December: 18 albums you need to hear this month

Justice 'Woman' (Ed Banger Records)

When it comes to duos, Busy P must have some sort of magic radar that picks out pairings that will go on to cause worldwide uproar. Daft Punk, Cassius and Justice have all found their way to the top with Pedro’s backing, with the latter now releasing their third album after an agonising five-year wait. Their no-holds-barred approach to music-making won them global plaudits, but will they ever make an album like 2007’s ‘Cross’ again?

If ‘Woman’ is anything to go by then we’re not sure – but that doesn’t mean the quality has been sacrificed. The new album is undeniably disco-orientated and a distinct step away from their electro-tendencies of times gone by, but the crisp, clean production is ever-present and you can’t ignore that. Lead single ‘Safe And Sound’ is the suitably anthemic opener, with ‘Pleasure’ following that premise with dainty riffs and sultry vocals. The first half of the album goes down a Breakbot-esque route but, while we’re not adverse to it, we can’t help but miss that Justice ruggedness.

‘Chorus’ is slightly more sinister, its looping builds and majestic payoffs really getting the blood pumping, while ‘Randy’ starts off moody but quickly reveals itself to be a floaty ballad. ‘Heavy Metal’ and ‘Close Call’ are pretty exceptional, though, and in a live show we can imagine them acting as spellbinding interludes sandwiched between the fire from previous albums. ‘Woman’ is a really good record and an accomplished, confident body of work, but it may leave those hankering for something with more venom feeling a little impatient. Justice have matured in their sound, but we’ve still got that young mosher inside us waiting to be unleashed – and they want to fist pump. Jeremy Abbott

8/10

Jagwar Ma 'Every Now And Then' (Marathon Artists)

Jagwar Ma’s second LP is more of a rave than the Australian trio’s 2013 debut ‘Howlin’. Recorded between their native home and a French sunflower farm studio before being finished off in London with Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford, it frequently spirals into psychedelic-pop hedonism. ‘Say What You Feel’ and ‘Give Me A Reason’ are groove-laden standouts, ‘Batter Up’ boasts trippy beats and the bubbling production of ‘Don’t Mike It Right’ creates something out of very little. ‘O B 1’, meanwhile, is the euphoric highlight, its swelling synths and melodic pop chorus giving it crossover potential. The key, though, is that each track will slot effortlessly into their famously hypnotic live shows. Ben Jolley

8/10

Solange 'A Seat At The Table' (Saint Records/Columbia)

“Be weary of the ways of the world,” is Solange’s delicately crooned warning on the second track of ‘A Seat At The Table’. It’s understandable why she makes such a statement, given her father’s description of segregation as a child and her mother’s dismay at being unable to celebrate black culture without being called “anti-white” in the LP’s interludes. The struggles of black Americans is the main theme as she tenderly says she’s “got a lot to be mad about” on ‘Mad’ and defiantly claims “this shit is for us” on ‘F.U.B.U’. But instead of venting her frustration atop rage-fuelled instrumentals, a mix of calming melodies, synth twinkles and gentle piano chords take precedent. Album number three is her finest, and most topical, yet. Dave Turner

9/10

Prins Thomas 'Principe Del Norte Remixed' (Smalltown Supersound)

Given that Prins Thomas has over 300 remixes under his belt, it’s remarkable that his own work remains largely untouched. This collection of reworks, then, is a big deal. The best mirror Thomas’ penchant for grand scale, headed by Ricardo Villalobos’ typically labyrinthine King Crab remix of ‘C’, Young Marco’s groaning techno rework of the same track or The Orb’s eyebrow-raising Heaven Or Hell remix of ‘H’, with the veteran producers ditching their trademark ambience for spacey house. Other contributors, including Gerd Janson and Hieroglyphic Being, further embellish a package worthy of Prins Thomas’ impressively lofty values. Stephen Worthy

7/10

Playgroup 'Previously Unreleased' (Yes Wave)

Over recent months producer, designer, filmmaker and all-round renaissance man Trevor Jackson has fired out a series of 12” vinyl singles. They’ve featured unreleased material created during the making of his Playgroup project’s self-titled 2001 debut album. Now a mass of them (22 in all) appear in album form. They range from Trax-style acid house (‘Move My Body’) and straight dubs (‘Shadowplay Dub #2’) to electro cuts (‘Live At The Fun House’) and techno experimentalism (‘Hey Hey’). What they all have in common is a murky potency that’s hypnotic, unpolished and many miles from EDM. It’s not all gold, but there’s enough here to justify excitement among those who like their grooves dubby and dirty as soot. Thomas H Green

8/10

Mr G 'A Good Place...?' (Phoenix G)

Colin McBean’s third album in three years finds him in a more playful mood than on his recent offerings, which were produced under a cloud of bereavement. ‘A Good Place...?’ is still characterised by both a love of firmly rooted grooves and only using the barest ingredients to get you going, but this time he colours outsides the lines a little more. Stiff chords rub up against flailing percussion on ‘One For the Heads’ and smeared, expansive chords bring warm rays to ‘In The Sun Finally’, while ‘That Late Night Thought’ is the sort of muggy and effective banger with which G has become synonymous. It’s a case of subtle evolution rather than grand revolution, then, but while the dancefloor is again the main focus, the results are compelling. Kristan J Caryl

7/10

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

Empire Of The Sun 'Two Vines' (Virgin/EMI)

Australian duo Empire Of The Sun major in theatrical sci-fi opulence that sits well in the post-EDM universe, even while still not being entirely part of it. Singer Luke Steele tours the band, putting on lavish shows and usually wearing outrageous outfits; his production partner Nick Littlemore prefers to stay out of the limelight, although his Pnau project achieved a chart-topping LP with their 2012 Elton John collab ‘Good Morning To The Night’. Many of the songs on ‘Two Vines’ are catchy enough to make similar success plausible: the album was recorded in Hawaii at the same studio where Kanye West cut ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’, and Steele has spoken of spending his days surfing and his nights making music.

Its best points find Steele demonstrating the songwriting chops that made his Sleepy Jackson project so likeable, on tunes such as the bubbling title track and the epic ‘Digital Life’. Closing song ‘To Her Door’ has a nursery rhyme-simplicity: its loved-up chorus (“I feel better when we are together/I know it’s simple but I don’t care”) could be massive, but may also become very annoying, very quickly. Tropical dance-pop cuts such as ‘High And Low’, a song seemingly about psychedelic drugs, are far better examples of their skill. There remains something unknowable about them; their presence is always somewhat enigmatic, served only by the gilded sheen of their music which remains ornate but, crucially, as approachable as ever. Thomas H Green

7/10

Simian Mobile Disco 'Welcome To Sideways' (Delicacies)

With ‘Welcome To Sideways’, Simian Mobile Disco signal a return to the more stripped-down club aesthetic (and compilation format) of 2010’s ‘Delicacies’; many of the songs here were made and swiftly released as singles in a flurry of activity in early 2016. While it may be aimed at the dancefloor, it also wears some of the fuzzy, multi-textured elements of 2014’s ‘Whorl’, a record that saw SMD limit themselves to a couple of modular synths and sequencers as their tools. There are no such constraints this time. That said, there’s enough in the graceful deep techno and misty synths of ‘Far Away From A Distance’ and the subtly jacking ‘Flying Or Falling’ to satisfy both head and feet. Stephen Worthy

7/10

Scuba 'Fabric 90' (Fabric)

Scuba – that most uncompromising, energetic and dedicated of DJs – seems the perfect choice for this emotional instalment of the Fabric series. It’s a labour of love, with edits laid over each other in places like sheets of fine filo pastry. There are officially 19 tracks, but it takes 42 records for Scuba to build them from. Dense & Pika are on suitably dark and twisted form with ‘Crackling’, while Scuba combines techno greats of classic and contemporary vintages by working up Ben Klock’s ‘Point Blank’ with Carl Craig’s ‘Demented Drums’. A final footnote to this snapshot of classic, witching-hour Fabric is that all proceeds go to its fighting fund. Stephen Worthy

9/10

Illum Sphere 'Glass' (Ninja Tune)

Ryan Hunn is one of the best crate-digging DJs around, and the depth and breadth of his selection is jaw-dropping every time. As a producer, he’s moved through various phases: initially built around wonderfully uneven rhythms, then tending to hefty synth-house pumpers, now spacing out with intricate layers of what sound like hardware modular synths all over the shop. His skills with texture and track structure are now through the roof. Although the sounds are very 70s/early 80s, the intricacy and gloss is fully futurist. The topline melodies, though, are very simplistic. If they’d have been more expansive this could have been a masterpiece; as it is, it’s still a lush, embracing listen, with several properly transporting moments. Joe Muggs

7/10

Andrew Weatherall 'Consolamentum' (Rotters Golf Club)

Weatherall’s 2015 ‘Convenanza’ album was a mixed bag: quite subdued in both songwriting and arrangement, but concealing some fantastically odd nooks and crannies if you dug into it. This remix collection, though, brings the weirdness and wonder right to the surface. Over 12 tracks, his friends and colleages ramp up the dubbiness, the acidic electronic qualities and the gothic sewer reverberations to back up his cracked musings. It’s got all the variety and personality you’d expect from a Weatherall DJ set, and sounds at least as much like a coherent album as ‘Convenanza’ did. A glorious collaborative effort. Joe Muggs

8/10

Roman Flügel 'All The Right Noises' (Dial)

A good quarter of a century into his musical career, Roman Flügel is still capable of absolutely tearing up dancefloors with electro-techno that straddles credibility and mainstream impact as well as anyone in the game. Here, though, he’s in contemplative mode. This album is, by his own account, an antidote to the wild dancefloors he plays to every weekend – and though there is techno of sorts on ‘All The Right Noises’, it’s very much of a horizontal variety. In fact, the most successful and individualist tracks are the completely ambient ones. If there’s a fault here, it’s that we’d love these totally meditational tracks to be separated out from the more edgy, rhythm-led ones – but that’s just quibbling, really, because every track taken on its own merits is an absolute cracker, and the variety works to the album’s benefit as much as to its detriment. Undulating melodies, exquisite sparkling detail and a sense of vast space all add up to a blissful listening experience. Joe Muggs

8/10

Tuff City Kids 'Adolescent' (Permanent Vacation)

It seems appropriate that Tuff City Kids’ debut album begins with the clang of church bells that bookend the eerie analogue synth opener ‘Ophmar’. This project from veteran producers Gerd Janson and Phillip Lauer is a long-standing musical marriage from heaven that plants its feet firmly in the mid-80s. A small but perfectly formed line-up of guests addd extra value: Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard lends his vocals to the strutting electropop of ‘Tell Me’, while Annie’s saccharine tones blithely counterpoint the spiky Vince Clarke-style synths of ‘Labyrinth’. There’s also a welcome sighting of artful violin-playing polymath Kelley Polar on ‘Aska’ which, along with the bumpy, squelchy house of ‘Nordo’, is one of the album’s purest club moments. Stephen Worthy

8/10

Cristoph '8-Track' (Knee Deep In Sound)

Cristoph’s debut, the first from Hot Since 82’s ‘8-Track’ series, is definitely one of 2016’s finest. Best enjoyed as a continuous mix, it’s a consistent, hypnotic indication of the Newcastle producer’s intricately crafted, journeying DJ sets. ‘Closer’ sets the pace lightly, with dreamy, twinkling keys and a smooth vocal from Jinadu. ‘Rapture’, ‘Alone’ and ‘The Enemy Within’ all build momentum steadily: blending emotive, melodic house with darkening techno throbs taking the dancefloor towards 3AM. The trippy vocal loop and piano stabs of ‘Supreme Solace’ are tailor-made for the sunrise before the skilfully built-up ‘Perplexity’ becomes a monstrous highlight. Ben Jolley

9/10

Erick Morillo, Giorgio Moroder & Mark Brown 'Space Ibiza: 1989-2016' (Cr2)

Carl Cox: The Final Chapter and Space Closing on October 2 were two of the most historical parties in Ibiza memory. At the latter, Erick Morillo and Mark Brown delivered inside the club and out, with Erick playing ‘Rej’ and ‘Pasilda’ by Afro Medusa and Mark closing out with Pete Heller’s never-bettered ‘Big Love’. While Mark opts for a mix of house gems here, Morillo keeps things more current with productions from Claude VonStroke, Hot Since 82 and The Martinez Brothers. And while we’re still not sure if Moroder should have made the jump to laptop DJ, he does at least pick classics over bland Britney collabs – and the opening ‘Giorgio By Moroder’ is still brilliant. Ralph Moore

8/10

Ulrich Schnauss 'No Further Ahead Than Today' (Scripted Realities)

Ulrich Schnauss has always been a connoisseur’s favourite. His albums ‘Far Away Trains Passing By’ and ‘A Strangely Isolated Place’ are two of the best ever in Balearic circles, and his remixes for Depeche Mode, Howling Bells and more have consistently hit the spot. His new LP feels like a return to the resonance of his earlier work. Tracks such as ‘Melt Into Air’ and ‘Love Grows Out Of Thin Air’ demonstrate that Schnauss can still make you swoon from 50 paces. On ‘The Magic In You’, he heads down a scorched road that we wish Trentemøller had trodden for a little longer, while ‘Thoughtless Motion’ is celestial acid of the very highest order. Ralph Moore

8/10

Tiger & Woods 'On The Green Again' (T&W Records)

‘On The Green Again’ completes Tiger & Woods’ journey from fledgling edit kings to established disco dons. It’s their second album since 2011’s standout debut and is a fully realised, wholly accomplished affair that’s stuffed with colour, cosmic charm and boogie basslines. So sugary are its gushing tracks (all of which eschew their usual love of sampling) that your eyes will water as the pumping stabs and joyous arps ring out over and over. Thankfully, some more tender moments exist along the way, too, acting as a palate-cleanser before another dazzling assault of drums and squelchy keys. Flashes of 80s electro sleaze, throwback house and glossy diva vocals all add to the fun. Kristan J Caryl

8/10