Black Market Gardening

Black Market Gardening was the first of two album releases in 1996 from UK electronica duo Fila Brazillia. It’s a dense, full, opulent production, a mix of synths, drum machines, mutant sampling, studio trickery and live instrumentation, taking elements of trip hop/chill out far away from their origins. Using live instrumentation to bring a human feel, BMG often wallows in that abstract, smokey, dreamy trip hop audio narcosis, while elsewhere delivering irresistible electro-funk full of wriggling synth lines, head-nodding boom-bap drum patterns and intricate programming. There’s definitely a sense of FB stretching out a little with impressive results like the beautifully accomplished sample-jazz-funk of “Little Dipper,” experi-alt-dub of “Blubber Plinth,” and pretty, bubbling sequenced robot-lullaby “Butter My Mask.” Equally able to groove or to chill with finesse and class, Black Market Gardening is high-level, idiosyncratic and constantly inventive.