Cybotron

Mark Pritchard is an incredible musical chameleon—while the earlier half of this decade saw him making an homage to library records with the mellotron-filled Harmonic 33 project, that little "1-also a nod to the Detroit influence—changes the game to hip-hop, techno, and dubstep. Taking cues from J-Dilla and Cybotron, Machines is a reflectively cold, yet subtly satirical take on retro-futurism. Tracks like "Galag-A", with its classic video game title and decayed faux-Plaid synths, look inward at the mechanical visions of the future from yesteryear. "Falling Away", with Steve Spacek, puts a human voice to the achingly expressive beats. Machines is an unmitigated triumph and a career high-point; given that Mark Pritchard was one half of Global Communication, the duo responsible for timeless ambient house classic 76:14 , that's saying something. Read More

I f I were to rate the 20 best local hiphop albums of all time, 25 to 30 percent of the music on that list would come from 2009 alone. Read More