Hexstatic - When Robots Go Bad

With titles like Prom Night Party and Red Laser Beam, Hexstatic are clearly not going with a dark and moody atmosphere, and indeed the Futurama-meets-Forbidden Planet sleeve design leads the listener to expect more of a 'typical' Ninja Tune experience than they're going to get. This however is no bad thing – the cut and paste elements, often a necessity in their previous albums due to their being twinned with visuals, are backgrounded in favour of a direct, breakbeat-led attack on the dancefloor in tracks like Roll Over, featuring the sultry vocals of Sabirajade. Tokyo Traffic is a crunchy stab at glitched-out electro, and shares with Red Laser Beam an echo of the deep bass punch and stabbing trebles of the Plump DJs' productions. Each of the elements in the tracks sound massive, from the swelling acid riffs to the crashing drums. Vocal collaborations with B+ and Edinburgh's own MC Profisee and Ema J (Great Ezcape) add lasting appeal to the album – Prof's lyrics are inspiring, and tight as ever, with Subway providing an excellent B-Boy beat and electro template for his flows. Newton's Cradle is a demented Kraftwerk tribute, while Bust veers back to pounding electro and orgasmic female sighing. Nothing particularly groundbreaking here, but a hell of a lot of fun to be had. [Bram Gieben]