Staying in the UK one man who is certain to gravitate - and easily - to the LP format is the young James Blake. Similar to young Scot, Hudson Mohawke, he is redefining tempos & rhythms within his genre - how easily does JB sit in the club/dubstep scene with tunes like Air?

It’s obvious he’s more than happy to exist on the fringes, I cant imagine he gives a shite about staying in the confines of any one genre or what anyone thinks/says of him. Definitely in his own world and more concerned with actual tunes than beats he hangs his tunes on great vocal hooks and as Hudson he also does the fun re-edit thing – in a world of disgusting, vomit inducing mash ups there’s not many doing it like this

Echoing Hud Mo again he joins the dots from US to UK music- check out a small snippet of his Madlib edit here (Madlib nuts can confirm but this is the only Madlib accapella available on record- right??).

Over at Warp they’ve given us the beautiful Gonjasufi LP already this year and are ushering in the summer with the ubiquitous Flying Lotus who releases his sophomore LP Cosmogramma next week

I’m pretty sure it’s leaked all over the net but I only got a copy this week. Thankfully this eschews UK influence almost completely - Thom Yorke aside - its an LP born and bred in LA. The Flying Lotus sound may not seem to have obviously changed much in the last couple of years – especially when set next to the UK’s continually evolving scenes – but the pace of life is that bit more relaxed under the sun and there’s a more mature sound on this record than its predecessor. Its more LP sounding, very structured sound - for all intents its Los Angeles part II, its as hot, clammy, busy, sloppy as ever of course and as he’s an American artist he has no problem doffing his cap to real musicians. The influence of the Coltranes is always going to hang heavy over his work. The title track is the bangin-est and its a seamless 40 minutes mix featuring vocalists and assorted musicians -- Thundercat, Miguel Atwood etc. Like Madlib he grapples with the jazz thing, the great American art form of the last century and the title Cosmogramma apparently relates to the studies which map out the universe and the relations between heaven and hell - you need a long player to deal with that!

As a post script – RIP Guru of Gangstarr. Ignoring the controversy around it – check out Fat Laces tribute - if we’re talking LPs you have three killers to pick from 91’s Step in the Arena, 92’s Daily Operation or 94’s Hard to Earn.