Roots Manuva Alternately Deep Review

Alternately Deep consists of rarities, b-sides, obscure downloads and material recorded during the sessions for Root Manuva's last album proper, Awfully Deep. The record label's press release describes it as Awfully Deep in a 'parallel universe'. Consider how looped out that album sounded, and you get some idea of how freakin' weird this record is.

That's freakin' weird good, not freakin' weird bad.

Roots spits lunatic-savant poetry over maniacal beats, accompanied by static, heavy baselines and crunked-out bleeps and squeaks. This music is dark, paranoid and compelling - stinking of the city from whence it came, but somehow always maintaining an element of pop, a factor which only adds tothesound'sunsettling qualities.

Mr. Manuva is a genius and everyone should buy everything he releases. Forever. But, if you must be a download bore, the picks from this album are "No Love", "Seat Yourself (Miami Mix)", "Grown Man" and "Get U High".