Genre: trip-hop / alternative hip-hop / R&B / experimental Label: Warp Records (WAPDE506) Released: June 5, 2026 · Bandcamp / streaming + limited 300-copy vinyl

Nineteen minutes. Nine tracks. Two South London artists who'd never formally co-led a project until now. The math doesn't predict much — but Bakerz Dozen, the new collaborative EP from Wu-Lu and POiSON ANNA, earns every one of those minutes. 1

Warp Records describes it as "a tightly woven nine-track project that drifts between alternative, hip-hop, trip-hop and R&B, capturing the duo's instinctive chemistry and fully realised shared language." 1 Bandcamp Daily editor J. Edward Keyes, who placed it in the Essential Releases for June 5, reached back further in time for the comparison that sticks: this EP feels like Exhibit B in the case for Tricky's Angels with Dirty Faces-era prescience — that 1998 moment when trip-hop got weirder, more confrontational, and more intimate all at once. 2

Wu-Lu — born Miles Romans-Hopcraft, raised in Brixton, South African-British heritage — has been reshaping South London underground sound since the mid-2010s. 3 His early work leaned on lush LA beat music (the ginga era); the 2021 single "South" pivoted hard, a punk-rap broadside against the gentrification squeezing his community out of the city. That track laid the groundwork for LOGGERHEAD (2022), his Warp debut, which pulled grunge guitar, drum'n'bass breaks, trip-hop, and noise-rap into the same room and let them argue. 4 Loud and Quiet scored it 9/10; Pitchfork called it a signal that Romans-Hopcraft "isn't interested in being the punk prophet of the anti-gentrification movement forever." 4 After his 2024 album Learning to Swim on Empty, Bakerz Dozen is the first release through Warp since that debut 5 — and the shift in register is marked. Less grunge friction, more space to breathe.

POiSON ANNA describes herself on Bandcamp simply as "the illusive traveller." 6 That kind of deliberately vague self-branding tends to be a red flag — but in her case the music earns the mystique. Her 2023 album FRUiTION established a voice that sits at an unusual intersection: London experimental underground (she appeared on a Dean Blunt — the mercurial South London conceptual artist — track, "BEEFA," later compiled on Roaches 2012–2019), club-adjacent collaboration (Leon Vynehall, DJ GÄP), and mainstream visibility (a placement in Grand Theft Auto V, work with fashion photographer Nick Knight). 3 She has performed at Pitchfork Festival Paris. Clash writer Shahzaib Hussain described her as "one of the most distinctive and uncompromising voices in Britain." 3

Keyes' description of the pairing captures the sonic architecture precisely: "Wu-Lu takes up the bottom end, rapping, speaking, and occasionally singing in a low rumble … ANNA takes the upper register, breathy falsetto casting ghostly melodies high in the atmosphere." 2 Two different altitudes of the same weather system.

Opener "Tendent" establishes the mode with slow-burn suspense. "Silver Surfer" pushes into hip-hop territory — Wu-Lu's low voice against ANNA's lighter weave. "West Window" turns more conversational, the two trading lines before converging in the chorus. The standout tension in the tracklist sits with "Fade Thru" (3:27, the EP's longest piece), which DJ Mag's Alice Vyvyan-Jones compared to a David Lynch film score: strings build and then shatter into glitch. 7 Then there's "King Kong" (2:47), which breaks from the EP's general atmosphere and opens with jungle/drum & bass rhythms before collapsing into a rock-inflected finale — Keyes called it "a hyperkinetic jungle workout." 2 The two "Cold Bricks" versions — a Wu version and a POiSON version — close the EP's center with near-minimal arrangements: hushed bass, a little guitar, little else. The final track, "All That I Needed" (1:09), ends the whole thing on acoustic guitar, ANNA's voice singing "I'm all that I needed to get by." 8

Clash's Ben Broyd, who gave it 8/10, wrote: "Throughout Bakerz Dozen, Wu-Lu and POiSON ANNA construct a beautifully realised world that navigates darkness and uncertainty while always leaving room for calm and clarity." 8 The EP is also "a showcase of ingenuity and a compelling reminder of the creative possibilities that emerge when two artists operate in complete sync." 8

Three factors make Bakerz Dozen the right pick for today. First: Warp Records' continued investment in Wu-Lu. The label doesn't release records on politeness — their catalogue runs from Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada to Kelela and Arca. Getting back onto Warp after LOGGERHEAD and releasing a collaborative EP signals genuine artistic momentum, not just catalogue maintenance.

Second: critical reception is unanimous and grounded. Bandcamp Daily Essential Releases, Clash 8/10, DJ Mag positive — three editorial voices with different audiences all responding to the same thing. 2 8 7

Third: the vinyl. The limited 300-copy pressing (£27 GBP, black 12", printed inner sleeve, 3mm spine jacket) has been selling down fast since vinyl began shipping from May 20. 1 Wu-Lu's Bandcamp page shows 46 copies remaining as of June 11; POiSON ANNA's page shows 8. 6 The discrepancy likely reflects separate allocation pools between the two pages. Either way, the velocity tells you something about the appetite.

There's also a release party: June 27 at Club Cheek, London, tickets on Resident Advisor. 1

Stream and buy at wu-lu.bandcamp.com/album/bakerz-dozen — Bandcamp pays artists the highest cut, and that's also where the remaining vinyl copies live. 1 The official video for "King Kong" is on Warp Records' YouTube channel. The EP is on all major streaming platforms too.