This week, Matt goes looking for quality.

Aim – The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice
(Grand Central)
The third single to be taken from Andy Turner’s excellent second album, Hinterland. Featuring the sublime vocal talents of Kate Rogers, who herself releases a debut album in the near future, The Girl Who… demonstrates Turner’s excellent ear for production - a beautifully simple sample, finely crafted into stops and starts with gritty beats. It’s backed by a typically dirty, twisted remix from Andy Votel and a new track featuring a deadpan rap by Substantial.

Groove Armada – Purple Haze (Zomba)
Tom Findlay and Andy Cato herald the arrival of their fourth album Lovebox (out in a couple of weeks) with the Hendrix-inspired Purple Haze. And it’s not just the title they’ve nicked. Electric blues guitar is possessed by the demonic spirit of bigbeat and goes head to head with hip-hop loops. And god bless them, they pull it off, suggesting that the album could be a return to form.

My Computer – Vulnerabilia (13 Amp)
The title track from the Manchester duo’s very interesting debut album, knocked up on their home PC (hence their name). This represents one of their gentler, more soulful moments, sounding like Zero 7 ripping off Air. I just wish they’d leave out that damn vocoder.

The Herbaliser – Time to Build/Distinguished Jamaican English (Ninja Tune)
The third single from Something Wicked This Way Comes. Both tracks, like the album, are brilliantly, er, average. This will have very little appeal for anyone beyond the hardcore fans. It’s well delivered, it just doesn’t have the extra spark that hip-hop so often needs to propel it from dull to brilliant. The remixes are pretty unimaginative too. All a bit of a shame really. Matt Walton 17 October 02