R.I.P.Honest Jons ****

Formerly a footballer at West Brom until injury scuppered his career, Darren Cunningham's move into music has produced a sparkling run of forward-thinking electronic albums. R.I.P. is his finest to date, a record of singleminded ambition helped by a surefooted, über-confident, post-everything approach to what he's doing. What's interesting is how Cunningham has further removed himself from the rest of the field since last album, Splazsh. That record still linked him to a dancefloor (albeit the very leftfield tiles of that floor) but R.I.P. is broadcast from a much less hedonistic environment. His best turns are ghostly, hazy ones, with tracks such as Holy Water and Serpent full of shadows and blurs. Even when he provides clues to source materials – the Detroit techno thump on Marble Plexus, or the house banshees on IWAAD – Cunningham still prefers to let the listener work it out. honestjons.com

Download tracks:Holy Water, Serpent, Shadow from Tartarus