After hearing the sampler for the album a few weeks ago I couldn’t wait to get my grubby mits on the full copy of The Draft. The handful of tracks on the sampler held the promise of an album that would be far more than just 12 tracks of back to back drum & bass, and the body of work delivers on that promise in spades.

From the epic, beatless serenity of intro track Sober Light of Day through the eastern vibes of Turnaround and into the deep liquid and unusual vocals of Seperation, Klute’s varied listening on the “creative vacation” he took before writing this album shines through in the compositions. Hints of everything from Brian Eno to Pink Floyd are present in the music, and some of the tracks like Last Words and Our Pretty Lives accomplish a kind of psychedelic texture seldom heard in electronic music (and I’m not talking about the cheap “trippy” psychedelia of psy-trance either).

Elsewhere Klute delves into beautiful, playful IDM on House of Maciver, takes a few tips from the garage school of melody on My Black And White and explores deep, soulful liquid on Gaze Into Your Eyes. There’s even space for a couple of good old fashioned hard-edged rollers in the form of Sick Drive and Best Bits Not Over. Overall the record not only sets a new benchmark for variety and quality within a D&B album but it proves that the genre still has so much space for exploration; that high tempo and traditional breakbeat patterns do not pigeon-hole an artist stylistically.

Check out clips from the album below, pre-order a copy on CD, vinyl or digital from Surus and watch out for the full release on Monday.