KJ Sawka: Undefined Connectivity
02.18.
Only one man can stand against drumcomputers with two hands and two feet: KJ Sawka. His third studio album is an EP titled 'Undefined Connectivity' - his most cohesive, signature sound to date. In fact, this is one of the most amazing production we've heard since a long time: great sounscapes and triphop-moods, masterfully mixed with unbelievable drum'n'bass live drums. This one is a ride to take.

Massive Attack: Heligoland
02.17.
We never rush our review for long-awaited albums, and so we did with Massive Attack's fifth LP 'Heligoland'. Seven years have passed since '100th Window' and while this latter was evolution after 'Mezzanine', 'Heligoland' is more like a continuation of it. We were bound to Massive Attack when we began to listen to triphop, and it seems that we will be through the rest of our lives: all in all, it's a great triphop album which tells so much for us. While some tracks may appear as fillers ('Psyche', 'Flat of the Blade', 'Saturday Come Slow'), some of them are so intense ('Splitting the Atom', 'Paradise Circus', 'Atlas Air') that we can only rate the album at the highest score. A mystery remains, why 'United Snakes' and 'Live with Me' did not make it to the tracklist.

The Silk Demise: Music For A Film
02.13.
The Silk Demise released 'Music For A Film' very fast after their latest 'Midnight Eyes'. And it's nowhere near a B-sides or a collection of remixes: it's a 18-track strong, completely new work. Its title tells it all, expect diverse moody background tracks which could very well emerge from a film production. TSD seems to have found its true voice with great soundscapes ('Sightless', '...And No One Else', 'Pincushion') and _the_ catching theme ('Terra Cotta'). If I would be a film producer, The Silk Demise would be the one to go for my soundtrack.

Stemvelta: Red Knots And Long Dresses
02.13.
Triphop from Russia, that's so great! Moscow-based Stemvelta sent us their latest EP called 'Red Knots And Long Dresses' and we were happy to listen to it. It's a very short, 3-songs production which only gives a small look into their musical world. Which we like - great vocalist and very dynamic compositions, which only need to be perfected and polished. The production quality is unfortunately not where it should be for these great musicians: vocals and guitars could do so much better.

Black Glass: Morphine
02.09.
Polish Ahead Records released recently Black
Glass' 'Morphine' for free download so sure we gave it a spin. It's (a quite big) foretaste of a full-length album entitled 'Holy Rain', to be released in 2010.
Black Glass is a project started by Mirrorman joined by Idden and Lolitha for vocal performances. We immediatly paralelled Black Glass with Portishead for its great drum grooves and simple but effective dark melodies. Where the EP fails to deliver is the vocals: not as convincing as it should be, re-records and less fillers could add so much to quality.

In:formation: Bristol
02.09.
Oh young musicians, here our voice: thou shall not follow Massive Attack! It's not the nineties and nobody gives a damn about Bristol anymore. Slovakia-based band in:formation attached itself too much to the Wild Bunch both musically and visually and we don't understand fully why - they have so much great and fresh ideas, why don't build on that? Their album 'Bristol' is a 11-tracks collection of ideas, rather than a polished album with some real misses, but also with some magnificent moments. All in all, very promissing.

All India Radio: Once A Day
02.09.
Leading lounge music producers All India Radio released last year 'Once a Day', a compilations of 25 songs including remixes, alt versions, and favourite album tracks. The sound quality is great, the flow of the drum grooves is just as it should be and the guitars are among the best that we've heard in such productions. We still are huge fans of Martin Kennedy's work, so this collection is a daily guest in our playlist. Here's a preview of AIR's next album coming up this year:

Triphop.hu presents: Essentials
Reprint from 2009
Triphop.hu introduces 'Essentials', the ultimate guide to triphop music. If you are new to downtempo we give you a list of records you can't go wrong. It's been more than ten years now that Bristol-sound emerged using both a mixture of cultures, musical styles and then newest music technology - the result was a mind blowing triumph, a huge wave influencing how we think about music today. With the continuously updated 'Essentials' we bring together the biggest A-rating-only masterpieces in the genre.

Albums you might missed in 2009 >