Normally, advocating that listeners should read accompanying sleeve notes to any album will, rightfully, be treated with the horrified distain reserved for paedophiles, trainspotters and Jeffrey Archer.

Occasionally, however, it’s worth the tedium and begins to add a whole new dimension, especially here, where the noise stirring in Cardiff’s electronic undergrowth is already sounding rather tasty. Further investigation reveals there are a few unexpected perpetrators.

Independent label Slow Graffiti, like so many others, have been toiling around South Wales’ musical magnet for a while now, promoting gigs, club nights and the sort. But where other local imprints struggle when it comes to recorded output, SG are very much leading the way.

If you’ve been paying attention, you should already know about Polanski, who bounce, Autechre-style, beautifully with ‘Whilst Others Journeyed South’. But there’s plenty more where that came from.

Saprotroph are a rather unlikely amalgam of Chris Etches, thrown out of The Martini Henry Rifles for being too interesting or something, and Super Furry Animals’ chum Teflon Monkey (although you have to call him Broken Leaf nowadays thanks to the merciless bastards at Du ‘cease and desist’ Pont – an incredibly talented finger-picking acoustic guitar soloist threatens frying pan sales how exactly?). ‘Dark Sunday’ doesn’t have a title suggestive of Ozzy Osbourne’s charges for nowt either – it seems the duo’s love of early Sabbath and discordant electronica has bonded them into creating an aural combination of the two.

Then there’s Evils – a man also seen taking the stage with Cardiff’s great white indie hopes Small Victories – who melds Orbital-esque rhythms onto doctored George W Bush samples, with more continuity, although slightly less cutting edge, than similar recent efforts from Chris Morris. ‘Arbusto Energy’ will put a little dark lining on your day, in a good way.

The surprisingly catchy electroclash-funk of Roger, plus Lordbear and Wiseacre’s DJ Shadow-on-a-budget fun, are well worthy of mention too.

And although they’d probably yawn at the notion, while the home of Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada stumbled somewhat into 2004, Slow Graffiti are fast becoming a mini-Warp. Get to slowgraffiti.com now, check out the mp3 links on the tracks mentioned above, or cop an extra mp3 in our download section.