Lamb: "Lamb"
Fontana, WOOL! (67 mins)
Dial-a-track code: 1201
Pitched as this year's Drum & Bass Portishead for coffee tables and posh barber shops, Louise Rhodes and Andy Barlow may match the Bristol one boy one girl set up but there's more than scratchy John Barry vinyl in this mix. Dark, intense, intriguing and classical, the Lamb sound chamber contains many echoes. In some ways, it's the album Everything But The Girl should have made with Walking Wounded - yet, in other ways, it owes little to the current state of play on the dancefloor. While there are traces of dark junglist patterns and giddy Bukem swirls, these are a mere base for what's to come. Whether inserting dramatic tones (Lusty) or messing with tempos and beats (Cotton Wool), Lamb create some highly enigmatic moments. Louise's folkish vocals add a sense of the surreal to this ethereal mesh, like Joni Mitchell high stepping with glee at a Metalheadz session. Tracks like Gorecki and Trans Fatty Acid are epic in composure and reach, taking Drum & Bass into unchartered waters. Some day, all traditional music will sound like this.
DJ Shadow: "Endtroducing"
Mo Wax, MW059CD (63 mins) Dial a track code: 1311
Or even like this. Cut and paste hip hop has come far from Steinski initial explorations in the mid 1980s, and DJ Shadow's largely instrumental debut album is an awesome milestone for the new school. Digging deep into a legacy of soul, funk and jazz to create a web of beats, grooves and melodies, Shadow, then takes this sampledelic motion one move further. It's this extra ingredient which lifts the shy American above the cast who've attempted to step into his Vans.
Even if you've feasted on Lost & Found or Influx, his groundbreaking early singles, you're still on prepared for this experience. Shadow's vision is widescreen, finding gold in unlit corners and forcing you to seek it out. A track like Midnight In A Perfect World pulls you into a world of Philly soul, far out Miles Davis and Bernard Hermann fables while the latest installments of What Does Your Soul Look Like are sonic depth charges. Take my word for it, you have never heard anything like this before.
The Fugees: "The Score"
Columbia, 483549 2 (77 mins) Dial a track code. 1421
If Shadow represents the underground in 1996, The Fugees are hiphops cowboys and girl. Thanks to several million copies of Killing Me Softly, Lauryn Hill has found her SC If hanging out more with The Face and The Chart Show than The Source and Yo! MTV Raps. It's all a far cry from their 1994 debut album Blunted On Reality and its Nappy Heads boom tune. Because, hard as it may seem to believe, the Fugees did exist before Roberta Flack entered the picture. Courtesy of the hits, The Score is certain to sell more this year than all the other albums reviewed or mentioned on this page. No bad thing perhaps, especially as there's a depth here which lends credence to their Fugees (Refuge Camp) tag and references to their Haitian roots. While it is quite pop driven, there are enough subtle leanings on How Many Mics and FuGee La to add a degree of the political to the plot.
Marxman: "Time Capsule"
More Rockers, ZCDKR5 (62 mins) Dial a track code: 1531
The political is something Marxman could never be accused of sidestepping. Overtly so in name, aim and material (just check the 33 Revolutions Per Minute debut album), the Dublin Bristol London collective return to action after breaking from the Talkin' Loud label and undergoing something of a musical rebirth. Time Capsule is introspective in mood and tone, mixing some beautifully soulful touches with everything from guitar to swing. Dazed & Confused, the opening track, is a bit of an alternative anthem for the disenfranchised while No More Time and A Ho rise Called Serenity are sweetly paced. With fingers in many pies (such as Minatone on Howie B's Pussyfoot label, an upcoming Celtic dub adventure with, Adrian Sherwood, the Pawnshop project and signature music for Teilifis na, Gaeilge), there's still plenty of life in this brand of Marxism.
