Review: London's 1-800 Girls brings cleanly garage and bright breaks to his All My Thoughts label, riffing on the combo of infectious aural hooks and brutalist sonics fashionable among the present chart doyens of UK dance music and techno. 'How I Feel' sounds like an innocent admission of affection in techno-garage form, pairing the flunky inter-jabs of 2-step garage with the cute-aggressive seethes of a repetitious sampled vox; the track centres on a nostalgic, airtight sequence of parapractic phonemes, onto which the listener may project their longings and amours. 'Signal' embraces both big beats and biomech squeaks verging on sports-whistles, while 'Like You Do' returns for a comparatively brooding burbler. Finally, 'Guy's Salmon' rounds things off on a dense sequence of yeahs and ohs, as ever building up a slow-burn of cool wonderment and openness.
Review: Digital Tape Recordings take it al the way back to 1994 here with the timeless early garage sounds of Dub Essentials Part 1 from 24Hour Experience. It captures the essence of UKG at the time and was first released on the definitive Nice N Ripe label. It has a range of sounds from the soothing depths and soulful samples of 'Feeling's Mutual' to the more clipped and bouncy 'Deeper (5am mix)'. 'Scatter' then layer sup jumbled perc and US house styles with rich organ chords and 'Mantra' again keeps it deep and rather sleazy with some filthy bass. Last of all is the slinky sound of 'Gone Loopy' to round out a classic.
Review: Digital Tape Recordings kick out another vital 12" on wax here, this time with a third part of their on going and excellent Deep Dub Essentials series. 24HR Experience is at the helm here with a quartet of house and garage collisions that bring the good times. 'The Heaven Track' is a classic US garage cut with stiff snares and low slung drums, and 'Touch The After World' is just as deep and warm. 'Just A Vibe' is the highlight at the end - nice New Jersey drum with warming organ stabs and a carefree groove that effortlessly sweeps you up off your feet.
Review: Dungeon Meat's tasty new sub-label SLABS thrilled with its first outing from Dutchman Borren not long ago and is now back with a second slab of goodness. This one is from London's rising star Azaad and it comes on nice weighty 140g wax. Label heads Brawther and Tristan have already been slamming these joints at clubs and festivals around the world for the last 18 months so they come with a real stamp of approval. 'The Beat' bumps along with nice swinging kicks and steamy vocal inflections and 'The Return' is a gorge-tinged and hardcore house cut with depth and drive in equal measure.
Review: Time Is Now operates at the darker end of the garage spectrum, with menacing 2sep sounds and plenty of hefty bass sounds. Stepping up and stepping in with the latest offering is Bakey, a newly emergent artist in this genre and someone with considerable skill. 'Bring It Back' is a real bass bin botherer with rinsing jungle breaks and screw-face bass. 'Vibing Season' cuts loose on lithe bass with some hard bars from Slay then 'No Name' explores a silky soul on bumping beats. 'Reduced Vision' is a sublime glitch-step and 'Poison Dart' comes on heavy with the hyper minimalist jungle riddims.
What You Want (feat Colonel Red - DJ Crisps remix) (7:14)
Let's Get Wild (Orlando Voorn remix) (6:30)
Review: Bouman is looking to establish itself in the deep house world and made a fine start with its first EO, This second one is another head-turner that comes from Benx with a couple of sweet remixes. 'What You Want' (feat Colonel Red) opens up with some soul-drenched sounds and lively drum programming topped with a great original vocal. 'Beautiful' is more warm house with smoky chord work that calls to mind early Kerri Chandler. A DJ Crisps remix brings some real bass weight and garage percussion and last of all, Orlando Voorn remixes 'Let's Get Wild' into a bulky techno roller.
Review: Melodiesinfonie, Bluestaeb and S. Fidelity join forces to form a powerful trio, unveiling a rich nonnet of tracks destined for the universal chillout space. Taking shape in a picturesque studio in the South of France - and then completed in centres from Zurich to Berlin - the likes of '365 P', 'Summertime In '92' and 'Just Give Me The Aux' carry on the sparse and material-sonic tradition that has in recent decades inflected the neo-soul and jazz-electronica worlds. Every track here sounds to have been made with what sounds to the most apparently humble means available; rimshot clicks, wooden hits, impassioned hums and coos, Rhodes chords here and there. Loyal to one rule and one rule only - "we need to stay in the room together to make this a record that feels exciting to us" - the result is an evenhanded five-track flirtation with soul-bearing passion, toeing the hobline of cool and hot.
Review: Neat contemporary UKG taking after the classics. Ba Dum Tish once more welcomes producer Bob G for 15 minutes' worth of well-layered 2-step and 4x4, in the form of 'Happenings'. The buzzsaw on the front cover might echo the influence of Blow's 'Cutter' on the then contemporary sound of UKG in its original 90s heyday; meanwhile, sonically, the likes of 'Happenings' and 'Soothing' bring fruit-driven strings and sweet-attacked rims n' knocks to the table and 'Unclosed' and 'Off Switch' present further experiments in the realms of flat beats and speed garage, the former working in a restless acid line and the latter bringing in a touch of speed's essential laggard swing.
Review: For those with their ear to the ground, 'Make Me' has been an underground monster hit for Borai and Denham Audio for time, but now it's getting a proper 12" release on Room Two with some heavyweight remixes. Taking a classic 90s vocal sample and giving it a thorough ruffing up, the original is hard to top, but Big Ang and Mani Festo turn in suitably rowdy versions which continue the theme of hardcore revivalism in fine style. Meanwhile bassline legend Paul Sirrell steps up for a flamboyant version which harks back to the original mid-90s cut that inspired 'Make Me' in the first place.
Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Admirably no-nonsense house duo Dungeon Meat kick off a new label here, Slabs, which aims to serve up only the chunkiest hulks of wax aimed squarely at the club. Borren takes charge of the first platter and is the latest fast-rising talent to emerge from the ever-fertile Dutch scene. He has come up on a diet of Bret and Slapfunk parties and that shows in the tunes he presents here. 'Up Next' is heavy but silky, with gliding grooves and splashy cymbals next to cut-up vocals that will amp up any party. 'Beat My Shit' is another no-frills hardcore house assault with drums that have just the right amount of swing under old school chords and busy melodies that never rest. A fine first release.
Review: Long dormant has laid the tried but true practice of dubstep and garage artists sampling classic horror movie dialogue, pre-drop. We're thoroughly happy to hear that new Peaky Beats sublabel Brainjuice have gone and resurrected this zombie for us. This four-tracker from the label hears label heads Peaky and Vel carefully and creatively work in as-yet unknown samples to the stew; some kind of Frankensteinish exclamation on the dubstep A1 laments the feeding of a monster "human brains", while the breakstep A2 'Bacon Dance' hears more timestretched, dystopian vocals amid wobbles. 'Don't' leans more into the kind of melodic dubstep that likes to sample R&B acapellas, and is the most refreshing of the lot.
Review: Peaky Beats is a great name for a label that serves up such irresistible house and garage jams as it has so far over its first eight EPs. This ninth outing is no less desirable, coming from the in house production team in collaboration with Breakfake. 'Life In Stereo' hits a perfect note between kinetic drums and soulful, jazzy chords deigned to melt the heart. 'Rat City' is more filthy - a warped bassline screws about beneath more sleazy broken beats. 'Chapel Town' brings low end dubstep wobble to the party and 'Dub The Acid' is another filthy dirty skanker with echoing hits and mutant bass.
Review: Damian Lazarus's Crosstown Rebels shows it very much still has its finger on the pulse with this new and garage-tinged outing from Bullet Tooth. If opens with the pitched-up vocals and rugged drums of 'If I Can't Be Yours' before 'You Think You Can Fix Me' has more floating grooves and waif synths keeping you suspended above the dance floor. Enamour then steps up with a remix that strips it back and reworks it into smooth deep house groove for beachy fun. Last of all is a Sicaria remix which is emotive, punchy and built on glitchy broken beat loops.
Review: Burnski and Kelper are two of the hottest artists in the game right now - their output is relentless, and their quality is always high. It is now on the former's Constant Sound that they appear with three fresh new collaborative cuts aimed squarely at the floor. 'Follow Me' has nice hooky drum loops and subtle synth stabs under a seductive vocal. It's fun and functional in equal measure and on the flip things get more naughty with hints of a dirty speed garage bassline under 'Frequency'. The vibe flips again on closer 'Frequency' which has disco-tinged loops and more laidback groves that bring a little warmth and sunshine.
Review: The Plastik People label has been going along nicely for its first few releases, with label head Marc Cotterell stepping up and coming correct last time out. Now he calls upon various artists with Dave Charlesworth taking care of the a-side of Nice Ripe Cuts. He offers two super slick garage cuts that cannot fail to make their mark on the club and it's no different on the flipside except D Lux & Y No combine first for '25 Miles' and then S R offers the irresistible 'Pressure.' An essential 12" for anyone looking to bring some fresh garage flavours.
Review: Endangered Musique kicks off with a high-quality reissue of an EP that deep house heads will either already know or soon grow to love. It was written by Jose Chinga in 1994 and is an alias of an artist better known as Brothers' Vibe aka Tony Rodriguez. The opening tune 'Love Is What You Need' is also the most well-known - it's US garage with low-slung drums and grainy pad work with a simple but effective vocal. 'I Got You' picks up the pace with shuffling drums and a grinding lead before the warm 90s house sounds come to the fore again on 'Let It Go' and 'Riding On A Cloud'. Lovely stuff.
Review: The Mancunian tones of Swamp81's resident MC Chunky are well known to those who tune in to the label's Rinse FM show on a regular basis. However, this debut EP, forwent any kind of vocal showcase for the kind of hefty, refined fusion of garage and techno we've come to expect from Loefah's empire. Arriving as a 12" doublepack featuring four tracks, The Chunky EP shows Chunky to have the production chops to match his skills on the microphone, showcasing a wide range of influences channeled through a uniquely dark mood; "Decca" is a straight up piece of rolling deep house with a shadowy basement vibe, while "Experiment 727? recalls the syncopated techno of Bambounou or Boddika's leaden beats, while on the second 12?, "Thang" is a masterclass in stripped back garage mechanics, and "Rugged" provides a lo-fi beat that ploughs the darkest recesses of instrumental grime for inspiration.
Review: Shanti Celeste's Peach Disc sure has served up some juicy club ready fruits over the last couple of years. Often it comes from breakout new names who impress with their inventions and now it is Cloudsteppers at the buttons with this Aqua Hotel EP. The cut gets going on a hurried garage beat with warped bass and nice balmy synth work that is colourful and soulful in equal measure. 'Control' then cuts more loose with warped synths and neon colours, clipped vocals and real garage house drive, 'Duckstep' is pure bait with its old school FM basslines and tin-pot percussive clatter and 'TDG' shuts down with a deeper but no less brilliant garage vibe defined by clipped bass motifs and kinetic kicks.
Review: Midnight EP brings another four heavyweight cuts from the London based Club of Jacks production duo showcasing their varied sound. 'Midnight' opens up with deep, haunting chords and a lush reworked vocal laid over a smoky 2 step beat. 'Let It Ride' brings the 4x4 house vibe, mixing infectious synths, catchy lyrics and a rolling bass groove. On the flip, 'Remember This' digs into the garage house sound, infusing jazzy organ chords and solos with skippy drums and tasty vocal chops. To finish off, 'Smokers Dub'' takes us into a darker, speed garage inspired vibe, with weighty bass and dub reggae flavour.
All That Shaking (Marc Cotterell Plastik Factory mix) (6:57)
All That Shaking ('23 Refix) (6:28)
Review: Club Of Jacks digs deep here to serve up some classic tracks from the archive that have not been available on vinyl before. First up is UKG royalty Jeremy Sylvester with a remix of 'Waiting For You' that is pure party. The drums and bass bounce and plunge low with sustained chords and a honeyed vocal getting the vibes going. A deeper, dubbier and more laid back but still emotive 23 Remix follows then Plastik People boss Marc Cotterell serves up a soulful remix of 'All That Shaking' that is full of steamy sax and sunny day goodness. A Club of Jacks 23 Refix brings a deep vibe to close a superb EP.
Review: It's always a good day when the Blahh label rises up from the streets to drop a new bit of true school garage. This is a various artists release which brings together core label members Beforethebeatsbreak, Ronaldo and Crazy Bank, who have all served up their own solo EPs before now. It's the latter who kicks off with the tightly coiled bump n grind of 'So Good' before Ronaldo gets your feet moving on 'Get My 319', another dry, clipped garage shuffler with pent up energy to spare. There are good time piano-led vibes to Beforethebeatsbreak's B1 then 'Why You Wanna' from Crazy Bank is defined by its pitched up vocal sound.
Review: Bang on trend grooves from the Vivid camp, exploring the current fascination for all things that intersect both the garage and breaks genres. Lead track 'Wicked & Wild' is the one that leans furthest into UKG territory, its bumpy bassline and MC-style vocal giving it heaps of energy and attitude. Flip side instrumentals 'Push Past It' and 'Ronin' meanwhile, evoke the early 2000s spirit of breaksteppers such as Horsepower Productions, the latter especially maintaining the bassline pressure and adding it to the more hardcore vibe of rawer, sampled percussion. Maximum respect!
Review: It would be fair to say that Roy Davis Jr and Peven Everett's "Gabriel" (originally written "Gabrielle" on early pressings) has become a timeless dance music classic - a track that both soulful house and UK garage DJs reach for in times of trouble. Should it not be in your collection already (and it should be), Large Music has decided to re-master and re-press the original 1996 12". It does, of course, contain the now ubiquitous "Live Garage" version - the groovy two-step, trumpet-laden mix that became popular with early UK garage DJs - plus a trio of lesser-known remixes. The Tambourine Dub, in particular, is something of a tough, warehouse-friendly deep house treat.
Review: Scott Diaz taps into some old school garage class with this new EP on Pirate Cutxz, but never is it too slavish to the OG sound. Instead, he brings fresh ideas and modern production skills to four characterful cuts. 'Holdtight' opens in bunch fashion with big drums and busy chords dancing about next to yelps and sustained pads. 'So Hot' is a more subtle 2-stepper with a ducking and diving groove bathed in warm synth work and natty bass notes. 'Ikigai' shuts down with some 90s organ chords and sleazy, shuffling speed-garage style drums and well-deployed vocal samples. Effective stuff.
Review: Matt Jam Lamont & Scott Diaz first joined forces more than a decade and a half ago and have been at it ever since, remixing Raze, Craig David, All Saints, Adina Howard, Rosie Gaines and more, as well as making waves with DJ appearances like their iconic B2B Glastonbury appearance. Having formed their Undagrnd Freqz label in 2020, serving up a brace of floor-slaying classics including a collaboration with US garage pioneer Todd Edwards, and 'Haribo' with Smokey 'Bubblin' B, clocking up more than a million streams and 36 million views as part of Fred Again's now legendary Boiler Room session. Their latest, 'The Best of Both Worlds', nods at their skill for fusing the best elements of both house and garage across four tracks of razor-sharp vocal chops, bumpin' beats and classy production flavours. Absolutely essential.
Review: Diffrent makes a powerful entrance with his debut 'My Sound' EP on Bristol's Time Is Now label, building on the success of his summer hit 'A Little Closer,' which had clubs across Europe buzzing in 2024. Here, he dives into the UK's rich foundations of garage, bass and breaks, delivering a weighty yet finely tuned sound that's unmistakably his own. It's the kind of chuggy, speed-garage flavour that's capturing everyone's craving right now. For a debut, 'My Sound' lands with impressive force as each track brings fresh flair and a distinctive character. From the first drop, it's clear Diffrent is carving out a unique spot in modern dance music, positioning him as one to watch.
Review: For the next, 21st release on Whiteloops, Diskop, a rising-star producer and DJ from Ukraine, returns with a two-track meander into the sound of old-school UK breakbeat. Drawing on the ambitions of dark rollage and vibesetting that were endemic to this early sound in the noughties, 'Raw' opens with a frank contrast of straight breaks and middy bass hums, while 'Tsey Vo' is a bit starker and harder, edging closer to dimly-lit UK hardcore territory with its well-sculpted transient designs, heard-skipping reverse SFX and phonetic one-shots. Come hither, and experience Diskop's vision of a smoked-out, hooded rave.
Review: DJ Crisps taps into a menacing garage vibe on this no-frills, all-killer new EP via South London Pressings. Opener 'Styla' has naughty low ends and punchy drum programming with plenty of post-dubstep wub-wub goodness and eerie urban melodies. 'Hold Tight' will have the gun fingers firing off left right and centre with its rude-boi vibes and 'Adolphy Sax' then channel masters like Groove Chronicles with its dry, dusty drums and hits, lush chords and sexual sax lines. 'Too Shy' (feat Ell Murphy) is perfectly sleazy yet sultry vocal garage closer.
Review: DJ Crisps is starting to make some handy garage moves after a couple of various artists' appearances and a fine EP on Time Is Now Germany in July. Now they link up with Oldboy who appeared on Burnski's other label Vivid back in 2022. As you should expect these are four hardcore and rudely garage cuts with plenty of swagger, naughty samples and bass-face potential. 'On My Way' is the standout with its shuffling one-two drum punch, distant police sirens and warped basslines underneath a timeless and irresistible female vocal full of soul. A summer scorcher for sure alongside three more very useful weapons.
Review: A melting pot of UK garage, house and bass, DJ Swagger's latest release on Berlin-based label, 777, is a fascinating exploration in structure and chaos. Opening track, 'Thanks Felix', moves at lightspeed - a thrilling race through a gritty arrangement of blunted kicks, shifting in and out of focus, moving between order and disorder. 'Fingerclut' emerges with an instantly more house-facing feel - a satisfyingly hypnotic groove spirals in a circle motion, featuring a cyclonic gathering of subtle flecks of percussive variation over the course of the track. Offering a spliced, glitched-out take on contemporary bass, 'Final Bout' journeys through moments of airy weightlessness before being thrown back into the growling, driving bass section of the track. The perfect tension builder, 'Full Cycle', is an ingenious tease of a track, skillfully building up to, you guessed it, even more build.
Review: Enrico Dragoni knows a thing or two about the new wave of garage sweeping across the club scene. Under his 2 Hot 2 Handle alias he's been seen on a split release with Introspekt, while with Charles HAF he's graced Moodswing and Vibesey as The Stab Mechanics. Under his own name, 2023 has been a breakthrough year via labels like Bubbling Fresh and Pirate Cutz, and now he's landing on Ordinaire with some pitch perfect 4x4 bumpers. 'Double Berries' is an especially slinky joint marked out by sweet chord stabs, while there's a rougher swing at work on 'Boomerang', all adding up to another high-quality drop from a devotee of the nu-garage wave.
Review: UK's All My Thoughts label has built up a strong reputation the past half-decade. Fans of the label point to it alongside a few others as the perfect blend of house and techno music. Edmondson is equally as strong with a handful of releases that have also garnered high praise for. Vanarama houses four examples of deep house that bridge garage music and dance music to make them both futuristic, deep and fun. We really like the wide range of moods in this EP. All My Thoughts has another winner! Only 80 copies in total so be quick!
Artispure - "Chicago Underground" (feat The Remedy - Andrew Emil Dreamix) (8:49)
Change Request - "Sunday's Best" (Andrew Emil Dreamix) (9:59)
Elbert Phillips, Andre Espeut - "Sunlight" (Andrew Emil Dreamix) (6:31)
Review: Yore's latest release is a little different. It features Chicago-based producer and sound designer Andrew Emil delivering his own 'dreamix' versions of a trio of little-known cuts. There's an epic, nigh on 10-minute revision of one his own productions as Change Request, 'Sunday's Best', on the flip - a gorgeously bumpin', summery and melodious chunk of life-affirming deep house sunshine with added US garage swing in the beats - plus two tweaks of cuts by (we think) lesser-known acts. His take on Artispure's collaboration with The Remedy, 'Chicago Underground', is a more spacey-sounding chunk of tactile deep house hypnotism, while Emil's take on Elbert Phillips and Andre Esput's 'Sunlight' is a superbly soulful, garage-influenced deep house workout that more than lives up to its title.
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