Duo offers new quality album
It’s 10 years since English duo La Roux dropped their selftitled debut and delivered two stonking worldwide hits – Bulletproof and In It For The
Kill. Supervision, their new, technicolour pop collection is only their third album, which means Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid seem to deal in quality not quantity.
Flagrant 1980s references form the frame for these playful songs, which is no bad thing. Guitars sit on top of synth basslines that drive all the way down the coast to a tropical escape. It casually slips disco and reggae alongside an obvious love for the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis era of R’n’B.
Jackson has a commanding presence and isn’t afraid to take an unexpected path through a melody. That’s possibly to the album’s detriment, because there are no obvious commercial hits.
Instead, every song goes to a strange place –though that doesn’t bother me. The band jams out on most tracks – there’s a slowdown of the beat in Otherside between the prechorus and chorus that I thought was so clever (and kinda sexy), I had to go back to listen to it multiple times.
It’s bright and hyper-stylised, easily earning its bold title. Until yesterday, I thought they were French. Well played, La Roux – you had me fooled.
Against All Logic is Nicolas Jaar’s dancefloor non de plume. Jaar made his international name after his music was voted the BBC Radio 1’s Essential Mix of 2012. That two-hour set (try to stream the No BBC Edit) is one of life’s most incredible musical journeys to this day.
FKA Twigs used him as go-to producer for her most recent album – he’s great at giving sound texture and constructs fierce, irresistible beats.
Prolific and experimental, his latest offering, 2017-2019 ,isa hard-edged techno trip into industrial beats that stretches speakers. His trademark combining of snippets and samples from across the musical spectrum continues (he opens with a Beyonce vocal that he warps into a frenetic frenzy), but he puts crunchy beats front and centre. It’s like being in your garage at 3am with three friends who are all too drunk to go home, charging hard, high on their own supply.
If you’re after something fresh, Obongjayar is a Nigerian artist based in London, whose hypnotic voice is unlike anything else around.
Which Way Is Forward isa seven-song collection constructed over afro beat percussion and centred around his energetic, half-sung halfpreached performances. Soldier On confronts the racism that ‘‘follows him round like a bad smell’’, while summery uplifting tunes such as Still Sun show his nimble ability to manipulate melody.