As I mentioned on my Facebook Twitter-rip function, I only recently heard Wagon Christ's Throbbing Pouch for the first time in its entirety. I've heard various tracks over the years, particularly from a friend's mammoth MP3 cache of songs related to the discography of Simon Reynolds' Generation Ecstasy. I'd never encountered how the songs move with each other, or how fine-tuned the layers are. It's a genuinely subtle album, in a way even Maxinquaye wasn't; it's also a funny album in a way Maxinquaye couldn't afford to be. Especially in light of the larrffs of the Moonshine comp aforementioned, Throbbing Pouch appeals for its delight in sound and quietly confident shrugging off of the new-predictable-element-every-four-bars rule.

OH BY THE WAY: I've decided to start a contest. Well, not exactly a contest--more like a request for input. Here's how it goes. For years I've promised myself I'd make a compilation exclusively of that nefarious creature known as "the only good song on this shitty trip-hop compilation." (That's compilation, not album; that's a special category of its own.) Of course, all these years alter I still haven't bothered, which by proxy demonstrates just how unnecessary a project it is. Nevertheless, I now ask of whatever is my readership: please email me the name of your favorite overlooked only-good-song-on-a-shitty-trip-hop-comp, and I will try to track it down and write about it. I won't expect YSIs, but I won't turn them down, either. The email is a.k.a. the "say hello" top right.