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Rhombus: Future Reference

This latest offering from Rhombus is hard to pin down. As on their previous album and 12" releases, the slick programming of Thomas Voyce and Simon Rycroft is a dominant feature, but the tracks here move more widely across genres - from dance to funk to dub to hip hop. The MCing of Imon Star (Ahmen Mahal) also remains central and he is joined on the mic by MC Mana and Antsman (Anton Carter). Deva Mahal (Ahmen's sister) provides soulful doses of singing along with Raashi Malik and Lisa Tomlins. The overall feel of the album gives the listener the impression of a full live band with horns, funky basslines, rhymes delivered with a freestyle flavour, and strong melodic vocals. On tracks like Together, the band delivers an upbeat feel that would suit any summer festival and on Scorching Bay Tomlins entices listeners to take a day off work and hit the beach. Throughout these tracks, the mix is deep - check out the combination of a subsonic bassline and the rolling line of Tahitian and Cook Island log drums on Cloudkicks. The result is an album that opens up and easily stands repeated listens.

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