There’s been plenty of downcast RnB doing the rounds lately, but Inc.’s No World, released last month on 4AD, sits somewhere near the top of the pile. While others may explore darker themes (The Weeknd) or frame their ideas with more daring arrangements (How To Dress Well), it’s difficult to fault the sophistication of Andrew and Daniel Aged’s creations. Contemporary rap is clearly a touchstone, but so is sensuous Quiet Storm balladry, 90s and early noughties RnB, and the breathy eroticism of Prince at his most tender.

Perhaps this depth of knowledge ought to come as no surprise, given the lengthy CVs of Inc.‘s two members. The Aged brothers have worked as session musicians for the likes of Pharrell and 50 Cent, and it shows in the effortless precision of these tracks. But slickness, fortunately, doesn’t equate to soullessness. Andrew’s whispery croon ought to be dissatisfying but it’s coloured with the slightest shadow of expressive urgency, while Daniel’s succinct arrangements are frequently subtler than they first appear. It’s a sound that translates well into a live setting, as evidenced in this performance of album highlight ‘Black Wings’, filmed by Yours Truly. A twin-drummer setup lends the track a newfound dynamism, but this is still, at its core, music for lovers.

Inc.’s No World is out now on 4AD.

The roster of Manchester’s Modern Love imprint have been at the forefront of the recent resurgence of The Dark in electronic music. The Demdike Stare duo have long been a reliable source for pitch-black sampladelia, while the hulking, muck-caked techno constructions of Andy Stott’s Passed Me By were a pivotal moment for modern techno.

The debut EP from Rainer Veil, then, is a comparatively soft-edged affair for the label, its starry-eyed atmospherics and downtempo pulse suggesting a nocturnal Dam Mantle, perhaps, or the shadowy negative to Sampha and Koreless’ new Short Stories project. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its glowering moments, though. Title track ‘Struck’ is perhaps the highlight, an unsteady collage of submerged breakbeats and airy pads that occupies a similar space to Lee Gamble’s recent Diversions 1994-1996. Both treat jungle as memory-stuff: the remnants of an obscured past, a lost utopia to be mourned.

The Struck EP is out now on Modern Love.

With its heady mix of colour and nostalgia, Matt Cutler’s music as Lone is oddly emblematic of our times. The Nottingham producer first rose to prominence in the mid-noughties with a distinct take on woozy, contemplative hip-hop. As a formula it was clearly indebted to Warp Records innovators Boards of Canada, but Lone productions were sweeter - almost to the point of sickliness - and bathed in sunlight rather than drizzle-grey, a seductive window onto some lost summer.

Cutler made the transition to the dancefloor with 2010’s Emerald Fantasy Tracks, referencing dance music’s halcyon past with a heady blend of UK rave’s sugar-rush melodics and mellow Detroit techno soul. In fact, ‘AM Portal’ is a great analogy for the space Cutler’s music now occupies, evoking those surreal moments of dancefloor epiphany in the small hours - exquisite but unstable, profound but all too fleeting. This new track is still replete with Cutler’s trademark melodies, but it feels like a step on for the producer. The long, beatless opening is so relaxed as to border on the supine - as if we’ve left the rave behind and are back at home, gently riding the comedown - while the beat, when it enters, recalls the swung breakbeats of the UK bass new school.