I AKA I (LP)

I AKA I is the first album that Iranian-born, London-based electronic musician Ash Koosha has released on Ninja Tune and it is, by some distance, his best work yet. Koosha, lauded for his "mind-bending electronic music" (Pitchfork) and "intimate, elegantly fractured, beat-driven music" (The Guardian) has received support by the likes of Run The Jewels, Empress Of and FACT. Koosha has also had to cope with a brief imprisonment for his music and seeking asylum in the UK, where he lives as an exile, unable to return home. He prefers, though, to concentrate on his art and, with I AKA I Koosha's experimental drive solidifies into remarkable achievement, sitting somewhere between Amon Tobin and Flying Lotus and sharing qualities with the likes of Arca and The Haxan Cloak but sounding like no one but himself.

As is often the case when you hear something new - something jagged, wild and alien but also beautiful and packed with a strange and scintillating soul - it's hard to find the words to express quite what it is that excites you. Best then to leave it to Ash Koosha himself: "For me this experience is not one imposed by the composer on the listener," he says, "but only the reflection of the listener's own emotions. The composer is only holding the mirror. What you see in the mirror is your own fears, angers, sentiments, and the alien yet tangible quality of such emotions."