Akiko Kiyama - Seven Years

Everyone's favourite techno-geek drops her debut on District of Corruption, showing that she's as adept at making a bold 70-minute journey, as at churning out banging 12"s like Isotope. There's obvious homages to her influences throughout the album and Ant throws down a gauntlet and challenges Richie Hawtin (who first introduced Kiyama on DE9 Transitions) to prove who's the hardest. Kebko in the Picture proves the album's finest track though, uniting the icy bleep of Sähko with the furious acid of AFX or Luke Vibert. It's not just Jeff Mills fan-fiction though, and Kiyama comes into her own on the dubby You Won't Speak to Me and the surreal closing track The Innocent, which mine her Japanese musical heritage for unique instruments and structures. It's in these moments that Kiyama reveals a more introspective side and takes the listener into unknown territories, and the woodblock percussion and atonal strings of The Innocent ensure that, even if it takes another seven years, another Kiyama album will be much appreciated. [Liam Arnold]