October: 18 albums you need to hear this month

Yello 'Toy' (UMC)

The peculiar Swiss electropop duo of Boris Blank and Dieter Maier have been operating since the late 70s, and have got around a bit since then: who else, for example, could have both featured in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and been remixed by Andrew Weatherall? On this showing, they’re just as weird and just as wonderful as ever. The first thing that’s noticeable is just how inventive Blank’s synth work still is: whether for floating sunrise ballads, darkly rippling ambient pieces or pumping glam-pop, his sounds bubble and blurt in super surprising ways. Meanwhile, despite being 71, Maier’s urbane persona is as funny, funky and disquieting as ever, and this album is a righteously fresh addition to their catalogue.

8/10

Durrty Goodz 'Hungry Belly' (Tru Thoughts)

It’s great to see so many of the finest MCs of grime’s old guard – Skepta, Kano, Flowdan – making rock-solid albums this year, and it’s great to see Durrty Goodz among them, too. He’s known as one of the scene’s best lyricists, and in recent years has diverted towards more conscious UK hip hop. Here, though, he’s back to his roots: over rugged grime beats with a seasoning of trap and dub, his only subject matter is merking MCs, making money, getting girls and generally being a bad bastard. And it’s glorious. It feels like he’s having huge fun with it, the wordplay is amazing as ever and if it isn’t quite the structured album that labelmate Flowdan’s was, the individual tracks are fire.

7/10

Machine Drum 'Human Energy' (Ninja Tune)

Travis Stewart always has a project on the go, whether solo as Machinedrum, with Braille’s Praveen Sharma as Sepalcure or alongside Jimmy Edgar as JETS. With Machinedrum, Stewart synthesises his love for the hyperactive rhythms of footwork, dancehall and the UK bass continuum. ‘Human Energy’, he says, is inspired by falling in love and discovering healing and meditation. Stewart has long had a knack for creating grin-inducing, uplifting tunes. Now it’s dawned on him that marrying sweet but complex melodies with earthquake bass could have max commercial impact, Major Lazer-style, with the right vocalists. If the aim of both ‘Dos Puertas’, a grinding, quasi-trap freakout with Rihanna collaborator Kevin Hussein, and ‘Angel Speak’, an insanely catchy synth-horn grind with Melo-X, is dancefloor annihilation then they succeed with room to spare. Subtle? Nope, not really. But it’s hugely fun and definitely full of ‘Human Energy’, ensuring that it’s an album well-named.

7/10

Murcof x Vanessa Wagner 'Statea' (InFiné)

You can hardly move for atmospheric neo-classical albums right now, and Mexican producer Fernando Corona, aka Murcof, deserves respect as a major forerunner of the movement. His releases have blurred experimental orchestral music with refined dub techno and glitchy ambient for over a decade now, and here, he and pianist Wagner turn their attentions to compositions by 20th century composition maestros such as John Cage, Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass... and Aphex Twin, too. It constantly shifts, from mournful underwater ambience to simple, floating beauty. It’s not Murcof’s most radical record, but it might be his most accessible.

7/10

Various 'Cocoon Compilation P' (Cocoon Recordings)

Cocoon’s newest compilation is the sonic equivalent of being abducted by techno-loving aliens from a strobe-filled Amnesia. Mirko Loko’s off-kilter ‘Artificiel’ starts slow before Wouter De Moor’s acid-tinged ‘Tesla Coil’ kicks in with punchy synths. Rhythm Factory’s ‘N.2guts’ continues the otherworldly journey, before percussive beats transform into robotic voices on Redshape’s futuristic ‘The Choice’. La Fleur’s ‘Chemicality’ is six minutes of spaced-out euphoria and Alex Bau’s ‘The Whip’ is pulsing, chugging techno. Ilario Alicante delivers a main-room monster in ‘Rising Lines’, though it’s left to Jacob Korn’s ‘You Fill Me’ and Atelier Francesco’s sombre ‘All This Is For A Jump’ to bring us back to earth.

8/10

AlunaGeorge 'I Remember' (Island Records)

AlunaGeorge’s second album offers a distinctly 2016 soundtrack to the summer. Bolder and with increased confidence, ‘I Remember’ sounds more succinct and complete than 2013 debut ‘Body Music’. The swaggy synths of ‘Full Swing’ sound like what Major Lazer might come up with for Rihanna and mysterious producer ZHU lends his hip hop beats to the sensual ‘My Blood’, while ‘Not Above’ and ‘Hold Your Head’ are clear festival anthems. Aluna leads the charge on album highlight ‘Mean What I Mean’, welcoming US rapper Dreezy and hip hop hotshot Leikeli47 to deliver fiery bars. ‘I’m In Control’ boasts Popcaan’s sunny dancehall flavours before ‘Heartbreak’ and ‘Jealous’ bounce with energy.

8/10

Various 'Hostel La Torre Ibiza: Volumen Uno' (Hostel La Torre Recordings)

The word ‘Balearic’ is becoming over-used, but Mark Barrott (who compiled this comp with Pete Gooding at Hostal La Torre) insists that “it’s not the type of ‘Balearic’ music you’re going to be hearing elsewhere in Ibiza”.
New names such Francis Bebey and Domenique Dumont sit alongside ice-cold chill from Spooky, Cantoma and Hatchback. Highlights include Harvey’s soulful remix of Planet Funk and the spine-tingling ‘Air A Danser’
by Penguin Café Orchestra, which is underpinned by Spanish guitar. It’s as good as the seminal Café Del Mar comps from the mid-90s – and that’s firm, not faint, praise.

9/10