Petals Have Fallen LP

Kieren Gallear aka DELS returns with his second album, "Petals Have Fallen," and makes the step up from potential contender to full scale champ. Delivering on the potential he displayed on his first album, "GOB," DELS has developed his own unique take on hip hop - intensely personal and poetic but also funny, scuzzy, raw and sonically adventurous. All the elements were there with his first record, but no one could have expected him to display them with such consistency, such delicacy and such supreme confidence. His explanation of the title of the record perfectly sums up Gallear's aesthetic, plus providing a handy definition of what it is to make art: "the urge to protect something precious that will ultimately fall apart."

There's plenty that you could pick out individually from this record. From the sung opening of "Limbo" there are spine-tingling moments galore. The hard rhyming over an epic beat on "Fall Apart." The combination of Kerry Leatham's vocals, Bonobo's beat and DELS' wordplay on "Pulls." The free-rolling exuberance of "Pack of Wolves." The delicacy of "Petals Have Fallen." Plus, of course, re-works of the brilliant "Bird Milk" and "You Live In My Head," both of which were included on the "Black Salad" EP last year and hammered by Zane Lowe, Annie Mac and Huw Stephens, amongst others.

Already hotly-tipped as an MC and carving out a successful career as a designer and video director, DELS brings together all his interests and talents on this, a stand out album, which delivers and then some on The Times' verdict that he is "the future of UK hip hop."