One CD to come before the end of the year apparently...



Mu - Afro Finger and Gel

Album title of the year? Maybe not... Contender for album of the year? Again, maybe not - but it has "grower" written all over it and first impressions are positive. Basically what we have here is the kind of glitchy electronic music I like to think I'm a bit of a conisseur of, with English (spelling mistake intentional there) vocals. I'm loathe to use the term 'electroclash', but for once it's an appropriate term, but here the electro is clashing with just about everything: punk, bossa nova, a few classical flourishes. Very good stuff from a group and label (tigersushi, if your interested) that warrants further investigation



Cex - Maryland Mansions

If you've been paying attention to our boy Cex's website (which you haven't, but should), he's going through a bit of a NIN phase. This album shows, plenty of abrasive samples, introspective lyrics - the letter n of the title Maryland Mansions is even written backwards ala Nine Inch Nails. It's good, however there is a nagging feeling he can do much better - I hope he carries on making music, it would be a damn shame if someone with his obvious talents has to stop due to his financial/personal situation.



Soul Position - 8 million stories

Bit of a fib there since there are only 16 tracks, 17 if you count the hidden diss track - anyway, RJD2 on the wheels of steel (so obviously the beats are flawless) and Blueprint doing the rhymes who I have to say is a bit of an eye opener. Lyrically quite similar to Murs and Mr Lif since he is so damn real, his lyrics to 'Fuckajob' (a song about working in the I.T. industry) are scarily close to my current situation, consider the following line: "The best time of my career was at the start, I was doing extra hours, pouring out my little heart. Now it's hard for me to care knowing I'm just a resource on somebody's chart". Say's it all really...