Paul St. Hilaire

This is album of the year material. Paul St. Hilaire, operating as Tikiman, channels the Basic Channel blueprint through Richard Akingbehin's Kynant imprint with a concept that feels both respectful to lineage and genuinely forward-thinking. Every track features St. Hilaire's distinct vocals layered across productions from a roster of top-tier collaborators - a device that could easily feel gimmicky but instead becomes the connective tissue holding the whole thing together.

St. Hilaire's background in roots reggae and digital production gives him the vocabulary to move between dub's spatial logic and techno's rhythmic precision without ever sounding caught between worlds. The 45 RPM pressing is crucial here; these tracks need the headroom, the slow unfold, the room to breathe that only that speed provides.

Kynant has been quietly building something serious, and this album - the fifth in the catalogue - cements that trajectory. It's dub techno that sounds neither nostalgic nor revisionist. Just necessary.