Latest in what I think has been a great partnership between vocalist Josh Idehen and production duo LV. Excellent rap and spoken word over adventurous bass music production. Observations about the rhythms of city life (and life in general). Technically well executed, cohesive, catchy, entertaining. All the tracks are great. Also, check out their other collabs ("Routes" and "38 EP") which are of similarly high quality (as are LV's other productions). I've got a feeling this'll be one of my favorites of 2014.

RIYL: bass music, left-field rap, music about cities

1. bouncy and upbeat, but mostly dark. a little soca-ish? rubbery slightly buzzy bassline. small bright flourishes in the last bit. quick flows with lots of funny/catchy/worldweary lines. some of the best and most up-front MCing on the album. good opening line. 2:50
2. slow digital dub/reggae. shifting layers of videogame synths and effects, shuffling percussion. vocals kind of buried and intermittent, short images/observations of the city. increasingly dubby and chaotic from 2:30 on, drums drop out in the last :30. 3:30
3. short interlude, beatless and atmospheric, depressed pining over lost love. 0:56
4. FCC (“asshole”, but it’s hard to catch) the dim neon bleeps of old skream or benga, but low end’s sort of digital soca with a bit of grime. swirling 8-bit melody around 2:00. the inevitable demise of an overconfident tough guy. completely different sound, obviously, but lyrically reminds me of 2pac’s “shorty wanna be a thug”. angry delivery and beat. 3:46
5. bouncy, more digital soca flavor. beat lets space open for brief periods early on. some quick braggadocio MCing. around 1:30, everything (beat and vocals) starts getting chopped up, and things get increasingly frantic. 2:34
6. chugging heavy bassline and shuffling percussion, reminds me of burial’s later EPs, but cleaner and less fuzzy. lyrics about moving on from past regrets, well-trodden subject matter gets sold by delivery and production and brevity. short, but could work as a lead in to the next one. 1:18
7. shuffling 2-step inflected beat. four tet-esque chimes. other metallic things come in over the course of the song. gets a bit more hectic and clicky for a bit just before 2:00, beat drops out for a short while around 2:30. bassline gets a bit more growly in the last minute. vocals are often pitch shifted both ways and chopped in as another texture. 4:10
8. short interlude with verse, bass rumble, and ghostly synth washes. could be a lead in to the next track. 0:26
9. slow skanking menacing dubstep beat. enveloping sub-bass, loping snares. reminds me of distance’s productions. melody starts out as sparse bleeps, but new synth washes and textures and effects keep getting introduced slowly. ebbs and flows, builds up and feels dense at times, but never too busy. slow flows all around the beat. feels closer to american hip-hop than anything else on the album. 3:03
10. opens on warbly synth washes and echoed keys. more layers of that sort, with a slow bassline and very sparse percussion underneath. synths rise in intensity but get less densely layered towards the end. sounds like it’s about accepting death? 2:09
11. opens with hand drums that stay throughout. rising synth line bursts into drum and bass workout. chopped soundsystem chatter. heavy bass finally enters around 0:45. starts sounding a little evil just after 1:00, but brightens intermittently after 2:00. halftime skank on the home stretch. 4:42
12. slow bass washes, just a bit of percussion folded in on the last part. an ex finds a memento. 1:18
13. laid back shuffling drums, heavy bass comes and goes, swirling bright synth melodies. the joys of cutting loose on the weekend, like de la’s “a roller skating jam named saturdays” 20ish years later on the other side of the pond. ups the pace at the end. 4:55
14. rhodes with a touch of grit, slow jazzy drums. lyrics are short dubbed out mantras. 1:43
15. might flip the same drum sample as tricky’s “poems”? more traditional sounding instrumentation than anything else on the album, though construction is in line with everything else. slow jam about a comfortable but boring/stifling relationship. 3:31

recommended: 9, 1, 2, 7, 13, 5