Shanghai Riddim – Mad Architect Productions

Out of the 2010 dancehall wave, Shanghai Riddim lands with a dark little swagger: Mad Architect Productions keeps the juggling tight, leaving room for Elephant Man’s sharp-tongued “Shut Up Yuh Mouth” and Vybz Kartel’s bleak “Stab Her To Death” to cut through the mix. It’s a slim six-track set, but the names do the heavy lifting, with Mr Lexx and Turbulence adding their own pressure to the same hard-edged groove. The rhythm itself has that cold, mechanical feel the title hints at, all lean momentum and street-level tension, and Kartel’s track appears in both edit and raw versions, which feels like a small bonus tucked into the package.