Album: Mary Anne Hobbs - Wild Angels (2009)
Track: Floating Points - “Esthian III”

Part 1 // Part 2

If you want a good place to start in a search for the best of today’s crop of electronic/hip-hop beatmakers, this is as good as any. Mary Anne Hobbs is one of the world’s renowned DJ’s with her own weekly show on BBC Radio 1. She spins at clubs worldwide (in fact just got done with a U.S. tour) and, to put it simply, knows a good tune when she hears it. On Wild Angels, she puts together a smashing smattering of songs. This one will be on many end of the year “best of” lists, and that includes mine.

The album gets off to a somewhat inconspicuous start with Mark Pritchard’s “?” (question: do I put a period in that as the end of a sentence… weird). It’s a slow build-up song, with keyboard noise that crescendos in and out before the main theme comes in. A fantastic opening track, if you ask me (you didn’t, but I’m telling you). Following that is Hudson Mohawke’s “Spotted.” His debut album Butter just dropped, which I’ll have to put up soon, but it’s a good taste of his bizzare, chopped-up production style.

After Mike Slott’s funky goodness, the album gets a bit more focused, somewhat darker, but more danceable and, for lack of a better phrase, dubstep-y. The Brackles and Gemmy tunes bang hard, but none harder than Rustie’s twisted “Zig Zag.” The dubstep middle gives way after Starkey’s “Gutter Music V.I.P.” to the more chilled out ending, a chilled-out cool down after the party.

Of particular note: the Floating Points track (which you’re hopefully listening to at the moment) has some of that hard edge of the dubstep stuff, but on top of a smoother backdrop. Teebs is an up-and-comer from L.A. in Flying Lotus’ “Brainfeeder” camp and one to look out for. Appleblim’s closer “Within” has an improv-like sound as if it were the spacey build-up a deep electronic anthem but the beat doesn’t come down. Done to perfection.

Listening to the album front to back, you shouldn’t come down either.

Tracklist:

01. Mark Pritchard - ?
02. Hudson Mohawke - Spotted
03. Mike Slott - Knock Knock
04. Brackles - LHC
05. Gemmy - Rainbow Rd.
06. Untold - Discipline
07. Tranqill - Payroll (Paul White’s Clean Dub)
08. Architeq - Sleeping Bear Lament (TAKE Remix)
09. Rustie - Zig-Zag
10. Mono/Poly - Red And Yellow Toys
11. Hyetal - We Should Light A Fire
12. Starkey - Gutter Music V.I.P.
13. Darkstar - Videotape
14. Floating Points - Esthian III
15. Sunken Foal - Of Low Count And Light Pocket
16. Teebs - WLTA
17. Nosaj Thing - IOIO
18. Legion Of Two - And Now We Wa