Toires Sanati Backroom Beats (UK)

Twisted’s global chillage breakbeat sibling has excelled itself this time. Florian Seriot, the bodhisattva-like brain behind Toires, has been trekking in the hills of Morocco. He takes the sounds he found – chanting, insects, ambience – and fuses them with a very personal, almost spiritual, pattern of contemplative breakbeat that’s a joy to experience. The album has a very fluid feel, and despite threatening to get very new-agey it steers clear of the abundant incense, hundred dollar buddhas and dangling quartz vibe by having some bloody clever musical twists and turns. So while it’s perfect backdrop for your confused late night struggles with a rizla, background music it really ain’t. It’s difficult to get right into this track by track, because one strongly suspects that this isn’t the idea – it weighs in at just shy of 50 minutes and is best listened to as one long, reflective, global consciousness composition. To say any more would just be filler. This is truly something different, and if you’re after some intelligent chillage then this is just what you’re looking for. It has everything you’d expect from a chilled CD, and bags more besides – intelligence, atmosphere, experimentation, and beauty that literally overflows. Sanati is a strong contender for downtempo album of the year.