Album Review: Islands by L.V.

When LV made Routes with MC Joshua Idehen back in 2011, it felt universal. The slinky grooves mashed UK sensibilities with African rhythms, and Idehen's half-rapped, half-spoken ruminations on London could have been applied to any sprawling metropolis. But then the group turned their attention towards South Africa with Sebenza, which made their collaboration with Idehen seem like a simple dalliance.

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Head here to submit your own review of this album. People often forget that music has a concept of dialect. Whilst much of pop music has homogenised and genre has been co-opted and appropriated throughout time, some acts still retain a sense of locality. Often this is due to the vocalist's dialect coming through, but it's also communicated through the music itself - influences from the local club scene perhaps, ambient textures that seem unmistakably inspired by a city or town.

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Over the years, we've become used to grime and dubstep as vehicles for a portrayal of the UK's urban hinterland: the tough inner-city estates, the lonely bus rides through decaying suburbia, the overarching threats of gangs, police and drugs, the heady rush of post-dancefloor euphoria giving way to end-of-the-night melancholia. These have come to define our city nights like a tapestry culled from the minds of millions of young revellers and city dwellers, a collective database as indefinable and romanticised as it is visceral and universal. In grime in particular, MCs spit, yelp and bellow sketches of their day-to-day experiences, allowing a tiny insight of their lives before the songs fade and the shaking bass ushers us towards the dancefloor.

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