
2008 has been the best year for hip-hop and urban music for quite some time. Previous years have seen plenty of commercial releases, but not much in the way of abstract records which stretch across the board to listeners who wouldn't normally be into the genre. "Los Angeles" isn't a hip-hop record, but more of a traditional "lefty" trip-hop album in the mould of "Endtroducing", where the performer takes some of the genres more generic elements, and re-moulds the sound into something more vibrant and challenging. In a post Burial climate, "Los Angeles" packs the starkness and atmospherics required, yet [...]