Scrapyard Mixtape by Quadeca Released 16 February 2024 Experimental Hip Hop / Emo Rap Label – deadAir Rating – 7.5/10 Quadeca’s emo emphasis prevails. – Quadeca is a complexity all-rounder. Like a quaint, distant setting in the age of the internet, he bundles the traditions of the human psyche with hip hop so experimental that it often ceases to be hip hop. His abstract ball knowledge has taken him far; I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You is one of the top albums, with the word ‘abstract’ attached, of the decade so far, and his Scrapyard EP series has proven that Quadeca can sleep-doodle and garner th ..read more

7s Album by Avey Tare Released 17 February 2023 Psychedelic Pop Label – Domino Rating – 6.5/10 – An unusual spectacle. As Panda Bear is booming, Avey Tare is simultaneously sobbing and meditating, killing two birds with one stone. 7s is his teary yoga session, par for the course where this particular abstract indie pop hero is concerned; guttering textures perennially up for interpretation, with many of the spectrum-hopping faculties of 2019’s Cows on Hourglass Pond in place – moments of sweetness, moments of nuttiness, you know what to expect. 7s is indie pop chopped up, grounded, blended an ..read more

I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You Album by Quadeca Released 10 November 2022 Folktronica / Art Pop Label – deadAir Rating – 6.5/10 Crafted with dedication, I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You is Quadeca’s creative breakthrough. – Released last year, From Me to You was less a demonstration of Quadeca’s impulse to release music, more a pledge to infuse creativity that would distance him beyond his YouTuber-to-musician contemporaries – particularly the rappers. It was still a rap album; I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You is not. If it is, it’s hip hop at its most humble, the counterargument being experimentalism at its ..read more

Animal Album by LUMP Released 30 July 2021 Folktronica Produced by Mike Lindsay Rating – 8/10 Mike Lindsay and Laura Marling’s second collaboration drifts with melody. – There is a wild, fragmented bridge in the title track of LUMP’s ‘Animal’, in which Laura Marling’s voice prioritises abyss-dwelling hallows over melody. Made up for by Mike Lindsay’s spritely synth lines, the track is one of the few from the duo’s second collaboration that abandons melody, as shuffling sequences of notes otherwise frequent proceedings. Such a pronounced stance on melody is something Laura Marling could do mor ..read more