The debut LP from the formidable scratching DJ, Kid Koala fulfils the fevered critical and public response that greeted his "live" sets and remixes/collaborations with Money Mark, DJ Vadim and Handsome Boy Modelling School. Koala describes his LP as having been "hand-cut": this is music that was made by manipulating his vinyl and record decks-much of it in real-time. A radical approach but Koala is a virtuoso DJ and can use his turntables to generate delicate melody and subtle shades of meaning. "Barhopper 1" is a lurch of drunken, ambient jazz with a nostalgic (perhaps culled from 1950s Hollywood) mix of voices that discuss love, drinking and dating etiquette. The result of the LP is similarly playful, even psychedelic-a collage of spoken-world samples and beatnik and bar-room jazz textures. Koala seems to have created fresh artistic ground for the DJ-musician and made a warm, easy-to-like LP and quite possibly a classic. -Tony Marcus.

One thing's for sure: you won't have heard a hip-hop album quite like Hinterland before. Aim man Andy Turner recorded this-the follow-up to his excellent debut album, Cold Water Music-in a private studio on the sleepy Barrow-In-Furness seafront, a hundred miles from the bustling hip-hop underground of Manchester where he made his name. Rolling elements of vintage soul and classic Bacharach-style songwriting into its grand hip-hop design, Hinterland pulls out wild cards a-plenty. "The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice" finds Turner loops a flourish of violins and frosty synths, as longtime Aim collaborator Kate Rogers wrapping her tonsils around a chill tale of a doomed love affair. The upbeat "No Restriction" revives A Tribe Called Quest's daisy-age blueprint, with guesting rap crew Souls Of Mischief offering rhymes of a mischievously English bent: "We mean biz'/ You won't believe this/ We're in Buckingham Palace droppin' beats with Queen Liz". And "Good Disease" strays right off the hip-hop map: a slick four minutes of R&B-tinted lounge music, it features a unexpected falsetto-high cameo from ex-Baby Bird man Stephen Jones that bafflingly, is one of this commendable record's high points. It's not for those that like their hip-hop raw, but Hinterland is a very welcome addition to the traditional rap terrain. -Louis Pattison.

British hip-hop has never had much of a musical pedigree, held back by an inability to compete with the brutal ghetto tales of from across the Atlantic. Cold Water Music, though, is the work of Aim, aka Mancunian DJ Andy Turner, and he's sidestepped the equation with an effortlessly eclectic album of slick, inventive instrumental hip-hop that guides the genre into uncharted territories. Aim succeeds where other Brit acts like the Herbaliser fail because he's conscious to avoid any hint of cliché. Cold Water Music boasts an eclecticism that's so disorientating that genre flows into genre with barely a hint of abrasion-the edgy inner-city pallor of "True To Hip-Hop", for instance, which smoothly gives way to the pomped-up operatic majesty of "Demonique. " It's undoubtedly the collaborations with Aim's label mates that makes the album, though; check the mellow groove of "The Force", featuring Grand Central rappers Q n'C, and you'll agree that even America's big hitters struggle to compare. -Louis Pattison.

A product of post-Acid-House Manchester, Mr Scruff is a complete one-off; a cheeky innovator. His debut album is a bold statement, distinctive and confident. Keep It Unreal oscillates wildly between opposing styles-one moment Scruff's in deep, down-tempo dinner jazz territory, the next he's in Coldcut mode, chopping out superb big beat breaks with naughty hooklines to get you pogoing. At one extreme is the wacko humour of Spandex Man, bolshi Fatboy Slim breakbeat and a silly 1920s swing loop that'll make you grin. And then there's the even more ridiculous "Shanty Town", with samples of a Jacknory story about a whale. At the other end of the scale, is Scruff's accomplished acid jazz-like the serene, trip-hoppy "Midnight Feast" or the smoothie cocktail number "Honeydew", with it's loungey female vocals. This man is out there, the Salvador Dali of beats and breaks. -Sarah Champion.

The Avalanches are a much-feted six-man crew of sample-addicts from down-under, whose debut album Since I Left You is a bargain-bin vinyl throwback to the Daisy Age. Their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach is exemplified by their debut single, "Since I Left You", which opens the record with its wistful disco-samba shuffle and a scintillating sliced-and-diced soul vocal. The album is constructed like a mix tape and calculated to tweak the dance floor. Snatches of familiar rhythms bubble up throughout, giving the record a comfortable lived-in feel, but also betraying the fact that the group haven't dug very far through the crates to source their raw material. Vast chunks of records by Madonna, Art of Noise, Kid Creole And The Coconuts and Parisian hip-hoppers Saian Supa Crew are easily identifiable. There's little doubt that this kind of sample re-construction has become standard fare for retrogressive adolescents with a mania for collecting records and precious little musical flair. The Avalanches get full marks for their seamless mixing skills, but otherwise it all feels way too neat and tidy, bristling with its own inventiveness when it should strive for something that transcends its influences. For every innovator like DJ Shadow and Dan the Automator, there will be an avalanche of imitators. -Chris Campion.

Although Swansea dance collective Hybrid have been heard to lament the deficit of emotional content in modern electronic dance music, the duo's second album Morning Sci Fi isn't exactly forthcoming in conveying the nuances of human feeling and frailty. While a punctilious adherence to the machine-like rhythmic strictures of progressive house arguably leaves little room for the temperaments of sorrow, anger and elation, it wouldn't be unfair to suggest that Hybrid clearly never intended to sound as clinically dispassionate as this. However, this failing (as they would see it) really works in their favour, for much of Morning Sci Fi sounds like the futuristic product of the breakbeat generation with a fear for the impersonality of the hereafter, clearly manifested in such starkly autocratic song titles as "Higher than a Skyscraper", "We Are in Control" and "Steal You Away". Darkly swooping strings from St Peterburg's Hermitage Orchestra deepen the creases on their furrowed brows while the stealthy bass twang of New Order's Peter Hook (on "True to Form", for example) and some ghostly industrial sound effects (perhaps Martin Hannett's work with Joy Division was an inspiration) add an engaging level of tension to Morning Sci Fi's brutally wintry soundscapes. -Kevin Maidment.

On the back of a 23-date UK tour and being namechecked by Madonna, Andy Carthy's (aka Mr Scruff) sophomore album Trouser Jazz has certainly been worth the wait. Having built a formidable reputation on the DJ circuit, not least for his genre-defying and strenuously long sets, but also for his ability to hold down residences throughout the UK, he has missed two label deadlines for this album release. Brimming with humour and littered with his characteristically playful sampling shenanigans, Trouser Jazz is a joyous romp through funk, jazz, soul and hip-hop complete with commentary from children's TV presenters and fish references aplenty. "Here We Go" sets the scene with a minute of looped horn-led retro funk that fades straight into the jazzy vibes and disco beat of "Sweetsmoke". First single "Shrimp" ups the tempo further with squelching rhythms and a trembling Rhodes hook, but it's moments such as "Valley of the Sausages" with it's strings, flute and breathless Latin vocals and the ragtime rhythms of "Come On Grandad" that confirm that Mr Scruff is no slouch when it comes to blending the absurd into a life-affirming sonic jumble. -Christopher Barrett.

Released as a tribute to the fact that Coldcut's legendary Ninja Tune imprint had been releasing records for a decade, this collection from the label's South London HQ showcases the rich array of talent they've amassed over the years. Though assembled in the same spirit as the seminal Ninja Cuts series, comprising of a mixture of back catalogue and material exclusive to the compilation, a crafty alteration of the title acts as a nod to the ten years since Bogus Order's "Zen Brakes" first fought its way onto a turntable. From the Steinski intro the tracklisting of the first of two compact discs has a distinct hip-hop leaning, slinking through lyrical activity from the likes of the Dynamic Syncopation before flipping a skit from Roots Manuva over Amon Tobin's "Saboteur" and dropping down to the sultry vocals of Sarah Jones, paralleling the Gil Scott Heron standard in its declaration that the "revolution will not be between these thighs. " Flip to the second disc for a demonstration of Ninja's recent foray into cinematic funk, whether through the raging percussion of Chris Bowden or breathtaking orchestration of Clifford Gilberto's "Restless," the resultant experience is nothing if not widescreen. Settle down and reset your ears for two hours of cross dressing, genre bending bliss from one of the UK's most innovative record labels. -Kingsley Marshall.