Playground magazine

Discos

Reviews

Reloaded | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Roc Marciano

Reloaded

Artist: Roc Marciano

Record Label: Decon Records

Genre: hip hop

Roc Marciano manages to blow up several rules of underground hip-hop: with hardly any fat beats, designing a dreamy, surreal mood, and achieving a narcotic effect, the New York rapper delivers a spectacular album on which he tells us the secrets of his success.

Read More »
Trilogy | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

The Weeknd

Trilogy

Artist: The Weeknd

Record Label: Universal

Genre: pop, R&B

Universal reissues The Weeknd’s three famed mixtapes, adding only three new songs and Drake’s collaboration on one cut. Nothing else is needed to make one of the future’s most fascinating music collections official.

Read More »
(III) | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Crystal Castles

(III)

Artist: Crystal Castles

Record Label: Universal

Genre: pop, Noise, trance

After several delays, the Crystal Castles' awaited third album is finally coming out. They don't disappoint, and show they still have great things to say for years to come.

Read More »
Diversions 1994-1996 | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

Lee Gamble

Diversions 1994-1996

Artist: Lee Gamble

Record Label: PAN

Genre: ambient, hauntology

Lee Gamble delivers a fascinating mini LP full of phantasmagoric ambient, built from heavily manipulated intros and interludes from old drum'n'bass anthems from 1994-1996. Top-notch hauntology.

Read More »
Monotonprodukt 07 | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Monoton

Monotonprodukt 07

Artist: Monoton

Record Label: Desire Records

Genre: experimental, minimal

The definitive release of one of the most influential, and at the same time unknown, electronic records in history is finally here: repetitive sequences and rhythmic monotony, the most primitive origin of minimal techno, now available again on double vinyl.

Read More »
Luxury Problems | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Andy Stott

Luxury Problems

Artist: Andy Stott

Record Label: Modern Love

Genre: Techno, experimental, dub

Andy Stott delivers his first album after his 2011 slowed-down techno diptych, and manages to close a trilogy in which he found new ways of expression for experimental dance music. This time with piano and voice, looking for an exit towards the light.

Read More »
Night Within | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

L A N D

Night Within

Artist: L A N D

Record Label: Important Records

Genre: experimental, post-rock, ambient, Drone

L A N D is a project directed by two English artists who don’t participate directly in the creation of the music, but rather give orders to a constellation of stars of the experimental underground (David Sylvian included), to put out a dark album on the outskirts of dark post-rock and ambient-jazz.

Read More »
Techno Primitivism | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Juju & Jordash

Techno Primitivism

Artist: Juju & Jordash

Record Label: Dekmantel

Genre: Techno, experimental, dub

Scuba-diving willy-nilly in the industrial dub tradition of the 70s, analogue proto-techno, electro-acoustic music, and the origins of Detroit, Israeli-Dutch duo Juju & Jordash have shaped a slippery, novel sound that will set a new example for techno in 2012.

Read More »
Jiaolong | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Daphni

Jiaolong

Artist: Daphni

Record Label: Jiaolong

Genre: house, disco, afrobeat

With “Jiaolong”, Daphni’s first long work, Dan Snaith crystallises his fruitful vision of dance music, releasing a magnificent argument for the expressive richness of music made for clubs.

Read More »
Lonerism | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Tame Impala

Lonerism

Artist: Tame Impala

Record Label: Modular Recordings

Genre: rock, pop, psychedelia

Kevin Parker returns to the Tame Impala project to give 21st-century psychedelic pop a new consistency, warmer and with ample pop openings. Somewhere between the Beatles and Flaming Lips, between boundless pleasure and hypnosis. An album to lose yourself in.

Read More »
No Love Deep Web | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Death Grips

No Love Deep Web

Artist: Death Grips

Record Label: Self-released

Genre: hip-hop, hardcore

Death Grips have put out the second album they were supposed to release this year for free, after their label decided to keep it on the shelves until sometime in 2013. There are no surprises in the sound, but it's highly vital at a moment when we need exciting music.

Read More »
Zodiac | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

Zodiac

Zodiac

Artist: Zodiac

Record Label: Vase

Genre: house, ambient, R&B, Bass

Zodiac, The Weeknd's first producer, makes his solo debut with a sound in the vein of the Tri Angle label: a spectral mix of house beats, muffled bass lines, high-pitched voices and languid textures. Lovely.

Read More »
Late Nights With Jeremih | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Jeremih

Late Nights With Jeremih

Artist: Jeremih

Record Label: Mixtape

Genre: R&B

Without artistic impositions or sales expectations, Jeremih invites us to spend the night frolicking with him. “Late Nights With Jeremih” is an almost perfect R&B mixtape, on which the genre recovers timelessness, and on which the young Chicago artist challenges The-Dream for the title of record of the year.

Read More »
Sketches From New Brighton | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Loscil

Sketches From New Brighton

Artist: Loscil

Record Label: Kranky

Genre: dub, ambient

True to his style, Loscil once again shows he's one of the most solid artists in modern ambient. His new album, born from the contemplation of ships in a harbour, recovers the beat and sculpts brittle textures full of autumn melancholy.

Read More »
Shields | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Grizzly Bear

Shields

Artist: Grizzly Bear

Record Label: Warp

Genre: art-pop

It's not as sumptuous and complex as “Veckatimest”, but it does sound like an evolved and fascinating version of “Yellow House”, possibly the perfect fusion of modern psychedelia and the avant-garde rock of Radiohead. Grizzly Bear nailed it again.

Read More »
Coexist | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

The XX

Coexist

Artist: The XX

Record Label: Young Turks

Genre: pop, minimal pop

The xx's second album follows the path set out on their debut. Seeing as reinvention was impossible, with a sound as iconic and singular as theirs, they chose to fine-tune their technique, going for minimalism and occasional stabs of electronica.

Read More »
The Seer | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Swans

The Seer

Artist: Swans

Record Label: Young God Records

Genre: rock, experimental, Noise

The 2010 return of legendary experimental band Swans resulted in an exceptional album. “The Seer” raises the stakes, and offers an even spikier trip to the heart of noise, folk, drone and doom darkness. A record that leaves you marked and consumed.

Read More »
Held | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Holy Other

Held

Artist: Holy Other

Record Label: Tri Angle Records

Genre: ambient, R&B

Holy Other's debut album, a complex cocktail of ambient and R&B, cannot be listened to superficially: its 37 minutes contain a complexity of structures and poetic stimuli requiring deep and attentive listening. With sheer beauty as a reward.

Read More »
Pink | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Four Tet

Pink

Artist: Four Tet

Record Label: Text Records

Genre: Techno, house, electronic, Broken Beat

In “Pink”, Four Tet compiles the vinyls released on his label, Text, over the last two years (to which he adds a couple of new songs) and he proves that his vision is one of the most significant on the current electronic music scene.

Read More »
Devotion | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Jessie Ware

Devotion

Artist: Jessie Ware

Record Label: PMR Records, Island Records

Genre: pop, house, soul

After weeks of clues and announcements, Jessie Ware is finally releasing her debut LP, on which she intelligently and elegantly vindicates the adult soul of divas like Sade and Annie Lennox, with hardly any interferences from the language of modern soul.

Read More »
Anastasis | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Dead Can Dance

Anastasis

Artist: Dead Can Dance

Record Label: 4AD

Genre: ambient, world music, Modern Classical

16 years after their last album, the duo Dead Can Dance come back to life with “Anastasis”. It’s a symbolic, telluric, and mystical album in their usual vein, but with a more decided look towards the mysteries of Oriental civilisation.

Read More »
TNGHT | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

TNGHT

TNGHT

Artist: TNGHT

Record Label: LuckyMe, Warp

Genre: hip-hop, Bass

Hudson Mohawke and Lunice collaborate as TNGHT to forge five club bangers that start from Southern hip hop and evolve in a demented spiral, with bouncy grime bass lines and trippy sounds. This project must go on.

Read More »
Playin Me | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Cooly G

Playin Me

Artist: Cooly G

Record Label: Hyperdub

Genre: pop, house, dubstep, Uk Funky

After two years of silence, during which she dedicated herself to being a mother of two, Cooly G has the difficult task to pick up her career where she left of in 2010. She does the job with an adult bass album, bordering on pop and with a strong charge of nostalgia for the feminine side of rave culture.

Read More »
The Face EP | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

Disclosure

The Face EP

Artist: Disclosure

Record Label: Greco-Roman

Genre: house, 2step

We knew them when they were still promising teenage dubsteppers and now we come across them again, with their recently released debut 12”, masterfully dominating the language of deep house. Disclosure marks the present of the London underground.

Read More »
Lucifer | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Peaking Lights

Lucifer

Artist: Peaking Lights

Record Label: Weird World

Genre: pop, dub, easy listening

Songs led by the weight of dub bass lines, but with more clarity, transparency, and a halo of easy listening: that's how Peaking Lights sound now, one of the most outstanding bands of 2011, continuing their popular growth with the notable “Lucifer”.

Read More »
Lay Hollow | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

Howse

Lay Hollow

Artist: Howse

Record Label: Tri Angle Records

Genre: ambient, Footwork

Nocturnal passages with moonlight and a wolf howling in the distance. Dense layers of ambient and poisoned nostalgia, with footwork rhythms underneath: Howse’s sound brings together different underground influences and harmonises them in a first-class debut EP.

Read More »
Rift EP | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

Pariah

Rift EP

Artist: Pariah

Record Label: R&S Records

Genre: Bass, post-dubstep

After a year and a half of silence, Pariah is back with three new bass explorations that show he hasn't lost his touch. However, he has lowered the intensity, delivering some slow pieces with a broad sound, sacrificing the beat.

Read More »
The Lost Tapes | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Can

The Lost Tapes

Artist: Can

Record Label: Mute Records

Genre: ambient, krautrock

Finally, the much anticipated re-mastering and release of all the material discovered in the old Can studios, presented by Mute in a deluxe box set. Three CDs worth of discarded tracks, Kraut-rock improvisation and rarities, adding to the legend of the Cologne band.

Read More »
Europe | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Allo Darlin

Europe

Artist: Allo Darlin

Record Label: Fortuna Pop!

Genre: pop, twee pop

A sincere declaration of love to pop, recovering the sweet harmonies of twee pop of the early nineties and the best moments of labels like Sarah Records. Naïve pop executed masterfully and brightly. That's Allo Darlin’s second album.

Read More »
Heaven | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

The Walkmen

Heaven

Artist: The Walkmen

Record Label: Fat Possum Records

Genre: rock

The Walkmen continue on their exquisite track: delivering sombre records with sad and breath-taking songs founded on rock and country. They appeal to the deepest of emotions, sounding like the most contemporary among all the classically styled bands.

Read More »
Valtari | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Sigur Rós

Valtari

Artist: Sigur Rós

Record Label: XL Recordings

Genre: post-rock, ambient

The pop songs have vanished, the euphoria gone up in smoke: on their new LP, Sigur Rós (partly) return to their roots and deliver their most contained, ambient and sad album. A reflection of the state of Europe? Possibly, or maybe it's much more than that.

Read More »
Modern Driveway | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

Luke Abbott

Modern Driveway

Artist: Luke Abbott

Record Label: Notown

Genre: IDM

Luke Abbott temporarily switches over from Border Community to Notown, but he doesn’t trade in any of his aesthetic traits — colourful IDM and vintage analogue textures — or his moment of grace. He is at the forefront of current British electronica.

Read More »
Cancer For Cure | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

El-P

Cancer For Cure

Artist: El-P

Record Label: Fat Possum Records

Genre: hip-hop

El-P has a unique sound he continues to refine and polish on this album, achieving the level of darkness and menace he's always been after. “Cancer For Cure” does not disappoint: it's another sonic blow to the stomach.

Read More »
The Complete Spiral EP | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

DJ Sprinkles & Mark Fell

The Complete Spiral EP

Artist: DJ Sprinkles & Mark Fell

Record Label: Comatonse

Genre: house

Two experimental activists team up for a house project based on the music of New York in the early 90s, but with a promising modern sound. There's good chemistry between DJ Sprinkles and Mark Fell. When will the album come out?

Read More »
Quarantine | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Laurel Halo

Quarantine

Artist: Laurel Halo

Record Label: Hyperdub

Genre: ambient, Drone

Getting rid of most of the dream-pop traces and dance beats of her early EPs, Laurel Halo delivers an asphyxiating debut album, reflecting on the lack of communication and solitude of modern times.

Read More »
Arem EP | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

Stay+

Arem EP

Artist: Stay+

Record Label: Ramp Recordings

Genre: rave, synth-pop

“Arem” is the first EP with all new material by Stay+, and it's also the one on which they most combine their rave sounds with pop, without renouncing the mystery of their early releases.

Read More »
Bloom | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Beach House

Bloom

Artist: Beach House

Record Label: Bella Union

Genre: dream-pop, shoegaze

Between luxurious psychedelics, half-awake dream-pop, and translucent shoegaze - “Bloom” gains in impact, liveliness and sensitivity with respect to its already-exultant predecessor. If the Baltimore duo’s songs were planets in “Teen Dream”, in “Bloom” they are true galaxies. Without a doubt, a masterpiece.

Read More »
Exercises | PlayGround | Last Reviews
EPs

CFCF

Exercises

Artist: CFCF

Record Label: Paper Bag Records

Genre: pop, Modern Classical

CFCF has slowed down his music and sought out a wider space. “Exercises” is his most exciting, personal work so far; based on the use of the piano and a singular approach to pop, new age and Impressionism.

Read More »
Grief Pedigree | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

KA

Grief Pedigree

Artist: KA

Record Label: Iron Works Records

Genre: hip-hop, rap

New York is once again a violent, dirty, dangerous city in the raw, realistic rhymes of rapper KA. Furthermore, the beats are slow, harsh, solid rhythms that back up a lyrical trip through hell. Best hip hop album of the year? It looks to be.

Read More »
Da Mind Of Traxman | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Traxman

Da Mind Of Traxman

Artist: Traxman

Record Label: Planet Mu

Genre: house, Footwork

Cornelius Ferguson, a veteran of the Dance Mania era, releases an LP as Traxman on which juke house comes to maturity. Forget the cliché of hammering phrases and runaway beats: there's quite a bit more to it here.

Read More »
All Hell | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Daughn Gibson

All Hell

Artist: Daughn Gibson

Record Label: White Denim

Genre: ambient, folk

Daughn Gibson’s surprising first album is like a cross between Nick Drake and Burial, in the heartlands of modern America. A loop loving former truck driver who unexpectedly combines the ghosts of ambient and folk.

Read More »
Galaxy Garden | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Lone

Galaxy Garden

Artist: Lone

Record Label: R&S Records

Genre: Techno, IDM, house

A subtle, but decisive twist in Lone’s old-school language: travelling techno, nostalgia for the best days of the rave explosion, trotting pianos, baroque melodies, happiness, ecstasy. It’s not an album, it’s a future world: remote and improved.

Read More »
Keepers of the Light | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

LHF

Keepers of the Light

Artist: LHF

Record Label: Keysound Recordings

Genre: dubstep

“Keepers Of The Light” is a fitting title to LHF’s debut: the collective continues to keep the genre’s original fire burning, refining their craft enough to deliver over two hours of dubstep that quite literally go everywhere and back again without ever losing sight of what it’s supposed to be.

Read More »
DJ Kicks | PlayGround | Last Reviews
Albums

Photek

DJ Kicks

Artist: Photek

Record Label: Studio !K7

Genre: Techno, dubstep

Never underestimate an old Samurai: Photek is back with a vengeance, a triumphant return to the breaks and bass underground, with a mix CD that tastes like night and smells of neon. It’s nostalgic trip to the best (party) nights of our lives.

Read More »