Disc of the Day Celebrates 10 Years of Album Reviews

DISC OF THE DAY - 10 A significant birthday for theartsdesk's daily music reviews section

Theartsdesk's daily music reviews section reaches a significant birthday

Ten years ago yesterday, on Monday 14th February 2011, one of theartsdesk’s writers, Joe Muggs, reviewed an album called Paranormale Aktivitat, by an outfit called Zwischenwelt. It was the first ever Disc of the Day, a new slot inserted into theartsdesk’s front page design, where it still resides today.

Album: [MONRHEA] - her[ART]

★★★ [MONRHEA] - her[ART] Debut from female Kenyan electronic producer showcases innovation and possibility

Debut from female Kenyan electronic producer showcases innovation and possibility

The debut album from one woman outfit [MONRHEA] shows off the seriously impolite electronica that’s blossoming in East Africa. Electronic sounds from Africa are over-represented in Europe by jolly pop and elegantly faceless house music, but there’s a whole lot more going on.

Album: Footsie - No Favours

★★★★ FOOTSIE - NO FAVOURS The grime mainstay's first album is here

It's only taken two decades but the grime mainstay's first album is here

Footsie might not have the profile of a Skepta or Wiley, or even his Newham Generals partner and recent IKEA advert soundtracker D Double E. But anyone halfway schooled in grime will know that both as MC and producer he's a key player from grime's original generation, and still a pillar of the scene. Amazingly, though, despite the fact he's released a couple of mixtapes and four compilations of his instrumentals, he's never made an official solo album until now. So given that, since his beginnings in N.A.S.T.Y.

Album: Hodge - Shadows in Blue

★★★★ HODGE - SHADOWS IN BLUE Bristol techno-dub mainstay releases overdue first album

Bristol techno-dub mainstay releases his first album a full decade into his career

For underground music producers, there almost always comes a phase in life when they accept they're no longer young guns and embrace either massively complicated synthesisers, floaty new age music, or both. For Bristol-based Jake Martin aka Hodge it's the latter. This, his debut album after a decade releasing a couple of dozen EPs on connoisseurs' favourite labels and DJing around the world, has all the signifiers.

Albums of the Year 2019: Terror Danjah - Invasion

★★★★★ ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2019: TERROR DANJAH - INVASION One of grime's earliest production pioneers at the top of his game

One of grime's earliest production pioneers at the top of his game

This is a bittersweet recommendation to make.

CD: James Blake - Assume Form

Figurehead of blubstep grows up

There is an inevitable change that comes with moving from the realms of self-produced bedroom blubstep to slickly-produced West Cali smoothness that will cause chaotic realms of loss of self, fans and at some level, originality. But let’s not forget – this is surely what Blake has always been aiming for.

10 Questions for DJ / producer Rob Smith of Smith & Mighty

Bristol bass movers and shakers rightly getting their due

Rob Smith & Ray Mighty are truly the unsung heroes of British bass music. Coming out of the same cultural melting pot in Bristol that gave us Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead and mega-producer Nellee Hooper, they looked to be among the city's big successes when they first emerged in 1987.

Best Albums of 2018

THE ★★★★★ ALBUMS OF 2018 SO FAR You need to hear these

theartsdesk's music critics pick their favourites of the year so far

Disc of the Day reviews new albums, week in, week out, all year. Below are the albums to which our writers awarded five stars. Click on any one of them to find out why.

 

Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crécy and Delilah Holliday - B.E.D. ★★★★★ A small but perfectly sleazy work of sweary, cynical brilliance

CD: Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of

Globe-straddling experimentalist in bamboozlingly confident form

Everything on this record changes shape. One moment in “RayCats” Far Eastern instrumentation is being glitched beyond recognition, then suddenly it sounds like something from a relaxation tape. “Same” shimmers and twists between 20th century avant-classical, Depeche Mode at their stadium peak and pure electronic sound.

CD: Young Echo - Young Echo

Bristol's deep and strange roots throw up gnarled new shoots

Young Echo is a sprawling Bristolian collective, comprised of individual musicians Jabu, Vessel, Kahn, Neek, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Manonmars, Bogues, Rider Shafique, chester giles [sic] and Jasmine, who combine and re-combine in various permutations like Bandulu, FuckPunk, O$VMV$M, Gorgon Sound and ASDA. But here, for the second time in album format, they've put everything together under the one name and allowed it to blur together into something that is, frankly, very, very Bristol indeed.