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Loco Dice is an incredible DJ, everyone agrees. However, there is a huge leap to make from performer to producer and there are a dozen ways, a hundred, even, that his debut artist album 7 Dunham Place could have slipped up. But it doesn't.

Instead of relying on his considerable charm and raffish sex appeal (let's just say that, unlike many techno DJs, you never get the impression Loco Dice had to learn to spin in order to get girls' attention) to win praise he threw himself into the album process and the result is stupendous. 

Rather than crank out the odd record between gigs Dice and studio wizard buddy Martin Buttrich moved their whole studio to 7 Dunham Place, Williamsburg, New York and, with typical enthusiasm, immersed themselves in what he fondly calls "the gate to the world." The record is steeped in his love of New York City. The album cover is the graffiti-scrawled door of their recording studio, the wistful, soul-drenched opening track Breakfast At Nina 's is a tribute to the local diner ("I love a real American breakfast. Eggs Benedict and a big latte," he chuckles), while the fabulous closer M Train To Brooklyn is the musical equivalent of Nick Carraway's ominous train journey through the outskirts of the same city in The Great Gatsby.

Slung between these two reference points are a helter-skelter of sounds and ideas which weave together the super-slick sound of contemporary European techno with a raw, urban sensibility. These are undeniably great dance records, but they're more than that, too. Take Consequently Excentric And Delicate - it's a straight up, dirty, DC10 record, yet riddled with melancholy. Tight Laces evokes old school style with its hip hop referencing title and funky, chopped vocals. La Esquina has the driving rhythms of classic piano house but the stark percussion of minimal techno. Pimp Jackson Is Talkin Now !!! (Dice's pick as this summer's club monster) serves up dirty jazz/funk on a platter of smooth electronic beats. Even the pure instrumental cuts like Black Truffles In The Snow and the surprisingly lush Got Leaks In The Roof hum with a broad sensibility.

All credit to Martin Buttrich whose engineering is, as ever, flawless, but the imagination is clearly, vibrantly, Loco Dice's. He has a rare, real, bone-deep understanding of black American music - hip hop, classic house, soul - and even when the effects are implied rather than explicit this consciousness infuses 7 Dunham Place.

Explaining "why New York?" Dice says: "There isn't another city like it anywhere in the world" - and he's created an album that does it justice.