- Joe Corrales Jr. has been working as Yppah for three whole albums now. Did you know Yppah is happy, backwards, deep man... Actually, as sarcastic as I'm being there (what, no, really?), the progression of Corrales' sound has been one of increasing depth. His moody electronica with touches of downbeat, spacey rocking and a bunch of other interesting things going on in there has just fitted together that much more compellingly each time he puts out a record. Subtlety is, I think, the key on this latest album, Eighty One. The beats are moved back in the mix, just a touch, samples are worked into the sound seamlessly and you can hear both of these things in the deliciously floating quality of opener Blue Schwinn, with it's snatches of what sounds like a lady, singing from the bottom of a swimming pool. It's pretty irresistable. Also, everything is coated with just a touch more reverb than before - not at all like the contemporary fad for drowning everything in echoes - it's more like being ever so gently and pleasantly medicated. Like I said, subtle. Another new element is Yppah's guest-vocalist Anomie Belle. Apparently they met while touring with Bonobo and hit it off enough for Ms. Belle to be appearing all over here. She sounds pretty sweet and plays the part of the triphop chanteuse perfectly. If she doesn't stand out, it's only because Corrales has done a really quite splendid job with the rest of Eighty One. Listen to lead single Film Burn, her vocals are great, but, actually this is one of the few places where the beats, which are a scratchy combination of downbeat and drum'n'bass, overwhelm the vocals, and those beats are so finely wrought you can't fault Corrales for doing it. Their prominence is a bit of a throwback to the sound of Yppah's previous record, They Know What Ghost Know. While that happens a few times on Eighty One, it is always balanced against the much smoother texture of space-rocking numbers like Never Mess With Sunday, and which have everyone reaching for comparisons to m83, in the best possible way. Everything here works, by itself and in conjunction with everything else, in such a nuanced manner as to be really quite special. Joe Corrales Jr. has been quietly polishing Yppah to a fine sheen with each passing record. If this is how good it sounds now, I can only imagine what we'll be treated to in a couple of years. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, check out that single, Film Burn, below.

- Chris Cobcroft.