Ed Scissor + Lamplighter

★★★★ Joysville

HIGH FOCUS. CD/DL/LP

Dead of night poetics and crystalline synths dominate hip-hop pair’s third album.

Five years after the dark introspection of Tell Them It’s

Winter confirmed Ed Scissor + Lamplighter as UK hip-hop outliers, Joysville corroborates that status. Evolved freely from the Glasgow producer’s brooding and spare electronic vigils, Scissor’s dark mutterings and deadpan crepuscular storytelling connive with synths that pitter-patter like icy rain. From the Kraftwerkian melody lurking in the title track’s pinched bass to the joyous synthetic horns railing against the echoed piano of Been A Minute, it’s far from one-note, with Scissor’s battle rap pedigree cutting through the sci-fi-edged Plenty, Time – poppy by their austere standards. Party-poopers they may be, but the folkloric time distortions of closer Valentines suggest redemption is finally within reach, after a bumpy ride in parts bleak, heart-breaking and beautiful.