Exilent adventures

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IDM producer Tim Exile's new album, Listening Tree, has a bark worse than its bite.

Because although Tim Exile, real name Tim Shaw, clearly has all the necessary beats and bleeps at his disposal to bear a brilliant fruit, the album teeters on the edge of being fantastic without actually taking the plunge.

Exile originally plied his trade as a drum and bass artist, and there's evidence of this at work at points throughout Listening Tree - it's no coincidence that when he lets a beat ride, such as on When Every Day's A Number, he's at his most compelling.

And the DJ, also a trained violinist, is up there with the best when squeezing every last drop from his tracks, rather than simply looping and layering.

But listening to this it's clear that he needs to get back to his roots - because there are too many tracks like Pay Tomorrow and the dire Bad Dust on Listening Tree which are just dead wood.