ARTICLES
2006 Top 10s and 20s
2006 Artist Picks

ALBUMS
17 Pictures
Angina P
Ateleia
Benni Hemm Hemm
The Boats
Cappablack
Celer
Dead Letters Dead Words
Deceptikon
Deerhunter
Denzel + Huhn
Displayaz
Dollboy
Drone
Eluvium
Emanuele Errante
The Eternals
Fear Falls Burning
Marcus Fjellström
Fonoda
Funkstörung
Goldfrapp
Gyroscope
Robert Henke
James Holden
The Idealist
Anders Ilar
Landing
LCD Soundsystem
Library Tapes
L Pierre
Lullatone
Tor Lundvall
Mad EP
Mahogany
Melodium
Mem1
Daisuke Miyatani
Mole Harness
Momus
Monoceros
Mormo
Mothboy
Original Hamster
Pierson & Horton
Prince Valium
Radical Face
Retail Sectors / Yaporigami
Rylander & Elggren
Scott Solter Plays PIM
Sideshow
Silicone Soul
Skream
Splinters
Mark Templeton
Thread Pulls
T. Raumschmiere
Tycho
Ultre
Virculum
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
AudioArt 03
Cumulous
Dubstep Allstars Vol. 4
Eriksen / Toft / Utarm
Katapult VA Vol. 3
Let's Lazertag Sometime
Mr Geoffrey & JD Franzke
Skagen / Halvorsen / Toft
Tectonic Plates

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Gabriel Ananda
Robert Bardini
DAT Politics
Dead Letters / R. Sundin
Dogmixer
Benjamin Fehr
Fenin
HL
I Make This Sound
Zoë Irvine
Kyriakides and Moor
Lamont & 2tall
Ljud. & Piloten / Kama Aina
Jacob London
Sam Mcqueen
Miskate
Ryo Miyashita & Hiiragi_
[nara]
New Faces
Of / Greg Davis
Charlemagne Palestine
Phon.o vs Litwinenko
Portable
PostPrior
Samarah
Nicholas Sauser & Ditch
Someone Else
Hannes Teichmann
Tractile
Andy Vaz

IMAGES
F.S. Blumm

Cappablack: Façades & Skeletons
~scape

Having appeared on two Staedtizism comps and But Then Again, Cappablack's distinctive boom-bap and hip-hop will already be familiar to ~scape devotees but familiarity doesn't diminish the impact of the group's sound on Façades & Skeletons (the title alludes to the intricate internal structure beyond a track's outer shell). Comprised of Japanese duo illeven (programming) and Hashim B. (programming and scratching), Cappablack made an auspicious debut in 1998 with the instrumental album The State of the Night, and Pole hepped to the group not long after when its second 12-inch The Economics EP appeared.

The opener “Counterattack Intro” captures the quintessence of Cappablack's sound: slamming B-boy boom-bap with careening voices swizzled and twisted by turntable scratching. Some tracks are mere jams (“Harder To Unravel,” where a chipmunked Billie Holiday joins the funky boom-bap fray, and “5th Dimension (Anti-imperialism Disco),” first heard on 2004's But Then Again) but dope jams nonetheless. The album's enlivened by vocal contrasts: English flow from Awol One (Cappablack hooked up with him when he toured Japan with Daedelus, Busdriver, and Radioinactive) and Japanese from Emirp (“Akarui-Mirai,” “Tokatonton”). The Awol One tracks are among the album's best: in “Slide Around,” his deep voice is a nice complement to the willowy synth line that floats mysteriously through the background, and he guests on the slamming, Eastern-styled hip-hop “Hear No Speak No” too. Emirp's no slouch either, as his deft contribution to the slippery 6/8 tribal groove in “New Tone” proves. First heard on 2002's Staedtizism 3: Instrumentals, “Components & Variables”—already showing the group's signature sound coming into focus—stumbles and lurches clumsily before finding its stutter-funk footing.

January 2007