Hip-hop

The latest releases reviewed

OH NO Dr No's Oxperiment Stones Throw ****

Offbeat concept albums are grist to the mill of Californian hip-hop producer (and Madlib's lil' bro') Michael "Oh No" Jackson. He follows the well-received and star-studded Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms album with another singular odyssey, this one using psychedelic pop and acid rock from Turkey, Greece, Italy and the Lebanon. Many producers operate in a similar manner to Oh No, but few can re-purpose their ingredients in quite the same way or pull such infectious cuts from the bag time and time again. With Oh No, the narrative is the key and the samples simply act as colourful signposts as he casts off one sinewy, super-focused groove after another. Sure, the psych-decked twists of Heavy and Higher owe much to the geographical tagging of their samples, but the album is far more than the sum of its cut-and-paste parts. www.stonesthrow.com

JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Heavy, Breakout, Gladius