Various Artists But Then Again

• Words: Alexis Georgopoulos
• Label: ~scape
• XLR8R Rating: /10

With this fifth anniversary memento, ~scape celebrates transition not as something to go through begrudgingly but rather as an aesthetic in itself for our hyper-paced times. No longer the glitch-dub label of yore, the label now hovers in a galaxy far, far away where hip-hop, minimal techno, dancehall and pop are not seen as mutually exclusive. The results, then, are most often brilliant-tracks by Cappablack, Bus and Dabrye, Headset and Soulo, and Deadbeat in particular-but the refrain on Epo‘s "Doorstep" is just atrocious and it could have stayed on the cutting room floor. Then again, Cappablack‘s "5th Dimension (Anti-Imperialist Disco)" is worth the price of admission alone.