V/A - Dejine: Rec Compilation Vol.1

There's an old adage that to be successful, you need to come from far away. How else is Pavarotti so loved in Britain? So despite Asthmatic Astronaut's work with Edinburgh boys Sileni or Pigeon style Kung Fu, it falls to Japanese hip-hop/electronica label Dejine Rec to be the first to promote this new talent. Working as a tour DJ for the Scottish hip-hop/funk/jam band Underling at the time of writing, Astronaut is currently slogging round the smallest bars in Scotland, nipping back to Edinburgh for the audio-visual showdown Neverzone, "the premiere locality for outerlimit hip-hop, altered crunk, electro-cubist dub and other made-up genres." A mad professor's workshop of skewed mechanicals and futurist electro-hop, Dejine: Rec showcases work from Vancouver, Venice, Holland and Scotland. Despite the disparate locations there's a predilection towards delicacy and experimentation that permeates the entire record, and Asthmatic Astronaut's Lord Have Mercy, a cut of bitstream electronic hip-hop with shoegaze harmonies, stands alongside the crunchy beats of the Dejine: Rec collective: Xiangxing, H.Honda, Toshee et al.

Fellow Scots Savage Sound System and their sometime vocalist Sacre Noir contribute similarly leftfield cuts, with the former employing a stabbing static throb on The Infitada Dub, whilst the latter occupies far more ethereal territory with Mescaline Monologue, full of shimmery percussion and wailing vocals. Encapsulating a fascinating spectrum of broken beats, bleeps and ambient drifting, as well as killer skits from Obelus and Oblio (Dreadnots) and Seth Walker, this is a compelling compilation, brimming with promising new acts and entrancing tunes. [Liam Arnold]