(Ninja Tune/Inertia)

The latest signing to Coldcut’s excellent Ninja Tunes roster are a mysterious act, known simply as Blockhead. Before you can make any disparaging remarks concerning pop punker Ian Dury, this is actually the man who in the past handled around half of Aesop Rock’s production. Instead his predilection for lovely piano melodies, moody basslines and snippets of slowed down blues-drenched vocals evoke the memory of early DJ Shadow.

He’s set to release his first solo record, called ‘Music By Cavelight’, later in the year, but this pretty picture vinyl should be more than enough to tide us over until then. Featuring gorgeous piano and trumpets, the title track is the kind of laid back jazz hop that I really miss these days! The addition of a spacy vocal snippet and a buzzed riff add a little extra roughness to the tune. Up next, ‘Carnivores Unite’ is a fairly straight up hip hop track (exactly what an MC needs); harmonica melodies and a touch of Ella give ‘A New Day’ a down home blues feel. Great to hear Ninja getting back to releasing diverse records with excellent production and interesting sounds rather than their typecast sound. Look out for the album and check this excellent EP in the meantime.