At long fucking last, the debut album proper from mcr enigma Michael J. Blood arrives after that super collectable “Introducing Michael J. Blood” comp dropped a couple of years back, and with a number of limited edition tape and collab deployments in the time since. Inside, you’ll find over an hour of the deadliest, trackiest productions this side of Chicago, with a loose-limbed, next-level understanding of the form that we genuinely can’t fully get our heads round. Absolutely essential gear, especially so if you’re into Anthony ’Shake’ Shakir, Actress, Theo Parrish or Omar-S.

Spawned from long sessions immured in the studio, ‘As Is’ slices the tape on a 14 track mix of sizzling productions and proper, locked-in sequencer joyrides that juice the groove for all it’s worth. This is the sound of Michael J. Blood getting right into it, following his nose for the grot emanating from his machines and keeping the studio windows tight shut for sealed-in flavour. Checking in with the gasping purple machine grind of ‘EAZUN’, the set spirals in and out of itself between a virulent Eski beatdown mutation ‘GMT’ and 9 minutes of utterly masterful, 2-step jazz-funk x footwork madness on ’SNM5’, persistently gaming himself to find soulful and freaky nuance in every cut.

There’s another massive highlight in the scaly, reticulated shimmy of ‘FRKYSHT’, especially when that tangy bassline lands 6 minutes in, and likewise we’re destroyed by rimshot tickler ’SUN In PISCES (DUB)’, coming off like H-Fusion channeling Shake Shakir’s swing, while sequencer fuckkries in ‘FREE 2’ and the smudged jazz-noir of ‘BLURRE’ are proper ephemeral zingers, racked up next to JB6, elevating from barely-there to all-consuming rhythmic madness.