August: 18 albums you need to hear this month

Floorplan 'Victorious' (M-Plant)

If he’d only ever made one record – the still-perfect-sounding 1994 reinvention of techno ‘Minimal Nation’ – Robert Hood’s place in music history would still be assured. But he’s kept on keeping on over the years, and particularly thanks to his disco-influenced Floorplan guise, is now at least as popular as he’s ever been. Here, he’s obviously gearing up for demolishing big dancefloors – notably with filter disco, jacking house grooves and inspirational gospel – but even though the dynamics are obvious, the panache in the delivery is something else. There’s even some ‘Minimal Nation’-style techno licks in ‘Mmm Hmm Hmm’ and ‘Ha Ya’ for the heads. It’s all pretty irresistible.

8/10

Shura 'Nothing's Real' (Polydor)

A pop superstar in the making, Shura grew up in Manchester, her mother a Russian actress and her father an English documentary filmmaker: unsurprisingly, she’s a smooth and smart operator with just a hint of La Roux’s melodic touch, especially on the deft pop stomper ‘Nothing’s Real’. The years spent pillaging her parent’s record and VHS collections have resulted in an album with lyrics as strong as the melodies, especially on the soaring synths of ‘What Happened To Us’ (“I’m no child but I don’t feel grown up”, she sings brilliantly). And the incredible closing salvo of ‘Tongue Tied’, ‘Make It Up, ‘2Shy’ and closer ‘White Light’ reminds us time and time again that Shura’s here to stay.

8/10

Nonkeen 'Oddments Of The Gamble' (R&S)

BACK AT THE turn of the year we brought you the extraordinary tale of Nonkeen. Three Germans who became friends in the 80s while still separated by the Berlin Wall, they later formed a band and eventually released their debut album ‘The Gamble’, an album of melodic, experimental electronica, in February. ‘Oddments Of The Gamble’, the second album from the trio of Nils Frahm, Frederic Gmeiner and Sepp Singwald, is less of a companion piece and more of a sibling with a different personality; there are occasional hints of the hypnotic, house-flavoured stylings and lo-fi soundscapes that characterised their debut, but here jazz, dark funk, classical and alt-rock play a more starring role. ‘Glow’ is dubby and fidgety and ‘World Air’ is gauzey shoegaze, while the spacey jam of ‘The Journey Of Hello Peter’ is infected with the spirit of soundtrack guru Lalo Schifrin and daubed with demonic bass and electric piano. Nonkeen’s is a uniquely haunting sound – and, they promise, there’s more still to come.

8/10

Bats For Lashes 'The Bride' (Parlophone)

Over the course of three Bat For Lashes albums and her side project Sexwitch, Natasha Khan has transformed into the queen of gothic pop, authoring tales of mystery, lust and dark forces. ‘The Bride’ is a concept album about a woman whose fiancé dies in a crash on the way to their wedding. The resulting love, loss and grief are classic Bat For Lashes subjects, and she does them considerable justice. From the harps and orchestral swells of brief but majestic opener ‘I Do’ to the throbbing noir of ‘In God’s House’ and the skippity synth rock of ‘Sunday Love’, the mood rises and falls in sympathy with its subject’s journey. It’s Khan’s most memorable record yet.

8/10

Conduct 'Borderland' (Blue Marten)

The music of London-Shropshire duo Conduct has as much in common with modern classical-electronic composers such as Max Richter, Johann Johannsson and Hans Zimmer as it does with d’n’b. But those looking for hectic floor-fillers should not be put off, since tunes such as the spacious ‘Bat Country’, the Vocoder-tinted ‘Faux’ and the sheer assault of ‘Divergence’ have the power to hold a floor. Perhaps the most intriguing cuts, however, explore a less-is-more ethos, from the pared back ‘Piano Tune’ to ‘Beta’s Error’, an ethereal ambient piece suddenly brought to life by scuttles of percussion. It’s a debut with something new to say about d’nb.

8/10

Factory Floor '25 25' (DFA)

The eponymous 2013 debut album from London trio Factory Floor proclaimed them as post-punk analogue experimentalists, with as many fans in the avant-garde indie scene as clubland. Now a duo, their second is starker and more minimal, full of machine threat and techno edge. Its eight tracks offer no tunes, just android, hypnotic power on cuts such as the revolving ‘Upper Left’ and the satirical ‘Dial Me In’, while there’s a flavour of sleep-deprived acid house on ‘Relay’ and ‘Meet Me At The End’. Throughout, and especially on the title track, the ghost of early Plastikman is never far away. ’25 25’ is a severe, uncompromising album, but the ones that like it will love it.

7/10