Various

First, this compilation of interpretive hip-hop is elegant and subtly edgy. Secondly, there’s only so far you can push hip-hop before it becomes something else, and selling gentle minimal techno as interpretive hip-hop can make you seem like part of the musical intellectuati and part of the head-up-ass set too. In truth, we’re all a little bit of both and if these 14 artists started from hip-hop and ended up with origami-like electronica, all the power to them. As usual, adding some muscle to the lithe spine of such petite and intricate bones are feeder genres such as dub, house, industrial, glitch and yes, hip-hop. Each track is its own world without being out of place in the bunch and each listen reveals something new. It’s headwork that’s totally worth your time.