Bram E. Gieben
Varied, textured, gorgeously produced, and with a light and airy sense of space, it's a beautiful work, communicating a sense of craftmanship from its opening riff to its final beat.
11y
It is replete with sheet-metal distortion, 808s that bang like helicarriers under missile fire, and ferociously-spit double-time lyrics.
12y
There are duff moments ... But tracks like Coal suggest that Sole has found the perfect beats to complement his flow – bass-laced and minimal, aimed squarely at the club soundsystem.
11y
She effortlessly melds the personal and the political, an inspiring writer, subverting rap narratives and 'hood tales with a sharp eye for human behaviour, always creating compelling characters and precise, technical rhymes.
12y
Her lyrics are claustrophobic confessionals, her songs immaculate dirges and murder ballads.
12y
As a classically-trained multi-instrumentalist, he fills Blue Film with interesting compositional approaches and orchestral flourishes, while retaining a sparse, roomy minimalism.
12y
This record is a mess – both under-written and over-crowded, with CEO's CEO Eric Berglund seemingly determined to fit a series of square pegs into round holes.
12y
More confident, more coherent, and with much more depth than his debut, this feels less like a self-indulgent project from a director and artist who has decided to experiment with a new form, and more like a youthful artist, full of promise, finding his distinctive voice for the first time.
12y
With Run The Jewels, El-P and Killer Mike deliver an object lesson in the first principles of hip-hop. The beats are a showcase in minimalist effectiveness – walking the line between sick, infectious loops, and breaks and bridges which mirror and emphasise the stress-points of the lyrical content.
12y
His melancholic songs, sung by oOoOO himself and collaborator ML, recall Rodney Jerkins at his best – plaintive, broken-hearted R&B, rather than the shiny, aggressively sexual noughties variant.
12y
As a whole, the album is stagnant; at times deeply unpleasant. What could have been a showcase of underground musical ideas, and a chance to elevate his lyrical concerns against a darker-hued backdrop, has been utterly wasted.
12y
Melodic pop hooks underpin every track – there is not a single moment of the difficult experimentalism or brag-rap posturing that marred more recent albums
12y
There's a pretty strong six track EP in here, but at sixteen tracks, Wolf is mostly flab and fluff.
12y
Love This Giant isn't career-best material from either artist, sometimes lacking the kind of wilful experimentation we've come to expect from both.
12y
The real triumph of Held is emotional – rarely has instrumental electronic music been so heartfelt; simultaneously transcendent, uplifting, stately and sad. Absolutely exquisite.
12y
This is glistening, perfect pop music with a vein of cold, dark intelligence running through it. Utterly enchanting.
12y
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