JIM CARROLLreviews the electronica of the week...

Various

5 Year of Hyperdub

Hyperdub ****

Steve “Kode9” Goodman set up Hyperdub as a web magazine, but it morphed into a label that has released some of the better electronic albums of recent years. While providing a home for scene star Burial may be its chief calling card (and thus providing the label with its dubstep ties), this compilation shows that Hyperdub has many strings to its bow. A series of broody, moody and evocative soundtracks for a metropolis by night, Hyperdub’s output is wall to wall bass-booty for the mind. From this vault of future-funk, it’s the low-slung kinks of Los Angeles space-cadet Flying Lotus, the wobbly experiments from Zomby, Joker’s perfectly calibrated momentum, and the bittersweet romance embedded in Darkstar’s swoon that warrant the headlines. www.hyperdub.net

Download tracks: Darkstar, Need You; Zomby, Tarantula; Joker, Digidesign