Gaika: Basic Volume review – downbeat articulacy

(Warp)Warp signings the Sabres of Paradise had an album called Haunted Dancehall (1994); this debut from another Warp act actually sounds like one. Brixton-born Gaika is an MC with a grounding in Caribbean sounds: dancehall, reggae, London grime. But as a producer he unites two disparate aesthetics, leaning towards the goth end of narcotised R&B. Through a series of mixtapes and EPs, Gaika has carved out a niche that triangulates artists such as Mykki Blanco (with whom he has