Somewhere in a parallel universe there are Prince and Sun Ra working on a Dubstep album. The closest you will ever get to listening to it would be ‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’ by Ikonika.

Ikonika, aka UK artist aka Sara Abdel-Hamid, sports a unique style that is intricate and almost baroque with layers upon layers of detail over solid bass lines. ‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’ is her debut album and pushes the right buttons for fans of wonky Funk and sleazy electro sounds. Fans of Zomby or Joker take notice, this is right down your alley.

‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’ is a brainy album that needs you to tune into the music and engage with it. There are no obvious dancefloor rollers like Ikonika’s recent remixes of Egyptrixx’ ‘The Only Way Is Up’ on the Night Slugs imprint or Brown Acid’s ‘Bastard Kids’. Instead, the album starts with a blank page, joining the dots between Dubstep, Grime, Funky and - occasionally - the lush early synthesiser prog rock of Vangelis. The result doesn’t quite sound like anything that went before it.

Listen To Ikonika’s Remix Of ‘Bastard Kids’

Both sides of last year’s 12″ release for Hyperdub, ‘Sahara Michael’ and ‘Fish’, are featured on the album. Either are good starting points to explore the more out there tracks on ‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’. The soundscapes Ikonika creates are full of detail, conjuring up brief flashes of urban science fiction imagery with their metallic harshness and snippets of heroic themes.

There is so much happening on each of the tracks that reduction would, at times, create a possibly stronger impact on me. Altered Natives demonstrate this ably on a remix of the album track ‘Idiot’. The Altered Natives mix strips down the original, adding a rolling snare drum that anchors the track which previously floated like a helium balloon. Little quibbles aside, Ikonika’s debut is essential listening if you are interested in the development of electronic music.

‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’ is due out on 6th April 2010 on Hyperdub Records in CD and MP3 format. Instead of a straightforward vinyl release, Hyperdub plans to table a series of 12″s featuring remixes from the album. The Altered Natives mix of ‘Idiot’ kicks off the series on 12th April 2010. Unfortunately, there are no official videos or audio samples bar the Brown Acid remix available at the time of this review going live. You can preview excerpts of some of the album tracks on Ikonika’s webpage.

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