I-Wolf and Burdy

Rock, electro, French hip-hop, Bavarian folk, break beats, turntablism, spoken word, house, reggae and more are folded into this most brain-teasing and intuitive of albums. I-Wolf, a member of the Sofa Surfers from Germany, and Burdy, part of Baby Mammoth, have created an intensely layered album with a vaguely sinister undertone through pervasive low buzz lines and carefully guided droning tones. Giddy breaks, altered piano lines, stunted melodies, and skitterish beats concoct a sound space that is all at once likeable, complex and challenging. While the way they’ve meshed their styles is a huge selling point, it also works as an analytical jump off for politics and how they’re mapped onto every day life in many different parts of the world. "Modern Life” is a take on sexual assault and forced sex work, while "They Don’t Care” features the line, "They’re rich and they’re famous/ they’re rich and they’re not us.” Multiple languages and dialects play into the rich carnival of influences that bob up and down and meld in the most enjoyably unexpected ways. It’s so solid, it even transcends the clichéd badge of pride that lack of pin-pointable genre tends to be.