Woptober, his second album as a free man, returns to the knotty, impenetrable rabbit holes of his storied mixtape run. [Jan 2017, p.77]

Now more than ever, political songs need engagement and direct prescription. In that respect Spirit rarely cuts it. But as with many DM albums, it can still resonate in quieter moments such as “Cover Me”, and the group’s continued existence is one of the great love affairs between man and machine in modern music. [Apr 2017, p.56]

Gane forgoes the intensifying momentum found elsewhere in his work for a more conventionally cinematic arc. [Aug 2020, p.52]

A mid-1970s Tangerine Dream vibe is more apparent than on previous Noveller albums, albeit still further removed from the trappings of rock music per se, and it largely comes off as a soundtrack in waiting for a film in which a hard-up community of 19th century nomads travel slowly across an arid plain. [Aug 2020, p.64]

The ideas are better realised here than on [Why?'s] earlier material. [#258, p.67]

Isles offers multiple reboots of the “Glue” formula: chunky broken beats, keening voices in many languages, and duvet-warm basslines, as on lead singles “Atlas” and “Apricots”; the latter is based around a clip of the much sampled Bulgarian State Television choir. Guest vocalist Clara La San adds a femme-pop twist to “Saku” and a tight electro jam called “X” which is the best of the bunch. [Mar 2021, p.61]

Rocky synthesises the cutting edge experiments of his peers into a more commercially polished product that lacks the eccentricity of its influences but is uniquely out there when compared to most mainstream fare. [Feb 2013, p.61]

It always feels uncomfortably like being trapped in someone's else's headspace. [Jul 2012, p.68]

There’s no denying that braggadocio has always been a key component of the genre but after a while it does become wearing when little more is on offer to elevate the tunes. What rescues the whole affair is Daniel Boyle’s dedication to the task at hand and his skills in bringing the rhythms and end mixes together, though with session input from the great but unsung UK reggae sessioneer Hughie Izachaar on guitar and bass plus old Upsetter Robbie Lyn on keyboards it’s enough to infuse any session with confidence. [Nov 2018, p.62]

Their second album feels more palatable. [Jul 2012, p.68]

The first two tracks showcase the oddity of the album’s moods. ... The tension grows to breaking point on the two vocal numbers, “Play The Ghost” and “Canyon Walls”, in which the barest suggestion of melodic form, coalescing out of scatters of organ drone and faded, looping instruments has to provide a support for Davachi’s Grouper-like laryngeal ectoplasm.[Oct 2020, p.52]

Exo alternately provokes astonishment at its kitschiness and the sensual thrill of its dazzling inhumanism, but that's probably the whole point. [Aug 2012, p.58]

Ab-Soul music fuses street-level concerns with the sort of erudite, rhyme scheme-fixated wordplay more commonly associated with rapper who value beats and rhymes over life. [Jul 2012, p.71]

RAP Music is a self conscious throwback sonically, lyrically and even visually.

Musically, the songs favor stripped-down and straight ahead garage rock production values, often driven by organ chords. [Jul 2013, p.65]

A high-level concept album that never wastes a note. [#266, p.59]

These heavily layered, smoothly produced compositions emit occasional warmth, but coolness is the prevailing order; the intricacies of arrangement demand admiration but fall short of engendering a more heartfelt response. [#204, p.68]

Fall To Pieces exists in this oxymoronic hinterland of nihilism and resilience, evocative of the contradictions of grief. [Oct 2020, p.64]

[JR Robinson] edited them later into a musical Frankenstein breathing life into the stories of monsters. [Sep 2016, p.59]

The set concentrates on one style and tends to accentuate the crossover aspects of its kinship with house and techno. [Aug 2015, p.55]

The album primarily features solo guitar, harmonica and lap steel, all cloaked in gauzy atmospheres, and often conjuring mental images of a sprawling, rural America. The most compelling moments on the album make a hazy blend of guitar twang and swirling electronics, as on “Outskirts, Dreamlit” whose nostalgic melody tumbles almost without a sense of time. [May 2022, p.52]

It feels rough and raw and sketchy. [#245, p.69]

At heart they're still most comfortable plying scruffy barstool romanticism woven from the same plaid as contemporaries The Replacements and Dinosaur Jr. [Aug 2015, p.58]

The whole album has a distinct and mothball-smelling late 90s vibe, the parts gelling with a certain clunkiness that characterised their last album Low Impact, as if the two were taking a vacation in their own pasts. Like other people’s holidays, it isn’t always as fun for the onlookers as it may have been for them. Nevertheless, Analogue Creatures features some genuinely lovely work. [Dec 2016, p.60]

Names of North End Women is marginally the more engaging of the two albums, possibly due to the previous creative relationship between Ranaldo and Refree. But All Hands Around The Moment actually illustrates most compellingly the contributions of each collaborator. [Feb 2020, p.55]

His first Ninja Tune album Providence showcases an altogether darker side. [Apr 2017, p.62]

Much of their output since has been consolatory rather than essential, and ultimately Clone Of The Universe can’t quite escape that tag, but Fu Manchu remain justly loyal to old production values--absurd amounts of bottom end and tube fuzz, basically. [Mar 2018, p.58]

Jeezy may have the most charismatic voice in rap now--a fierce but fine-gravel shout that hits your ears soft like a whisper--and his beat selection remains pitch perfect--but Jeezy still doesn't realise that selling drugs was good only for Jeezy. He's a cartoon, a proforma thug, and when he tries to relate he fails miserably. [Dec 2008, p.74]