From the very beginning of their friendship, local lads Motez and Rubberteeth shared a common interest in certain styles of house music – in particular groovy house that still packed enough energy to be played at peak time in the busiest of clubs.

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Grime pioneer Wiley has had his fair share of ups and downs over time, rarely staying with one label for more than one release. 2012's Evolve Or Be Extinct is his latest. The title track opens and a deep, urgent bassline lets us know we're dealing with a master at work. Link Up is an easy-to-mix vocal with a bare bassline, basically begging for a major producer to mix, since former stablemate Dizzee Rascal has found mainstream success. The next six tracks have the same feel, bare beats open for a remix that feel a touch rushed and unfinished. A four-minute skit turns out to be an intro to the forgettable three-minute Immigration. Paint me perplexed. Not without its positive moments (track one is a monster), the irony of the album title is painfully obvious. Wiley will need to take his own advice in the future.
MARTY SKUSE

When I was living in the hills and of high school age, one of my buds and I would trek to a nearby forest with some girls and smoke endless joints under a blanket. I had these sweet little battery-powered speakers that I would connect to my Walkman, and we would all lay back, staring up at the trees and listening to tapes of Sebadoh, Swervedriver, Ride and The Breeders. Inevitably, hands would intertwine and lips would connect and it was all pretty cool fun. One time I stole a really fucking expensive bottle of my dad’s wine and we pushed the cork in and passed it around until it was empty. Something about this record reminds me of those times and I would like to believe that somewhere in the world, some kids are hanging in the woods and doing the same thing; smoking weed and listening to My Best Friend.
TEXJAH

With a dreadlocked mane of hair and a head full of ideas, Gonjasufi is less the MC we are lead to believe he is and more of a singer; his voice clocking in somewhere between frontman E of The Eels and Beck. In terms of musicality, MU.ZZ.LE is a blend of epic journeys condensed into a few minutes and haunted vocals over atmospherics and breaks. This aesthetic permeates throughout, typified by joints like Rubberband, or Nickels And Dimes’ murky, underwater breakbeats with a funereal feel. The album’s tracks are short in length but long in memorability and this record feels more like a meander down the bandwidth of a ghostly radio, as vignettes of sound crackle through aural fogs and voices reverb from a distant plane into reality. With lo-fi beats reminiscent of Portishead’s Dummy and a musical feeling not unlike a maudlin Radiohead excursion, MU.ZZ.LE has a languid haze and gives a pleasant satisfaction similar to that of being in a Moroccan hashish den.
TEXJAH

Some say attending a Pack FM show is not unlike getting a full cardio workout, but you can bet that one of New York’s finest rappers ain’t gonna be the only one sweating by the end of the night. After enduring a whopping 30-hour flight from New York to Australia, Pack insists he’s going to make the most of his maiden voyage to the other side of the world. After all, Australian audiences have been coming to his neck of the woods for years – it’s time to return the love...

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