2010s, it’s also a throwback to much longer ago: the late 90s, when every man and his dog wanted to be Basement Jaxx or Groove Armada (in ‘Superstylin’’ mode), and created pretty much the base-level festival soundtrack sound (at least until electro-swing turned up. anyway). But that’s OK; now, as then, it works because every element is instant and infectious, and at no point does it do anything but pump hard. Sometimes, that’s all you need. J Muggs

6/10

Marcel Dettmann 'Selectors'

Depending on your inclination, you’ll probably either love or hate this selection, as techno pioneer Marcel Dettmann presents some new wave, synth-pop and industrial inspirations from his childhood in the GDR. Raised on the red side of the Berlin wall, Dettmann’s “pre-techno compilation” represents the emancipating power of old-school EBM and dance-punk. There are the iconic artists of the early electronic music era (Cabaret Voltaire, Front 242), as well as rare gems, re-edits and reworkings. Highlights include a previously unreleased track by US industrial metal band Ministry, and the breathy aspiration of ‘Happy Life’, a minimal dance number by Sweden’s Twice A Man. Steph Kretowicz

9/10

Session Victim 'Listen To Your Heart'

Session Victim have impressed us with their Vitamin D-soaked house before. For third LP ‘Listen To Your Heart’, the Hamburg-based duo recorded in San Francisco, and once again went rifling through record bins in order to find interesting sounds to sample. Their cratedigging has paid off, as evidenced by the revitalising melodies of ‘Shadows’; ‘Over And Over’, meanwhile, starts with jazz-streaked loops of guitar, before the stunning use of synths and Rhodes-led keys riffs transform its house vibes into playful disco, soul and understated euphoria.Some listeners may be waiting for an edgy, sharp breakaway to smack them in the chops, but there’s really no need when ‘Victims’ is such a brilliantly coherent fantasy. Leah Jade Connolly

7/10

London Grammar 'Truth Is A Beautiful Thing'

The production team on this album includes Jon Hopkins, Greg Kurstin and Paul ‘Adele’ Epworth: clearly, London Grammar mean business. Fuelled by the peerless pipes of singer Hannah Reid, the torch songs and late-night ballads on debut LP ‘If You Wait’ captured a genuine moment in time. The question is, can they do it again? Well, the bona-fide future-classic ‘Oh Woman Oh Man’, the soft-focused but laser-guided balladry of ‘Hell To The Liars’ and ‘Rooting For You’, and the title track are as good as anything on their debut – and in ‘Non Believer’, they may well have written their finest song yet. There’s plenty more where that came from and, in this day and age, that’s no mean feat. Ralph Moore

8/10

Various 'Reworks Volume One'

Erol Alkan has always been an astute indie-electronic producer and arranger, as his work with Kindness, Daniel Avery and Franz Ferdinand will attest. But his epic club reworks are the focus here, with mixes of New Order, Night Works, Justice and Hot Chip all taking the originals to a higher level. The best two – his Jacques Lu Cont-style eight-minute Tame Impala rework and that scorched analogue mix of Hot Chip’s‘Boy From School’ – are a reminder that, in a way, he was a more angular, Trash-y underground successor to Fatboy Slim and his pop-fuelled takes on Cornershop et al. Ralph Moore

8/10

Nídia 'Nídia é Má, Nídia é Fudida'

The red-hot Afro-Portugese club music Príncipe specialises in is usually released on 12” single and EP. Many of its artists are in the early stages of their careers, which is why a debut LP from Nídia (fka Nídia Minaj) is such a big deal. It’s a thrill to hear this music, made by an artist barely out of her teens, across a full LP. The tracks are short and sharp: ‘Mulher Profissional’ is class balie funk, ‘Underground’ nods to classic hip hop production, ‘I Miss My Ghetto’ recontextualises deep house, ‘Puro Taraxxo’ displays Portugal’s sensual side, and many of the other tracks evoke Nídia’s booming club performances. A stellar debut album, if there ever was one. Seb Wheeler

7/10