Soundphiles

Obi-Wan dies and two new Kinobe take his place. Julius Waters and Mark Blackburn, the two beatheads behind project Kinobe, have until now kept things strictly on the downlow, concentrating on well-received remixes for All The Right People. Now album time has come a-knocking, and thankfully Soundphiles delivers on the promise of their preview work.

On the evidence of opener 'The Biological Break', you'd be forgiven for imagining yourself in over-familiar big beat terrain, but its nagging urgency and devastatingly effective turntablism eventually make their mark around half-way in.

Moving swiftly past the ill-conceived polemics of 'Theatricks', you'll suddenly find yourself listening to a beast with far sharper teeth - tracks like 'Hombré' and 'Bayou Barrataria' play dress-up in the sheepish garb of yer average feelgood Balearicism, but the lupine poison runs satisfyingly deep.

It's not all misery and long shadows on Planet Kinobe: Soundphiles serves up some sublime bucket-and-spade atmospherics in the shape of the From Here To Eternity-sampling 'Slip Into Something'. Unfortunately, it also delivers 'Grass Roots Horizon', which sounds like a Corrs b-side and rhymes "humming bees" with "trees" and "flowers" with "hours". I'm willing to turn a blind eye though, just for the swoonsome 'Hammock Island' that closes the album.

A sexily nonchalant debut, Soundphiles deserves a home on your shelves/floor/collection of lucky pig trotters, simply because it feels like it's been nesting happily there all along. Go make sure it is.