Wajid Yaseem's work over the years, both as backing performer and solo artist, has covered an impressively wide range of work -- it's no stretch to say that England provides a ready ferment for an artist equally entranced by Pakistani music, dub, and punk, among many other things. Flicknives continues this blend to excellent effect -- after his initial turns on NovaMute, this debut effort on Quatermass helps to further that label's increasing stature. Opening song "Evox," for instance, could in many hands simply be cod-Indian drone but here restores and extends the lost power of mid-'90s isolationist performers in combination with the haunting flow of strings and guitars -- and that it then leads to the brutal techno/feedback riff of "Middle Finger Motif" is all the more captivating. While the album is definitely all of a piece -- tending toward the darker and more ominous -- it makes the variety on display all the more involving, drawing connections between many different approaches effortlessly. Thus, there's Olga Naiman's semi-spoken word vocal on "Post Modern Martyrs" over a deep, brusque hip-hop crawl, electronic distortion adding to the murky chaos, or the soft chimes (real bells? electronics?) set against the brisker tech-step beats of "Paper Veins," all while a deep bassline snarls beneath it all. The glowering moods throughout suggest both Scorn's astringent sense of doom (check the combination of electronic growl and crisp beats on the title track) and Yaseem's former employers Fun-da-Mental, who never shirked away from cranking up the volume in chaotic fashion. Though the album doesn't maintain a full involvement to the end, the massive beats of "Some Dirt You Just Can't Wash Away" help provide a good final kick. ~ Ned Raggett

This debut album from Londoner Mikhail Karikis mixes avant-garde classical instrumentation with electronics and pours a dose of expressive vocals on top. The Bjork influence here is on the sleeve, as the first track was previously released on a compilation of remixes inspired by ARMY OF ME. Unconventional sounds such as creaking insects and whistling bats float amidst static and feedback, making ORPHICA both pastoral and post modern--a melding of Greek folk, where ORPHICA gets its name, and electronic pop.