Coming after the initial chunky fila boots womens Leftfield-style house of the first Pork releases, but before the spliff took hold and Pork got stuck into their current down  n' easy groove we now all love so well, this album is truly unique.Those speech samples place it in an early Nineties framework and are every bit as effective as The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds'  Serratia Marcescans' mixes glittering ambient with the rambling reminiscences of a bunch of GIs fucked on acid. It's as brilliant as it sounds. Then tracks like  The Light of Jesus' and  Pots & Pans' pick up the pace with some chunky grooves that would fit in well enough at any Ibiza beach-front cafe.

Genres come, buzzwords go and styles fizzle and fade, but one thing that has remained constant in dance music's perpetual shape-shifting is Fila Brazillia.  Retrospective' represents the very best of a musical partnership deserving a well-overdue pat on the back for its fila cage longevity and ability to give competition the slip by remaining elusively hard to classify.Which is what  Retrospective' is primarily all about  a soundtrack for those stumbling in at all hours or in need of audio massage, with curveballs thrown in to keep ears cocked; whether it be  Soft Music Under fila chunky sneakers Stars' with its sitar shimmer and shine, or the big freaky beats of  You Wont' Let Me Rock'.

Considered a pre-cursor to the downbeat and trip hop movement, Fila Brazillia have explored the relationship between organic instrumentation and electronic sensibility throughout the 90's arriving logically at Jump Leads . As pioneers of a post-punk northern England musicality, their journey has been defined simply by their musical insight rather than genre specification. Dub rhythms, house beats, drum n' bass syncopation, ambient chords, and funk arrangements have all found their way into Fila's sound without falling into the clichéd territory of  eclecticism'.

Same thing goes with Cobby and fila classic Fila's approach to DJ ing. Absorb their new Another Late Night mix CD  which moves beautifully through the sounds of Marvin Gaye, Mr. Scruff, the Beta Band, Brian Eno, Kelis and others  for a taste. Like me, Cobby has little time for singularly minded DJs. "Too often it's like,  We just want a load of jigsaw pieces that all fit together nicely. Give us the modular music,'" he sputters. "It's important for us to remember those tapes we did for our friends when we were growing up, that attitude, just that beautiful variety.

Real people at home have got collections with lots of different things, but DJ culture suggests that everybody should be a specialist. I just find that turgid. I want to be excited and surprised and mystified by a DJ !"Not only do I think that this is Fila Brazillia's best album, it is also one of the best albums that I have ever heard. I don't think there is a bad track on it and it is completely different to anything else you will listen to. It effortlessly blends electronica to other genres like folk, jazz and funk music. Like all of the best albums it takes a few listens to get the most out of it, but it is album that I fila destroyer still listen to regularly even though its a good 5 years old. Highly recommended.

Fila Brazillia have been honing their art for over 10 years, and this seventh studio album bears the mark of that experience. More uptempo than many of their previous outings, Touch of Cloth still carries that trademark quirkiness that the Hull-based funkateers have come to represent over the years. As usual with Fila albums, a definite style is difficult to ascertain, as their sounds range from funk to dub to soul to hip hop to broken beat to ambient  usually all in the same track